This year was my first trip to the Email Evolution Conference in Miami Beach Florida. I know, you’re thinking how tough it must be to pick up and fly down there from Toronto, but you gotta do what you gotta do. While there I had the pleasure of interviewing several email marketing thought leaders. Today, I thought I’d share a few of my favourite videos from the event. You can catch all the interviews at http://www.GetResponse.TV.

Dela Quist
Dela is always provocative in his thinking on email marketing. If there’s one guy in this whole business who keeps the rest of us on our mental toes, it’s him. He’ll challenge any idea and plays the devil’s advocate so well; you swear you can see horns growing out of his head. In this interview he explains the logic behind what is known as the “Open Reach Metric.” This is a metric which, according to Dela, will fundamentally change how you do your email marketing.
http://getresponse.tv/watch/r3C4I-DmomM/

Jonathan Margulies
Jonathan Margulies is a Partner at Winterberry Group and he feels we don’t have the optimum terms to best illustrate what we do and what we want to do with online marketing. You know the term, multi-channel, but is it really accurate? Jonathan doesn’t think so! He believes that the term “omni-channel”   or if you prefer “omnichannel” marketing is more fitting. In this video he explains why using better terminology is critical to the marketing industry.
http://getresponse.tv/watch/iQUb-8MejG0/

Sundeep Kapur
Sundeep Kapur is a marketing thought leader and all around nice guy. What I love about Sundeep is his genuine enthusiasm for helping others understand email marketing and online marketing in general. At his EmailYogi.com blog, Sundeep dispenses wisdom and insight on a daily basis. In this video we talk about the top 3 challenges facing email marketers this year and what you need to do to meet them.
http://getresponse.tv/watch/hyW9Mcxhl-Y/

Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Miller, VP of Member Relations DMA, is simply an amazing person. She loves email marketing and is devoted to helping email marketers navigate the rapids of legislation and succeed. The Email Experience Council (part of the DMA) has a lot to offer you if you are an email marketer. In this video, Stephanie lays out what’s in it for you and why you should be involved with the EEC too.
http://getresponse.tv/watch/zOEaNdwjXqM/
 

Matt Blumberg
Matt Blumberg, CEO of ReturnPath and Chairman of the Board with the DMA and the perfect guy to ask what are the biggest challenge is in 2013 for email marketers. Funny I should say “biggest” because as it turns out, Matt wanted to talk about something you’ve likely been hearing a lot about lately, “big data.”
http://getresponse.tv/watch/H4CF_j_rNhM/

John Caldwell
John Caldwell runs Red Pill Email and is a go-to guy for people looking for sage advice on email marketing solutions. He’s also an uncompromising voice for email marketing best practices. I asked John about the three most important things one should consider when choosing and email service provider.
http://getresponse.tv/watch/QZ1C4kn0ySU/

Chris Baggot
Content marketing is a big buzz term in online marketing today, but what’s it all about? I was lucky enough to corner Chris Baggott of Compendium at EEC 13 to talk content marketing, demystify it and offer some tips on how to make it work for your business.
http://getresponse.tv/watch/6vLSrmQyIPY/

Ken Magill
Ken Magill is not known for pulling his punches. In my opinion, he’s email marketing’s answer to 60 minutes and the Colbert Report, all rolled into one. This is the first time I had the pleasure to meet Ken in person and I jumped at a chance to engage him on what Ken calls the “Conventional Wisdom Buzz.”
http://getresponse.tv/watch/94dJbOdFHvw/

Jim

Jim Ducharme
Community Director
GetResponse Email Marketing
www.GetResponse.com
@hugeheadca
 

If your business is seasonal, back-to-school time and the pre-holiday months of late summer and early autumn are likely major tipping points for driving revenue and ensuring you end the calendar year on a high note. More than ever, this is the time that marketers, especially those with a retail and/or e-commerce business, need to harness all the tools they have at their disposal and implement smart email program decisions.

After all, the bottom line isn’t graded on a curve and there’s no such thing as summer school when it comes to missed opportunities for recognizing ROI from the email channel. When Sam Cooke sang, “Don’t know much about history. Don’t know much biology…” his “Wonderful World” put academics second and love first. Unfortunately, email marketers can’t afford to ignore their IQs when it comes to email intelligence.

While being an A+ student in all aspects of email marketing might be unrealistic, there are a few subjects that marketers definitely shouldn’t ignore:

1. Security: Phishing and spoofing activity has never been more rampant and marketers need to be proactive in protecting their brands. Contrary to popular belief, fraudsters aren’t just going after financial institutions like banks, payment services providers and credit card companies; they’re targeting any legitimate brand that subscribers may be familiar with. This includes social networking sites, shipping companies, wireless phone and internet providers and many more. A phishing or spoofing attack has the power to undo all of the good ground work that has been laid for optimizing inbox placement rates and performance metrics. If a subscriber’s personal details or finances are compromised as the result of clicking on a link in an email that pretends to come from your brand, you’ve not only lost an email subscriber and potential (or existing) customer, but your brand reputation has plummeted. In this age of social sharing, that negative outcome likely includes anyone in that subscriber’s network of friends and family as well. What can you do? Protect your brand by using an anti-phishing and anti-spoofing tool that monitors fraudulent activity and blocks any attempts to hijack your domain. Learn more about Return Path’s solution here.


2. Inactivity: Having a large portion of non-responsive addresses on your file is the equivalent of blaming the dog for eating your homework. Not only does this segment reflect poorly on your list hygiene practices, but the inactive portion of your file isn’t going to diminish by ignoring it or pretending it isn’t there.  Most major ISPs such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL are factoring engagement metrics into their filtering decisions. This includes metrics like whether or not the message was opened, replied to, clicked on or added to a subscriber’s address book. The more messages being sent to inactive addresses, the greater the likelihood that sender reputation and inbox placement will be impacted, negatively affecting response rates and overall program performance. In addition, depending on how long these addresses have lingered on the file, there could be a large percentage of spam traps. When it comes to email intelligence around inactivity, marketers should have a solid and ongoing plan in place for communicating to pre-defined inactive segments with a specific strategy to reengage and ultimately remove any persistent non-responders.


3. Skimmability: Optimizing your creative templates has never been more important as subscribers increasingly use their mobile devices to check email. Return Path’s latest research study “Mobile, Webmail, Desktops: Where Are We Viewing Email Now?” shows that email opens on mobile devices grew 82.4% year-over-year and Apple devices account for 85% of all mobile email opens. Designing email for mobile viewing has its own unique set of best practices to experiment with based on the devices your subscribers are using to view email. Whether it’s testing single-column or multi-column layouts, trying a variety of “finger-friendly” sized buttons that allow for easy clicking, using a text size that can be easily read on a variety of screens or designing mobile-friendly landing pages and websites that support on-the-go conversions, email messages read on mobile devices need to work even harder to be skimmable. The decision to click-through on an email viewed on a mobile device is made in a split-second, so the clearer and concise your message is, the better.

 

When it comes to realizing ROI from the email channel, what you don’t know can definitely hurt you. The good news is that with a little studying (along with testing, adjusting and optimizing), you can go a long way toward ensuring your program makes the grade for the back-to-school season and beyond.

Margaret Farmakis
Senior Director, Response Consulting
Return Path

 

While we were updating our ESP selection guide last year, “integration” was the recurring theme. Email is no longer a standalone marketing channel. Integrating email with social media marketing, web analytics and more has become a necessary capability for many email marketers.

And integrating email with content marketing is part of that holistic approach.

Content and email are ideally suited for a symbiotic marketing relationship. Content marketing can both inform and draw from email marketing.

Create Once, Use Repeatedly
As you’re planning your content pieces, whether that content consists of words, video, photos, podcasts, webinars, infographics, or a slideshow, consider also how you can promote that content to your in-house email list. Maybe it’s a B2B webinar, a tradeshow video or a cookbook offer. Whatever the content and your method of lead generation, consider making that same content available to appropriate people on your email list too.

As long as your content marketing program is healthy and strong, you’ll always have relevant reasons to email your audience or at least some segment thereof.

We call that creating once, using repeatedly. And that’s how your content marketing can give your email marketing a boost.

You can also use your email marketing to improve your content offerings by testing to see which type of content gets the best response rate. Maybe you thought your audience would prefer video but email marketing A/B testing shows a preference for whitepapers. Or perhaps your case study offer falls flat but your archived webinar does wonders when they go head to head while testing your offer. No matter the winner, you can use that information to refine your content marketing program, offering more of the types of content your audience seems to want. 

Use Email, Get Content
Content marketing can inform your email marketing program…and it can draw from it too, when you use your email platform for generating more content.

Your email newsletter should be considered part of your content marketing strategy and probably already is. Less obvious, however, is the messaging created specifically for your email marketing campaigns, and even the one-off emails sent by your sales or service teams. Review the messages created as part of your email marketing program to find nuggets or even gems you can repurpose elsewhere as part of your content marketing strategy. Also keep tabs on the information your employees send out in response to email inquiries. These can be very targeted and readable pieces of content you can repurpose in your blog, newsletter, case studies or elsewhere.

Also consider using email to conduct surveys and solicit customer feedback. These can be sought after via email and the content provided by your customers can then be repurposed and used in online marketing, your blog or in your social media. Ask subscribers to submit photos, videos or even drawings, and you’ll open up a whole new avenue for content generation that can’t help but be relevant, since it’s your customers who created it.

Email is the multi-purpose marketing channel that can be integrated with pretty much every other marketing channel, whether that’s a technical integration or a tactical one. Make sure your content and email marketing strategies are working together to maximize your results from both.

Marco Marini, CEO
ClickMail Marketing

With the calendar rolling quickly toward November and only a few months left before we see you all at the Email Evolution Conference 2012, we have a few exciting items we’d like to share on behalf of the entire Speakers Bureau.

First, if you haven’t participated in the eec Speakers Bureau Advisory Committee, or if you've considered joining, here’s what you should know. The Speakers Bureau Advisory Committee’s mission is to evangelize email as a key business driver for brands and publishers. It’s purposefully broad because we all know it’s a multi-channel world in which email has many applications that drive business. 

To fulfill our mission we place approved eec speakers across shows we manage, we serve as a speaker clearinghouse for organizations seeking qualified email marketing experts for their events and forums and we bring great content to external audiences. Qualifying to speak is easy; members can simply visit the Speakers Bureau page.

Second our working plan for 2012. During 2012, the Committee will execute against three key goals. We are currently planning how to best deliver and would love more involvement if anything strikes a chord.

1. We will begin utilizing social groups including LinkedIn and Facebook to grow our speakers bureau following, participation and engagement.
2. We will revamp our YouTube Channel so that the latest thought-leadership across our membership is available to communities interested in accessing our content.
3. We will expand our eec blog activity to get more and better content out to external audiences.

These three goals were selected in addition to the everyday work the committee does of reviewing and programming content across events and programs. If you have other ideas, please let us know by posting in the comments section below.

- Dori Thompson & Lana McGilvray

The eec's Cross-Channel Roundtable is working toward developing a checklist for email marketers to audit their existing email marketing programs or to use as a guide to kickstart cross-channel marketing. 

We started out by defining cross-channel versus multi-channel. Below we have developed 10 of the 11 key principles/steps that we feel will define cross-channel marketing.

1. Establish goals (sales, engagement) - Identify what it is you want to accomplish in specific, quantifiable terms and get buy-in on the goals from across the organization.
2. Determine what programs you need to run to meet your goals - Once you know what you want to accomplish, determine what the best execution methods for these programs should be (mobile, email marketing, social media, direct mail, etc…).
3. Get buy-in (executive sponsorship) - Form an Internal Team of Champions. You may run into resistance knocking down barriers and trying new ways to communicate with customers and prospects.  An executive champion in your company will be critical to getting through these issues.
4. Bridge departmental silos - Get teams working together.  Cross-channel marketing often involves different disciplines and departments; create a new mindset and don't let established silos hinder your progress.
5. Data collection - Identify what data you need to do the segmentation and communication for the communication programs you’ve defined.  See if you have the data somewhere in your organization before you ask customers to provide it.  Consider the value of behavioral data over self reported data.
6. Walk before you run - Don't expect to do full-blown cross-channel campaigns.  Identify certain channels & focus on goals to show quick wins.  Establish meaningful goals within manageable boundaries so you can begin.  Starting small is better than delaying big.
7. Early success for automation and segmentation - Technology is an enabler, not a crutch.  Use success from manual or small tests to show higher ROI, then forecast future success based on those increased levels of performance.  Don’t just go out and buy technology to solve your problem.  Understand your issues and your goals and if you need automation to accomplish them or technology to track progress, then seek out the right product for your needs.
8. Don't force it - Understand the strength of each channel and how it works best in a cross-channel campaign and use it accordingly…don’t try to force fit.  Just because it works for someone else, doesn’t mean it works for your company or business (i.e. social for community engagement and input).
9. Consistently measure progress set up for success - Establish well-defined business rules based on what you’re trying to accomplish.
10. Test, test, and test again - Keep testing for higher optimization and to ensure customer behavior has not changed over time.
11. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! HELP US FILL IN THIS LAST SPOT

These are the top principles we have defined; before we write them in stone, we want to hear from you!  Is there something you feel is missing when it comes to being a cross-channel marketer?  What do you feel should be the eleventh principle?

Please be sure to leave comments and thoughts below or send one of the Roundtable chairs an email: Colleen Petitt at Aprimo: colleen.petitt@aprimo.com or David Hibbs at Responsys: dhibbs@responsys.com.


- Colleen Petitt
Aprimo
co-chair of Cross-Channel Roundtable

Multi-channel. Cross-channel. Can we use them interchangeably? Is there a difference and if so, what is it?

The eec's Cross-Channel Integration Roundtable believes not only is there a difference, but it's a significant one.

Here’s our definition: multi-channel marketing refers to sending out the same message to your audience using a variety of different channels (email marketing, direct mail, mobile, etc.).  The channels work independently and are generally not coordinated - more of a silo approach.

When referring to cross-channel marketing, you’re still using multiple marketing channels but you're taking a much more choreographed, orchestrated, personalized approach.  One message reinforces the next message and leverages the benefits of the specific channel by driving your audience to action, as opposed to just repeating the same message.  It's much more tightly integrated and looks at the interactions 'holistically' - not only how the customer is receiving the communication, but also how they're responding to it.  A cross-channel marketing strategy then takes that into consideration before sending out the next communication.

So...what do you think?  Share your thoughts by posting a comment below.


- Eileen Weinberg
ClickSquared
Member of the eec's Cross-Channel Integration Roundtable

I've been hearing a lot of questions surrounding the best application of social media to the marketing mix, but one that has been slightly overlooked and under-discussed is who should really own it within an organization. And until you can figure that out, it is really difficult to hold any one internal resource responsible for devising a solid and actionable social plan.

To that end, StrongMail Systems recently conducted a survey to see how marketers were approaching the social space and who planned to own the channel. More than 500 marketers responded, and the results validated our suspicions. Social media is emerging as a direct marketing channel, and marketers are planning significant investment in email marketing and social media programs in the second half of 2009.

One thing the survey clearly conveyed is that ownership of social media within the various facets of marketing is still up for grabs, with 29% of respondents stating that responsibility is owned by multiple departments. But for 36% of the respondents, social is owned by the direct marketing organization, which allows for significant alignment with email marketing efforts. Social media was initially seen as a terrific vehicle for public relations, but surprisingly only 9% of respondents reported PR organizations owning the social media channel, which suggests that marketing teams value social media more for its demand generation potential than awareness building. A paltry 5% have a dedicated social media department.

Other notable facts from the survey include:

66% of respondents plan to integrate email and social channels in 2009

48% of respondents have already formulated a strategy for achieving email and social integration

Of marketers planning to increase budgets in 2009, 83% will increase spend in email marketing, followed by social media at 62%

If you are asking yourself where to start, don't worry, you aren't alone. 55% of respondents report that one of their biggest challenges with integrating social media and email marketing is determining metrics by which to measure success. At 48%, establishing business goals for the program is a close second. So here are a few tips on where to start:

Establish goals for the social channel. Is it your objective to use the social outlets for brand building, email list growth or increased revenue? While your objectives could be multi-fold, understanding what they are is the right place to start.

Prioritize your social goals. Now that you have your goals established, apply some logical business measurements to effectively prioritize the goals. Which objectives will require the least start-up versus the need for longer lead times coupled with programmatic implications that can result?

Develop an action plan. It is not realistic to think that you can hit the social world and accomplish all of your objectives by simply posting a Facebook page. Devise a plan and put your best foot forward – you don't want to rush to market with a half-baked plan in any marketing channel, but the viral aspect of social magnifies those mistakes multi-fold, so be cautious.

Based on these findings and what is known about the power of social media, it's clear that it deserves some serious attention and has grown to the stage where it needs an owner and a purpose within marketing.

- Kara Trivunovic, StrongMail Systems

More marketers have been including games in their email this season, trying to distract us into playing when we all need to be in Q4 work-mode. The game-playing happens, truth be told, and it can be a good thing. With so many retailers trying to reach shoppers through the same marketing channels daily, the games "pop," functioning as fun ways to inspire clickthroughs.

While I appreciate the festivity, there's a danger that games might draw subscribers in just enough to play and then let them slip away without further engagement. A lack of clear call-to-action and a weak connection between the games and the brands could end up offering subscribers an enjoyable activity without yielding benefits for marketers.

"Gaming" marketers might consider these five ideas for optimizing the play:

1) Include a strong call-to-action. Make sure that the marketing purpose of your game isn't lost; prominently feature a CTA (or multiple CTAs) to get game players back into shopping. Make sure it's simultaneously integrated with the game experience and attention-grabbing.

2) Plan a series of games. Consider creating a multi-part game that is marketed through a series of emails, keeping subscribers engaged and anticipating next steps.

3) Send follow-up messages. After playtime is over, send a follow-up email that reminds subscribers of the fun they had and that invites them to play again, and/or announces the game winner.

4) Incentivize the playing. Offering a discount or free gift to people who play the games will encourage them to shop and take advantage of their reward.

5) Incorporate product into the games. Design games that complement your brand in an obvious way so that there is a smooth transition between playing the game and moving toward shopping.

Let's take a look at how some retailers "game" this holiday:

• TopShop invites subscribers to play in a Christmas fairytale land, where a few easy clicks and drags can spin a carousel until it transforms into a beautiful girl. Players in Australia and some European countries can win prizes, but all subscribers can play. While the game is fun and engaging, I'm concerned that its calls-to-actions are too weak to be effective: only small text links along the bottom of the page ask players to forward the game to a friend and to shop at TopShop.com. Subscribers from eligible countries are enticed into shopping with a discount offer, but subscribers from other places aren't drawn to TopShop.com as strongly as they could be.

• ElfYourself by OfficeMax is back again this year—elfier than ever, as the email says. (I just got "Elfed" by my dad this morning!) This popular holiday game lets subscribers upload photos and see themselves virtually transformed into dancing elves, which can be forwarded far and wide—kind of like spreading holiday cheer—to friends who can then "Elf" themselves, too. Widely popular, OfficeMax's sponsorship of the game must reap some holiday rewards for them, but subscribers are brought back to the OfficeMax site only if they click on the "Brought to you by: OfficeMax" sign. Those who do are rewarded by an "Elfed" OfficeMax landing page, which allows subscribers to shop around in an elfy environs.

• Sephora wins the relevance award this season for its own ElfYourself-inspired game called the Sephora Mistletoe Makeover. Players can upload photos and see themselves dolled up in four fabulously festive looks—Smokey Sugar Plum, Merry Berry, Santa's Little Temptress and O, Tannen-Babe—and then send out emails of their holiday selves to friends.

The whole experience engages customers in a way that's clearly connected to the brand, incorporating Sephora's product offering (makeup) into the fun. When a subscriber creates a card to send to a friend, she or he is offered free eyelashes or mini-lipstick with a purchase: a "wink" or a "kiss." After the transformation, the player can click on a link to "Get this look," and Sephora shows just the makeup needed for a real-life mistletoe makeover. The game further entices players to go back into shopping with a free-gift offer and an immediate reminder email about the offer. Try it out—the link to the game is at the bottom of the email.

We all love a good game. (When was the last time you played "Monopoly"? We brought it out recently and had a blast.) Subscribers' positive experiences with games should effectively strengthen their relationships with the brands that send them. The best games provide a smooth and compelling transition from playtime into shoptime; shoppers feel even more jazzed for holiday gift shopping after being playfully put into the spirit of the season.

Have fun!
Lisa Harmon and Alex Madison of Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

In the marketing and advertising world, the consumer is in control. Understanding consumer drivers is critically important in driving success regardless of what role you have. When you overlay personal consumer drivers with channel specific and multi-channel marketing impacts, not only you will you succeed in the eyes of your customer, but you will also drive the relationship you have with them to the next level.

Recent research released by digital publisher Zinio and the Harrison Group enables marketers to go somewhere they have not been able to go before: into the minds of digital consumers. Attend this webinar to hear the latest benchmarks and findings captured for readers of digital magazines. But don't be deceived! While the study appears to focus on insights around digital magazines, this data is imperative to understand if you have or ever plan to advertise in a print publication or online, if you use email to promote book or magazine subscriptions, or if you send email.

The Digital Consumer—How Email and Digital Impact Marketing Choices
Hosted by the Email Experience Council
Thursday, March 20 at 1pm EST/10am PST

Speakers:
Jeanniey Mullen, the Email Experience Council's founder and executive chairwoman and Zinio's global EVP, CMO
Chad White, director of retail insights and editor-at-large at the Email Experience Council

–>REGISTER NOW for this no-cost webinar!

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

ExactTarget: CareerBuilder.com Case Study
Taguchi Testing Strategy Delivers Results

Epsilon: The Fortified Inbox
Insight Brief

Bronto Software: Creating A Multi-Channel Strategy
Increase Your Email Performance By Integrating Other Channels

Abad Marketing: Claves para lograr que nuestros mensajes se lean en navidad

Return Path: Stop Sending Email Like It's 1999
Welcome Message Study: Marketers Are Missing Opportunities to Pave the Road to Relevancy

Email Data Source: Email Brand Equity Index™
The Email Brand Equity Index™ is the first score that reflects a 360 degree view of email marketing efforts.

StrongMail: Put the Action Back in Transactional Email
Transform your service-based messages into revenue opportunities.

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