Archive for the ‘Email Marketing Events’ Category
Posted by Dave McCue on January 19th, 2009
This past Wednesday (1/14/09), SubscriberMail sponsored the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing’s seminar: “Social Networking: How does it fit the marketing mix?” The event featured a panel including representatives from Google and Kraft, most notably, who shared their experiences in social media and fielded questions from the audience. Several members of our team attended. Here are a few observations:
• In conversations prior to the panel discussion, it was very apparent that while most are anxious to slay the social media beast, others are still skeptical as to the merits of Facebook-ing on company time. Social media is still such an abstract concept for some that it’s difficult to even articulate why it belongs in a marketing plan, let alone allocate any sort of budget.
• The audience seemed slightly shocked when it was mentioned that the average user of Facebook is 27 years old, while the average MySpace user is 34. However, as Facebook was originally only available to students, many post-grad social media users got their start on MySpace, which certainly contributes to an older average audience. With Facebook closing the total user gap between the two giants by the day, that age disparity is likely to decrease as older MySpace users seek out a less teen-oriented platform.
• The panel tried to dispel the notion that social media was for teenagers rather than respectable businesses. When mention was made of the Motrin/Twitter situation from a few months ago, I saw plenty of heads nodding in recognition. How best to make use of social media is still the million-dollar question, but it’s potential for affecting marketing efforts is beginning to gain wider acceptance.
• A major hurdle that needs to be cleared when beginning a social media campaign; accepting what is beyond your control. In response to questions from the audience, the panelists made it clear that the open forum style of social media naturally lends itself to positive and negative feedback. The panelists from Kraft took the opportunity to share a story about a social media user who had posted negative comments about the company. Catching wind of the comments through the company’s social media presence, Kraft reached out to the disgruntled customer and resolved the issue. This prompted the same customer to subsequently sing the company’s praises to the social media world.
The lesson? The conversation with your audience made possible by social media may not always be positive, but it provides insight into your company’s standing with customers that normally wouldn’t be possible. What you do with that insight is up to you.
Tweet This Post
Posted by Mike Ferguson on December 9th, 2008
At the Email Insider Summit today, the day was yet again filled with open, honest, dialogue that spawned or reiterated many insightful observations about where we are and where we’re going in the digital marketing space.
One of my favorite talks today was titled “Email as a Social Media Tool” as it really framed the conversation around the relationship aspect and the overlap between the two mediums.
One of the key points is how the dialogue has shifted: DM/Email -> Push, RSS/Blogs -> Pull, Social Media and User Generated Content (UGC) -> Sideways. While we can all stop and easily acknowledge this at a basic level, the implications there deserve a bit more mulling over as it relates to how we as marketers use those relationships as complementary forces.
Historically, we’ve seen a very myopic knee-jerk reaction when new mediums and technologies emerge — they’re killers. Email was going to kill DM. RSS and SMS were email killers. Social Media will now kill email. Jay Stevens of MySpace said something to the effect of “when people say social media is killing email, I laugh. Social media companies are some of the biggest users of email.”
Any seasoned marketer knows the implications are more akin to shifting the quantities of ingredients in the recipe to strike the right balance for your business and your audience’s palate. Balance can be a tricky thing, however, as it rarely lies directly in the middle.
Some good examples that were discussed in the session also echoed what we heard from the highly effective Obama camp: using social media to identify highly viral brand ambassadors, and targeting them with empowering and rewarding messages/offers, etc. In essence, as Jay expressed, this is trying to find who among self-expressed avids are the most avid, and of those who of them have the biggest networks — identifying biggest influencers — much like they did in the Obama campaign.
As select people become brand ambassadors those viral impressions and word of mouth derivative impressions you get are all gravy. So identifying “High-value sharers”, as they are described, is an important segment of your audience to embrace, but not abuse.
Tweet This Post
Posted by Mike Ferguson on December 9th, 2008
The first morning session was with Stephen Geer, the Director of Email and Online Fundraising for Obama.
Here are a few of the interesting takeaways without an attempt to transcribe his entire speech.
1) Respect, Empower, Include
This was the mantra of their field staff, and ultimately one of the largest factors in the success of the campaign. Obviously, this underscores what many of us in the digital marketing arena stress with our clients, which is talking to people, not at them.
The manner in which the campaign used digital mediums, such as email marketing and social media, to virally empower local grassroots leaders was impressive — and ultimately very contagious and effective.
2) Strategy over tactics
They had lots of names, lots of bandwidth, and lots to say — but they didn’t just blast out bulk email in brute force fashion (other than calculated donation solicitations 
) Rather, they strategically analyzed their data so as to organize them into *meaningful* segments, and approached different people with different messages. One such example included segmenting those who were more likely to be local leaders.
Greer at one point cited “unrivaled list segmentation” as one of the key factors to understanding subscribers at an intimate, granular level. This allowed for the campaign to elicit heightened levels of emotional connection and community action.
3) It wasn’t all email
Email was used strategically to establish and reinforce messages and actions, but it wasn’t an island unto itself. They would use on and offline tactics, such as having field organizers follow up on measured digital responses in order to do things like have local community advocates organize political get-togethers in their homes with other local supporters. Not all digital, but impossible without it.
4) Frequency
Mailing frequency varied at the individual level based on data points. Again, the notable, and obvious exception here was with fund raising messages. However, striking a balance with frequency and segmentation was the way they were able to motivate their “troops” at different levels.
Tweet This Post
Posted by Jordan Ayan on February 12th, 2008
A couple of great data points out of today’s opening keynote at the EEC. If you need more ammo on the need to build a quality email list and create campaigns with a high level of relevancy here it is.
- 80 percent of consumers make a decision about deleting a message without opening it
- 79 percent hit the delete button when they don’t know the sender
- 64 percent never even look in their bulk folder
Tweet This Post
Posted by Jordan Ayan on February 12th, 2008
I am in San Diego at the Email Experience Conference. This is an exciting event as it is really the first time that this organization has ever really focused any true energy on this channel. I spoke on the first day at the Email Boot Camp with fellow email industry veteran’s Austin Bliss of FreshAddress and Karen Talevera of SynchronicityMarketing. What was exciting about the session is that it was filled with individuals from great companies who are new to the email channel. It reinforces what we have been saying about email marketing. The industry is growing and the opportunity for companies that want to figure out how to use it properly are great.
The first night kicked off with a cruise of San Diego harbor. It was the perfect way to start this conference. Participation was great (the boat was filled to capacity), and everyone had an opportunity to mingle and network in a wonderful setting without any distractions (other than the beautiful skyline). I have to say being out of Chicago where the windchill hit 40 below, also was an added bonus.
I’ll try to provide more updates on the conference as the week goes on.
Tweet This Post
