eROI Days Email Agency

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/

I got an email from Media Post’s Search Insider, and I could not agree more with author Gord Hotchkiss:

“Hello, my name is Gord, and I’m addicted to the Internet. I didn’t realize I was addicted until I recently spent three weeks in Europe and had to go through withdrawal. But after hanging around hotel lobbies trying to get a hit from a local hot spot, I’ve had to face up to the fact that I can’t kick the habit. I need my broadband, baby!

Fear and Loathing in l’Italia

I didn’t go totally cold turkey. I had my PDA to keep up on e-mails, but it just didn’t give me the rush I was looking for. Here I was, surrounded by the culmination of centuries of artistic achievement, and all I could think about was where my Google hook-up was coming from.

I speak somewhat facetiously, but there’s a lot of truth here. Here’s an online definition of addiction:

Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance.
The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.
It seems to me that going online qualifies on both counts. There’s no doubt that being online is habit forming. But it goes further than that. I realized in the last 20-plus days that it’s hard-wired into my physiology. Not having instant access was as foreign as not having my right hand.”

Read Gord’s blog: http://www.outofmygord.com

The microsite for Staples’ “The Wall” campaign is truly impressive. For starters, the commercial transported me back in time to the place in which an ancient Chinese emperor and his small band of men take on a massive army of barbarians. The music, visuals, and effects were so “on brand” that I felt compelled to pour a cup of steaming hot Jasmine blossom green tea to complete the transformation to ancient Chinese times. More importantly, the message of the “Easy button” resonates with me. In short, I’m sold on Staples’ differentiating factor– they make things easy. The mechanics of the “Launch the emperor over the wall” advergame are very fluid and straightforward. You can simply point and click instead of having to remember a half dozen command keys as with other advergames.

The Fortune-Cookie page adds the much-needed humor element to an otherwise stoic site. My favorite fortune in this interface was, “He who climbs corporate ladder should not wear kilt.” Viral Send to a Friend pages are embedded into each piece of the microsite. Brilliant.

To read the full iMedia Connection “Creative Review”, click here >>

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eROI Predictions for 2006
In an effort for all of us to remember some of these outlandish predictions, we went with the beloved Top10 format.

10. Online viral campaigns will continue to spread like the plague.
Marketers finally get it – viral marketing is here to stay. The multiplier affect of great marketing, online public relations, co-creating with your customers, and lead capture for minimal cost is too much for marketers and business owners to pass up. 2006 will see a rise in viral campaigns. Some will feel forced, some weak, but the most innovative and creative campaigns will be rewarded with huge online traffic and leads. Our five favorite online viral campaigns in 2005 are:
a. Death Jr Hamster Game – Konami
b. Chinese Back Street Boys
c. Kettle Foods Crave Site
d. Darth Vader Mind Games – Burger King
e. JibJab’s ‘2-0-5’ video

9. Email design and content will matter more.
Assuming email addiction has set in more and more as we predicted last year, we are becoming more and more jaded with email in our inboxes that have predictable content and weak design. Don’t tell me that you spend 5 minutes admiring every email that hits your inbox – holmie don’t play that. The average email recipient spends 2.8 seconds reading an email. This time per email is decreasing rapidly year over year. As humans, we love a pleasant surprise; something that makes us stop and look a little bit longer so we can tell our friends and colleagues about it. Email template and brand consistency will continue to be important, but more marketers will take advantage of unique headline banners to their newsletters and other email communication.

8. More blogs than websites for most.
It’s not whether or not to have a blog in ’06, it will be how many blogs. Disclaimer: we are ridiculous – eROI maintains four blogs and five websites (www.eroi.com and four micro-sites). Companies will realize that a blog for each vertical niche of their product or service offering (or for segmenting their customer base) is the way to go in ’06. Why? For three main reasons:

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