VSL Gets A Redesign

My favorite daily editorial email, VERY SHORT LIST, has a new layout and design. It's more intelligently laid out, now with a pre-header and with more predominant calls to action, especially with the forward to a friend button. They're also incorporating social networking tools such as Digg and Facebook to spread the word about VSL.

Everything about this email is consistent, to-the-point and also encourages user sign up and database growth. There are 3 opportunities for a new user to sign up and 5 opportunities to forward the email or invite friends to sign up. Also with the new design, there's a call to action for the web-version of VSL, which has separate content independent of the email.

Kudos to the creators and editors of VSL. Excellent job on all fronts.

Planning Your Email Campaign

Abercrombie is leveraging video within their email marketing messages. There most recent communication was different than the standard sales and marketing mesasges they typically send out.

Subject line for this message was: Have What It Takes To Be The Next A&F Model?

Body of Message:



Overall, I like the idea of the email communication. One because its different than their other messages, two because they are trying something new and three because they are asking their audience to interact. However they failed to follow through. The video never gave me a call to action. It was back to their standard marketing tactics, using good looking men and women to represent their brand. I was then redirected to a page on their website with a half naked man. Based on my preferences and previous emails I received from them, they know I'm a female so why wouldn't they direct me to the woman's fashion area of the site? Better yet, why didn't they redirect me to a landing page with the call to action from the video in regards to details on becoming the next A&F model? Lastly, why can't I watch the video again? I went back to my email to click through again to see if I had missed something but when I try to click through again I am just taken back to the half naked man.

Like I said, I like that A&F is trying something new, however planning an email marketing campaign is one of the most important parts prior to execution. The planning needs to be thought through before implementing to tee up a successful campaign.

Mark "Not Spam" = Positive IP Reputation?

So I'm an avid user of Netflix. I usually go through about 6 DVDs every two weeks or so. Their email notifications are exceptional in their on-time delivery and are always accurate to the order of my queue. These message always land in my Yahoo! inbox without fail.

This past week, they've seemingly had some issues on their side as notifications were not released upon the return of a specific DVD and with which DVD you should expect to receive next. There's a message on their main page explaining the issue and they also emailed their entire database about the issue. But unlike their notification emails, this announcement landed in my spam folder. Now I have a theory as to why this happened: They sent one mass email to their entire database at once explaining the issue, thus making email clients think it was a spam message due to the large amount of recipients it was going to.

But from this debacle, it dawned on me that if a spammy message lands in your inbox, you usually mark it as spam and it consequently effects the IP address negatively. But what if you mark it as "not spam"? Don't you think it should inversely effect the IP in a positive manner?

After discussing this with a few co-workers, some interesting points were made. With this scenario, there's a strong possibility that spammers would just have to create multiple accounts across all major platforms to counteract the legit spam reports, thus increasing the deliverable spam email. But what if major email clients could track the "not-spam" marks on a person by person basis? I'm not sure how likely that is, but if someone figures it out, it's definitely something I'll support...

Being involved with email, deliverability is one of my biggest challenges. It's a constant struggle to combat spam filters. But if something like this is initiated, it would definitely help my cause and make my job a lot easier.

Does anyone know if something like this is feasible? Do you think it's a good idea? Bad idea? Neutral? Comment below!

Lotus Notes on Your iPhone

As it has the reputation of being the WORST email client for rendering HTML, it is nothing less than shocking that reports are coming in that Lotus Notes will be releasing an application for the iPhone. The only question I have is WHY?

I'm a bit confused on why IBM would be putting any effort into a project such as this since the iPhone comes with Apple Mail by default. To their credit though, they will be using their Domino Web Access version affectionately called "Ultralite". Their old and nasty framework of POP/IMAP will be omitted (thank god).

Their site claims that "Lotus Notes data will combine with the flexibility and connectivity of the Apple iPhone. To be built on the time tested IBM Lotus Domino Web Access infrastructure, users will be able to quickly access email, calendars, and contacts through the rich Apple iPhone user experience."

I'm interested in seeing how things pan out with this. Here are some screenshots of what the Lotus iPhone Mail App will look like:



I need to get an iPhone ASAP to start testing on this when it is released.

Allure Is Doing It Wrong

Where do I begin...

First of all, I have no idea how I got on this list in the first place. I'm a dude, and I swear I have no interest in handbags and makeup. Seriously. I scanned the email, heading toward the footer for the opt out link when low and behold, their opt out procedure was to forward the email to a sketchy address beginning with "unsubscribe-ctg0aib62aacgk4qtkisrfejqyybag2a".


Then the next line reads: "You will no longer receive our special offers; however, you will continue to receive any newsletters to which you have subscribed."


Umm... no. I want to unsubscribe from ALL communications. But YOU'RE NOT LETTING ME!

At this point I was pretty annoyed... I hovered my mouse over the text of the email when I noticed that the whole email was click-able. So, I patronized them and clicked... low and behold the link was BROKEN. Invalid URL. Probably had something to do with the DOCTYPE being in the URL string. DOCTYPE? Really? It's not even necessary to include it in HTML emails. All you need are tables. No HTML tags, body tags, meta tags, etc.


Haven't marketers learned that it is absolutely essential to test emails nowadays? And furthermore, in today's day and age, you must include a means for the user to update their preferences.

Oh yeah... and they used a very spammy subject line. See below:


If anyone from Allure or Conde Nast Magazine is reading this and you need some help in the email department, give us a shout.

Conditional CSS Comments for Outlook 2007

The team at SitePoint have recently implemented the use conditional CSS comments in email, targeting Outlook 2007 specifically.

Conditional comments first made their arrival to target specific versions of Internet Explorer. With these comments, you can write specific CSS rules for any internet browser. Check out some quick guidelines here.

The code to target Outlook 2007:


Now you wouldn't use this code all that often. Campaign Monitor gives us an example of using it with unordered lists. Apparently, ULs (with bullets) don't appear with bullets in Outlook 2007, so in this case, it would be a perfect time to incorporate a conditional comment.

If you start using this technique, comment below and tell us your thoughts. We'll start employing this technique as well so check back for any further developments.

Email as Digital Glue

Earlier last week entrepreneur and overall media junkie Greg Cangialosi spoke in Boston about "Email Marketing's Role in New Media". At the core of this presentation, we're left with the central theme of email being the "digital glue" that ties all other emerging and established interactive media outlets together. Through this presentation he determines that even with all of these stimulating and exciting forms of media in today's market, email is still the most dominant and essential application used. Here is an overview of some of the highlights of his presentation:

• 92% of all internet users read and send email on a daily basis.
• For ever dollar spent on email marketing in 2007, there is a return on investment of $48.29.
• It is the only common medium that ties all avenues of social networking together.

Compelling stuff indeed.

This presentation was part one of a three-part series by Greg. Stay tuned for the impending installments. See the presentation slides here.

Oh, and thanks to Tamara for pointing this out!

In Gym Sign Up

A few coworkers have been attending combat class among others classes at a local gym near our office. Ive been itching to check it out the last couple of weeks however have not come prepared with proper attire. I finally went last night and signed up for a week free trial to see what the gym has to offer with no intention of joining. I really have no desire to join a gym as I have other gym accessibility however upon filling out my free trial membership I was asked for my email. I made it through the combat class and upon opening my mail this morning noticed I had a message from the gym waiting for me.

So every night the gym must compile all trial member email addresses and send them the offer message as I received it at 12:16 am. I had to admit, I was surprised to see a communication from them so I opened it to see what the message entailed. It was an offer based incentive with time related motivation tied in. If I came back to the gym within 7 days (which is the duration of the free trial) I could get 4 week money-back guarantee and 3 free introductory training sessions with a certified professional trainer valued at $150 with my new membership.

The email ended with a few specific bullets around the benefits of the gym and what makes it unique.

Although the message was a typical offer email the gym has the right idea in regards to encouraging and increasing their memberships. Will I sign up because of it, most likely not because of my circumstances however if I was actually interested in joining a gym, they might had just received a new member.