For the past four years, male modeling has had a shadow cast over it by one man and five syllables: Der-ek Zoo-land-er. Similarly, one technology and three syllables loom large in the world of email: vid-e-o.

Although it’s still as good as technically impossible to embed actual videos into email messages with reliable success, linking out to hosted videos can have a positive impact on email performance. As a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, so must you become Derelicte! Just use these three hot tips:

(1) Reference Video in Your Subject Line.
Including the word “video” in your subject line can help inspire opens. Three examples:
● Saks Fifth Avenue, Feb. 4, 2008:
“Video Exclusive! Days 1 to 3 of Fashion Week”
● J.Crew, Feb. 13, 2008:
“The well-traveled tote (see video)”
● Ralph Lauren, Feb. 18, 2008:
“RLTV Presents: Cape Lodge, An RL Home Video”

(2) Use Strong Visual Cues to Indicate a Link to Video.
Recipients respond best to obvious treatments like play buttons, and frames that look like Windows Media or Quicktime video players. Of the group at right, the Williams-Sonoma Bananas Foster example is particularly strong, as it uses a combination of camera iconography, video player frame graphics and verbal indicators. (Don’t you just love Bananas Foster? I wonder if there’s a video on how to make an Orange Mocha Frappuccino®!?)

(3) Match Your Video Content to Your Message.
Yes, video’s hotter than Hansel—but hotness doesn’t hide irrelevance (at least not for long!) Video needs to support your ultimate goal, whether that’s to build your brand or inspire a direct response. Two ways I’ve seen it used effectively in email:

To Demonstrate or Instruct
● REI’s Winter Newsletter links to a series of Expert Advice videos on how to select ski and snowboard gear.
● Williams-Sonoma announced the launch of their new website (featuring video) with this email. The “Cooking Videos” callout links to a Bananas Foster recipe demonstration embedded within a French Skillet product page.

To Deliver a Cross-Channel Experience
● Saks recreates an in-store experience online with a holiday windows unveiling video.
● Free People brings us behind the scenes of their catalog shoot with this on-location video montage. Party at Hansel’s house!

As we roll more video into our email programs, let’s keep these wise words in mind:
“I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to video than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is.” —Derek Zoolander

Please share your findings with the eec community! Post your comments below.

As ever,
Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon

P.S. Catch a glint of Blue Steel in this Luis Vuitton email and associated video.

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Since moving from Rochester, N.Y., to Durham, N.C., almost three years ago, I’ve gained a new appreciation for the month of March. March Madness in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) is just that—absolute madness. From the Duke-Carolina rivalry, to the ACC Tournament to the Big Dance, this is truly basketball country.

When the email to join “Bronto’s Online NCAA March Madness Bracket Group” landed in my inbox, I immediately went to CBSSportsline.com to register. CBS Sports made me work a bit to actually register as a new user (not good). Fortunately, as one who spends their day advising clients on best practices, I knew where to look.

Once I clicked on the super-small link “Register Now,” I was redirected to the registration page. I absolutely love this landing page.

1. An appropriate number of fields. Too many scares subscribers away, too few and you get a large list of uninterested subscribers.

2. Tips. Mousing over the lightbulbs provides clear instructions on how to fill out that particular field and/or a brief snippet of why they are asking for it.

3. Opt-in. Yes! Someone did it the “right” way. I say “right” because there is not really a right or wrong way, just a bad/good/better. What I love about this opt-in is that none of the boxes are pre-checked (a true opt-in), there is a brief description of what to expect (content, frequency), and a preview of an example. Brilliant!

That said, this is what happened when I clicked on “Preview an example” for the Product Updates. After hitting refresh three times, it eventually brought me to the intended preview page. I know what you are thinking...temporary hiccup with the connection. I thought the same thing, so I tried it the next day. Same result. (not good).

4. Optional Special Offers. Partner/third party/co-registration emails are always tricky. Personally, I think they have no business in the world of “best practice email marketing,” but I understand why they are used. If you are going to offer them, let subscribers opt-in and keep them separate. Well done.

Once I hit submit, a flurry of emails from CBS Sportsline began to fill my inbox (email #1, email #2). A bit of overkill if you ask me, but I forgive them. Anyway, that’s fodder for another post.

By the way, I’ve got UCLA winning it all in one bracket and Kansas in my other (neither are popular picks in my office).

—DJ Waldow of Bronto Software

Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

Chad White: Incentives Aren’t Just for Conversions Anymore
Retailers Are Incentivizing a Wide Range of Email and Online Behaviors.

Email Evolution Conference '08: Day 1 Keynote Presentation
Email...the consumer's perception IS your reality.

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

“The only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life email experience that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then—then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!”
—Holly Golightly

We are all searching for Tiffany’s, where “nothing very bad can happen.” Holly Golightly finds calm in taking her morning coffee window shopping; we search for solace sipping Starbucks over our inboxes, browsing emails, the windows into websites. As email marketers, we have the chance to create email programs that feel like Tiffany’s. Let’s leverage the strengths of the email channel to take care of our subscribers: inspiring calm, building loyalty, and (heck!) maybe even driving a furniture purchase.

I get in touch with my inner Holly Golightly via Netflix. I feel well cared for by their email program. Netflix employs powerful email strategies—including social commerce, enhanced transactional messaging, customer ratings and surveys—to provide great customer service via email, as illustrated by the four-message stream captured here.

(1) Movie Notes are smart social commerce. They enable Netflix members to send movie recommendations (and criticisms!) to friends. (I should have listened to Holly’s warning about “Material Girls.” OMG—bad! Don’t rent it!)
From: Holly Golightly
Subject Line: You've received a Movie Note
-->See the Movie Note

(2) Shipping Notifications not only communicate an almost-always accurate estimated arrival date, but also make category-relevant recommendations and upsell membership upgrades.
From: Netflix Shipping
Subject Line: For Thu: Breakfast at Tiffany's
-->See the Shipping Notification

(3) Receipt Notifications allow a recipient to instantly rate a movie they’ve just returned. (Obviously this one gets a five-star rating.)
From: Netflix Receiving
Subject Line: We've received: Breakfast at Tiffany's
-->See the Receipt Notification

(4) Mail-Back Date Surveys enroll members as partners in the rapid-receipt process. (Yes, Kozmo.com was too good to be true. Still, Netflix rentals ship scary-snappy.)
From: Netflix
Subject Line: When did you mail “Breakfast at Tiffany's”?
-->See the Mail-Back Date Survey

Darlings, let’s use this Netflix example to inspire us to sieze the awesome opportunities we have to deliver “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” via email. I’d love to hear about the email programs that make you feel simply marvelous!

I mean, a girl just can't go to Sing Sing with a green face.

As ever,
Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

A few weeks ago, I enrolled in Saks Fifth Avenue Online Customer Care (I wanted to pay down my Saks Credit Card). At the end of the process, I opted in to receive Saks emails. Below is a day-by-day timeline of what ensued from the moment I hit "confirm."

Day 1: Opted-in - Redirect to a thank you page, but...no welcome email

Day 2: One day after sign-up, the welcome email arrived. I would've like to see it immediately, but a one-day lag time is not the end of the world. I thought the subject line - Welcome to saks.com. We have a special offer for you... - wasn't great, but at least was very clear and direct. The body of the message contained a call-to-action that included a 10% discount. Pretty good overall.

Day 3: Not 1, but 2 messages from Saks in one day. Oops?
—Message #1: Subject Line - SAKSFIRST Double Points + From the Heart, received at 10:31AM EST, Valentines Day call-to-action
—Message #2: Subject Line - Get SAKSFIRST Double Points!, received at 3:53PM EST, Double Points call-to-action

Day 4: Subject Line - SAKSFIRST Double Points + Have-To-Have Handbags

Days 5 and 6: Nothing (Super Bowl weekend)

Day 7: Not 1, but 2 messages from Saks. Hard to believe that they would make this same "mistake" only 4 days later.
—Message #1: Subject Line - Dior...Take it Away!, received at 10:08AM EST, Women's Shoes call-to-action
—Message #2: Subject Line - Video Exclusive! Days 1 to 3 of Fashion Week, received at 4:51PM EST, "Fashion Week" call-to-action

Day 8: Subject Line - Fabulous Valentine's Gifts

Day 9: Not 1, but 2 messages from Saks. Another "mistake" 2 days after the 2nd one (3rd double email day in past 6 days)
—Message #1: Subject Line - David Yurman Gifts, received at 9:47AM EST, Women's Shoes call-to-action
—Message #2: Subject Line - Day 4 Video of Fashion Week, received at 5:05PM EST, "Fashion Week" call-to-action

Day 10: Subject Line - NEW: Reyes, Wayne... + SALE

Day 11: I clicked on their unsub/change preferences link, fully intending to unsubscribe. But, alas—they did it right! I was able to edit my preferences and elect to receive updates only "Once a Week."

TAKEAWAYS...

THE BAD:
1. Over a 7 business-day stretch, I received 10 emails (including 3 days with 2 emails/day).
2. Call-to-action was one big image—could've easily used a text-image combo.

THE GOOD:
1. Their opt-out allowed me to "receive fewer Saks Fifth Avenue updates."
2. For the most part, subject lines were creative, unique, direct, and consistent with the body of the message.
3. Preheader gave me (some) instructions to add to my address book (see Make it Pop!: The Preheader Express for more on preheaders).
4. While the body of message included one big image, the headers and footers were consistent.

Overall, for as critical as I've been, I applaud the effort of Saks. We all know that most online retailers don't get it right. Saks, on the other hand, does many things well. I'm not a big fan of an average of greater than 1 email per week, but they did allow me to change the frequency. It would have been nice if I had this option up front. Why risk losing a consumer only to try and salvage them when they are ready to opt-out? Kudos to Saks. They've won me over...assuming they honor my frequency preference change.

—DJ Waldow of Bronto

Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

ROI Calculator - The Value of an Email Address
Created by the eec's List Growth & Engagement Roundtable

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

While at the Email Evolution Conference this week, I had the pleasure of being DJ Waldow’s guest on BrontoFire, Bronto Software’s lively, unscripted, one-take email marketing debate show. During the webisode, DJ and I discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly of four email designs from Bluefly, All Recipes, PajamaGram, and American Airlines.

>>Watch the debate on BrontoFire

—Chad White

The eec’s List Growth and Engagement Roundtable has developed an interactive Excel calculator to help retailers measure the ROI of their acquisition and retention email mailings, including deployment costs, list growth calculations, and more. View a sample of the calculator or download the full interactive calculator from the Whitepaper Room. The calculator is $49 for non-members, discounted for silver and gold members, and free to platinum members. Not a member? Learn more about membership.

How many hearts does it take to Make it Pop!? I spent the past three weeks reflecting upon this exceedingly serious email creative quandry.

After counting the number of hearts that have appeared in over 50 V-Day-themed communications, I’ve finally calculated the definitive answer: eight.

It takes eight hearts to Make it Pop! Include only seven: you don’t show no love. But at nine you step over the heartbreak horizon—that’s a heart attack.

For your edification, the simplified results of my highly scientific study appear below.

How many hearts does it take to Make it Pop!? (Click the links to view creatives.)

01 Heart: One Love, Urban Outfitters

02 Hearts: Two Timer, Tumi

08 Hearts*: That Pops!, Harry & David

11 Hearts: A Hole in the Heart, Costco

13 Hearts: Unlucky in Love, Kate Spade

17 Hearts: Eat Your Heart Out, Williams-Sonoma

31 Hearts: I Swear I Counted, RedEnvelope

*Tabulations are halfhearted: partial hearts round to the half.

XOXO ;),
Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Michael Della Penna’s debut Email Experience Blog post on The Customer Experience inspired me step through the looking glass and reflect on the positive experiences I’ve had as an email subscriber. My deep thoughts: the Sephora Beauty Insider email program has beauty and brains! How do they capture my clicks? By treating me like a VIP. It’s easy as 1-2-3…

(1) Roll out the red carpet. Want me to join your made-over email program? Send me a gold-lettered invitation. I feel special when Sephora welcomes me—“the beauty elite”—“behind beauty’s velvet rope.”
-->See the email invitation

(2) Give me some swag. If I take the time to give an exclusive interview, I want something exclusive, too. Sephora makes it worth my breath with the promise of super swag—exclusive freebies and insider-only offers, personalized tips and product picks, plus a birthday gift.
-->Check out the preferences page

(3) Send me roses. If I say red roses, don’t send white carnations! Sephora delivers roses: messages that clearly leverage the data I provide. I say I like the Bare Escentuals brand; they offer free Bare Escentuals lip polish. I say I have combination skin; they promote a revival treatment.
-->View an exclusive offer email
-->View a personalized offer email

Only, I don’t know why on earth I would ever have gotten an email about acne products. I swear—I’ve never had a pimple in my life! Ha.

As ever,
Lisa Harmon
of Smith-Harmon

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

2008 Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study
Opt-out Methods, Alternatives, Barriers & Other Process Elements Used by Top Online Retailers

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

While major online retailers do a great job of honoring unsubscribe requests quickly, there’s plenty of room for their opt-out processes to improve—most notably in the areas of providing subscribers with alternatives to opting out and of lowering barriers to opting out. For instance, only 66% of retailers use their opt-out processes to engage subscribers in order to address the issue causing them to want to opt out—and few do more than a superficial job of it. When looking at opt-out barriers, only 9% of major online retailers employ a one-click unsubscribe process, while another 35% easily could, but don’t.

Those are a couple of the key findings of Email Experience Council’s first annual Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study, which looked at the opt-out practices of 94 major online retailers. The study looks at trends in the opt-out process itself, including the alternatives to opting out, opt-out methods and friction in the unsubscribe process; and examines the honoring of opt-out requests, including CAN-SPAM compliance.

“Email is a relationship channel, and opting out of the relationship is just another step in the lifecycle,” says Kara Trivunovic, director of strategic services at Premiere Global Services Inc., the sponsor of this study. “Ignore it at your own peril.”

Increasingly one of the most important benchmarks for your unsubscribe process should be the single click of the “report spam” button. Some consumers already regularly use it to unsubscribe from email that they no longer want. So if your process becomes confusing or cumbersome, consumers know they have an easy-to-use fallback. That makes it more important than ever to have a frictionless opt-out process.

It also makes it more important to honor opt-out requests quickly, as delays increasingly look like failures. Thankfully, more than 86% of retailers honored opt-outs within 3 days, with most of them effective immediately, as evidenced by the number of emails received after opting out. Another 4% honored opt-outs within 7 days, and 3% more within 14 days. One percent took more than the CAN-SPAM-sanctioned 14 days to honor unsubscribes, and another 3% of retailers had their opt-out processes fail.

Other key findings from the study include:

• 73% of retailers sent no more emails after receiving an opt-out request.

• 16% of retailers give those trying to opt-out an opportunity to reduced the frequency at which they receive emails.

• 17% of retailers solicited feedback from those that had opted out

• 4% of retailers were in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 by either failing to honor opt-outs or taking longer than 10 business days to do so.

Get the Full Report
Visit the Whitepaper Room to download the full 30-page report, which is free for eec platinum members, available at a discount to eec gold and silver members, and available for $179 for non-members. Not a member? Learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

And as part of a special promotion, attendees of the eec’s Email Evolution Conference can receive the study for free. Visit www.emailevolution.org for more information and to register.

Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

Chad White: Holiday Retail Email Volume Soars
Frequency trends from the 2007 holiday season

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

From the end of November through the start of January, I received 16 holiday cards from retailers in my email inbox. That’s more than double the number I received from friends and family in my snail mailbox! I suppose that’s what happens when you spend more time interacting with retail brands than you do with human beings. :)

Of the messages I received:
• 13.5% featured a Thanksgiving message
• 25% included generic season’s greetings
• 25% included direct references to Christmas
• 62.5% featured a New Year’s message
• 37.5% sweetened the greeting with a sale promotion

Ralph Lauren wins the “Most Frequent” award, sending three separate messages for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, while Harry & David takes the “Most Original” title for their highly entertaining placement of pears. I hope the Harry & David creative inspires more retailers to think of ways to interpret holiday greetings in a way that’s both unique and authentic to their brand in 2008.

-->Click here to view the holiday card collection PDF

Enjoy!
Lisa Harmon

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

Chad White: Retail Email Year-End Trends for 2007 Email volume, frequency & holiday trends among the top online retailers during 2007

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

This past holiday season, our email inboxes weathered flurries of free shipping and gusts of gift cards. (I’m still digging out from under it all!) A few retailers produced gift card promotions that transcended the torrent by employing clever creative devices to effectively pop their perks.

ANIMATION & PERSONALIZATION
With an intelligent application of animation, at a glance, Borders communicates the opportunity to personalize their gift cards with your own photos. Click here to view the animation in this email.
Link to http://ebm.cheetahmail.com/c/tag/hBHTAf3AQfEXsBkZV41BC9Jxb80/doc.html

From: Borders Rewards
Subject Line: The Perfect Gift -- With a Personal Touch
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007

SIMPLE & EASY
Meanwhile, fredflare.com features a simple order form screenshot to quickly enroll clickers in what appears to be an incredibly easy gift certificate order process.

From: fredflare.com
Subject Line: super last minute gift idea...
Date: Friday, Dec. 21, 2007

HUMOR & INGENUITY
And Timbuk2 wraps ingenuity in humor for an unexpected inbox gift: their step-by-step instructions show last-minute shoppers how to deliver a unique, printable “Oragami-ish Gift Certificate.”

From: Timbuk2
Subject Line: Instant Timbuk2 gift for slackers
Date: Friday, Dec. 21, 2007

In 2008, particularly during high-volume seasonal windows when so many retailers send similar messages, let’s resolve to use smart creative to help our communications stand out from the crowd.

Here’s to a super New Year,
Lisa Harmon

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Does this scenario sound familiar?:
Marketing: “We need to add another submessage to the 12/10 mail.”
Creative: “What!? We’ve already got five submessages in the 12/10!”
Marketing: “The VPs want to include gift cards.”
Creative: “Pass me another brownie, please.”

At this time of year, just as our waistlines bulge with too many holiday sweets, so our emails bulge with too many holiday submessages, stacking into unruly creative layer cakes.

I love cake. I also love a powerfully-packed multi-message. However, more than three pieces of cake – and more than three vertically-stacked submessages – make me queasy. (Did somebody say “garage sale”!?) That’s why this week, as a bookend to my holiday navigation post, it’s all about the GSF—the gift services footer!

Below, REI, Amazon.com, Macy’s and Crate & Barrel cut down on submessage layer-caking by finishing their emails off with smart little GSFs, fitting an average of four messages into the space of one. It’s like a super-dense, double-chocolate brownie!

REI, Dec. 4

Amazon.com, Dec. 5

Macy’s, Dec. 5

Crate & Barrel, Dec. 6

CHECK OUT THESE SEVEN TIPS FOR A SWEET GSF:
(1) Umbrella your GSF with a benefits-focused headline.
(2) Use equi-sized modules for easy last-minute message swap-outs.
(3) Link to your website gift center. It’s a great catch-all for gift givers.
(4) Promote gift cards. They’re so hot right now!
(5) Surface gift services —the unique ways you help make holiday shopping easy.
(6) Detail order-by dates, particularly as we approach mid-December.
(7) Dynamically generate local retail store info to drive brick-and-mortar traffic.

I look forward to breaking brownies with many of you in Park City next week!

Until then,
Lisa Harmon

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

Chad White: Cyber Monday Sees Record Retail Email Marketing Activity
Retailers embracing a variety of strategies in promoting their Cyber Monday sales.

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

Halloween is my best holiday. On Oct. 31, it's absolutely OK to do two of my favorite things: dress up and eat candy. I monitored my inbox today (in costume – I was a nun) to see which retailers were celebrating with me. The results were frightening! Out of the 42 commercial emails I received, only 3 directly referenced Halloween—that’s scarcely more than 7%. Bluefly, J. Crew and Lands' End each offered up a treat: a percentage discount, a free shipping offer and a dollar discount, respectively. (They also used eerily-similar subject lines, following a “Boo!” + “Offer” paradigm. We do have our SLs down to a science.)

From: Bluefly
Subject Line: BOO! Extra 10% Off-Today Only
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007

From: J. Crew
Subject Line: Boo! Free shipping's ending…
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007

From: Lands' End
Subject Line: Boo! A $10 Gift For You.
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007

We all talk so much about relevancy, and while many of us find technological obstacles between our email programs and that fabled state of totally targeted, segmented, dynamic-data-driven email nirvana, there is absolutely nothing stopping any of us from sharing something as simple as a batch-and-blast Halloween greeting with our subscribers. I certainly received a deluge of Halloween-focused messaging in the weeks leading up to the event—costumes, treats, décor and more, right?!

As we move into our next phase of holiday preparation—Thanksgiving—let’s consider ending our T-day-focused communication stream with an exclamation—Happy Thanksgiving! You know you’re gonna send out a Black Friday sale message anyway, so why not offer it as a gift in thanks? Check back post-turkey; I’ll report on whether the well-wishing ratio is any more bountiful.

Until next week!
Lisa Harmon

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

The 2007 Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study
Email marketing trends & best practices among the largest online retailers for making the most out of that first impression

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

Welcome emails have historically had significantly higher open rates than regular emails. These messages are key to setting expectations with new subscribers and communicating the brand promise. Yet, only 72% of major online retailers send out welcome emails. That’s the top line finding of the Email Experience Council’s second annual Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study, which is a follow-on to our 2007 Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study, which examined the subscription practices of 122 of the largest online retailers. In this Welcome Email Study, we looked at the welcome emails that were sent as a result of those subscriptions.

“Welcome emails should set the tone of the program and the expectations of the recipient from an aesthetics and content standpoint,” says Kara Trivunovic, director of strategic services at Premiere Global Services Inc., the sponsor of this study. “It is said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression—and that adage holds true to the email channel as well. Properly executed welcome messages actually create anticipation in the recipient for the next message.”

In 2006, only 66% of major online retailers sent welcome emails. With 72% sending welcome emails this year, it appears that more retailers are recognizing the value of these critical emails.

This report shows that many retailers are still missing out on the opportunity to use those emails as a selling vehicle and relationship-building vehicle.
Instead of engaging subscribers with incentives and links to products, departments, loyalty programs, catalogs and other shopping-related material, a great number of the largest online retailers simply say hello and leave it at that.

However, there was some improvement on this front over the past year. In 2007, 98% of retailers’ welcome email now containing a link to their shopping site (up from 88% last year), 33% containing store locators (up from 31%) and 14% containing links to catalog information (up from 6%).

Over the past year, more retailers have also made their welcome emails CAN-SPAM compliant. This year 58% of welcome emails were CAN-SPAM compliant in terms of including both a mailing address and unsubscribe method, versus 52% last year. While non-promotional emails are not required under the law to be compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act, we believe that all emails should be compliant.

This year, for the first time, we also tracked the passage of time between subscriptions and the delivery of welcome emails. The good news is that 61% of retailers deliver their welcome emails within 10 minutes of sign up, with most of those delivering within 3 minutes. The bad news is that 19% take more than 24 hours to deliver their welcome emails, with nearly a third of those taking more than a week to deliver. In the world of digital communications, that’s an eternity to wait for a welcome email.

Other key findings from the study include:
• 32% of welcome emails include a discount, reward or incentive, down from 34% last year. That’s in line with the results of our subscription study, which saw a move away from incentives during sign-up.
• 62% of welcome emails asked the subscriber to whitelist them by adding an email address to their address book, up from 49% last year.
• 79% of retailers sent out HTML welcome emails, up from 69% last. The remainder sent text-only welcome emails. That said, most of the HTML welcome emails were HTML “lite,” making extensive use of HTML text.
• 53% of welcome emails included links to the retailer’s privacy policy, up from 45% last year.
• 75% of the welcome emails include the retailer’s brand name in their subject lines, on par with last year. Including branding here helps the subscriber recognize the email as one that they requested.

Get the Full Report
Visit the Whitepaper Room to download the full 30-page report, which is free for eec platinum members, available at a discount to eec gold and silver members, and available for $179 for non-members. Not a member? Learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

A debate raged in a meeting last week that I'd love your ideas and feedback on. We were talking about the duplicity found in so many permission practices—particularly in ecommerce sites.

Yes, I know that duplicity is strong word. But consider that most retailer email programs are opt-in—until you buy. Then, it's either a pre-checked box on the checkout form—easy to miss and decidedly opt-out—or worse, it's a notice buried in the fine print. Since these folks are buyers, they are by nature pretty active with the brand and products, so there isn't a huge penalty for this practice in ISP complaints or unsubscribes. In many cases, these buyers are sometimes the most active folks on the file.

So what is wrong with that? I say nothing, if the marketer is clear about it. They no longer have an opt-in permission file. Don't claim it in your promotions or when dealing with ISPs on deliverability. Worse, subscribers have no input into the frequency, content or value of the program—which is easily corrected.

I'd feel a lot better about these practices if marketers also sent a very clear welcome message and gave these buyers some control over their inbox. There was some heated debate that these buyers should be permissioned in via a double opt-in mechanism after the purchase. Personally, I feel that is not necessary if the marketer follows best practices for confirming the subscription with a welcome message that arrives instantly and provides both clarity around the program pace and content and a chance for subscribers to quickly unsubscribe or change preferences. The welcome message is also a great opportunity to encourage another purchase.

Double opt-in (sometimes called confirmed opt-in) is the highest level of permission. Double opt-in will ensure that your subscribers are more actively aware of your program (but not that they will be active—you still need to create relevant, compelling subscriber experiences), but it also pretty much guarantees that you'll have a smaller file. Small but active is a pretty good deal, but it's hard to sell internally. And I think many marketers still resist anything that reduces the size of the file. If you offer any marketer a million records that are untargeted vs. 100,000 very targeted records, most of us will go for the million every time.

We are ever hopeful, we marketers. Someday, we think, that person just might want my product! I can't let go of the opportunity to remind them I'm here, even if they will ignore my email messages.

So what do you think? Is it important or a mandate that marketers double opt-in these buyers?

For purposes of discussion, here is what I'm using to define the four permission levels:

1. Opt-out: The assumption is that you are on the file, until you unsubscribe—usually a pre-checked box or use of a customer file/
2. Single opt-in: The subscriber actively requests to be on the file—usually an un-checked box.
3. Confirmed (or validated) opt-in: After requesting to be on the file, a confirmation email is sent.
4. Double opt-in: After the initial request, a confirmation email is sent requiring a second action to be placed on the file.

—Stephanie Miller

Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

The 2007 Guide to Gearing Up for the Holiday Email Season
This roadmap to the email holiday season will help retailers and other companies better formulate their campaigns this year.

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

The Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council recently signed up for the email newsletters of 118 of the top online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot. What we found was that there’s a clear trend toward subscription processes that are quick and easy, and increasingly transparent.

“The old adage ‘you only get one chance to make a good first impression’ transcends to an email marketer’s efforts in creating a good opt-in experience,” says Elie Ashery, president and CEO of email marketing software and services company Gold Lasso