eROI Days Email Agency

Many companies have treated email as the “red-headed stepchild” of the online world, but as money gets tight and targeting become more important, “rock star” becomes a more appropriate term for the direct marketing technique.  Natalie Zmuda’s article, How E-mail Became a Direct-Marketing Rock Star in Recession, shows that not only are businesses talking about beefing up their email, they’re actually allocating a budget for it.  Because of the relatively low cost of using this form of marketing during a recession, email has been looked upon with new eyes.  While other forms of marketing have flourished in the past, the interactive nature and sustainability of email has proven most effective.  One of the most important aspects of a strategic email campaign is that it is trackable.  In Zmuda’s article, Zappos.com mentions that segmentation will be a big part of their strategy moving forward.  By looking at the data from their previous “mass mailing” technique they can start to identify what to send and to whom to send it to.  A case study recently done by eROI lays out the importance of this and using the full potential of the data that is driven from email campaigns.  Below is an excerpt from the Advertising Age article.

E-mail has emerged as a recession darling, as retailers look to proven programs that are cost-effective and results-oriented. That’s led to increasing investment in technologies that better target customers and serve up more enticing messages.

“The economy has energized this channel,” said Ryan Deutsch, VP-strategic services and market development at StrongMail. “It’s become the rock star of direct marketing in a lot of these retail organizations because it’s the most cost-effective and most trackable.”

Read the entire article »

I love that YouTube videos are timeless and all of us can re-live ridiculous moments years later. At eROI, we have dozens and dozens of those moments captured over the past many years on the eROI YouTube channel here >>. So, why am I doing a Flashback blog post? Yesterday, I had a client meeting with my friend James Adair and the typical client meeting turned into something so much better after watching the below video on our big screen. The second video is of distinguished Portland PR specialist, JulieAnna Little Giannini. She was the winner at eROI Idol, so it was only appropriate to include her video as well.

According to a new study published today by eMarketer, “57% of consumers had a more positive impression of companies they had purchased from when they received e-mail from them—and 40% said such e-mail made a future purchase from the company more likely.”

Read the full eMarketer article here on some surprising take-aways on the effectiveness of email marketing >>

In case you missed them, here is one post with all 10 eROI Online Marketing Predictions for 2009:

10. My Dad will use Twitter for first time and get hooked

9. My Mom will get on Facebook and get addicted to chatting non-stop with family and friends

8. Skype and other easy video-creation apps will take off in ‘09

7. Open-source, powerful tools like WordPress and Magento will become more like social apps and promote UGC (User-Generated Content)

6. Email campaigns and customer life-cycle email triggers will integrate seamlessly into social networking sites and tools.

5. Email is a whole lot more mobile today, but the formatting is still crap. You’ll see this improve dramatically in ‘09.

4. Social TV on your computer will become more popular than Regular TV among core online users.

3. Advanced site search is becoming so natural and intuitive – marketers will prioritize this as an easy implementation with huge ROI for their site.

2. CRM and Email Automation

1. The Economy will grow in ’09! Optimism will Conquer Fear.

At eROI, we launch a quarterly email marketing study on things that make you scratch your head and do a bit of a double-take. Conventional wisdom says that EMAIL IS DEAD among high schoolers and college students. So, we decided to test that hypothesis, and this report has some fascinating discoveries.

Our latest survey uncovers exactly how high school students, college students, and recent college graduates communicate online. 283 high school and college students participated in the study and 29 states were represented.

These survey results reveal eye-opening trends and preferences of this demographic in how it communicates digitally. We also get valuable insight into the effectiveness of marketing messages received through email, and discover areas of opportunity for marketers to connect with this in-demand group.

Students can be an elusive demographic for marketers. From this study, you will learn about a lot of new trends and valuable information about students. You will also learn specific data on which marketing channels will carry and present your message most effectively.

CHECK OUT OUR REPORT ON STUDENT USE OF EMAIL AND SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS >>

What a difference a good email makes to motivate, inspire, and deliver a strong message.  Christine Baker (Twitter handle: @cbakes) creates a different yoga email for reminding all of us at eROI that we have yoga practice the following morning.

I’d like to talk about all the things she does right in the email above:

• The preheader “Yoga Friday at 7:45am” reminds me of when it is when I read this email on my Blackberry or in the top area of the preview pane of my email client (even when images are turned off).
• Also in the preheader is “View as webpage >>” which allows me to see the full extent of this graphic-rich email if I’m getting a text view of it on my Blackberry or Gmail or Outlook.
• Solid, consistent branding
• Relevant messaging and imagery (Obama had just won days before and Christine knows her audience well enough to know most of us in the company are big fans)
• Clean email design template
• Tight, functional footer using a lot of email best practices and compliance: Unsubscribe, Update Profile, Send to Friend, and mailing address.

Here is an email that I’ve been sending to my entrepreneur friends in Portland today:

Tom Szaky is one of the hottest, most dynamic, young green / sustainable entrepreneurs in the country.  I’m writing you because I know you’d love meeting this amazing entrepreneur who is coming to Portland b/c of its green, sustainable presence (and because I asked him after getting to know him at the past two Inc. 500 conferences).

Tom Szaky is an absolutely amazing speaker (up there w/ President Clinton as another keynote at the Inc. 500 conference last year).  I invited him to fly out here from Trenton, New Jersey to speak to 45-60 entrepreneurs at eROI and he’s able to be here on Sat, Nov 15 at noon (free lunch). This is a Starve Ups event - thanks to John Friess and the Starve Ups member companies for making this happen.

He really is an amazing guy (27 years old and running a $15 million green / sustainable company called TerraCycle where everything about its product and packaging comes from waste) – please consider coming to this.

Here is my past blog post and a Danny Deutsch video:
http://eroidays.com/2007/09/10/amazing-inc-500-conference/

Please let me know if you are interested.  Thx.

We want to know - how does your little brother, sister, nephew, or neice Use Email? We don’t know the answer yet, and need your help to discover how high school kids, college students, and recent college grads actually use email. That’s why we’re conducting this survey >>

All the articles we’ve read pretty much tell us that email marketing will be dead in a matter of years (because kids are only into texting and social networking communities), but we’re a little skeptical of that assessment that email is not or will not be a big part of their lives. So, we are conducting our own survey and we’re primarily using blogs, MySpace, Facebook, and a little bit of email to reach out to our .edu friends. Please help us  to fill out this awesome survey, and you might win your very own, limited-edition KillROI in the process.

We need to know what our kids (or nephews, neices, cousins, brothers, or sisters) futures will look like, so please spread the word to fill out this survey; http://eroi.onlinestudentcommunication.sgizmo.com.

Additionally, I’d love to read your thoughts on the survey in the comments below.  Thank you thank you!

My respected co-worker, email expert, and The Email Wars star blogger, Dylan Boyd, has made some excellent points about the Obama camp’s blown opportunity in VP Candidate Joe Biden’s email outreach with the subject line “Hello” in today’s blog post: http://theemailwars.com/2008/08/25/errr-hello-top-subject-line-ever/.  However, I challenge Dylan to tell me that he is truly “jaded” by the pure effectiveness of the Obama email program. 

I’d love to get Dylan’s response to Michele Obama’s email this evening with the subject line “Behind the scenes in Denver”.  The content of the email hit the mark - it was real, genuine, her voice, intelligent.  The timing perfect: she delivered a kick ass speech at the Democratic National Convention just 3 hours after her email hit my inbox.  The call to action was compelling, obvious, focused, and had intrigue and mystery built into it.  I want to see what’s going on behind the scenes in this historic presidential race.  Don’t you?

So, before you all get jaded from one mis-step out of 207 emails, get inspired by the good stuff.  To me, the Obama campaign displays Email Intelligence.  And, unlike his opponent, he can actually use the medium. Tell me what you think in your comments on this post.  Subscribe to this Blog in the upper right.

If you want to check out the content of Michelle’s email, read more here >> (more…)

My values are still in tact, when I tell you that it’s okay to cheat this time.  We just launched our New Guide: “Pre-Launch Email Marketing Campaign Cheat Sheet”! 

As we mention in our Resources section of our site, “In today’s hectic email marketing landscape, it’s easy to overlook important aspects of your campaign. So, we are offering you this cheat sheet. Check and review each point on the sheet before your campaign is sent, and increase your campaign performance by catching something you forgot to double-check.”

If you think this is one of the cheesiest blog titles and opening two sentences, post a comment.  It’s getting late in the office, and I’m a little punchy.  But seriously, check out this Guide / Cheat Sheet - I really think you’ll find it valuable.

Imagine no longer. Car-free streets will become a reality this weekend. This is an email forwarded from a close friend at Wieden+Kennedy:

Hi everyone,

Pardon the intrusion, but this is pretty cool… CAR-FREE STREETS in Portland! Details are below.

Come and check it out. Or volunteer even!

Our friends at the Community Cycling Center are putting it together, and they’d love to see you (and your families) there.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Greetings CCC Supporters,

Sunday Parkways is a day of car-free streets, where 6 miles of North
Portland roads will be closed so that the community can bike, run,
skate and celebrate the outdoors together. The Community Cycling
Center is hosting a bike activity center at Peninsula Park and we need
your help in staffing these different activities. Our bike activities
include.

Free demonstrations (fix a flat, safety checks)
Basic bike education for children and adults
Free mechanic repair and safety checks for kids’ bikes
Information about the CCC and our programs, shop and volunteer opportunities.

To volunteer, please read on for more information

What: Sunday Parkways - Six miles of local streets in North Portland
will be closed to traffic from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The circular route
will give Portlanders a chance to get out and be active right in their
own neighborhood. Participants can walk, bike, run, stroll, and roller
blade along the route to activities in the parks as well as to nearby
shops and businesses in the vicinity.

When: Sunday, June 22nd

Where: Peninsula Park, 700 N Portland Blvd, Portland, OR

Shifts: 7:45-11:00am; 10:45am-2:00pm

Positions and Skills:

Demonstrations: Intermediate mechanical aptitude
Bike Education: Experience teaching bike safety to children ages 6-15 years old
Mechanic: Advanced mechanical aptitude
Tabling: Ability to represent the CCC in the community by effectively
communicating the mission, vision, values, and programs of the
organization.

TO VOLUNTEER: Email Volunteer@CommunityCyclingCenter.org

and please provide the following information.

Name
Email Address
Position and shift you would like (first-come, first serve)

Sincerely,

Neal Armstrong
Volunteer and Event Manager
Community Cycling Center

Bike Shop
1700 NE Alberta Street
Portland, OR 97211
Hours 10am - 7pm Tuesday through Sunday
Shop: 503-287-8786

www.CommunityCyclingCenter.org

Bicycles are a tool for personal empowerment and a vehicle for social change.

The initial intent of this blog, EmailDays, was to highlight everyday email from friends, family, work associates, partners, clients, spammers, or anyone that had an impact on your day through your inbox. Sometimes, I’ve strayed from that and focused more intently on the culture and happenings at our company, eROI. Alas, this blog post is about two different inspiring stories shared by my sister from Kentucky, and a work associate from Avenue A / Razorfish, a Microsoft company - but both are inspiration in the real “real world” as opposed to the working world.

This email from my sister highlighted a hero in her home town of Lexington Kentucky:
“This guys brother is a 9 year old on my son’s team. He has been up at the park for the last 4 years motoring around the bleachers. His family is great and his attitude is awesome. Makes you rethink complaining about any aches and pains or “I can’t do it” attitude. Make sure you watch the video.”

Adam Bender - plays baseball with only one leg

The next email was sent by one of the top experts in the email marketing industry. I’m sure he had received an email like this before, but like me, he was struck by how powerful this video was a second or third time - his email said:
“The Story:
A son asked his father, ‘Dad, will you take part in a marathon
with me?’ The father who, despite having a heart condition, says
‘Yes’. They went on to complete the marathon together.
Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father
always saying ‘Yes’ to his son’s request of going through the
race together. One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let’s
join the Ironman together.’

To which, his father said ‘Yes’ to.
For those who didn’t know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon
ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile
(3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2
kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195
kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island.

Father and son went on to complete the race together. View this with music. ”

Can World’s Strongest Dad

A recent study from DMA shows just how critical an element email is when it comes to successful direct marketing campaigns. While the study’s main focus is to show that the lines of direct marketing and brand marketing have blurred through multi-channel campaigns, the study’s statistics point to the predominance of email – and web in these campaigns. It is email’s ability to personalize and track and motivate with clear calls to action that makes it a key ingredient. By Integrating and coordinating across multiple channels, marketers can create cohesive brand messaging that can lead to powerful brand experiences.

How does email fit in? In a fully integrated campaign email is an element that can breathe “interactive life” into 2 dimensional print campaigns. Direct mail and print advertising should no longer be stand alone elements. Email and web can be coordinated with traditional marketing efforts to dynamically drive messaging. Even more, email opens the lines of communication with your audience allowing them to respond, participate and own your brand. This leads to a better understanding of your audience and your brand, which will improve messaging, targeting and personalization. Check out the study to see how email is influencing today’s best direct marketing tactics and principles.

A former Intel employee and current friend of mine sent me this hilarious and accurate video on Intel life. Four years of my life after college was spent near Pole J9 at Jones Farm campus AND Pole N3 at Ronler Acres. Great company, but brutally drab and hopeless interior space planning.

I was reading the physical, printed Sunday New York Times today and I came across a full-page advertisement in the Sports section. I initially noticed the ad because it was all yellow, but then I realized that some ad agency just copied and pasted a real email correspondence between Lance Armstrong and Scott M. (Nike). Unfortunately for me, I actually have to type all this out instead of copying and pasting, but here is an excerpt from the ad:

“From: Lance Armstrong
To: Scott M. (Nike)
Sent: Nov 5, 2006 3:32pm
Subject: Re Re: Re: Re: Idea

I’m dead.

Hardest physical thing I’ve ever done.
Try your best to make this happen.
No way I would have crossed the finish
line without the cheering. I owe them.

> From: Scott M. (Nike)
>To: Lance Armstrong
>Sent: Nov 5, 2006 3:29pm
>Subject: Re Re: Re: Re: Idea
>
>I think we can do it. I’ll let you know
>for sure. BTW, how do you feel?”

The advertisement continues the email dialogue, but the reason why it works is because it made me stop and actually read it. The content was so real and part of something most of us do every day – read and respond to email. As usual, Nike knows good marketing.