Marketing Wrap-up: Week of January 9th 2012

 

Thirteen days in to the new year and already we have seen and heard some big developments coming from the marketing, tech and media world. So, to make your life easier, here are some of the top news and blog articles we have found most interesting.

 

Top links of the week:

 

1. An interview with Phil Simon: Business lessons from Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google MyCustomer.com

 

2. Ten social media strategies to define a successful 2012 Brian Solis

 

3. Help customers reach content and products more easily: How to streamline site navigation to attract and retain customers Marketing Profs

 

4. Apps to become universal - HTML 5: The future of AT&T’s mobile store Mashable

 

5. Real-life examples of how Google’s ‘Search Plus’ pushes Google+ over relevancy  Search Engine Land

 

6. Mercedes and Facebook? Who predicted that one? PSFK

 

7. Here to stay or marketing fad? 86% of marketers to use 2D barcodes in near future Econsultancy

 

8. The most downloaded social apps - Mobile social media: top apps, deal sites and more Marketing Profs

 

9. YouTube and Twitter are growing while Facebook stays static: Facebook loses share of social network visits as YouTube grows Brand Republic

 

10. Consumers seem to be more likely to click on an ad than on other devices: Mobile drives more search ad clicks ClickZ

 

11. Four timeless email copywriting commandments Marketing Profs

 

12. Mobile payments insight: How PayPal plans to scale its in-store payment system Gigaom

 

Be sure to drop us a comment below and tell us your favorite industry developments of the new year so far.

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Coordinator, e-Dialog UK

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of December 9, 2011

One week closer to Christmas and one sentence closer to 10 links that will inspire you digitally. This week we have been gifted with reflections on the past year and predictions for the next. In the next few minutes you will see some valuable stats and interesting findings that you can take with you until next time. As always, enjoy:

 

Top 10 links of the week:

1. Who are you rooting for? The Tech Wars of 2012 Fast Company

2. ClickZ reflect on the innovations in email of 2011

3. In case you hadn’t heard - Facebook buys Gowalla Brand Republic

4. Ever wondered how to use social media for better customer acquisition? Mashable

5. Email marketing: 4 steps to manage your inactive subscribers. Inbox Group

6. Your complete guide to measuring email marketing success HubSpot

7. If you’ve got it… Data should flaunt its geek chic MarketingWeek

8. Maybe a bold statement, what do the creative folk make of this one? The only email design tips you will ever need to succeed EmailBlog.eu

9. Great stats -  Mobile and iPad email use spikes MediaPost

10. Consumer expectations are not being met - Consumers are now less forgiving of a poor mobile experience UTalkMarketing

10.5 One to see you well in to the Christmas season – If Santa was an email marketer…  Email Marketing Reports

 

Have any views on this week's links? What was your favourite article of the week? We would love to hear from you so be sure to drop a comment below.

 

See you next time.

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Coordinator, e-Dialog UK, @eDialogEurope

Marketing Wrap-Up: Week of December 2, 2011

Wow-here it is, December. We made it through Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Congrats all! However, we can't claim success yet. We've still got three more weeks until Christmas. Here are my top stories to keep you going this week.

 

First, the good news: email isn't dead! Of course, we knew it wasn't but here's a handy infographic you can produce whenever someone tries to tell you email will be extinct by 2015.

 

In social media news, this week Facebook reached an agreement with the FTC regarding privacy policy changes and how they are implemented. So now when they change something on Facebook, you'll have to opt-in, rather than scramble to figure out the new settings after they've been applied to your account. I think it's a good thing, since giving people more control will help people feel more comfortable sharing their online info, which benefits all of us. I think this Mashable article says it all with this quote "While that sounds like a chilling message, it’s really just a long-overdue standardizing of the practice of opt-in. The smarter companies already know this: that customers who opt-in are more engaged and ultimately more valuable than customers who simply don’t opt-out. Besides, when given the option, users tend to share whatever information they’re asked to share, so, even putting the ethics aside, there’s little need for deception."

 

On the mobile front, news came this week of an app called CarrierIQ that is installed on many phones, and it was alleged that it has the ability to track not only location, but also activity, including keystrokes. That information could then be shared with carriers without the user's knowledge. It's meant as a diagnostic tool for carriers, but the possibility of misuse creeped a lot of people out. The company has issued statements clarifying that while information is tracked, it is not stored or transmitted, and most of the carriers that use it are only seeing aggregated data. Another example of how not being transparent about privacy and personal information can backfire. 

 

I hope you've enjoyed my picks for this week. As always, I would love your feedback and what you think the top story was this week.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate,

e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

Do Consumers Value Your Marketing As Much As Your Product?

For digital marketers, the answer to the title question needs to be yes, otherwise you'll never even get a chance to market your product. Selling your marketing is the essential first step if you're using email marketing, SMS, and social media marketing to market your product or services. To find out what drives consumers to take that essential opt-in action, e-Dialog surveyed 3,500 people in the US, UK, China and Japan.

 

Overwhelmingly, consumers said they gave permission to be marketed to because they received something of value in exchange. That includes promotions or discounts, but also exclusive brand information, like product announcements, or lifestyle information, like recipes. The chart below shows that 25% of US consumers opted-in to email based on special offers, and 18% did so because the brand related to their lifestyle or interests. To me, that shows the benefit of a well-rounded email marketing program that features promotions, but also includes editorial content or newsletters. 

 

 

For social, the motivation is similar. Top of the list is special offers or discounts, but the other top reasons include new product updates, valuable news and information, and just to keep up with what the company is doing. So obviously, your social media fans are already pretty engaged with your brand and are looking for more info than can be found in other channels. So don't be afraid of oversharing with this group. Give them a peek behind the curtain and they will thank you for it. 

 

 

For SMS, again, offers and discounts were the primary reason for opting in for US consumers. However, they were also swayed by cold, hard cash! Sweepstakes entries, charitable donations, and a recommendation from a friend were also motivators for SMS opt-in. Overall, consumers were much more selective about how many brands they give their mobile number to, mainly for two reasons. One, most consumers in the US pay for SMS messages, and two, the mobile phone is a much more personal device. 

For a closer look at these charts and access more data on what drives email, social and SMS opt-ins, visit www.e-Dialog.com/DecipheringAcquisition to download the full report, check out our infographic, or view a webinar about the research results and the ten steps marketers can take to increase their customer acquisition. 

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications specialist,

e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

 

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of November 11, 2011

This week we have a mixture of links for your digital discovery. Technology is forever developing and yet email is still a top dog amongst the online marketing channels. These are a few articles and videos we have found interesting over at e-Dialog.

Ten links of insight, worth sharing:

1. Email marketing is getting bigger and better: Email click-through rates are on the rise, DMA research discovers - The Drum

2. Carphone Warehouse, Thorntons and Goldsmiths are a few to adopt in-store mobile payment. Mobile shopping service Simply Tap goes live - Marketing Magazine

3.Where will email be in 20 years? 14 predictions for email marketing in 2031- Email Marketing Reports

4.Didn’t get it before? This holds some useful insight on QR codes. When to use mobile tags including QR codes in your marketing [video] from the PSFK Conference NYC 2011.

5. Did Monty Python write your unsubscribe page? 9 tips to make it better  - Email Marketing Report

6. Creepy or not, 5 things you should know about the future of retargeting - ClickZ

7. Making social circles smarter: Google+ acquires Katango, the automatic friend sorter - Tech Crunch

8. An insult to say that email is valuable because it’s cheap? Email is much more than a cheap marketing channel - Econsultancy

9.Toys’R’Us now offers a child-friendly Nabi Tablet which will be selling in-store and now available for pre-order – Specs and prices are better than you think - Phandroid

10. Microsoft research creates AR spaces using handheld projectors (video) - PSFK 

Do you have any thoughts on these links? Let us know; we would love to hear from you.

Thank you and see you soon!

 

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Intern, e-Dialog UK

The Difference Between a Hurricane and a Snowstorm

This week, the East Coast had an unseasonably early snowstorm that knocked out power to three million people, including yours truly. I was struck by the similarities to Hurricane Irene, the neighborhood humming with the sound of generators. What stood out for me though was the difference in communications from National Grid, my power company.

 

You might remember my blog post from September 1, "National Grid Uses Email for Hurricane Irene Service Updates" in which I talked about National Grid's email marketing communications regarding power restoration and their efforts to get the lights back on. Their messages included links to Twitter and how to sign up for SMS alerts. I thought it was a smart move on their part.

 

Compare that to this week's storm communications, which were zero. That's right, not one email. No information on progress of clearing downed trees, how to safely stay warm or handle downed wires. As a National Grid customer, their phone service left a lot to be desired as well. Each time I called, there was no information on when power might be restored. And even though I provided them with my cell phone number, they never contacted me about repairs that were needed to restore my electricity. 

 

Now, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, because they were very focused on getting power back for a huge number of customers, which they should be, and the job isn't done yet. Their ETA for full power restoration is tonight, and I hope that's accurate. But I would think that with their experience dealing with these situations, they would know that information is what people want. They want to know what to expect, what progress is being made and who they can talk to if they have a problem.

 

So my advice to National Grid is not to disconnect from customers just because the power is out. Use interactive channels like email and mobile to keep in touch.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate, e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

Marketing Wrap-Up: Week of October 21, 2011

Welcome to this week's serving of need-to-know marketing news!

 

On the email front, a new blog has launched, called MainSleaze. It aims to call out mainstream ESPs who have clients sending spam. It's gotten some attention from deliverability experts at several large ESPs, who say they will investigate reports of spam coming from their servers. 

 

Today on MediaPost, there was an article with lots of stats about mobile commerce and the inevitable convergence of mobile and local. It mentions some mind-blowing info eBay released during their earnings call: "eBay Mobile GMV expects to reach nearly $5 billion in revenue for 2011, more than double from last year. The company's mobile apps have been downloaded more than 50 million times. Today, consumers make three purchases per second on eBay Mobile applications."

 

Over on ClickZ, Simms Jenkins has a thoughtful article on the recent sale of Borders' email subscriber list to Barnes and Noble, asking if permission should be able to be purchased as an asset, the way this list was. And while the purchase price puts the acquisition cost per address at just .29, is that the true cost, since many (including me) will opt-out of being transferred in the first place, and those who miss the communication telling them how to do that may mark the Barnes and Noble email as spam? What do you think?

 

Google accidentally gave a sneak preview of their updated Gmail interface by posting a video on YouTube. The company saiys the redesign will make a cleaner, more intuitive and simple interface. You can check out the video on Mashable.

 

And finally, a new study shows that consumers who follow a brand on Twitter are 50% more likely to make a purchase and 60% more likely to recommend that brand to their firends. More good news for marketers, once a person follows a brand, they are not likely to unfollow.

 

Those are my top five stories for this week. I hope you found them informative and interesting. What stories did I miss? Let me know what you really liked this week.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate, e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz 

 

First couch commerce, then Black Friday

US shoppers aren’t going to wait until Black Friday this year to search for deals and kick off their holiday shopping. Consumers will begin shopping the day before, on Thanksgiving – from their couches on smartphones and tablets, according to PayPal.

PayPal’s Laura Chambers, senior director of PayPal Mobile, calls it “couch commerce.” She said that it would be the first spike in holiday shopping ahead of Black Friday.  

“We’re predicting that after dinner on Thanksgiving Day will be the first mobile shopping spike of the season. Retailers looking to lure these early holiday shoppers should think about extending offers and deals to these mobile buyers,” said Chambers.

The prediction is based on mobile trends that have surfaced in the last few years as well as a consumer survey conducted recently on behalf of PayPal. Here’s some insight from PayPal’s mobile shopping survey:

-Nearly half, 46 percent said they plan to make holiday purchases with a mobile device this year

 
-More than 60 percent of mobile buyers will make mobile purchases at home

 
-Nearly one-quarter of mobile buyers spent more than $100 on their last mobile purchase

 
-35 percent of mobile purchases are spontaneous

-More than half of mobile buyers currently use PayPal as a mobile payment method
 

By the end of the year, eBay expects mobile sales to exceed $4 billion.

As most stores will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, it will be interesting to see how mobile plays a role in kicking off the holiday shopping season. It’s definitely a great opportunity for retailers to reach out to consumers earlier, and/or to promote mobile.

I’m eager to watch how retailers will promote mobile shopping this year and if the increase in mobile shoppers will be as big as expected.

What are your thoughts on “couch commerce?” I would love to hear your opinion and comments.

 

Melissa McClay, marketing communications specialist, e-Dialog

Marketing Wrap-up: Week of September 30, 2011

Do you ever just stop and take a moment to look at what is going on in the digital marketing industry?

 

The industry moves fast and with most of us working at least 40 hour weeks, heads down, we fail to take note of all the current happenings. Whether you own an agency, manage campaigns or study the industry, you need to be in the know.

So, stop and have a read of a collection of links that we think are the hot topics of the week. Hey, if you can’t stop, at least take a glance and pick a few that stand out to you.  

Here is e-Dialog’s Top 10 list of links, buzz and reads for this week.

Here it goes: 

1. 1. According to ClickZ and recent conference agendas, mobile is still a big topic of discussion. The Mobile Evolution of Email goes through some statistics as to why this is.
    
2. 2. Ten top tips for brands creating tablet content from The Wall, explores the forecasted increase in tablet penetration and why it is important for brands to get on the band wagon.

1. 3. Tesco mixes augmented reality into Price Drop push – as well as a two-week TV campaign, out of home advertising, digital activity, a national press takeover and week-long radio activity - talk about multi-channel marketing!
    
2. 4. Return Path’s recent research shows inbox placement rates drop 3.5% over 18 months in the UK.
    
3. 5. An opinion piece from Gigaom about the evolution of mobile: Mobile payments won’t sell itself, it requires added value. Also on this topic, Dave Chaffey at Smart Insights gives us a short update on Google’s Wallet launch.
   
   
4. 6. ClickZ tells us how email works… if you didn’t know already. A strong focus on bounces, it’s worth a read.
    
5. 7. Marketing Profs are always full of good insights, this time they are teaching us a lesson, or four. How communities are changing marketing (and four community-building lessons)
   
   
6. 8. Mashable looks into how Facebook Timeline might radically change the look of brand pages. Also read the link within this article: what Facebook’s changes mean for marketers. Double whammy.
    
7. 9. Can you imagine your desk without a desktop computer? And instead of a computer, all you have is a mobile phone where everything you need to fulfill your working day resides. Well it’s coming and ClickZ tell us to get over it. How rude.
    
8. 10. There must be something in the water, everyone is talking about mobile email this week (more than usual) and MarketingSherpa is no exception: Mobile email marketing: 5 tactics to engage and convert smartphone users.

10.5. Utilizing video in marketing: the first ever scavenger hunt to hit YouTube comes from Zyrtec. Play the game to win a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

 

Now that didn’t take so long, did it?  Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week.

Millie Bartlett, Marketing Intern, e-Dialog

 

 

 

Strong Signals: Mobile Email Marketing Is Connecting With Consumers

Six point nine billion.  There are six point nine billion people in the world today. That is a lot of people. As impressive as that number is, this number makes me think twice: five point two billion.  Of the six point nine billion people on the planet today, seventy-five per cent of them (5.2 billion) own a mobile phone.  Whew (exhale), that is a lot of mobile phones.
 
A few weeks ago I was in the crowd at eConsultancy’s “Future of Digital Marketing,” held here in London, UK.  The second keynote delivered that day was by David Wieneke, Digital Strategist at UsefulArts (Boston, MA).  Dave was on-hand to talk to us about his thoughts on “Web 3.0: The Rise of the Mobile and Application Era.” You can review his presentation here.
 
Dave was the one who shared those audacious numbers on all the world’s mobile phones. At the end of Dave’s presentation, he implored us to “put ourselves (our marketing) on mobile.” If the global stats weren’t enough to convince you, consider the other numbers Dave shared: of the world’s population, one point six billion people have a TV, one point two billion people have PCs and one million people have cars. Compare those numbers to those that own mobile devices and Dave has a good case.
 
If your marketing strategy isn’t on mobile – you may want to rethink your plans.
 
One marketing channel that is on mobile is email.  The proliferation of smartphones has elevated email’s role in the always-connected consumer daily life.  Google recently released a stat that would seemingly confirm this: of eighty-nine per cent of surveyed smartphone owners that always stay connected to the mobile web, eighty-two per cent checks and sends email regularly (slide 11). This was the highest-ranking activity performed by these smartphone owners.
 
The London e-Dialog office recently produced a report that took a look at the relevance of email with mobile users in the UK.  The findings tell us that checking emails on mobiles is becoming habitual with smartphone users, particularly the within the younger crowd.  We also find out just what content mobile users are checking their email for.  There is a cautionary part of this tale as well: marketers should take extra precautions to focus on ensuring that usability and rendering of email on mobiles are priorities.
 
Here are a few of the standout takeaways from the research:

 

1. The higher the engagement consumers have with their mobile devices, the more relevant email marketing messages become.

2. Smart-phone owners clearly showed much higher engagement with email marketing messages than feature-phone users.

3. Younger audience segments proved consistently to be more likely to check emails on mobile devices and more often.

4. Email marketing messages that focus on delivering value (pre-purchase) and providing a utility (post-purchase) are most relevant to consumers.

Message usability issues decrease the tendency to engage with email marketing messages.

 

Have a look at our infographic (below) that demonstrates this story. Feel free to use and share this as you wish.

 

The last image that speaks to “utilisation vs. usability” is an important one.  People expect that if they check their email on a (any) mobile device, that it will be optimised for that device – that they will be able to read it.  The tolerance of the mobile-savvy for second chances when it comes to checking email on mobiles is low. If your emails aren’t meeting expectations they may go unread or ignored, which greatly impacts deliverability and your brand’s reputation.

 

Of the reasons why people found checking mobile emails to be a chore, the most common complaints were: having to scroll across a page to read all the information, too much textual content, images not rendering properly and a failure for all the information to download.

 

These responses are telling as they are concerning. If your mobile emails can’t be read then they are irrelevant. If they aren’t relevant than you may lose a subscriber, let alone a single sale opportunity.  Mobile emails must be tested for optimisation to accommodate different variables that stand in the way of usability: different devices types, platforms, connection speeds, image rendering, etc.

 

There are many steps we can take to capitalising on the mobile opportunity; here are a few to think about.

 

1. We need to focus on relevance by crafting the right marketing message for the right audience segment and tailor it to the individual’s mobile needs, e.g. devices, platforms and usage occasions.

2. We need to focus on creating sustained consumer engagement, by having tools such as email preferences centres in place.

3. Improving usability is key and can be achieved by developing custom templates to allow email creative to be rendered optimally across a range of mobile devices.

So, what does all of this tell us?  It tells us that, as marketers, we need to understand the growing importance of having a mobile email strategy in place. If you already have a mobile email strategy in place, you are ahead of the game. If you do not and you need convincing as to why you might want to … I can think of five point two billion reasons why you should.

 

Judd Marcello, Director of Marketing & PR, Europe

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Please feel free to download the full report and offer up any comments or stand-out experiences you have had with your mobile email strategies.

 

 

Mobile Email: Optimizing Your Email For M-consumers

I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the 2011 Internet Retailer Conference & Expo, sharing the stage with John Lazarchic (VP, E-Commerce) of PETCO.  Our session was entitled “Mobile Email: What you need to know to make your email intelligible to m-consumers.”  While John spoke about growth in mobile usage, in the industry and for PETCO, and the need to be accessible to omni-channel consumers, I spoke about tips and practices for optimizing your email creative to render well on mobile devices.

For me, it was an opportunity to speak about the often-overlooked Blackberry audience.  Because these phones don’t display images by default, whereas iPhones and Android devices do, it appears to many that no one is opening email on those devices.  By analyzing clicks, you’ll likely observe that many are still using the once very popular Blackberry Curve, “and chances are your email looks downright awful - Chris Heine, Marketing Sherpa.”

Beyond covering a few ‘graceful degradation’ design tips for Blackberry devices (single column layout, super subject line, super comment tag, image vs. text considerations) we also spoke about the need to cater to the smaller screen and the time-crunched consumer by using less copy, bigger buttons and a narrower message width.  We sold these as simple tactics that you could apply to your existing campaigns today, which they are.  And in preparation for sending mobile specific versions of your email,  we suggested that marketers let their customers request mobile versions via a mobile subscription option on preference center sites and by polling, in addition to getting counts on your mobile penetration from your ESP.  

Our presentation appeared to be well received, with many questions, applause, and handshakes following.  One person asked about the additional costs associated with a mobile specific version.  In a two part response, John spoke to the value they see for PETCO and the factors for making your own determination, and I spoke about the custom published version; build it once, stick to the plan, let the content populate on its own and you may never need to set it up again.  Another person asked about the 300 pixel wide email and whether that would display at its natural size on the iPhone.  With a short response, I simply responded “yes.”  To elaborate further, you could lay out and code a more complex email design at 300 pixels without running into the Blackberry image scaling and code wrapping issues highlighted in the presentation.

Throughout the night at the block party hosted by Knotice, I was approached by many people that had attended the session who thanked me for the level of detail and actionable advice presented.  It felt great.  In a room so huge, with many big screens, a spotlight on you and microphone delay, you really wonder how you were perceived.  It turns out that the message was clear and valuable to many; which is the end goal.

 

Should anyone have any further feedback or questions, feel free to comment or drop me a line.

 

Jim Kelley, creative services manager, e-Dialog

 

Coach Uses SMS for Email Acquisition

My favorite handbag designer Coach is making use of SMS to engage shoppers and build their email database.

Recently I was shopping at a Coach Factory Store when I was approached by a saleswoman. She told me about the promotion: Text the word SWEEPS to 90822 for the chance to win a $500 gift card. Hot pink signs with a call-to-action were also placed throughout the store.

Who wouldn’t want a free Coach bag? So while in the store, I took a few seconds and sent my text. Right away I received this message: Pls reply w/your email address to enter Coach sweepstakes & join our email list. Terms: factorysweeps.coach.com. Msg&Data rates may apply.

Once I sent my email address, I received a message thanking me for entering the contest and joining their email list.

A win-win for Coach! They’re now able to reach consumers who entered by using SMS or email for future communications.

According to Neilson, advertisers and marketers have been ramping up SMS marketing since texting is immensely popular in the U.S.

"The text-message audience is there, it's now up to marketers to create a reason that consumers would want to relate to them through such a personal and immediate medium,” said Nic Covey, Chicago-based director of insights for Nielsen.

Coach gets it by giving their customers a chance to win $500.

Other SMS campaigns that I’ve participated in include Steve Madden, Best Buy and New York & Company.

Have you seen any SMS promotions at your favorite stores? If so, I would love to see them! 

 

Melissa McClay, campaign specialist, e-Dialog

E-mail Use Isn’t Declining, It’s Just Shifting from Web to Mobile

comScore recently released the 2010 Digital Year in Review, which looked at trends in e-commerce, including e-mail,  social networking, online advertising, and mobile.

 

For e-mail marketers, the statistics on e-mail usage, in particular, the headline-grabbing declines by teens age 12-17, can be sobering. However, taking a deeper look at what these statistics are really saying paints quite a different picture, particularly since the report looks only at web-based e-mail like Hotmail.

 

While it’s true that the 12-17 demographic showed a huge drop-off in all e-mail measurements, that’s not really surprising, nor is it really cause for concern. E-mail simply doesn’t fit the lifestyle of today’s teen, but their e-mail affinity definitely will increase with age.

 

Looking at the comScore data for other demographic segments, interesting contradictions appear that may give insight into e-mail use. For example, in the 18-24 age group, unique visits increased 9%, while time spent decreased 10%. To me this points to the increasing use of mobile to triage inboxes on the go, and the desktop inbox being used to access specific e-mails and perform tasks like getting a code for a sale, or composing an e-mail reply that would be too onerous on a mobile phone. In fact, comScore found that 30% of respondents are viewing e-mail on their mobile phone, a 36% increase from 2009, and those using mobile e-mail daily increased 40% on average.

 

For marketers, the outlook for e-mail is still bright. According to comScore, 70% of the online population uses e-mail, and a separate report from ForeSee Results found 64% of consumers say e-mail is the preferred channel for communicating with retailers, leading 19% to visit a website based solely on an e-mail they received, as compared to 5% who visited a retail web site due to social media.

 

For me, the key take-away from this report is the mandate for e-mail marketers to optimize their messages for mobile phones. With 78% of smartphone users reading e-mails on their devices, and the growing adoption of smartphones, getting ahead of this trend now can really be a benefit in the coming one to two years.

 

What do you think of my interpretation of the data? I’d love to get your point of view. Drop me a line in the comments!

 

John Rizzi, president and CEO, e-Dialog

Feelin' the Love from Retailers

I’m feeling the retail love from some of my favorite places to shop on this Valentine’s Day. Ann Taylor Loft, The Limited, and New York & Company all sent out their V-Day promotional e-mails.

Ann Taylor’s initiative was to push traffic to both their web site and social page. If you “LIKE” them on Facebook, you receive a free shipping promo code just for today. The second message promoted a 40% off sale on their Web site.  I thought that this was clever approach to grow their Facebook fan base. And I liked how the creative was consistent on both channels.

 

 

New York & Company also used two channels to reach their consumers. Around 8am this morning, I received a pretty desirable coupon - $50 off a $100 purchase or more (WOW!) It’s good for just today in stores and online. Around 10am, I received a text message on my cell phone promoting the same sale. Since this is a great deal, I liked getting the message in my inbox and on my phone. No printing, no hassle!

 

 
 
 Text:

I also received a free shipping promotion from The Limited. Their approach was simple and to the point as they directed their shoppers right to their Web site. I thought they could have used some multichannel messaging here. Last week they sent out an e-mail pushing their consumers to their Facebook page. They offered $15 off $50 if you “Like” them.  But I think it would have been more successful promoting it on a retail holiday.

 

  
 

 

Were you feeling the love from your favorite stores today? I would love to see them! Happy Valentine's Day!

Melissa McClay, campaign specialist, e-Dialog

Holiday Marketing 2010: E-mail's Crucial Role

Here it is, Groundhog Day.  This “holiday” is a time for both betting on the weather forecast and, as Bill Murray so perfectly embodied on celluloid, going through the same phenomenon over and over again.   As I stare out the window and watch the snow fall (and fall and fall), I’m not sure I believe what ‘ol Punxsutawney Phil is telling me, and I fully expect winter to continue to march on.  But let’s push this metaphor forward shall we and apply it to a look back at Holiday 2010.  Did e-mail history repeat itself?  And just as important, what does this mean for the next six weeks of winter; er, I mean 6-12 months of digital marketing?

 

First off, it was clear consumers were ready to shop!  Holiday 2010 got off to the fastest shopping start to the holidays that we’ve seen in years.  E-mail volume and open rates were up considerably in the earliest weeks of the season, signaling that savvy online customers were creating their game plans for holiday shopping.  And judging by my inbox on Thanksgiving Day, retailers are getting more comfortable with (and not just goodwill) messaging the actual day of the holiday.

 

While volume increased, much like last year, unsubscribe rates didn't suffer. I'd like to think that this is a reflection of retailers' ongoing focus on targeting throughout the year, creating a customer that is expecting the increase - and maybe even wanting it - during the holidays. But of course we can’t dismiss the passive unsubscribes that may have taken place without our knowing it (Today is February 2 – do you know where your reactivation strategy is?).

 

In aggregate, while open rates ticked down a bit for the season overall compared to last year, the more important engagement metric of click rate actually increased 3% over last year. This is a marked improvement over the comparison of 2009 vs. 2008, which showed a 1% decline in click rates. 

 

Revenue per net delivered, although down compared to last year (and perhaps not unexpected given the sheer increase in volume), showed far fewer peaks and valleys than in 2009. This may be a natural by-product of retailers being in less of a reactive mode than in 2009, which itself was a far cry from the dark days of Holiday 2008.

 

Not surprisingly, marketers also dedicated more real estate in e-mail messages to social media sharing and promotions (like scavenger hunts and decorating games used to create engagement, for example), with consumers turning to Facebook and Twitter for advice, to score "insider" offers, and even conduct some commerce. And you can bet your bottom dollar that more consumers opened e-mails on their mobile devices than ever before (Today is still February 2 – do you know where your mobile program is?).

 

So while I can't predict the weather on February 2, there's one thing I can tell you for sure: the retailers in our study won't necessarily drop down to pre-holiday mailing volumes in 2011, so they'd better use all the data they collected over Q4 2010 to know thy customer. You can no longer afford to just spit out information to customers, but instead need to employ the appropriate relevance factors (segmentation, personalization, lifecycle management, contact management, interactivity, and testing and measurement) to address customers where they are in their relationship with your brand and how they want to interact with you (e.g., via social sharing, mobile devices, and product reviews).

 

In an increasingly always-on and always-connected world revolving around mobile devices and social networking sites, the time to integrate your campaigns across multiple channels is now. E-mail has its place and always will, as the irreplaceable transactional arm of customer communications. Social media and mobile campaigns will drive further awareness, branding, and consumer engagement. So tightly integrate them in order to reach consumers of all ages according to their preferences. 

 

Oh, and by the way, the groundhog has an 80% success rate.  With that in mind, I vow next year to be writing my holiday recap from the islands. 

 

*Note: This analysis was performed comparing the 2010 and 2009 holiday seasons across more than 100 e-Dialog retail clients. The holiday season is defined as the first week in November through the final week of December, as reflected within the NRF's 4-5-4 calendar.

Tactical Design Solutions for Better E-mail Mobile Rendering

Many marketers are in the process of creating mobile versions of their websites, which is a great idea, due to the increasing use of smart phones and consumers' desire for mobile shopping. However, if you're not quite ready to launch your mobile site, you should still be thinking about mobile, and in particular, mobile e-mail. Here are some useful tactical tips and solutions to ensure quality e-mail rendering across all devices. You can easily implement one or all these tips today to help your audience get the most important and relevant information in your e-mail, be it a marketing campaign or a transactional message.

Add a Super Subject line. A super subject line is a small line of teaser copy at the top of an e-mail which appears directly after the subject line in the preview panes of e-mail clients (like Outlook and Gmail) and mobile devices. This HTML text can easily be added to the top of an existing e-mail template before the white listing. And with old mobile phones, new phones, disabled images and e-mail pop-ups, this is the thing people will read... everywhere.

 

Try a slim, one column layout. Design a one column layout so that it breaks down gracefully and the degradation is cohesive. The narrower the width of the e-mail the larger the creative will display on mobile devices. Most smart phones have a display around 300 pixels wide, and a typical e-mail is designed around 600 pixels, so try a 450 pixel wide layout which will compliment both.

 

Think about the rendering.  Many Blackberry devices break HTML table structure and scale images to fit the screen. Design your e-mail by combining your CTAs and imagery into one sliced graphic, to the width of the e-mail. This will minimize the variation of rendering sizes and will ensure that your layout renders proportional as it was designed.

 

Get creative with font size and color.. Most mobile devices use their default font face, which almost always is sans-serif like Arial or Verdana. When designing a large amount of HTML content, try varying up the information with font sizes and color. This will bring what could visually be an unpleasant experience to something quite pretty and fun to read on a mobile device. And make your CTA’s (text or image) big for thumb clicking.

 

Use alt tags. Alt tags show up when the images are off for both mobile and web viewing. It is always a best practice to include them where you can and to make them relevant. For example, use New Waterproof Jackets rather than Image 1 to describe a product image. A more descriptive alt tag will drive recipients to enable the "view with images" version of the e-mail.

 

Give your readers options. Include options at the top of the e-mail to click out to a mobile version or web browser. This will ensure a more user-friendly experience for your readers as well as give them multiple ways of viewing the e-mail. Take it a step further and design a separate mobile version, using all these tips mentioned, instead of having the reader click out to a text version of the e-mail.

 

Hopefully these tips have been helpful. Feel free to share a tip of your own in the comments!

 

By Emily Anthony, web designer, Creative Services, e-Dialog

Research by Jim Kelley, manager, Creative Services, e-Dialog

Optimizing Mobile E-mail With a Super Comment Tag

Back in April, I wrote on the blog here about the benefits of adding a “super subject line” to your e-mail campaigns.  If you’ve implemented this tactic already, great, we hope you’re experiencing some increased success.  If you’re not, take a moment to read about it here – it’s a small line to teaser copy at the top of an e-mail that adds a ton of relevance.

 

As an amendment to the super subject line, I’d like to introduce the “super comment tag”, a tactic that helps the mobile experience and gets a message across when HTML e-mail is not enabled.

 

See, most Blackberries have Text E-mail enabled by default, not HTML E-mail.  When HTML e-mail is received, the customer sees nothing but code.  It’s typically not a case that the device can’t render your e-mail, it’s just not configured to try.  The “super comment tag” can help.  Add a line like this at the very top of your code and it will alert your customers that they need to adjust their preferences.

 

<!-- If you see this message on your mobile phone, you need to enable HTML e-mail -->

 

  

Comment tags don’t display when HTML is rendered, even rendered poorly.  But when your phone is setup to receive Text, you get the straight raw code – and can see the comment tag that alerts you to enable HTML e-mail.  Tweak this comment how you wish; you can even include a brief marketing message to summarize your campaign.  Note though, you can’t include hyperlinks and any copy you add factors into the content assessment for a SPAM score.

 

Give it a try today and let us know how you make out.

 

Jim Kelley, manager, creative services, e-Dialog

Interesting Examples of Social and Mobile E-mails

Today I received e-mails from three different companies that incorporated social or mobile elements. Each one took a different approach, some more successful than others.

 

The first was from Crate and Barrel and had the subject line "Free Shipping today for Facebook fans only. See details..." which certainly grabbed my attention. I tried to remember if I was a fan or not! The nice thing about the e-mail is that it includes info on redeeming the offer for customers who are already fans, as well as those who are not fans. I like the bold text and clean graphics. One thing I found a little odd is that the offer runs until 11:59 Central Time rather than Pacific.

 

 

The second e-mail was from J. Jill promoting an event at my local mall. I think this is a great use of e-mail for multichannel retailers. Using e-mail to promote store visits gives retailers an opportunity to put their best foot forward in terms of customer experience. It also gives you an opportunity to send additional e-mails after the event, thanking attendees and asking for feedback.

 

The body of the e-mail gives details and reasons to attend the event, but at the bottom, it has the Twitter logo and says "look for an exclusive denim offer tonight" and gives a link to follow J. Jill on Twitter. I found this very interesting. Depending on how many people you follow on Twitter, it's very easy to miss a tweet you might have found useful. By telling me in advance, it makes it more likely that I'll look for a tweet from J. Jill tonight specifically.

 

 

The third e-mail was from Dunkin Donuts. They are promoting their Mocha coffees and asking people to take a picture of their coffee with their mobile phones and send it in. The thing that struck me here was the lack of a compelling reason to participate in this campaign. It says I'll get Dunkin fun facts (whatever those are) when I send in my pic. Then it says "we'll take a pic of our mocha posters too" which I find confusing. Do they mean you can send in a picture of the posters they have in stores, or pictures of yourself? Overall I don't see a lot of value in this campaign.

 

 
 

What do you think? Do these campaigns integrate mobile and social in a good way? I'd love to get your feedback in the comments section!

 

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

 

  

 

 

 

  

Knowledge Is Power

 

As modern marketers, we're in an enviable position, due to the fact that we have so much information available to us about our customers. But it's a double-edged sword. It's easy to get overwhelmed, not knowing what data is the most actionable and how we can best use the data we have about our customers to encourage profitable long term relationships.

 

 

 

John Rizzi, president and CEO, e-Dialog

Increasingly, e-mail marketers are searching for partners that can not only centralize the data, but give them insight into what it all means.  It's a formidable challenge: how do you integrate in-store, online, e-mail, social, and even mobile data to get a complete view of who your customer is and what their preferences are?

 

E-mail Service Providers are responding by adding capabilities, like e-Dialog has done with the acquisition of MBS, a leader in offline database solutions. This is a natural progression, since ESPs have experience helping clients create data-driven communications. Adding offline or mobile just makes the possibilities for true one-to-one communication even greater.

E-mail marketers have known for a long time that e-mail drives in store sales as well as online sales, and in quantities higher than given proper credit for. Now, when you combine online and instore purchase data, you will be able to show that the e-mail sent on Friday, while not driving an online sale, did drive a sale in store that weekend. That's powerful insight that can impact more than just the e-mail marketing department. I hope marketers will step up to the challenge and reap the rewards of true multichannel data-driven relevant communications.