« June 2007 | Main | August 2007 »
July 30, 2007
eROI Looking for Talent
Folks, this is your time to shine. Are you ready to join eROI and Drink the PUNCH? As we don't drink Kool Aid here, but rather HI-C Mixed with Everclear... and man does it pack a punch.
And Portland, Oregon is one of the best places from a quality of life, things to do, culture to live in point of view. This place is not fluff, but real people doing great things.
We are growing with great new clients/partners/agencies and work that makes slapping your feet on the floor each AM a joy. And not just email marketing, but amazing campaign sites, mobile and brand work.
Did I mention that you could actually work with me... and the Sales Goat?
We are looking not only for RockStars, but also the band that goes multi-platinum.
Here are the openings we are recruiting: (Position descriptions after the jump)
Senior Account Executive
Account Coordinators
To apply send your resume and details to the address I will supply you offline, but ONLY if you contact me by commenting on this blog and not lurking.... We want people that engage... not watch.
eROI Looking for Senior Account Executive
eROI, Inc is a dynamic and fun e-marketing and web design company in downtown Portland, OR. We are seeking an experienced Account Executive with 4-6 years of experience.
To minimally qualify, you must have a bachelor’s degree and agency experience. Our preferred candidate will have interactive agency experience, a sound understanding of web applications, email marketing, the design process and database technology.
You need to have experience interacting with clients on a daily basis as part of your role in managing and growing relationships with them. You must demonstrate an ability to handle multiple clients and meet daily deadlines. You need to be confident and demonstrate good communication and writing skills. Your experience should include proposal writing, creating budgets and timelines as well. An aptitude and desire for learning new technology is a plus. The work environment is very fast paced and a lot of fun. You will be a part of the Account Services team and will report to the Vice President of Client Services.
You will be minimally responsible for:
•Proposal writing.
•Strategy development.
•Coordinating creative and production teams to meet client deadlines.
•Managing resources and time to stay in budget.
•Interacting with clients, keeping them informed and up to date on project deliverables and progress.
•Training clients on applications implemented.
Account Coordinator
eROI is an interactive and e-marketing agency in downtown Portland. We have an immediate opening for an Account Coordinator with 1 to 2 years experience in an agency setting. This is an opportunity to be a part of a growing interactive agency that promotes from within. We have a really fun culture and a fast paced enviroment. There's always alot going on and alot to learn.
You will be expected to have experience working closely with clients and account executives on a daily basis. Interactive experience including knowledge of the design process will be required. Any experience with web production, email marketing and/or HTML is a big plus.
Because you will be working with multiple clients you must be highly organized, able to prioritize quickly and multi-task in your sleep. Good communication skills, time management and writing abilities are needed. Experience with proposal writing is a plus as well. You will be assisting the Account Services team.
You will be minimally responsible for:
-Interacting with clients, keeping them informed and updated on project deliverables and overall project progress.
-Assisting with coordinating creative and production teams to meet client deadlines.
-Some project management
-Writing Proposals
-Managing resources and timelines.
To Apply send your resume and details to the address I will supply you offline, but ONLY if you contact me by commenting on this blog and not lurking.... We want people that engage... not watch.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 5:00 AM | Permalink
July 27, 2007
EEC Releases Second Annual Subscription Study
The Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council recently signed up for the email newsletters of 118 of the top online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot. What we found was that there’s a clear trend toward subscription processes that are quick and easy, and increasingly transparent.
Read the Executive Summary and even join the EEC and get these resource all year long with your membership.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 8:00 AM | Permalink
July 26, 2007
Blackberry VS iPhone
I will stand by my thoughts that the iPhone, although cool, still does not have what it takes to be the blackberry killer. It does not have the email functions that all of us look for when searching for a mobile device to get email in a timely manner. The upsides are browsing and "maybe" buying, but the jury is still out there.
I have played around with them and I still have decided not to get one. Another ad agency owner I know got one and loved it, for a week. Then he emailed me tonight letting me know that he was going out to get a new blackberry too. This way he could get his emails as he expected them while traveling.
From TechCrunch:
iPhone v. BlackBerry: Side By Side, Two Week ComparisonWith the Wi-Fi-equipped BlackBerry 8820 coming soon to an AT&T store near you, business folks around the country will be faced with the decision of switching to the trendy new iPhone or upgrading to a more iPhonesque version of their trusty CrackBerry. To determine whether the grass really is greener on the iPhone side of the fence, we have chronicled the experience of a venture capitalist (who wishes to remain anonymous) who has been using an iPhone and a BlackBerry 8800 side-by-side for the past few weeks. His conclusion: despite the overall attractiveness of the iPhone, it lacks too many vital features to replace the BlackBerry as the corporate weapon of choice.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 10:00 AM | Permalink
More Video Email Launches
I love press releases and new companies so far this week that are touting video email. Like it has been so easy and the magic bullet has been found. This company (release is below) has one of the scariest landing pages I have ever seen. I think that if I had the time, money and skills available to actually solve the dilemma that we all face of video NOT playing in so many email clients (most use a fake video player with a jump out to a landing/player page when it does not work) that they could have spent... say a few thousand on a good looking corporate site with some brand equity. Maybe they tapped out of cash after 500k spent in research.
But, as you will find, I went to the site to learn more and felt as if I had jumped to a multi-level marketing pitch on what not to do for landing pages and product launches. Judge for yourself, but it is scary.
There are some other solutions out there like AVI Mail that I think have a chance and we have actually tested. Much lower rate of not working AND they provide a detailed spec sheet on the tests they have run.
Release after the jump, IF you still need to read more after looking at the site.
The world has waited for this advanced video email marketing technology and is a must-have for any business to gain a competitive edge; featuring a pre-recorded video library to suit any market.
Talk Fusion’s video email system with VERM automatic responder technology, as seen at SendVideoByEmail.com, was officially released to the world on June 27, 2007 and is based on its proven parent company, Global Video Talk out of Brandon, FL.
“There are over 700 million Internet users who send over 30 billion emails per day. The Internet has already surpassed TV, newspapers and magazines in reach.” says Talk Fusion founding member Chad Hershey. “Talk Fusion can separate you from your competition by allowing you to send vibrant video emails to anyone in less than two minutes. This technology combines the power of television with the ease of email.”
Mr. Hershey continues, “Due to the proprietary technology, customer’s video message will load quickly and open automatically, without attachments or software to download. Also, all video emails are trackable once they reach the intended target. Talk Fusion even offers custom design services to make sure your video email is uniquely branded for your company. With hundreds of businesses competing for the same customer, Talk Fusion can help you stand apart from the crowd! Below are ten reasons we came up with for why everyone should use video email.”
10 Reasons to use Video Email:
1. Announce a product launch
2. Feature your latest TV spot
3. Give a property tour
4. Notify about a promotional event
5. Improve employee communications and training
6. Build brand loyalty
7. Increase customer relations and retention
8. Reduce advertising costs
9. Qualify sales leads
10. Increase response rates
Mr. Hershey concludes, “Talk Fusion's advanced video email marketing technology is a must-have for any business to gain a competitive edge. Network marketers, real estate agents, sales people, advertising & marketing professionals and many others are instantly realizing the power of video email delivery through Talk Fusion.”
More information on Talk Fusion can be found here: http://www.SendVideoByEmail.com
Comments (5) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
July 25, 2007
Blackberry's and Email Marketing Resources
Here are some resources IF you have audiences that you know are using Blackberry's. Most of us at eROI are armed with them in our daily war on email delivery, but some of you might not. These are some good resources to use to test for yourself if you don't know how your emails render on the device.
Trust me, most of the multi-part of TEXT emails I get are bad.
We use the first one a a PC to test sometimes if the devices are not in the office. It is a little tricky to install, but worth the effort.
BlackBerry simulators:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/downloads/simul
tors.jsp
http://support.vzw.com/swf/blackberry8703/blackberry_87
3e_simulator.htm
MIT Sloan’s article on BlackBerry users’ behavior:
http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/2006-blackberry.php
Video demonstration on what email looks like on a BlackBerry 8700:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1n7clhSzGM
Video demonstration on what email looks like on a BlackBerry Pearl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM2YFwoJrog
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:25 PM | Permalink
Is this Email 2.0? Eyejot Does Video Email
I came across this new web based system that is all about video emails. Now not sure if this is the email 2.0 app we have all been looking for, but I am going to need to test it out. EyeJot is saying that you can now send video email to people from your own computer. Now I have a Apple that allows me to use the built in web cam to capture and send video when I want... but will it always play in other email clients like an Apple will? No. I know this as I have sent video to people and they are not always able to view it.
So will this be the magic bullet? I hope so. But if they have it, why don't all of the email marketers out there know about it? Seems to be a consumer email play, but if it works., trust me we will all be calling.
Eyejot... ring me up and give me the 411 if this is the cure.
Here is what they list on the site:
Eyejot Requirements
There are only a few things you need before being able to use Eyejot. They are:
Modern web browser (IE, Safari, Firefox, Opera)
Adobe Flash 9 (Looks like you need to install/update your Adobe Flash Plugin! Get it here.)
A webcam
A microphone (if your webcam doesn't have one built-in)
Flash 9 is available for most operating systems including:
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Apple OS X
Linux
For mobile access to your Eyejot messages you'll need a device that supports web browsing and mobile video (3GP).
Comments (4) | Posted by dylan at 4:01 AM | Permalink
July 24, 2007
Convergence Conference: Invergence 2007
We have come a long way over the past several months helping to plan the new convergence conference in Portland set for September 6-7. Steve Gehlen, who has successfully organized the Internet Strategy Fourm (2007 was last week and brought FedEx, Yahoo, Robert Scoble and many many others to town to speak was amazing.
This new event Steve has planned is going to be one that will become a MUST attend event. Not only will it bring in some great minds, but also coincides with the NorthwestMusicFest as well as the PICA Time Based Art Festival (TBA). Three events like this over the same time frame is like stars lining up.
If you are going to be anywhere on the West Coast, or have been looking for a reason to get to Portland, Oregon (rated best place to live, work, active people, etc) this might be the perfect storm for you. And September in Oregon is one of the best times ever for weather and the outdoors.
Read Steve's note on the Invergence 2007 event after the jump and visit the new holding blog put up leading to the event
During that time, as I've talked to over 100 people about the conference concept and read material on various related subjects, I've come to realize that the term "convergence" alone does not capture the full scope of what is happening and where we are heading.
The new twist is interaction and participation, so I've come up with a new term: invergence, to describe the emerging interactive convergence.
1) New Blog Launched
Today I'm announcing the launch of a new blog at invergence.com to describe, document and debate this concept.
The blog will feature a regular group of thought-leader contributors as well as guest posts. If you are interested in contributing a post or being a regular contributor, let me know.
Also, I encourage you to add your comments to any of the blog posts.
2) Name Selected for the Conference
The blog provides details about the new conference, now called Inverge 2007 (visit the details page). It also talks about Portland as an ideal destination for the event.
The full conference web site, www.inverge.com, is currently in development.
The core concepts of the conference, the venue and affiliation with the Time-Based Art Festival & MusicFestNW are still intact.
3) New Speakers Added to the Program
We have already confirmed several compelling speakers for our inaugural event, including Dalen Harrison, CEO of Ensequence, a leading Interactive Television platform.
> See list of speakers confirmed so far
I will keep you posted as new speakers are added. If you have suggestions for other speaker prospects, please use our interactive dialog.
4) Help Spread the Word
Now that the blog is launched you can help spread the word with your colleagues by sending them a link to http://invergence.com or www.invergence.com.
Steve Gehlen
Founder & Director
Inverge 2007: the interactive convergence conference
503-819-6219
steve@gehlen.name
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevegehlen
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:00 AM | Permalink
Email is soooo 2005
I am soooo done with this "Death of email thing". Hell News.com emailed me this article, and was fortunate I have yet to take my Outlook out into the woods and put a bullet in it's head... damn email.
Come on now. Why are all these folks trying to kill off email every other week? This is ridiculous. We have not stopped using email. I also use RSS, blogs, video, mobile, social media, etc, etc etc.
Vernacular is changing, but email is here for a while, so let's do it right. I have a ton of "kids" that work here and I can tell you that they are still living in email while Twittering, MySpacing, Im'ing, tagging, etc.
Email: Dead to Millennials from CNET News.comFor today's teenagers, email has been replaced by social networking. Teens and analysts agree that kids think email is more suited to keeping up professional relationships or communicating with adults.
Kids today are more likely to check MySpace or Facebook than email. For many adults, email is what we're used to--it keeps things simple and professional. But for kids, who grew up with instant messaging, voice-over-IP, text messaging and email, they want to see these services integrated. To a certain extent, each of these can be wrapped up in a social network, along with the ability to add photos, videos and of course, new friends and networks.
The demands of the so-called "Millenial" generation may be a sign of things to come. Social networks are the most potent new rival to e-mail, especially when you consider that tens of millions of members log onto MySpace and Facebook several times a day. It's even scarier to consider what happens to email if virtual worlds like Gaia Online knock social networks down a rung on the Web communication food chain.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:00 AM | Permalink
Its a Mobile Mobile Mobile World
Do you think that the iPhone is driving the thoughts around this? Most of us in the business world have been using mobile email for years and years with Blackberries and Treos. Text messaging has been the norm in the consumer space, so will devices like the curve and iPhone (which are targeted to the consumer market) help push this over the top?
I think we will see a shift, and yes it will change how people read and react to emails, but it might actually open up some more opportunities when we look at time/day and message.
Mobile Email By Consumers To Take Off, Says Frost & Sullivan by Les Luchter of MediaPost In a white paper prepared by Frost & Sullivan for open source firm Funambol, mobile email is projected to grow 24% annually for the next four years--fueled by growth over everyday cell phones.Read the whole story...
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
July 23, 2007
Reports from the FTC Spam Summit
If you were ALL only an EEC Member, you could be joining a behind the scenes FTC meeting wrap up call this Wed. There is still time....
From Ken Magill: This Time, Marketing Wasn’t in the Crosshairs
Though last week’s Federal Trade Commission spam summit was a relatively sleepy affair, there was one major positive development for marketers: For once, they weren’t under fire.
The agenda and tone of last week’s event compared to a similar one four years ago were evidence of how drastically the relationship between marketers and inbox providers has changed.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 3:00 PM | Permalink
A Little Insight Into Digital Scum
Sniff Sniff, Weep Weep....
You should read this article just to understand why so many of these scumbags are doing it. Not rocket science to guess it on your own... the Benjamins ($100). I read this and it was interesting, but this guy wanted me to feel bad for him that he was "trapped" in the behavoir. I have an idea, how about you come down to my office, or me to your home (just call) and I will bring an electric cattle prod and a bucket to fill with water for you to stand in.
I bet we can break you pretty fast of this "behavoiral" flaw. Maybe that was the old Army Drill Sergeant coming out in me there.. but that is about as bad as I feel for him.
----------
An update from the Email Insiders on this same Issue can be found here
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:21 AM | Permalink
July 20, 2007
Using Email to Build Community
I love it when I get timely emails from brands that I often interact with. Often times if I was to get a survey like this a week or two later, or even one that asked me to take a survey that had nothing to do with what I was neither interested in nor relevant, they are not getting my time.
But when I get follow ups from behavioral or shopping experiences that are not immediate (as that is a little creepy not only to me but to most consumers) I want to help and participate.
Could you drive more community feedback and participation with surveys or even just timely emails based on what a customer did? Even a follow up to an order after it arrives not only brings me into your fold, but gives you timely and valuable consumer thought data to help grow your marketing and email communications.
I want to see more of your hammer this home with your brands and clients.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:43 AM | Permalink
July 19, 2007
Email Is The "Digital Glue"
I was in a discussion this week with a handful of email marketers about email and IF it was a sexy "digital" tool. I know that email is really seen by many companies as a standard and not really innovative technology. But let's think about that idea a little more.
What application could people not live without online?
What holds the web and communication at a one to one level together?
What method is use to launch contests, drive buzz, grow word of mouth and develop databases of people that want to interact or have an experience with your product?
No it is not mobile, nor RSS, now a sexy GUI Widget... but email.
The reason that many marketers or agencies are not leading with email as it is old and not sexy to them. But they all use it in everything they do and launch online. Without it we would be holding conversations in a whole other way. And winning new clients in some many pitches does not come down to: email will drive this to new heights. But in the end, they are wrong and place email as an after thought or 50th slide in a pitch deck.
And why is this? Because so many agencies don;t get email, aren't good at it, and do not have people in house with the experience needed to make it pop. I know all of you do and that you get it.
Email is not dead and is not dying. It is the glue.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 10:00 AM | Permalink
Give Me Choices
While Becker Surf does a great job changing up email creative, this new look really helps me since they do not target by gender or by past shopping behaviors. (at least that I am aware of). But this clean new look focuses on their main call to action or promotion, but then below lets me select by gender what I want to drill into.
My lesson in the wars on email today is: If you cannot have a preference center with your database or email marketing platform (hey try eROI -shameless plug) then present choices. At least you don't run the route that so many other consumer clothing vendors do of not showing me content that is relevant. Be relevant to everyone if you have to use the shotgun approach to email marketing.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
July 18, 2007
3D Mailbox: Worst. App. Ever.
Do you find dealing with email boring? Would your day be brighter if your email was rendered as characters in a SecondLife style universe, complete with spam eating sharks? Were you dropped on your head as a child? Introducing 3D Mailbox.
This is plain horrible. If email needed a 2.0... this is not it.
Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 11:25 AM | Permalink
Dell Goes Technicolor and Gets My Attention
Dell has recently made some brand changes and with the introduction of a new line of color infused laptops has caught my attention. Not for the new case mods, but for the way that they are carrying over the colors of the new brand into their emails. For so long the were so standard, yet nice, and even business vanilla. But these new series of emails are catching my attention in the inbox.
I know that many of you don't change out the looks very often to the old tried and true newsletters, but change it good. We get into this whole conditioned behavior routine of doing what is comfortable and nice, but mixing it up works.
Now mixing it up is not just for the one-off campaign email, but let it carry over to all your activities. Change up your emails at least once a year, and tie them around a change in products, campaign messaging or even just to do it different. Templates are made to be used for a while and then to move on.
Would running the same print ad fit your model? Most likely it would not as that is why you are always innovating with print. Do the same with email as it can have a segmented testing range and a shorter shelf life when it hits the inbox time and time again. I think you will see response rates go up as there is a curiosity factor with change.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
July 17, 2007
Why Can't Labels Do Email Right
Now one would think that with more money to promote an artist or record that a record label would get email. I know the team at Warner Music Group and I know that they GET email. But unfortunately the labels and artists groups handle the outbound marketing. I have signed up for quite a few to see if I see something revolutionary hitting the inbox, but often times I am faced with emails like this below.
Now you would think with an artist like Diddy or others of his public profile caliber that the emails would follow best practices, or even push the envelope. Sorry to let you all down but they are image heavy, have most of the text below the fold, and even with this one as an example... do not deliver any content that make you feel inclined to click through.
Have any of you seen some good label or band emails? If so send them my way to tell me which ones so that I can sign up and take a look.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:14 AM | Permalink
July 16, 2007
Antispam developer: New method is only a first step
A new antispam technology that recently got a preliminary nod from an international standards body holds promise, but an engineer who helped develop the technique says it's not a surefire way to evade e-mails from criminals.
The technique called DomainKeys Identified Mail, or DKIM for short, relies on a quietly inserted digital signature on the sender's end, which is designed to vouch for the identity of a message's sender. The Internet Engineering Task Force, a key standards body, adopted a draft of the standard in May.
The standard, which has backing from Yahoo, Cisco Systems, Sendmail and PGP Corporation, doesn't require that messages with invalid signatures be flagged as junk, but Internet service providers are likely to do just that.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:20 PM | Permalink
Feds preparing to jail more spammers?
Spammers, beware: more criminal spam prosecutions--complete with stiff prison sentences and mandatory forfeiture of relevant valuables--are on the way in the coming months, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney said Thursday.
"I think the healthy dose of jail time plus lose-your-money is working," Mona Sedky Spivack, a trial attorney in the Justice Department's computer crime and intellectual property unit, said at the second day of a Federal Trade Commission spam summit here. "I hope that provides a deterrent effect to other would-be criminal spammers out there."
Justice Department and FBI representatives contacted by CNET News.com weren't able to provide any numbers on how many spam-related cases have already been prosecuted in recent years. The FTC's experience may offer one clue: a spokeswoman said her agency brought 26 civil actions against spammers since the 2003 passage of a controversial antispam law known as Can-Spam, and four of them also involved a criminal component.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 11:00 AM | Permalink
July 15, 2007
Will DKIM Save Email?
Senders, ISPs and ESPs need to adopt Domain Keys
When e-mail was first developed, the network was a friendly place.
Most users were researchers, and they had a vested interest in making the network work well. For the most part, they knew each other; in fact, there was a directory of every network user, including their names, physical and e-mail addresses, and phone numbers--printed on paper and weighing less than 2 pounds.
Security consisted of little more than simple passwords, and encryption was rare. In fact, the Arpanet, the predecessor to the Internet, first started operating in 1969, but the RSA algorithm, one of the first great advancements in Internet security, wasn't invented until 1977. Heavy e-mail users sent and received perhaps 10 messages per day.
How things have changed. There are times of day when I receive 10 messages a minute--and most of those are spam or phishes. In fact, I receive more than 1,000 unwanted messages every day. Spam is nasty, but phishing is worse, resulting in the theft of money and identity that equates to significant losses for both individuals and businesses. Global research firm Gartner estimates that 3.5 million Americans divulged personal information to phishers in 2006, nearly twice the number of 2005. The average loss per incident was around $1,244, more than double the amount in 2005, and barely half of those consumers will get their money back.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 3:30 PM | Permalink
July 13, 2007
Spammers defeat Captchas
Do you use Captchas to try to keep your opt in records clean? We implemented it in our emailROI platform about 4 months ago as a built in system our customers could use, but looks like the spammers have already figured it out. Paul at U of Arkansas shared a new way with us (in private) to stop the form spam from entering our opt in ecosystem, and I have to say Thanks Paul, it worked. We have found his secret measure to be more effective than other ways we have tried to slow the increase in form spam on our sites.
If you are interested in learning about it from me directly, add a comment and I will contact you offline, as we don't want "them" to learn about this trick.
From a CNET Article below:
According to security vendor BitDefender, spammers have defeated a system designed to differentiate humans from machines when registering new accounts online. Known as Captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), the system won't allow users to advance until distorted characters in a box are correctly entered. BitDefender says a new threat, Trojan.Spammer.HotLan.A, is using more than 15,000 automatically generated bogus Microsoft Hotmail accounts to spread and is registering 500 new accounts per hour, suggesting the Captcha system has been defeated.
BitDefender says the Trojan horse accesses one of the free Web mail accounts from Microsoft or Yahoo, pulls encrypted content from a Web site, decrypts the message (usually spam for a pharmaceutical product), then sends the e-mails to presumably valid addresses obtained from another Web site. Exactly how the Trojan is able to create the bogus Web mail accounts is not documented.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:37 AM | Permalink
July 12, 2007
Google Buys Postini
What impact will Google's acquisition of Postini have on business email filtering? Will postini start shifting to be used in the gmail environment? Will those that use (yes this is a growing trend) gmail as a first filter and then port the cleansed emails into their Outlook client going to change consumer email?
It seems like Google is trying to move more and more into the Microsoft turf of business applicaitons. Only natural for the web superpower.
Google Buys Spam Fighter Google dipped into its large cash reserves to buy e-mail security firm Postini for $625 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The San Carlos, Calif., company provides software for companies to guard against spam and viruses entering their networks. The acquisition comes a week after Google closed another deal to buy telecom provider Grand Central Communications, which lets consumers have a single number for several phones.
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
July 11, 2007
Bill Answers My iPhone Questions
Ask and you shall receive. Thanks Bill. Just goes to show how great the blogosphere is. I posted the other day on the iPhone email mania I was seeing and asked Bill (like shouting into the ether) to run a report for us and share with us how many iPhone emails he saw using his system. 638 was the number. Quite a few more than licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop. Apple we heard you loud and clear. Many bought so it worked.
And many others were scammed it looks from Bill's report. Thanks Bill for not only running the report and sharing it with us, but also keeping your eyes on the web to see when a small voice cries out for help. Hats off to Email Data Source and Email Analyst.
http://blogs.mediapost.com/email_insider/?p=466
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:50 AM | Permalink
Email Marketing Statistics By Day and Time
Here at eROI we took a look at Q1 email statistics to identify trends and opportunities in both day of the week as well as time of the day statistics.
In prior studies we saw above average open and click rates on the weekend, however, recently weekends are not performing as they are in the past, this could be seasonal in nature as we typically see dips in performance as the weather gets nicer.
We first took a look at Time of the Day email statistics in Q2 2006 and we decided to take another look a year later. Similar to last year, we see spikes bookending the work day with a noticeable spike around lunchtime.
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 4:43 AM | Permalink
July 6, 2007
How Many iPhone Emails Could We Get
With the launch of the new iPhone last week, I could only imagine how many emails people got that had the word iPhone in it, or was from Apple or ATT about it. Bill McCloskey most likely can tell us in his blog next week or in the Email Insiders column. (Bill did you hear me, I am asking you to share with us just how many iPhone emails crossed the web in the past 15 days up till launch and there after.)
This is a good showing to me of the importance of channel noise and channel control. I was in a client meeting last week talking about the Bog Box retailer issues they had in getting the messages sent with the right messaging to the employees of these retailers. Now if you don't think it is an issue, Bill can let you know, it is.
If you are not aware of who else is talking about you, your product or your brand in other campaigns, you can face one of two things. One is the wrong information or brand statements get shared and you lose control of your campaign. The other is that if too many emails hit the inbox talking about the same thing from different people it causes confusion and frustration. Or even brand resentment.
Many people or brands think that it only builds buzz and brand awareness, but it can if not monitored, cause brand chaos.
Bill I want to see your figures on this iPhone bru ha ha this week. Right after I get back from picking one of these new fancy gadgets up for some "business testing and research".
Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:56 AM | Permalink
July 5, 2007
When An Event Based Email Goes Bad
You know I think the most of event based email. Using email to promote or tie into events like Christmas, Back to School, or even Mothers Day is the norm right? But what happens when your campaign is delayed in a tar pit OR you seem to send out your campaign after the passing of a holiday? Well it not only makes you look stupid, but it erodes your brand credibility. A friend (Thanks Jen) sent this into me knowing I would love to bang it on the head in this blog. (She knows me all too well).
But can you believe that an email for a holiday (Mother's Day) that occurred in May, gets sent out at the end of June? Bad bad bad.
Maybe it was tar pitted by an ISP, got lost in the mail or just was a bad day for the person in charge of email marketing for this company and they mistakenly sent it out. Either way, bad brand image and it is not in the Hall of Shame on this blog.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:50 AM | Permalink
July 4, 2007
Some Video Highlights of Evil Rock Overlords Inc. (eROI)
We were able to load up some video of our Battle of the Bands footage that we won a week back. Enjoy.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:33 AM | Permalink
July 3, 2007
Product Focused Versus Multi-Product Emails
I have been watching the success of email campaigns lately that stay the course VS those that sling everything under the sun at you. You know the kind of emails I am talking about. Some people have a hard time narrowing down the amount of content they place in a sales driven email. They like to act like a bad chef at a subpar restaurant hoping that if they throw enough things on your plate, you will like one of them and think you had a good meal.
Well I am here to tell you to think different. If you have a goal to move products, keep it simple. Giving people too many choices just makes a mess of your campaign. When you are developing a campaign, try to give some top level choices with some options to dig deeper if they want to. Better yet use your website after you capture them from the email to explore in a clear and concise way.
Here are some examples of one campaign using two presentation methods we used this past winter with success. One focuses on the item the client wanted to move and the other was to test what categories were of interest for secondary email campaign touches based on what they clicked from.
Email is not a shotgun, it is more like being a sniper. Focus, wait, narrow, aim and bag the win.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
July 2, 2007
Why RSS Matters to Email
I am glad to see the hype of RSS killing email marketing dead did not come to fruition. Hell did you really think it would? I use RSS in a different method than I do email and I believe others do as well.
But one thing we have found powerful in RSS and email is the ability to use RSS to build a dynamic email from content you have already produced. If you want to see how subscribe to the weekly recap newsletter in the right hand side of this blog. We, as do many of our customers, use RSS to automatically build an email from content stored on a website. Makes sense right? Why would you want to create the content twice and copying and pasting is so 2006.
Ogilvy has used our email to RSS email engine to build the below email dynamically from content on the Digital Innovations blog. I love this blog as it is using RSS from so many sites I already read and pulling it into one searchable location for me. And to boot, as busy as I get this email below reminds me of the location and drives me back in to read more content.
A perfect balance... thanks RSS for not killing off email.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:41 PM | Permalink
What Impact Does China Have On Your Email Campaigns?
I came across a site this past week that shows whether or not your domain is blocked in China. Why does this matter you might be asking? Well since China is the fastest growing economy and the population is coming on line faster than anywhere else in the world, you better make sure that your domain is not getting filtered at the Great (Fire) Wall.
I put in two domains that matter to me to test it. One being our corporate domain of www.eroi.com. And low and behold it was blocked. Well strike one for me and China. But what was more important was our emailing domains. And after a little fat fingering my keyboard (one would think after 12 years in this business I could type blindfolded) our email domain.. success. No blocks there. That is IF I trust this site to tell me the truth.
Read More after the jump >
But it goes a little farther than this test. What it means to me in the end is IF domains are being blocked at the root, would email containing links to our corporate domain be blocked as well. So I looked through our in house opt in list for our newsletter and other guides. Quite a few of China based ISP email addresses. What I found was good. No results of bad deliveries.
Do you know if you have any domain based filtering issues? Most likely it has rarely if ever crossed your mind. I saw it in a client domain just yesterday in an email I got. The email headers showed that one of their domains was on a blacklist throwing a score for that email over our in house threshold over the limit and resulting in it being placed in my quarantine folder. Of course I let them know instantly as I look at, I know this is sad but my job, all the client emails sent out from our platform. Our team is always looking out for this. But are you?
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
Syndicate this site (XML)
