Archive for the ‘Email Marketing Best Practices’ Category
Posted by Dave McCue on July 1st, 2009
Earlier this year, SubscriberMail engaged a vendor to assist with an online advertising initiative. Just a couple of weeks ago, I received an email from this vendor that—despite containing elements of personalization, such as my name and company name—amounted to little more than a “canned” message that may as well have been aimed at a total stranger.
Even worse than the “infomercial” style of writing used in the message was the fact that it’s From address was that of a representative I had spent quite a bit of time working with before, both via email and over the phone. Having already established this relationship months before, I was a bit insulted to be given such a generic sales pitch—as if I had never heard of or been in contact with the vendor in question.
A week or so later, this same representative sent me a follow-up email that, while still a bit generic, seemed as though it was actually written to me. So I wrote back and we had a normal email exchange over the next couple of days.
The moral of this story is pretty simple: don’t treat email recipients as if they are all the same. The original message I received was sent through an email service provider (indicated by the ESP logo in the footer), so it’s safe to assume that at least basic segmentation tools were at this sender’s disposal. How then, could a completely generic sales pitch end up in the inbox of one of their former clients (i.e. me)?
There is a reason the second message prompted me to take action, while the first message left me cold. While elements of personalization—such as addressing recipients by name—are a nice touch, they can’t make the heart of the message itself any more relevant when it is way off the mark. Combining personalization with segmentation gives your message a much better chance of achieving the level of relevancy it needs. At the very least, some basic list segmentation—separating clients, former clients, prospects, etc. into their own lists—could have prevented this type of irrelevant communication now and in the future.
It can be easy to overlook the basics sometimes, but it’s also easy to see why it’s never a good idea.
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Posted by Bill Leming on June 22nd, 2009
When I think of “large companies” what comes to mind are multi-layered enterprises that typically consist of various organizational divisions each of which has its own set of management objectives, strategies and tactics. To the extent that each division has a specific need and a desire to promote its products and services via email with varying degrees of urgency, it quickly becomes apparent that there is a pressing need for centralized cat control. Without it chaos reigns.
This isn’t terribly different from brand management’s responsibility to create/identify the brand, communicate the rules surrounding its use, monitor how the rules are being followed and enforce compliance. More typical than not such an individual and, in some cases whole departments have clearly defined email responsibility within large companies. And, given the ability of any one division or group to pollute the pond for everyone else, well they should.
Like those responsible for brand compliance, it is up to the enterprise email manager to establish and communicate the email marketing rules to which everyone will adhere. These include who will be added to the opt-in list (and equally important, who will not), whether the company will use single or double opt-in, under what specific circumstances trade show attendees/verbal opt-ins will be added (or not added), how frequently the enterprise will communicate with any one individual within a given timeframe, what each and every email will include in terms of the subject line, from address not to mention graphic design and content and a myriad of other rules. All of these are designed to collectively ensure corporate compliance with both CAN SPAM and email best practices, as well as to create synergy and advance a collective voice through message uniformity and consistency.
So where does this control start? I think it starts with a corporate commitment to recognize the need and to assign both the responsibility and the authority for all email within the enterprise to one individual. Management has no difficulty doing so with respect to its brand largely because of the brand value itself, because that’s what brand managers have demanded and because doing so increases ROI. While each of these same reasons apply to email responsibility assignment within large companies, we can also add in that assigning ultimate responsibility for all email to one individual will also reduce the risk of getting blocked, blacklisted and/or sued.
At the risk of self-promotion, the channel solution we provide does more than simply help our clients monitor compliance with the rules they’ve established. By controlling images and content across all divisions and downward within divisions in fixed, locked-down formats it ensures email, brand and regulatory compliance. That in turn allows our clients more time to deal with their cats who, in true feline fashion, always want to test the bounds of email propriety, best practices and legislation.
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Posted by Dave McCue on June 8th, 2009
Moving into our first home has made the last month and a half a pretty busy one for my wife and I, but the process also shed light on what a valuable opportunity movers present to email marketers. Unfortunately, this opportunity was not always taken advantage of.
Here is a sampling of some of the hits and misses, graded A to F:
- Using the US Post Office’s website to change our address was much easier than battling the crowds at a USPS location, and it wasn’t long before I received an email confirming that my change of address request had been received. The email explained that I would receive a confirmation letter through the mail at my new address. In addition, much like if I had visited a physical post office to change my address, I was presented with a batch of helpful resources to assist with the move. Everything from information on security systems to census facts about my new neighborhood were available, as well as online resources to change vehicle registration, register to vote in my new town, and several coupons (which any mover can appreciate). Lastly, the USPS included a Quick Poll to solicit feedback about the entire process. Simple, valuable, and well done all around.
Grade: A
- Once the paperwork was finalized, our realtor emailed my wife a link to an easy-to-use message builder, allowing a non-technical person like herself to put together a simple moving announcement that she could email our friends and family to notify them of our new address and share a picture of our new home. Of course, this announcement was neatly branded with the realtor’s logo along with our agent’s contact information—an easy path to some free publicity. Points were lost, however, because the message’s “From” name defaulted to that of our realtor, resulting in a message that certainly wasn’t viewed nearly as often as it would have been coming from my or my wife’s email address. Still, the combination of value, engagement and potential for sharing made this a strong campaign.
Grade: B
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Posted by Dave McCue on June 2nd, 2009
Everybody loves features. Salespeople point out fancy features to heighten customer interest, and customers love knowing those fancy features will be at their disposal once they’ve made a purchase. Unfortunately, many of those features never actually get put to use—you may have slipped your feet into a pair of ROOS at one time, but did you ever actually use that little zipper pocket? Didn’t think so.
In the same way, a typical email client boasts quite a few features that, if used properly, can make for a much better end-user experience. However, it’s taking a long leap of faith to assume that your subscribers are utilizing any of these features outside of the basic Create-Send-Open-Reply variety. For instance, while the application of Filters (aka, Rules) can do wonders for subscribers who are frustrated with their crowded and unorganized inboxes, it’s much more likely that the emails you send are being delivered to the top level inbox along with every other non-Junk message that is received.
Preview panes are another feature that makes inbox skimming easier and more productive for recipients, but they are not a default setting on all email clients and therefore must be activated by the user.
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Posted by Bill Leming on May 20th, 2009
More than once this month we’ve been asked to weigh in on the risk-reward ratio involved in emailing what is best described as a list that “hasn’t exactly” given their expressed permission to receive promotional emails.
In some instances the list consists of individuals who contacted our clients in the past requesting more information about their products and services during which they provided their email address to receive specific answers to their questions without explicitly opting in to receive subsequent promotional emails.
In other cases even less is known about where the individuals came from, when they entered the file, whether or not they actually purchased anything and, if so, how long ago, who their assigned sales rep was or is, where they reside and other key elements like first/last name and/or postal address.
In most cases we’re being asked for the most economical and legitimate means of securing these individual’s permission quickly and cost effectively. What that question translates into is really “How can we legitimately send an email asking these people for permission to send commercial messages?” Don’t we have their implied consent inasmuch as we have their email address? (The relatively high costs, timeframes and anticipated low response involved with direct mailing and/or telemarketing these individuals are generally already off the table by the time we’re drawn in to the discussion.)
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