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March 31, 2006
The War Down Under - A New Front
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has created what they are calling the world’s first code of conduct for ISP’s and email service providers in their fight against spam. The Internet Industry Spam Code of Practice, created in cooperation with Australia’s Internet Industry Association, mandates that ISP’s tell their users how to deal with spam, provide spam filtering options, and provide a system for handling spam-related complaints.
Under the new code of conduct, ISP’s are responsible for addressing spam problems on their own networks, whether they’re human spammers, virus-infected spam-propagating ‘zombie’ computers, or just poorly configured email servers. The code also suggests best practices for preventing and detecting spam, which includes adhering to email authentication standards, control of automated email account registration, and proper record keeping.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:00 PM | Permalink
March 30, 2006
ISPs are Guilty Too of Spam
It is interesting to see that Portals and ISPs that are the ones trying stop the flood of spam are also part of the problem. I see 100s of emails a day that some from AOL, gMail and other ISP accounts and wonder how they can patrol the emails being sent by users. It takes moments to set up a new Portal email account and it is really based on trust. A spammer could ultimately set up as many of these accounts as they wish and continuously switch and kill one account after another. This has caused some of these ISPs to be on the blacklists themselves. And then that impacts the delivery of your own personal email.
I have recently seen this problem with Yahoo mail and the delay in getting messages from friends that use it for personal email. The delay on delivery can take from 1 hour to 24 hours. Not too good when you need to move a personal message.
Maybe we all just need to go back to picking up a phone for time sensitive communicaitons.
In another privacy flap, Google email riles spam fightersNEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Last month, Matthew Schwingel became collateral damage in a low-grade conflict between Google Inc. (GOOG) and a handful of spam fighters.
Important messages the former Bank of America trader sent using Gmail, Google's free Web-mail service, went missing over several key days while he and his partners were setting up a new fixed-income trading firm. The delivery problems forced Schwingel to spend hours making sure messages were received and business was getting done. They also sent him back to Hotmail, the service from Google's arch rival Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), until his new company's email got off the ground.
"Just knowing one of your emails didn't go through makes you worry about the last dozen you sent," Schwingel says. "I don't mean to bash Google - I love the company and their products - but email is a sensitive item....It's a commodity that's expected to work 100% of the time."The problems experienced by Schwingel and possibly thousands of other Gmail users are a consequence of Google's sometimes-hawkish policy on privacy. In an unusual practice, Google makes Gmail users virtually anonymous. That's led some spam blockers to occasionally blacklist entire Gmail servers, the massive Google computers that hold many Gmail accounts, because they can't separate the spammers from the legitimate emailers.
'Ticking People Off'
Some publicly available black lists, including the widely used Spamhaus list, have a hands-off approach to Gmail to avoid blocking legitimate email. Others, most notably IronPort Systems Inc.'s SpamCop, aren't willing to give Gmail a free pass."Gmail has taken an extreme position on privacy that inhibits the antispam community from doing their job, and it's ticking people off," says Tom Gilles, co-founder of IronPort.
Some 10% to 15% of the spam IronPort sees comes from free Web-mail accounts, too big a slice to turn a blind eye to."From time to time, Gmail mail is getting blocked because spam is leaking out of their service," Gilles says. "Sometimes the babies get thrown out with the bath water, and that is the rub."
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:57 AM | Permalink
March 29, 2006
When Send to a Friend is Wrong
I read this today wondering what impact this has on the send to a friend implications of many campaigns we see out there. The case below looks as if it was pretty misleading to the user and they then used those S2F email addresses to target with emails that we not "opt in". Not a good practice in general.
As we have seen lately with the Career Builder Monk E Mail campaign, they send it from the brand "CareerBuilder.com" but the subject line is a dynamically generated one like "Jim Smith as sent you a Monk E Mail". As long as you are not capturing the email addresses for future targeting and only directing these S2F emails to opt in for the offer you should be follow these best practices guidelines.
What are your thoughts about this and have you used a S2F campaign that is similar to this?
Record Spam Fine by FTC against JumpstartThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week fined Jumpstart Technologies with a $900,000 civil fine - the largest-ever penalty for violating the CAN-SPAM Act, reports Internet News. The FTC said Jumpstart violated the law by disguising its commercial emails as personal messages: It forged the address in the From line and made it appear as if a friend of the recipient had written the email (it acquired names and email addresses via a promotion). The FTC's complaint also Jumpstart misled consumers about the terms and conditions of the promotion.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:07 PM | Permalink
March 28, 2006
A Competitive Solution to Goodmail
I really like this approach. It basically let's the marketer put a 5 cent bond in place to garuntee that they are not sending spam. If they pass the test and are not sending spam, then the cost is nothing. It is a bond. But if they are indeed sending spam, then they lose the 5 cents. Simple enough and does not take money out of the pocket to garuntee delivery. Good idea.
But here is the chink in the armour. With all of the ISPs and portals placing a "THIS IS SPAM" button in the email client, they are actually encouraging someone to flag it and thus take that nickel. What needs to happen to make this model successful is to better educate the end receiver about the impact of reporting false positives or simply flagging emails that they opted into as spam just to try to get it out of thier inbox. Maybe a system that sends feedback loops to the company or ESP to give them a 72 hour window to prove the opt in relationship with an IP address, date, time stamp and web page that they opted in from. This would create a format that would indeed give the ability for marketers, ISPs. ESPs and the end consumer to start to place some controls on what really is spam or unsolicted email.
We will see how this plays out.
Artilce/Source Marlborough firm pushes payment system to cut spam By Hiawatha Bray, Globe StaffYahoo Inc. and AOL hope to clean up their e-mail systems by charging senders a fee for each e-mail sent to their subscribers. It's a radical, controversial idea -- and, Phillip Raymond says, a lousy one.
It's not that Raymond, chief executive of Vanquish Inc. in Marlborough, is averse to charging for e-mail.
''We think that the idea of using economics is long overdue," he said. ''It is the only way of getting to the heart of the problem."
But Raymond said that the Yahoo and Time Warner Inc. AOL service are going about it all wrong. At tomorrow's annual antispam conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Raymond will promote his company's vision of an e-mail system that forces only spammers to pay, while preserving free e-mail for everybody else. The Vanquish system is very different from the AOL-Yahoo plan. In cooperation with Goodmail Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., AOL and Yahoo will guarantee the delivery of messages sent by organizations, if they pay one-quarter cent to 1 cent for each message. Mail sent by these organizations will be ''certified" as legitimate and will bypass spam filters, which often collect legitimate mail by mistake. The Internet companies and Goodmail will split the revenue generated by the program.Raymond said that it's unfair to make honest mailers pay for each message. And he thinks that any fees should go to the recipient of the e-mail, since he or she is the one who's harmed by receiving unwanted messages.
So Raymond is pushing an alternative approach. Vanquish plans to introduce software that can be installed on the e-mail computers of Internet service providers. The software will be able to detect whether the sender has posted a cash bond -- generally 5 cents. Messages that include such a bond are sent directly to the recipient, without passing through spam filters. If a recipient doesn't want the message, he or she rejects the message and keeps the nickel. ''The recipient ought to be rewarded," Raymond said. ''It's his time you're using." But if the message is accepted, the sender pays nothing.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:48 PM | Permalink
March 27, 2006
At OMMA till Tuesday
For those of you that read this regularly, I will be traveling Sunday to Tuesday to LA for the annual OMMA West conference. If it is an event you do not attend now, it is one worth your time. Mediapost started this event 2 years back and it is one I look forward to each year. It is not just about email, but about the web and how marketers are using it and hope to use it.
Cheers
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:42 AM | Permalink
March 24, 2006
How Social Media is Changing The Marketing Game
I wrote this article last week for another publication and thought it might be valuable to share on this blog. It really covers some of the campaigns we create for our customers. We do alot of social media/blog/Direct to Influencer campaigns and this article talks to that. Not a overall solution or battle plan, but it will give you a little background.
Of course email and lead capture plays a role, but there are so many other facets that must be done in order to be successful.
Think back to 1999 when we were all going to change the world with the internet. Sites and ideas sprang up overnight and leapt into the media frenzy on a daily basis. The media controlled the game and companies had to pay dearly to leverage the saturated pages of every offline vehicle to get their messaging in front of businesses and consumers. Now, flash forward to 2006, the tables have been turned to a method of consumers running the show. Everyone from your co-workers, children and parents have begun to embrace the world of consumer generated content, blogging, social media sites and word of mouth marketing.
Today we have many online vehicles to move our messaging across the globe in a relatively inexpensive way, but it also leads us into new, unfamiliar waters of relinquishing some control. This may be the hardest part of the entire movement; where people outside of your ad agency or internal marketing group can make or break your message.
How have we approached it?
We have been fortunate to help many companies move from the sidelines to the frontlines of this next wave in marketing. We are not going to tell you that it hasn’t been without fear or trepidation on the parts of many VPs and Legal Counsels, but in the end it’s been an eye opener to the power you can unleash for your brand and campaign. So, before we dive into a quick overview of how your business might be able to use this medium, fasten your seat belt and throw some of your old notions to the wind, but not to chance.
Kettle Foods Dips Toe into Social Media
In the second year of the Crave campaign that was executed by Maxwell PR and eROI for Kettle Foods, all parties involved wanted to leverage the momentum of brand evangelism and consumer generated media. But what would be a simple way to move into this realm without releasing all control. The answer came in the form of the StraightUpFlavor.com site for voting on the next flavor of Kettle Foods chips. This provided a way for consumers to supply feedback to the company. After planning on the method of collection, the new site opened up to accept this media in an uncontrolled format. After the first week of results, Kettle Foods loved all of the consumer comments. Thus, the company has created a way to get direct consumer feedback for new concepts/flavors.
Jack Klugman Podcasts
Jack Klugman, the actor from the Odd Couple and Quincy MD, was releasing a new book on his life and friendship with Tony Randall. The national media tour was planned; book signing dates set and PR ready to roll. However, what about the audience that wouldn’t be hit through these channels? The idea for a TonyandMe Blog was born. This blog would allow Jack to create a new media strategy in a real grass roots way. Sitting down with his son over a long weekend, Jack started recording stories about the friends he had in his life and anecdotes about each. Besides sharing the stories with his own son, he was also able to share his stories online with many. The plan used RSS (Real Simple Syndication), Podcasts and grass roots efforts to let others pass and interact with his message. With a few calls to Itunes, Jack was placed in the home page rotation of featured content driving his podcast to unimagined highs and downloads. With this new organic visibility, small video clips were created from live events, old footage and interviews to keep the content library available and active and to keep the online audience engaged through the first few months of the book release and holiday season.
Mass Media and Our Love of Celebrities
DeliveryAgent approached eROI to help test the waters for a new site as well as support for the current paid effort for the ShoptheScene.com (NBC, ABC, Miramax, Project Runway, Queer Eye and more). A new blog and social media plan is what resulted. The idea was to use a blog to test efforts and define what types of media (text, audio and video) would be rapid drivers of organic search engine and social media traffic. A three tiered strategy was created as to not over extend the internal requirements of the DeliveryAgent team from current roles, and build a plan that could be ramped up or even killed off if deemed a liability. The use of a blog or disposable URL gives the ability to scale or kill a concept that is not ultimately tied to other sites or the brand.
How will you approach it?
There is a not a magic pill for getting into using social media for your online marketing efforts. In fact, many companies are just dipping a toe into the water through sites like MySpace, iTunes and technorati. These sites are good examples of the viable ways to spread content and allow others to use your content and comment on it. However, always remember that you should enter into this with a plan and a measurable outcome. Below is an example of a high level plan to launch a new consumer blog. The goal of the blog is to build a community, provide a platform for social dialogue, create a revenue stream with traffic and most importantly drive sales. Below is an example of Social Media campaign plan:
Month ZERO
• Create a working document that will organically grow and change based on where the consumer takes it.
• Create a compelling blog with content that has been back posted 3 months so it does not look like it is too new.
• Write a content plan and guidelines that will follow best practices for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for organic rankings.
• Train the team as to how to engage and approach the consumers and consumer feedback (comments) on the blog.
Month One
• Index with top Blog Search and Aggregation Engines.
• Set up RSS feed for individual subscriptions.
• Set Up Complimentary site and blog content notifications.
• Syndication of Content to Vertical and Influencer Sites and Portals.
• Create a del.icio.us Feed to allow "tagging of content" by peers.
• Send to a Friend System.
• Sign Up for Weekly Alerts and Email Newsletters.
• Allow a system to let consumers tell "us" about relevant news and stories.
Month Two
• Paid Blog Ad Strategy across complimentary blogs.
• Placement on the parent and children shopping sites for reverse link and traffic building.
• Online business development with DTI (Direct to Influencer) Blogs and Sites to grow blogosphere visibility.
• Increase the frequency of daily posts.
• Increase the amount of video and audio content.
Month Three
• Contests that grow with online team work and voting.
• Create Viral Buzz with Ad Agency Nationwide Contacts as influencers.
• Create a MySpace, Xanga.com, Friendster, Facebook and Hi5.com campaign with profile built around the authors or brand.
• Vertical Search Engine Shopping Feeds to bring awareness to products.
Month One to Three
• Evaluate daily traffic, referrals; RSS take/use rate, shopping/ad conversions and signups.
• Allow for flexible plan for months 4-6 based upon success.
• What you need to be cognizant of, no matter the effort, is that you will not have complete control
If you would like to learn more about it or have an opportunity to discuss, let us know.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 11:37 AM | Permalink
Lawmakers Turn up the Heat on AOL/Goodmail
I think that the rest of us have decided to sit back and watch what happens with this whole hot button, but seems others just can't wait to weigh in.
E-Mailers Cool Down on Goodmail, Lawmakers Heat Up Though the controversy over AOL's use of Goodmail CertifiedEmail has subsided in the e-mail industry, nonprofit and advocacy groups — as well as a state lawmaker in California — continue to express concerns. The latest opposition came last week from California state Sen. Dean Florez, a Democrat, who called for a closer look at the program. "It seems to me that AOL is setting a horrible precedent here," Florez said.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:43 AM | Permalink
The War Beyond Our Borders
So now the move is legal to hunt down and chase these spammers beyond our borders. It is about time. I am not sure how many asian character emails you get everyday, but I get pounded. They are totally useless to me and I would think that if they were going to be successful at least they would hire a translator. Speaking of, we are putting on a webinar in April with ViaLanguage about multi-language email marketing. If you are targeting outside of English, even in the US, you should make an effort to attend.
And now back to the news.
Senate Passes SAFEWEB Act The Senate has passed the Undertaking Spam, Spyware and Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers Beyond Borders Act of 2005, which would establish new authorities for the Federal Trade Commission to fight spam, spyware and consumer fraud originating from offshore. The legislation passed by unanimous consent last week. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:39 AM | Permalink
March 23, 2006
Secret Agents Deployed into Friendly Bases
We watch our own newsletter list for www.eroi.com pretty carefully as we like clean data. One thing I saw this AM was a new domain that I had not seen used before. I did a reverse look up and found that it is indeed a spam trap domain. www.exmaps.com. Sounds simple when you see it, like a mapping company, but it is actually SpamEx spelled backwards. Clever huh. I added below as to how spamex works. It is interesting to not that it is a simple system that guards the user. I like that, and tracks if the email address being registered with is sold, rented ot used anywhere else.
I have seen over the years, I think a better solution. This is to buy a domain, (Happy hour on domains for $1 today from noon to 2pm PST on Dotster) and just set up aliases using the name of where you sign up at (like eroinews@domain.com) and know you know if someone is using your email address for EVIL.
My takeaway for email marketers is to really watch the subscribers on a regular basis and use some filters for honeypots and spam traps. Or you may be letting spies and secret agents behind your lines.
About SpamEX.
Every time you disclose your Real Email Address, you lose all control over how it is used. You cannot MAKE someone stop sending you email or prevent them from disclosing it to others. Spamex solves this problem!
With Spamex you can:
Hide your Real Email Address
Stop unwanted email permanently
Reveal who disclosed your information
Keep track of logins and passwords
Make it easy to change your Real Email Address at any time
Read what our users say about Spamex
With Spamex Disposable Email Addresses you can safely provide a working email address to anyone and not have to worry about whether they will send you unwanted email or sell your email address to others
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 2:47 PM | Permalink
Hip Humor Reaches Youth
We are regular contributors on web marketing campaigns for iMediaConnection.com. We get asked to review new campaigns and would like to steer you to these from time to time.
This one focuses on fuse TV and was well done. Read our CEO's takes.
Hip Humor Reaches Youth
fuse TV targets youth with a website that offers animation, comedy, downloads and music.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:48 AM | Permalink
Profile Management - It's Not Rocket Science
I love when I see that "adding a preference center" retains customers. I mean this should have been a staple of EVERY email campaign and system a marketer uses. I know the personal frustation level from so many major brands that continue to send me gender wrong ads and will not let me change. I don't want to unsub from these brands, but give me a choice. Let me tell you. In emais sent monthly to 4 major online clothing retailers, only one has thus responded and actually changed my preferences, making me a happy customer and shopper. The others are driving me further away from wanting to shop with them.
Online retailers that let e-mail subscribers change their preferences when they opt out of e-mails can keep some of those customers on their lists, according to a new study provided exclusively to DM News. Permission e-mail marketing firm Silverpop, Atlanta, reviewed 175 major retailers including J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and Crate & Barrel. It found that only 12 percent gave customers the chance to change their preferences in addition to simply opting out.Providing a "preference center," which offers other e-mail lists and asks for customer feedback, gives consumers a chance to rethink opting out, explain to marketers why they opted out or subscribe to one of the retailer's other lists.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:37 AM | Permalink
New Microsoft Mobile Mail Beta
Just got an email tonight from Microsoft alerting me to the new mobile version of the new Live Mail beta. As a 10 year user of my msn.com address, I can tell you that the new email clients (in AJAX) is much better and cleaner than most email clients. Not available to the general public yet, except bu invite, it is worth looking for and might make you ditch that AOL or Yahoo account.
I tested it on my blackberry tonight and it is fast and clean as well. Hats off thus far to the improved email client online and offline. Below is the invite (really leverages the velvet rope approach that Gmail used). I am curious to see how it impacts HTML campaign read rates (looks to be an HTML client on my blackberry) as well as how we interact with our mobile email.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:35 AM | Permalink
March 22, 2006
eROI CEO Reviews Nordstrom Silverscreen
Another review we recently did for iMediaConnection.com. Worth a quick read as many people only associate eROI wil email marketing. We actually run a full service agency as well that helps deliver campaigns like the one reviewed below.
eROI CEO Reviews Nordstrom SilverscreenEcommerce Meets Entertainment
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Shopping and entertainment merge in Fallon’s Nordstrom BDA; audiences can watch remixed music videos, and buy the featured clothing while still within the video.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:49 PM | Permalink
Wait, You are Reading Spam? Updated
It looks like this whole Exact Target Study has grown legs and is taking on new twists of it's own, like the one in block quotes below. It hit me as odd that anyone would release a study on the open rates of spam, and as it turns out people are just making up titles to benefit themselves. As you can see from my post title, I was shocked to see that people are reading spam. We learned today that many publications are picking this up and the Urban legend is growing. Oh the power of blogs and the web. They should have saved this for April 1st.
I found this bogus study amazingly interesting. We report (as do other ESPs now) on the best days to email. What is an interesting twist on this is a new report on the best days to spam. Basically they claim that this study focuses on when people are most prone to reading spam and opening it. This really boggles my mind that as much as people complain about it, they still are reading it. And as it turns out it totally bogus. They misinterpreted the study not as behavoir and delivery, but with a twist of SPAM.
Friday, Sunday top spam reading daysFriday isn't just the beginning of the weekend, it's also is the peak day for opening spam email, Kaspersky Lab said today.Sunday sees the second-highest amount of mass-marketing emails opened, the anti-virus firm said.
According to a survey conducted by email mass marketer ExactTarget, 92 percent of all emails - and 96 percent of all campaign emails - are sent during the workweek. However, while Sunday sees only three percent of all sent emails, links in those messages are most likely to be clicked then.
"This may be due to the fact that users receive much less spam over the weekend, so they are more inclined to click on links, something they would do less frequently during the week given the larger volume of email received," Konstantin Kornakov said on the Kaspersky Viruslist site. "This theory is also supported by findings that smaller mailing lists tend to have better opening and clicking rates."
Read the Bogus Article that references the Study
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:59 AM | Permalink
March 21, 2006
Using a Creative Opt In Form
We have a client that is a Rock Band. Not the mega touring, hard rock, party all night long kind of band, but they jam no the less. It was interesting to see how they used our lead capture system to engage the subscriber to join the list. Watch for a few moments as one of the characters will cross the screen wearing a sandwich board with the sign up form. He just floats from the back to front across the screen and if you say, No Thanks, he goes away.
I think it is a creative and brilliant way to engage someone to sign up. Not a pop up or in your face tactic, just a subtle way to get new subscribers. Maybe you should try one of these in a different way one of your landing pages.
See the Method at http://www.climberpdx.com
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:50 AM | Permalink
March 20, 2006
Unofficial AOL Email FAQ
I found this link in a Del.ic.io.us feed today that I have set to tag "email+marketing". If you are not using this system to comb the web for you and aggregate search based on what others are tagging, you should. It is a great time saver.
Back to the topic at hand... This page was interesting as it has some questions (listed below) that were amusing to see from an AOL user.
My favorite was this one: Why does email sent to me not arrive?Third, it's possible that AOL is blocking your correspondent's provider from sending mail because there have been complaints of abuse. Have your correspondent see AOL's Postmaster.Info: AOL Member FAQ for more information on how to make sure his messages get through. If this is the problem, he would be unable to get mail through to any AOL members -- not just you
Now what impact will Goodmail have on this? Not too sure yet. Whitelists will still be kept in place by AOL so users will continue to not get emails that they have opted into it seems. This is why taking the high road with your messaging on the Thank You/Confirmation page should clearly list out to subscribers what they should do in each email client/ISP mail program.
Other Questions:
Why does email I send to other people not arrive?
Why does mail sent to me/that I send take forever to get to its destination?
How do I stop getting junk email (spam)?
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 11:01 AM | Permalink
March 18, 2006
Mark Your Turf in the War on Email Deliverablity
We have been testing out some new social media systems with Google Maps. This is one that we have created using Frappr.com allows people on this blog as well as others mark their geo location. We invite you to mark your turf on the map and tag the industry you are in.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 2:36 PM | Permalink
March 17, 2006
How Does Email Delivery Work
Here is a great article from ClickZ today helping you to understand how email is sent and delivered. It does a good job of explaining the process. It is a rather confusing one, as many people do not believe, but this spells it out.
Mapping the E-Mail Deliverability Chain
Years ago, the e-mail delivery chain had just a few links. You loaded your e-mail and hit "send." After a couple handoffs, the message arrived in your recipient's inbox the way you sent it.
Today, that chain has many more links. Some block your e-mail, others help it along. Deliverability has become a big issue for many e-mail senders. It even spawned this column.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:00 AM | Permalink
Those Without the Web Worry Less?
I found this article on MediaPost.com not only amusing but slightly facinating that many people really don't want to enter the online world. I know that is has an impact on our "free time" the way that we use the web each and everyday, but it also gives us some stress, worry and maybe too much at our fingertips at times.
ACCORDING TO PARKS ASSOCIATES RESEARCHERS, 39 million U.S. households don't have a Web connection, and the majority of these Internet-less souls have no desire to get online. Imagine a world where you still have to buy a stamp to send a letter, buy a CD to hear a tune, go to the bank to transfer funds, or buy a newspaper to look up when and where the movies are playing. Or actually set foot in a retail store to secure your Xmas presents--or, worst of all, have to explain to teenagers why they can't IM their pals.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:03 AM | Permalink
March 16, 2006
10 Lessons for your 2006 Campaigns
I read this good article today on best practices and quick tips on email marketing. Worth a read.
10 Quick Wins for Email Marketing
Take your email marketing programs to the next level in 2006 by following this advice for added ROI.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:33 AM | Permalink
What Do We Want in an Email Program?
In ecommerce we have a little disconnect with a physical store in many cases, even if we shop at the local retail store as well. So in shopping online what did we learn from this last holiday season in 2005? Well we learned what is important in our site and email communcations and what really delivers a comfort level and trust in the online world. It is not too shocking to see many of these lists below, but I would challenge you to think about incorporating some of these into your email communications with customers and prospects as well. I know a few great brands do a good job of melding the online and offline worlds. Do you?
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:00 AM | Permalink
March 15, 2006
Allies Split in AOL/Goodmail Battle
Looks like the sides are dividing quickly. One in support, one in battle. It will be interesting to watch the outcome, if there is one.
Advocacy Group Supports AOL E-Mail 'Tax'
THE NON-PROFIT ADVOCACY GROUP CENTER for Democracy & Technology Tuesday came out in favor of AOL's plan to offer e-mail marketers guaranteed delivery of "certified" e-mail, for a fee.
Read Full Artilce on MediaPost
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:39 PM | Permalink
E-Mail Targeting: Consumers Want Relevant Emails
A new report confirms that accurate targeting of e-mail marketing messages makes a significant difference. E-mails based on consumers' expressed preferences are, by definition, more relevant and therefore more likely to be read and responded to.
In a piece of good news for marketers, 58% of the respondents "agreed that e-mail they receive is usually targeted to their need and interests." This represents a 5% increase from over a year ago.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:51 AM | Permalink
The Confirmation Email
In another prop to Daily Candy, I found this email from when I first signed up for a new city alert. They took the time to send me a confirmation email giving me all of the information that I need to make sure I set up a trusted sender relationship and feel comfortable in what they are sending me. Heck they even tell me in the profile confirmation how to remove myself. This keeps lists cleaner, give a good feeling of the importance of your time and your cluttered inbox as well as helps with email delivery.
Take a note from them and set up triggers of your own to handle the relationship building that we all appreicate so much in this electronic communcation age. After all... there is a human behind each email address and we all like to be recognized.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:00 AM | Permalink
March 14, 2006
Opt In at Work or Home?
An interesting study from eMarketer showed that the majority of people surveyed opt in with a personal email address rather than a work email address. I know from watching that most people have 3 email address. A work email, a personal email and a throw away subscription/offer/download email account. In knowing this you should be aware as to what email addresses in your lists are active and responding and target those. Keeping you lists clean and moving inactive emails to another list or segemeting campaigns by actions is also a good way to focus your efforts.
Finally, marketers will not be surprised to realize that most of the respondents, 78%, said that they do not use their work e-mail addresses to receive marketing offers.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:00 AM | Permalink
March 13, 2006
A Welcome Message to Aid Delivery
I enjoy when I see people that are making a real effort at increasing the delivery of the email campaigns to the inbox. Daily Candy, which has been around for many years, still takes the right route for getting campaigns read. Now I get the Daily emails but I had my HTML turned off this day as I was testing some other campaigns. Normally I would get the email and read it, maybe click through if it was relevant or of interest that issue (since it is daily) and move on with my day. Well since the HTML was turned off in my email client, they could not tell if I had indeed received it. And thus the follow up, delayed, TEXT message.
This is a great tactic for those that do not read the campaign to take an extra step in making sure that it is getting to the inbox for any reason. You spend enough time in growing a list, producing and delivering compelling content, why not make sure it is getting there. This effort is a simple one, but one that we can all live by as a best practice in email marketing and email delivery.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:00 AM | Permalink
Swell Email that Sells
When you think about the Preview pane in email clients, you need to be aware of how it will display (or more importantly how large the window might be). I always try to make sure that am image with some text is near the top giving the message and eye candy the room to make me want to read more. Altough it is months away from "beach time" just telling me the WIIFM (Whats In It For Me) at the top makes me want to read more and see what else there might be. If I get past the preview I am more likely to scroll through the other offers below.
Make sure that you think about how each email is going to be seen (Outlook, AOL, Gmail, MSN and more). Your opens and conversions will grow if you give them what they want. And the 5 Days to Save at the top is a true time based call to action.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:00 AM | Permalink
March 12, 2006
Shoddy Email Practices Cost US$1.1M
I am happy to see that actions like this are taking place. These third party co-reg programs are really destroying the email marketing practice and people that don't have your best interests in place need to be dealt with.
A U.S. email marketing company has agreed to pay US$1.1M and clean up its act after being caught using unethically obtained consumer data from several data mining companies.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office has reportedly said that Datran Media Corp used emails obtained from data mining companies to spam consumers with a reported six million emails selling discount drugs, diet pills and other products.
The companies that supplied Datran with email addresses told consumers that their details would not be on-sold to other companies after they revealed them in exchange for free iPods and DVD movies.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:37 PM | Permalink
March 11, 2006
Beware of MoveOn and the Wrath
The Power of MoveOn is turning out to be an interesting challenge to AOL and their PR machine. Even with AOL taking a PR stance that they were not going to block Non Profits, MoveOn is not satisfied. I am amazed that all of the commercial email marketers are sitting on the sidelines and not leveraging this acton. Or maybe sitting on the sidelines and letting them fight this battle in th War for email delivery is just what they should do. What do you think?
Dear MoveOn member,In the last week, hundreds of thousands of us spoke out against AOL's "email tax." And, with your help, our diverse DearAOL.com coalition has jumped from 50 organizations to 500.
Now, AOL is striking back with an active misinformation campaign against their own customers and the public. One AOL support representative even claimed that our emails were a scam—and told the customer to block future emails from MoveOn (you can read the live chat transcript below).
We're writing to set the record straight. So take a look at the "myth and reality" points below—and then please tell AOL to stop misleading their customers and stop their pay-to-send proposal.
Help reach our goal of 7,000 contacts to AOL by clicking here:
http://www.moveon.org/
Please tell AOL we will not accept anybody paying to bypass spam filters—it's wrong to sell access to people's inboxes, and everyone who doesn't pay will get inferior service. We know the truth and we're pushing back.
Here are 3 myths that AOL hopes the public will believe:
MYTH #1: Nothing will change for those who don't pay to send.
REALITY: This weekend, the Silicon Valley-based San Jose Mercury News wrote an editorial entitled, "Paid e-mail will lead to separate, unequal systems; Free systems will become neglected." Here is an excerpt:
[AOL's pay-to-send system] is likely to work as an incentive for AOL to move as many senders as possible to the paid system...the temptation would be to neglect the free e-mail system, whose reliability would decline. Eventually, everyone would migrate to the fee-based system. There would be no way around the AOL tollbooth. [Read the full editorial at http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1522]
MYTH #2: AOL's pay-to-send system will reduce spam.
REALITY: AOL doesn't even claim its pay-to-send proposal would reduce spam—because it won't. Just the opposite, AOL wants to let commercial emailers pay to bypass spam filters. This creates a perverse incentive for AOL to err on the side of letting more unwanted emails into their customers' inboxes.
About this conflict of interest, the San Jose Mercury News editorialized, "why doesn't AOL announce it will forgo the fees—a decision that would help silence critics? AOL won't say."
MYTH #3: Nonprofits would not be hurt by AOL's email tax.
REALITY: Those who pay AOL's email tax would get guaranteed delivery, but everyone left behind would get increasingly unreliable service. Last Friday, AOL tried to create the illusion of responsiveness. They repackaged an already existing feature for nonprofits as if it was new, and then tried to divide our coalition by giving special email privileges to some "qualified" nonprofits while leaving other nonprofits, charities, small businesses, and even community and hobby mailing lists behind.
"I don't take bribes," responded Gilles Frydman, a coalition partner who needs email to run his free online network for cancer patients. "The solution is not AOL offering a few of us service for free in exchange for our silence—the solution is preserving equal access to the free and open Internet for everyone."
Can you help reach our goal of 7,000 contacts with AOL? Tell AOL to stop misleading their customers—we will not accept anybody paying to bypass spam filters because it will destroy the free and open Internet.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:00 AM | Permalink
March 10, 2006
Good Email Contest
I may not be a shopper of Design Within Reach, but I do love the contests they have been running. I mean as someone that hits the road often, I always think that I could name the city each month. Turns out they are harder than you might think, but they do make me click through to the contest page. I love to see if I can guess them.
Think creatively about the emails that you are putting out no matter if they are b to b or b to c. We all love to see if we can guess puzzles and other quizes. And we all think we can win.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:02 AM | Permalink
March 9, 2006
Goodmail Rejecting Three Quarters of Applicants
Guess what, You Don't qualify. This new Goodmail system is now turning people away left and right that are opt in marketers and want to take the high road to pay for this system, but turns out that they can't. They don't make the cut and they can just continue to do business as usual and get hammered by AOL. I really think that AOL is starting to cut their throat on this one as they could lose some major advertisers if they don't qualify.... or will there be "special" allowances to those people?
Goodmail has rejected more than three quarters of the companies that have applied for its Certified Email program, according to the company’s chief executive, Richard Gingras.Gingras said most of the rejections are because the applicants’ spam-complaint rates are too high. He declined to specify what constitutes too high a complaint rate.
“Our criteria are very rigorous and the fact of the matter is that a lot of folks out there just don’t qualify,” he said. “Most senders say they’re on AOL’s enhanced whitelist and they’re not.”
AOL maintains two so-called whitelists of senders that meet certain unpublished good-behavior criteria such as low spam complaint rates, and as a result, reportedly have an easier time getting their e-mail delivered intact. The enhanced whitelist is the stricter of the two
To read the full article, go here.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:40 AM | Permalink
The MAWWG Generals Release A War Report on Spam
MAWWG is a great group that we have followed for a while and we think that they are making strides with the fight on spam and the battle for inbox delivery.
MAAWG Issues First Global Email Spam Report
Including data from some of the world's largest Internet Service Providers, MAAWG (Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group) has developed its first metrics report outlining the scope of the problem and validating that approximately 80 percent of Internet traffic today is abusive email. The report, "MAAWG Email Metrics Program: The Network Operators' Perspective," provides data for the fourth quarter of 2005 and will continue to be updated on a quarterly basis as an objective tool for tracking the industry's efforts at controlling abusive email.
The complete report is available from the MAAWG Web site at http://www.maawg.org/
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:31 AM | Permalink
What's Up With Contest Emails?
Now I will tell you off the bat that contests work. Maybe this is why I get so many contest emails about Wining a Year of this or that a few times a day. We all like free things and the promise of a quick survey that let's me win does work, but it also carries and impact on the brand. Especially when that brand is now yours. Having said that I would caution you that if you are contesting too much, you will begin to reduce the brand value you are placing out into the market when they see other offers from you.
And when others are spamming you with email offers from brands that are not theirs, it can hurt even more. If you have a large company or brand that gets used a lot for incentives from others, keep your eyes peeled and take action against them.
Lunch is on me.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:01 AM | Permalink
March 8, 2006
Email Marketing for Automotive Sales
One thing I love about auto emails is that they are spending the money required to make the sale or at least keep a brand relationship in place. I have owned 2 Land Rovers in my life, and will most likely own another some day due to the ongoing brand relationship they have established with me in the monthly emails. This latest one has some amazing video on the landing page that is a "race" through the underground sewer system of Hong Kong. At first I thought "How the heck does the sewer impact the Land Rover Brand?", but then again Land Rover goes ANYWHERE. And they proved it here.
Each email makes me want to learn more and offers me some simple links to review models, dream and create my own car, as well as talk to me about the brand and reinforce my love for it.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 11:24 AM | Permalink
Keep Transactional Emails Simple
I love it when I get an email that is straight to the point. With so many emails competing for my attention and many going on for pages hawking 100's of items, when I get one like this from Wine.com I love it. When you set your targets out before a campaign and map them to a goal, like say sales, keeping the email as simple and short as possible will most likely get the open, click and sale.
Aim for the end zone on your campaigns and know what you need to do to get the sale. Don't confuse me with too many offers and too many images and text to read.
View Large image
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:43 AM | Permalink
March 7, 2006
Legislation Introduced for Two Tiered Email Delivery
Looks like a Congressman (From Our Home State) has introduced a bill that challenges this new two-tiered email delivery system in light of all the claims of false positives. I wonder where this will go. Has this online action from grass roots groups really taken the next step of a bill to protect email delivery? Seems everything up till now was about blocking emails in every way. This is an interesting turn of events.
For years, e-mail users complained that torrents of unwanted messages clogged their inboxes and crimped their productivity. Now, e-mail users, marketers and mailing list operators are more worried that spam filters are blocking out too many wanted messages.AOL isn't the only company to face charges that it improperly blocks legitimate messages. But, as the world's largest ISP for years, it has long borne the brunt of complaints from mass e-mailers over the problem.
Those concerns are seeping into the debate over a planned AOL program, set to go live in the next month, in which approved e-mail senders pay to guarantee delivery of their messages.
The trend has caught the attention of Congress. On Thursday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced a bill that would prevent internet companies from introducing two-tiered service.
The most interesting part that caught my eye was this quote from Goodmail
While AOL's certified e-mail program may help marketers, not even the system's developer, Mountain View, California, Goodmail Systems, sees it as a way to fight spam. Goodmail describes the program instead as "a way to identify good mail."
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:44 AM | Permalink
March 6, 2006
Sending Gender Relevant Emails
At times I get a little bent out of shape when I get emails from Brands that I buy from and they send me gender irrelevant emails. I mean come on, have you looked in your CRM to see that I have never bought anything female from you online? Each time I get one of these emails it makes me cringe as an email marketer, it is a touch point that missed... wide right. And if I, as a consumer, get too many of these that are not speaking to me as a shopper and more importantly as a male, I am most likely either going to stop opening them, or just unsubscribe and hit the site when I want to shop.
Take the time to talk to your customers with a survey, ask them to update their profiles (if you sell gender specific merchandise ask for Gender, and cross reference your past customer shopping history with your email lists to send emails that convert, not waste time.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:38 AM | Permalink
AOL to Pay Non Profit Fees?
Now let me know if I misses something last Friday, but now I read that AOL is going to PAY the fees of the non profits for repuation services? Man what a turn of events and really a way to save face and buy your media/reach. This kills me. Good move on the part of AOL to silence the critics, but don't you think it all would have been better if they just talked to some ESPs first? Might have not had to jump through all of the PR Rings.
AOL To Pay Nonprofits' E-Mail 'Fees'IN AN EFFORT TO COUNTERACT the "confusion" surrounding a planned e-mail certification service, AOL Friday said it would pay the fees of non-profits that wish to use a third party--like Bonded Sender or Habeas--to prove that they're not spammers.
"We want to make it absolutely crystal clear that not-for-profits and not-for-profit advocacy groups are going to have a number of choices for getting their e-mail delivered with all links and images enabled," said Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman. He added that AOL announced the plan last week "because of the confusion that has been generated in the marketplace" by groups critical of the company's imminent e-mail certification system.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:15 AM | Permalink
Delivery Rates of Emails on the Increase
It is always nice to see that delivery rates are on the upswing. I know that this data is from 2-5 months back, but many times we only have trailing numbers to look at. I am curious to see what the impact of the new AOL/Yahoo and impending MSN Double Opt in only for whitelisting requirment will have on delivery in Q1 and Q2 06.
Q4 e-mail delivery rates increase to 89%, Lyris saysE-mail delivery rates rose to 89% during the fourth quarter, up from 87% in the third quarter, according to Lyris EmailAdvisor. In the U.S., the delivery rates increased to 92% while European delivery rates rose to 86%.
“Even though e-mail best practices range from country to country, European providers are improving deliverability more quickly, blocking 3% less e-mail in Q4 2005 compared to Q3 2005, as opposed to the U.S. providers which improved gross deliverability only 1% in Q4 2005,” said Dave Dabbah, director of marketing, Lyris Technologies Inc.The top 10 U.S. domains by inbox delivery rates were peoplepc.com, 99.51%; earthlink.net, 99.35%; yahoo.com, 96.81%; gmail.com, 97.59%; usa.net, 97.98%; knology.net, 97.4%; juno.com, 97.33%; socall.rr.com, 96.68%; cs.com, 96.48%; and mac.com, 95.77%.
Lyris also found that users with addresses with one of the top 10 U.S. providers were 21% more likely to receive their opt-in e-mail than those who used one of the bottom ten providers—97.5% versus 76.4%.
Inappropriate spam filtering rose to 2.6% in the fourth quarter from 1.2% in the third quarter, due to an increase in false-positive spam filtering by a single European Union provider, Lyris said.
Lyris, provider of e-mail marketing services, monitored 60,928 opt-in e-mail marketing messages sent between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 from 49 different businesses and non-profit organizations to multiple accounts at 40 ISP and e-mail service provider domains in the U.S. and Europe.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:19 AM | Permalink
March 4, 2006
Email Insider Summit Announced
I was happy to see that Mediapost has released information on the Upcoming Email Insider Summit. I was orignally under the impression that this was going to be a smaller event (100-150 industry people) to spend some time talking about the issues at hand. I hope that they stick to the guns on this and just bring in the folks at a high level in ESPs, ISPs, Agencies, a few companies and some industry specific vendors for conversations only.
The site makes it look like it might be more of a conference than a round table. This industry needs a round table of email marketing generals to spend a few days together talking through issues that plague us all and sit down as a group with the ISPs that we work with, and yes fight, from time to time.
If you think that you should be at this event, I invite you to learn more. Not much is up on the site yet and Arizona is a HOT place at the end of May, but I think it will produce some good conversations that will help propel the industry in 2006.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:21 AM | Permalink
March 3, 2006
AOL Concedes to Non Profits Paying for Delivery
I don't know what you think about this, but to me it seems that AOL backed off really fast in light of all the non profits getting their members to write in about this Goodmail issue. Seems to me like this just proves that it is a flawed model for all legitimate email opt in senders.
AOL OFFERS FULL EMAIL FUNCTIONALITY AT NO CHARGE TO ANY QUALIFIED NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
No Requirement, Ever, For Not-for-Profits to Pay For Delivery of Email To AOL Members
America Online, Inc. today announced that it is offering not-for-profit organizations two new ways of meeting their needs to have email delivered to AOL members to more securely deliver email messages. Under either option, qualifying not-for-profit organizations - and qualifying not-for-profit advocacy organizations - will receive the full functionality of AOL's email system, including having images and web links enabled in mail, and delivery to the email inboxes of AOL members, at no charge to either the sender or the recipient.
AOL’s announcement today is intended to offer new options - at no cost - for not-for-profit organizations to have their email be delivered on comparable terms to commercial email senders while also providing their constituents a way of being able to trust that the email they receive is authentic.
"We want to make sure that not-for-profits who depend on timely communication with their members get all of the privileges of this powerful medium," said Charles Stiles, AOL Postmaster. "Our announcement today guarantees that every certified not-for-profit will get the same benefits as private-sector companies that have decided to utilize Goodmail's Certified Email system."
First, not-for-profit organizations that conform to, and abide by, AOL’s anti-spam and email policies and standards, may qualify for AOL's Enhanced White List, which provides delivery of email – with images and web links in the email -- on a comparable basis to the Certified Email program administered by Goodmail for commercial bulk emailers. The email may not be marked as "certified," but will be handled and delivered on an identical basis to Certified Email. This program will be administered and provided by AOL directly to not-for-profits, at no charge.
The second delivery option available to not-for-profits will enable them to use one or several third-party email accreditation service providers to authenticate their email. These services ordinarily charge mailers a nominal, flat, non-recurring fee to qualify. However, AOL will fully pay for not-for-profits' flat-rate, sign-up costs associated with the third-party provider program on a pro-bono basis. The company is currently in discussions with email accreditation providers, and expects this new, pro-bono program will be evaluated and tested internally in the next 30 days. AOL intends to identify one or more third-party email accreditation providers during this time, and is targeting implementation of this program in the next 90 days.
At the same time, AOL will continue – through its industry-leading Mail Operations and Postmaster teams – to make additional improvements to its exceptional regular White List and Enhanced White List practices, to further improve the deliverability of email for all organizations currently residing on those lists.
“We announce this today to make sure that there is no further confusion or question about what not-for-profits would need to do to be able to communicate to AOL members on a level commensurate with large, commercial email providers who opt to use Goodmail’s Certified Email program. There will be no requirement, ever, for not-for-profits who deliver email to AOL members to pay for email certification and delivery," said Stiles.
"Because of the complex technical evaluation, verification, and testing involved, further details on this new program will be worked through in the next 30-60 days," Stiles said, "at which time AOL will issue a statement about the final structure of the program."
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 1:59 PM | Permalink
March 2, 2006
MSN Mail Live Add New Junk Delete System
This makes me a little nervous as now you can simply click and arrow on the home screen on MSN Live Mail and delete everything in your Junk box without even taking a peek at it. I know from today alone that there were 3 messages that ended up in my Junk folder that I wanted to get. Now if I had just followed this new step, I would have never got these important emails.
A good feature, as far as ease of use goes, but not if I can't get the email I want if it gets trapped from MSN filters. Becareful if you use this web email client. Could miss some important emails. I am curious to see how this affects the open/read rates of our customers.
Here is the message
Delete your junk mail more easily. Simply locate the down arrow on your junk e-mail folder and click to delete everything in it. Clear out your deleted items folder the same way.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 2:23 PM | Permalink
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