eROI Days Email Agency

I got an email from Thinkpad with Lenovo sub-branding. I haven’t owned a Thinkpad in 6 years (and eROI has started to standardize on Sony Vaio laptops), so I decided to unsubscribe. I was taken to a Lenovo page which was branded differently than the email (and didn’t have any Thinkpad mention on it) – see below.

Now, I’m 3 clicks into trying to unsubscribe and getting really frustrated (1. click from email; 2. click on email subscription center; 3. click from second email triple-confirming I want to unsubscribe). There were so many verification steps that I gave up from clicking a fourth time. From a major brand like Lenovo (formerly IBM Thinkpad and Desktop PCs), I’m pretty surprised.

Tim Brown, Email Marketing Manager at Active Web Group

In the days of spam-riddled inboxes, everyone has an opinion on how to raise the average conversion, the average sale, average open rate, or the average click-thru. Years of data from some of the best, and worst, companies who specialize in online marketing have been analyzed and published to help construct “best practices” for email marketers. For that, I say “Congratulations!” You’re on course to bring email marketing, a gateway of infinite marketing possibilities and unlimited ROI potential, to an “average” level.

Email marketing is a channel, a unique marketing avenue unlike any other, for you to showcase your product or service to the world. Whether your company is B2B or B2C, it can help propel you to levels unattainable 10 years ago. But how do you get there? What do you do to get your email to stand out? What type of campaign is going to impact your customer…giving them no other choice but to click on your email and purchase your product?

The answers we’ve seen include “segment your email lists”, or “A/B test your email designs” and even “make sure your offer lies above the fold”. These are all very good answers, and key ways in helping create a successful email campaign. But something is missing. Something that will ultimately make the difference between maximizing your profit or resulting in another “average” email.

That something is creativity. It seems simple really. After all, marketing is creativity. Without creativity, we’d never know about the caveman’s struggle to adapt to human society or about a duck that can provide supplemental insurance.

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On June 21st at 11am PST, Eyetools Inc. CEO and founder, Greg Edwards will join eROI’s Dylan Boyd to speak about best practices in email design and how eye tracking studies can impact your design. You will be amazed at how eye tracking is so different from click tracking and what it can tell you about how lift your email campaign results and metrics.

Learn the ‘What to dos’ and the ‘What not to dos’ from these seasoned industry professionals. They’ll be looking at some before and after case studies to explore the difference even the smallest tweaks can make to the performance of your emails.

Register today for next week’s event.

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.

Here is the email that went out to our special invite list and now to the brave RSS subscribers and blog visitors. Don’t forget to RSVP at www.eroi.com/party!

Just a few highlights from the landing page:
“eROI Idol 2007 is going to be the best party you go to all year. Here is why:
–Summer cocktails, ice luge, microbrews, wine
–Local celebrity judges
–Your chance to be a star & win a huge prize package
–Appetizers by Andina Restaurant
–DJ Masagatani & DJ Anton”

See you there!

We just completed a study with ReturnPath on Reaching the Inbox and Rendering Solutions and how to design so as not to encounter these issue pre-campaign.

http://www.eroi.com/eroi-email-marketing-q207-reaching-the-inbox.htmll

eROI uses this data primarily to educate, consult and design. We like to help the troubled mailers become good ones and enjoy the increased response that comes from improved deliverability. Of course, if education fails, they can segregate their IPs so top-notch marketers don’t suffer because of other mailers misdeeds. (Which is why eROI has so many IPs and spend so much time monitoring, balancing and segmenting mailers on volume, reputation, list hygiene, vertical industry (say banking), and even by brand.)

eROI also uses Sender Score Campaign Preview to help their clients with content assessments. Content is another area where many ESPs typically have little control, so having a mechanism to help clients pinpoint where they need to make changes is crucial. But eROI is a hybrid ESP with full service and self service clients, agencies and other partners; due to this they can head off or test for issues prior to a campaign drop that they are creating, or test on behalf of a self serve client that requests it. Read more about how eROI uses the Sender Score suite to help its clients.

If you are struggling with deliverability issues, talk to eROI about how they address these problems. They help you assess your content? They segregate high reputation mailers from low reputation ones to protect their deliverability. You can’t expect your ESP to solve the problems that you are causing in your program, but you can expect eROI to help you diagnose and solve your problems so that you can increase your email success. Why else would we have so many great long term clients and even more each month selecting us as a partner.

http://www.eroi.com/eroi-email-marketing-q207-reaching-the-inbox.html

In the coming wave of eROI studies to be released over the forthcoming weeks here is one we just completed hot off the presses for you.

Over the last quarter, we took a look at how marketers are designing, coding and testing email. Email deliverability and rendering has been a hot topic for a long time, but how important is it to marketers. There is a vast difference between what they say and what they do.

In addition, we took a look at open and click statistics of those that fun all their email campaigns in house vs. those that use the services of an agency. The basics: eMarketing agencies drive nearly 50% more traffic to your site and increases brand awareness. This 8-page Q2’07 email study is chock full of valuable information, graphs, statistics, and charts to inform you on how to improve your email marketing strategies, design, and coding. As a bonus, you’ll also get an additional PDF of our brand new release of the Email Design Best Practices Guide. Learn how to code for Outlook 2007 and other email environments.

We encourage you to learn more about eROI, email marketing and this study, by visiting our Free Guides download.

I purposely waited 3 weeks to write about a story that is so “old news” now. I’m lying – I got lazy and delayed this particular blog post until now to start writing it. The story: Nike’s powerful response to the Imus “nappy-headed hos” comment. I’m sure you’ve read dozens of stories and perspectives on this, but here is the inside scoop to the following full-page ad that ran in the print section of the Sunday New York Times, the Rutgers newspaper, and then re-purposed for email with the subject line “A Different Kind of Email”:

“Thank you, ignorance.
Thank you for starting the conversation.
Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutger’s team story. And for making us wonder what other great stories we’ve missed.
Thank you for reminding us to think before we speak.
Thank you for showing us how strong and poised 18 and 20-year-old women can be.
Thank you for reminding us that another basketball tournament goes on in March.
Thank you for showing us that sport includes more than the time spent on the court.
Thank you for unintentionally moving women’s sport forward.
And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have a long way to go.
Next season starts 11.16.07″

This print ad was published within a few days of the Imus / Rutgers controversy. I’m absolutely blown away by how quickly a 10,000+ person company can move: Nike is truly inspiring. While Nike is a true power-house marketer, much of the credit deservedly goes to their agency, Weiden+Kennedy who pushed hard on Nike’s old guard to get this year’s most relevant and inspirational ad approved and published within days. Do you ever see their competitors like Adidas move this quickly. I don’t think so. Come to think of it, there aren’t many big companies that take a stand and act on it quickly. My hat is off to Nike. Other marketers should re-invent their processes so they can just do it. Or better yet, “Git ‘er done!”

Does Design and Coding Matter in Email Marketing?

We are closing this survey down at the end of the week. We would love a few more people to take part. IF you have 5 minutes and would like to get the results of this study, please give us your answers. We really appreciate it.

We like to ask people what they think about certain issues facing email marketing. We started last fall asking people about their email inbox preferences. Seemed that we hit a nerve as so many marketing sites and bloggers picked up on it and carried the message around the global block.

This month we are curious about another issue, Email Design and Coding Perceptions. Does either design or coding of your email marketing campaigns really matter? Do you design emails for specific segments in your audience or do you keep your messaging broad so that you don’t seem like you are only speaking to one group of people? With the email client market so fragmented, are you changing the way you design and code emails?

Help us understand how you feel about this issue and we will post the results for you this month in our latest quarterly study. Thank you for your help with this study.

Take the Email Design and Coding Perceptions Survey

Part of me is distressed by this news and part of me is happy. Why? Because I’m eROI’s Emerging Technologies Manager; guess what I do! According to this survey, 90% of 4000 people state their leading activity on the internet is sending and receiving email. Booooooooring (shhh don’t tell my boss I said that)!!

While eROI is firmly embedded as a leader in the email marketing industry, I’m on the lookout for next thing, and enjoying every minute of it. And in the spirit of being completely honest, everything I am loving right now will probably never be as useful as email -or- maybe it’s just too similar to notice.

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Does Design and Coding Matter in Email Marketing?

We like to ask people what they think about certain issues facing email marketing. We started last fall asking people about their email inbox preferences. Seemed that we hit a nerve as so many marketing sites and bloggers picked up on it and carried the message around the global block.

This month we are curious about another issue, Email Design and Coding Perceptions. Does either design or coding of your email marketing campaigns really matter? Do you design emails for specific segments in your audience or do you keep your messaging broad so that you don’t seem like you are only speaking to one group of people? With the email client market so fragmented, are you changing the way you design and code emails?

Help us understand how you feel about this issue and we will post the results for you this month in our latest quarterly study. Thank you for your help with this study.

Take the Email Design and Coding Perceptions Survey

This morning’s feature article on iMediaConnection answers a lot of questions that the entire email marketing world has been buzzing with anticipation. Until reading this article, most of us knew that Outlook 2007 is using a new rendering engine (MS Word) instead of the much more intuitive choice of MS Internet Explorer like previous versions of Outlook. Some of my quick observations on the annoyances of Outlook 2007: Background images and colors are removed and rendering of emails using CSS and style sheets gets screwy.

But here are a few things we didn’t know as well:
1. Adoption rate of Outlook 2007 is going to be quite slow, especially among B2C users.
2. The article mentions, “Outlook changes may encourage designers to stick to simple HTML and, as a result, increase compatibility with a greater number of mail clients including those on handheld devices and cell phones.”

The Good stuff: What to do about it. Read the full blog posting and article >>

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I got this email from a co-worker who usually sends me far more edgy emails, but this one is surprisingly clean and still funny (especially if you have kids).

“> > A father passing by his son’s bedroom was astonished to see that his bed
> >was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope,
> >Propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to “Dad.”
> > With the worst premonition he opened the envelope with trembling
> >hands and read the letter.
> >
> > Dear Dad:
> > It is with great regret and sorrow that I’m writing you. I had to
> >Elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and
> >you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I
> >knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, Tattoos,
> >tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am.
> >But it’s not only the passion…Dad she’s pregnant.
> >
> > Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the
> >woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of
> >having many more children.
> >
> > Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn’t really
> >hurt anyone. We’ll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other
> >people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime we will
> >pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She
> >deserves it. Don’t worry Dad. I’m 15 and I know how to take care of
> >myself.
> >
> > Someday I’m sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to
> >know your grandchildren.
> >
> > Love, Your Son John
> >
> > PS. Dad, none of the above is true. I’m over at Tommy’s house. I just
> >wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than a report
> >card that’s in my center desk drawer.
> >
> > I love you. Call me when it’s safe to come home.”

Our very own Dylan Boyd with eROI spoke on this panel where the goal was to engage audience participation and guess who the Liar was among the 5 panelists.

First potential liar: Al Gadbut, CEO, Acquire Web
Acquisition Email – is your response true? Al showed examples of acquisition email for an auto-insurance client, non-profit event, financial services client, and telecom client. Was he lying that email recipients actually sent long, valuable responses to acquisition email that so many people perceive as spam? (Not a liar)

Second potential liar: Scott Mencken, Director, Relationship Marketing, eBay
With hundreds of different lists and email creatives for transactional and marketing emails, Personalization is Key! Lots of ways to personalize email:
1) Audience composition
2) Degree/Mix of personalization
3) Email design + production
4) Frequency of delivery

Results: 113% lift in open rates; 285% lift in response rates, and 160% increase in sales.
(Not a liar)

Third potential liar: Dylan Boyd, Vice President, Sales and Strategy, eROI
Offline to Online Lead Capture Case Study for Jewelry company:
PIN-coded direct mail postcards sent to 100k customers/prospects (their in-house list). That postcard sent people to a website where they were asked to do only 1 thing – enter a unique PIN code and click “submit”. The following page pre-populated all of their info and asked a few other questions like email address and 2 lead qualification questions, then gave the customer a coupon for limited sale in their physical stores.

Results: 1920 coupons redeemed ($312.50/sale) = $600k in sales
Learnings in this case: use branded URL to instill trust: rogersandhollands.com/vip
Next phase: convert to more email as postal rates are set to increase 7% or more.
(Not a liar)

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This email glossary (that a co-worker sent me) is hilarious – take a read and comment below if you can add to this list:

“Tipping point
Point during a conversation by email where it becomes clear to both participants that they could have sorted things out days ago with a five-minute phone call.

Out of Office Reply
Device used by business people to avoid having to respond quickly to incoming email.

Thank you interval
Time spent wondering if you need to send a thank-you reply to a thank-you email.

Fistful
Measurement unit for spam. 10 spam emails is one fistful. Ten or more fistfuls is one sh*tload. So a sh*tload of spam is anything more than 100 spam emails.

Reply-all blindness
Disease characterized by an inability to distinguish between the “reply” and “reply all” buttons in an email client. Typical symptoms include acute embarrassment and complete loss of privacy.

Junk folder equation
The decision to review the contents of your junk folder is a function of two factors A and B. Where A is the potential value of finding useful mail inadvertently filtered into the spam folder. And B is the depressing prospect of wading through 500 ads for p*nis enlargers just to find an expired coupon for your local hardware store.

CC/BCC blindness
Disease causing the victim to put every address in their distribution list in the CC field of their email client, thus ensuring everyone gets a copy of both the message and the address list. Victims generally only suffer once from this affliction.

Disclaimer text
Long-winded piece of legalese commonly found at the bottom of corporate emails to indicate that the message “Hey John, how was your date last night?” should not be construed as a binding legal contract or a business solicitation. And unauthorized use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this question is forbidden on pain of something undefined (but possibly unpleasant) happening to you.

Can-Spam Act 2003
1. US law designed to restrict the sending of unsolicited commercial email
2. US law designed to allow the sending of unsolicited commercial email

Download uncertainty threshold
Point in time at which it is clear that the incoming email must include a large attachment, meaning either potential work, holiday snaps or another forlorn attempt to do something amusing with Photoshop.

The email paradox
The simultaneous feeling of despair and optimism when you check your email in the morning. Optimism at what interesting messages might arrive. Despair at the thought of finding work, complaints, several fistfuls (see above) of spam, another email from that client/customer/friend you’re trying to avoid…and yet more forlorn attempts to do something amusing with Photoshop.

Non-verbal clue
Situation where recipient is left wondering if the phrase “Die, you b*stard, die!” should be taken at face value or is simply another one of those unfortunate email misunderstandings.

Spam surveys
Statistics collected by anti-spam solution providers to give them an excuse to put out a press release once a quarter to tell us that there’s a lot of spam around (in case we hadn’t noticed.)”