Dear Valued Customer...

One-to-one communication is widely recognized as the primary goal of email marketing, but the challenge is in knowing where to begin. One fundamental way to capture your intended audience’s attention and engage them in meaningful interactions is through personalization – another of the key factors that drive e-mail relevance and perhaps one of the easiest to apply.

 

As its most basic level, personalization is sending an email message that contains the recipient’s first and/or last name. When taken further, personalization complements segmentation in that message content is also keyed to a recipient’s location, attributes, status, preferences, or behavior. The nuance here is that through segmentation you are sending emails of greater relevance to a particular group. With personalization you take certain elements of customer data and deliver content targeted to the individual. 

 

Be personable, not recyclable

Consider the impact of adding (or really, not adding) a first and/or last name to the subject line and body of an email.  By addressing an email with “dear valued customer,” you could be buying a fast ticket to the recycle bin because the message may be perceived as mass distribution. The message may also have the opposite effect of what you intended, and make the customer feel as if you don’t really know or value her; how could you, if you don’t even address her personally? 

 

It is probable that you already know your customers’ first and/or last names, especially if they have made a previous purchase. So if you have the data don’t take these risks – use it!  Of course, there may be cases when you simply don’t know a prospect’s or customer’s name, but you may have other data (e.g., birthday, closest store, clothing size, or favorite sports team). If leveraged in your e-mail campaigns, this data will often enable you to make a more personal connection than with just a first name. 

 

This brings us to more sophisticated levels of personalization. While still relatively easy to apply, these personalization tactics move beyond the basics and enable you to achieve greater relevance in your communication. They allow you capitalize on more meaningful interactions with customers.  These tactics are best illustrated by the following three categories of programs.

 

Revenue-generating personalization programs

These types of programs all have one simple thing in common: creating new revenue opportunities. Take for example an abandoned shopping cart program, which is highly personalized and productive. Abandoned carts provide you with an opportunity to send a relevant e-mail that reminds a customer that they have items remaining in their shopping cart from a recent visit to your Web site.  You could further entice a customer to purchase those items by offering a special discount if they act quickly.  The personalization of course lies in the understanding of what your customers have shown an interest in, and using that understanding to promote products for which they already have a soft spot.

 

One major clothing retailer recently conducted an analysis of their abandoned shopping cart program and discovered that by simply reminding customers that they looked at particular items of clothing and considered buying them, the company drove customers to finally pull the trigger and make a purchase.  Interestingly, the retailer found that the difference in revenue generation between reminding people of abandoned items and offering special deals was not very significant.

 

Although a softer sell, loyalty programs can also drive a customer to purchase. By their very nature, loyalty programs generate valuable data about each individual customer. It’s almost unforgivable not to use this information to personalize your e-mail programs. Take for example a music retailer that offers reward points. In order to calculate the points it must track how much that customer spends on each purchase. Likely it is also tracking what kind of music a customer purchases and the frequency with which he makes a purchase. By sending an email that reminds the customer how many points he has accrued, the retailer can prompt him to claim his reward. The retailer could also offer a customer $10 off of their next purchase if they spend $60, or offer them two reward points for every dollar spent on their next purchase. 

 

Other programs that derive great value from personalization are cross-selling and up-selling campaigns.  In this case you can take advantage of the opportunity to promote products complementary to previous purchases a customer has made. For example, if a customer ordered a dozen roses last Mother’s Day, send him a personalized email acknowledging the previous purchase and alert him that Mother’s Day is coming again soon. Would he like to order roses again? You could also offer other floral options for consideration in case he’d like to try something different this year.

 

Relationship-building personalization programs

In contrast, the objective of these programs is to strengthen your relationship with a customer and demonstrate goodwill by providing them with unsolicited, yet helpful information. This approach enhances the customer’s experience with your company, and shows that you care about her as an individual. 

 

An ideal example can be found in the travel industry, where a respected agency runs a highly personalized email program when you book a resort vacation. The first message you receive is a confirmation with pictures of the property. Then, two weeks before your trip, the agency sends another email alerting you to all of the amenities in the surrounding area, such as tourist attractions and activities.  Five days before your trip, the agency follows up with another email directing you to the nearest supermarket and providing the weather forecast for your stay.  By going above and beyond the purchase to provide information of specific relevance to the trip, the agency generates a positive brand experience.

 

Content-targeting personalization programs

Distinct from relationship-building programs, content targeting allows a customer to dictate the information he wants to receive from you (versus presenting the customer with content you feel will be of interest to them) and how he wants receive it. It doesn’t get more personalized than that. 

 

A major sports league accomplishes this elegantly by allowing the fan to select his favorite team as part of the league’s newsletter registration process. The league then pushes the team’s specific news headlines, players’ statistics, rankings, and scores – all information of specific relevance to a particular fan. By consistently delivering this custom content to fans they are serving as a reliable, trusted resource, keeping fans actively engaged in the teams and further strengthening fan support of the league.

 

Don’t try to boil an ocean

It is okay to start small with personalization, and you really should. Take simple steps to become more relevant to your customers. Adding a customer’s name to a subject line or addressing her directly in the body of your message is a great start. First decide what impact you want programs to have, then build back from there. Ultimately you want each customer to feel like you really know and care about her as an individual, and this can be accomplished – more easily than you may think – by personalizing email content based on what’s of interest and greatest relevance to her.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications specialist,

e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

 

Are You Asking the Right Questions for Relevance?

The email tools available to marketers today can provide reams of information on subscriber behavior, including opens, clicks, conversions and shares. This info can be really valuable and provide insights into how effective your newsletters are, what topics you cover, how frequently you should be contacting your audience and more. But there's another way to get this insight; ask subscribers what they want directly.

 

I recently got an email from GE Appliances soliciting my preferences. I had no idea they had a preference center, or even which emails I was getting from them. I probably signed up originally as part of contest for a new stainless steel range or some other promotion. The creative was simple, with one call to action: visit the new preference center and select which emails I want to get from GE Appliances. They show and mention that there are samples of each newsletter, which is great.

 

 

 

Once I clicked through to the landing page, there were seven newsletter options, each with a visual depiction and a link to a sample. It also told me how often the newsletter is sent for five out of the seven. One thing that was confusing to me was that each newsletter had a radio button for subscribe or unsubscribe. Some were already ticked, but some had neither choice selected. So I assumed that for newsletters where the subscribe button was selected, I was not currently subscribed and vice versa. For the newsletter with no option selected I had to assume I was not currently subscribed.  

 

 

 

 

At the bottom of the page they have some options for which topics or products interest you and the link to unsubscribe from all emails. Overall, I think it's a solid program, and one that's important for a company like GE, because a purchase of a new range or dishwasher may only happen every 5-10 years, so keeping up to date with subscriber needs, and offering newsletters the give an added engagement point, like recipes, keeps the relationship going even when the customer is not in the purchase cycle.

 

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this campaign, and preference center best practices or missteps you've experienced. Just leave a comment!



Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications specialist

e-Dialog, @eDialogLiz

 

 

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!

Strategies for Winning Back Email Subscribers

The DMA (London, UK) put on their final seminar in the Email Customer Lifecycle series on the 22nd November. Eighty delegates were on hand to hear the presentations on how to improve their Win-Back efforts.

 

 

e-Dialog representatives Jill Brittlebank, Director of Strategic Services, presented the keynote speech and James Beauchamp, Strategy and Analytics Lead, presented relevant case studies. 

 

To find out more about the day's events, further details are here in an article posted on the DMA's Email Marketing Blog.

 

If you missed the presentations you can find them below:

 

Jill Brittlebank's keynote included identifying four types of win-back scenarios, the importance of understanding the purchase funnel, and how to define an inactive email subscriber. View the presentation below.

DMA Win-back Keynote

View more presentations from e-Dialog

 

 

James Beauchamp presented case studies from several well-known brands, and reminded marketers of six key questions to ask when developing a win-back strategy, such as what is the desired response, and what's in it for subscribers? View the presentation below.

 

DMA Win-back Examples

View more presentations from e-Dialog

 

 

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

 

Moments of Engagement: The ASPCA Remembers 9/11

We've showed examples of times when it is appropriate to build your messaging around a common event or topic that is in the news. Sunday being the tenth anniversary of 9/11, obviously awareness is high and it's what a lot of people are talking about. Personally, I don't think this is an opportunity for marketers to promote themselves or their products, unless there is a direct relationship, like the example I got from the ASPCA. And even then, it can come across as exploitative, depending on how the message is realized.

 

The subject line is "Ten Years Later: ASPCA Remembers 9/11‏" and the email talks about the impact the attack had on the ASPCA, which is headquareted in New York City, the actions they took to help people and their pets on that day and in the aftermath, the generosity they saw and how they keep that spirit alive today. While there are links to various informational pages on their site, there are no fundraising requests, as there usually are in their emails.

 

 

I think this message does a good job at reminding recipients what the ASPCA's mission is while also coming across as human and authentic. What do you think?

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate, e-Dialog

Happy Half Birthday: Creating Moments of Engagement

We've talked a lot about lifecycle marketing (what we call Moments of Engagement) and creating messages around events like anniversaries and birthdays. We've also talked about manufactured moments of engagement that marketers can create that are not strictly promotional. These include editorial content and special events or celebrations. Read our previous two posts here and here. 

Today I received a great example of a manufactured moment of engagement from Baskin Robbins. It's an email for my half birthday, offering a buy one, get one free scoop. This is an easy way to connect with a subscriber in a fun and unexpected way. 

 

What do you think? Have you implemented any similar programs or gotten any that you really like?

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications specialist, e-Dialog

One List and SO Many Things To Send. How Do We Manage?

I was recently asked this question - with so many internal stakeholders wishing to send messages to our email list, how do we manage the user experience and growing frequency? Here is what I said...

What it boils down to is effective segmentation that is based on subscribers’ profile attributes and preferences. All content cannot be relevant to all subscribers, so there have to be mechanisms in place for the various internal stakeholders to either prove that their message/offering is most relevant to a particular subscriber segment and/or offer subscribers an option to request their specific content, supplemented with clear expectations and branding around that content. Here are some examples of both points:

Point 1: Proving that a message is relevant to a particular segment (note: the key here is “segment” – an individual stakeholder’s message simply cannot be relevant to every single person on the list, or at the very least, there is very little probability of that being the case) 

• Use a tool like e-Dialog's Relevance Scoring methodology to have different stakeholders prove that their email is worth sending. The higher the relevance score, the higher the probability that the email would in fact get sent (there are also minimum scores that need to be met for the email to even be considered). The methodology includes scores in the following areas:

•  
  • ~ Lifecycle management – does the message support a particular lifecycle stage?
  • 
    
  • ~ Segmentation – is the message targeted to a specific audience group?
  • 
    
  • ~ Personalization – how personalized is the message to individual subscribers?
  • 
    
  • ~ Contact management – is the message tied to a subscriber action, or preference selection?
  • 
    
  • ~ Interactivity – does the message offer an opportunity for interaction?
  • 
    
  • ~ Testing / Measurement – does the message have a test plan and definite success metrics incorporated within it?

• "Pilot" any new concept/message on a small subset of relevant audience segments. During the pilot determine the following:

~ Overall response to the message/initiative, and in turn make projections for message performance/impact over time

~ Impact on other areas of the program (e.g. fallout from other message, increased unsub rates, etc.) 

 

Point 2: Offering subscribers a choice to receive content from the different stakeholders is a good option, if the types of content can be categorized or organized in some meaningful way. When choosing this option, it’s important that frequency expectations around every option are clearly defined (e.g. “Deal of the Day”, “Weekly Partner Offers”, “Monthly Newsletter”), and topic/interest selections can be easily made (e.g. “Dining”, “Entertainment”, “Sports”, etc.)

• To address the issue of high frequency, NAR (National Association of Realtors) recently launched a weekly All-Member Newsletter that incorporates content from ALL the different departments within NAR, and it is up to the individual subscribers to make personal selections around which departments’ content they are interested in receiving. 
• 
  
• So the key components here are:

~ Individual departments are responsible for submitting their weekly content
 

~ Dynamic newsletter design allows for publishing of selected content only

~ Preference Center that allows members to make content selections
 

• Some marketers choose to offer preference selections on the unsubscribe pages only, as opposed to managing a preference center. For example, Citizens Bank offers the following selections on their unsubscribe page:



How do you handle the question of email frequency in your organization?

 

Lilia Arsenault, 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

Accelerating The Momentum in Creating Relevant Email Communications

Recently Forrester Research released a report entitled, "European Email Affinity Declines". Nick Fuller, e-Dialog International's Director of Planning and Development, had a few thoughts on it:

 

Forrester’s findings in its recent report on consumer attitudes to email should make sobering reading for marketers focused on the channel.  It is no surprise that the level of consumer attention is declining and that the likelihood to delete is increasing – this simply confirms what we all see as the battle rages for inbox attention. 

 

The differences by country also reflect what we see in our international work which is very important in planning culturally relevant communications.  Programmes that achieve exceptional results – in engagement as well as conversion – have to work very much harder to do so.  Whilst we may lament the fact that the barrier to success is so much higher we should also take heart from the fact that this will raise standards and encourage us all to focus.

 

The age of ‘batch and blast’ is allegedly long past and yet you wouldn’t know it when looking at many campaigns that arrive in our inboxes.  The reality of course is that it is much tougher to leave behind the simplicity of large volume and low cost ‘one size fits all' – it takes time, commitment, integration, planning and investment.  Above all it requires a long term view that places the CRM value of the channel ahead of the week-to-week sales target value and that’s no easy thing in this economic environment.

 

Where a more considered and strategic approach is taken however, it demonstrably bucks the trend.  For one of our clients [in the UK] we recently set up a test of dynamically refreshed content which achieved a 192% uplift in response; for another client we set up an automated trigger delivering offers based on the individual’s onsite browsing activity the previous day and this achieved 11 times the return of the client’s standard promotional email. 

Overall when comparing e-Dialog clients with Forrester’s average by programme type, we see that our clients are regularly exceeding the average in their use of intelligent and advanced programmes.  We are proud of this and of the clients with which we work.  There’s no time to rest though.  As a partnership, both parties realise that the momentum in creating relevance – at the heart of all such advanced programmes – must be accelerated to head off the threat of declining affinity with the channel.

 

Nick Fuller, Director of Planning and Development, e-Dialog International 

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.

 

 

Perfecting The Abandoned Shopping Cart Message

As most email marketers know, abandoned shopping cart messages are very effective in bringing people back to your site to complete a purchase, even when they don't include a discount. Most often, people leave items in a cart because they either got busy doing something else and forgot to complete it, or needed a little time to think the purchase over. So just sending that reminder gets customers to come back. 

However, just because shopping cart reminders are effective doesn't mean they don't need a strategy for how to best use them. There are some things to keep in mind when you deploy these messages. The first is timing. How long should you wait before sending the reminder? In most cases, at least twenty four hours if not forty eight hours. Any sooner and you risk seeming too aware of the customer's online behavior, which creeps people out. 

In addition to knowing when to send the first reminder, think about whether or not to send a series of reminders and what the cadence of those might be. I admit to being overwhelmed by a recent string of reminders from Eddie Bauer that arrived every two days for eight days. Each one had a slightly different message, ranging from "did you forget something?" to "your items could be on sale" which is a good tactic if you're sending a series. The worst thing to do is to send the same reminder multiple times. 

 

One other consideration to keep in mind is whether or not to include photos or information about the actual items that have been left in the cart. When I got the Eddie Bauer reminder, I was hard-pressed to remember exactly what I had almost purchased! On the one hand, not including product images or names may drive people back to the cart so they can remind themselves which items are there, but on the other hand, a visual reminder may be more of a motivator, especially for fashions or accessories. Below is an example from Pottery Barn that does include product photos in their cart reminder emails. They also include related items, which can be a good idea for something like furniture, where the shopper may be looking for items that go well together in a room.

So, those are a few quick tips to think about when implementing or expanding your abandoned shopping cart trigger. I would love to hear your tips! Just leave a comment.

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate, e-Dialog

Hope Is Not a Marketing Strategy

We’ve all heard it numerous times; “It’s ten times more costly to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one”. OK, you might not agree with the factor, but all marketers agree that retaining a good customer reduces the cost of advertising, reduces customers' price sensitivity, and increases profits and word-of-mouth. At StudentUniverse we strive to retain our best customers with highly relevant marketing. Marketing to college students is challenging – their filters are highly developed, and they have a very short attention span, yet they are better connected than any previous generation. We believe the best marketing is not only timely, but friendly, and in many ways a story your friends would tell.  We use email marketing as a customer relationship management tool. 

 

A lot of our customers study abroad. When they go abroad, students tend to buy one-way tickets, because it’s convenient and cheaper. Students see the benefits of the added flexibility which allows them spontaneity and the freedom of not having to worry about adhering to a return date.  For the longest time we would merely hope that those students would come back to our site and buy their return tickets (just being honest here, and you can probably relate). But as we know, hope is not really a sustainable marketing strategy – so we created a campaign.

By combining our customer data with the data from our ESP (e-Dialog) we were able to launch a successful email campaign to re-engage students. Our primary goal was to get users to return to our site and search for their return airfares. Our first step towards this goal was to send an email to users that were likely to need a return one-way flight. The above average open rate and high conversion rate for this email gave us proof the message was relevant. Still, that wasn’t enough. We knew the results could be even better, so we decided to tweak the message and refine the audience list to send the email again, as some college students need that second reminder.

 

As part of the campaign, we used e-Dialog's dynamic publishing capabilities to generate discount codes. Each email recipient received a unique code for their own use and another code for a friend. Having the ability to publish unique codes for each user eliminated the possibility of discount codes reaching the wrong hands or websites.

 

We interviewed students and realized we had achieved our goal when a student said: “It was like one of those reminders my mom would send me, Honey – it’s time to book your ticket”. We also justified the ‘interruption’ by providing an incentive to book (promo code), not only for the user, but for their friends as well (make them look good!). A testament to the successful campaign was our 0.1% unsubscribe rate.

 

In the end, we created an email that was highly tailored and task-oriented. We kept the focus of the message transactional, yet personal. And it worked! 

 

Atle Skalleberg, EVP, StudentUniverse

 

StudentUniverse is the largest travel site for students in the U.S. Almost a third of all college students visit the site every year. By verifying student status StudentUniverse is able to negotiate special rates from over 40 airline partners and pass on savings to their users.

 

Lessening the Pain of Tax Day

If you're lucky, Tax Day means you get back some of the money Uncle Sam took over the course of the year. But sometimes, you still owe a little more. While not an actual holiday, Tax Day is a day that marketers can use as a Moment of Engagement to bring some relevance to their communications. Let's look at three examples.

 

Magazines.com offered subscribers a "tax-time deduction" in the form of a five dollar coupon. It was interesting that they actually incorporated a tax form in the creative of the email, along with the traditional red, white and blue. 

 

 

Solutions.com took a more traditional route, offering 15% off a purchase on the 15th only. Their creative featured a stack of hundred dollar bills along with a U.S. Treasury check. A nice touch is a secondary message offering 10% off for the rest of the weekend. 

 

 

CheapCaribbean.com took a less traditional approach. Their subject line read "Still waiting for your tax refund? Get a CheapCaribbean Bonus!" They offer a $50 American Express gift card with select vacation packages. The creative was the usual palm trees on the beach, but superimposed was a pic of their founder Caribbean Jim in a fun Uncle Sam hat and white goatee. 

 

 

Also check out these examples from The Retail Email Blog. Did you get or send an interesting tax-themed emails? I would love to hear about them!

 

Liz Lynch, senior marketing communications associate, e-Dialog

Preference Centers: The Nexus of Deliverability in 2015

We find ourselves at an interesting point in the evolution of the Internet. Advances in technology have put us at the crossroads of a truly integrated, multichannel approach to marketing where messages are converging across the channels, including e-mail, mobile devices, and social media. Demonstrating an understanding of your customers' wants, needs, and preferences has become essential to a successful communications strategy and for building trust with your audience, yet many marketers lack this basic knowledge - information that could be easily obtained simply by asking for it.

 

One of my favorite movie quotes that I have always found applicable to our industry is from the movie "Arthur" (not the aardvark or the Russell Brand reboot). At one point in the movie he says, "Aren't waiters wonderful? You ask them for things and they bring them." Folks, it's really that simple. Give your customers the opportunity to tell you what they want and bring it to them. Preference centers are an ideal way to get this information.

 

Currently, most preference centers are focused around e-mail communications. What type of information do you want to get, when do you want to get it, and what format do you want it in? While this is important, it's only a small part of knowing how your customers want to interact with you. For example, they may not want any e-mail communication from you but will follow you closely on Facebook and then go to your website to make a purchase. Sending e-mail to that person (and like others) will at best result in a non-responsive message. Cumulatively it will taint your IP reputation and negatively affect your relationship with the ISPs.

 

As communication channels evolve, so too should your preference center. This is the perfect opportunity to educate your customers, and in turn, be educated by them. Consumers want marketers to demonstrate knowledge of their interests, the types of products or services they like, the kinds of offers they want, and importantly, their communication and shopping preferences. In fact, you may well find they'll accept more frequent messaging in return for honoring these preferences. The preference center is the vehicle to tell them about and get permission for things like:

 

• Product categories. Most consumers want marketers to know what products or services they like. Marketers must ask for this information in their preference centers, and can even improve the ability to capture it by placing a bookmark capture function, such as "Add this category to my preferences" on product description pages. 
• 
  
• Message type. Does your consumer like offers and discounts? Product recommendations based on items they've purchased? Surveys or other interactive activities? Rich media like video? New product announcements? Personal alerts or follow-up messages? Make sure you find out the types of messaging they're most likely to engage with and combine that knowledge with their preferences for channel type and frequency.
• 
  
• Communication channels. Provide greater options for consumers to choose the manner in which you interact with them, for example, e-mail, mobile, or social messaging. Until unlimited data plans are ubiquitous and it doesn't cost a consumer extra to receive your texts, it is extremely important to gain permission to send SMS messages to them. Further, there are channels and tactics you may not even have considered using yet, like IM (which Facebook Messages employs), or behavioral retargeting messages. With all the talk about Do-Not-Track, now is the time to get to know your customers, their preferences, and the types of communications they'll opt in for.
• 
  
• Frequency. Survey your subscribers about message frequency and ask them within the preference center how often they want to receive messages on a monthly or weekly basis. You can even manage frequency by message type. For example, marketers could increase frequency when soliciting product review data or alerting subscribers that a new review had been posted to the website.

The preference centers of the future will play an essential role in establishing a 360-degree view of your customer, providing the customer intelligence needed to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time - through the right channels. This doesn't mean you will abandon channels; rather you will use each in the most effective and integrated way.

 

The industry continues to evolve toward more targeted, relevant messaging mapped to consumer preferences. From an e-mail perspective in particular, this will drastically reduce bounces and complaints and increase engagement metrics, which translates to good IP reputation and ultimately delivery to an inbox. It comes down to giving the people what they want in the channel they want it - an approach that's a win-win for your customers, ISPs, and marketers.

 

Rick Buck, VP of privacy and ISP relations, e-Dialog

 

This article originally appeared on ClickZ.

Replacing Fear with Passion in 2011

As one would expect, the start of 2011 didn't disappoint in the amount of trend predictions for the online marketing community. Here is one example from ClickZ: 7 Top Online Marketing Trends for 2011. The message is generally consistent across the board - 2011 is going to be the year of channel integration! This will be the year when we all come together and speak to our customers with a single voice through e-mail, the social networks, mobile devices, web, and everywhere else our customers are! Ok, this last sentence was fun to write, but how many of you believed me? It's so intimidating to practically every one of us to make that statement, right?

So with all of your permissions, I would like to re-state what 2011 will be the year of. 2011 will be the year when the fear of channel integration goes away. We will stop being fearful of broken down silos, of crossing each other's turfs, of unfavorable attribution formulas, and we will replace our fears with passion for creating memorable consumer experiences, no matter the channel.

We are already well on our way with inspiring examples such as the following:

1) Mobile-friendly web experience from JCPenney

 

2) Social Sweepstakes from Jack Wills

 

3) "Text e-mail to learn more" from British Airways

 

I'd love to hear about campaigns that have inspired you. Share your experience by leaving a comment.

Let's continue to get inspired and let's bring on 2011!

 

Lilia Arsenault, director, ASP Services, e-Dialog

First Signs of Spring?

If you live in the Northeast, it doesn't really feel like Spring is coming any time soon.  With sub-zero temperatures and a new snow storm every week, I can't picture dressing in anything other than a parka and snow boots.  But, retailers are starting to promote their new Spring lines and Spring merchandise is quite prevalent in stores.  Also, if you haven't noticed, your Inbox is starting to fill up with messages promoting a key Moment Of Engagement, or MOE, called the Season Launch.

Season launches should be incorporated into every retailer's campaign arsenal.  Check out how Neiman does it.

1) They start with an eye catching subject line “Our big Spring Trend Reveal is here”.  Who wouldn’t want to be on the inside track to what's in this season?

2) They lay out the top 10 trends for Spring in list format and follow up with a dedicated e-mail about each of the trends.

 
 

With several seasons throughout the year, it's great to have different tactics in your back pocket for these launches.  Here are some ideas:

1) Could you give a limited time offer on your top 5 picks for the season?

2) Or feature a key editor and have them comment on the “must have” looks?

3) Can you integrate the launch across the mobile and social channels?

Regardless of how you do it, make sure season launches make it on to your communication calendar.  Be fun, be informative, and take advantage of this MOE.  At the very least, for your customers in the Northeast it will remind them that winter won't last forever, and that Spring will come.....eventually.

 

Elisa Kleniewski, senior account manager, 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.

How Relevant Are You?

If you can’t tell by our blog name, one thing I truly believe in when it comes to marketing is what I like to call extreme relevance. The more relevant your message is, the better your ROI will be – and it couldn’t be truer for the multichannel world we live in. But how do you really know how relevant you are – or better yet, how relevant you aren’t - and what you can do to improve? And how do you determine this before you start your next campaign instead of after the results are in?

e-Dialog has worked very closely with marketing teams within large enterprise companies to find out together what defines relevance, how best to quantify degrees of success, and what practical steps are needed to help marketers get to the next level in improving multichannel marketing relevance. We’ve also relied on industry research and some of own primary research to inform our fact-finding mission.

The result is the Relevance Trajectory, a methodology based on real-world marketing case studies that outlines the six factors marketers need in order to evaluate, benchmark, and eventually increase the relevance of their marketing campaigns. This is the second iteration of our practical guide for helping marketers practice extreme relevance with every campaign. Based on the scoring, which is unique for each marketing organization, there are practical next-step recommendations for improving relevance across all of the key factors, with the end goal of continually improving the performance of marketing campaigns across e-mail, mobile and social media channels. The Relevance Trajectory methodology has been captured in a white paper which can be downloaded for free at http://www.e-dialog.com/resource_papers.html .

We’d love for you to download the report, apply it to your programs, and let us know your thoughts. We’re constantly seeking feedback and new ways to be a resource to marketers, so please share your insights!

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

Happy 1/11/11?

Happy 1/11/11?

 

It looks like New Years to Valentine’s Day was too long to wait without a holiday for some retailers. How about 1/11/11 for a reason to promote a special deal? We’ve seen three so far today: The Limited, Thompson Cigar, and Nannette Lepore promoting the date with special deals. 

 

The Limited and Thompson Cigar chose similar offers by promoting 11 cent shipping. Nanette Lepore took a different approach with a 1 day sale from 11am to 11pm. We liked a combination of the features in each of these e-mails. The Limited incorporated unusual white spacing above the fold so you could only see the date. This somehow sat nicely because it intrigued the reader to scroll down to see what the point of the e-mail was. Thompson Cigar leveraged creative to make the promotion look like the date. Our favorite offer was Nanette Lepore. This offer was a different approach than others had been using (and it’s a great deal)! While the creative was strong for each of these campaigns, their subject lines were weren't as creative as they could have been.  Calling out the unique date and deal more strongly may motivate more opens if the recipient realizes these aren't the usual standard offers.

 

Holiday or not, I'll take the offer. We are looking forward to what marketers come up with for 11/11/11!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you see any promotions based on the date today? I would love to see them!

 

Leanne Letourneau, program manager, e-Dialog