MindComet

Always Test Your Unsubscribe Link

Rule of thumb: before you send any email, make sure your unsubscribe link works. It’s that simple. It may be a fairly obvious statement in regards to email marketing, yet something many overlook.

See this example below:

I received this email from Full Sail this morning and after realizing that information on their “entertainment business” degrees is irrelevant to me, I finally decided to put our relationship to rest… or so I thought. Once the very visible “unsubscribe” link was clicked, I was lead to this page:

Unsubscribe FAIL.

But this may not be Full Sail’s fault entirely. From clicking on the other links within the email, their Google URL builder states that the source is from “PasteMagazineContest”. This tells me the email was likely developed and managed by Paste Magazine as a partner / promotion deal. Shame on them both, though. For Paste not testing their email and for FullSail not providing a working unsubscribe link.

If I were FullSail, I’d get this link working ASAP as to avoid any potential SPAM complaints or even lawsuits.

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Posted by Bryan Quilty on Feb. 25, 2010

Using Google Docs as a QA Checklist Alternative

Yet another Google tool can be leveraged to assist your email marketing efforts. Besides BlueSkyFactory‘s genius way of using AdWords & Wonder Wheel for developing subject lines, ExactTarget recently suggested that using Google Docs goes hand in hand with quality assurance management.

If you have a Gmail account, you can start creating forms and spreadsheets here. It’s a nice alternative to Excel or Numbers mainly because you don’t have to exhaust additional computing power with running another program; the application is already in your web browser.

Here at MindComet we use Excel spreadsheets to keep track of what’s working and what’s not with all of the email campaigns we manage, but Google Docs may just add that last bit of efficiency and collaboration we’re looking for. What, if anything, do you use to track the changes and breaks with your email campaigns? Do you simply list all of the errors, or do you consolidate them in lists that you share with your co-workers?

If you don’t currently have a QA process or method, you should probably develop one, so why not start with Google Docs? It’s free, quick and convenient. ‘Nuff said.

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Posted by Bryan Quilty on Feb. 22, 2010

Banana Republic Unveils Interesting Enticement Call To Action

The email below from Banana Republic landed in inboxes a couple days ago and has made the rounds as a point of discussion on numerous email marketing blogs…. I can’t help but put my two cents in.

It’s a very clever (almost too clever) method of compelling users to click through via the arrow on the right side of the email’s design. Once the user clicks, the landing page displays all seven wardrobes for the ‘Chino-Week’ promotion. But was the arrow too subtle for the average BR customer to notice and click?

From what Dylan at theemailwars uncovered was that it was a gender-specific email to boot.

What do you think? Was this call to action and email in general effective or not?

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Posted by Bryan Quilty on Feb. 18, 2010

Google’s Subject Line Tools

Google has two tools available that can help email marketers compose relevant Subject Lines and it’s been right under our noses for some time. Google’s Wonder Wheel and Adwords Keyword Tool, when used in conjunction with one another, can potentially increase open rates. The idea is to take what people are clicking on on the web and transplant it into your subject line to increase open rates.

Christopher Penn at Blue Sky Factory developed this method and goes into more detail on their blog here. It’s a smart idea and definitely worth trying for yourself. I, for one, will be utilizing this method very much in the future.

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Posted by Bryan Quilty on Feb. 09, 2010