eROI Days Email Agency

I recently wrote an article for iMedia Connection titled “11 Email Design Best Practices” and thought I’d share it with you if you hadn’t already checked it out.  It starts like this:

Remember the last great offer you didn’t see? The savvy email marketer knows that you catch more conversions with honey than you do with vinegar, so make sure your email design is sweet!

If you’re starting a new email marketing program, or looking for an edge to take your email campaigns to the next level, consider these ideas for designing emails that get your compelling offer noticed. These tips and tricks will start you off right, and even help experienced email marketers amp-up existing campaigns, turning precise communication into profits and visibility.

1. Before you start
Prior to constructing your email, make sure that your message is clear and concise. Develop and refine what you want to say so that readers don’t lose interest or get confused about what your call-to-action is. What is your offer? How will reading and clicking through this email help the reader? Make sure they know what’s in it for them. Before and during the building process, continually ask yourself, “What would I think if I got this in my inbox? Would I immediately delete it? Or worse, report it as spam?” Rule No. 1 — don’t be spam.

Even the most compelling message can be rendered ineffective if it’s presented in an undesirable way to your readers. During this process you may encounter many challenges and obstacles. Your design team may want to create something striking and beautiful, but your audience may not want it. At the same time, don’t throw readers for a loop with a design that is off-brand. Your email design should be able to flow well with the look of your website as well as any pieces collateral offered. Consistency is good. Also, design the email around your readers by responding to their personality. Are they tech savvy? Parents? Students?

Check out the rest of the iMedia Connection article here >>

Like most of you, I got dozens of corporate “Happy Holidays” emails. Most had great intent behind them (donating to good causes instead of sending a paper card or gift), but these email campaigns lacked creativity and fell flat in their execution.  GoDaddy’s holiday email and flash landing page was so tame and off-brand from the edgy stance they’ve taken with their Super Bowl ads.  Some of our vendors sent me holiday emails that were strong sales pitches - not appropriate for a time of reflection and authenticity.  Most other emails had generic subject lines like “Happy Holidays from x” and generic email design with low or generic results to their campaigns.  I liked 2 holiday emails (beyond our own holiday email) - the first was from Michelle Obama - the main thing I liked was that the Obama campaign FINALLY didn’t ask me for money for themselves - they did ask me to donate to my local food bank.

The second holiday email campaign (see above for email design) had such compelling and humorous, original content on its landing page that it made up for a slightly expected subject line and simple email design and copywriting.  Basically, this email from Sandstrom Partners was incredibly effective at getting me to click on the main call to action and even better at getting me to laugh as I completely connected with the agency gift conundrum.  See if you think their video landing page is funny too >>

Email Design Drives Results for CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports

Does email design really matter? Is it just “fluff,” or does it truly drive results?

At eROI, we just let our Resource Center subscribers know about this exclusive email marketing case study. See how a fresh, targeted, and on-brand email design by eROI’s award-winning creative team took the CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports emails to the next level.

Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on Email Design. Give us your take Before & After you read the case study.  Thx.

You will be inspired. The new look to this fascinatingly fascinating blog will be far far better than the little screenshot below. Prepare to be utterly floored by this weekend. No pressure to the awesome developer (rockstar Mrs. Gunter) and designer (nicely done Mr. Calvert).

I almost forgot — this blog will transition over the next month or so to having everyone subscribe to eroidays.com, no longer emaildays.com (same content, just a more accurate name):

Full disclosure, eROI did the design for this CBSSports.com Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball newsletter signup email. One pleasant surprise is how well this email performed both before its launch in eye-tracking testing and in the number of newsletter signups it drove in the actual campaign.

What are your thougths on the above email design? Please comment.

I recently wrote a blog post, Innovation Even Applies to Non-Profits, which talked about fascinating business models surrounding hipster companies like Threadless.com. No sooner had I written that blog post did I receive another several emails from friends and partner companies about a Portland company called RYZwear.com that has a nearly identical business model to Threadless.com and is launching its site this week with a sneaker design contest as the core of its community-based revenue model. Here is the email that I got:

I love the business model and the concept behind RYZwear.com and Threadless.com, but I’m wondering how much room there is for me-too type companies. Is it truly a revolutionary shift where an entire new economy can be built around it or is there significant first-mover advantages to Threadless.com and other community-based business models already up and running?

Please comment to share your thoughts.

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

Barack’s email campaign has hooked me during this election season. His emails have been relevant, ultra-local (great list segmentation here), and the content is inspiring. I give it a 10 out of 10.

However, one of my colleagues, brought up a good point. Here is what she had to say:

Hi Ryan,
Just my latest email marketing peeve. I was a John Edwards supporter. When Edwards endorsed Obama, I got an email urging me to register at Obama’s site. There was a specific link (www.barackobama.com/johnedwards). I signed up because I do want to support Obama now, and I also want the Obama campaign to be able to gauge how much support comes via Edwards.

Below is the first email I got after signing up. As if I’ve been a supporter all along. It seems like a missed opportunity to send me something relevant, ie. thanks for signing up, we really respect Senator Edwards and like him, we support issue X, Y and Z.

It would have been so easy. Sigh.

Cheers,
Jean

Begin forwarded message:

From: Barack Obama
Date: May 21, 2008 4:45:21 PM PDT
To: Jean
Subject: Thank you
Reply-To: info@barackobama.com

Dear Jean,

You did it.

Not just yesterday, but every day for more than a year, you did what the cynics said we couldn’t do.

You said the time has come to get beyond the same old tactics that divide and distract us, and you gave people a reason to believe again.

Because of your work, we won the Oregon primary by a large margin — and made it clear that at this moment, in this election, there is something happening in America.

There is something happening when Americans who have never participated in politics get involved and knock on doors, make phone calls, and talk to each other about their vision for our country.

There is something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to but for the hopes they hold in common.

Change is what’s happening in America.

The momentum you created won’t stop now. Together we’re building a campaign that will compete in the general election — and a united Democratic Party that can lead this country for the next generation.

You can keep it going by taking a trip to Montana for the last primary in the country. Supporters like you are needed to help get voters out to the polls for their June 3rd primary.

Sign up now to help Get Out The Vote in Montana:

http://my.barackobama.com/cometoMT

We’re within reach of the nomination, and we are ready to take this country in a new direction.

Thank you for everything you’ve done to make this possible.

Barack

An employee sent me an email with this link - fascinating!

Freedom, A Twitter Away For UC Berkeley Student Arrested In Egypt

“As surreal as it may sound, Twitter can get you out of jail! The catch…send the right message to as many people as possible as fast as you can and voila!

UC Berkeley journalism graduate student James Karl Buck (29), former Oakland Tribune multimedia intern, was arrested during a demonstration in Mahalla El-Kobra, an industrial city in the Nile Delta.

What the Egyptian authorities didn’t probably expect was the prompt reaction of a large circle of friends in the United States and the anti-government bloggers in Egypt, who were sent an instant text message from his cellular phone: “ARRESTED,” the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The micro-blogging service allows users to send text messages up to 140 characters long, and the message Buck sent had the desired outcome: his friends called the University, the American Embassy, as well as the Associated Press, the International Herald Tribune and other media.

The result: he was released the next day, although according to his affirmations, the Egyptian authorities told him just hours after his arrest, in the middle of the night, that he was a free man.”

I spent the last week preparing for a speech (to 100 marketers) at Innotech on “Bringing Sexy Back to Email Marketing“, and I must admit that I got pretty philosophical about the email marketing industry and the real definition of what sexy means to me and to marketers.

Download the Full PDF presentation of “Bringing Sexy Back to Email” here>>. It’s the second downloadable document on that page. Tell me what you think.

The genesis of the idea for this speech came from attending a panel on email marketing at MediaPost’s OMMA Hollywood show last month. At that panel, the nation’s top email experts, who I have a ton of respect for, all had a similar response to the question, “what’s exciting coming up in the near future for email marketing?” After a few chuckles and shrugs that it’s the same old same old in the email world, these top email software and agency experts’ answers included “email is a workhorse” and it “is the plumbing of the internet.” To paraphrase the response, email has the highest ROI of any online marketing medium, but it’s ultimately boring in its implementation.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Where is the passion? Where is the sex appeal? Email has been around for a long time, but don’t tell me it’s boring. Email is dead sexy, but first let’s explore who is sexy to you? Before you look at the images below, think about who you find sexy and why are they sexy? Great looking. Hot body. Amazing voice. Atheletic. Bad girl or Bad boy personality. Something luring you in?

Ignore these pics below, and tell me WHO IS SEXY to you?

What does this have to do with Email?

Email is Dead Sexy and here’s why:
–Email is the Killer App - only true push medium
–More brand touchpoints than any other medium
–Highest ROI - Email Works
–Core of Building Online Community
–Successful Email Trigger Campaign - Fosters 2-way dialogue

Don’t forget to download the Full PDF presentation of “Bringing Sexy Back to Email” here>>.

Keep up to date with new Case Studies being released by eROI monthly in our new Resource Center. Recently added studies cover the multiple award-winning Wacom PowerOfThePens.com Campaign, Building Customer Value, Q3 2007 Time Study, and a new Email Marketing Campaign Launch Sheet from our Online Strategy Team (good to keep handy as a check list in deploying your email campaigns without missing a step).

Enjoy the benefit of our new Resource Center with an intelligent profile system that helps you remember what resources you access.

Start Your Training as an Interactive Marketing “Zen Master” now

That title above was a mouthful, but I just wanted another reason to say why I love email. Email is addictive and can be overwhelming, but it’s so nice to be away from email for 4 days on an unbelievable backcountry ski trip (see pictures below) and come back home, catch up on email, and not miss a beat. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Nothing better than powder and face shots with 10+ feet of snow in the Wallowa Mountains - it’s rustic, but there’s nothing better. Check out www.wallowahuts.com!

Email Brand ROI. Email Marketers will standardize a formula that most everyone can agree on for putting a hard figure on the benefit of email marketing to your brand (perhaps the Email Experience Council will drive this, or we will highlight it in the online marketing world). Email is an often under-valued medium because of its ubiquity and ease of use, but it is also the backbone of online communication.

From a branding perspective, customers and prospects often get more “brand touchpoints” through email than any other medium (examples include monthly newsletters, resource downloads, quarterly events, webinars, monthly blog posting summary emails, etc). If your brand comes across as unprofessional or irrelevant in those emails, you are not only missing a huge opportunity to convert more prospects to customers but you’ll damage the long-term trust in your brand.

I was asked this question by a reporter a couple weeks ago, and it was such a broad, sweeping question that it took me a little while to come up with a concise reply. Here is my response to such an important question:

“A world without email is almost unimaginable. Email marketing is about email where subscribers are craving valuable content. Email newsletters, event or product updates, e-zines, and even blog postings delivered through email give the recipient an unbelievable amount of value and knowledge in industry niches, news, or staying updated with company news. Email is a valuable medium that is here to stay for the long run. It hasn’t and won’t be replaced by RSS, Search, or other technologies - it is complimentary to all of these communication channels in the online marketing mix.”

To see the rest of the question and answer article, please check it out at:
http://www.portlandsmallbusiness.com/?q=eROI_interview

This is a relevant study just released yesterday from Shop.org and Forrester on how super effective email marketing is for retaining customers and a top priority for many marketers. I’ve got to admit that some of these numbers are hard to believe as conventional wisdom is strongly rooted in Search being a far better customer acquisition tool than email (while email marketing has always been known to perform best in customer retention). Apparently, email is strong for both retention and acquisition.

Some key highlights:

• E-mail marketing to house files is delivering higher response rates and lower costs per order than other channels
• E-mail is delivering sales at an average cost per order of less than $7, according to two surveys conducted by Forrester Research on Shop.org’s behalf to create the State of Retailing Online 2007 report. This is compared to $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search and $17.47 for affiliate programs.
• 91% percent of those surveyed said they use e-mail to a house list as a marketing tactic while 88% of them said it has increased as a priority in 2007
• Average click-through and order-conversion rates of e-mail are an astounding 11% and 6%
• Most popular and effective e-mails are those that tout online-only promotions, with 71% of those surveyed saying they use the tactic and 66% rating it as “very effective.”
• One of the lowest-rated types of e-mails were those following shopping cart abandonment, with 17% saying they use it and 13% rating it very effective.

More info and full article here:
http://directmag.com/disciplines/email/email_metrics_healthy/