This week the Inbox Insiders, an email marketing discussion group, had a lot to say about the Kevin Smith vs Southwest Airlines debacle. 

Here's what DJ Waldow of Blue Sky Factory, an eec Silver Sponsor, shared with us: 

I'm more interested in how Southwest handled the situation from a social media perspective. I can't speak to all channels, but I'll start with one of the most visible - Twitter. It started with a tweet from Kevin on Feb 13th at 6:52PM:

Dear @SouthwestAir - I know I'm fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?

@SouthwestAir replied 16 minutes later with this: @ThatKevinSmith hey Kevin! I'm so sorry for your experience tonight! Hopefully we can make things right, please follow so we may DM!

I personally think SWA's reply on Twitter was really good. Without knowing the full situation, they did a nice job in replying by acknowledging the issue, apologizing and offering to carry on the conversation privately (via DM).  From there it started to get ugly as Kevin Smith began to tweet like a madman using a ton of profanities.

The one issue I do have with how SWA handled this situation is that they may have jumped the gun a bit with their initial blog post.  It seems as though they might not have gotten all of their facts straight.

Takeaways, Lessons Learned, etc. (just my opinion here):

• Social Media is alive and well.
• People tend to use social media to either sing praises (We love you!) or complain (I was wronged. I hate you!).
• While it is important to reply promptly, be sure to have all of your facts straight.
• Remember that people will be quick to form their own opinions, take sides, and are not afraid to voice their thoughts publicly.
• Twitter is not always the answer; it often takes real humans.
• Sometimes it makes sense to "take it private" (as outlined by Amber Naslund).
• Responding to customer service via social media channels is not really that different than how it "used to be done."

A few resources:

• CNN
• Initial SWA blog post
• 2nd SWA blog post
• Kevin Smith's Side

For more details, check out DJ's blog post.

eec'ers - What do you think?

Did Southwest handle the situation properly? 
Is this all a publicity stunt for Smith's new movie?
Do you think companies should publically respond to customer service issues?

Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

This week Facebook will begin giving marketers the ability to collect email address from users of our Facebook applications.  This is welcome news and opens up a world of possibilities for creating integrated programs that leverage the strengths of each channel to drive business objectives and richer customer experiences.  Currently, applications communicate with users through Facebook notifications - a constrained inbox with few opportunities for meaningful direct communications and limited opportunities for monetization.  After Wednesday, marketers will have the ability to make email permission optional, or a mandatory requirement of an application, and may no longer post notifications from applications.  This development opens up an exciting new way for Facebook marketers to interact with and ultimately monetize social audiences.  

An example of the optional prompt:


 

And mandatory:


Facbook will be supporting this change by encouraging users to share their email addresses with applications, and will be posting dialog boxes like the one below on every canvas page a user visits for their first three sessions.


 

On the Developer wiki, Facebook clearly articulates the policies senders must adhere to:

Draft Policies

a. You must not give or sell users' email addresses to any third party or affiliate.
b. You must comply with the provisions of the Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM Act and all other applicable spam laws (e.g., provide a visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism and honor opt-out requests within 10 days).
c. You must explain clearly to users, in a privacy policy or elsewhere in a conspicuous place, how you will use their email addresses.
d. Emails you send must clearly indicate that they are from you and must not appear to be from Facebook or anyone else. For example, you must not include Facebook logos or brand assets in your emails, and you must not mention Facebook in the subject line, "from" line, or body header.
e. All emails to users must originate from the same domain, and you must provide us with the name of that domain in the Facebook Developer application used to manage your application.

As we kick off 2010, it's hard to argue that the most exciting force in the email marketing space is the rapid adoption of social networks and the opportunities that exist for those who are able to develop truly integrated programs.  Much has been written in this blog about social media, and though virtually everyone is excited by the possibilities, most of us are still in the relatively early phases of determining the best strategies and tactics for our programs.  Few in the space can point to quantifiable success stories.  This development gives social marketers a powerful, proven tool for engaging and monetizing audiences, and I look forward to seeing how we capitalize on the opportunity.

Read more on the Facebook Developer Wiki and please comment below or reach out to me directly to continue the conversation - 2010 is going to be a big one for email [the original and largest social network].

- Nicholas Einstein
Director of Strategic & Analytic Services
Datran Media

Does a personalized subject line work?

Back in my Bronto days, I blogged about personalized subject lines. I provided a generic "It depends" as my answer ... followed by a more detailed explanation. Since that post more than a year ago, I've continued to receive emails that include personalized subject lines. However, most of those emails use my first name as the "hook" to get me to open. This never works for me. Never. I know it's fake. I know it's not genuine. I know it's a "mail merge" of sorts.

Then, the other day, I received this email from Spreadshirt.

Why This Email Rocks

First off, I love Spreadshirt. I love their emails. I love their subject lines. I love their products. I love their humor. Love. Love. Love. So what makes this email rock? Check out the subject line (Durham Rocks!). At some point, I must have entered my city of residence in a preference field. I honestly can't recall doing so, but the folks at Spreadshirt somehow know (I moved from Durham 4 months ago. More on that later).

Spreadshirt accomplished objective #1. I opened the email. Why? Because - even though I don't still live there - I love Durham. It does rock.

Spreadshirt accomplished objective #2. I read the email. The entire thing. Why did I read it? First off, it was short and to the point. It had a main call to action ("Create Your Hometown Shirt") that was clear and catchy. They added a bit of spice/humor to the copy. They closed with 4 ways to follow them via various social networks.

Assuming those were really the first two objectives, they won. Now, I didn't click. I didn't create my own shirt. But...I did write this blog post. I did tell a few friends about it. I will continue to love Spreadshirt. And, equally as important, when the time is right, I will buy from Spreadshirt. They are definitely "top of mind."

Some Caveats

I'd be remiss if I didn't offer some constructive criticism for Spreashirt. I have 3 suggestions.

1. Images Off: The email is not terrible if images are not enabled, but it's not great. Here's why - the main call to action "Create Your Hometown Shirt" - is a button and therefore is not visible unless images are turned on. It should be a bulletproof button (Ask Lisa Harmon).

2. I Don't Live in Durham Anymore: This is not really Spreadshirt's fault. I mean, how would they know I moved 4 months ago? That being said, don't forget to send the occasional email that asks subscribers to update their preferences. Make sure you tell them why and what's in it for them.

3. Follow Spreadshirt On...: I love this concept. They have buttons/images and links. They describe briefly what I'll get (set expectations). They cover the main "social networks"  - Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr. However, Spreadshirt may want to consider moving these "follow" options up a bit. Mabye put them on the right or left navigation? They may get lost a little on the bottom of the email.

---------

So what do you think? Does Spreadshirt rock? For those that live or have lived in Durham, does Durham rock? (I think so).


- DJ Waldow, Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
DJ Waldow is the Director of Community at Blue Sky Factory, an ESP and an eec Silver Sponsor based in Baltimore. With over 4 years of experience in email marketing, DJ is active in the twittersphere (@djwaldow), on blogs (blog.blueskyfactory.com), and in the social media space. He's an administrator and a regular contributor to the Email Marketers Club and other email-related social networks. DJ resides in Salt Lake City, Utah where he can be found thinking, eating, and breathing email.

If you attended this week's Email Nirvana Webinar, you heard eec member Loren McDonald and founder Jeanniey Mullen give quite a presentation. It was so captivating that they almost didn't have time for questions. But they wanted to make sure everyone's concerns and questions were heard and so they agreed to answer some of the most frequently asked questions right here on the eec blog! More questions and answers can be reviewed on the Silverpop and OMS blogs as well. We will add the links soon.

Now, on to the questions...

How many words do you recommend for effective subject lines? I would think it would be 7 or less - any suggestions?

This is a great question, and one that can't really be answered easily. The real answer is, it depends on what the message is that you are trying to convey. Key points to remember when determining subject lines are: 1) Don't be cute- while you know what is inside the email and why your subject line might be a pun on the contents, no one else has opened it yet. They wont get the joke. The more direct the better.  2) Get to the point. Whether 7 words or 11, covey the main reason why you want people to open your email to avoid disappointment when they actually do. 3) There is no need to put your company name in the SL unless it is not in the from address. They just saw the email was from XYZ. They don't need to see that in the SL too. Start with these points, and test your way into improvements. Also- check out the eec whitepaper room for more subject line specific research and case studies.
 

What do you do if your emails are only relevant for a certain amount of time?

I love this question. Actually… emails never die. You might have seen this on TV in Law and Order, or some other crime show. You know, the part where the crime lab takes a computer that was on fire and somehow is able to restore emails? Well, believe it or not, the same is true for marketing emails. We have done studies at the eec where people show they will store an email from a brand that interests them for up to 2 years. The messages specific relevancy by that point has come and gone, but the brand impact is everlasting.  If your emails are only relevant for a short time you have one of two options: 1- add value added help links that make the content evergreen and give someone a reason to save your emails for years, or 2- test swapping out the non-relevant images behind the scenes and create and email that updates it's own content whenever opened, every so often.
 

Tips for B2B?

Anything you heard or saw in the webinar is true for B2B as well. B2B readers are also customers dealing with the same overloading email boxes, priority pressures and need to feel special that we all do in our personal lives. Start with a great B2C concept and email the eec for help if you need to/want to adjust for B2B.


What is the importance of the metrics particularly if you are emailing from a non-profit?

Metrics are important for any industry or vertical when it comes to email. They enable to you to, at the very least, set a benchmark for how your effort compare to other entities. One key measurement I enjoy reviewing is the click to open rate (what percentage of people who open your email click on the link). This lets you gauge how well your segmentation and targeting strategy are working. If less than 25% of these who open click, you are not reaching an engaged audience. Every year, the eec gathers a volunteer team of the best minds in email to help a npf improve their email. You can read the case studies right here on the eec site.

 
Are subscribers likely to fill out a form with all of those questions? How do you entice them to do so without making them skeptical about why you want the information?
 
This is always a tough question to answer because it is a business decision. Shorter forms get more completes, but lower quality. Longer forms drive more serious traffic. MotleyFool is one company who manages long forms very well. They incent people part way through. Ex Give us your email and name and get our email newsletter. When you do they say "thanks, now give us your mailing address and we will also send you a free whitepaper…. This happens many times until you unknowingly and happily have given every piece of personal information you have in small bits in return for value added products. Definitely worth a test.

Video in email. Not a week goes by without a webinar, blog or email newsletter mentioning the topic. But is video in email the real deal? Or is it still too early to start whipping out the camcorders and hiring scriptwriters?

To get a better handle on the topic, I turned to ClickMail Marketing's CTO, Cameron Kane, for some insight. Cameron is paying close attention to the video vibe and was deploying video for clients way before the hype. But whether or not video is ready for prime time is the topic I asked him to speak upon.

First off, Cameron says you need to be clear on your motivation. Video can be a good tool to engage prospects or re-engage existing customers. But make sure you'll use it that way. Ask yourself, "Will this really help me engage the customer or am I doing this because it's the next shiny new thing?"

Next, Cameron cautions being aware of the different ways to deliver video. Which method you choose depends in part on your audience and in part on how much success you want.

1. As a static image that clicks through to video on a landing page – This is an image with a Play arrow on it indicating it will start a video. The video starts playing upon the click through.
2. As an animated .gif that plays in the email – Cameron says this is a good way to go if you can get the point of your short video across without sound. "It should be used as more of a lure than the full-blown video," he says. But it will not play if images are suppressed. And it only shows the first frame in Microsoft Outlook 2007, so when you're creating it, you must make your first frame a static image with an arrow (as above) so the user can click through. For this reason, it's a bad choice if you're a B2B marketer as so many business people use Outlook.
3. As certified video that plays in the email with audio (AOL only) – Right now this applies only to AOL, although other ISPs are joining, like Comcast. "I think the expansion into ISPs needs to widen a tad before we can really speak to this," says Cameron. "The home run is if they can get Hotmail, Livemail and Gmail. Then video will be pervasive," he says. Certified video has just come onto the scene and it will be very interesting in watching this playout. The implications on this front go wide and far. I think the best has yet to come.
4. As embedded Flash video: "Very bad idea," says Cameron. "We could do this 5 years ago, but no longer."

Of the four choices above, Cameron recommends using the static image for a B2B audience. If the audience is B2C, he says, start with an animated .gif and do an A/B split test. If the animated .gif works, filter your AOL audience and if that audience is big enough and a lift in revenue would be significant, use the certified video for that segment. "I would see this option as the best for large retailers," he says. Although he also points out Goodmail hasn't done their homework yet on the effectiveness of video and whether or not there's a lift in ROI. "They don't have conclusive data as of yet on the lift a sender would receive if using video," he points out.

If you use video in your email marketing, there are still email best practices to adhere to. Just because you're adapting a new approach and technology doesn't mean the old rules no longer apply. Things to keep in mind when using video in your email marketing include:

• You still have to be relevant and targeted
• It's still email. You're still trying to get the recipient to do something, to take some kind of action
• You still have to measure its impact
• You still have to test
• You have to consider bandwidth and rendering issues

Most of all, perhaps, and this is where the discussion about video in email gets fuzzy, you have to consider image blocking. A recent webinar on video in email hardly spent 10 seconds on the topic, but the reality is, if your recipients have images suppressed, it doesn't matter which method you choose to deliver your video in the email: They won't see it.

As Cameron says, "You have to get them to download images, then view the email and video, then click through. This is all before they hopefully convert. There's lots of room for drop out."

So maybe it's worth waiting a while before you "drop in" to the video in email camp.

- Marco Marini, CEO, ClickMail Marketing

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

Gmail reported in their blog this week that they have developed a way to provide their users with an opportunity to report spam and/or unsubscribe from emails they receive in their Gmail accounts. The article, titled "Unsubscribing Made Easy" is a positive change for Gmail, but still falls short of where most legitimate senders want to see.

Like many complaint feedback loops (also known as FBL's) offered by a number of ISPs, Gmail's new functionality is mostly a good thing. I applaud their effort, and it certainly helps when there is this cooperation and transparency in the sender/receiver relationship. It is better for everyone. This is why the Abuse Reporting Format was met with applause by senders when it arrived a few years back.

Here are the good parts. First, Gmail's new feature provides the subscriber with a chance to mark a message as spam, which should allow Gmail to better filter their email. Second, in addition to the option to just report spam, the end user may also choose to "unsubscribe and report spam." This second option apparently is just provided when Gmail deems the sender to be reputable. See the image below for an idea on what the subscriber sees.

In his blog, Brad Taylor outlines the reasons Gmail pursued the development of this new feature.

"For those of you senders who are interested in this feature, the most basic requirements are including a standard "List-Unsubscribe" header in your email with a "mailto" URL and, of course, honoring requests from users wishing to unsubscribe. You'll also need to follow good sending practices, which in a nutshell means not sending unwanted email (see our bulk sending guidelines for more information).

With an easy way to unsubscribe, everybody wins. Your spam folder is smaller, and senders don't waste time sending you email that you no longer want.

Update (1:50pm): If you want to unsubscribe without reporting the message as spam, click "show details" in the top-right corner of the message, then click "Unsubscribe from this sender."

It is this piece that leads me to a bit of concern on the implementation. If Gmail is doing their usual checks on authentication, reputation, content etc. to determine which senders are legitimate, why then force the end-user to either mark something as spam, or go through "show details" (which nearly no one will do) to unsubscribe? Why not also provide an unsubscribe button on the interface in addition to the "report spam" button?
I can understand why Gmail would forgo providing the email address back to the sender at the user's discretion. However, even the FTC has a study showing that unsubscribing from spam doesn't really lead to more spam. In the FTC's 2002 study, they report that "In no instance did we find that any of our unique email accounts received more spam after attempting to unsubscribe."

Gmail has the opportunity to educate their subscribers on legitimate and unsolicited email. Why not provide just an "unsubscribe" button for legitimate senders, and explain why they are doing it, rather than propagating the unfounded fear of unsubscribing?
Also, other ISPs have gotten around this privacy concern by not passing back the actual email address back to the sender. Many senders use other forensics to determine which subscriber complained so that this subscriber can be removed from the list.

Engagement Matters
We advise clients to look at all sorts of engagement metrics, and unsubscribes and complaints are equally as important as opens and clicks. When possible, I'd like to know the ultimate intent of the subscriber when they choose to get off of a list. I always say I'd rather have someone unsubscribe from my email than ignore me.

As for which email this is enabled for and which not, the folks over at Word to the Wise looked at this a bit deeper and do some testing. They found that:
"Conditions where the unsubscribe option is presented include:

• The mail is authenticated
• The sender has a good reputation
• The email has a mailto: option in the List-Unsubscribe header
• The recipients marks the message as spam"
  

Read more about their tests here http://blog.exacttarget.com/blog/the-exacttarget-blog/0/0/gmail-offering-unsubscribe-option or here http://blog.wordtothewise.com/2009/07/gmail-offering-unsubscribe-option/.

Either way, legitimate senders do benefit from this, but it is fun to dream of having both unsubscribe and report spam options available to subscribers.

- Chip House, Vice President, Industry & Relationship Marketing, ExactTarget

Chip is responsible for industry research and relations, and owns the targeted marketing programs that ensure the satisfaction and success of ExactTarget's client base.  Chip also manages the teams responsible for marketing research, deliverability compliance, and privacy initiatives.  As an established industry leader, Chip writes regularly for online marketing publications and was named to BtoB Magazine's 2005 "Who's Who in B-To-B" for being a vocal proponent of legitimate commercial email. Chip brings 20 years of direct marketing and twelve years of internet marketing experience to ExactTarget.

Man. It must be tough to be a financial institution in 2009. I'm not referring to the current financial crisis. I'm talking about trying to convince consumers that the email you are sending is legitimate (not spam, not phishing).

My wife and I recently moved into a new home in Salt Lake City. We used Bank of America for our mortgage. A few weeks after signing the paperwork, I received the following email

eec Superstar, Lisa Harmon has written about the preheader in the past. Fellow Smith-Harmon guy, Chad White also talks about it often. However, I've never seen a company use that valuable real estate to tell people an email they are about to read is NOT spam. Interesting.

Why This Technique May Work
Hey, you've gotta give credit for Bank of America for not giving up on email marketing as a engagement channel. While I may have historically marked this as spam out of habit, I didn't this time. Was it because of the timing of their email (I just secured a B of A Mortgage)? Was it because they told me the email was NOT spam? Who knows.

I wonder what their open vs. unsubscribe/spam ratios looked like for this campaign. Did they do some A|B testing on that big red box telling me "This is NOT spam"? Maybe that phrase works for some, maybe for the majority. So, Bank of America - did this work?

Why This Technique May Fail
Telling me something is NOT spam makes me think even more that it IS spam. That's what spammers and phishers do. "Please trust us. We're the good guys, the guys with the white hats." Yeah, right. I trust you. Also, if you have to tell me something is NOT something I think it may be, well...you're already starting behind. As mentioned above, that preheader / above-the-fold area is what usually is seen first. Bank of America wants me to complete the survey, but I may be caught up on the fact that this email is or is NOT spam.

A Few Other Thoughts
1. Using the data: Bank of America sent me a few of these survey emails. Notice the subject line leads with the word "Reminder." I love this. Ideally, they are using data to know I haven't completed the survey yet. They seem to be using this information to remail me (and others?). A great strategy.

2. Images on vs. off: Using a link as opposed to a button ensures that I'm more likely to see it with images off. Yes!

3. Copy (the good): I liked that they started by congratulating me. I realize this is not "personalized" per se, but it was a nice way to start. They build upon my feel-good attitude with a thank you in the first paragraph. The email continues by setting my expectations around time (10 minutes) and why they are asking me to complete ("measure and learn"). Finally, it closes with a signature from Peggy, the SVP of CEE. Good touch.

4. Copy (the bad):

• I realize mergers & acquisitions can cause marketing headaches. They are tough to communicate and can be confusing to the consumer. I applaud their effort to make me aware of the Countrywide acquisition, but I'm now a bit thrown off. I've never heard of Countrywide.
• "Please do not reply to this email" - a big pet peeve of mine. They just spent a ton of copy congratulating and thanking me, then asking me to take 10 minutes out of my life to complete their survey. Yet...now they don't want me to reply as they are "not able to respond..." Oops.
• Bank of America wants me to complete the survey. However, the link to the begin is at the bottom. Toss in the link in the preheader. Or, how about adding a link within the body copy? Don't make me work for it. Remember, I'm doing you a favor.

Dear Bank of America - If you are listening, we'd love to talk more. Are any other financial institutions attempting this approach? Do share...

- DJ Waldow, Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory

DJ Waldow is the Director of Community at Blue Sky Factory, an Email Service Provider based in Baltimore. With over 4 years of experience in email marketing, DJ is active in the twittersphere (@djwaldow), on blogs (blog.blueskyfactory.com), and in the social media space. He's an regular contributor to the Email Marketers Club and other email-related social networks. DJ resides in Salt Lake City, Utah where he can be found thinking, eating, and breathing email.

This special edition blog post is by eec Consumer Education Roundtable member Mindy Dolan, Director of Marketing for TailoredMail.

It's probably fair to say that most of us who are members of the DMA's Email Experience Council are passionate about email marketing in some sense or another. Sometimes we're so passionate about it that we assume everyone else in the world knows what we're talking about when we say the words "email client", "spam" or "phishing". But what if you asked your parents, grandparents or friend what those words meant? What do you think they'd say?

The eec Consumer Education Roundtable wanted to know just that in order to make sure we were speaking the right language when developing a new website to help consumers become more aware of email's do's and don'ts.

Working with Roundtable chairs Jason Baer of Convince & Convert and DJ Waldow of Blue Sky Factory, Roundtable member Stephanie Miller of Return Path put together a quick survey asking questions about email clients, spam and phishing. Roundtable members sent it to friends, family and Facebook/Twitter followers specifically looking for people OUTSIDE the email industry. More than 65 people took the survey.

What we found is that in general, people are catching on to email and the lingo used. They knew the harder terms like phishing, but no surprise, they don't think like marketers! When we asked the question, "What name or phrase do you use to describe the type of company that provides you an email address? Note that we aren't looking for the name of the company like Yahoo! or Cox, but the "category or type" of company that this represents." we got a mixed response. Most people outside of the email industry really don't know the definition of an email service provider or an email client. They just think of the company that provides them with an email address as Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc. There were some in the bunch who recognized it as an email service provider, but this helped us realize that when we are referring to an "email client" or an "email service provider", we need to be very clear and give examples of what we're talking about (i.e. Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo!, etc).

And when asked how they defined spam, a whopping 76% of the participants responded saying, "Any email I didn't ask for, even if it's from a brand I know." So what do you think they do with that email once they see it in their inbox? Participants could choose multiple answers, and 71% of the participants said they'd delete an email they don't want, 39.3% said they'd mark it as spam or junk, and another 39.3% said they'd unsubscribe.

So what does this tell us? Our perception of what consumers know and don't know about email helps prove the need for an educational website that's written by email experts, but speaks to consumers in their language. Good thing we are building one!

How do we get this message out to consumers once the website is live? That's where our eec followers like you come in. We're looking for you to help us spread the message. Once the website is ready, we'll send you a link to the site, and ask you to add this to your email marketing messages, websites, and anywhere else you think consumers would be able to find it. In the meantime, if you would like to help us build the site, we can still use writers, editors and user experience support.

Help us get the word out and educate consumers about email! Contact Ali to join this Roundtable.

Though growing your email database takes time and effort, when done correctly, it will house your most qualified and responsive leads. A well structured email database will enable you to boost sales with more targeted messages and offers, extend the lifecycle of any campaign and increase customer retention with regular and relevant communications.

Consider the following techniques to acquire new leads and grow your email list with success:

1. Who is your ideal lead and how do you reach them? Create a profile for your best customer(s). This should include things such as age, gender, hobbies, job function, how they shop (online or at stores), where they shop, what they read, what websites they visit, etc. Depending on the product or service you are marketing, some of the above will be more relevant than others. For example, if you are marketing a clothing line, job function will be less relevant than where and how they shop, where as if you are marketing a trade publication, job function and industry will be extremely important.

2. Analyze your competition. Take some time to find out what your competitors are doing to build their email lists. Start off by going to their websites. Then do a web search on your competition as well as relevant key words, and take note of any banners / CPC ads that appear. Be sure to click through to check out what their landing pages look like and what type of information they are choosing to capture. If they have an e-newsletter, sign up for it. This is an easy way to start receiving their email campaigns. All of these steps will help you find out what type of promotions they are running, any marketing alliances they have formed, and how they are positioning their product or service.

3. Reach your best customer. Once you've created your customer profile(s) and finished your competitive analysis, you are ready to develop your list growth strategy. Your strategy can include initiatives such as: banner ads on websites that your target audience visits, a PPC campaign, direct mail or email campaigns to magazine subscriber opt-in lists, etc. You can also approach other products or service providers for co-promotions or mutually beneficial partnerships. Starting an e-newsletter or a blog for your company are great ways to grow your list as long as your content is desirable. The lifecycle of any campaign can be extended with behavior-based trigger emails.

4. Your offer is everything! Unless your offer is relevant to the recipient, they will not respond to your campaign. Your offer will need to prompt the recipient to make a purchase or willingly give you their information in exchange for something they want. For instance, you might send an email introducing your company to a magazine subscriber opt-in list that you know your target audience reads. By including a free downloadable premium such as an industry salary guide, a list of the hottest bars in town, or a best practices whitepaper – what ever might be most relevant to your target audience – recipients will need to provide their email address and demographic information in order to download the premium. Once you've captured their information and they've opted-in to your database, you will be able to communicate with that lead on an ongoing basis.

5. Your offer is almost everything! Unless the recipients receive your email, they cannot receive your offer. Therefore, be sure to comply with email marketing best practices: include a physical mailing address, an opt-out link and a subject line that reflects the content in your email. Also, when writing your email, try to stay away from words that are flagged by spam filters.

6. Create a landing page. It is extremely important to guide the campaign recipient through the entire process. By creating a landing page on your website that mirrors your campaign's message / offer, you will encourage the recipient to fill out the form with the ultimate goal of opting-in to your list.

7. Use a lead capture form. Your landing page can either link to a lead capture form or you can embed the form in the landing page itself.
a. Since people are more prone to filling out a short form than a long and drawn out questionnaire, limit the amount of information you are asking them to provide in exchange for their premium. Besides the basic name and email address, think of including one or two other demographic questions. These questions should be well thought out to provide you with information you can leverage for future email campaigns.
b. In addition to the demographic questions, your form should include a check box giving people the option to opt-in to your mailing list and receive information about your company and future promotions. According to the CAN-SPAM Act, if people do not explicitly say that they would like to receive emails from you in the future, it is unlawful to send them commercial marketing emails.
c. If you do not currently have a way to capture leads, an easy way to do this is through your email service provider. Most ESPs will provide you with both the lead capture form and a database to house the acquired leads. They will also manage your opt-outs for you.

8. Track your efforts. If you track your list building efforts, you will be able to pinpoint which initiatives are working the best and focus more of your energy on those. You might decide that others aren't worth your time. Easy ways to track your initiatives are:
a. Web Analytics: sign up for a free Google Analytics account. This will enable you to track how many people are visiting each page on your site and which campaign they are coming from.
b. In your lead capture form, include one question asking people how they heard about you with a drop down menu where customers can select from a list of your current list building initiatives.
c. Landing Pages: create a separate landing page for each marketing initiative so you can track page visits to these dedicated pages through your web analytics account.
d. Dedicated 800 numbers: there are services that will provide you with a range of 800 numbers that redirect to your main phone number. Including a dedicated 800 number on each landing page will enable you to associate each call with a specific campaign.

Remember, even if you are accurately targeting your best customer, your campaign will only be a success if you get them to act on your offer and opt-in to your database. Be sure to spend enough time tailoring your message and the offer to the people who will be receiving your campaign.

- Yael K. Penn, Founder and Principal, Imagine 360 Marketing

As we all know from our own experiences as subscribers, the marketing emails that people look forward to are those with the most distinctive personalities. Subscribers are much more eager to engage when they feel like they have a relationship with an individual or a persona than with a company.

For most brands, infusing messages with personality means cultivating a unique and consistent tone with design and copy choices. Increasingly, though, brands are finding ways to put actual human faces and/or human emotions into their email, making the messages seem more personal and creating continuity between messages. Below, we'll take a look at how some top retailers are adding personality to their email.

• Backcountry's memorial message is the most sincerely poignant example of personality in email that we've seen recently. The April 10th Backcountry email was sent with the sole purpose of memorializing a professional skier and inviting subscribers to help support his family. The message fosters a supportive sense of community between Backcountry subscribers.

• SmartBargains' holiday message shows subscribers the actual people behind the brand. This is an approach not usually taken, very literally demonstrating that actual people are creating and sending the emails.

• Crutchfield's marketing email features a picture of and quote from their CEO. In a similar way to the SmartBargains message, this makes it easier for subscribers to feel an individual connection to the company.

• Urban Outfitters' top reviewers email creates a community feeling and also encourages the subscriber base to become more active. When they see reviewers recognized, subscribers understand that their own reviewing efforts are valued, and they may be inspired get more involved. Sephora customer reviews function similarly.

• J.Crew's Jenna's Picks is a novel way to put a face on the fashions. The only problem? In many J.Crew emails, we don't quite know who Jenna is! In this message, they describe her as "our in-house style expert and muse" (vague, but we'll take it), but in other messages they just call out "Jenna's Picks" without reminding subscribers why we should care about Jenna.

• Barneys New York's Barneys Babble invites us into the sharp, funny mind of Simon Doonan. We get to follow Simon's adventures and hear his insights on fashion, and Barneys thereby takes on more character.

• Nordstrom's "At your service" email makes online shopping seem more personal by calling out special services. It's always personal to shop in-store at Nordstrom and interact with sales associates, and this email extends the service experience across the email channel.

There's room in almost any brand voice to add a personal touch that will invite your subscribers to feel more connected with your company. For more musing on this topic, check out Silverpop's Engagement Marketing Blog article, Do Your Emails Have a Personality?.

Bubbling with Personality,
Lisa Harmon and Alex Madison, Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

There are a few things in the small world of email marketing that I believe can be simply attributed to peer pressure. Just like back in our school days, most of our impressionable brains feel the need to keep up with the "cool" email marketers. The fact that you are reading this article tells me that you are at least interested on some level in learning more about and improving your own email program.

We all read trade magazines, blogs, attend webinars, and watch twitter feeds looking for those nuggets that could make all the difference in our ROI. All of the "experts" seem to talk about the same things over and over again in these different mediums. Why do the topics seem recycled? The reason is because these really are the keys to success and they do work.

I wanted to talk about one of those "we hear this all the time" topics and put a bit of a different spin on it. Let's talk about A/B testing. Yes, testing again. Testing seems to be the staple of many best practices discussions. All of us senders know we should test our email. The problem lies in the fact that, for most of us, we have no idea of how to pull that off. I break it down like this: 10% test correctly, 30% attempt testing, 40% plan on testing, and the other 20% could care less. I think these statistics mirror most things in our lives. We have the overachievers, those among us who make the attempt, those who continually plan to start tomorrow, and those who don't even want to discuss it.

Why can't most of us actually get good results from our testing? The answer lies in the peer pressure we talked about earlier. All the cool kids are doing A/B testing, so we feel like we have to do the same thing. There is a big difference in doing real testing with a purpose in mind, and sending two different email campaigns. Testing is all about the results, not the actual tests. If you are not in position to capture data or understand why results were different, testing is a waste of your time. It's time to give up your seat at the popular table.

So you're ready to test…

Step one before beginning a testing program is to determine what element you want to test. It is very important not to change multiple elements in a single test; that makes it impossible to discern what drives your results. Let's say you decide to test subject lines. The rest of the email needs to be the same to determine true differences in the test. I would also highly recommend you anticipate results before testing. You won't always be right – and it's sometimes exciting to be wrong – and this will help to predict what you are going to do with the results.

Test quantity is something we often see handled in a less than optimal way. If you have a campaign going to 100,000 recipients, the way to test is not to send 50,000 to one group and 50,000 to the other. The proper way to test is to send 5,000 to each test group; analyze the results and send the other 90,000 the highest performing copy. The value in testing is to optimize each and every campaign right now. It's too often that I see people testing a campaign 50/50, and then doing nothing in the future with the results.

The last piece of advice I'd like to leave you with today is to think historically. Proper testing can give you the future play book for your email programs. Historical testing results can help develop new campaigns, understand what works for different segments, and generally sharpen your program. Don't miss the opportunity to get a letter sweater, a date to the prom, a convertible, and just generally be one cool email marketers. Testing is where it's at, Daddy-O!!!

- Kevin Senne, Premiere Global Services

With over 150 email service providers (ESPs) to choose from, how can you possibly pick the best one? Or be confident that your current ESP is the best fit for your business and email marketing initiatives? There's no single right answer. ESPs differ from each other in many ways, meaning you can't make an apples-to-apples comparison.

Despite the overwhelming number of choices and the complexity in making a choice, there is an email service provider that's right for you and your company's email marketing program. Determining which one means knowing what matters most when shopping around or evaluating your current ESP.

Every email service provider has its strengths and weaknesses. You can't change that. But you can be aware of which strengths are absolutely critical to your business and which weaknesses you are not willing to accept. That means you have to start your ESP search internally, by really delving into what drives your email marketing program now and in the future. You also must take a hard look at your company's capabilities, including that of your staff and any existing technologies you'll want to integrate with. (For advice on evaluating your needs, see the ESP RFP tips from a recent presentation by eec member, Kara Trivunovic, and reiterated in the ClickMail Marketing blog.

For help in evaluating what matters most to your program and knowing how to score ESPs on those factors, download "Choosing the Right Email Service Provider: The top 20 factors to consider when shopping for a top tier ESP."

This whitepaper is a compilation of a decade's worth of knowledge and insight, gleaned while helping clients choose ESPs that fit the email service provider to the client's needs. This comprehensive whitepaper covers 20 factors for you to consider when choosing an ESP, including why each factor matters and what to look for. It also includes a scoring sheet you can use to evaluate ESPs against these 20 factors. This resource will help you take a thoughtful, informed approach to your ESP selection, so you can compare apples to oranges and still make a wise choice, Whether you're in the market for a new ESP now or want to see how your current one stacks up.

When every marketing dollar matters now more than ever, every little improvement you make to your email marketing program matters too. Choosing the right ESP, or being sure the one you're with now is the best fit, is one critical component in making sure you're maximizing your program's effectiveness…and ROI. Don't overlook the importance of this partnership. Use every resource you can to ensure an informed decision.

- Marco Marini, CEO, ClickMail Marketing

The eec blog post introducing the new "render rate" (by the Measurement Accuracy Roundtable) has drawn dozens and dozens of comments to date – from supportive to some that question the value of the standardization initiative.

There were also a number of comments and questions that indicate many people still don't understand what the open rate does and doesn't measure and how open rates are actually tracked. This blog post will be the first of a series from various members of the Measurement Accuracy Roundtable that address the comments and questions posted on the blog.

Before diving into a detailed explanation of how the open rate works and what it does and doesn't measure, I wanted to remind everyone of the core objective and purpose of this initiative.

The Measurement Accuracy Roundtable was formed with two primary purposes:
1) To ensure that email industry metrics that were widely adopted accurately measured what they were designed to measure;
and
2) That the metric was measured consistently by vendors and marketers. The intent was not to eliminate metrics or pose our opinion or preferences on email marketers.

With that background and reminder, let's dive into the basics of the open rate, which hopefully conveys why the eec took up the initiative to standardize this popular email metric…

How open rates are measured: Your email technology automatically inserts html code that references an invisible (often referred to as a "clear" or "1×1″) tracking image in your email, usually at the bottom of the email.

Like the other images in your HTML emails, they are actually hosted on a server, not embedded within the email. When a recipient opens the email, and images are not blocked, the image is called/pulled into the html message from the hosting server. As the image is pulled into the message, it is appended with a unique identifier that is associated to the receiving email address. That rendering of an image associated to an email address has been commonly referred to as an "open." Now, it gets more complicated.

When an "open" is counted: With the above definition in place, let's look at the scenarios in which an open is counted or reported:

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.

One of the largest problems facing email marketers today is the lack of industry standards for email metrics. One such much maligned measurement is the open rate. To help fellow email marketers, the Measurement Accuracy Roundtable was formed by service providers and other industry members of the Email Experience Council (eec). For the past several months, we have been working on finding a way to solve this problem, working specifically with the open metric. We have developed a group of definitions and standards to develop a new, better metric, the Render Rate. Through a lot of participation and hard work, the Measurement Accuracy Roundtable come up with what we believe is a clear and consistent definition, but we need the participation of one more person - YOU - our industry colleagues.

We seek feedback and input from email marketers, email solutions providers, agencies, publishers and other online marketing colleagues. You can download a copy of the definitions, how they are calculated and other information from the eec website here. Please post all comments here on the eec blog, so members of the Roundtable will have a depository of all industry comments to review and incorporate into this new industry standard.

The comment period for industry and other public feedback will run from today until the end of March. During April, we will assemble and review all comments, and revise the definitions as necessary to incorporate your input into this new industry standard. The final version is tentatively scheduled to be released in early May. We hope our fellow marketers and email solutions providers will support this initiative by adopting the new names and including them into their reporting systems.

Additional information will be posted on the eec website.

The Roundtable wishes to offer special thanks to the following members for their contributions: John Caldwell, Adam Covati, David Daniels, Luke Glasner (co-chair), Loren McDonald (co-chair), Stephanie Miller, Morgan Stewart and Chad White.

- Luke Glasner

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.

Sponsored by:

The Direct Marketing Association's Email Experience Council signed up to receive promotional emails from 120 of the top online retailers tracked via the Retail Email Blog. Findings indicate a trend toward richer subscription processes.

One highlight of the report shows that the percentage of retailers using only a one-click sign-up from homepage method to collect email addresses declined to 51% this year from 63% last year. That shift accompanied increases in the amount of data collected from new subscribers. Research also demonstrated that the number of retailers providing sample emails and allowing subscribers to choose email topic preferences was up.

"The old adage applies here—you never have a second chance to make a good first impression," says Dave Lewis, chief marketing officer of Message Systems. "Your opportunity is to convert a prospect's initial interest into a long-term, brand loyal relationship. Your challenge is not to 'kill' that interest (and the opportunity) with an intimidating or intrusive subscription process."

This year retailers are also putting more focus on list hygiene. Thirty-eight percent of retailers ask subscribers to confirm their email address by re-entering it, up from 27% last year. Also, 5% of retailers now use a confirmed (double) opt-in process, up from 3% last year, which also improves list quality.

Retailers are also taking greater advantage of their email sign-up process to promote other channels such as direct mail, blogs and RSS feeds. For the first time this year, research indicates that retailers are promoting SMS subscriptions, social networks and widgets along side or within their email programs. While the percentage of retailers promoting those new channels is currently small, it signals a new trend which is expected to grow significantly over the next year.

"Communication behaviors and preferences have changed," says Lewis. "Virtually all of us utilize multiple channels of communication, both online and offline. And how we want companies to communicate with us depends on the nature of the message, where we're at and our personal preferences. Yet, companies have badly lagged in their ability to deliver messages through our channels of choice. So I'm very pleased to see this trend developing, even if just in its infancy. It means we're moving beyond defining 'relevancy' just in terms of the content of the message. It means we're getting closer to realizing the direct marketing mantra of delivering the right message at the right time in the right place."

Other key findings from the study include:

● After falling from 27% in 2006 to 8% last year, the percentage of retailers using sign-up incentives rebounded to 13% this year, despite growing concerns about the quality of subscribers that are attracted by sweepstakes and other incentives.

● With recent evidence suggesting that putting privacy policies front and center during the subscription process actually reduce sign-ups, only 36% of retailers mentioned their privacy policy this year, down from 45% last year.

● Despite quicker subscription fulfillments overall, 29% of retailers took 15 days or longer to honor opt-ins or failed to honor them all together. That figure was the same as last year.

Get the Full Report
Visit the Whitepaper Room to download the full 39-page report, which is free for eec platinum members and available at a discount to eec gold and silver members. Not a member? Learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

It's a much debated number, but common marketing research (read: marketing urban legend) says the average person is exposed to 3,000 ads every day. Yet, while even most marketers complain about the shear volume of ads, we continue to add to the problem. Consumers and business people, however, aren't just struggling to find time to recognize the value from the chaff. We're all trying to keep track of the new ways to communicate with each other and the brands with which we do business. Managing our inbox has become a chore.

A decade ago I didn't need email, now I can't seem to get along without email, mobile email, text messaging, social networks…and most recently, Twitter. (Actually, I can do without Twitter, but I'm trying to play along). Younger people are significantly heavier users of text messaging and social networks when communicating with friends. Yet, even for this demographic, if one solution to tie all of these messaging tools together exists, it is certainly email. It has become the one-box portal. Not only does email cover bank statements, promotions, messages from friends, order confirmations, and newsletters…increasingly it is the gateway to social networks as it updates when someone reaches out on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn.

Our joint research with Ball State's Center for Media Design showed that teens are more responsive to promotions via email than they are via social networks. Yet, the multitude of comments we received on our research, many commented on the need for a convergence of these media. One comment to a TwistImage blog commentary on the notion that "no one uses email anymore" said:

"I'm 23 years old—I probably receive a large majority of my messages through social networks (I don't have the email addresses of a number of friends—we keep in touch via Facebook), but email remains a vital hub for managing communications. Keeping up with all of the messages on these fragmented sites would be nearly impossible if alerts weren't sent to one central inbox. If email can maintain its position as a hub, it will stay relevant."

Will email continue to be the "hub," the one inbox to rule them all? I think there are many reasons to think it will. The first is the fact that it is ubiquitous—and certainly 99% of the population can't be wrong. It is similar to me to compare how English became the international language…not because it was better, just because it was already ubiquitous.

How do you leverage this as a marketer? Continue to ask for permission and ensure you are reaching your audience at their "preferred" inbox. Over time, they all may be the same inbox anyway.

—Chip House of ExactTarget

With pink emails filling our inboxes throughout Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the merits of cause-related marketing have come more prominently onto the Smith-Harmon radar. We wondered how well it really works, and MediaPost came through for us by publishing an article on this very topic. MediaPost reports that cause-related marketing can generate double-digit sales gains for brands—woah! No wonder so many companies jump on the pinkwagon in October. Not only do the companies get the satisfaction of contributing to important research; their customers also get to feel good about shopping.

Not surprisingly, there are complicating factors to consider. Paul Jones, president of Alden Keene & Associates, explores such factors on his blog about cause-related marketing. On the issue of transparency, Jones argues that "cause-related marketing trades on trust." Customers are more likely to trust in the sincerity of brands that are upfront about where money goes and how much money is going there.

An article by Steven Van Yoder also makes the point that the marketing focus should never be lost in the cause. Cause-related marketing is sustainable only if it yields mutual benefits for the charitable organization and the brand supporting it.

We looked at examples of how brands have used email to approach cause-related marketing for several important issues. Here's what we found:

● Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Judging by this month's inbox, pink is the new black. Among many others, Lucy encouraged subscribers to "Shop for a Cause," White House Black Market invited subscribers to "Give Hope," and Sephora asked subscribers to "get gorgeous while giving back." In each of these cases, the brands advertised products and donated a portion of their proceeds or advertised a window of time during which they would donate a portion of total sales.

Betty Crocker's message was a bit different, encouraging subscribers to celebrate women's health by making pink (Betty Crocker) cake and announcing General Mills' donation, which was not tied to sales of certain items. They also invited dialogue on PinkTogether.com, where cancer survivors can share stories.

● Women's Cancer Research: Saks Fifth Avenue also supported women's cancer research, but they stepped away from all of the pink of the month and partnered with Key to the Cure to donate funds to the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Women's Cancer Research Fund. At first this struck me as a little odd (was it just so that they could feature stars like Gwenyth Paltrow in their ads?), but with deeper thought it's clear how Saks' approach was on-brand, speaking to their audience of high-end fashion connoisseurs. Oscar de la Renta designed the pricey Key to the Cure t-shirt this year, and Mercedes Benz partners with the organization as well.

● St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: The Williams-Sonoma Inc. brands included banners in their emails last holiday season advertising their fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and they then sent out a thank-you e-card announcing the results of the fundraiser. Gymboree also supports St. Jude, but the link to the fundraiser in their email is tiny and very subtle. I wonder how results differ between this understated approach and the more prominent Williams-Sonoma Inc. treatment.

● The Global Fund (to help women and children with AIDS in Africa): This Gap email is almost wholly devoted to the Gap(Product)Red effort to benefit the Global Fund, featuring a special limited time promotion. The subject line: "Can the Shirt off Your Back change the world?" speaks to the headline: "This One Can." This message barely mentions regular Gap items, but because Gap has established (Product)Red as such a prominent element of the brand, the focused approach doesn't seem to detract from Gap marketing, and even solidifies Gap's charitable image.

● Musicians on Call: Boomingdale's "Charity is Chic" message looks pretty much like any other sale email. The headline is cause-oriented but vague, and only in fairly small print does the copy inform the subscriber of where their money is going. I wonder whether it's effective for Bloomingdale's to downplay the charity in their creative.

With the high sales increases reported from cause-related marketing, it's worth considering what could happen if brands began using it more frequently—monthly or quarterly, maybe, instead of at just one or two key points throughout the year. In addition to driving huge sales, brands could all do a lot of good. We're interested to hear what others have tried and discovered in cause-related marketing.

As ever,
Lisa Harmon and Alex Madison of Smith-Harmon

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