2012, the year of...

Big events! There will be some significant occurrences in the upcoming year including the Olympics and the Presidential Election. Make sure you have them marked on your promotional calendar now. Having well thought out promotions built around these special events can help you stand out from the crowd.

First up: Leap Year.  February 29 appears on the calendar once every 4 years. Therefore, Leap Year Babies are often thought of as being neglected. If you have enough customers born on 2/29 to justify a special birthday message, it would be nice to treat them to 4x the typical birthday deal. The majority of your database will likely be born on other days of the year, so celebrate them too by offering a special deal on their birthday if they enter or confirm their information on the 29th. Perhaps 29% off?  This will fill in gaps in your data and give customers something to look forward to. 

“Leap” also implies skipping over or avoiding something – like shipping fees! This holiday season we saw an incredible number of Free Shipping deals starting on Black Friday. Many companies extended the deal to the last minute, offering free upgrades to 2-day shipping and free express delivery. Some companies, like L.L. Bean, offer Free Shipping all the time.  If you are still charging shipping fees, Leap Year Day might be a nice day to temporarily suspend them – or charge a nominal flat rate like $2.29.

Another event occurring every four years is the Summer Olympics.  Starting in July, the Olympics will be the focus of much attention. Many athletes have interesting backstories and the news media will be doing a lot of biographies. Take a cue from this this channel and feature in-depth information on designers or employees that are inspirational or have shown great teamwork. J.Crew published a web video last spring on how a particular pair of shoes was made.  It provided a look into the personalities of the team who designed the shoe, picked the materials, and ultimately produced the product. The video made me much more attracted to both the product and the company. According to e-Dialog research, nearly 20% of consumers subscribe to email because they identify with a brand or the lifestyle it promotes. Let them in on more of that lifestyle by putting faces to your brand. 

An obvious tie-in to the Olympics is to feature a game in your email. Games promote interactivity and engagement. The current email from the Choice Hotels loyalty program advertises a simple matching game where you flip over cards and match each of the brand logos. The game times how fast you make the matches and lets you share it on Facebook.  Not only did it engage me, but it also familiarized me with hotels I didn’t know already. This could be replicated using brands or even products from a new line.

http://choicehotelscreative.com/ecrm/11-767/index.html

 

Election 2012.  An event we can expect to hear about for the majority of the year is the Presidential election. The population will be urged again and again to get out and vote.  Therefore, including a poll or survey in your email will be right in line with what customers are seeing and hearing in their day-to-day lives. This is an especially great way to refresh and/or build out the information in your preference center and to gain actionable data from your subscribers. Multiple choice polls can be built directly into your emails with e-Dialog and results are tied to email addresses.

See the example CVS poll below. Based on the answer chosen, you could direct customers to different landing pages. If they are done wrapping, show them gifts for themselves – they earned it! If they haven’t started, bring on the tape, scissors and gift bags.

 

The 12 Days of Christmas.  If you thought you saw a lot of companies doing a daily-deal and counting down the 12 days of Christmas, you were right. And if you think they won’t do it again – especially when the calendar turns 12/12/12 - you would probably be mistaken. Review your favorite daily-deal emails now to see what competitors did and start brainstorming creative takes on this concept. I like the approach L’Occitane took this summer by displaying outlines of the products they would be discounting but still keeping some mystery around them. 

 

I also liked the video Best Buy did right before Christmas where they summarized their deals-of-the-week in a 2 minute video. The video was a nice change from having to click and scroll through all of the deals. Furthermore, it was engaging and entertaining with a little humor sprinkled in.

 

Others.  While Leap Year, the Summer Olympics, the Presidential Election and 12.12.12 are events special to the new year, there will indubitably be others that pop up along the way.  (I’m not even going to address the end-of-the-world stuff predicted for next December). Be flexible and ready for these “events” too with branded templates. At a minimum, create a postcard-like shell with your branding that can be pulled off the shelf to promote something last minute or to match a competitor’s offer.

Wishing you a happy and health 2012!  (And, Happy Birthday leap year babies!  Go Team USA…)

Are there any events I missed?  Please send them my way!

Finding the Holiday Fun in my Inbox

I’m done holiday shopping.  It is a new record for me, and I’m not going to lie – it feels good!  I shopped at the mall Black Friday Weekend and I “celebrated” Cyber Monday.  I scoured my email for coupons, promo codes and free shipping deals to get the best prices.  Now that I’m done, I can focus on the fun in my inbox!

 

The first “fun” I came across was in an email from White House | Black Market:

 

They created a Facebook-based application where customers drag-and-drop items to generate a personalized wishlist.

 

This wishlist is, of course, share-able to your wall:

 

The SC Johnson family also got into the fun on Facebook by allowing customers to create a mood board based on their favorite Glade fragrances.  This really struck a chord with me – since I’m done with shopping – now it’s time to concentrate on decorating!

 

The email directed consumers to Facebook:

 

Once on the site, you select different room scenes and decorate them using furniture, trimmings and Glade products.

A few companies used contests or sweepstakes to draw interest to their product offerings.  The Limited sponsored a “Holiday Wishlist Facebook Giveaway”.  Just “Like” their page to enter for a chance to win a prize a day.

 

Others used Twitter and YouTube to promote their holiday initiatives.  Bed Bath & Beyond asked subscribers to follow them on Twitter using a cute play on decorating your nest:

 

Finally, there was the just plain silly.  Walmart added a banner to their email to encourage views of a holiday “Yodeling Cat”. (While I don't see any real added value here, the link is here in case you just can’t resist!)

 

 

Overall, companies are using email to broadcast their social programs this season.  This makes sense because the overlap between email is social is only around 18%, according to
e-Dialog’s primary research.  Furthermore, email is typically the first medium a customer chooses to interact with.  Seventy-five percent of respondents said they signed up for email before they investigated the company’s social presence. (Source: Deciphering Customer Acquisition: Connecting Acquisition Across Email, Social and Mobile, e-Dialog © 2011) 

 

So, I will continue to kick-back and watch the fun file into my inbox!  What is your favorite interactive holiday activity to date? 

 

Lauren Pizzi, e-Dialog

 

 

Break The Mold--Think BEYOND "Above The Fold"

As we rate and review clients’ acquisition score cards, we preach the good word on moving email enrollment to a prominent spot above the fold on the website, but is that really the best that we can do? To be fair, ecommerce teams do put up a solid argument to occupy that same real estate with more customer-centric site search or social plugins. So what now? Does email sign up get demoted to the footer? Or maybe for the adventurous, a test homepage kicker? I think not--and neither does Neiman Marcus.

I’ve been paying close attention to their recent beta site re-launch, Facebook chatter about the release and supporting emails sharing, “we heard you, check out the enhancements, and continue to tell us more.” This retailer is clearly focused on a path of self-improvement and using the “customer voice” to catalyze change (thanks ForeSee or Bizrate)…or just doing a great job at socializing that the NM customer experience is top of mind.

To support these changes,  Neiman Marcus is testing or has launched a very smart email acquisition strategy and it’s directly on the product page--a pop up!

 

Why is this so great?  This is the synergy of 2 very successful acquisition tactics at play.

1) Pop Up

In testing opt-in strategies for a multi-channel retailer, this strategy yielded a 3X increase in email opt-ins during a 30-day test. Also, a pop up doesn’t deter the customer from a specific product page. A customer’s site experience is unaffected if they choose to X out.

2) Product Detail Targeting

Asking for email centimeters away from an exclusive product that a customer is browsing. You get them right where you want them: looking at YOUR content!

 

Now to optimize this, add some flash to the call to action/sprinkle in an offer and voila: Asking a customer to share a crucial piece of information can bridge the gap between browse and buy!

 

If not now-then make an offer later down the line. At that point, if you know the exact product that drove the email sign up, why not serve up a welcome offer with this specific browsed product & toss in free shipping to sweeten the deal!

Moral of the story….as retailers become more aggressive, customers become savvier, and the inbox continues to crowd—what will your brand do to stand out and get the opt in?   

 

Anna McCarthy, Strategy, Client Services, e-Dialog

Extending the Experience with Post-event Email

Last Saturday night, I went to see Guster at the House of Blues in Boston. On Monday I got an email from LiveNation asking me to review the show. I had already shared photos on Facebook and checked out other people's videos from the show on YouTube, so of course I was happy to provide a review. 

 

I appreciated that the email included the info on the show I went to, rather than just a generic review request. When I go to a show, it's a rare occurence, so maybe not so important to include this info for me, but for people who see a lot of shows, this is a must-have. I liked that they included a link to learn more about ratings and reviews, and I think it's also not too heavy-handed of them to include a link to look for more events.

Once I clicked through, the review submission form was very easy to use, with only three items required; my review based on 1-5 stars, whether I would recommend the event to a friend (yes or no) and then a form field for my comments. I also liked that they included an example of what type of comment you might put in each section. The form included options for uploading photos and/or video of the concert too. They also asked about my seats and the sound quality, etc. One quibble and a missed opportunity: they didn't let me know when my review was posted on their site. I think a brief email telling me my review was posted would have been a nice follow up. 

You may think this is all well and good, but you're a retailer or a B-to-B company, so this type of email doesn't fit into your program. But you would be wrong. With a few tweaks, the follow-up can be an effective tool for a lot of different organizations. Retailers can ask for a review after a purchase, restaurants can ask for feedback after a meal, B-to-B marketers can ask about how a prospect enjoyed a recent webinar or whitepaper download. 

I hope I've given you some food for thought. I would love to hear about how you think this type of email can fit into your messaging plan.

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications specialist, e-Dialog

Returns and Exchanges: Business in the front, party in the back.

No, I’m not talking about mullets, I’m talking about Bare Escentuals having the best of both worlds when it comes to their email program.  These days, I see too many companies getting caught up in hitting customers repeatedly with the same promotional message, without realizing the possible consequences of doing so. Consequences could be as dramatic as lost revenue and increased unsubscribes or as simple as the customer blocking out the messages because of redundancy. Either way, this approach means sacrificing potential email opportunities for  brand-building and customer engagement.

 

Bare Escentuals approaches their marketing in a refreshing light. They stick to the business aspects that work for email and social to drive revenue, yet they aren’t afraid to have fun and take risks.

 

A great example of simple and smart marketing recently mailed was the new Glowing Skin collection campaign. What could be a better way for a product kickoff than introducing it to your most loyal customers, your email database? Bare Escentuals also leveraged this campaign to include a banner outlining their “Review It and Renew It” programs. A program where you can setup automatic refill products and customers can review any products on the website.

 

But who says it needs to be all business and no play? Bare Escentuals has a great balance of the two with smart campaigns that also have fun, engaging content. Their monthly newsletter is always a hit in my book. Each month, they email a newsletter packed with product highlights, social content, customer input and relevant tips. It's a message that connects to customers on a personal level and is relevant to the Bare Escentuals customer base. What I love most about this campaign is that it is not promotion heavy and is more about brand and relationship building.  Social calls to action bring customers to the Bare Escentuals Facebook page for additional engagement opportunities.

 

 

Emails offer a unique conversation between your brand and customers. This means the type of email you send says a lot about how you value their business and will mold the way they see you and your products. By offering relevant and fun content, it shows customers you care about their lifestyle and will boost engagement.

 

Nobody likes a party-pooper, so mix it up, take risks, and have a little fun!

 

Leanne Letourneau, Strategy Specialist, e-Dialog

Returns and Exchanges: Lululemon Makes Customer Engagement Look Like Child's Pose

I just love when retail brands make a big announcement about new features available in store, online, or within their social community. Lululemon recently hit it out of the park (or should I say yoga studio) with their ‘site-upgrade in progress’ message.

I was instantly intrigued with the first look at the subject line: “update: we're in constructionasana”. Just in case you were going to attempt to craft that term on ‘words with friends’ - nice try, but it’s not actually a word. Lululemon enhances their playful brand by inventing a term that encompasses their main call to action.  The super subject line gives additional detail to their eye-catching subject line: “breathe deeply and see what we've been up to.”

The creative itself is cheekily charming. A yogi in a construction hard hat? Hilarious. Humor is coupled with sincerity with a message from the crew: “IT is hard at work, coding things, doing yoga, coding a little more…” Above all else, my praise to lulu is mostly credited to their dedication to be both interactive and personable while communicating new content for customers.

Some brands may get bent out of shape at the thought of their e-commerce experience being compromised for back-end coding updates. Lululemon does what their brand advocates do best…take a deep breath and remain flexible. They’ve counter-posed a potential negative customer experience by creating an exceptionally positive one with an extensive variety of interactive material. Weaved into communications is a well-executed theme of darkness as the website is ‘going dark’ while under construction. Post-site launch will reveal the highly-anticipated colorful spring line. Currently, the only available products are in black. This self-dubbed “Boutique Noir” might seem like a boring shopping experience upon first glance - that is until the user stumbles across the plethora of interactive material and amusing surprises on the way. i.e. this cute little bugger, Jasper who is featured on most product pages.

 

 

 

Typically Lululemon sends a relatively flat campaign with a single call to action - to shop new products that have been released since their last message. This email has amped up their product showcase by inviting users to watch a video which premieres the newest fit fashion outfits. Harmoniously on brand, the video puts viewers in an adventure inspiring, fun-loving mood that will have them fighting the urge to burst into either a full-sprint or downward dog. What a great alternative to seeing the same grid template of new products. I even proceeded to send the video link to my fellow lulu-loving friend for a sneak peek.

 

The campaign provides a link to their “under renovation” section of their website which has a friendly, blog-type format. Lululemon actually gives customers a view of how far they are along in the renovation process…right now according to their ‘progress mat’, they’re warming up. Even better? The page also invites visitors to enroll for email updates.

 


Remaining true to their ‘black out’ theme, Lululemon blogger, Alexis, posted a “Black out playlist” which was created to help customers “battle the technology blues” during the site renovation. If engaging e-mail campaigns and stellar workout apparel weren’t enough, Lululemon has completely stolen my heart by including “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin on their playlist - not to mention Black Sabbath. (I’m not exactly a yoga fanatic but this is absolutely my version of nirvana). Think they’re missing something? Guess again…customers can even post comments on these posts as well as ‘Like’ the link on Facebook or post to Twitter.

Regardless of Lululemon’s undeniably powerful site launch campaign, they’re not forgetting about doing what retailers do best - sell inventory. Within their blog and throughout the site they promote their line of products made with a material called “black luon” (catching on with the theme yet?). Lululemon boasts that this material is built with moisture wicking technology to keep you cool during that long run or yoga session.

Has your brand enhanced your online shopping experience recently? Do you have a new mobile app? Launching a blog soon? Don’t be shy! Lululemon boasts that their vision is to “elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness.” Do the same with your marketing program - display brand-enhancing news all over your website and integrate it throughout your 360 degree communication strategy. Deepen that stretch and make those investments pay off in the long run by simultaneously cultivating stronger customer loyalty and brand advocates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julianne Manoogian, program manager, e-Dialog

LinkedIn's Latest E-mail Creates High Engagement

E-mail marketers know that dynamically-published content creates high subscriber engagement, but often struggle to find ways to implement it beyond "Dear First Name" or including a purchased product in a review request.

 

Recently, LinkedIn has been sending an e-mail that's getting a lot of buzz. It's a wrap up of 2010 which pulls in the photos of your connections and calls out specific people and changes they made in the past year. It really grabs the user's attention by filling the screen with images of contacts, and also encourages the recipient to click through back to the LinkedIn site, where it's likely they will make more connections or update their own profile.

 

 

One thing I found interesting was that my colleagues who received this thought it was a cool campaign. However, it may be a Marketing bias, since when Facebook did something similar by allowing ads to use your photo when creating ads for friends, there was an uproar and most people adjusted their security setting to disallow this feature. However, I haven't heard any chatter about this e-mail, and I'm not sure why.

 

I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

Liz Lynch, communications editor, e-Dialog

5 Ideas for Your Holiday e-Card

Using e-mail to send a fun holiday greeting to your subscribers is a great way to spread some cheer, share your brand personality and an opportunity to communicate with customers without a hard sell.

 

Here are five ways you can pump up your holiday creative.

 

Wow them with a videogram.

Video campaigns are fun, engaging and compelling. From a simple GIFeo to a full-fledged video, use it and watch customer engagement climb.

 

Dazzle them with their name in lights.

Take personalization to the extreme by using dynamically-published imagery to compel customers to connect with your brand.

 

Amaze them with a game.

Be interactive! Games are fun, memorable and can communicate a lot about your brand. They can also help generate online buzz.

 

Excite them with a treasure hunt.

Bargain hunters are looking for ways to save. Make them savor the hunt even more by veiling your offer in a creative way.

 

Dress it up with seasonal fixins'

Give customers a reason to take a second glance at your e-mail by adding seasonal flair. Show them your brand shares in the merriment of the season!

 

Here's one example of a card that does several of these things. The original e-mail included a GIFeo, and was personalized with first name. The card included a link to a game that was further personalized by having the snowball fight opponents be members of the client's account services team. You can hear from the team that created the card in this video and you can take a turn at the Snowball Throwdown too!

 

 

 

What do you think? Are holiday e-mails worth the extra work? I'd love to see any fun examples! If you'd like some help developing your holiday card, let us know. Our Creative team would love to help!

 

Liz Lynch, communications editor, e-Dialog

 
 

Pushing the Envelope in E-mail Design

 

I  was recently invited to be part of e-Dialog’s workshop at the 2010 New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) Conference. As part of the overall workshop on creating relevant e-mail marketing campaigns, I shared a presentation on Interactivity, which is one of the main factors of relevance. The session attendees were very interested in this topic, so I wanted to share some techniques and useful tips from the presentation that will help your campaigns be more interactive. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Polls
Relevant e-mail marketing is based on data. But look beyond opens, clicks and preference centers. Polls can be a great way to learn about your customers, and most people really like taking them. You can see some examples of interesting ways to incorporate polls in this E-mail Precisely post from March. One drawback to polls is that they don’t work in Outlook 07 and Hotmail. To solve that, just add a link prompting users to click through to a landing page if they are having rendering issues.

  

Animations
Animations are a great way to draw the user’s attention and to put a lot of information in a small space by scrolling content in and out. In the Bed Bath & Beyond “steaming cup of coffee” example below, the animation is subtle and adds a touch of whimsy to the e-mail. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also see an example of an animated GIF in the Pottery Barn e-mail below. Instead of showcasing a number of smaller images that might compete with each other, Pottery Barn chose to include an animated GIF that cycles through several different products - giving each one a few seconds of inbox glory.

 

 

 

A drawback to animated GIFs is that Outlook 2007 can’t run them and will only display the first frame of the animation -  so be sure to place important content like your offer in the first image.  However, be careful not to overdo the animations in your e-mail and make it too busy.

 

GIFeo
A GIFeo is an animated GIF that is converted from a video (GIF + VIDEO = GIFeo). Frame for frame, it’s pretty much the same live action feel, just without sound. It adds a visually exciting component to your messages since it’s uncommon to see movement in an e-mail.  Although there is no sound, it is enough to grab the user’s attention and get them to click through to your site for the entire viewing experience. In the Cost Plus World Market example below, the GIFeo gives a brief idea of the travel video and prompts the user to click through to the landing page and watch the full video (sound and all).

 

 

On a different, yet related note, you can also use people’s learned web browsing patterns to your advantage. We’ve seen some recent creative that displays as if it were a video module on a website. We call this the “Click Trick”, since your natural instinct is to click and play the video. In the KRAFT FOODS example below, you can see that the hero image mimics a video player, which looks like it has been paused, which makes one want to click to watch the rest of the video. But as we all know, you can’t have video in e-mail, so once you click, you are taken to a landing page. Whether this “video player” is a static image or a GIFeo with a play button at the end (like we saw in the Cost Plus example above), the effect is the same: the user’s now on your site and hopefully viewing your video.

 

 

Dynamic Imagery
Take personalization one step further with dynamic imagery. In general, dynamic data gets published into system text, but it is possible to add personalized copy into your e-mail’s graphics and have it render in any font you want. For example, NFL Shop’s recent birthday trigger was revamped to pull in personalized jersey images from the website. The user’s last name is printed on the back of the jersey, which is included in the e-mail graphic.

 

 

Social Media
Many e-mails are now not only prompting users to “Become their Facebook Fan” or “Follow them on Twitter”, but to share the content of the e-mail on popular social sharing sites with the click of a button. As you can see in the Penguin example below, they have a section to stay connected, and a section to share the e-mail’s content with friends.  All of this is a great way to have other people do some marketing for you. Budget Rent A Car recently tested a “TWEET THIS OFFER” button in one of their e-mails and saw an incremental revenue increase - not to mention the exposure from users sharing this deal on Twitter.

 

 

Mobile
While mobile e-mail remains a very new medium, clients are making strides towards making their e-mails more mobile-relevant. In the example below you can see the e-mail Avis recently sent out only to iPhone users. This e-mail, which was 450 pixels wide, advertised their new iPhone app, and was designed at the modified width to allow for better viewing on an iPhone. Its unusual size made it more conducive to the iPhone screen while also allowing it to be readable on a desktop. It contains large call-to-actions, graphics, navigation, and copy which are easier to see on a small screen. This campaign was a great success with much higher click and open rates.

 

 

Super Subject Lines
The Super Subject Line (SSL) is an addendum to the subject line, and is displayed where most white-listings currently live: at the very top of an e-mail. It displays when images are off, and includes a call-to-action. The SSL is meant to enhance the subject line and add an additional level of scannability. It also pops up on your Outlook Desktop Alert and certain web mail previews. It is the first thing that users on old mobile phones that can’t render HTML will see (instead of gibberish HTML code). The idea is to get the user to want to read your message, so crafting the content of the SSL and testing it is of the utmost importance.

 

 

I hope these examples have given you some ideas to try out in your e-mail campaigns. Please let me know which technique worked best for your audience!

  

Anna Boyadjieva, web designer II, e-Dialog

 

  

 

 

 

  

Going Green With a Paperless Catalogue

With today being Earth Day, and the 40th anniversary too, my inbox has seen a lot of e-mails touting green products and ways to be eco-friendly. But there was one e-mail that stood out. It was from Boden, a UK-based clothing retailer.

 

The e-mail is promoting their digital catalogue - now with 100% less paper! From the moment I clicked through to the e-zine, I was enchanted. The cover says "Not Another Damn Boden Catalogue" and comments from the Boden team pop up commenting on the copy. When you open the catalogue, you see a note, asking if Boden has something against trees, and a response from Boden saying that they're trying something different by not sending a catalogue and letting their employees model their favorite looks.

 

As you continue further, you're treated videos, style guides, a web site tour, and a history of the company. Plus, they didn't forget to include a place where people can sign up for e-mail and links to their social media profiles.

 

My one gripe? The subject line didn't indicate this great digitial catalogue was inside. Instead they used a % off message. Although maybe they know that's what customers respond to the best.

 

 

What do you think? Do you love it as much as I do? I would love to hear about a campaign that's recently broken through the clutter and really impressed you.

 

Liz Lynch, communications editor, e-Dialog

 

When a Big Image Works

Generally, e-mail marketers are told to stay away from e-mails that are one big image, due to the way various e-mail clients handle rendering of images. The AdFreak blog posted this e-mail which goes against that advice, but in this case, I think it works.

 

A reminder that best practices are there for a reason, but don't be afraid to think outside the box if it works for your brand. What's your favorite "think different" e-mail? Let me know in the comments.

 

Liz Lynch, communciations editor, e-Dialog

Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

More and more companies are utilizing e-mail as their primary channel to communicate and drive revenue.  So, realistically, that means more and more e-mails are making it into your customers' e-mail inbox.

    

 

With that said, in order to fight inactivity and drive engagement the messages you are sending need to be relevant.  Of course you can drive relevance based on key data points and engagement metrics, BUT we should also be asking customers directly about their behavior, shopping preferences, e-mail preferences, social/mobile usage, and brand experience.  

  

 

This can take the form of a simple poll with a breadcrumb approach in an existing e-mail or it could be a more robust survey that is sent quarterly or bi-annually.

  

 

Here is an example from JoAnn Fabrics. They include a survey in the footer that asks how useful the e-mail was to the recipient.

  

  

I would even move this up higher in the e-mail, maybe above the coupons, or call it out in some way, as it's easy to overlook in the footer.

  

  

Here’s another interesting variation from Newport News. They ask e-mail recipients to choose which outfit best represents what they think will be a trend for the upcoming season. This increases the interactivity factor of the e-mail while also giving the retailer a peek at what trends their customers like and possibly what types of clothing they should be promoting in upcoming e-mails.

  

 

 

 

  

 

And it’s not just retailers who can get a lot out of surveying customers. Here is an example from Driscoll’s Berries, a producer of strawberries, blackberries and more. 

   

This e-mail thanked me for signing up and gave me an incentive to take their survey. The survey was four questions, and asked things like if I ate berries only at certain times of the year, or all year long, and if I used berries in recipes or ate them alone.  The data gleaned from a survey like this can help Driscoll’s plan their marketing if more people say they only eat strawberries in season, or include more recipes in their communications, if that’s what subscribers say they want.

 

Asking may sound scary, but if you are not actively trying to gauge your customers’ desires you may be missing some easy wins and even more importantly, the bigger opportunity of overall customer engagement/satisfaction.

 

Mara Crisafulli, account director, e-Dialog 

 

 

Snowball Throwdown: Behind the Scenes of the e-Dialog 2009 Holiday Card

 

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the primary team members behind e-Dialog's 2009 holiday card.

 

Each year, e-Dialog creates a holiday card for clients, prospects, and partners and strives to thank, entertain, and showcase e-Dialog technology.

 

The 2009 holiday card was comprised of a personalized e-mail message which linked to a personalized flash game. The e-mail used the recipient's first name, a custom message, and was signed by the account team.

 

 

The flash game allowed the recipient to have a snowball fight with e-Dialog employees they work with every day. Each game had 8 customized characters, which meant there were hundreds of permutations. Check out the game at www.e-dialog.com/snowballthrowdown.

 

 

Watch the video to hear from Jamie Gamsby, Senior Design Lead, and Kevin Nolan, Marketing Program Manager, about how they managed the project from start to finish.

 

 

Land's End Wows With Winter Warm-up Campaign

I've long admired Land's End for their smart use of the e-mail channel, from their targeting to their use of elements like animated GIFs to show product features.

But they truly blew me away with their Big Warm Up campaign. The goal of the campaign was to collect winter coats for the homeless across the country.

I received the first e-mail on October 28th. The e-mail promoted a geographically-targeted landing page and included a video which promised to show how I could have a starring role in the Winter Warmup. Right off the bat, I gave Land's End virtual kudos for creating a Boston landing page, but when I viewed the video, I was truly impressed.  

 

The video tells the story of the life of a Land's End coat through the years, from the Mom sewing a label into her son's coat, to him starting his career and family, to finally being passed on to a new owner. At the end of the video, a person is given a coat and looks down at the tag, and the tag had my name on it! This was so unexpected, it really made an impact.

 

 

 

But the campaign didn't end there. Land's End also invited me to a local event-an art installation where 768 figures, each representing 10 homeless people in Massachusetts would be displayed in downtown Boston.

 

 

They also sent an invitation to an event at my local mall, a book signing where positive messages would be collected and distributed along with the coats. This really shows the extra steps Land's End took. Many retailers promote in-store events, but genericize the copy and simply include a store finder where the recipient can look up their local store.

 

 

Land's End continued to engage me by updating the progress of the Big Warm-Up campaign, letting me know how many coats they had collected so far and how I could contribute.

 

 

And finally, after the campaign wrapped on November 30th, Land's End sent a thank you message, saying they had collected more than their goal for Boston and over 30,000 coats nationally.

 

 

I sure the Land's End reaped the rewards of this campaign finanically, since 30,000 people got discounts of 20% off a new coat, but I think more importantly, they promoted the idea that they care about the community, and created lots of warm and fuzzy feelings for those who donated while providing warmth for those who received the coats.
 
 
 
 

Is It Video, or Is It Gifeo?

The popularity of online video has exploded over the past couple of years. According to a recent Neilsen report, the total number of video streams increased 41% from a year earlier, and the total number of people streaming video increased to 18%. Beyond the stats, we know there’s a demand for more video, as marketers have been discussing ways to incorporate video into their e-mail marketing campaigns.

 

Unfortunately, putting a video clip in an e-mail campaign still doesn’t really work. Although there are a few workable solutions, like Goodmail’s Certified Video, most recipients won’t be able to view the video due to tight security around the inbox. However, there is a way to add video motion to your e-mails that will be viewable by most users. Introducing video’s cousin, the gifeo. The gifeo is simply an animated GIF converted from a video. Frame for frame, it’s pretty much the same live action feel, just without sound. It adds a visually exciting component to your messages and allows you to utilize video content from your Web site. And of course, it promotes click-through activity to your Web site when people want to see more.

 

Already the NFL has successfully incorporated gifeo into a recent edition of their Fantasy Newsletter, and although the file size of the animated GIF was just over 1MB, the delivery and spam results were identical. Here are a few examples of how gifeos have been successfully integrated in recent e-mail campaigns.

 

NFL Fantasy Newsletter: Updated weekly, the NFL.com uses GIFeo in their weekly Fantasy Newsletter to promote Michael Fabiano's top five waiver wire pickups. Click Here.

 

 

 

EF Tours Globetrotter: Made popular by YouTube, "Dancing Matt" is EF Tours Globetrotter profile of the month, showing a clip of him dancing in front of the Eiffel Tower. Click Here.

 

 

 

Bausch & Lomb: Bausch & Lomb shows Dr. Rhonda Robinson on "The Doctors" discussing their Multi-Focal contact lenses, and calls for users to click and watch online. Click Here.

 

While it can be a successful and fairly easy tactic to implement, here are some important things to keep in mind when adding gifeo to your e-mail campaigns:

 

Outlook 2007: Animations don’t work, including animated GIFs, which is what a gifeo is. So be sure to include your primary message/promo within the first frame as that’s all Outlook 2007 will display.

 

Video length and file size: It is important to edit the gifeo and keep it short. File size can get large quickly, so make sure to keep file size in check in order to load quickly and preserve a good customer experience on download. Large images files can also add to your spam score.

 

Stream it: Renaming the .GIF to a .JPG file will force the animation to play as it is loading, perfect for that preview pane. Keep in mind, however, the image will appear broken when locally referenced in the HTML code. You need to use the absolute path, i.e. http://www.yoursite.com/...

 

Metering: Send your e-mail campaign a little slower than normal. Many customers could be downloading the gifeo at the same time, so metering helps avoid adding that extra stress on the friendly servers that host this.

 

Sound: Again, an animated GIF does not play sound. Your customers will need to click through to a Web site or landing page to see the sound and video combined.

 

Call to action: While the gifeo is a strong call to action in and of itself, some of your customers may have images off by default. Be sure to include a text link to help push click-through activity.

 

As you can see, gifeos offer a lot of flexibility. Maybe you might like to use gifeo to promote your new online catalog, an instructional video, or an exclusive message from the CEO in your next campaign, or maybe you already have. If you have a great example of a gifeo, we'd love to hear about it!

 

Express your pow!

I recently got an e-mail from Kiehl's promoting their new Acai Damage-Repairing Skin Care Collection. They chose a really fun, interactive way to get people to spread the word.

The initial e-mail arrived with the subject line "Express Your Pow with the Acai Powered Comic Creator!"

This subject line was intriging, making me wonder what they think my "pow" is, and how I can create my own comic.

 

 

The graphics were eye-catching and clearly conveyed the three types of action you can take: create a comic, shop, or share with friends. I opted to create a comic. You have a choice to create a single panel or a whole strip. You can change the character's hair, skin and eye color and choose your own dialogue.

 

Once you are done, you can save it to your computer, upload it to Kiehl's gallery page, share via Facebook and Twitter, or e-mail it to a friend. The Facebook and Twitter funtionality work really well, pre-populating the post for you.

 

Where I think they dropped the ball a bit is in the Forward to a Friend. The e-mail that gets sent to the friend is all text and has none of the pizazz of the original message.

 

Other than that one criticism, this is a great example of interactivity and social media integration in e-mail.