In preparation for our upcoming website relaunch, we've been updating the content on our site and making some tweaks to our site functionality. As a consequence, you may have noticed our site behaving strangely recently, particularly the Whitepaper Room. Please accept our apologies and know that the Whitepaper Room is now back up and working properly.

Here are some of the improvements that we've made ahead of the launch of a totally new site in a few months:

● The eec's homepage now highlights posts from our two blogs, the Email Experience Blog and RetailEmail.Blogspot.

● Also on the homepage, we've added a See past survey results link under the current Two-Click Survey question so you can quickly find out how people voted on past questions.

● The Member Roundtables page has been totally reorganized and updated. You can now find information about the leadership, goals, initiatives and meeting times of all nine of our Roundtables, including our new Measurement Accuracy Roundtable. EEC members can contact Ali if they wish to join a Roundtable.

● In the right-hand column on the Member Roundtables page and throughout the Initiatives & Standards tab, you'll now find a "New from the Roundtables" list, which includes the latest blog posts, documents and initiatives to come out of the Roundtables. There are several great initiatives that will be released in the weeks ahead.

● The "Resources" tab has been updated so that it now includes links to the eec's Facebook group, the Email Experience Blog and RetailEmail.Blogspot.

● We've reorganized the Useful Tool & Links page, which has been greatly expanded. If you know of other emails marketing tools that should be added, let us know.

● The Email Performance Award page has been redone so that the information is better organized.

● We've revised the description on our eec Newsletter Archive page and on the newsletter sign-up form that runs along the top of every page on the eec site now links to the archive page so people can click through to see sample newsletters and more information before signing up.

We're working on updating a few other pages ahead of the relaunch this summer and, of course, have plans for several new pages of content as well. So stay tuned. And thanks again for your patience and understanding.

—Chad White of the eec

Hola! Bring out the mariachi band and the silver-studded suits—it's Cinco de Mayo! This year, General Mills celebrates with Cinco-themed Betty Crocker and Dinner Made Easy newsletters. I don't mention these just because I love a good margarita. (But if you're ever in Seattle, you must order a Suprema at ¡Cactus! Tell them I sent you.) And while I haven't been inspired to actually cook anything, the email marketers over at General Mills are doing a lot of things right. Learn from Betty: pick up these cinco tricks to go from email siesta to email fiesta!

(1) Make it easy.
Our subscribers are taking time from their busy lives to read our email messages. If we can find ways to save them time in return, they'll keep clicking.
(a) Both the Betty and Dinner newsletters embrace this philosophy, down to the nuts and bolts. Both the preheaders and the footers are clear, concise and easy-to-use.
(b) The Dinner newsletter employs graphical icons like arrows, recipe cards and stars to indicate different content types at a glance, eliminating the need to read. Betty frames coupon offers with dotted lines and a pair of scissors.
(c) Copy is customer-centric; even the name Dinner Made Easy carries a benefit. The Betty newsletter takes both hunger and time-starvation into consideration with the headline: "Ready in 30 minutes!"

(2) Ask questions.
As Dale Carnegie says, the most interesting conversationalists are generally those who let you do all the talking. The Dinner Newsletter commences with a conversation starter: "Want to start a taco night tradition?"

(3) Add depth of perspective.
(a) Betty includes customer quotes from both Jessica and Tweety, letting readers—rather than writers—own the content. (Tweety prefers her tacos with lean ground chuck.)
(b) Customer ratings are sprinkled throughout both newsletters. I particularly enjoy the spoon rating system in the Betty vehicle. Beef Tacos: 4.5 spoons! Very cute.
(c) Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies get a halo when cited as a favorite of celebrity blogger and food editor Andi Bidwell. Like LeVar Burton says, "You don't have to take my word for it."

(4) Make a game of it.
Betty drives clickthroughs and daily website traffic with a Great Grilling Giveaway.

(5) Put it to a vote!
(a) The Dinner newsletter engages readers with a poll—classic or crescent? I say classic! I adore churros; have you ever had them with vanilla ice cream? It's fantastic.
(b) At the end of the day, your subscribers are the ones who decide whether to open, whether to read…and whether to unsubscribe. How could you not ask them what they think of your newsletter? Both the Betty Crocker and Dinner Made Easy newsletters end with a request for feedback: "Help us improve our newsletter. How would you rate the usefulness of this email?" Overlaying answers with other performance metrics could yield interesting results. Plus, the placement of the request offers some insight into how many folks are actually scrolling down to the bottom of the message.

Speaking of which… How would you rate the usefulness (and/or the entertainment value) of this article? Do you have any favorite newsletters (or taco recipes) to share? Please post your comments below!

–> See the "Betty Crocker" Newsletter
–> See the "Dinner Made Easy" Newsletter

¡Salud!
—General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín
& Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

We're star-struck! As websites roll out customer reviews, marketers are rolling them into their email programs. Here are three tips for integrating ratings into email with blockbuster performance.

(1) Show Your Stars (or Paws, or Produce…)
• The Home Depot uses a classic gold star motif, the most obvious customer ratings visual cue. (A Chiminea!? You learn something new every day!)
• PETCO.com shows puppy love with pawprint rankings. (To be sure they didn't come from my pets, who don't love Frontline.)
• Betty Crocker cooks up fun with spoon and strawberry star systems. (Super-cute!)

(2) Create Context
• Discovery Channel shows only 5-star items, which can feel over-edited. (Although how could a Dino DVD be anything less than awesome!?)
• Pillsbury mixes it up by including recipes with as few as 2-and-a-half stars, lending the ratings more authenticity and empowering higher-ranking content. (Mediochre Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake, anyone?)
• Macy*s increases accuracy and creates context by
showing ratings to the decimal point, as well as the number of reviews from which the rating is calculated. (Who doesn't adore that mixer? It's like a national icon.)

(3) Encourage Participation
• Chefs' email program makes heavy use of customer ratings. To kick off the effort, they sent a dedicated email incentivizing review creation. (I like the instructional component of this one.)
• Boden recognizes reviewers by including quotes from those who've "been there and bought the t-shirt." (Scooter's mom is famous! Sweet, Johnnie!)
• Netflix acknowledges DVD returns with a simple email featuring 5 dark stars just begging to be lit up. (Check out my Netflix email experience review, too!)

Superstar Bonus!: Our team of in-house scientists conducted an enormously complex astronomical survey, studying the email galaxy to determine which brands have enough star power to get VIE (Very Important Email) status. Using a secret formula devised by a team of MIT mathemeticians in Vegas, we paired the top 10 VIEs with 10 VIPs. Our findings:

Edmund Hillary: 4.5 stars, REI >
The Princess and the Pea: 5 stars, Brookstone >
Jimmy Buffett: 20 stars, Chefs >
Mr. Wizard: 20 stars, Discovery Channel >
The Best Grandma in the World (Mine!): 25.5 stars, Bisquick >
Scooter's Mom: 26 stars, Boden >
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man: 26.5 stars, Pillsbury >
Tim Allen: 42.4 stars, Home Depot >
Martha Stewart: 43.7 stars, Macy's >
Team Beckham: 74.5 stars, Sports Authority >

My stars!

Until next time,
Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Some of those business decisions we make every day as email marketers are harder to gauge than others. Are our open rates good enough? Shall we send this fifth message this week? Should I send CTOs the same message as CFOs? Will our best buyers respond better to 15-off-75 or 10-off-50? All these are tough calls that we base on judgment, best practices and any benchmarks we can glean from vendors.

One of the trickiest is making the case for dropping non-responders from our files. Keeping them on is not expensive and seems to do no harm to active subscribers. It used to be a good idea to keep complaint rates down by flooding the denominator with non-responders—and most marketers felt that since these subscribers didn't open or click, they wouldn't complain either.

Not so any longer. It's risky to keep non-responders on the file. First, there are a lot more of them than ever before. We see clients with anywhere from 25% to 65% of their file now "dead." Second, it is a deliverability risk. Our client data shows these non-responders often do complain and there is a risk that very old records can become spam traps, significantly damaging your sender reputation.. Third, their strong numbers depress your response rates and may disguise more important trends among active buyers.

Our good client Andrew Magpantay, senior product manager at Reunion.com, coined a great expression when he spoke at our client seminar in Los Angeles last week. He said that reconnecting with non-responders on the file is like gathering up the "loose change." Sure, there is some value there, and if you have a lot of it lying around it adds up to real dollars, but the risks are real, as well.

In addition to the deliverability hit, typically, there is no revenue gain from continuing to email folks who are no longer interested in your messages or who have been bored by them for so long it would take a miracle to get them to finally open another. Yet, we marketers are ever hopeful. We truly do believe that even though the subscriber has been ignoring our messages for a year, that tomorrow just might be the day! The reality is that very few, if any, will actually come around after such a long time.

At the same time, there is always some sort of "tail" for response from long inactive subscribers. Sometimes it's enough loose change that it adds up! One of our clients, a retailer, did the analysis and found that buyers who were lapsed 15+ months actually purchased a half million dollars worth of product in the past year. (There are also about 5 million of them!) Another client's "dead file"—non-responsive for 13+ months after receiving bi-monthly (2x a month) email messages for a year—earned a 2% purchase rate. That was small compared to the 15% purchase rate of other subscribers, but still meaningful. That's real revenue and no one wants to leave revenue on the table. Andrew's Reunion.com file of non-responders definitely earned some small response. But not a lot and nowhere near the response rates of the rest of the file.

The key is to make sure that you are doing the analysis and balancing the deliverability and cost risks. Maybe you can't bear (or afford) to abandon all of the loose change. Consider just picking up the highest value segments, the "quarters" perhaps, and leave the rest on the ground by cutting the records off after a win-back campaign. Try to re-engage through other channels—when they log into the website or call customer service, through your sales team or via postal mail. Match your non-responders to an email change of address service (full disclosure: Return Path runs the largest)—many subscribers may regularly check an alternate address. Be sure to welcome these returning subscribers back with a custom campaign.

The ISPs, especially MSN/Hotmail and Gmail, are getting smarter about using consumer "votes" for separating senders whose mail is welcome from those who keep mailing long after the subscriber has tuned the program out. So it no longer is always helpful to keep a large denominator of subscribers who are not responding (or complaining) to keep your complaint rate down.

Better, be sure to engage with subscribers before they become too far lost to you. At least every quarter develop a win-back campaign or an invite to visit the preference center and re-engage. This is the only way to prevent having the loose change become significant enough to pain you.

—Stephanie Miller of Return Path

The Email Experience Council's "Hyphens Equal Disrespect" Petition is about more than shortening a commonly used word so you don't look antiquated, especially in the eyes of younger customers. It's about acknowledging that today's email is ubiquitous, powerful, interactive and cost-effective—and has very little in common with its Cro-Magnun, text-only ancestor, "electronic mail." Email has evolved and so has the spelling.

We're constantly amazed to the resistance we encounter when talking to publications and other folks that use the old, hyphenated spelling. Here's a great example of what we hear. In a recent "Ask AP" story on USA Today's website, Tim Bergerhofer of Kansas City, Mo., asked:

As electronic mail became widespread, it came to be referred to as "e-mail." Many users soon began to drop the hyphen (fewer keystrokes). Now, "email" is searched on Google nearly six times as much as "e-mail." Is there a plan to switch "e-mail" to "email" in an upcoming version of the AP Stylebook?

David Minthorn, AP manager for news administration, responded:

Call us stubborn, or sticklers for clarity, but AP sees no compelling reason to replace e-mail with email. Why do we stand on e-mail? That spelling is the first choice of major dictionaries, including AP's primary spelling reference, Webster's New World College Dictionary Fourth Edition. It is also the preference of many newspapers. And e-mail is consistent with other hyphenated, electronic age terms such as e-book, e-commerce, e-shopping and e-business (which would look odd without hyphens). You're not the first to propose dropping the hyphen. But the arguments of one fewer keystroke and search engine statistics don't convince us that e-mail would be enhanced by excision.

In a petition update last year, we argued that one reason to make the switch was that there were more references to "email" than "e-mail" online—with that gap only widening over the past 10 months. But when you look at search frequency, as Bergerhofer did, the gap is truly ridiculous, and growing ever larger. If this isn't spitting into the wind of consumer sentiment I don't know what is.

Given how frequent web searchers are punching in the sans-hyphen spelling, we think it incredulous that the AP can argue that they're "sticklers for clarity." Clearly there's no confusion about what "email" is.

While true to some extent, arguing that using a hyphen in "email" is consistent with other electronic age terms like "e-book" and "e-commerce" is becoming a harder argument. "Ebook" is already searched for far more often than "e-book," and "ecommerce" should permanently overtake "e-commerce" in search frequency sometime this year.

Now it's true that Webster's still spells email with a hyphen, although some dictionaries don't. But here's the thing about dictionaries: They take their cue from the media. And the media largely takes their cue from the marketplace. So join our growing list of petition supporters and banish the hyphen from your spelling of "email." And if your favorite publication is still using a hyphen, ask them why they're disrespecting the email marketing industry by using the 20th century spelling.

—Chad White of the Email Experience Council

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As ever,
Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Along with the eec, the DMA, and the Online Marketing Summit, Bulldog Solutions last week hosted a live webinar called "Straight from the Source: Top Online and Email Marketing Trends for 2008." The eec's Jeanniey Mullen and Aaron Kahlow from the OMS put together a really insightful joint presentation highlighting key issues for 2008. I won't rehash it, you can view a recording here.

Any interactive webinar, but especially one on such a broad topic, serves as a great data- and insight-collection tool. From audience questions and the responses to polls and surveys, we benefit from a peek into marketers' big pain points. Along those lines, an interesting bit of data.

At the beginning of the webinar, we asked the audience to identify the single area of online marketing on which they wanted more insight. The results show demand for email marketing guidance (no surprise there) and various levels of demand for insight into other areas.

We asked the same question at the end of the webinar. After hearing Jeanniey's drilldown into key email marketing issues and Aaron's coverage of the other five choices, the audience began to lean toward information on Analytics and Customer Experience. (Close to 200 attendees responded to the first poll, and about 140 to the second poll.)

Did Aaron open a can of worms with his focus on the need for an Analytics strategy to match business metrics? Did his insightful example of a less-than-stellar British Airways website experience send chills down marketers' spines? (Actually, on that second one, I'm pretty sure the answer is, "yes.") View it for yourself and post your comments here.

—Amy Bills of Bulldog Solutions

Anyone who thinks the messaging systems in social networking sites will completely replace general consumer email is an idiot, plain and simple. Analysts, pseudo-journalists and bloggers have recently been spewing some cockamamie notion that consumers will dump their inboxes in favor of communicating through the likes of Facebook and MySpace precluding email marketers from reaching their customers. All these morons have to do is interview any 12-year-old to learn that the underpinnings of communicating through MySpace are driven by email. Want to open a Facebook account? Oh, wait! You need an email address. You might be thinking why I care so much about what this small spec in the blogosphere says? The answer is simple. I'm protecting your email marketing budget and your job. Sometimes the press likes to run with whacky predictions without doing adequate fact checking and the last thing I want is for your CEO to read some half-baked article written by a college intern about how the whole world is going to ditch their email accounts for social networking.

In fact, I predict just the opposite will happen in 2008. Social networking websites will open their networks to become the new inbox providers of choice for ages 25 and younger. Instead of trying to fight your way into the inboxes of Yahoo and Hotmail users, MySpace and Facebook will become the new gatekeepers of younger generations. The reason why I'm so confident in my prediction is the simple fact that email is a daily time consuming ritual that can't be ignored by online advertisers. And as social networking sites gain a larger share of advertising budgets, they will need to guarantee visitor time. Therefore email will have to be included in social networking's repertoire of services cannibalizing market share from AOL, Yahoo and the rest of the old guard.

The argument to counter my prediction is that younger and even some older generations are spending less time in their inbox and instead are using social networking sites and SMS to communicate with friends and family. While I agree with most of this sentiment, it's a far cry from the doom and gloom coming from the anti-email establishment, especially since social networking message systems and general email will become synonymous as MySpace and Facebook race to increase ad revenue. Don't get me wrong, eventually email marketers will have to contend with sharing some of their budget with similar mediums such as SMS. But don't let your CEO become enamored by some pie in the sky notion of a digital fantasy land.

—Elie Ashery of Gold Lasso

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

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

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

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

REI, Dec. 4

Amazon.com, Dec. 5

Macy's, Dec. 5

Crate & Barrel, Dec. 6

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

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

Until then,
Lisa Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Before DMA07, we solicited questions from our members and subscribers, promising to post them in our booth at the show and recruit email experts in attendance to answer those questions. We got some great questions and tons of great answers:

1. How important is it for email creative to match the same look and feel as the order page/landing page?

Marc Pitre, Wampower.com: It's critical to keep the branding consistent between emails and landing pages. Both the creative and the message itself must be consistent to be impactful to the end viewer. It's too easy to dilute your message, so keep it consistent.

Andrew Osterday, Premiere Global Services: Landing pages are often ignored or an afterthought, but can have a strong impact on conversion. The flow from email to landing page should be seamless in both messaging and look and feel. Consider custom landing pages rather than linking to the site.

Stephanie Miller, Return Path: Very. Especially in promotional messages and prospecting. Be sure that the offer in the email is front and center—don't make me scroll. Using a custom landing page can improve conversion rates up to 50%. Definitely worth the investment in optimizing landing pages—they are the fulfillment of the promise created in your email message and it should be a seamless experience.

Michael Fishers, Alterian: It is very important—lack of matching in look and feel produces confusion, feels uncoordinated and impacts response accordingly.

Joel Book, ExactTarget: Providing creative continuity between the email and the associated landing page is vital for driving response and conversion. According to Forrester Research, "92% of business decision-makers go online to research products and services before buying offline." By using email to deliver relevant offers to customers, marketers are accelerating the buying process. The key is to make it easy for the customer to buy—having consistent look and feel for email and landing page achieves this objective.

2. Do the same elements found in traditional printed letters (salutation, closing, signature, p.s.) work for emails?

Melinda Krueger, Krueger Direct: Yes, to the extent that they reflect a personal, one-to-one approach to communication. Corporate "billboards" are easy to ignore; personal correspondence is not. Consider the "voice" and use the personal pronoun!

Elie Ashery, Gold Lasso: Yes, depending on personalized and relevant the message is. Personalization doesn't necessarily mean name, but rather actual content.

3. What do you consider best practice when it comes to accessing and changing email preferences? On one hand, it has to be easy for subscribers to go and edit their subscriptions. On the other hand, no one else than the subscriber should have access to change the subscriber's information. Do you recommend a login, a verification email with required action before changes take effect, a notification email notifying the subscriber that changes have been made, etc…?

Loren McDonald, J.L. Halsey: The simplest means is to include a link in the subscriber's email so that only they can click through to the preference center/update profile page. For sites that link registration (e.g., an ecommerce site), you can link the two processes. A notification email that confirms the changes is always a good idea.

Jeanniey Mullen, Email Experience Council and OgilvyOne: The preference center is a critical element of a successful email program. It can increase the life and engagement of your consumer. Keeping access to preference centers secure is critical but so is keeping access simple. Most companies offer encoded links to preference centers that allow you to bypass the logon elements. If you are using a secure center, password retrieval features are key.

Joel Book, ExactTarget: The key to using a preference center to gather customer needs and interests is to ask for only that data which is needed to deliver relevant and timely information through email. It is critical that you explain why you are asking for this information, how it will be used, and how the customer can update his/her profile. Remember, you are building trust.

Melinda Krueger, Krueger Direct: Consider a 1-2 punch. First capture the impulse to subscribe, then, as an optional second step, ask for more information. Consider offering an incentive (tied closely to your email value proposition) and explain that you are asking to avoid sending irrelevant emails.

4. Is there a proven happy medium between images and text in an email? Do too many or not enough images reduce response?

Elie Ashery, Gold Lasso: Email marketers today need to design their emails with the assumption that their recipients' have their email clients set with the images turned off. This means that the recipients should be understand the gist of the message without its images. Images should be used to enhance text, not replace it.

Chad White, Email Experience Council: The "happy medium" is per industry and depends on both your content and the reader in which the person will be viewing the email. For example, a B2B email that's likely to be read on a Blackberry should be all or mostly text. But retail emails where product images are so vital should be mostly HTML.

5. How can you tell if an email is being read in a preview pane only then deleted?

David Daniels, JupiterResearch: If someone clicks in a preview pane, can you hear them? It is all about behavior. If there are no clicks, there's no engagement, so attempt tactics for reactivation (survey, sweepstakes, etc.). The only real way to determine if an email has been read is by clicks.

Stephanie Miller, Return Path: Great question! Technically, there is probably not a way to get 100% pure data unless you put a "pixel" that is triggered by the scroll. However, you could track performance by proxy in one of two ways: (1) by putting a "morse type" link at the top (visible even when images are suppressed) that promotes the offer and "opens" the email, or (2) by analyzing clicks on text links below the fold which are not visible when images are suppressed. Frankly, I'm not sure why this measure is valuable if your preview pane is optimized, it will drive engagement, not a deletion.

Loren McDonald, J.L. Halsey: Open rates are tacked via a tracking 1-pixel image. So if images are enabled and a reader "views" the email (whether it is opened or not) it will count as an open. If images are blocked and the email is viewed in the preview pane (or fully opened), it will not count as an open. As a result, click-through rates are a much better gauge of email activity.

6. Can a newsletter sell or is it better for branding?

Jordan Ayan, SubscriberMail: Email marketing is about building relationships. If you approach it as a sales medium, you are looking at it from the wrong perspective. Can you sell with email? Absolutely, but for long-term success, you have to focus on delivering relevant content that highlights your brand and keeps recipients wanting more. Then they will give you permission to sell them electronically.

Kara Trivunovic, Premiere Global Services: A newsletter can sell if it is done right. The newsletter should be editorial in nature, with a majority of the content being relevant, value-add information. If sales copy is going to be included, it should be done as a soft sell, wrapped in editorial when possible.

Stephanie Miller, Return Path: Yes! Optimize to do both: (1) Educate customers about the full benefits of the products. (2) Engage subscribers to interact with your company, website, sales team, blog etc. (3) Lead prospects down the sales cycle by educating and asking questions.

7. Is it practical/realistic to budget for file growth from viral marketing? Can we count this as a tactic, or is it just "either."

Michael Salin, M.J. Salin & Associates: Yes! Emerging marketing genre are heavily based in viral practices…word of mouth, social networking. You should test and quantify viral programs – consumer talking to a consumer is the highest/strongest marketing communiqué. Quantify the send and free creative is a way to promote the idea.

Chad White, Email Experience Council: You can definitely budget for viral growth. In general, you can expect pass-along rates of 1%-2%, but it depends on the prominence of your send-to-a-friend links and how often you encourage readers to forward your emails. For instance, some retailers have "friends and family" event emails where part of the messaging encourages recipients to forward the discount offer to others. Doing emails like that will boost your pass-along rate.

8. If no legitimate ESP will allow the use of purchased lists in their system, how do data brokers and email appenders who focus on this market stay in business?

Craig Swerdloff, Postmaster Direct: Our experience has been that top-tier ESPs will send for lists that offer list rental, assuming certain requirements are met. They include explicit permission from recipients, proper list hygiene, good reputation scores, and compliant/unknown user rates within allowable thresholds.

Stephanie Miller, Return Path: The owner of the data sends the message on your behalf—so the initial mailing is from the data source inviting the subscriber to opt-in for email from you. Many marketers who send mail in-house, use internal append very successfully. There are best practices to ensuring your sender reputation is protected.

Loren McDonald, J.L. Halsey: List brokers manage the email databases for companies whose list members have agreed to receive third-party offers. The emails are sent "from" the list owner to the list member. Once the subscriber opts in to specific a marketer's program, they have given permission to the marketer. At that point, ESPs will allow the company to send to the subscriber.

9. What is the single most popular offer that drives people to register and share their information? We are desperately trying to collect emails from our customers and it's been very challenging.

Stephanie Miller, Return Path: As is true in all direct marketing, offer something perceived value for free. But the question should really be around how you can construct a powerful email experience that will entice and engage your prospects. While many will sign up for something that is free, your response and ROI will only come when the email program itself has consistent value.

10. What is the right frequency for retail email programs? It seems like many retailers are at 2x+ per week. Does not mailing at that frequency hurt my chances?

Austin Bliss, FreshAddress: Unfortunately, there is no "right" frequency. You should send on a schedule that provides value to your recipients—e.g. if you have daily sales, you can send daily. But if you have nothing to say 2 times a week, you shouldn't mail at that rate because you will have incurred complaints/unsubscribes.

Chad White, Email Experience Council: There are lots of factors to consider here, including the frequency at which your products tend to be purchased, the content of your email (both promotional and service-oriented content), the length of your email, etc. For example, Blue Nile emails once a month, recognizing that jewelry is not a frequent purchase. Home Depot, on the other hand, sends once a week, targeting subscribers' weekend projects. And then there's Neiman Marcus, which emails 7+ times a week, engaging its fashion hungry subscribers with info on new products, store events, discounts and video and article content.

11. If you send five or more emails to the same recipient and they aren't opened, does your domain/IP get reclassified as spam by the ISP? This obviously isn't standard across all ISP's. If this is in practice by some, which ones are they?

Stephanie Miller, Return Path: List quality is definitely a factor in sender reputation. Having a large number of non-responders on your file could reduce your "score" among ISPs/receivers. ISPs generally don't publish the "rules" that they use, as publishing them would expose them to abuse by spammers.

HAVE SOME INSIGHT TO ADD? Please comment below, just be sure to include the number of the question that you're answering.

We are engaged in email in New Zealand, where due to relatively low internet usage, and recent law changes, list growth is quite a challenge. We do have one particular challenge which I would welcome any input on, as follows:

We publish an email newsletter for the police. They aim to reach community stakeholders, but are unwilling to allocate budget to traditional media to spread awareness and generate additional sign-ups. Their website drip feeds a certain number of new recipients —approx 1% increase per month, although half of that is eliminated by those who opt out each month —so growth is slow. They believe that using the existing list, a viral campaign can help. Does anyone have any inspirational input? —Jerry Flay, managing director of Inbox

The Voices of Email had this advice:

Stephanie Miller: Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. It's difficult to predict what sort of viral campaign will have a meaningful impact. Without knowing anything about the program I'm hesitant to offer a specific idea, but consider a simple trivia quiz about the community like "how many miles of roads are there" and "how long does the chief of police serve in office." If the quiz is challenging but also surprising, it will get forwarded. Even without some special content, certainly test just asking every current subscriber to forward an invite to two friends. Perhaps offer some recognition in the community for doing so. But at the end of the day, the program has to be worth signing up for—if the goal is to build awareness and support, then the messages must be interesting and relevant. If they are, then subscribers will engage with them and share them.

Chad White: Sounds like you should communicate how the police and community stakeholders have been working together with great results. Some inspiring success stories may cause folks to forward the email along and spur greater involvement. So tout your greatest successes and undertakings. Also, how about providing tips and advice that would be useful to the community? Or doing a survey or fundraising activity that would leverage your email program? If you provide the right kind of information and clearly prompt your subscribers to share the information with friends, you should be able to exceed the average 1% to 2% pass-along rate.

Jeanniey Mullen: Viral marketing can be one option, but only if you have something to say that your readers will "bond" with and share with others. In other words, if you want something to be passed along, ask your current readers to help you determine the content.

Even at that though, the pass along rate will be relatively low, so you should look for ways to integrate email with, for example, a blog or social network in order to assure success.

Have some good advice that we missed? Please add a comment and take part in the conversation.

Have a question for the Voices of Email? Email Chad your question at chad@emailexperience.org and we'll REPLY TO ALL by posting the answers so everyone can benefit.

–>Read other Reply to All posts

Participation in the eec's Roundtables makes you smarter, better connected, and more in-the-know, beautiful and recognized in the industry. But who's got time for that when we can barely get through the week? Who are these people who seem to be able to find time in their own hectic schedules to move the industry forward? This week in the Spotlight is one of them—Lauren Skena, co-chair of the Research & Intelligence Roundtable.

If you are like most people, you can't bear to recycle or throw away those National Geographic magazines—there is something faintly unpatriotic and painful about parting with the iconic yellow-bordered covers. Of course, keeping the magazine in a corner of the cupboard is not the same as reading it and acting on the articles. Behind that citron-hued brand is an active Society that wants to involve you in nature, community and world preservation.

Given the ability of email marketing to connect and engage with subscribers, it's no surprise that email has become a primary method of communication for the National Geographic Society. Lauren Skena, manager of e-marketing, runs the email program from the D.C. office and despite the strong brand and reluctance of many readers to part with their stacks of printed magazines, she faces the same issues we all do when it comes to creating email relevance, governing frequency, going multichannel, optimizing deliverability and battling for mindshare in the inbox.

Lauren says she acts as a gatekeeper between subscribers and the 25+ divisions of the Society that use email as a form of communication. "It's like an in-house agency," she says, "where the multichannel direct marketing is handled for all the National Geographic departments from TV, film, online, catalog and the magazine and website editorial groups to special projects like our current Genographic project."

There is a lot for email to do. While the mission of the Society is to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical and natural resources, the Society also wants to sell subscriptions, films, educational guides, maps and travel adventures.

"I often have to be the one to say, 'No, you can't have that date for an email campaign,'" she says in regards to keeping a central email marketing schedule for the society. "All of the divisions and the philosophy of the Society center on protection and respect of our members and subscribers so most of the groups understand the need for frequency caps, respecting permission grants from other divisions to essentially 'borrow' their names and limits on the types of messages that drive ISP complaints.

"It's all one brand, but email in particular creates opportunity for the divisions to work together. We do a lot of cross promotion in newsletters," Lauren says. "We don't allow use of another division's permission group, but, for example, we encourage the Travel group to include Adventure Magazine messages, etc. Email and the database are a strategic asset for upselling and creating memorable customer experiences overall."

Leading one of the DMA's Email Experience Council's roundtables was a natural fit for Lauren, as the DMA brought her to the National Geographic Society in the first place! Prior to her current job, Lauren worked for the DMA, marketing events to members. At a DMA conference, she met the Society team and agreed to join just as email marketing began to be a focus area in the direct marketing group.

"I've always been a fan of National Geographic and, personally speaking, The DMA was supportive of my joining such a good member and great organization," she says of the transition. "It's natural for me to want to come back and participate, as I know firsthand the good work the DMA does in the community."

"The Society supports my involvement 100%—I always hear support and ideas," she says. "My director and vice president always encourage involvement within the community, including active participation in applicable groups, speaking opportunities and networking events."

Lauren chose the Research & Intelligence Roundtable because she knows how much research can be helpful to members, and frankly, saw some holes in the current benchmarking and available research that she hoped to fill. She wants to know what consumers are thinking and feeling about email—and to turn that information into actionable insight that email marketers can use today.

"I'd also like to publish benchmarks using the membership as an industry panel. I see a quarterly report that addresses problems that email marketers are trying to solve and identifies what is missing in the available data stream," she says. "Ultimately, I'd like this Roundtable to help make the DMA research and Annual Report more relevant to the email marketing community."

The R&I Roundtable has some major goals that are achievable and aspirational, but Lauren and her co-chair, Todd Purcell of American Express, want to create opportunities for members to do both small as well as larger involvements. Lauren plans to split the Roundtable into small working committees of two or three people, so that the work is manageable.

"There is so much that we could do, and it can get overwhelming," she says. "It was hard to put the mission together! But separating out the projects will help us achieve more and allow each member to have a rewarding experience."

"There is room and opportunity for all types of members," she says. "For example, my co-chair, Todd, brings a wealth of business experience as a user of research, and our companies are so vastly different it allows our two perspectives to balance and expand on each other."

Lauren also takes full advantage of the eec affiliation, speaking on a panel at the DMA's Email Summit this past May and serving on the Advisory Committee for the February event. The newly merged eec is in a powerful position, she says. "It's good to have everyone together, and to have one larger group that is working on one set of initiatives, rather than two groups working on similar initiatives. Frankly, the DMA has to be more involved in the online space and this is a great way to push that forward."

Lauren's advice to all of us is to get involved. "Get involved and see what is available," she says. "The networking possibilities alone make it worth being active in a Roundtable. You'll meet people who may be able to help you along the way. Plus, you get referrals, vendor reviews, all the whitepapers and research."

"Show this to your boss and offer to be involved," she says. "You just can't get this sort of career and program value with a passive membership."

We create shopping/advertising websites for media companies. People who register at the sites are invited to receive emails with special offers from the site. We start emailing each list after about 100 members sign up, but prior to hitting that threshold the only other email they would have received from the site is the confirmation email. I have been looking all over for some info on "starting from scratch"—a how-to or best practices for that initial email. Do the Voices of Email have any advice? —L.S.

The Voices of Email had this advice:

Rob Fitzgerald: Start the mental and marketing integration of your brand in that message—have it in the "from" line, the subject line, and in the email itself. Successful email marketing blossoms from consistency of message and consistency of branding. Also, be clear on the "what comes next," what types of email offers will you be sending. Leave no chance for misunderstanding and your registrants will appreciate that. Be sure to present the person with the clear opportunity to opt-out from receiving any future emails from you. Lastly, don't wait too long to send out marketing emails from the time the initial confirmation went out. There should be some immediacy to it or you risk disconnecting your registrant from your initial value-add.

Stephanie Miller: This is a great opportunity to launch an email conversation with prospects in order to engage early and lead them through the sales cycle. In fact, a conversation strategy on email is perfectly aligned with the goals of a newly launched shopping website—build the file over time, build relationships, optimize the early growth and leverage for future market saturation.

Today, you are "holding back" on sending email messages until you reach a critical mass of 100, and thus penalizing folks who join the list early. Rather, you want to celebrate these folks and "wow" them so keep reading and even tell two friends about your newsletter. Instead of thinking about it like a traditional publisher (where everyone gets the same content on the same date), think about it like a short-term email conversation—every subscriber gets the same experience. Email message one comes on day one, regardless if you signed up on June 1st or July 31st.

Offer something of real value for signing up—e.g., a free report or coupon—and use an auto-responder system that allows you to send brief, topical newsletters on a regular basis. If you have already built the website, send that content out in bite-sized, well-constructed tidbits to keep subscribers engaged. This will minimize the work and equalize the experience across all subscribers.

Once you set up this "series" of emails, you can trigger it for all new subscribers, regardless of the day they sign up, or their position in the queue. Using the same series for each subscribers ensure that each has a similar (and optimal) experience.

After you learn from this email conversation, active buyers can be converted to a more traditional promotional email program, where everyone gets the same promotion on the same day. But using a conversation in the beginning ensures that you engage fully with new subscribers, and optimize sales across the board.

Good luck!

Jeanniey Mullen: I would start with a strong subject line that includes the company name and something that indicates these are message they requested. For example: XYZ: Site special offers now available. Or: XYZ is ready to bring you special insights

I would also focus on the copy reminding people that they asked for this info, and VERY clearly giving them an opportunity to opt out of this section only.

Hope that helps!

Chip House: We've found that the Welcome email may in fact have the most impact of any email you ever send your subscribers. Opens, clicks etc. all tend to be the highest for an initial email, then can drop off from there if you don't continue to engage your audience or follow-up on the promised content, education or offers promised when they opted in. My advice is to first put substantial effort into optimizing that email. Sure it is transactional in nature, but make sure you do things like:

- Reiterate what they can expect from you in terms of content and frequency.
- Ask them again to add your "from" address to their address books to "ensure good deliverability and rendering."
- Don't forget to make it compelling. Using HTML is best. And don't be afraid to use the CAN-SPAM legitimized commercial content below the transactional introduction.

Getting off on the right foot will pave the way for your first set of campaigns. If you are speaking to their needs, no need to wait for a critical mass.

Chad White: Welcome emails are absolutely critical. Ideally, they not only quickly reassure subscribers that they are subscribed, but they also set the tone for the relationship and reinforce expectations that were (hopefully) established during the subscription process. Unfortunately, only about two-thirds of the retailers I track via RetailEmail.Blogspot use welcome emails, and then only a fraction use them well, missing the opportunity to promote their content, plug their services and tout unique and popular products. At the Email Insider Summit in May, Niti Chhabra, an email marketing consultant to BabyCenter, said: "Give them a reason to save the welcome email." If you don't feel like you're doing that, then you should sit down and makes some changes.

Almost as important as that welcome email are the few that follow it. With each email they're going to be asking themselves, "Was subscribing a mistake?" In some cases, you can increase your chances of keeping that new subscriber if you use an onboarding campaign, where you extend the introduction process. I just wrote a reportlet on onboarding emails that may help you, and in a few weeks I'll be releasing the sequel to last year's Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study.

Have some good advice that we missed? Please add a comment and take part in the conversation.

Have a question for the Voices of Email? Email Chad your question at chad@emailexperience.org and we'll REPLY TO ALL by posting the answers so everyone can benefit.

–>Read other Reply to All posts

We had a good debate yesterday about whether email could be helpful in a website customer-review strategy. Three guesses as to where my votes were: squarely with email as a powerful tool for both invitation, dissemination and recommendation.

Customer reviews on websites are hot—because they work. A recent survey by Bazaarvoice and Vizu Corp. shows that three out of four shoppers say that it is extremely or very important to read customer reviews before making a purchase, and they prefer peer reviews over expert reviews by a 6-to-1 margin.

(Note for our U.K. readers: Ratings and reviews by U.K. consumers were important for over 50% of online shoppers. In contrast to U.S. shoppers, privacy and security information took center stage when making a purchase by over one-third of U.K. shoppers rating this as the most important site feature.)

Email is the perfect medium for attracting and distributing this important content. Consider these opportunities for your own program:

- Use email to solicit customer reviews from recent customers. Trigger a feedback survey after select purchases, along with an appropriate upsell offer. For multiple-purchase buyers—who we assume are more loyal and engaged—make the request for a review more explicit.

- Use the content from customer reviews to convert prospects to buyers. Prospects are in greater need of validation for making a purchase, and if the Bazaarvoice survey has any sway, prospects prefer customer reviews six times over company promotions or marketing. Feature customer reviews in your welcome message as well as throughout the first five to six email touchpoints.

- Feature customer reviews in newsletters as a current and dynamic source of testimonials. Many marketers struggle to come up with relevant content (outside of pure promotions) for newsletters. Customer reviews are relevant, engaging and can be extremely good ways to provide product recommendations that don't feel like sales pitches. These are also a great way to continuously solicit more reviews. Everyone likes to see their name in "lights"—even if it's HTML.

- Highlight customer reviews as a secondary promotion in promotional emails. Make it a regular feature (monthly or quarterly) to highlight top selling items. Reviews promote your products without feeling like a promotion. Perfect balance for sales messages.

- Use customer reviews as a trigger for lapsed buyers. Send a special email with customer reviews of targeted products. This new approach to the same promotional messages may break through the lethargy.

—Stephanie Miller