April 23, 2008

What If We Sent Hugs Instead of Emails?

In the world of viral email I am often not that impressed with the value of the "viral" pre-planned ability of a campaign, but in the meat of the campaign. IF it is truly something that is authentic, credible, transparent and worth sharing for cred or value... then it has legs to be "viral" or sent on to someone in the peer group of your subscriber. So many times I hear companies, service providers or agencies talking about how they will make it viral. No secret sauce here, you all have the abilities to give your subscribers the content that will help them spread your meesage.

Church of the Consumer had an inspiring post about this below:

How free goes viral - By Jackie Huba
Michele Miller posted this on SWOM. It's so good I wanted to repost it here:

One of the hottest videos on YouTube today is the Free Hug Campaign - one man giving away free hugs and the effect it has on the people around him.

It's a perfect parallel to building a viral campaign for your business.

Watch the video and observe:

People's resistance to anything free... even if it's a hug
The breakthrough that happens when one random individual decides to try one
A tsunami of response once people watch the experience of others
The fight to defend their right to hug when barriers are erected by "authorities"
If you believe strongly enough in your product or service, give it away for free. In the beginning, no one will believe you. Stick with it long enough, experience breakthrough, and you'll have more business than you know what to do with.

And you'll have a band of merry men (and women) who will be your brand evangelists.

The funny thing is that here it is peculating up and it was done last year in 2007. Good content has legs to stand over time and keep engaging.

How can this not be just like email? What if you could send things that people wanted, trusted and felt like sharing and spreading for you after engaging with it? And I bet you that these videos were emailed out time and time again, making email this media platform and YouTube the delivery vehicle.

The it went to Korea

Then Amsterdam

Then NYC

Then Scotland

Then Venezuela

Where will it strike or launch next? Your guess is as good as mine.

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:00 AM | Permalink

April 10, 2008

Growth of the Daily Emails

I love news and information, as it seems so does the rest of the world. Every after Daily Candy burst onto the scene many new companies have sprung up over the past few years for daily emails. Let's back up... new media companies are being created around the sending of emails on a daily basis. Now they are all in different niches and I know that there are readers for all of these, but can you build your list and maintain it with daily opt in and opt out churn to make it rock? And if so how are you managing to launch them and gain traction fast.

The creation of content is often the biggest challenge in any email marketing program, so these below leaders are knocking it out. I am sure that there is stress on a daily basis to produce content that is going to be engaging and make people want to send it on to others to help grow that list. It is no different that running a traditional daily newspaper, but completely focused.

Setting expectations in your messaging has to be the lead here as well as the value of the content. I get a ton of daily industry emails but one focused on say green living? Do I need a daily tip to help me shed my consumer ways (wait isn't just a different type of consumer they are fostering?) to be more green? But when I sign up knowing that I am going to get something interesting and not going to get email fatigue is important.

Here are a few I can share, but love to hear from others about ones you might know to grow my list of ones to watch.

Activate
Flavorpill
Thrillist
Bethree
Daily Candy
Ideal Bite
Very Short List
Simply Headlines
Ideeli
GetTrio

Comments (1) | Posted by dylan at 4:47 AM | Permalink

March 8, 2008

Email Bloggers Unite

I love getting emails from people showing me them wearing the Tshirts we made for the Bloggers Unite panel at the eec Conf in San Diego in Feb. Makes me happy that I made a 100 of them for everyone.

Funny as I am still getting emails from people asking for them. Might need to make another run here soon as I am out. Gave my own to a guy they call SCO at Exact Target, it was REALLY the one off my back from the panel. Hope you are enjoying it SCO.

If you have one and read this blog, send me your photo in it at dylan AT eroi.com.

Cheers.

Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 11:00 AM | Permalink

March 7, 2008

The New Media Disrupters: Twitter, Shifd, Pownce

So if you are still on the fence about Twitter, below is a video to help you understand it more. But just to throw you a curve ball, I want you to also look at www.shifd.com and www.pownce.com. Both very cool and all three serve similar and different means. Just wish I could MASH these three up.

Besides the fact that I lead strategy across all product lines at eROI and not just on the email side, I am constantly looking at what is going on across the marketplace. I look for email marketing disrupters. You should too. So many technologies hammering customers during the day. It is not just an IM/Email/RSS world now. It is an always on, uber connected, new new new, info overload world. And we all absolutely love it.

Hoping to find some great new ideas and tech at SXSW this weekend. If you are there, twitter me at twitter.com/dtboyd

Greatest thing about Tech, I just posted this blog post from the runway of PDX on the way to Austin. Imagine that one.... Place, time and technology shifting.

The Guys at CommonCraft do some of the best new media video. This one is about Twitter.

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:42 AM | Permalink

February 1, 2008

How Would this Impact your Read Rates?

I could not but help post this video that was sent on to me from another eROI employee today. I was watching it thinking HOW in the world would this impact your b2b email campaigns?

Would it drive more clicks? Would it impact your read rate? Would an office worker even be able to focus on their computer screen while sitting in this.

This might be one of the most horrific infomercials I have ever seen. It made me laugh thinking of sitting in a meeting at a conference table surrounded by these, let alone imagine going to an office where everyone is sitting in one of these.

Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 5:00 AM | Permalink

January 23, 2008

Creating a Unique Landing Page

This page was not sent in an email campaign, but passed on to me from a co-worker here at eROI. After watching what should be a standard ecommerce page it made me think that this is an amazing idea of how to create a landing page that drives a person through the page from top to bottom and then back.

Take a look at HEMA's product page. You can't order anything and it's in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens. It creates a connection, even when you cannot read it.

If this was a landing page experience I would wager it would not only convert, but also drive people to talk about it and share it. Completely unexpected and very powerful.

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:00 AM | Permalink

November 15, 2007

My Favorite Social Media Invite Email

Let's continue how email is the driving force behind social media site growth. Not RSS, not widgets, not PR but email marketing campaigns launched by people's personal address book when they dump it into a social media site, like LinkedIn. Now Stefan, don't hold this against me for using yours, but it is honestly my favorite personal invite yet. Straight to the point and brutally honest.

And to set the record straight we did not get drunk on a plane, although I will now on the next flight I see you at. Maybe we need a linked in for frequent travelers to meet up in boarding areas, airport bars and on planes to pass the time. WAIT I think that there was an Idaho Senator not to long ago that had something like this going on... so forget that. Glad this email did not say foot tapping in a bathroom stall.

"Invitation to connect on LinkedIn
From: Stefan Tornquist
Date:November 15, 2007
To: Dylan Boyd
Status:Pending

Dylan,

Once a year I clean up Outlook whether it needs it or not, so sorry for another linkedinvite. At some point we've emailed, exchanged cards or gotten drunk on a plane, I promise.

-Stefan Tornquist"

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:07 PM | Permalink