• A few examples (including the NY Times) of what can happen when rushing to get an email out, rather than taking the time to make sure everything is in order before hitting send.
• Don't play fast and loose with email permissions...here's why.
• New viewing habits do have an impact on email design.  However, the basics for email creative don't change.

• Sundeep Kapur,  VP, Strategic Marketing, NCR eCommerce
• Debbie Kane, Director, Web & Partnership Marketing, Active Interest Media
• Aaron Smith, Director, Professional Services, Smith-Harmon, a Responsys Company

1. Ask yourself, "why should my consumer sign up for my email?"
2. Use intrigue versus incentive.
3. Build up 'reverse preferences' (track what people do & don't do).
4. Run subject line tests.
5. Use social media to increase open rates.
6. Test.
7. Analyze.
8. Use web and email designers.
9. Use clear calls to action.
10. Keep important content/messages above the fold.
11. Do respect image blocking and the preview pane.
12. Do render tests.
13. Do create an iron-clad email production process with tasks, individuals, and even days of the week associated with each milestone.
14. Do run a test with every send – and (this is key) – share your results with your stakeholders for short-term visibility; archive them for long-term learnings.
15. Do ask yourself these three questions:
           (1) What is this email about?
           (2) Why do my subscribers care?
           (3) What do they do about it?

1. Don’t assume something works.
2. Don’t convert print promotions directly to email campaigns.
3. Don’t overcomplicate your email creative.
4. Don’t over-mail your list.
5. Don’t under-mail your list.
6. Don’t make subscribing – or unsubscribing – too complicated.
7. Don’t try to say too much with a single email.
8. Don’t silo email – remember your other channels, both offline and digital.
9. Don’t forget about the landing page!
10. Don’t assume what worked yesterday will work today, or tomorrow. Keep testing and evolving!
11. Don't ignore your reports & front line.
12. Don't badger the lifeless (don't over-mail your non-responders).
13. Don't say everything in the subject line.
14. What should I do next? (no call to action)
15. Don't forget to be timely.

Email marketing, like any career, is likely to include working and collaborating with people who are not in the same physical office.   If you are the remote person, you probably have concerns about keeping in touch with others on the marketing team or in your department, and if you are managing people who are remote, you have to pay special attention to keeping them in touch with the rest of the group.

In an eec Member Initiatives Advisory Committee meeting on the Career Paths project last month, we discussed the impact of this dispersed workforce, and how it affects an email marketing team.

Angela Baldonero, VP, People of Return Path, reviewed four broad trends for career development among the diaspora:

1. Technology keeps us connected, and enables a broad dispersion of the workforce.  However, it also causes some practical issues. For example, we have an employee in Berlin reporting to a manager in California. It raises the question:  Is Skype enough?
2. Social interaction is good for the business.  Bringing on people in new geographies can be challenging for on-boarding as well as collaboration.  It's harder for new people to be remote.  However, people who have already built relationships in a core office and then move away can be successful in a remote environment.
3. Dispersion affects the talent development lifecycle.  For example, the key needs of top talent are relationships and recognition and it's hard for people to build relationships if they are not there.  Lots of good work happens when you are in the same room – including discussing the creative for the email campaign while you look over my shoulder, or brainstorming subject lines by the coffee machine.   Plus, it's hard to "make your mark" if you do not have access to casual interaction, and the only time you "see" colleagues is in formal business meeting situations.
4. It is easy to confuse connections with relationships.  It's easy to have connections. It's harder to build relationships.  However, it's relationships that drive recruitment as well as career advancement. Geography supports or inhibits relationship depth and meaning.

As the group discussed these ideas, we realized that these are challenges for workforce, but also for proving the value of email marketing within the organization.  We can't earn the respect we need for resources and a seat at the table just from the numbers; the relationships matter, too.

Other impact areas:

• Geographic dispersion and even business unit silos within the same geography also affect the collaboration and governance of different brand/business unit email programs.
• Participation in eec meetings is a way for geographically or functionally isolated professionals to network and be educated. It's also always helpful to hear that other marketers have the same challenges!
• Remote employees don't have access to impromptu conversations which can help your career and move your projects forward.  Baldonero quoted, "A lot of work gets done when you talk about nothing."  Relationships are not built just talking about business and trust is built when you know the whole person.  If you just talk business, you may actually have less trust, because you only know one aspect of that person.
• Sometimes there is a perception that if you are working at home you are not working as hard.  Jennifer Carmichael of Tenet Healthcare noted, "Some remote employees work harder or longer hours because they're 'always on.'"
• Relationships drive loyalty and the extra effort needed to get something done.  If I need help with a project or getting something run up the flagpole, it's a lot more successful to stand in that person's office, than to IM them.

In all this, we discussed that building relationships is a shared responsibility.  If you work remotely, you need to make time for making these connections since they don't happen organically. This is both the responsibility of the individual and the organization.  If a business hires people remotely for email marketing or any task, there needs to be a commitment to support this relationship building.

Some ways to build your own long distance relationships or help make it easier for remote employees to engage:

1. Stay an extra day when you do visit the office. Make time for coffee and hello's.
2. Corporate social networks can help facilitate information across offices.
3. Seek out similarities – find the connections outside the office with your colleagues. This might mean taking a bit of extra time on the phone or in an email to get to know the person.
4. Managers can facilitate team building prior to the business meetings. Build time into the weekly phone calls or hold quarterly in-person meetings that have time for socializing.   "This is a great idea that I can implement tomorrow," Carmichael said.
5. Conferences like the Email Evolution Conference are a good way to meet new people.   However, we are all busy; we have to make time for establishing these connections.  Nancy Atwood of Anchor Computer said, "In some ways, we are victims of technology – we can work all the time and we are always connected. So the "doing the work" is taking priority over "building a network."  We invest our time in replying electronically rather than establishing a personal connection."
6. Corporate HR or someone needs to accept some level of administrative support and education, as well as the remote employees themselves.  Be proactive. If no one is reaching out to you, reach out to your manager or the HR team, Baldonero recommends.
7. Working long distance is a reality for most email vendor/marketer relationships. Many of these same principles apply to good account management and client service. "Think of your colleagues as clients, and that might change the way you relate to them," Atwood said.

Lastly, we discussed some things that the DMA/eec can be doing to help facilitate career growth and help us all build these relationships internally and around the industry:

1. A member directory of names, company, industry, geography. Restricted access and "no sales calls."
2. Local events for members to meet and network and learn from each other. Perhaps in cooperation with local DMA groups.
3. Ensure there are strong networking opportunities prior to and during the main DMA conferences.

What are you doing to build relationships with remote colleagues, clients and employees?  What else would you like the DMA/eec to do to help the industry? Please leave your comments below or email Stephanie Miller at the Member Initiatives Advisory Committee.

Email done quite well
Is loved by ISPs
And subscribers too

Okay, so I'm not the Shakespeare of the haiku world yet. If you can do better, your creativity could win you a one-year membership in the Email Experience Council, a $399 value and a great way to connect with your fellow email marketers, download resources and improve your email skills.

To say nothing, of course, of the thrill of seeing your content entry displayed on the eec site for the world to appreciate and envy (more on that later).

It all started when a group of self-described "email snobs" started talking via Twitter and blog posts/comments about the language we use to talk about email marketing. Some of the conversation was inspired in part by my latest Email Insider column, "Warning: Blasting May Be Harmful to 'Our' Health."

On an email discussion list, someone posted a response to the conversation about language in the form of a haiku, which begat more haikus and eventually drew the eec into the fray. Now the eec is sponsoring the (sort of) official 2009 Haiku Slam, with eec members voting on the winners.

We're still working out the details, including the page at the eec site where you can view other entries. In the meantime, you can track various fun and serious discussions on email marketing via the hashtag #emailsnob - or Twitter search. Follow me - @LorenMcDonald – and @Silverpop and other participants, and we'll pass on the particulars as they become available. Feel free to contribute to the discussion, too.

Once you have crafted your contest entries, send them to Ali at the eec - aswerdlow at the-dma.org. Post 'em in the comments section here, too, if you're especially proud of them.

Here is another of my planned entries that might inspire your own creativity or your competitive spirit:

Blasts are from the past
And relevance they will kill
ROI, think not

Now, put down that coffee cup and start haiku-ing!


- Loren McDonald, Silverpop, an eec Silver Sponsor

More than ever, consumers are thinking about the necessity of their purchases before they part with their hard-earned dollars. Adding to the problem, 65% of Americans believe they are bombarded with too much advertising, according to the Art and Copy trailer.  This becomes a major issue for email marketers who are trying to walk the fine line between inundating the inbox and delivering timely messages.

So, how do you convert consumers from window shoppers to buyers when there are so many companies vying for their affections? Simply step out from behind the corporate curtain and create a connection that's rooted in authenticity. One way to do this is to put a face with the name.

As the fashion visionary and Creative Director at J.Crew, Jenna Lyons is the ideal voice for the brand. By devoting an entire email to Jenna's Picks and supporting the story in-store, in the catalog and online, J.Crew is inviting people into her office to see what inspires her. Adding the quote from Jenna is yet another way to personalize the content and up the authenticity.

The founders of Serena & Lily take this a step further by devoting two separate emails to their distinct styles: Serena Hearts and Lily Loves.  By incorporating a quote for each top pick, they create a conversation. Without the quotes, it would be a list of items without any personality. Of course, in both of these examples the assumption is that the quotes are real, and if they truly want to emanate authenticity then the words should be unedited, as though part of an interview or casual conversation.

Ann Taylor recently introduced their subscribers to Lisa, their new head designer, in a gorgeous email.  It includes a quote, a pic of Lisa, and swatches from her inspiration board. Unfortunately, the story ended there. Clicking on the CTA under Lisa's photo dropped you straight into the shop path. Building out an online landing page where people might be able to learn about Lisa's inspiration would have been a spot-on execution.

Catering to the true fashionista who scours the web looking for the latest trends, Tobi delivers all kinds of editorial extras into this email.  From taking subscribers behind the scenes at Velvet to strolling the San Francisco streets with their resident style scout, Tobi turns shopping into a full-on fashion experience. (On a best practices note, they fall short in some key areas, including SWYN and FTAF, which are major misses, especially when you consider the great content.)

At the other end of the authenticity spectrum, we have Old Navy's Super-modelquins campaign.  Basically, their public-facing spokesperson, who supposedly embodies the Old Navy brand, is actually...a mannequin. While they've done their best to create personalities around these characters and make them more "human", the fact remains that they are plastic, so this comes off as fake and, to be honest, a little creepy.

Without a doubt, Banana Republic has a lock on classic and affordable go-to-work styles. While their emails are always polished to perfection, they feel the same week after week, whether they're featuring white shirts or the must-haves for fall. They get points for creating cool extras, like the City Stories short film competition and the Mad Men walk-on competition, but lose points for never letting their customers into the design studio. What was it that inspired them to make the white shirt the big staple for fall? Wouldn't it be fun to know?

Knowing who you are as a company and inviting consumers to see the face behind the name will help you navigate away from the corporate speak and towards a more casual conversation. In other words, keep it real. No one wants to feel like they're buying something that's generic and mass produced. By giving them a story behind the product, you're creating a connection for your consumer to carry with them every time they button up that shirt, slip on those sandals, or wear those must-have jeans.

- Darrah MacLean & Lisa Harmon - Smith-Harmon

The eec Email Design Roundtable recently spent some time discussing an industry hot topic: the integration of email marketing and social networking.

Social networking generally makes its way into email in two primary ways:
(1) Through appeals in email for subscribers to join an existing social network.
and
(2) "Share with Your Network" (SWYN) invitations for subscribers to share email content with their networks. While these are each fairly simple, there are important creative and strategic considerations that contribute to email success, as well as innovative ways to bring user-generated content (UGC) into email.

Each Design Roundtable member offered fresh insights and ideas to the evolving body of best practices around social optimization in email. Below is a summary of key points from the conversation:

The past year has flown by and as we approach the last lap of the 08-09 eec Nonprofit Project, the team wanted to share two key accomplishments—these are just two of many wins from the eec team and the Agassi Foundation since last July.

1.) New creative strategy and assets—convincing the Agassi team to transition from sending a digital version of their print newsletter to a more email friendly one was easy. But no one imagined the bump in response they saw! With open rates close to 40%, the new newsletter creative saw nearly a 390% increase in click thru activity. Check it out here.

2.) On the social side, the eec team looked for ways to help the Agassi Foundation add to their existing partnered presence in the "social" world with organizations like Athletes for Hope. Enter the badge download page: view it and download your own Agassi Foundation badge here.

Even though the 08-09 Nonprofit Project isn't over yet, it certainly has been rewarding for the team to help out such a great organization, cause and group of people. We'll be back at the end of the project with a full wrap-up.

*If you haven't gotten involved yet, now's your chance to sign up and do something—the eec just announced the 09-10 project - the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF). Contact Ali for more information and to join the team.

- Chris Frasier & Rachael Anderson, BlueHornet
Agassi Project Team Leads

There is a consensus among email marketers that keeping uninterested subscribers on your email lists does more harm than good. Before your unengaged subscribers unsubscribe or – gulp! – report you as spam, take measures to reengage them and reinforce their positive relationship with your brand.

Here are a few ideas for keeping your subscriber base active and excited about your email:

• Run a relevant, engaging email program in the first place. The most important way to keep subscriber attention is, of course, to pay attention to your whole email program at each step. Maintain relevant content, design creatives that subscribers enjoy seeing, and refrain from overmailing.

• Send a "We Miss You" message with a special offer to inactive subscribers. When you know you have unengaged subscribers on your list, show them that you still care. One way to do this is with a "missing you" message, sweetened with a special offer. Smith-Harmon clients Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids added a dynamic "We've missed you!" banners to emails sent to inactive subscribers.

• Involve subscribers by inviting them to help support a cause. Strengthen subscriber relationships with your brand by encouraging them to help you support a cause. This shows subscribers that you care about more than just dollars and also fosters a sense of investment in your brand's efforts. For example, Lucy has encouraged subscribers to help support the Breast Cancer Network of Strength, and PetSmart has invited subscribers to join them in helping homeless pets.

• Run contests or sweepstakes that encourage interaction with your brand. Everyone loves to win. If the reward is enticing enough and the process is simple enough, subscribers will jump at the chance to enter your brand's contest or sweepstakes.

In a recent contest, The Cheesecake Factory asked for new flavor idea submissions from subscribers and then went a step further by letting other subscribers vote for the winner (I'm particularly pleased, since my pick won. Yum, Red Velvet).

Last winter, Urban Outfitters enticed subscribers to create a holiday wishlist by allowing them to enter a drawing to "win their wishlist." Even the contest losers (such as myself) received an email with a discount offer to keep them shopping.

• Marketing a good or service your subscribers aren't familiar with. By showing your subscribers something that they may not have known you carried, you may inspire them to revisit your site. For instance, The Container Store took Earth Day as an opportunity to reveal themselves as a vendor of environmentally-conscious storage options.

Hopefully your email program is so relevant and engaging that no subscriber would ever DREAM of hitting the unsubscribe button. But if you happen to be seeing a high number of inactive subscribers, give some of these ideas a try and see if you can recapture some attention.

Always Active & Engaged,
Lisa Harmon and Alex Madison, Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

It's spring! Everything around us is green and fresh…why not our email photography treatments? This week, we took a look at how brands have been discovering new ways to treat imagery in email, ranging from simple to strange.

Spicing up silos. Products silos are so effective that they're fairly prevalent, but that's no reason for bland designs. Check out these brands' sweet silo treatments:

• Piperlime's propping grounds their silo products while adding interest. What could look fresher than daisies?

• Sephora's props help products pop on an otherwise stark background. They break the grid and add sensual context to products with benefits are tough to convey visually.

• Barneys New York makes their silos stand out against a black background with a jagged, artsy cut.

Thinking outside the grid. While sometimes the straight and simple product grid is the best option, it's worth looking at how some brands have stirred up their gridding for a fresher look.

• Restoration Hardware's clean design shows products framing body copy. It's still a grid, but it offers an alternative to a hero with products gridded beneath.

• Urban Outfitters' checkerboard collage of lifestyle shots features products and art imagery. The individual products don't stand out the way they would in a conventional grid, but they create a strong impression of what the brand offers for spring.

• Boden's use of product silos laid out on a mat-like background image shows a unique alternative to boxes. The inclusion of environmental shots in each section adds even more interest to what could have easily been laid out as a long, less interesting grid.

Why choose? Fun image combos. By incorporating more than one form of imagery, designs take on an artistic look that can suit unique themes.

• Betsey Johnson's cartoon illustrations always complement their images and make the photography seem more interesting.

• Fossil's combination of environmental photography, illustration and a product silo makes this seem like a page out of a scrapbook, suiting the style of the bag and the theme of "reclaiming pastimes."

• Coach uses a silo shot right alongside an environmental shot of the same product. The contrast is visual interesting, and allows Coach to position the product both aspirationally and with functional details.

Set for success with inset images. Including smaller, inset photos over larger imagery is a sleek, simple way to add interest to designs.

• Macy's inset photos set over an environmental shot add product imagery without disrupting the design's windswept desert theme.

• Anthropologie insets a small image of a model over a larger photo of the same model in the same set. The photography is conventional but this treatment makes it seem fresh.

• Fossil includes small close-ups of the models' hands over the larger environmental shot. This makes particular sense for Fossil as it allows them to highlight their watches while still using rich environmental photography.

Poppin' play with color. Brighter spring and summer color palettes (in both products and design) offer an opportunity to have more fun with color.

• Nordstrom uses bright background colors behind their models to make the vibrant clothing stand out even more.

• Shopbop's mix of color and black-and-white photography creates a somewhat jarring contrast and adds an edgy flare to their design.

• Free People's use of a similarly-staged photo with four different-colored pairs of shorts is fun and playful – perfect for spring.

Other creative trends. Freshening up image treatments means taking risks, trying unique approaches and sometimes even getting a little strange….

• Neiman Marcus tries something fun and funky by showing faded version of their model behind the clear hero image. You get the sense that she's actually spinning, per the headline.

• Barneys New York adds intrigue by playing with the orientation of their images in an inventive way.

• Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman all demonstrate the recent trend of incorporating snapshots into designs. (This must work; Lisa bought the "Taylor Momsen" look dress straight from the email!)

In many cases, the image makes the email. This spring, we challenge you to take risks and try photography treatments that will set your email apart in the inbox.

Getting Fresh this Spring,

Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon, Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

For too long, too many marketers have underestimated the value of email's impact on offline retail. Some believe that email marketing boosts only online sales, when in actuality cross-channel messaging carries high value across brand sales, reinforcing relationships with customers and, when optimally leveraged, alerting them to brick-and-mortar sales and events.

We've been seeing a wide range of approaches to retail store messaging in email. Here are some noteworthy tactics to try:

• In-Store Discounts: Entice subscribers into stores by telling them about a special deal that they can't get online. Victoria's Secret advertises a lotion giveaway only available in stores. Betsey Johnson's email alerts subscribers to an in-store-only "spend more, get more" gift card offer, where customers receive a gift card with their purchase, increasing in amount depending on their spending level. QFC invites subscribers to check out sale items at their local store, since deals vary across locations.

• Printable Store Coupons Bar Codes: Including barcodes or printable coupons in email, like Half Price Books and Janie and Jack, is becoming more common. It provides a way to measure the success of email in bringing people into stores, and is an effective way for email marketers to show marketing managers how the value of email reaches beyond online sales. The Container Store email gives a bit of a tease, asking subscribers to click to find out what the in-store offer is. While this has its charm, the extra step of requiring subscribers to click and download might deter some.

• Exclusive In-Store Products and Events: Email is an excellent way to spread the word about events or special offers happening only in stores. Starbucks sends a local events calendar that not only promotes the opening of a new store, but also demonstrates Starbucks' interest in their larger community. Pottery Barn Kids includes a module at the bottom of their retail customer messages about upcoming events at local stores, and REI promotes one of their free classes in a dynamic module.

• Promoting the In-Store Experience: Detailing excellent customer service offerings, such as the personal shopper touted in this J.Crew message, encourages subscribers to come in and interact with a brand representative in real life. This J.Crew message did miss an opportunity to dynamically populate the email with the subscriber's local store info (I know J.Crew has my address). Similarly, Apple reminds subscribers both of their great in-store service by including a picture of a blue-shirted expert alongside store offerings, and also by using beautiful store photography to make subscribers eager to experience in-store shopping.

• In-Store Charity Events: Using email to spread the word about in-store charity events both encourages involvement and reinforces a positive brand image. Gap's Give and Get program offers subscribers a printable coupon. White House Black Market invites subscribers in for "A Special Evening to Give Hope," during which shoppers received a discount and a portion of proceeds went to the organization Living Beyond Breast Cancer. The invitation makes the event seem like a special experience that subscribers don't want to miss.

• Prominent Store Directions: It's becoming more and more common for emails to include subscribers' local store info, as in REI holiday email and this Crate and Barrel email. When brands don't have subscribers' location information, most include links inviting subscribers to find their local store, as at the bottom of this Pottery Barn email.

• Invitations to New Store Openings: When brands have subscribers' location information, email is an effective way to spread the word about new store openings. Williams-Sonoma includes a special offer to encourage subscribers to come check out their new space. Urban Outfitters' store announcement takes it up a notch. Their creative shows a theme that fits city, includes an early bird offer to ensure a crowd when the doors open, and shows their commitment to the community by announcing their donation to a local scholarship fund.

• Personalized Invitations to Loyal Subscribers: The least common (but most awesome!) way email is used to get subscribers into stores is a personal email from a sales associate to loyal customers. Nordstrom personally invited their most loyal customers in for a sale screening before their anniversary sale.

Get the most bang from the inbox by optimizing cross-channel marketing opportunities. Remember that there's likely much overlap between your most loyal email subscribers and your loyal store visitors, and when there isn't overlap, aspire to create it!

Faithfully in Email and In-Store,
Lisa Harmon and Alex Madison, Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Following the eec announcement of the Render Rate, some have asked why? Who cares? And what makes the Render Rate better than the other proposed metric—Action Rate—or vice versa?

As outlined in the previous post, How Opens Are Tracked and Reported, there are a large number of scenarios where an open might be tracked. At the most basic level, there are two methods of tracking opens:

1) A unique tracking image inserted into the email was loaded: confirming that the images in the email were rendered.

2) A link in the email was clicked: since obviously a link cannot be clicked if the email was not opened, this method allows us to track some of the people missed by the first method.
Render Rate is calculated using only the first method, while Action Rate is calculated by combining the unique results of both methods.

Advantages of Render Rate

Render Rate has the advantage over Action Rate in two ways:

1) Pre-conversion testing: At the end of the day, most marketers want to look at conversion of some sort. Even so, evaluation of pre-conversion dynamics can be helpful in optimizing a program. Because Render Rate measures only one thing, it is better suited for testing in pre-conversion testing scenarios. If we want to look at the ability of a subject line to get people to look at the email, The Render Rate only measures that one thing. If we use Action Rate to evaluate subject lines we are actually testing two different things: 1) which subject line got more people to view the email with images, and 2) which subject line got more people who didn't view the email with images to click. Since Action Rate would evaluate success based on two different criterions, it is difficult to determine what the subject line actually does best. A better approach is to use Render Rate to answer the question, "Which subject line got more people to look at my email?" and use Click Through Rate to answer the question, "Which subject line gets more people to click on a link?"

One could take subject line testing a step further by analyzing the results in two stages – first look at which subject line had better reach, and then we can look at which subject line eventually drove more people to the landing page. Then we would optimize the landing page to further increase conversions (e.g. sales) in its own tests. In theory, optimizing each step in the process will increase overall conversions, but there are exceptions, so a final test using conversions from emails delivered is recommended.

Render Rate also improves testing of creative elements in email because it limits both the control and the test groups to only a version of the email where we could be sure that images were seen by all subjects in both groups. When addressing the question, "Which creative is most effective at getting people to click?" conduct the test based on the people who we know saw the creative (as measured by renders) and then look at that segment to determine which creative version got the higher percentage of people to click through. This type of evaluation is impossible using Action Rate since by definition, anyone who clicked also opened, which inaccurately implies 100% effectiveness of the creative.

Limiting to the render rate only means that both the control and the test group see the same thing. Some examples of tests – types of imagery used in pictures, call to action placement (preview pane or below), button vs. text links. This can be particularly important to those that write emails that have few links in them (or even just one) – where the placement of that link, whether it be a feedback method or the call to action itself moves based on image rendering.

2) Ad impressions: Many advertisers sell display advertising in email. Render Rate provides accurate measures for how many of those ads were displayed. Since it limits the value of the metric to specifically image based opens (renders) it gives us the true number of total impressions using the total emails rendered. Keep in mind, for image-based advertisers, there is no value of an email for which no images are rendered—Action Rate would provide an artificially inflated view of performance. We could also use the Render Rate to determine reach and frequency in a specific email. Here the unique number of email renders is the reach and the total number is the frequency. When combined with monetization via ad revenue we can construct a traditional direct marketing RFM model.

Of course, Render Rate has its challenges, which is why a second metric has also been proposed.

Advantages of Action Rate

Action Rate has the advantage over Render Rate in two ways:

1) Less Inaccurate Measure of "Opens": Render Rate underreports the number of people who seemingly looked at your email more than Action Rate. However, Action Rate still underreports this number. In reality, no reliable method for determining how many subscribers actually looked at your email exists. Both proposed metrics are estimates. Both are low estimates. Action Rate is simply a slightly closer estimate of the number of people who presumably looked at your email.

Under reporting is one of the primary reasons the eec Measurement Accuracy Roundtable recommends a move away from the term Open Rate. Unfortunately, this term has left many marketers with an incorrect understanding of what the metric provides. Worse still, "Open Rates" are calculated different ways by different ESPs—thus the need for standardization.

2) Text-based advertising: Again using the publishing realm as a basis of example, publishers often need to provide reports on text-based advertising. For this purpose, Action Rate is a better standard metric for the reasons listed in the prior section. The Action Rate, which reports, "opens" based on either the rendering of a tracking pixel or a user action (i.e. a click) we can better judge the true number of ad impressions based on action rate. Currently, to our knowledge there is no other industry metric that is defined and standardized that accomplishes this goal.

Use Both to Gain Additional Insights

Finally, using both the Render Rate and the Action Rate together we can learn more about our subscribers and the ways they use emails. For example if you see a regular reader appearing in the list of subscribers that typically views emails with images on and then suddenly drops off the list of those that fit the render rate definition and starts showing up on the action rate only, this may indicate that the subscriber has begun reading their emails with a mobile device. It may also be that they have not added you to their white list, or another set of circumstances may have occurred. The point here, is that using them both we can identify little differences in subscriber behavior that may alert us that it would be worth it to request more feedback from that reader or set off a trigger email to them.

The members of the Measurement Accuracy Roundtable think that if you do adopt our proposed metrics – whether via your ESP or in your own email deployment and reporting in-house system that you will find the Render Rate, the Action Rate and their associated metrics to be superior to current methods—which are inconsistent and sometimes misleading. For those of you that are already defining your open metrics using the Render and Action Rates we congratulate you on being ahead of the times and welcome your support on this initiative and help to spread the metrics throughout the industry so that all email marketers and our stakeholders can have clearer understanding on how our programs work and their effectiveness.

- Luke Glasner, Rodman Publishing & Morgan Stewart, ExactTarget

Email marketing copy can sometimes start to feel stale. For instance, how many ways can we say "sale"!? It's often necessary for us to actively seek ways to refresh our messaging. As spring begins, let's take a look at some strong, unique copy treatments. Let's look at words with fresh eyes.

Choosing from our favorite brand "artists," we've compiled a "mix tape" (or, these days, an iPod playlist) of copy treatments. Check it out and see if it inspires any new moods.

I Saw the Sign: Subject Lines

• Boden subject line: "A Boden offer to get your knits in a twist." Including branding at the front of the subject line has shown to boost open rates in some studies, implying that some subscribers just scan subject lines without looking hard at the "from" name. Boden picks up this tip and also entices subscribers with the promise of an offer inside. Love the "knits in a twist" rhyme .

• Sephora subject line: "Pick 5 samples!" This short subject line stands out amongst the longer ones and engages the subscriber with a direct call-to-action and a fun offer. While there's some debate around subject line length best practices (check out Chad White's Email Insider article), most email marketers aim for between 35 and 45 characters. Some of the most attention-catching subject lines are shorter than that, though, like this one.

• Nordstrom subject line: "Dive In: New Swimwear from Miracle Suit." The subject line is clear about the email content, and the unique punctuation and fun intro "Dive In:" may garner some extra attention.

RESPECT: Preheaders

• Staples: Last week, Chad White blogged about Staples' preheader in his Retail Email Blog. Staples used clever copy to appeal to their subscribers' point of view, asking them "Is your coupon not displaying correctly? Prompt to view." as well as prefacing their whitelisting request with "Don't miss the savings." Staples recognizes that their subscribers don't care about missing emails, they care about missing savings, and the copy conveys this understanding.

• Piperlime: Because their (adorable!) headline "Tailor Made" probably wouldn't make sense to someone viewing the email without images, Piperlime writers include a different headline for the preheader text, which maintains the playful tone but adds clarity: "Turn it up in menswear-inspired heels. Shop now."

I Heard it Through the Grapevine: Forward to a Friend
Most "forward to a friend" links are direct and clear, but some brands spice it up.

• J.Crew asks subscribers to "spread the word" to their friends as a main CTA in this message.
• giggle includes their FTAF link prominently at the bottom of their email and prefaces it with "Psst," to give the impression that they are inviting their subscriber to pass on a secret.

Greased Lightning: Headlines

• Apple always has great headlines. Their recent email for iPod Touch games is particularly genius: "Score major points this Valentine's Day." The play on "scoring points" is fun and, coupled with the image of the iPod Touch Scrabble game spelling out "LOVE YOU," the whole message is playful and engaging.

• Urban Outfitters: The headline on this email, "YOU LOST" is hilarious. It came long enough after I entered this sweepstakes that I'd forgotten all about it, and the headline caught my attention and led me to read the rest of the email, which contained a special consolation prize discount offer.

• J.Crew's headline "On it way…" freshens up a shipping message that would otherwise be drab. Cool copy can make the simplest messages satisfying for the subscriber.

Baby One More Time: Subheadlines

• Barneys New York's subheadline, "You really need to read today's barneys babble," sounds like an urging from a friend. The subscriber feels like she'd be missing out if she didn't check it out.

• J.Crew gets a third shout-out for their subheadline from a while back. It reaches subscribers right where they are—on their computers, presumably working on something—and invites them to take a quick shopping break.

Twist and Shout: Body Copy

• Land of Nod has some of the most consistently strong copy in the industry. The body copy in this email reaches out to its audience of mamas by making it clear that Land of Nod really understands what it's like to have a newborn. "We know it'll be hard to put the baby to sleep", they're saying, "but at least you'll have this cute bedding to look at."

• Sephora's body copy in their main message and submessages often appeals to the senses, enticing subscribers with quick snippets.

Jack and Diane: Personalization

• Virgin America (whose copy always rocks!) took a fun approach to personalization in this message. Saying "Hey Darrah," instead of "Hi," or "Hello," is conversational enough to immediately engage the subscriber in a dialogue. While "Hey," doesn't fit the voice of every brand, it's worth considering the perfect form of personalization for your subscriber base.

Where Are You Going: CTA

• Piperlime: Piperlime shows some sweet spring sandals and then calls subscribers to "Find Yours". The CTA make sense coming off the body copy. We feel like the perfect sandals are awaiting us if we just click.

• Anthropologie's "See for Yourself" CTA fits nicely into the theme of this email, which introduces some loud and unusual prints and challenges potentially-skeptical subscribers to see how good they'll look.

• Backcountry uses the straightforward-and-proven "SHOP NOW" CTA in their primary message area, but they get creative in their secondary messages with "Get Layered", "Skin Up" and "Little Stuff." A nitpicky point is that the third CTA would have been stronger as a verb phrase for the sake of consistency, but we'll let it go since all three links are so fun and inviting.

Bye, Bye Baby: Conclusion
All brand "artists" mentioned above have consistently on-brand, unique and compelling copy. If you aren't already on their subscriber lists, you might consider signing up for some new ideas. The most important consideration, of course, is the harmony between the design and the copy, so get collaborating and see what jives.

Dance party, anyone?

Feeling the Beat,

Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon, Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and brands are already using email to ask us to be their Valentines. As you receive more Valentine's Day-themed email creatives and possibly work at adding Valentine touches to your own, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at the ways that retailers handled the holiday of hearts in 2008.

• Creative Approaches: to pink or not to pink
Valentine's Day-themed email creatives can come off as fun or overwhelming depending on your subscriber's moods and attitudes. We get pink and red and lace and a whole lot of hearts! Last year Costco sent out an email with their usual template, but used fun, bright pink as well as Valentine's Day-themed copy.

In contrast, this Dean & Deluca message isn't dressed up with any pink or hearts, but it carries its Valentine's Day theme in its copy and the products it promotes ingredients for a special dinner for two, right down to L-O-V-E plates. Lacoste's mellow 2008 creative was somewhat refreshing in the sea of pink hearts flooding the inbox. The copy calls out Valentine's Day, but the red is made subtle with the blue background and the red and white striped shirt.

• The traditional, the expected, the tasty and pretty
Last year, as every year, many brands used Valentine's Day to feature sweets and jewelry. See Williams Sonoma's cute cookies and Saks Fifth Avenue's deadline on chocolate shipping, as well as Barney's New York subtle creative featuring their Corazon Necklace.

• Thinking outside the chocolate box
A few of last year's Valentine's Day marketing ideas stuck out amongst the traditions. Circuit City "deals of the day" built anticipation in the days leading up to Valentine's Day and engaged subscribers who might not otherwise think of Circuit City as a go-to brand for the holiday.

Red Envelope sent a special email promoting jewelry for her and for him, which was
interesting—we don't usually see "Shop Men's Jewelry" as a CTA! This was an unexpected spin on the classic marketing of women's-only jewelry.

• Shipping offers (and gentle prodding for procrastinators)
As the larger burden of Valentine's Day gifting traditionally falls upon men, the gift-buying game also becomes stereotypically (and statistically) a game played by procrastinators. Most of last year's Valentine's Day emails called out shipping deadlines and special offers. The emails became increasingly urgent as the holiday approached, as exemplified by this bright pink last-chance Dean & Deluca email and this Red Envelope one-day offer on the shipping cut-off date.

• Be Your Own Valentine
Some clothing retailers understood that their offerings weren't likely to be selected for gift-giving but still targeted their subscribers' love-leaning interests by encouraging self-gifting. Arden B's email played off Valentine's Day by reminding subscribers how much they love denim, and Seven for all Mankind encouraged subscribers to treat themselves in honor of Valentine's Day. Road Runner Sports invited their subscribers to use Valentine's Day as an opportunity to display their love for running.

On Feb 14, Hollister sent out an email marketing boys' clothes with a typical creative, but with the subject line "She won't be able to keep her hands off you," adding an on-brand touch of Valentine's Day.

• Prediction for Valentine's Day 2009: Love 2.0
Since last February, Marketers have gained a much firmer grasp on web 2.0 tactics like videos and microsites, and we expect to see some fun stuff emerge from these developments this year. For example, 1-800-Flowers included video proposals in last year's Valentine's Day emails, which may make a reappearance, and we may also see new versions of ideas that launched during the earlier winter holiday season, such as JC Penney's Beware of the Doghouse microsite.

For even more reflection on Valentines past, take a look at our old loves from 2007. Chad White's Season Finale: Valentine's Day 2008 on the Retail Email Blog also offers more insight into overall trends of Valentine's Day 2008 and shows some unique approaches taken by specific brands. We expect even more and better love to be spread throughout Valentine's Day 2009, so stay tuned to your inboxes.

XOXO,
Alex Madison, Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you for all of your support of the eec so far. Thanks to fantastic people like you, the eec continues to grow in both size and stature within the email industry.

Over the past three years, the eec has been able to create a community that offers those from all areas of the email marketing industry the opportunity to come, learn and act collectively in positive ways that help change increase the respect and value that email receives from the marketing and advertising worldl.

Collectively, we have helped increase the ROI of email marketing, lobbied for better laws, stronger relationships with ISP's and better integration into other channels like social marketing, mobile markeitng and even search, display and TV. A few of us even wrote books about it!

With all that we have accomplished, we can't sit back and be satisfied. We need to strive for more! More effective email campaign results, more impactful creative, more leverage with ISP's, more innovation with the technologies we use, and more networking to strengthen our collective spirit.

It is with this call for MORE that I am pleased to extend a personal invitation for you to join me at EEC09 in Scottsdale, Arizona, February 9-11th. Use discount code JAN09 to register for just $999* (register at www.emailevolution.org).

Join me, Jeanniey Mullen, as well as our well respected powerful keynote speaker and father of Direct Marketing: Stan Rapp, along with David Daniels, Bill Nussey, Kath Pay, Peter Horan, David Baker, Stephanie Miller, Dela Quist, Ali Swerdlow, Loren McDonald, Stefan Pollard, Jeanne Jennings, Dave Hendricks, Bill McCloskey, Skip Fidura, Dylan Boyd, Aaron Kahlow, Chris Baggott and many other email superstars at this year's event.

In challenging times like these, attending conferences that offer insights and actionable learnings is critical. And, sometimes the networking that happens at the event proves to be even more beneficial. You have my word that you will not be disappointed at this event.

I really hope to see you there. And, if you can make it, drop me an email when you register: jeanniey@emailexperience.org. I would love to say hi at the event and spend some time with you.

Sincerely,

Jeanniey Mullen
eec Founder and Executive Chair

*Only applies to new registrations

Test, test and test again.
- Spencer Kollas, StrongMail

View your campaigns through the eyes of your recipients. Test out your from name, subject line, creative, call-to-action, etc on subscribers who are *not* in your office or affiliated directly with your product/brand.
- DJ Waldow, Bronto Software

"Focus on reducing opt-in friction by testing and optimizing preference centers and other points of data collection – new signups will be especially critical to your business in 2009."
- Nicholas Einstein, Datran Media

Predictions for 2009:
1. Preheader text will be used by the majority of email marketers.
2. More email marketers will launch preference centers, giving subscribers more control of the content and frequency of the emails they receive.
3. Marketers will experiment with videos embedded in emails.
- Chad White, Smith-Harmon