1. An e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender.

2. The definition of “sender” was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act’s opt-out requirements.

3. A “sender” of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered post office box or private mailbox established under United States Postal Service regulations to satisfy the Act’s requirement that a commercial e-mail display a “valid physical postal address.”

4. A definition of the term “person” was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM’s obligations are not limited to natural persons.

The Direct Marketing Association is hosting a conference call, which is only open to Email Experience Council and DMA members, to brief members on what the new CAN-SPAM rules mean.

FTC’s New CAN-SPAM Rules
Hosted by the Direct Marketing Association
Friday, May 16 at 1pm EST

-->If you are an eec or DMA member, you can register by emailing government@the-dma.org.

In 2007, the eec selected the Women’s Bean Project as their project focus. Stephanie Miller, from Return Path, volunteered countless hours to lead this initiative and its team on behalf of the eec. I spoke with Stephanie about this effort to get the inside scoop on the project:

WHO IS THE WOMEN’S BEAN PROJECT?
The Women's Bean Project (WBP) helps women break the cycle of poverty and unemployment by teaching workplace competencies for entry-level jobs through employment and by teaching job readiness skills in their gourmet food production business.

WHY WERE THEY A GOOD CANDIDATE?
The WBP was sending one-off donor and volunteer announcements from a database created in FileMaker.

The WBP came to the eec with the following needs and goals:

1. Efficiency: Communicate effectively and efficiently with donors, volunteers and buyers (online and offline).

2. Impact & Choice: Retain donors and buyers through a higher number of touch points—ensuring that each touch is meaningful but also reducing costs and the amount of staff time required for each. Also, allow each customer/donor to select the method of communication (online or offline) that works best for them.

3. Cost Savings: Continue to reach every customer, even as the number of buyers increases by 30% each year (raising the costs of printing and postage significantly).

4. Practicality: Launch and manage a program on a very small staff—literally one-quarter of one person was dedicated to email marketing for all three audiences (donors, buyers, volunteers).

HOW DID THE EEC VOLUNTEER TEAM LOOK?
It is a testament to the email industry and the eec membership that very quickly we had 15 talented professionals volunteer to help, and several vendors step forward and to provide tools and services free of charge. ExactTarget provided a free basic sending license and also graciously donated nearly 15 hours of support throughout the project. Return Path donated a free rendering and deliverability account. Other companies represented included Blackbaud, BlueHornet, Future Integrated Marketing, Industry Mailout, Leapfrog Enterprises, Merkle and Wolters Kluwer Financial Services.

WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED?
The team focused on six specific areas to create the program—content, design, infrastructure and list growth.

Content Strategy:
● Identified ways that email can support the WBP mission
● Developed a content strategy
● Debated and finalized permission standards (DOI)
● Developed a calendar for promotions around the holidays, including promoting some local events and fundraisers
● Advised on sending an email counterpart for the annual appeal to donors (direct mail)
● Promotional content recommendations: (1) special offers: 10% discount for National Soup Month; (2) developed concept, copy and photography for a Valentine's Day email that would have viral impact; and (3) developed a year’s worth of promotional themes based on holidays in order to boost sales during non-peak months (e.g., soup sales in summer are very slow)
● Set up Google Analytics so WBP could measure success of the email program for driving sales and page views
● Helped train the WBP team to review campaign results with an eye toward optimization

Design:
● Developed wireframes for four types of emails
● Designed templates for newsletter, postcards, DOI/welcome and donor appeals
● Loaded the templates into ExactTarget and tested them
● Helped launch an inaugural issue—which included list hygiene and deliverability with an old file, as well as an opt-out strategy for the existing database

Infrastructure:
● Worked with the team to set up an ExactTarget account
● Upload the templates; Access the self-service training
● Testing and mailing
● Course Correction: Aligning with with Yahoo! Store and cleaning up templates

List Growth:
● Starting point: 75% valid records
● Developed organic, offline and viral list growth ideas
● Recommended ways to optimize data capture on the website
● Reviewed the subscription flow for permission clarity and growth optimization

Wireframe Sample:

HOW DID IT TURN OUT?
Here's a quick rundown of the results:

1. We launched a program! It is practical, earns results, garners the praise and kudos of subscribers, donors and the WBP Board of Directors and has legs—the WBP can continue this email program when the volunteer team disbands.

2. Subscribers love it! The inaugural issue of the newsletter generated:
● 32% open rates
● 15% clickthrough rate
● 3.1% bounce rate on new data (25% bounce rate on old list data)

3. Subscribers are great WBP customers! Page views from email subscribers are two times higher than other sources.

For more details on our work with the Women’s Bean Project and past Nonprofit Projects, visit the Nonprofit Project page on the Email Experience Council’s website.

—Jeanniey Mullen of the eec

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

(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.

Are you surprised by the results? Share your comments below.

Also, visit the eec homepage to answer the latest Two-Click Survey question:
What level of permission to you get from most of your email subscribers?

-->See more Two-Click Survey Results

When I first cut my teeth as an email marketer in the late 1990s, it had been a while since I’d taken a math class. Having attended a small liberal arts school in the Midwest, I was never asked to crunch a single number, and happily concentrated on the subjects that most interested me at the time—Cultural Anthropology and Sociology. So when I went to report on those first campaigns, I didn’t have a whole lot of tools in my belt to analyze them. I calculated the basic performance metrics—open rate, click through, etc.—and when trends or anomalies presented themselves I took notice.

Since those good old days, I have brushed up considerably on my analytical skills. Now I still rely on many of the same KPIs, and a few more, to judge program performance, but I definitely see the data in different ways.

As mentioned above, now I can’t look at a set of data without calculating their standard deviation. It’s of course useful to know, for example, what the average open rate is for a group of messages, but without a measure of variance, the average doesn’t yield much useful information. For example, I could have two different campaigns of three messages each that both have an average open rate of 30%. If we stop there, we could deduce that both programs are performing similarly with regards to opens—when one program could be comprised of messages with open rates of {29%, 30%, 31%} and the other could be {3%, 19%, 68%}. The standard deviation of the open rates for the first campaign is 1—not much variance—but the standard deviation of the second is 33.87, indicating some substantial fluctuations. Again, both have mean open rates of 30%, but there are probably different things going on in data set #2 that warrant further exploration.

If you don’t currently calculate the standard deviation of your campaign metrics, I suggest you try it. Don’t concern yourself that the standard deviation is the “root mean square deviation of values from their arithmetic mean,” just type =STDEV into excel and select the data. It only takes a second, and I believe you may find the information useful.

—Nicholas Einstein of Datran Media

That recently happened to me so I wanted to share it with all of you. Hopefully you can all use this as a best practices learning, or story to share internally about crossing i’s and dotting t’s, and what to do when something goes wrong.

So in celebration of Earth Day the eec thought it would be nice to give something free to our subscribers (just like we did when we gave away free dice from SubscriberMail during the holidays 2 years ago). We decided to go with one free issue of VIV magazine. We chose this because it both demonstrated how email can extend into the digital world even further and because it is an all “green” publication.

Sadly, when the service message was set to send, notifying people their eec gift was ready for review, a few things went awry:
1. People received two or more emails with this notification
2. The context of the eec Earth Day gift was left off the copy

While no one’s information was rented or sold to any other company, admittedly, the perceived recipient experience looked pretty poor. This is a great learning experience for us all.

While I have received emails both praising our thoughtfulness and attempt to share with the industry, I have also received emails questioning the execution of this campaign.

I would like to invite anyone who has questions, concerns or comments to give me a call at 973-204-0023.

I am posting this not to invite complainers to bash this effort (although I am sure we will have those), but to continue to share. The eec’s mission is to pursue a community-based approach to making email better. If this is something you applaud us trying, thank you, if it’s something you can learn from so the same thing doesn’t happen to you, we are happy with that as well.

—Jeanniey Mullen of the eec

I’m going date myself with the next sentence, but don’t care. Do you remember the TV show “Romper Room” from the ’70s? The show was filled with a lot of educational content and socialization skills all communicated through a friendly, fun and socially supportive environment. My favorite part came at the end when the host picked up the “magic mirror” and told TV land whom she saw having a great time along with the cast. As a loyal advocate, I always waited with baited breath knowing she was going to see me and say my name (although sadly she never did).

(You can watch it here. Go to 6:13 to see the magic mirror section.)

Many of the TV shows of the ’70s were like that. They offered us safe and fun social settings where we could learn along with our peers, and not be afraid to make a mistake every once and awhile. Out of that culture and era, it grew a whole big batch of 30-somethings who now have important jobs and make big decisions every day.

In the hard cold world of business, where’s the “Romper Room” for grown-ups? How do we keep growing and learning along with our peers? I think the email industry very well could be the “Romper Room” of our era. As I spend more time with the communities that exist around other industries such as search, mobile, social, online, high-tech, publishing, healthcare, etc., I have yet to find a community that’s as warm and inviting as the email industry.

Over the past five years, I’ve watched this industry grow from a technically specific product-focused world into an industry of fabulous and intelligent people. Anyone who works in the email industry should be assured of one thing: You will not only learn your craft from experts, but this community will be there to support and guide you along the way. You are fortunate to be part of this experience.

People like Dylan Boyd, David Daniels, Loren McDonald, David Baker and Tamara Gielen are priceless. They tirelessly work to evangelize the successes and strengths of email.

People like Stephanie Miller, Chad White, Justin Foster, Ali Swerdlow, Mark Brownlow, Joel Book, Lauren Skena and DJ Waldow selflessly bend over backwards to help anyone who asks them for guidance, statistics or case studies, to ensure email marketing remains respected and credible.

People like David Atlas, Kay Cavender, Deirdre Baird, Lana McGilvray, Kath Pay, Des Cahill, Skip Fidura, Richard Gibson and Lisa Harmon push us to strive to reach the next level of excellence in everything we do with email.

And I would be remiss to leave out people like Matt Blumberg, Al DiGuido, Bill Nussey, Bill McCloskey and Rob Fitzgerald, who aren’t satisfied with email being considered a siloed channel and have dedicated years and years to ensuring the level of respect and reach for the industry is broadened into the realm of “digital.”

My list could go on for days. (Apologies to anyone not listed). If you haven’t yet run into at least one of these industry icons (and Email Experience Council members), seek them out and introduce yourself to them—through Facebook or LinkedIn, at a conference, or on the streets of New York, Massachusetts or California. A quick chat, email or even cup of coffee with any of these people will broaden your outlook on email, challenge your thoughts (for the better) and leave you feeling excited, invigorated and proud to be a part of this very tightly woven and supportive community.

—Jeanniey Mullen of the eec

eROI: The Cradle and The Grave
Opt-In, Opt-Out & Feedback Loops

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

It seems this report could actually be sending us a warning: Change or die. I don’t mean to sound melodramatic over this, but statistics like “only 30% of respondents offer confirmed opt-in” and “only 23% enable consumer-driven frequency settings to maintain a relationship” scare me. I mean, haven’t we, as an industry grown at all? Twelve years since inception of email marketing, have email marketers turned into “snobs” who have forgotten their roots as consumers?

Before you post a comment and tell me I am insane, think about it: In this report I learned that 90% of people who click on an unsubscribe link or button never hear a word from the company they unsubscribed from. WOW. If your best friend got up and said, “Please don’t speak to me or call me ever again” and walked out of the room, would you just shrug your shoulders and move on with life? I don’t think so. So why are we acting this way with our customers?

We should be looking into ways to find out why people are opting out and offer solutions. Maybe give subscribers the ability to opt-out by message type (i.e., events, special offers, etc.). Maybe we give them the ability to receive updates through a different electronic channel, like RSS or mobile alerts. Or maybe we simply just ask, “Are you sure you want to leave?” and offer the ability to call a human being to discuss it. I am not suggesting that anyone keep emailing people who opt-out, but I am suggesting that we try harder to understand and save these relationships.

Over the years, email marketing has become increasingly challenging both strategically and technically. As an industry, shouldn’t we turn our collective focus on addressing some of the elements (like ISP deliverability issues) that cause us to devote countless hours of our time so that we can return to paying attention to our customers?

Reading this reader survey and report made me realize how simple is can be to take our biggest assets (our customers) for granted and just let them walk out the door. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you download it, take a look at the stats and think about how your current company’s efforts may actually be reflecting on the future stability of your customer relationships. My guess is that if we stopped acting like we didn’t care when people opt-out, we could very well win back the loyalty of 40% of those people, or more.

—Jeanniey Mullen of the eec

Consumers have grown from accepting email as a viable channel for communication to relying upon it in their daily lives, personal and business. I have heard complaints about broker communications resulting in the loss of thousands, missing and duplicated pizza orders, missed flights and late bills—all of this a result of missing emails.

Email is much more valuable than it has ever been before, so much so that consumers are taking it with them on their phones and PDAs so they can always be in the know. Men’s Health Magazine recently offered that you should ALWAYS keep your smartphone or PDA at your side to be “a person with influence and access to valuable information”.

—Charles Stiles of Goodmail Systems

Chad White: Sender Line Branding Tactics In Retail Emails
Solid Branding in the Sender Lines of Promotional Emails; Less So in Welcome Emails

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

(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.

Peter Greenberger who runs the Elections & Issue Advocacy group at Google was kind enough to make some time for me recently, and indicated that each of the campaigns is dedicating over 50% of their online marketing budgets to search—with some dedicating well over 50%. What I find most interesting, however, is that the candidates are primarily leveraging paid search to build their email lists.

Barack Obama is, hands down, the most successful online fundraiser. He often raises over a million dollars a day online, and has certainly forced the other candidates to get more sophisticated about how they approach the web. His online strategies definitely seem to be working. So how exactly is he soliciting donations?

Type “obama” into Google and click on the top link, a paid search listing. Where do to you land? The link takes a clicker to a page that features a simple opt-in box asking for name, email, and address, with an adjacent video window featuring a message from the candidate. There is no “donate now” button, or form with various contribution levels, just a simple opt-in box to register to receive updates from the campaign. Mr. Obama realizes that your email address is the most valuable donation you can make, and that with it he can more effectively induce you into making larger, more frequent donations, or solicit your assistance in making phone calls and otherwise promote the campaign. Obama may be spending the majority of his money on search, but it seems from this example, that he may very well be raising most of his money through email.

—Nicholas Einstein of Datran Media