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May 31, 2007
Could You Imagine the Black Eye?
Could you imagine if this was for an email ESP or agency? What would the implications be to such a company. I think it would shut them down 100%. Every client under the sun would think twice about using them, trusting them with data, and even the impact on online ISP reputation would be cripling.
Now InfoUSA does own some ESPs and does do email list rental as well, so I am interested to see if clients tie this bad news back to those businesses.
From Mediapost:
IN ANOTHER PROUD MOMENT FOR the direct mail industry, The New York Times this week expended 2,858 words on how infoUSA sold personal information to criminals who used the data to swindle senior citizens.A company official deftly defended selling lists to those classified as Elderly Opportunity Seekers (3.3 million older people "looking for ways to make money"), Suffering Seniors (4.7 million people with cancer or Alzheimer's disease) and Oldies but Goodies (500,000 gamblers over 55 years old described as: "These people are gullible. They want to believe that their luck can change") by saying "My people aren't investigators, they're marketers, and it's unfair to expect them to know everything about who is buying from us and every database that is listed on our Web site."
Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 8:55 AM | Permalink
Driving Retail to Offline Sales
With all of the studies we read about more ecommerce sales taking place online as a record rate, why would you every give the option to send someone to a REAL store? Well, because you have stores and some people still like to try things on, touch the fabric, see things in real life and browse. I know that even with so many opportunities to buy online, I still like to hit the stores.
You might think that this is counter intuitive to the whole interactive email marketing agency idea that we live and breathe at eROI, but it's not. We do so many campaigns that drive people to a real world location. Sales are sales are sales, right?
But why am I showing you this Brooks Brothers email you ask? Well due to the fact that they have embedded a trackable bar code in the email that I can take into a store for the same deal. Now not only does this drive the sale to where the consumer wants to shop, but it is trackable back to the actual email campaign.
We built this feature into our emailROI system some time ago and are happy to see more and more retailers stepping up and using it. Could you use it? Well that depends if you have a POS system that ties back to your CRM system. If you do, maybe you should give us a call and take a look.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 5:28 AM | Permalink
May 30, 2007
Using Image Suppression To Your Advantage
Funny that we chose to use the concept of broken images (notice the red "x"s in the creative) to hammer home the idea of of last webinar. We actually had record attendance for this one and even more emails and phone calls in letting us know that our creative might be broken. Some people were shocked to learn that we did this on purpose.
Really an email marketing agency that had broken images in the creative? Are you kidding me? Yep we were kidding you, but the creative did the job and moved people to take action to attend, call and start a conversation.
When you do email right, take risks and challenge the norm you can see great results. Don't be so glued to your programs that you don't take a risk or try something new. Testing after all is what propels success. In the words of Wieden and Kennedy... Fail Harder. Without testing, risk and failure you cannot ever reach success.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:21 AM | Permalink
May 29, 2007
Adding Captcha to The Opt In
After the amount of form spam we have seen the past few months, even in double opt in, we are releasing a built in Captcha Authentication system in the emailROI platform this month. It is ready now and will be available to ALL emailROI customers to implement and use in their own sites with ANY emailROI opt in form.
It is really just another line of code to select which makes it incredibly easy for all of our customers to implement. All that it requires is going into your account settings and checking this box "Require Captcha Authentication for Optins".
If you are having any issues with form spam now is the time to use this new feature in your account to slow it and even put and end to it.
If you are using another email platform and are tired of these issues, time to drop us a line to see how it works. You asked, we listened, we gave.
Comments (3) | Posted by dylan at 4:11 PM | Permalink
Getting Creative With Copy
When this email came into my inbox I actually had to look twice. One win there for Getty Images. This email was so spot on with the concept, the creative and the execution. It is a funny play on the idea that images (using image suppression as the hook) make the email and hammer home the message.
It makes me laugh a bit as it is so anti-best practice yet so perfect. I wonder how many people got this and what they thought. Do you think that this campaign got a big click through and conversion? I am not sure as I would assume that many people thought it was junk or broken, while I found it to be more enticing to be different.
I think if they are to keep this up in a series or campaign they would do well with it. Repetitive times in front of the consumer would let them know that it is a great campaign and one to be trusted.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:15 AM | Permalink
May 28, 2007
Keeping the Action Above the Fold
In Business to Business emails I really like to hammer home to get to the point quick and work to keep the actions above the fold in the email preview client. When I see something like this, in this case from Cisco, I want to share it with the world as too many times the action button is either below the fold OR a text link.
In order to get the person to take the action, you need to show them what to do. Most people need to be told or shown what to do. They do a good job of communicating what the event is, what the action on your part needs to be and the fact that it falls above the fold is a tri-fecta in my book.
Lesson: Don't hide the action and try to move it towards the top. If someone has to read too much or hunt for the action, you might as well not send it.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 2:00 PM | Permalink
Only Took 2.5 Months to Get the First Email
As a family we are BIG fans of Coldstone. My wife actually opted me on right before my bday so that we could get a bday ice cream. But I never heard from them again. Then 2.5 months later this shows up in my inbox. Wow. So many missed opportunities with a house file if it takes that long to get me in the cycle. And this is the only one I have got since. I am waiting to see if I might get more.
One would think that they would be on a two-week cycle and not a quarterly one. In the food services and retail business weekly, if not more seems to be the M.O. but not here. Should they be sending more? Are they missing opportunities OR have they already tested and found that this is the frequency that works for them?
Maybe I just like email a little too much....or ice cream.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 12:02 PM | Permalink
May 25, 2007
Video Wrap Up from Email Insider Summit
I know I was upset not to be able to attend the Email Insider Summit, but thanks to MediaPost you can watch most of the event online. One thing that does not make it as good as being there is that they only focus on the presenters and not the slides they are speaking to. Maybe next time they can have two cameras on the event to match the slide decks with the speakers.
http://www.mediapost.com/videos.html?bcpid=464120922&bclid=900701308&bctid=900644695
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:42 PM | Permalink
Now Phishing with More "V"
If you thought banks only had to worry about email and "phishing" seems that they are combatting more than that. It seems that technology makes banks even more of a risk with so many people trying to huck us. Is this is start of online gypsies?
Here was an email I got from a bank today, and it was a valid email from the bank and not a spoof. How do I know... they are an emailROI client of ours. I removed the bank name from the emails.
SCAM ALERT! VOICE PHISHING BECOMING MORE WIDESPREAD"Insert Bank Name here" has been educating members about the danger of online phishing scams for years. The latest version of this criminal attempt to steal your identity is called voice phishing or "vishing."
Vishing works like this: a consumer receives a voicemail or email warning them that someone is using their credit cards or bank accounts improperly.
They are given a phone number and urged to call to resolve the issue immediately. When they call, an automated phone system asks them to enter their credit card number, PIN and expiration date to pull up their records.
This is when the scammer captures the account information and uses it.
Be careful! If you are ever contacted unexpectedly about your credit card or other financial accounts, call the institution back using published customer service numbers.
"Insert BANK Name" will never request sensitive account information in an email, nor will we contact you asking for your credit card number or PIN.
If you receive an unexpected voicemail or email about your accounts, call our main number to confirm that the message is valid.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:36 PM | Permalink
eROI Named To Business Journal Fastest Growing List
Well after reaching our 5th year and getting past a change in the rules that would have placed us in the top 20 last year (they increased the years in business requirement).. we made the list of 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Oregon by the Portland Business Journal. The event will be held June 21st and you can bet the eROI team will be there in mass to see where we actually rank.
Thanks to all of you for your support and business as we charge forward this year to be an even better company and great business partner for the 1000s we work with each and every month.
We could not have done this without all the great clients, agencies, brands and people that allow us to do great work.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:46 AM | Permalink
May 24, 2007
Study: Reaching the Inbox and Rendering Solutions
We just completed a study with ReturnPath on Reaching the Inbox and Rendering Solutions and how to design so as not to encounter these issue pre-campaign.
http://www.eroi.com/eroi-email-marketing-q207-reaching-the-inbox.htmll
eROI uses this data primarily to educate, consult and design. We like to help the troubled mailers become good ones and enjoy the increased response that comes from improved deliverability. Of course, if education fails, they can segregate their IPs so top-notch marketers don't suffer because of other mailers misdeeds. (Which is why eROI has so many IPs and spend so much time monitoring, balancing and segmenting mailers on volume, reputation, list hygiene, vertical industry (say banking), and even by brand.)
eROI also uses Sender Score Campaign Preview to help their clients with content assessments. Content is another area where many ESPs typically have little control, so having a mechanism to help clients pinpoint where they need to make changes is crucial. But eROI is a hybrid ESP with full service and self service clients, agencies and other partners; due to this they can head off or test for issues prior to a campaign drop that they are creating, or test on behalf of a self serve client that requests it. Read more about how eROI uses the Sender Score suite to help its clients.
If you are struggling with deliverability issues, talk to eROI about how they address these problems. They help you assess your content? They segregate high reputation mailers from low reputation ones to protect their deliverability. You can't expect your ESP to solve the problems that you are causing in your program, but you can expect eROI to help you diagnose and solve your problems so that you can increase your email success. Why else would we have so many great long term clients and even more each month selecting us as a partner.
http://www.eroi.com/eroi-email-marketing-q207-reaching-the-inbox.html
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 PM | Permalink
Spam No Longer A Burden
If you did not have a chance to read this one today you should.
I found this study to be right on the mark. I know that I wake up each day to on average 110 emails in my junk folder. It used to bother me, but now, I just delete it and move on. I would say that my thoughts would be different if I was getting ones that were hard to tell or too much, but the junk folder is an easy solution to set rules for. Now this being said, it does hurt email marketing that there is so much of it and it can really cause issues with the sending of spam that looks to be coming from your domain. I actually had a co-worker come to me and say that we were being spammed from one of our domains. I quickly showed them how to read the headers of an email and tell that it was just ghosted and not sent. But how does this bode to someone that really has no idea? This is the part of spam that worries me the most. As it can really damage a brand quickly and you have no way to defend against it.
Read the study on the next page.
Spam's on the rise, but U.S. Web users are becoming increasingly nonchalant about it, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The report, based on a survey of 2,200 adults, found that spam appeared to be surging in personal accounts; 37% of the respondents said spam had increased in their personal e-mail from last year, while 29% said they were now seeing more spam in their work accounts than one year earlier.
At the same time, respondents also indicated that spam isn't as troubling as it once was. Twenty-eight percent said they didn't consider spam a problem at all, up from 16% in 2003, and only 18% considered spam a "big problem," down from 25%.
That people are somewhat blasé about spam by now shouldn't be that surprising. After all, unlike other nuisances such as pop-ups, spyware or viruses, spam at least can be deleted fairly. What's more -- assuming that the spam is only an ad and doesn't contain malicious code, or links to sites with malicious codes -- it also won't hurt computers. Additionally, as users have gotten more savvy, they've learned better how to manage spam via controls in their e-mail programs.
Of course, despite the greater sophistication of Web users today, the fact remains that spam only persists because users respond to it; otherwise, spammers would have long since moved on to other money-making schemes.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:57 AM | Permalink
May 23, 2007
Sorry For the Delay
Sorry for the lack luster posts these past few days. I had the pleasure of welcoming in my 2nd son this past Sunday AM. I will be back on today writing away and have a lot of material saved up.
Cheers and funny how a life event takes you away from the screen, probably a good thing right?
Comments (3) | Posted by dylan at 3:32 PM | Permalink
May 22, 2007
AOL disables images in AOL.com & AIM.com
A special thanks to Deirdre Baird, CEO of Pivotal Veracity, for sharing this breaking news with us VIA the Email Experience Council
Today, May 22, AOL officially introduced and rolled-out a new interface for customers who access their email using AOL.com & AIM.com. In addition to a number of other changes to the interface, AOL has decided to disable images in both of these web based email clients.
As a reminder, images have always been OFF by default for AOL 9.0 (AOL's desktop email software) but, prior to today, images were ON by default in AOL.com and AIM.com. The new interfaces for AOL.com and AIM.com now turn images OFF by default exactly like AOL 9.
Turning Images Back ON
Just like AOL 9.0, images will be turned back back ON in AOL.com and AIM.com by any of the following:
1. the recipient enables the images by clicking the SHOW IMAGES link for THIS MESSAGE or THIS SENDER that appears for each email,
OR
2. the recipient adds the mailer's from-address to their address book,
OR
3. the mailer's IP is on AOL's Enhanced Whitelist.
Implications
Mailers should expect to see a drop in open rates due to the new interface. Since open-rates are typically tracked via an invisible gif (image), when images are disabled, this method of open-rate tracking will result in no opens recorded when images are disabled.
Be proactive in getting images back on! Encourage your recipients to add your from-address to their address book; if your from-address is in the address book, your images will automatically display. In addition to an explicit add-to-address book campaign, strive to keep your spam complaints and unknown user rates low so you qualify for AOL's Enhanced Whitelist.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 3:25 PM | Permalink
May 16, 2007
SpamTrap Art
"Spamtrap" is an interactive installation piece the prints, shreds and blacklists spam email. It interacts with spammers by monitoring several email addresses the artist has created specifically to lure in spam. He does not use these email addresses for any other communication. He posts individual email addresses on websites and online bulletin boards that cause them to be harvested by spambots and then to start receiving spam.
Because he knows that all email sent to these email addresses are spam, he has set the installation to print and then shred each email as it arrives. Simultaneously the installation is feeding spam blacklists on the web with information gathered from all the received spam. This in turn helps to feed spam filtering systems across the web that are working to reduce the amount of spam we all receive.
The installation uses a Pentium II computer connected to a wireless network, personal printer, personal shredder, aluminum rails, Spamtrap email addresses, automatic printing software, email client software, antivirus software, and a SpamCop user account. The paper is recycled after the spam email has been shredded.
Comments (3) | Posted by dylan at 4:29 AM | Permalink
May 15, 2007
Newsflash: You Can Use Matches to Light a Fire
Not to bang this headline and study TOOOOO much with a dumber title in my own blog,
Newsflash: People Use Email to Communicate
A new study shows that despite the growth of other tools, so-called influencers still use email to maintain relationships, reports eMarketer.
The study comes from CNet, which looked at the communication habits of these influencers.
According to the study, an influencer is a person who is interested in a given topic and driven to send it to others. This dispels the notion that an influencer is someone with a personality that makes him or her more trusted than others.
Influencers in the study were most willing to spread the word about products they considered unique and that they trusted. This group tends to have the same amount of interests as anyone else, although findings demonstrated that more highly-connected people tend to use email more than the telephone to stay in touch.
The study also revealed that tapping into influencers for a word-of-mouth campaign can help propel it to the next level.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 2:22 PM | Permalink
May 11, 2007
Study: How Marketers Design, Code and Test Email
In the coming wave of eROI studies to be released over the forthcoming weeks here is one we just completed hot off the presses for you.
Over the last quarter, we took a look at how marketers are designing, coding and testing email. Email deliverability and rendering has been a hot topic for a long time, but how important is it to marketers. There is a vast difference between what they say and what they do.
In addition, we took a look at open and click statistics of those that fun all their email campaigns in house vs. those that use the services of an agency. The basics: eMarketing agencies drive nearly 50% more traffic to your site and increases brand awareness. This 8-page Q2’07 email study is chock full of valuable information, graphs, statistics, and charts to inform you on how to improve your email marketing strategies, design, and coding. As a bonus, you’ll also get an additional PDF of our brand new release of the Email Design Best Practices Guide. Learn how to code for Outlook 2007 and other email environments.
We encourage you to learn more about eROI, email marketing and this study, by visiting our Free Guides download.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:00 AM | Permalink
Webinar: eROI and Return Path May 15th
eROI & Return Path - Beating Image Suppression
Join us for a Webinar on May 15: Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: www.eroi.com/webinar.htm
Join us our May 15th webinar and learn what can happen to your email after you hit the "send" button and what you can do to make sure your email creative is preserved throughout the email client landscape.
I wanted to show you the creative below as I really think the team nailed it. Funny that we got some emails back today letting us know that we had broken images in this email. And some panicked employees running back to us letting us know we MUST have made a mistake.... All in the creative and not the rendering and delivery. Did we fool you too?
Email deliverability experts Dan Deneweth of Return Path and Jeff Mills of eROI will lead a lively session to answer these questions:
- What is image suppression and rendering and why does it matter?
- How are suppressed images impacting your brand and your response rate?
- How do you know if your images are being suppressed and what you can do to prevent it?
- What can you do to manage the reality of image suppression to protect your bottom line?
See you online!
Title: eROI & Return Path - Beating Image Suppression
Date: Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PD
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
www.eroi.com/webinar.htm
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
May 10, 2007
Wishing I Was At the Email Insider Summit
Here I am sitting 3,000 miles away in beautiful Portland, Oregon when I should be at the Email Insider Summit in muggy, hurricane prone FLA. This is the first one I have missed. Forget the fact that this is only the 3rd. But none the less I am bummed. It is my favorite event of the year in email marketing. But at least I am not alone in my pain. I spoke to David Baker this AM, when he emailed me for a recap on what was going on. Had to break the news to him that I was not there either.
David and I are both in the same situation these next few weeks, travel lock down. Both of our wives are expecting a new child in the coming/days weeks so we need to stay close. I actually am on a 1 hour lock down, which depending on the time of day and where I am, might only mean my office.
Regardless of this, I am excited for the one in Dec in Park City Utah. Watch out Email Insiders as we will fire up that outdoor fire pit in the freezing night air, hi-jack some bottles of wine and booze and try some more fire walking in 2007.
Until then, I will need to live through those there blogging, and you can too.
Email insider Summit Coverage Here >>
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 9:17 PM | Permalink
Come Let Us Rock You
I wanted to take a moment to plug an upcoming show of the Portland Advertising Federation. This type of event has been big in other cities and we are excited to hold one here in Portland for all the ad agencies to participate in. Not only will it ROCK but eROI is fielding a band of employees. They are hard at work selecting just the right set of Butt Rock to blast out and will be taking some extra hours to get it right. It helps that we already have a Fridays at 4 event each week in the sales area where some tunes are selected and then hacked up into little irrelevant bits based on employees life stories.
So if you are in the Portland area around this time, come and let us rock you.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:00 PM | Permalink
May 9, 2007
Yahoo Beta Spams Me from Day One
Last week I was doing some digging in order to see how the new Yahoo Beta email client was from a new experience. I signed up, confirmed and paused to login. I paused as I picked up the phone and dropped a quick call to the PR person at Yahoo, and then to the PR firm for them as the individual was out of the office. I wanted to find out how fast the switch to the new Beta was coming along as they were promoting it across the portal. Well of course Yahoo and the PR firm did not want to give any numbers or info at all, go figure. I tried my best Magmum PI to get the answers in clever ways, but no go. Guess I needed TC and Higgins on this case as well.
So back to the Beta... I logged in, went through the new flash welcome, which was well done, and then got to the mail box. What surprises lay in store for me! It was overall a bad experience if you stop reading here you just need to know that.
Read on for the Details and Shots >
First: I had 2 Windows (using IE 7) blocks to get to the content and warning me that this app needed to run ActiveX and something else. Okay, past those two things... Then I had no preview pane running on my first login. No big deal, but actually thought that was a good safety measure. Then it slid farther down the worm hole.
Second: I already had some emails in my Inbox. Not one but two welcomes from Yahoo. And what blew my mind as I tried to read the first one (from yahoo in a yahoo email client from a yahoo.com domain) the images were blocked. Yeah email sent from the Yahoo domain and the Yahoo client did not render. I thought that this was odd. Wouldn't you assume that emails from the brand would be shown? So I figured out how to show the images and moved on.
Third: There was a message in the inbox from someone I did not know already. Junk or spam but if this email account was hours old, why would there already be a spam message in my inbox? Rather odd right?
Fourth: So I flagged it as junk and noticed that my spam folder already had over 30 junk/spam emails in it. Whoa there Yahoo, what the heck was this all about? This account should be as clean as a new bar of soap.
Fifth: I opened the Junk folder and noticed that not only was there a large volume of messages that were junk but also that some of them were from as far back as January of this year. And I just opened this email account that day. Was this an old email account of someone else? Did it end up being a honeypot email account by Yahoo and then since it was expired re-issued to me since that was the email address I had chosen?
In the end I am not sure if I will use this email account as it already has a large spam problem. I only wonder if this is something that could plague others if they request an address that might have already been in circulation. Is this a good user experience? Has the internet run out of possible clean unused email accounts? What is in store for me with this one and would others be as scared as I am to use it?
Regardless, I wanted to point out what occurred as getting info out of Yahoo is close to impossible. I hope to open a dialogue with them soon to get an understanding of what occurred here.
Back to Gmail for me.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 7:49 AM | Permalink
Throw Some Celebrity Behind Your Email Campaigns
As a subscriber to many consumer emails I found it interesting and a good idea that Piperlime (a GAP company) to launch a Celeb tie in campaign. I mean who does not want a pair of pumps signed by a tabloid star?
It brings me to brand strength. This to me is a great idea as that it helps to lift the brand beyond email and beyond the web (as this is a web only store) and brings it into the offline word of mouth/gossip realm. We have seen Apple do this with iTunes and iPods, and Nike and other shoe brands actually create a shoe brand around an athlete. So why not a shoe company to use these same ideas around selling shoes. I would assume it is less expensive to build a campaign around an idea rather than create a line with limited draw. And this campaign, if it has legs (no pun), could continue for as long as they wish it to go forward. Every month their is an opportunity to name drop and cross promote a shoe with a celeb and with a cause.
If anyone from GAP is reading this, let us know how it is doing. We would be interested.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:41 AM | Permalink
May 8, 2007
Hotmail is Dead, Long Live "Live Mail"
I know that I have been a user of MSN Hotmail since 95 and still use that account. I was fortunate to get a Beta invite last fall and I really think it is a great release.
The News:
Hotmail, perhaps the first major success of Web 1.0, has evolved.
Microsoft has announced the launch of Windows Live Hotmail globally in 36 languages, complete with AJAX goodness.
The new service has been built to be a vast improvement over the previous Hotmail offering, incorporating input from more than 20 million beta testers. However today's offering is only the move from beta to roll out.
We’ve covered Windows Live Hotmail previously and have taken looks at the then beta service and the results weren’t positive, the new Hotmail ranking third behind Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.
Windows Live Hotmail launches with an initial 30 million users, with over 250 million additional users to be bought across in the coming months.
The new Hotmail is built on completely new code and marks the continued consolidation around the Windows Live brand.
In the coming weeks, Microsoft will be releasing a new free mail client meant to replace Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Windows Live desktop. The new client is called Windows Live Mail and will be a desktop client that provides Hotmail’s feature set locally on a users desktop. It will also support management of non Hotmail accounts.
There is some added benefits of logging into the new Hotmail; support is built in to allow Instant Messaging of contacts, or VOIP call contacts, with one click, which will also tie in with the Microsoft's desktop IM platform.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:00 AM | Permalink
Ask a Ninja Team Drops By eROI
I a not sure if many of you can grasp the greatness of what we had the pleasure of occurring last Friday, but it was a great one hour spent with Kent and Doug from AskANinja.com. They were in town for an interactive event going on called WebVisions and we had a contact at Federated Media that arranged for a quick drop in.
We spent about an hour very informally having some QA with them about video, viral video and what are the important elements to understand when looking to grow visibility in an already BUSY internet. These guys had a lot of knowledge to part on our team and we are thankful for their time.
If you are not familiar with AskANinja, that might be due to the fact that you are not in the demographic. I just barely qualify myself on age alone. They get over 250K views every 2 weeks of their new videos from 16-34 year old males (75%) and the rest in the same age group of females.
What was most fascinating to me was the fact that they are very pure in their approach and are not selling out to major brands that have approached them with ideas of how the Ninja can do A or B with their product. They don't let advertisers control the content or ideas of the video. They said that if they are going to talk about something, it needs to be in line with their audience, not be over sold and they need to retain 100% of the creative control. Sounds like a solid plan to me but I would assume that they have also forgone some revenue streams they could have brought in with these rules.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:59 AM | Permalink
May 7, 2007
eROI Launches New UGC Video Site
Well this site moved in at the speed of light and brought us into a new tech platform from KickApps in NYC. These guys let us use the back end of their system to build out a custom User Generated Content/Social Video site for Widmer Brewing. The video and design from Sasquatch Advertising who is their agency of record. (We just got to chop it up, style the design elements and mess with endless code that we had never seen) It was a fun project to work on and a good learning curve for a new project which rolled in last Thursday from HBO/Cinemax for a new series show that starts June 1st. (Yeah that gives about 3 weeks to knock it out of the park) Can't tell you much more than that now, but it is going to be saucy and use social video and user generated content. (And has to do with Las Vegas, beautiful people and steamy plotlines.)
I would love for you to take a look at the LemonYourWidmer site as the videos we loaded it with to start it off sure are a lot of fun. AND believe it or not 100% legitimate. After you see the golf chip shot (which took only 10 takes) you will know what I am talking about. If you have an idea of how to Lemon your Widmer, shoot it and load it up.
And of course it uses emailROI to power the front page Send to a Friend functions with a custom HMTL email template.
If you think of eROI as just an email ESP, you are missing the other 40% of our business: campaign sites, blogs, DM PIN campaigns, corporate sites, Web 2.0 application builds and advergames.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:53 AM | Permalink
MSN :Why Are You Buildng Fear?
I was a little surprised to see this on the home page of MSN the other day. I know that it was a plug to get into the new LiveMail system and grow the user base, but why use fear to achieve your goals? I think that calling it "The Top 3 Web Dangers" is a little overkill. It is something none of us like, but instead of creating the message to be one like "New Live Mail Stops the Threat" would have been much better suited.
Microsoft as a whole has been doing a lot to educate users of it's new Live products in a good way when you are logged in and I have covered it in the past and applaud it. But this was a let down.
Craig and his team as doing so many great things for email right now with built in auto unsubscribe in the mail box coming as well as really leveraging the value of IP and sender reputations. Now this might not translate too clearly to the typical consumer or user of MSN services, but it does more damage than good.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:53 AM | Permalink
May 4, 2007
Email Explains the Value of Your Product
Who has not been lost in an IKEA for hours looking at all the stuff piled in bins, boxes, and priced to make most of us drool. I know I have spent some coin with them for the office and some past homes, but I can never understand why the emails are so poor and exactly the same format each and every time.
They seem to leverage the catalog front page over and over again and give me a map like I forgot where it is? IS the map supposed to make me get in the car and head 3 hours to my nearest one? Would it help if you actually showed me some new products or is that part of the IKEA hiking expedition trap?
I think part of it is laziness or maybe just plain frugalness when it comes down to email marketing with IKEA. Like I have 10 minutes to get this one out and I can't sort my DB on any past behavior or have time to crop some photos from the AMAZING catalog. Just use the main cover and shoot this one out mentality.
With a brand as diverse and fast growing in the US I think that they might have some room to grow the email marketing programs. At least I hope so. And when the new one opens here in Portland in the coming months, do you think that they might divide the DB and ask at the next mailing where you live? Or leave it up to you to hunt for yourself and make that change for them so that they can change the map?
Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 4:44 AM | Permalink
May 3, 2007
Project Honey Pot Files 1 Billion Antispam Lawsuit
Unspam Technologies' Project Honey Pot filed a suit in U.S. District Court seeking the identity of spammers who harvest e-mail addresses, transmit spam and post so-called "comment spam." Project Honey Pot, a distributed network of spam-tracking "honey pots," is seeking $1 billion in statutory damages from the John Doe spammers. Jon Praed of the Internet Law Group is representing the Park City, Utah-based company in the suit.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 3:17 PM | Permalink
Carrying the Brand Equity Throughout the Email
When it comes down to well designed emails I love to give a shout out to them. Now some of you will say all that design does not matter if you can't see it and it has the images suppressed in the inbox and I agree, but when it works, it really works.
The Typesetter is the first edition from an agency in Portland that we know and I LOVE this email. The fact that they thought it out and carried the idea of the typeface through the email wins kudos from me. What do you think?
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:39 AM | Permalink
May 2, 2007
More RSS to Email Acquisitions
First Pay Per Post buys Zookoda and now NBC Acquires Rmail. What is next. This is good for email as it seems that email is still the driver and RSS is the content delivery tool.
But what cracks me up is we built this same system that we GIVE to our emailROI customers with our system over a year ago. It is not rocket science and I expect to see more companies in the ESP space adding this feature. I think that VResponse did this a little while back as well. I know that this RSS to email system is not a technology break through, but it is really important to have as an ESP.
If you are a current emailROI client access it at tools.eroi.com
This blog you are reading uses our RSS to email system as well. If you don't DIGG straight RSS, then you can subscribe on the right hand side of this blog and get a Tuesday AM recap sent to you. Hell I here some of you actually work like me so at times I miss reading feeds and appreciate the email reminder.
I can also tell you that the email from RSS drives major traffic spikes and comments to blogs and content.
NBC Universal has made a seemingly minor acquisition that may become a key component its digital future strategies. The media giant dropped just $150,000 on Rmail, a startup that converts RSS feeds to email, according to CNET.NBC plans to use Rmail largely as a consumer input tool. With it, NBC can examine users' RSS feeds directly and use the info to better target people with programming and advertising.
Already, NBC delivers content from MSNBC, NBC Sports, iVillage and DotComedy via RSS.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:57 PM | Permalink
Beer Marketers Need to Convey the Brand
Now living in the Pacific Northwest and having the largest concentration of Micro Breweries in the world, we know what beer should taste like and what the online pitch should be. This example of Pyramid, who makes some fine beers, really lets me down. This email was designed with so much space in it, small messaging and just left me feeling BLAH about it. If this is your 10 year party, show me why I want to set aside my time to come celebrate.
Not to go into segmentation to much, but there is a location in Portland as well as Seattle so why are you telling me about Berkeley CA?
This message not only applies to beer and breweries but to all email brand and event marketing. Make me WANT to go and if not make me want to buy. I think the idea of if you are not in the area to give me a 10 year party planning kit or a reason to pick up a 6/12/24 pack and hold a party in your honor in my back yard would have led to more impact and sales.
Think past the reason you want to tell me about and think about what I might do on my own with your event or celebration.
Look for the new LemonYourWidmer.com campaign launch we will be rolling out in the coming weeks to show you how to move past the location and bring the world to your party.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:30 AM | Permalink
May 1, 2007
Send Me Your Best and Worst Email Campaigns
I am on the hunt for what you think are the best or worst email campaigns that either your produce for your company or you design for clients. Or maybe even ones that you subscribe to that you think are DA BOMB or A BOMB.
Send them to CREATE AT EROI .COM and tell us why you like them or why you did them? We don't need all the metrics on these, just simple explanations of WHY?
Thanks for your help as I am working on the next installation of BEST and WORST of email marketing for May 2007.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:10 AM | Permalink
Email Influences Offline Purchases - Lift the Bottom Line
How many of your customers have made a store purchase after getting an email offer?
I know that I have. Sometimes we just don't do ALL of our shopping online. But we do our research and our planning there 9 out of 10 times. I was in a conversation with a 80 year old couple last week that is a client and he brought up the point that when he goes to buy new wood working equipment he does all his looking online, compares prices, and looks for reviews. Then, once well armed with the info, he heads out to the local Hardware store or Big Box retailer to buy it and pick it up. Says some things you just need to hold and handle to know you are buying the one that will meet your personal needs. I agree.
From the Study
Potentially more than four out of five, according to a recent consumer study conducted by Epsilon and leading research firm GfK Custom Research North America. When we asked whether they’d ever made an in-store purchase after receiving a relevant email offer, 86% said yes—even more than the percentage reporting that they made an online purchase after receiving an email offer (73%).The study also examined consumers’ perception of spam (their experience may surprise you), anti-spam technology, authentication and accreditation solutions, and more.
What you need to realize from your campaigns IF you have offline stores, channel stores or resellers that it is okay to get the sale offline. You may not be able to track the offline lift 100% of the time (unless you use our new Bar Code Couponing System in our emailROI product) but if you are driving sales that is all that matters.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:48 AM | Permalink
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