Once you’ve determined the type of mobile marketing communications you want customers to sign up for, the larger challenge is getting them to sign up. If you’re already communicating with customers through email campaigns, direct mail, social media, etc, use those channels to promote your mobile program and clearly state why it is different/beneficial (in other words, explain why it makes sense for an email subscriber to also become a mobile subscriber). Use those channels to drive traffic to a mobile-friendly web form where customers can sign up. This can be done through URLs, QR codes, and mobile keywords—for example, “text JOIN to [mobile short code]” would initiate an auto-responder SMS with a link to the opt-in form.

You can also include the URL/QR/Keyword on printed materials/signage inside any brick and mortar locations, incorporating an offline acquisition component to your efforts around database building. And, of course, any website properties your business operates (including your main website, blogs, social profiles, etc) should include an appropriate call-to-action to drive new mobile sign-ups.

If all of the above sounds like too much of a focus on your mobile program (at the expense of other channels), keep in mind it does not need to be exclusive to the mobile channel. The sign-up form you are driving traffic to could be used for multiple channels, where visitors submit their contact information in addition to selecting the channel(s)—email, mobile, etc—through which they would like to receive communications.

Most important is the understanding that mobile is meant to be used as a very strategic channel. If your goal in building a database is simply to acquire as many phone numbers as possible, you might be falling back into the “broadcast” mindset that is not typically effective in mobile marketing.

In a meeting follow-up, the CRTC issued a report summarizing the topics and initial thoughts. It’s clear to many of us who have been following this topic that the impact on businesses, marketers and ESPs will be profound if the CRTC proceeds on its current course.

Unlike the CAN SPAM Act in the US and other anti-spam measures around the world, CASL is by far the most restrictive and punitive. They place strict rules around what constitutes consent, retroactive requirement of consent, definitions of Commercial Electronic Messages (CEMs), and the scope of covered marketing efforts/technology beyond email marketing. The punishment for noncompliance is extreme.

The topic of consent and the retroactive requirement, for example, is of paramount importance to marketers. Many will have trouble proving 100% confirmed opt-ins, thereby risking serious list attrition in attempting to now acquire consent. Going forward from the start of the law’s enforcement, few would dispute the need to comply with new opt-ins. However, trying to reconfirm existing marketing lists could be impossible.

So what’s next? At this point, the CRTC held initial meetings in February 2013 and have since issued a report in early April. They are currently reviewing the report’s feedback and comments and they will be publishing further compliance and communication materials prior to CASL coming into force. In the meantime, those of us in the industry will continue to push for clarity and reasonable, judicious application of the law.

In the end, any law that makes it more difficult for businesses to communicate with customers is something that should be avoided. Legitimate marketers are in agreement that opt-in practices should be in place, but not ones with onerous restrictions that cripple one of the most efficient and cost-effective communication vehicles available. The business of business can’t suffer in the wake of overly broad laws and regulations.

From everything I’ve read and heard, the actual enforcement may not begin until 2014. In addition, there is a ramp-up period so there will be time to finalize your compliance efforts. But take heed if you’re in Canada, marketing to consumers in Canada or acting as the marketing engine for Canadian clients. If things continue with the CRTC as they have been thus far, we may all be challenged with obtaining opt-ins from people you’ve been mailing for years. List attrition is a very real possibility, one which will impact overall marketing and communication efforts for years to come. Hopefully the CRTC will take our concerns into consideration and provide a more reasonable process for compliance.

More information:

Report on the Informal Consultation of 25 February 2013 among Industry and Consumer Groups and CRTC Staff on Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation

Guidelines on the interpretation of the Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations (CRTC)

Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

This project was easily reduced to a manageable size by using sampling.  To understand the 11,000 comments, it wasn’t required to code every comment.  In my February Sampling Strategies blog post, I wrote that a random sample of 400 is adequate for any general population larger than about 5,000.  “Sampling” makes most people think first about randomly selecting survey participants, or analyzing survey data sets.  Could the principles of sampling also apply to my coding project?  Statistically it should, so I now had an opportunity to put these sampling principles to the test.

Here was my process for coding a sample of the comments.

1. First, I randomly sorted all the comments.  I used the Excel Random Number generator (=RAND()) and then sorted the comments by that number.  This ensured that the comments were adequately mixed up, and not biased by any content or other parameter.
2. Just for good measure, I selected 500 words and phrases (instead of the required 400) and coded them. This resulted in approximately 40 codes, which were each assigned percentages based on the number of comments in that code.
3. To further test the principles of sampling, I selected an additional 200 randomly selected comments (total of 700).  I then coded these additional 200 comments and combined the findings with those from the original 500.  If the principles of randomness played out properly, there should be very little difference between the analysis of the 500 comments and the 700 comments.
4. The analysis of the most common themes is shown below.  Of course, there are differences between coding the 500 and the 700, but the differences are virtually insignificant.  Most importantly, the conclusions I drew about the comments were unchanged between the two tests.  Statistically, I could code all 11,000 comments, and the analysis would not render significantly different results.

Banks and Credit Unions who incorporate email into their client communications are seeing high engagement rates and low unsubscribe rates.

These and other findings from Harland Clarke Digital, compiled through an analysis of email campaigns sent by over 100 banks and credit unions during 2012, indicate the increasing acceptance of digital communication between financial institutions and their customers. While many banks and credit unions have avoided digital channels, this research indicates positive trends for those who have utilized the email channel. This research is available now from Harland Clarke Digital — click here to download your copy.

Among the findings:

• The wealth of information available about account holders and members is ideally suited for the segmentation and targeting capabilities of email, but the collection of email addresses continues to be a challenge for many financial institutions (below 30% for banks)
• Unsubscribe rates for financial email campaigns averaged less than 0.3% in 2012
• Notifications, surveys and new account onboarding messages saw the highest engagement rates among email campaign types during 2012.

Also includes research around campaign frequency, deployment size, and more…

Download the full research study here

Is that the right offer?

Testing Offer:

I’m not asking you if you are setting up the offer correctly in the subject line — that’s more of a basic email 101 test. But, have you looked at your offer and analyzed to see if you are really getting customers moving? You know what I am going to say…Test it!

•           Free Shipping vs. % Discount

•           Free Shipping  vs. Free Bonus Product

•           20% Discount vs. $10 off your purchase this week.

Develop a grid of offers for your company, then test each of them.  See which one drives the results you need to maximize the response, the revenue, and the profit you are looking for.

Audience:

Earlier this year, John Joseph wrote about the benefits of targeted messaging and increasing relevancy through segmenting customer data. These tactics are vital to improving the performance of an email marketing program. However, what additional information can you learn from observing your audience and their interaction with email?

Here is one idea:

Let’s start with the time of day.

Example: You have identified that you’ve optimized your open and click-throughs by sending at 11:35 a.m. (Let’s assume 65% open between Noon and 5:00 p.m.)

Great! You already know that a larger part of your audience is opening their email during the day, most likely while they are at work. Everyone else is checking email at home after they walk the dog or eat dinner, and now you hope they scroll through to the bottom of their inbox to find all the buried messages.  So, would you get an even higher overall result if you split your list into an a.m. and p.m. deployment?  Test it.

Take a standard send that you do routinely, and capture your open rate and click-through rate. Then pull your open data and split your audience into an early send and a late send. Your a.m. email surfers will find your email close to the top before they go to lunch, and your p.m. audience will find your email at the top when they get home or when they’re opening up an iPad on the commuter train.

Now combine the open and click-through data for both sends of this single message to determine if you really do have two distinct audiences, compared to the single send. You can add this as an attribute to your email list so that it easier to split your list and schedule sends based on this behavior.

For example, when one of our clients started with us, they had absolutely no email addresses. They explained their objectives and shared with us what resources they had to get there. We proposed a strategic opt-in program that required a commitment on the part of their employees to turn customer touch-points into opt-in opportunities. Their employees became engaged in requesting customer email addresses and they displayed signage at brick-and-mortar locations to encourage customers to subscribe to the email program. This strategic program not only increased their email subscriber list to over 1 million addresses within 6 years, but also increased their sales and created loyal customers.

Building an email list “the right way” doesn’t just happen overnight. This program is a perfect example of the importance of strategy and commitment to achieving organic list growth. By engaging in strategic discussions early in the process, we were able to work with this client to identify targets and suggest tactics to meet their objectives. Several years later, the results speak for themselves — proper list building practices lay the foundation for sustained email marketing success.

Harland Clarke Digital clients can bypass many of these bumps in the road by utilizing the dynamic content feature within their SubscriberMail accounts.  This feature allows you to create, test, and deploy one message containing dynamic content items that include information relevant to each individual segment.  At the time of deployment, the dynamic list filter (i.e. subscriber state = Illinois) you assign to each piece of dynamic content automatically assigns the appropriate version of the message to deploy to each individual segment.

The tracking and reporting related to this dynamic message will be simplified. It will include a consolidated roll-up report, giving you an overall summary of all messages and then a breakout of the performance for each individual version.

Contact the Harland Clarke Digital Client Support team at support@hcdigital.com for more information regarding how you can utilize dynamic content within your SubscriberMail account.

They’re called “the basics” not because they are necessarily easy, but because they are the “givens” — the things that should never be the issue if a campaign is unsuccessful. Take it from Cue D Mc, ignoring the basics can make all the difference.

1. Map out as precisely as you can what you want to achieve (length, content, authenticity, feel, tone, key takeaways, music, disclaimer requirements, scripted or non-scripted, who is hosting the video, etc.) and define as narrowly as possible your intended audience BEFORE you take another step.  Preparing a detailed Creative Brief will define the scope, which will allow you to accurately estimate costs and help keep everyone on target.
2. Hire an experienced director; they’re well worth the added cost and will quickly turn what, might otherwise be an amateurish endeavor, into a professional video.  The same is also true for your editor.
3. Have a skilled make-up artist on site.  We’re all such avid consumers of various professional video formats that we almost take these people for granted.  Don’t—they too are worth the additional investment required.
4. Speaking of the production crew, review samples of both the camera and sound crew before you hire them.  If you’re considering interviews, promotional announcements or testimonials, ask to see some recent examples.  Like all things, some are better than others and some have particular fortes.
5. Carefully interview your talent pool before you ask anyone to participate.  Besides the obvious qualities of being photogenic and having a non-abrasive speaking voice, having a face-to-face interview before asking them to participate may reveal some traits and/or mannerisms that do not translate well to the screen and that might not be apparent via a phone conversation.
6. Send the editor any and all client branding guidelines (documents or online resources) as well as any client specific font requirements before production ever begins…It will save you both time and money.
7. Select an appropriate location that reflects the nature of the individual you’re interviewing or a site that seems natural for the individual providing the testimonial.
8. Unless you’re particularly skilled and adept in the video world, seriously consider using an experienced production management team such as Harland Clarke Digital.

Like so many things that on the surface seem relatively easy, there’s a whole host of production details that are all critically important to achieving your video success.  This list would include talent waivers, disclaimer copy, honorariums, transcription of final cut for legal review and an entire list of others, all of which need to be managed if you’re going to be successful and are on budget.  Call us today to discuss how we might best work with you on your next video.

There are two important reasons to focus on white space. First, it’s good design that balances your message with clarity and legibility. It gives your eye a moment to rest between thoughts, and can visually lead the reader from content to action. Second, it’s preferred by many readers. With shrinking attention spans and overflowing inboxes, recipients no longer have the patience for copy-heavy emails, or pages crammed full of products and descriptions. Thoughtful use of white space creates a more flexible layout, which flows more easily from desktop to tablet to mobile devices.

Of course, more white space equals less content. Pull out the most important concepts from your message and prioritize. The most important concept should take top billing. White space can highlight an important message and call it to the reader’s attention better than bold or underlines.  Make the rest of your message concise and remove unnecessary details. Create interest that will drive the reader to click on the link back to your full website for more information.

Add white space around your buttons and between your links. This makes navigation easier on a small screen for big fingers. The ability to click on your button without having to enlarge the page makes the end user experience more pleasant, and may increase clicks simply because they are easier to accomplish. With more white space your buttons can be smaller, creating a more elegant design approach.

Rescue your email from the power of the delete button. I am one of those readers who sees an inbox full of marketing messages and starts ruthlessly deleting anything ugly. But I open the ones that look interesting, or beautiful. White space can catch the reader’s eye in that split second. A page crammed full of text or graphics looks busy, cluttered, and tiring to read.  If you can create interest with a simple design, you make a great first impression that just might keep your emails from being deleted in the future.

I had a design professor who called white space a “holiday for the eye.” When creating hand illustrations he instructed his students to leave little gaps within areas of solid color. He simply called these white spaces “holidays.” This concept translated to digital means providing a thoughtful use of white space in your emails.  Simplify your message and your design. Spark interest with less copy, leading your reader to click through links for more information. Think of your audience and make it easier for them to read your message on a variety of devices and click buttons or links with less hassle.

I’d like a little holiday with every email, wouldn’t you?

These email newsletters have a great use of white space:

• 24 Incredible HTML Email Newsletters
• 9 Examples of Beautiful Email Marketing

And one website, with a powerful use of white space:

• Milwaukee Police News