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April 30, 2007
Using Email with Web 2.0 Apps
Well after 8 months and countless hours of thought, design, re-design, coding, hosting, sweat, tears, anger and finally love we have launched the new Konami Video Games American Idol KKR site. It is a labor of love in the end but I can tell you it was no easy task. We went to the bench with our team to write all the code from scratch instead of just taking some apps/code libraries off the shelf to build this one.
But the main point is not that it is done, but that email is going to be the main driver of the community. When we designed this, as we do with every site we launch, we think about how to use email in a social network. Not only in this site but also in the new MatchPointCorp.com site we launched a month back we rely on email to grow the community spread the word and drive new people to discover it.
Now you might be thinking how does this play in a Web 2.0 world? Why not RSS or Blogs or a wiki or vertical search, well it is simple... email is the glue on the internet and we like the way our glue holds it all together.
These two examples as well as any other "2.0" site that you might find uses email to grow the Alpha audience, invite to Betas and then grow the whole engine without a lot of marketing dollars with the community as your marketing engine. And did I mention that email is trackable and measurable? Is AJAX or Flash or XML? Not as a marketing measurement now, maybe someday unless you use load times and response as part of your marketing plan.
I invite you to try them out and see how they work and if nothing else, watch some good and bad performances of people attempting to be the next online American Idol.
The Audience has voted now it is your turn.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:56 PM | Permalink
MSN Watches New IPs
New IPs are going to be watched more and regulated.
This is good news to many but a word of caution to ESPs (Email Service Providers) and companies out there that try to switch IP addresses or add new ones. Some mailers actually decide to switch IPs and abandon them once they are permanently flagged and/or blacklisted. And if you start a new IP broadcasting from scratch without any prior solid and good traffic on it, expect a poor delivery rate until you establish a REPUTATION on this IP.
As for companies that decide to take to setting up their own PHP mailer or other in house system for email marketing you should not expect great open and read rates out of the gate. I think that this actually puts more benefit on good ESPs with solid IPs and good ISP relations and reputations. It should make more marketers think twice about rolling their own email marketing solution.
Microsoft last week verified it is significantly throttling the volume of e-mail it will allow to come into its Hotmail accounts from new IP addresses.
The admission won’t come as a surprise to many e-mail service providers. However, it will help them explain to ornery new clients why their e-mail delivery rates temporarily drop when they switch providers.
Keep Reading after the JUMP
“If we’ve never seen mail from you before, we’re going to limit the amount mail sent to us,” said Craig Spiezle, director of online safety at Microsoft Corp. “The message to the marketer is: ‘You want to be cautious. Don’t do your major holiday campaign, and on day one, drop a few million mails from a new IP address.’”
As Microsoft has increasingly begun to use the reputation of sending IP addresses to determine whether or not to accept e-mail from them, spammers have responded by distributing their blasts across significantly increasing numbers of IPs.
As a result, the vast majority of the time Microsoft encounters a new, low-volume IP address, it is that of a spammer, said John Scarrow, general manager, anti-spam technologies, Microsoft.
“Reputation is expanding botnets because they need many more IPs,” he said at the Authentication and Online Trust Summit in Boston last week.
But while the need for Microsoft to be wary of new IP addresses is understandable, the practice of throttling has been severely straining some e-mail service provider relations with their clients, particularly new ones, according to multiple sources who asked to remain anonymous.
Typically, when an e-mail service provider gets a new client, the first few campaigns show a significant drop in delivery rates, said an executive from one provider who asked not to be named. And just as typically, the client blames the drop on the new service provider, who must then begin a “forensics” process to find out why the dip in performance took place, the executive said.
Sometimes, much of the problem is the result of misreporting by the previous e-mail service provider. But often, it is the result of something happening on the receiving end. And since inbox providers are hesitant to be too free with information because spammers will use it against them, it is often difficult for e-mail service providers to give their new clients hard answers as to why their performance dipped.
Many suspect Yahoo! is also throttling e-mail from new IP addresses, as well, but won’t own up to it.
“We at least appreciate the fact that Microsoft has come clean about this,” said one e-mail deliverability specialist who wished not to be identified. “We just wish Yahoo! would do the same.”
Yahoo! spokeswoman Karen Mahon said yesterday afternoon she’d try and find out if her company is also limiting e-mail from new IPs, but hasn’t responded yet.
When asked how strictly Microsoft throttles e-mail coming from new sources, Spiezle said: “It’s going to be severely throttled.” He declined to get more specific.
He added, however, that a new IP can gain a reputation with Microsoft that will allow the sender to deliver e-mail at full throttle within 72 hours to a week.
“What we want to see is if we let in x amount of thousands of mail, do we get any complaints?” he said. “And then if we double it, do we get any complaints.”
He also refused to get specific about how many e-mails a day a mailer should send from a new IP in order to build its reputation, but indicated 50,000 to 100,000 might do it.
Microsoft also claims it receives 3.8 billion spam e-mails every day
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:27 AM | Permalink
April 26, 2007
More Use of Email Authentication
I love to see that this trend is growing. We have set up SPF, Sender ID and DomainKeys for all of our customers at eROI for a long time now. We have actually seen it to help delivery and it is not just a hoax or fad. What surprises me is how many companies really don't understand the importance of setting these records up and we really hammer it home on our customers when they first come on board. The funny thing is the push back so many IT departments give the marketing departments when we send these records over to them to set up. Now you would think that the IT folks would be all over this as they are battling this factor each and everyday. But nope. They give some push back and set it up in the Queue to implement when they have time.
Folks it takes all of us working together to do the right thing. Teamwork right? You have heard of it...
E-mail authentication is expected to see wider adoption this year as senders and ISPs implement standards like Sender ID (define) and DKIM (define). Marketers benefit by having forged and deceptive messages filtered by the ISP or carrier.At the third annual Authentication and Online Trust Summit this week, Microsoft released findings from a two-year-long study observing the effectiveness of Sender ID on deliverability. An average 3.8 billion deceptive e-mails are identified daily within Windows Live Hotmail messages alone.
"The landscape has changed dramatically, spam is now the carrier or attack of choice for online criminals," said Craig Spiezle, director of online safety technologies at Microsoft.
Fraudulent and spoofed e-mail accounts for between 40 and 98 percent of e-mail sent to Windows Live Hotmail users, depending on the brand. False positives are prevented among marketers using Sender ID; up to 85 percent fewer messages end up in the spam folder, according to the study.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:03 AM | Permalink
April 25, 2007
Design And Coding Issues Survey Closing
Does Design and Coding Matter in Email Marketing?
We are closing this survey down at the end of the week. We would love a few more people to take part. IF you have 5 minutes and would like to get the results of this study, please give us your answers. We really appreciate it.
We like to ask people what they think about certain issues facing email marketing. We started last fall asking people about their email inbox preferences. Seemed that we hit a nerve as so many marketing sites and bloggers picked up on it and carried the message around the global block.
This month we are curious about another issue, Email Design and Coding Perceptions. Does either design or coding of your email marketing campaigns really matter? Do you design emails for specific segments in your audience or do you keep your messaging broad so that you don't seem like you are only speaking to one group of people? With the email client market so fragmented, are you changing the way you design and code emails?
Help us understand how you feel about this issue and we will post the results for you this month in our latest quarterly study. Thank you for your help with this study.
Take the Email Design and Coding Perceptions Survey
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:00 AM | Permalink
Good Example of Segmentation and Rewards
I love it when I get an email that is right on the mark of talking to me based on what I have done and giving me some benefits for doing business with an online brand.
Fandango did just that. Not only did they hit me with a relevant email, but they went a step farther in rewarding me with 6 magazine subscriptions for simply being a frequent customer of theirs. Now I read a lot of offline content, and I still believe in print 100%. There is something about reading that is still a good experience for me.
I thought a bit more about this and I know that some say print is dead, rubbish. I think that print is still relevant in many cases and this was a great cross promotion from Fandango to use a partner to reward me at little cost to them and at the same time lift print subscriptions. I am curious how well this promotion worked not only for Fandango, but for the magazine publishers.
Have you seen any good examples of partnership emails lately? You might think about how you could align your goals with a partner that mutually benefits you both.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:33 AM | Permalink
April 24, 2007
How Many Clicks Does it Take in MS LIVE
So I was hopping through the Junk box on my MSN.com account today, fishing through the weekend's sends when I noticed something. It not only took ONE click to see the email, but 3 clicks to actually get it to truly open. So if your email is not getting to the inbox, will you click three times to read it? AND if you do, you MUST be a qualified responder, right? I mean after 3 actions to get to the email creative, you must WANT to get this email.
Three clicks to get the content is ridiculous. Bill, I know you are trying to "protect" me from the dark forces and I appreciate it, but find a way to stop me from drilling down 3 levels. It is much easier to check the box next to the "Select All" and then "Delete" and just wipe the box clean.
Not to base all of this on the new MSN Live email system, which I do like a lot, but then when I did get to the creative... it made me wonder why I put some much effort into it to begin with. They did not get the click from me...
Will your customers take these steps if you have not instructed them how to "white list" their address book with the email you send from? And are you educating them how to do this?
STEP ONE:
STEP TWO:
STEP THREE:
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 11:51 AM | Permalink
Email is Going Green
So a trend that is hitting consumer brands across the planet is the fact that "everything" is going green or is green friendly. I have seen so many brands use the "green" factor in emails of late. Now does letting people know that you are environmentally correct help lift a campaign? I know that from the stand point of brand association it makes me feel better as a consumer to buy things from companies that are responsible or have less of an impact on the world we live in and leave behind for our children.
Keep your eyes on this trend as I expect us to see it even more in the coming months and years.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:29 AM | Permalink
April 23, 2007
US Financial Services Industry Group Endorses SPF
News:
BITS, a nonprofit industry consortium formed by many of the largest financial institutions in the USA, has announced their "BITS Email Security Toolkit" white-paper, describing "protocols and recommendations for reducing the risks" in institutions' email correspondence, addressing prominent problems such as identity forgery and phishing (password fishing). BITS held an industry e-mail security summit in November 2006, which developed these recommendations. The SPF Project participated in this summit.
The BITS Email Security Toolkit points out, and recommends to BITS members the deployment of, three major complementary technologies that are considered to provide a significant contribution "to [mitigating] the threat to email security and [restoring] customer confidence in email as a channel of communication with financial institutions":
* Transport Layer Security (TLS) (an update to the well-known SSL)for message transport confidentiality and server-to-server authentication,
* Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Sender ID (a Microsoft derivative of SPF) for sender address authentication, and
* DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) for sender authentication and message integrity.
According to BITS, SPF is a computationally light-weight means for protecting the credibility and reputation of brands and domains while improving the deliverability of messages and reducing the volume of non-delivery receipts received by spoofed domains. It also acknowledges the ease of deploying SPF.
Specifically, the BITS Email Security Toolkit calls for e-mail senders and recipients to:
* publish SPF records for both e-mail and non-e-mail domains enabling sender authentication within eighteen months,
* enable SPF record validation on incoming e-mail immediately,
* publish SPF records as (hard) "Fail" (-all) as opposed to "SoftFail" (~all), which should only be used while testing out one's SPF record,
* honor records in receiving environments that are published as (hard) "Fail", and reject failing messages.
"We welcome the initiative of BITS and we support their clear recommendations for financial institutions to deploy SPF in combination with other e-mail security technologies", says Scott Kitterman, member of the SPF Council, the project's steering committee. "Sender address forgery is among the biggest problems of the e-mail medium and provides significant potential for criminal conduct. However, SPF is
not just for banks and insurance companies. Anyone with a domain or a mail server, ranging from governments through sports clubs to hobbyist individuals, can benefit from protecting their domain and brand name with an SPF policy and checking SPF on incoming e-mails."
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:29 PM | Permalink
Luxury Goods = Email Bad
Now I find this current study very interesting. It seems that the luxury retailers in this study do not find email to actually be good for them, or at the end it seems like although 85% of them want to use email only 50% of them actually do. So maybe it is not a "not good for them scenario" but one that they either don't have the time, resources or see the immediate payback from these efforts. TWO UPDATED Articles from this AM
High-End Brands Do Low-End Job Online
Mercedes Gets Buzz Going For C-Class With Web, Direct Mail
Well from this email I got I can tell you it works. I am not going to be plunking down $100K anytime soon on this new Benz, but it did get me to click through and complete the PIN coded offer to test drive this ride. I am a car fan and seem to have a new one every 2-3 years. I actually had the opportunity to drive the new LR2 from Land Rover the first 3 months of 2007 as a test driver (one of 6 in the US) to see what I thought of it. I can tell you I was close to wanting to keep it after driving it for that period of time and I know that 3 of the 6 did in fact keep theirs. And yes, they reached out to me in an email to ask me if I would be interested in being a driver for a short time in a new pilot program. So email, maybe for luxury autos works in my opinion.
Luxury brands might not have as much impulse buying as the price points are high, but if they convert just a few, I am sure it covers the minimal cost of the email campaign and effort.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:56 AM | Permalink
April 19, 2007
Send a High Five Day
That is right folks, today is National HIGH FIVE day. Now don't act like you did not know it, but this is the reason you can justify SLAPPING 5's all day long throughout the office, at a client meeting, with the damn meter maid leaving you another ticket, your kids, your spouse, heck... just about anyone you see.
And if they are too far away to cover the distance of the length of 2 arms outstretched, use the site we built last year (and restored to it's glory last week) to send a HIGH FIVE.
It is totally cool. At least you can justify it is cool with a "National Day" right?
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:50 PM | Permalink
If You Can't Segment By Gender
Well on the tails of so many emails I get that just can't get the gender right when sending email comes this SIMPLE solution from Swell.com. I know that I have only bought hoodies, flip flops and a few pairs of shorts from them, but still maybe they don't know. That being said why not play the safe bet right?
I am still amazed with all the email marketing tools that are out there that companies are not segmenting right or at all based on who they sell to. I mean if you have types of people then you should ASK which one they are at the opt in right?
Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 4:18 AM | Permalink
April 16, 2007
Email and Tourism
I am going to be spending the next few days in Central Oregon speaking at a conference on Tourism. I am presenting on a few panels about how the internet impacts tourism and travel. Not just in research gathering and decision making by travelers and travel planners, but the level of communication companies, brands, organizations and others can have before, during and after the travel experience.
We have been fortunate to work with many regional travel organizations and some major online travel companies which has allowed us to really dive into what makes people attach themselves to an "online" travel experience. What makes you book, go, see, do, and tell others? Do you know why? I have been saving up a ton of Travel emails to share with you this month. Both the good and the bad of course.
We were fortunate to work on a new project recently with TravelOregon.com to produce a project that is REALLY different for the travel industry. We worked with other agencies like wieden + kennedy to use the XML data and information to show Oregon in a whole new way. Just the first in many new initiatives in travel and using "Web 2.0" ideas to change the view of the travel experience.
How does email change your travel experience? Do you appreciate pre-travel emails? Post travel follow ups/surveys? And if not, why?
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:52 AM | Permalink
April 13, 2007
National High Five Day Is Near - Send a High Five
That is right folks, only 6 days left till National HIGH FIVE day. Now don't act like you did not know it, but this is the reason you can justify SLAPPING 5's all day long throughout the office, at a client meeting, with the damn meter maid leaving you another ticket, your kids, your spouse, heck... just about anyone you see.
And if they are too far away to cover the distance of the length of 2 arms outstretched, use the site we built last year (and restored to it's glory last week) to send a HIGH FIVE. With a week's lead time I say you start sending them today!
It is totally cool. At least you can justify it is cool with a "National Day" right?
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:01 AM | Permalink
Spam the Game
I had meant to share this one a while ago. A good game from Hormel that capitalizes on the SPAM name plus the Broadway show based on Monte Python's Holy Grail classic.
Worth playing a few times. Warning... totally addicting advergame. That is why it has taken so long for me to blog it.... been playing for weeks straight now, for work and research puposes only though I swear.
And it being Friday and all, thought you would have a few minutes to burn.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:31 AM | Permalink
April 12, 2007
What Is the Bulk E-mail Association?
I have no clue what this Association is. I am familiar with the EEC, ESPC and MAAWG but never have I heard of this group. Funny thing is I got this email introducing them tonight. Now I would assume having quite a few years in this space that I MIGHT have heard of them OR seen them in a publication, at an event or in conversations with other ESPs or Agencies, but nope. Any of you ever heard of them?
I am the Chairman of bema, the Bulk E-mail Association. We have made it our business to protect the rights of the emailers, publishers, and users alike. We offer wide array of services to companies that mail, offer email, or 1st party list owners. I would be interested to exchange some ideas at some point with someone at your company about ways we can work together, please contact me or visit bemanetwork.com for more information about what we do or how we can help. Sincerely, Bill W. Bateman Chairman Bulk E-mail Association (bema) http://bemanetwork.com/
Site says that they have been around since 1998. Well it must be a secret hand shake kind of organization. They are selling cetification that "proves" you are a legimate email marketer. If any of you know about this ORG, let me know.
Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 2:58 PM | Permalink
Happy Spam-A-Versary Baby
April 12, 1994
First spam email. A California law firm, Canter and Siegel, spams more than 6,000 Usenet newsgroups with an ad for "Green Card" services. Later that year, Laurence Canter authors "How to Make a Fortune on the Information Superhighway".
Now you have to love it that a Law firm was the first to do this. Damn Lawyers....
Continuing Reading the History of Spam after the Jump >
Spam—This Is Your Life
July 1995
Jeff Slaton reads Canter’s book and offers the Web’s first spamming service. He also becomes the first to use forged message headers in spam.
1996
Sanford Wallace, after failing in the junk fax industry, creates the first large-scale spam factory, Cyber Promotions. Maximum capacity = 25 million spam emails/day.
October 1996
The FBI investigates the first child pornography spam email, sent from AOL screen names "R9ch" and "TipToe0001”.
Spring 1997
Hackers around the Web, angry at Sanford Wallace’s spamming practices, begin an all-out war on Wallace’s Web site and company.
July 1997
The Nevada State Legislature signs the first anti-spam law, which requires spammers to give recipients the ability to remove themselves from mailing lists. The law also requires spammers to use legitimate business names. There are no penalties for spammers that do not comply.
August 1997
The Norwegian company Novasoft, founded by anti-spam crusader Thor Ivar Ekle, releases SpamKiller (now McAfee SpamKiller), a desktop-level tool designed to block spam.
October 1997
Sanford Wallace's Cyber Promotions reaches the $1.5 million sales mark through spam emails.
December 1997
The first randomly generated dictionary spam attack hits the Internet. Previous attacks relied on email lists.
February 1998
Spam companies Quantum and Cyber Promotions team up to plan Global Technology Marketing Incorporated (GTMI), a dedicated backbone for spammers worldwide.
April 1998
Jim Nitchals, co-founder of the Forum for Responsible and Ethical Email, calls for the end of the spammer-hacker war. Sanford Wallace agrees to support anti-spam legislation if anti-spam activists, including Nitchals, will support GTMI.
April 13, 1998
Sanford Wallace, after the collapse of the GTMI, spammer backbone initiative, formally retires from the spam business.
June 5, 1998
After putting an end to the anti-spam war, Jim Nitchals dies of a brain hemorrhage at 36. Anti-spammers pay tribute to his legacy by posting tributes across the Web.
July 15, 1998
Novasoft releases SpamKiller 2 (now McAfee SpamKiller), a complete redesign of its previous offering, with increased filtering capabilities and features that let users fight back against spammers.
March 1999
Spam begins to target instant messaging applications.
April 1999
AOL users are hit with an email scam that lets spammers/hackers hijack their accounts. The scam tricks users into revealing account information, which in turn is used to send spam email or commit fraudulent activities online.
July 22, 1999
SpamKiller (now McAfee SpamKiller) wins the Ziff-Davis "Shareware of the Year" award. SpamKiller wins both its category—email, newsreaders, chat—and the overall "Program of the Year" award.
September 2000
The Nigerian email scam is introduced to email users worldwide. This spam still circulates widely today and has bilked consumers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
2001
Spam reaches epidemic proportions, as well-organized spam factories reminiscent of Cyber Promotions pop up around the globe. Spammers continue to forge headers and take advantage of unprotected mail servers to send out hundreds of millions of spam emails daily.
September 2001
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, spammers unleash fraudulent relief fund scams, appealing for funds for victims’ families.
February 2002
FTC launches a crackdown on email spam.
March 2002
Reminiscent of the AOL account-stealing frauds of 1999, spammers launch a fraudulent email masquerading as an account verification email from a major US bank. The email leads to a Web site that dupes people into entering bank account information.
May 2002
McAfee launches McAfee SpamKiller, becoming the first major security vendor to address the threat of spam worldwide.
July 9, 2002
Khan C. Smith is fined $24.8 million for stealing and exploiting personal information from subscribers to a major ISP. Smith, who unleashed 1.25 billion emails since 2000, stole credit card numbers, account and other personal information through spam emails linked to fake Web sites offering free credit reports and software. The credit reports captured a subscriber’s account and credit information, which was in turn used for spamming or re-sold to other spammers. The free software was largely made up of viruses and trojan horse programs that gave Smith full access to victim PCs. In two years, Smith profited more than $3 million from his illegal activities.
November 21, 2002
The Friends Greeting application uses spamming techniques to propagate a trojan-like component across the Web. Uses are tricked into installing the component, which then mass emails itself to everyone in the user’s address book.
January 6, 2003
To provide customers better tools to battle spam, Network Associates, Inc. acquires Deersoft, Inc, a leading provider of anti-spam solutions. The technology will be delivered at the gateway, email server and desktop for enterprise customers and integrated with McAfee's existing award-winning, consumer anti-spam product McAfee SpamKiller.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 6:42 AM | Permalink
Which Nigerian Spammer Are You?
Which Nigerian Spammer Are You?
A little late for April Fools Day, but this is an entertaining suvery that so Web 2.0ishly gives you the profile to paste on your blog or MySpace page... of course I took the bait.
Take this quiz to find out which 419 spammer/scammer most closely matches your personality. You need to answer all the questions to get an accurate result.
Here was mine:
Which Nigerian spammer are You?
Sample Questions:
Mmmm....
Donuts
International war tribunal
RAM
Zimbabwe
Spoon
If you could have one superpower, which would it be?
Flying
Telekinesis
Super strength
Ultra-fast chain smoking
Ability to sucker anybody into a scam
Your favorite part of a movie is:
the sex scenes
the violence
the CGI
the plot holes
the credit cookies
If you were an assistant to a leader of the country would it be:
Accountant to the deposed king
Special assistant to the ex-President
Security chief for the former prime minister
Deputy secretary for the crown prince
Lead monkey for the head honcho
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:19 AM | Permalink
April 11, 2007
The Week Spam All Began
I will be posting a series of article, fun sites and trivia on the Spam-A-Versary of spam this week. Look for some fun sites and useless cocktail trivia.
Cheers to doing better as an industry this year and as responsible email marketers.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:58 PM | Permalink
New Email Comics
Came across this on a search for some new material. This is a great site that takes the bad SUBJECT lines you see in your junk folder and creates a comic out of them. Some really great ones. When you have 20 minutes to roll through them..
Bad Bunny. Bad, Bad, Bad Bunny
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:48 AM | Permalink
April 10, 2007
Design and Coding Issues Survey
Does Design and Coding Matter in Email Marketing?
We like to ask people what they think about certain issues facing email marketing. We started last fall asking people about their email inbox preferences. Seemed that we hit a nerve as so many marketing sites and bloggers picked up on it and carried the message around the global block.
This month we are curious about another issue, Email Design and Coding Perceptions. Does either design or coding of your email marketing campaigns really matter? Do you design emails for specific segments in your audience or do you keep your messaging broad so that you don't seem like you are only speaking to one group of people? With the email client market so fragmented, are you changing the way you design and code emails?
Help us understand how you feel about this issue and we will post the results for you this month in our latest quarterly study. Thank you for your help with this study.
Take the Email Design and Coding Perceptions Survey
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 11:20 AM | Permalink
Crackberry and the 10 Step Program
I know any of us that own one of these devices reaches a time that we need to just WALK AWAY from it. We have to learn to manage it instead of it managing us. It is like one of those little kids toys Tamagotchi that you need to constantly hit buttons on every time they make a BEEP. Well regardless I love mine and it makes travel so much easier when you can help with clients needs during the day.
Learn how to turn off the ringer, vibrations and do not leave it on during meetings, unless your wife is 5 weeks from her due date (like me). We need to learn some social graces around this useful device before it gets outlawed from places.
Who, Me? I'm Not Addicted to My BlackBerry No Escape: Total Access Part of Job Business of LifeAgency executives sleep with them, drive with them, even vacation with them. Not husbands or wives -- these significant others are neither human nor even mammalian. While they're "personal" and an "assistant," these companions are made of plastic and metal. It's hard for ad-industry globetrotters to imagine life without BlackBerries, Treos and other personal digital assistants.
FULL ARTICLE
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:11 AM | Permalink
April 9, 2007
Time to Get Your Learn On
I just pulled myself out of the hills of Oregon after some "quiet time" that was well needed. Need to shave off this facial growth and get back to work now. I will load this blog up with many new articles this week.
BUT I wanted to remind those of our that might be in the Portland area the week of the 26th/27th to attend this great annual event, Innotech Oregon. Looks like we have Murray Gaylord, VP Marketing, NYTimes.com there as well as a host of others from Jive, Palatial, Citizens Agency, Return Path and of course eROI.
Place "Eroi11" in the Discount Code field. This reduces the price by about 20% or so. Anything we can do to help you out this April.
Cheers.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 1:56 PM | Permalink
April 6, 2007
Ma Knows Me
Well Ma Boyle, as tough as you are, you sure showed me a soft side when it comes to talking to me the right way. I love to see that the timely "Spring List Cleaning" is in full effect at Columbia. Retailers above almost all others better know what the audience wants to look at? I can't tell you how many emails I get from retailers that are not gender segmented at the least.
I have (in all truth) picked up the phone and hunted down some retailers' email marketing teams to get them to change my gender preferences, and only 50% of them tell me that they can actually do this. What? Are you kidding me? You sell clothing and you are going to continue to send me offers for skirts? I buy from your ecom and retail stores so you should have data on me right? Know if I am a boxer or breif kind of guy We have a relationship, don't we? Well maybe not for long if I get another offer for a beach cover up or high heels.
Ma, I am going to take you up on your offer and tell you that I am in the market for fleece, a good gortex rain shell and yes maybe even some shorts here soon in Oregon. Now how hard was that to ask me what I want and not tell me what to buy?
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:58 AM | Permalink
April 5, 2007
ITunes Changes The Tune
After a few years of "New Music Tuesdays" we have all become so numb to Apple emails. They changed the game plan this past week. They went for the upsell. I was actually ecstatic, not because I could now get all the Weird Al full albums to round out my collection (Joke here guys unless you have not seen this) but because Apple has made a business/marketing change for iTunes. They are approaching it with a value proposition instead of a pure sales play.
I like to see that they are drinking the Kool Aid of email marketers around the world. Was it the new AQUA flavor that made them drink? Just how often can you get an email about what you don't have instead of getting one that helps you get the rest of what you do have. It is the "If you bought this.. you might also like this" idea. Simple right?
Now think about it in your own line of work? Are you always touting the latest and greatest instead of the sure fire deal? Look over your past 6 months of emails and really read what it is you are telling people about. Time to look to conversion and cross sell folks and not just new acquisition. You will be surprised to see the relevant sale out performs the new customer/product sale time and time again. You already have them... time to talk to them like you know them.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:46 AM | Permalink
Create An Email Marketing Event
When I think of March Madness, I rarely associate it with a good bottle of Merlot or Pinot Gris. I tend to think that this is an opportunity for the beer lists I am opted in to to send me some timely emails about how a 12 pack of their fine hopped beverages would be perfect for me to grab for this sofa parking, high-fiving, race to the end fever.
Wine.com took a path of creating an event for wine and that stood out. Well why not? Why not create an event instead of doing what is expected? Isn't that a way to stand out from the rest? A way to test the behavior of your subscribers? A way to lift sales in a week or time that might not historically be your time?
I raise my crystal glass to you and say YES. If not only for the sheer reason that it is an event that might call for wine (or better yet champagne) if your team is going to the BIG DANCE. You should look to hit at the unexpected times. Test, Test, Test and measure. Would your audience be open to a purchase? I would think that wine drinkers would buy wine no matter the time of year and if there is an emotional tie in that is relevant to me as a subscriber, then an event it is.
There are too many offers in the standard calendar holidays and too much noise in my opinion, so look to be different, to stand out, to take some risk.
This is the year for risk and some skin in the game. Start inventing events and see where it takes you.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:36 AM | Permalink
April 4, 2007
Tell Us What You Think
I am interested to see how you feel changes to the CAN SPAM ACT will impact marketers that are following the letter of the law now. Will it hurt them or help them? I know this is hard to gauge before anything happens, but interested on your thoughts.
Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 9:18 PM | Permalink
FTC Might Take Can Spam Act Back
Whoa there fellas, due to the fact that spam is sooo out of control it is time to go back and revisit the laws (THAT ALL legitimate email marketers are following) to revise them? Why because the list of know spammers are going to listen up and stop? This is not a war against businesses (well maybe a few) but against those guys that this IS their business.
From the mouth of Ken McGill
In a move that has “this could be very bad” written all over it, a Congressional committee has indicated it may hold hearings on the Can-Spam Act of 2003 to assess whether the law needs to be changed.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce in January sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission chair Deborah Platt Majoras expressing concern over reports of the rising volume of spam e-mail.
“As you know, Congress passed legislation in 2003, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act to put a lid on this problem,” said the letter.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 2:36 PM | Permalink
eMarketing Summit at InnoTech Registration is Open
4.25-4.26 - eMarketing Summit at InnoTech Registration is Open
eROI will be leading 2 panels there as well as co-presenting with ReturnPath at this event in our own backyard. We typically see about 1500 Technology and Marketing Professionals at this event and growing.
InnoTech is excited to again host the 3rd annual eMarketing Summit happening April 25-26 at the Oregon Convention Center. This two day eMarketing Summit provide bring together marketers, business and internet professionals from throughout the Northwest. The eMarketing Summit will focus on the strategies and concepts of eMarketing while demonstrating the latest tools and techniques used by the Northwest's top companies. Featured Luncheon speaker, hosted by AMA, Oregon Chapter, is Murray Gaylord, VP of Marketing, NYTIMES.com, previously vice president, brand marketing for Yahoo! Inc.
Visit the Web site for more information or to register.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:09 AM | Permalink
Yahoo Mail Opens APIs
So how is this going to impact all of us? Just when we think that worrying about delivery to the places we focus on each and every day, here we go again. I think that we will see a wave of ISP emails opening things up this year and we are going to need to find out how to understand the impact of delivery to environments or applications using the APIs.
Hopefully we will still see the delivery engine that we understand and be able to adapt to how it is used.
Yahoo on Wednesday is expected to release software that will allow third-party developers to write applications using Yahoo Mail.
The move to open up the application programming interfaces (APIs) to Yahoo Mail is meant to encourage Web developers to build applications that use the mail service. The company expects these third-party "mashups," hybrid software that combines content from more than one source, will bring in more customers.
"There is tremendous potential for additional usage of Mail. By providing more user experiences, we believe we will increase engagement and utilization of the platform," said John Kraemer, vice president of Yahoo Mail.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 5:20 AM | Permalink
April 3, 2007
Sending Email Top Mobile User Activity
Only Five Percent of Innovative Web Users Access Internet on Mobile Device
If you are not thinking about mobile you need to start. It is going to be growing fast this year with both business and consumer email audiences.
A new report by Media-Screen finds that, although more than 60 percent of U.S. broadband users currently own an Internet-enabled mobile device, only five percent of them, approximately five million, use the mobile Internet. The report concludes that they are reluctant to partake in online mobile activities due to extra fees and difficulties establishing and maintaining Internet connections.
The report reveals a significant gap between accessing the Internet on mobile devices and on computers. Users perform an average of 3.3 online activities on their mobile device versus 13.4 activities on their laptop/desktop, reinforcing the fact that online activities have yet to migrate into the pockets of broadband users.
Jean Durall, Media-Screen's Director of Research Service, says "Broadband users... have historically driven innovation of online applications by being the first to adopt and embrace new services on the Internet... Understanding this group of influential consumers will help carriers, content providers and marketers develop new offerings."
Not unlike drivers during the early days of the Internet, the most popular mobile activities among broadband users are communications-related. And, even though mobile is touted as the "third screen," less than one in five users access news or television shows from a mobile device. Over 50 percent of respondents say that the mobile Internet access does not "fit with their lifestyle."
The study reports that the top mobile Internet activities are:
Sending email 47%
Playing games 27%
Read the news 16%
Watch TV programs 13%
Durall continues, "Providers and manufacturers must... make sure the benefits of mobile access are directed beyond the 'Road Warriors' and 'MySpacers' of the world. The persistent media portrayal of mobile Internet users as either carefree youth or hard-driving professionals may be... unintentionally delaying broader consumer adoption."
This study examines three different user groups to provide a better overview of attitudes and behaviors of mobile device users among the broadband population,:
Those currently accessing the Internet from a mobile device (5%)
Those who have an Internet-enabled mobile device but don't use it to go online (58%)
Those who don't have an Internet-enabled mobile device (36%)
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:25 AM | Permalink
April 2, 2007
JCrew Just Broke Up With Me
So this AM I got an email about ballet shoes for women from JCrew. I was sooooo tired of this weekly intrusion from them that I decided to reply to this email. Would you not think that if you reply to an email that someone might get it? Well instead, I got back this email, and it does not even make sense (tells me I unsubscribed and then tells me how to unsubscribe.)
Thank you for your unsubscription request. To unsubscribe to J.Crew's email list, please do so on the J.Crew website at http://www.jcrew.com/delete
GENIOUS! You just broke up with me because I responded to your email. I am so done with them as email marketers of sending me women's offers each and every week (I got 9 in the short month of Feb and 8 in March alone, and none of them were male targeted). I am a shopper there online and offline, and maybe I should stop being a customer if they can't get this simple relationship right.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 9:52 AM | Permalink
Blackberry to Meet Mobile Charge
RIM tells developers to have more fun
BlackBerry is branching out. Beginning Tuesday, Research In Motion will open the BlackBerry platform further by offering developers APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow them to make more interesting lifestyle-oriented applications.
Having customer relationship management software on your smart phone is cool and all, but soon BlackBerry addicts will have access to applications that are far more consumer oriented: apps with embedded audio and video, more location-based services, support for better 3D graphics, and more customizable wallpaper and ringtones.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:03 AM | Permalink
April 1, 2007
Why I Hate Spammers
I was thinking today of why I really can't stand spammers. So many reasons come to mind to be honest. Believe it or not most of them are not for business reasons. Nope, they are really for my own inbox sanity.
I wake up each day (even with complex filtering and learning junk system in place) to over 134 on average emails in my box to delete. This is between the hours of midnight and 6am. During the day maybe a few hundred more trickle in. Now this is mostly due to the fact that I have some of the company "catch all" email addresses aliased to my inbox, but come on now, just how many image based, drug and help me get my cash out of (insert African Nation name here) does it take to get a conversion?
These guys are really hurting not my belief in email, but my time management during the day. Every day. It does not go down and must just be a numbers game for these idiots.
And then I get the below emails and it really drives my ire. Do people really take the bait of these offers? Do they really think that the $100 buys you a quality, targeted list that is truly going to lift the sales of their company or product? Come on Sherlock's, get a clue. And what are we to do about these unscrupulous few out there hocking a database to some small business that does not know that this is a bad way to try to increase your reputation? Do you really want to send email to people that don't know you? Have no idea about your brand? And most importantly are (I will bet) not the audience for your product?
What can we do about these people except fight them? Any ideas?
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 8:23 AM | Permalink
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