May 12, 2008
eec Does Good
I wanted to share this great one year wrap up of the latest project the eec has been working on. This is the second year of helping a non profit get an email marketing program together. Countless volunteer hours were put in by some great people in the email marketing industry to make this not only a success, but also a system that the Women's Bean Project can continue to leverage and use to help grow their donor base support.
This is just one of the great things that the eec is doing for the not only the non profits out there, but the email industry as a whole. Way to go guys.
How E-mail Impacts Society
This week I wanted to share something inspirational happening in the e-mail industry -- and some best practices! It's a recap of the Email Experience Council's (EEC's) Eality project. The Eality project originated as a way to enable peers and competitors in the e-mail marketing industry to put business aside and work as a team to create the best e-mail efforts for a good cause.
In 2007, the EEC selected the Women's Bean Project (WBP) as its Eality focus. Stephanie Miller from Return Path volunteered countless hours to lead this initiative and its team on behalf of the EEC. I spoke with Miller to get the inside scoop on the project.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:00 AM | Permalink
April 23, 2008
eROI email Survey: The Cradle & The Grave
Over 500 marketers were surveyed about the subscribe/unsubscribe process. While these processes are improving, they have yet to reach what we would call exceptional.
You can get the whole PDF in our resources section (Quarterly Studies tab)/ but the call outs below are not in the PDF.
High Level Thoughts:
- Email marketers are not matching up other marketing efforts like they should. Email, search, DM, Print, Call Centers, and sales teams need to get on the same page.
- Email marketers are not monitoring feedback loops and complaint rates. Are they counting on the ESP to do it? Many ESPs like eROI do this, but some do not. Does yours? Or does your program if you run it in house?
- The thank you page, prime visitor real estate is being wasted. There are so many opportunities to be testing the thank you page with Progressive Profiling and offers. As well as setting expectations.
- Not surveying subscribers at opt out. Remember high school when someone wanted to break up? Didn't you ask WHY are you leaving? This still holds true. Exit surveys are key to finding out why you have churn.
- Not allowing frequency changes. Subscribers should have access to change preferences of frequency just like they can manage a profile with your programs. Do they want to hear from you monthly, weekly, daily, as things that are important to them change? Listen before you speak.
Here is a teaser. You can get the whole PDF in our resources section (Quarterly Studies tab) . If you already have been there, all you need to do it log back in. No more forms, questions, or steps. Nice touch huh. What other email marketing agencies have you seen do this? None, they all want your information EVERY time. There are better ways to do this, Take a look for yourself.
Opting-in- the cradle
When obtaining permission to send out emails, only about 30% of email marketers use a confirmed opt-in method, where a confirmation e-mail including an activation web link (or requiring a reply email) is sent to verify the subscriber. This number has grown quite a bit over the years, but is still well below where the industryshould be. confirmed opt-in helps ensure quality of the email list by requiring an action by the user to begin receiving emails. about 75% of email marketers provide only a small number of ways for subscribers to opt-in (one to three), whereas about 4% have more than 10 ways for subscribers to opt-in.
This story got picked up by ClickZ last friday which we appreciate.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 1:00 PM | Permalink
March 20, 2008
Take Our New Email Marketing Survey
Here at eROI we go to great lengths to keep you up to date on the latest trends in email marketing. Our latest survey asks for your input on the Subscribe/Unsubscribe Process.
This survey should take just a minute or two, and we will share the results with you when complete.
All survey participants will be automatically entered to win one of a handful of iPod Shuffle mp3 players!
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 4:00 AM | Permalink
March 4, 2008
New In Our Resource Center - Enter the eROI Dojo
Keep up to date with new Case Studies being released by eROI monthly in our new Resource Center. Recently added studies cover the multiple award-winning Wacom PowerOfThePens.com Campaign, Building Customer Value, Q3 2007 Time Study, and a new Email Marketing Campaign Launch Sheet from our Strategy Team (good to keep handy as a check list in deploying your email campaigns without missing a step).
Enjoy the benefit of our new Resource Center with an intelligent profile system that helps you remember what resources you access.
Start Your Training as an Interactive Marketing "Zen Master" now
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:00 AM | Permalink
January 24, 2008
eROI and Wacom - EEC Performance Award Finalists
Today the Email Experience Council announced the five finalists for its first annual Email Performance Award, which recognizes an organization that has created an email marketing campaign that demonstrates the full power of the channel. The winner of the Email Performance Award, which will be selected by the eec's members, will be presented during the Email Evolution Conference, which will be held February 12-13 at the Sheraton Hotel & Marina in San Diego.
In alphabetical order, the five finalists for the Email Performance Award are: Accor, AOL, Genentech, REI and Wacom.
For more details on each of them, including copies of their nomination forms and supporting materials, visit the eec's Email Performance Awards page. Congratulations to the finalists.
Members of the eec can vote for the winner from among the Email Performance Award finalists (see below). Just log into your eec account and follow the instructions. Voting concludes at the end of day on Monday, Jan. 28.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:00 AM | Permalink
January 14, 2008
2008 Email Predictions : THREE
2008 Return Path Predictions
What is in store for large BRAND marketing using email and what opportunities and challenges exist for major brands?
Email is already getting more attention from brand marketers. Due to the power and success of email as well as the need to create more synergistic 1:1 relationships with customers, many brand marketers have already made the shift from being mass marketers to becoming direct marketers. As a result, brand marketers will place more value on email as a vehicle for message impression - primarily provided by a subject line, but also a preview pane. One way to track the effectiveness is to watch search traffic on keywords featured in subject lines and offer headlines.
What should small to mid size businesses be doing to make their programs more successful and what resources should they dedicate to it?
Every business can afford to have a world class email program. Tools are becoming more accessible and affordable at the low end. All it takes is a clear goal, a specific owner, consistent execution and the stitching together of free and inexpensive vendors.
How will consumers have mind shift to email campaigns and subscriptions as they become more astute as consumers and are more conditioned to email they get?
Subscribers have always been in control of their email inboxes. Providing relevant and interesting messages at a volume valued by subscribers remains key to customer engagement. Today, the penalty to marketers for not doing so is steeper than ever - irrelevant content drives ISP complaints, unsubscribe requests and tuned out subscribers. As a result, we marketers will finally be forced to really listen to our subscribers and deliver high quality experiences through message content and value. Technology is improving and will help us understand and tap behavior as well as self reported data. It's still, and always has been, always about the subscriber experience.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:00 AM | Permalink
January 9, 2008
eROI Launches Power of the Pens for Wacom
We wanted to share a recap of a campaign we just wrapped up this week that started in the month of December. Yeah, December, great month for a campaign right? Well actually even with all the noise in the retail channels it was a perfect time to make an impact with an idea that a large community was not expecting.
But for a daily campaign over a 2 week period of time? Is it going to have a frequency problem when this brand has NEVER emailed on a daily basis for an extended period of time? Would the participation be low based on the fact that they have never had a community site let alone a community campaign?
eROI did their homework in advanced because we nailed this one, drove interaction and even set the ground work for a year round social media community of artists and designers that we are brainstorming on as I type this.
Learn about the Power of the Pens and how email drove record results and built a community in our latest case study release. And take note of our new case study layout and design, it sure is pretty. Love any feedback you have on it.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:00 AM | Permalink
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