MediaPost’s Email Insider recently did an article on the importance of holiday emails. As email marketers, it is our duty to not only create quality emails but also give our clients consulting on what kind of email will help their businesses grow. Holiday email marketing goes beyond Cyber Monday campaigns or even general “Happy Holiday” emails, it is most effective when it starts slowly into an aggressive campaign. The article pointed out that there are even great opportunities to not only drive business to your e-com site but also to stores with offers like “ship to store” which make up-sells and complimentary sales easier. The main point is to plan. Don’t throw together a sloppy campaign a week before Christmas, take it seriously to get serious results.
Here are a few examples of holiday emails eROI has done in the past.
“If you haven’t begun planning your holiday campaigns, then you’re already behind. The first salvo of holiday email marketing has already been fired, with 8% of major online retailers having already mentioned the holidays in their email campaigns. While most of those were running “Christmas in July” campaigns, a few were just getting in early references to be top of mind later in the season. August is traditionally a non-event for holiday marketing, but September will mark the beginning of a continued effort to win holiday sales that will continue into January…”
When I first started writing for this blog, it was called “Email Days” and featured lots of examples of everyday emails, highlighting the importance of email in our every day lives, not just touting email marketing only. So, I thought I’d go back to my roots a little bit and tell you about an email a friend sent me last night. He is an avid cyclist and knows I like cycling as well, despite the fact that we both mainly commute to work by bike and don’t get to do long rides very often as our weekends are consumed with raising young kids and different kinds of activities then biking. He sent a link to the video below, which is filmed in Portland, Oregon, and really captures the humor of two different types of cyclists – hipsters vs performance. This is one of the funnier videos I’ve seen in a while and is very close to home, literally and figuratively. Enjoy.
The YouTube video from Crispin interns has been circulating through agency e-zines and word-of-mouth email for the past week or more.
It made me think about the wacky stuff that free labor at other large agencies come up with and here’s what I found off of a Google Search:
Crap – I searched and looked at dozens of intern videos with no sound or no humor. Maybe Crispin nailed this better than I thought. There is opportunity for other interns to take their spin on it. This also proves that online video still needs a lot of content – there is very little out there and much much smaller amount of quality.
As for interns at eROI, we love ‘em. Not sure I want to task any of them with spending 100’s of hours putting together a rap video. Your thoughts?
Next post…wrapping paper gone wild experiment in the office (video and pics to follow)…
Alcoa presents (sorry, that’s the beginning of a TV commercial of “The Catch” in the 1982 NFL NFC Championship flashback when Dwight Clark levitated to grab a perfect pass from Joe Montana to lift the 49ers over the Cowboys). But, I digress. My mind faded to the dramatic music to Monday Night Football, but it’s now back on the prize – bragging rights to the Third Annual PAF Battle of the Bands at Someday Lounge in Old Town / Chinatown, Portland, Oregon where the creatives show their true colors after dark. If you want to take a look at videos from prior year’s Battle of the Band, now is your time to really soak in some entertaining video for 2008. It’s going to be almost impossible for eROI to win it for yet a third year in a row, but we’re going to bring our “A” Game. Check it (this is PAF’s main event email and all the info is below):
BATTLE OF THE BANDS
DATE:
Wednesday June 17, 2009
TIME:
6:00 pm
PLACE:
Someday Lounge
224 NW 5th Avenue
Portland, OR
This morning, eROI Sales & Strategist, Alex Williams took this fine photo in Los Angeles, of all places. Hopefully, Alex will comment on this blog post with a quick update of what he’s learned from Mediapost’s OMMA Hollywood event, which is all about online media, marketing, and advertising. A quick reminder that Optimism is the eROI mantra for 2009 and beyond, and what better day to see this huge banner than a day the stock market skyrockets.
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. ”
It must have been the euphoria of feeling the tropical sun and breezes on a family vacation (Christmas 2004) in Belize. A charismatic guide and president of TIDE Belize (an environmental conservation group), Wil Mahea steered our boat through the coastal mangroves in a remote section of Belize and talked of the progress his group was making in restoring fish, bird, Howler monkey, and even panther habitat. My 2-year old daughter (at the time) was taking in all the sites and sounds and she wanted to get closer to see the monkeys. When we did, she clung to me like white on rice and motioned to back away as the booming sounds of the Howlers scared her. By the end of the day, I was sold on Belize, on Wil Mahea, and on the good things that TIDE Belize was doing. I offered to help build them a website. I didn’t think they’d take me up on it, but 3 months later, Wil gave me a call and we re-designed their non-functioning site.
A few minutes ago, I got an email from a past client and it goes to show that charitable acts are good for business and good for the soul. It also goes to show that THE WORLD IS FLAT!
Her email below:
“I have a funny small world connection for you. On our recent honeymoon to St. Lucia (Sandals Grand Resort) we struck a conversation with a fly fisherman guide from Costa Rica. We mentioned we were from Portland and he told us that EROI and Ryan Buchanan had done his website after he guided your family on a trip. He said that his website is amazing, and that his business has increased immensely because of it. Just thought I’d share the small world connection and let you know how happy he is with his site and the success that you helped to create.”
Sam is a designer at eROI. He really likes ponies. Since he was a boy, he always dreamed of riding a tiny, shaggy pony. On a client trip to the Oregon Coast, he got his chance. He sent this photo to me in an email today. We are so proud of you Sam.
If you have young kids, this video will be frightening. What is it about the human psyche that most of us don’t step up to help a distressing situation in a public area. In this case, it’s a stranger forcibly kidnapping a 7 year old girl. In suburban New York, this male adult TV actor and girl actress went through dozens of “kidnapping” scenarios and no one helped until finally a couple young men came to her rescue. Hopefully, we can learn to be a little bit more aware and willing to step up to come to someone else’s aid. It’s easy to say, but what would you do? Honestly.
I got this email from a co-worker who is stuck in Alaska. If the email wasn’t so elaborate, I might not have believed him and thought he was trying to make excuses for missing work, but the story is just so good. The best line is: “Sorry this meessage is so messed up, it’s missing half it’s keys.”
“Just wanted to give you all a little update. I’m currently stuck in Russian Mission calling every airline in western Alaska trying to get to Anchorage. We’ve been waiting for a plan for well over 24 hours now, but due to a serious of blizzards and freezing fog the planes have remained on the ground. So the rest of this trip might be an attemp to get back to work on Monday with no time in anchorage at all. Hopefully that won’t happen though. So far this trip I have caught two 2′ pike from whole in the Yukon. (we fish with a stick and lower a rope into a hole in the ice). We’ve gone on some long snowmobile rides up the yukon which can be little scary when the water sits on top of the ice you can’t tellif you are going to go through or not. At one point we saw a bunch of moose and tried to get closer but got stuck in a snow drift and had to spend a half an hour digging them out of the snow, with the moose staring us down, and stuck in 5 ft. of snow which made it virtually impossiblle to walk.
Hung out with the natives in their sweat lodges and helped pull up a fish trap which is the point at which i fell partially into the frozen Yukon river. It’s cold. We’ll there is a slight chance we will be leaving now so i ‘ll let you go. Sorry this meessage is so messed up, it’s missing half it’s keys.”
I got an email from a co-worker who explained that on his birthday, which is today, the world’s population will reach exactly 6.5 billion people. Check it out – http://www.tranquileye.com/clock/:
“How are the numbers calculated?
World population data are extrapolated from statistics obtained from the United Nations Population Division. The clock indicates an increase of about three people a second by tracking both births and deaths.
Data on productive land are extrapolated from statistics produced by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The clock shows that one hectare is lost every 7.67 seconds. Productive land is made up of arable land, pasture land, and forest.
World Population
From now until the middle of the 21st century, in only fifty years, the world’s population will increase by 50% from 6 billion at the end of 1999 to close to 9 billion in 2050. ”
I can remember when I was born in the early 70’s, the world had less than 4 billion. I’m all for growth of the human race, but is it really smart growth?
My Dad sent me this email while I was away on vacation a week ago. It got me thinking about the global perspective and how wrapped up we get in technology, computers, email, etc. But, I also started thinking about the accuracy and validity of the statistics below. For example – 30% of the world’s population (nearly 2 billion people) own and use cell phones. There are over 1 billion connected computers in the world. I’m sure I can come up with some other statistics off the top of my head, but it begs the question – how much has technology enriched your personal relationships with friends and family?
“WORLD VIEW
If we shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.
There would be
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from The Western Hemisphere, both North and South America
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be nonwhite
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
80 would live in substandard housing
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death
1 should be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for both acceptance, understanding and education become glaringly apparent.”
What do Virgin Mobile and Vodafone have in common? They are both co-presenting with Ron Jeremy at a tradeshow in Miami in January 2006 called the Mobile Adult Content Congress. This is a very serious tradeshow talking about the future of mobile phones, prepaid wireless, and other mobile technology that helps improve our quality of life.
This email really stood out in my inbox. A friend sent it to me and there is just so much great content on the website, I keep going back. I’m absolutely hooked on discovering old and new camel toe looks from both women and men.
It’s fascinating. You, too need to visit The Camel Toe Report and I guarantee that you’ll never look at people in tight jeans or any tight attire the same way again. Here’s a quick glimpse:
So I will admit that I shop sometimes at Banana Republic. I like the stuff in moderation, as with too much you have joined the “Society Business Uniform” Club. But when they start sending me irrelevant emails about women’s jean sales, it just seems so off the mark. Did they know that I like women and jeans? Was I a shoe in for this data select?
When I first subscribed, I actually LOVED the sign up process. It was completely in line with every expectation I would want for a retailer to talk to me, know me, and not waste my time. Well that went out the door this week and made me question them enough to drop them an email asking them if they had been sniffing too much paste this week.
All could have been salvaged if they would have had a link in the creative to update your profile, I could have let them know that I am indeed a male and tell them what to send me. A missed opportunity and sale. Just to spite them I am going to J Crew right now and buying for no real reason at all.
VIV Blows It Out With Animated Gifs - We have all been jawing about the use of animated gifs in emails over the past 8 months and I love that we are starting to see them being used more and more when they make sense. Now not only to they really make an email work well, drive deeper engagement, and even make us [...]
I am excited to join a great panel for an upcoming Software Association of Oregon event called 
