MindComet

Time for Plan B

You missed your mark. Fell flat. Sometimes what an email marketer thinks will be a resounding success isn’t perceived that way by their audience. By learning how to recover quickly can help minimize that damage. Consider building a contingency plan for the following situations:

1. Weak List Targeting

2. Bad Offer

3. Deliverability Problems

Weak List Targeting

At one point, you may be required to reach a specific volume of people instead of an uber targeted or segmented list. But when your open rates are below 20% and your conversions are under 1% how can you recover?

Resend the message with a different subject line to two smaller segments of your original list. The two segments should be a group of people who failed to open the original message and a group who either opened the message and did not click through or a group who opened the message and did click through.

Bad Offer

When you send an offer that no one seems interested in, what can you do?

Consider repackaging your offer as an “exclusive offer” or as a preview. If there is little hope for your offer on its own, look for a value-add partner offering.

Deliverability Problems

Your campaigns have been running smoothly and then things come to a screeching halt. Your undeliverable rate sky-rockets. How can you fix it?

Deliverability testing should be a part of any email marketers production process. Testing will help identify issues before they become problems. By having a reputable delivery vendor can help discover the root of the problem and can assist in a resolution to get your messages in the inbox.

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Posted by MindComet on Sep. 11, 2006

Seven Days - Seven Rooms

When I am not wearing my Email Marketer Hat, I sometimes put my home improvement hat on. So, as you can imagine, I opted-in to receive email messages from Home Depot. Not only am I interested in their email campaigns, I’m also interested in what’s on sale. In their August newsletter there was an invitation to “Fall into Décor” Seven Days Seven Rooms.

“Sign up to receive an email every day for one week, each focused on a different room. It’s easy!” the copy read. “Starts August 24th”, “SIGN UP NOW”.

Because frequency is a concern of email marketers, I was impressed with Home Depot’s plan of setting a subscriber’s expectations of how many email messages would be received and how often, before ever signing up. I also liked that subscribers were told when the first message would be received.

Once I clicked the link, the well-designed opt-in page showed a timeline with the room that would be discussed on a particular day. Day One = Family / Living Room – Day Five = Home Office. The only information required to opt-in was an email address, proving that it really was easy to sign up.

How The Home Depot plans to leverage these email address for future communications will be interesting to see. As a current subscriber, I may continue to receive the same weekly and monthly messages, but what about subscribers that found the opt-in from The Home Depot website? I hope that The Home Depot remembers to ask for further permission before continuing to message to these names, yet it would be a shame to not have a plan in place to reach out to this group of people again – with proper permission.

The messages started on August 24th and came everyday like clockwork. The messages were full of interesting décor tips and links to purchase suggested merchandise from http://www.homedepot.com. Who knew The Home Depot sold a wide array of electronics and bedding online?

A disappointing aspect of this campaign was the inability to jump on board mid-campaign. As a test, I tried to sign up with an alternate email address. I never received any messages. As late as today the sign up page was still active with a message saying the messages would begin on August 24th. It was a missed opportunity for viral messaging and possible additional subscribers who were a day late to register for a compelling email marketing campaign.

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Posted by MindComet on Sep. 05, 2006

Passing it Along

Viral campaigns are all the buzz.  However, before your start sending out messages with the intention of being forwarded to friends, consider the following:

Message Clearly:

This goes without saying for any email marketing message, but it is especially important if you want your message passed along.  Complex messages make it difficult for people to understand.  A delay in the decision-making process may prevent someone from acting on your message or even forwarding it to their friends.

Make a Suggestion:

Too often email marketers set up viral campaigns and fail to ask recipients of the message to share it.  Let them know you want them to send it to their friends.  Include a link or other tools such as the ability to send to their IM list. Be sure you are making every effort to enable your viral marketing campaign.

Analyze Results:

Your viral campaign is alive and it will either continue to grow or it will begin to crumble.  If it is growing, pay special attention to make sure it continues to move smoothly.  If issues arise, by staying on top of it, you can work to quickly identify and solve the problem.

Thinking through the small details of your viral email marketing campaign, will help you achieve the desired results.

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 28, 2006

Will Spam Complaints be Reduced?

The Call is coming from email marketers for changes to the major ISP email interfaces, especially Yahoo! and AOL. With the addition of the unsubscribe button to Microsoft’s Windows Live Email Interface, the new free e-mail service replacing Hotmail, marketers would like a level playing field with the other ISPs.

Microsoft is the first email box provider to answer email marketers’ calls in the beginning of August 2006 by including an unsubscribe button in its interface so consumers will be less likely to mistakenly report permission-based commercial e-mail as spam. Microsoft’s unsubscribe link started appearing two weeks ago, replacing the report-and-delete button on some e-mails in Windows Live.

Consumers frequently use the Spam reporting buttons rather than unsubscribe to prevent mailers’ messages from arriving even though they agreed to receive the messaging. In a recent survey, nearly 79% of consumers admitted that they have hit the “spam” or “junk” e-mail button to get rid of e-mail they don’t want. Nearly 37% do it as a way to unsubscribe from things they had asked to receive. Every complaint counts as a black mark against the sender. Numerous complaints can result in ISPs blocking email from a sender. The new Windows Live unsubscribe button will not register as a spam complaint, according to Microsoft.

As long as email arriving at Microsoft with a valid list-unsubscribe function - a line of code that allows ISPs to automatically forward unsubscribe requests back to the sender - and the sender passes Microsoft’s internal “reputation” test determining the sender is not a spammer, the unsubscribe button will appear.

Without the valid list-unsubscribe information in the header, emails will receive the Spam complaint button.

The product is currently in beta and could change.

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 14, 2006

It Never Hurts to Ask

Your website has a great viral component that is currently spreading like wildfire.  Congratulations.  You have managed to generate a lot of buzz and drive some traffic to your site.

As a best practice, you should be asking for an email address from the sender, but are you asking if they are interested in receiving future communications from your company?  The sender has made it to your site and thinks your viral component is worthy enough to forward.  They might also be interested in what else you have to say, whether it is promotions, sales or general information. Include a box to be checked for those attracted and follow up with a Double Opt-In Message. Even if you don’t currently have an email marketing campaign underway, you may (you should!) in the future.

Additionally, as a part of the forwarded message, ask the receiving friend if they are also interested in receiving information from your company.  It never hurts to ask and you will be building a sizable database of interested subscribers.

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 08, 2006

E-mail is Calling for Rejuvenation!

E-mail marketing is nothing new, but what is new is the idea of e-mails in the future. What will become of our beloved, instant communication tool? 

In http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=46193”>“The Future of Email” David Baker, VP of E-mail Marketing at Agency.com, feels that the important thing is not email itself, but the ability to communicate a synchronized message in the mixed media world. He feels the future is bright with opportunities and ideas of how to carry this medium to the next level. If we had the ability to customize every email, to make our communication more personal again and add character, we would be transforming email. He claims the important part of each medium is not what it is, but what it does for individuals, companies and our society. It all comes down to communication in our fast paced, technology driven world. As he puts it “users are becoming creatures of their communication devices and are already molding their communications patterns to mixed media.” We have become dependent on these abilities and we rely on them to communicate.

Baker feels in order to grow E-mail marketing, we need to expand on our idea of email in general. It doesn’t have to be the single channel that it is today. Email is calling for rejuvenation.

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Posted by MindComet on Jul. 31, 2006

Enquiring Minds Want to Know

Surveying your list can be an easy and inexpensive way to learn about your subscriber list.  While surveying loses its effectiveness if it is done too frequently, if you are not already conducting surveys, plan on surveying your list two – four times a year.

You can gain a great deal of insight and target your messages accordingly when you survey. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind when you prepare your survey.

Ask specific questions.  The more targeted your question is, the more targeted the answer will be.  This allows you to better plan your campaign or event.

Use your survey to learn more about your subscribers.  By asking questions about geographic location, company size and concerns related to their industry, you will be better equipped to target your subscribers with the relevant information they are looking for.

Use your survey to find out who is still interested.  If you have subscribers that have stopped responding to your messages, send a short survey with an incentive for completion.  If there is still no response, there is a good possibility they are truly no longer interested and it may be time to say goodbye.

There are some overall survey best practices to consider, these include the following:

Let your survey-takers know to expect.  Tell them how many questions there are or how long it should take to complete.  Also, let them know there is a specific incentive waiting for them at the end. 

Make the incentive you offer specific and relevant for your business.  Offering an incentive that would be appreciated by your audience will provide better survey results than offering an incentive that will have serial survey takers crawling out of the woodwork.

Keep your survey to the point.  While you have your subscribers’ attention it can be tempting to ask the world, but by maintaining your focus you will get better results and minimize the risk of people dropping off half way through the survey process.

Make sure your questions make sense.  Consider having someone else read the question to verify clarity.

Instead of asking your subscribers open-ended questions about the type of information they would like to receive consider instead a way for the survey participants to rank industry issues that are important to them.  This will allow you to see the most important areas to focus your upcoming email communication.

If your email service provider does not include an integrated survey tool consider using a link to an external survey site.  The robust reporting tools provided are extraordinary and will give you the details you are looking for.

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Posted by MindComet on Jul. 25, 2006