Email Marketing Overkill

The cartoon below brilliantly illustrates indiscriminate email marketing tactics, run amok. Enjoy.

Kudos to Bryan at Email Marketing Voodoo who first spotted it on bradcolbow.com. I found it on Return Path’s Club Inbox.

Let’s Play The Unsubscribe Game

Bonnier Corporation is a publisher of lifestyle magazines and online properties. Of their 50+ titles Sailing World, TransWorld SKATEboarding, and SNOW are among my favorites.

However, when I recently attempted to opt-out of one newsletter I noticed a host of missed opportunities and one big problem. Take a quick look at the following image and tell me if you can easily find the unsubscribe link:

(By the way, don’t even get me started on the rendering of the links in the footer)

Once you’ve finally found, and clicked on, the unsubscribe link imagine that you’ve entered your email address (which is completely unnecessary by the way) and click submit. Which button on the bare-bones page below would you pick?

If you’re anything like me you would either A) click the first button (which I did two weeks ago) or B) hit enter on your keyboard. In either scenario the window simply closes. No confirmation. No nothing. Note: Perhaps you’re smarter than me or maybe I’m busier than you. No matter the case, I was surprised to see the very same newsletter in my inbox this morning.

I’m an email-friendly guy so I don’t want to hit the ‘report as spam’ button so I tried unsubscribe again only time I took a bit more time, read more carefully, and clicked the correct button. Voila. I see by the confirmation message below. And that’s all I see.

Granted, I live and dream email marketing but I’ve seen firsthand that a well crafted opt-out process will allow marketers to gather valuable intelligence, reduce attrition, improve deliverability, and even gain more loyalty.

My advice to Bonnier Corporation?

1. Don’t be sneaky. Don’t try to be sly with the opt-out language in the email and placement of the unsubscribe button. (Not to mention the lack of confirmation when I clicked the misplaced unsubscribe button.) If I want out, let me leave. Otherwise you risk damaging the reputation of your brands and certainly that of your email deliverability (this is the big problem I mentioned).
2. Don’t make me feel like a second-class citizen. The lack of the effort you’ve put into the opt-out page screams that you no longer care about me. You should. Simply because I no longer want this particular newsletter it doesn’t mean that I don’t buy your magazines or the products of your advertisers.
3. Learn from me. Survey me or ask me set my preferences (i.e. weekly, monthly, never). Maybe I like the newsletter, but not the frequency? Or perhaps, I’m no longer in the market.  You’ll never know of you don’t ask.
4. Try to keep me. You could use humor or some other devise, perhaps coupled with an incentive, to get me to stay. GroupOn does an excellent job.
5. Profit from me. For starters, brand the opt-out pages. It’s free money. Ask me to buy something, subscribe to other more relevant publications, or join you on the social networks. Hell, why not display ads? You’ve got my attention. Capitalize on it.

As I mentioned, I’m busy so I’m fairly certain that I’ve overlooked several other missed opportunities. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Knee-Jerk Reaction: Polldaddy Personalization

Here’s a perfect example of email personalization, gone bad. Unknown?!?! Why does Polldaddy feel the need to bruise my already fragile ego? Why?

Don’t want to be this guy? Check out the The Power of Personalization.

How to Write Good Email Subject Lines that Get Your Message Opened

Are your emails getting low open rates? Then you have to find out why. And reinvent your strategy. In my 10-year Internet experience I learned there must be a solution for any problem – all you need to do is to find it.

Why are open rates that important anyway? There’s no secret about this; low opens lead to low or no clicks at all. Which translates into zero profit for your business.

Since 95% of business owners quite within 5 years, your aim is not to survive but thrive, even in a bad economy!

And believe it or not email marketing, when done right, will put your business on the profit map. But it’s not that easy, if you’re expecting instant results.

Motivational speaker, Brian Tracy, once said… “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.”

Can you imagine that the majority of email marketers think about subject lines as the shortcut to high open rates? Stumbling upon some “killer” lines and using them in your email campaign, “as is”, is a sure-fire way to failure.

While I dislike to critique I’m keen on giving practical advice for email campaign improvement. All the clients I consult with are “magically” starting to see results from their subject lines and wonder why they didn’t come at me sooner.

This is not a sales pitch, just straight facts. Look, you are reading this because you want to learn the “secret” to writing good email subject lines. I won’t give you any “tricks” here, just simple methods that get your message opened.

Good Email Subject Line Writing – Method #1

GET INSPIRATION FROM OTHERS

Take our title for example – How to Write Good Email Subject Lines that Get Your Message Opened – you can easily turn that into winning subject lines, by changing one word. Let me give you an idea:

How to Write Winning Email Subject Lines that Get Your Message Opened

Here’s another twist:

How to Write Good Email Subject Lines and Get Your Message Opened

Small tweaks lead to greater results. Keep this in mind when writing your lines.

What I want you understand is the constant “routine” of observing your competitors, as well as the experts in related and non related industries. We can all get good subject line ideas from their mailings, headlines, article titles and blog posts.

Good Email Subject Line Writing – Method #2

ADAPT AND FIT IN

There’s not enough to copy-cat somebody else; we’re not thieves, but creative human beings. Writers. We observe, then reinvent and adapt.

This is the second step to writing winning subject lines and one of the quickest and easiest way to jolt your open rate.

American country music singer, television host, actor, and businessman – Jimmy Dean – said “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

Good Email Subject Line Writing – Method #3

TESTING IS KING

Did you ever have the feeling a subject line you spent countless minutes to craft would do wonders, only to find later on it was a dud?

This happens all the times, particularly to people who do not have a keen understanding of their niche audience most pressing problems, wants and needs.

That’s why you can’t afford to forget about testing, tracking and tweaking your subject lines. Today’s professional autoresponders make it a breeze.

What you should be testing right away, in each email you send out:

1. Your open rates [do a split test]
2. Your clickthrough rates [do a split test]
3. Your user-feedback [run a survey]

If you have any questions or comments about this post, please share your feedback with me in the comments section! I can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

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Article written by Codrut Turcanu: email follow-up specialist, blogger and copywriter.

Download his FREE special report – “99 Good Email Subject Lines” and discover 99 email subject lines that will magically skyrocket your open rates and boost your clicks…

http://www.email-subject-lines.com/99freedwld.html

Email List Rental Done Right

Here’s a great example of email list rental from Surfline and Rip Curl. It demonstrates how the publisher (Surfline) can provide value to the marketer (Rip Curl), all while winning the hearts and clicks of their subscribers.

From Name: Surfline
Subject: Rip Curl Micktory Prize Pack Giveaway

Landing Page

While I’m on the email list topic check out The Truth About Email List Rental.

- Scott Hardigree | Indiemark

EMAIL-VILLE: Social Gaming Companies Set to Take Plunge into Email CRM

Tired of getting notifications about lost black sheep from distant cousins and ex-girlfriends from high school on Facebook? Don’t even trip. All notifications will be going away (both app-to-user and user-to-user) within the next month as Facebook revamps its platform.

But what does this mean for juggernaut social gaming developers like Zynga (Mafia Wars, Farmville) and Playfish (Restaurant City, Pet Society) who’ve been relying on notifications to communicate with users? According to Jon Wirt, Marketing Product Manager at The Casual Collective, social games generated $835 million last year and will rely heavily on email marketing going forward.

Jon states, “Facebook has already begun prompting users to opt-in on application pages [see image below] and will continue to do so as the notifications are phased out. The big question from a CRM standpoint, however, is how good of a job will the current big name companies do at keeping their users engaged?”

Like any good email marketer Jon understands that, more and more, email deliverability relies on subscriber engagement. And if social gaming companies start including non-relevant messaging, try to promote offer games to heavily, or worst of all, start sending  *GASP* third-party offers, vital communication with their users may be toast.

- John Getze | @johngetze

Knee-jerk Reaction: Infogroup Email

Talk about setting a bad example…let me count the ways:

1. Identical messages, sent days apart
2. Both hit my junk folder
3. Multiple use of the word “email blast”
4. Two separate opt-out mechanisms
5. I’ve never opted-in to receive email from Infogroup, formally infoUSA

Update: I received yet another identical email today (01/29/10). Geez.

- Scott Hardigree | Indiemark | @indiescott

Email Delivery in a Nutshell, I mean Tweet

In true Twitter-style here’s a few small nuggets, in 140 characters, that encapsulate many of the email deliverability challenges marketers will face in twentyten.

“Permission is not enough; list engagement list is the key to deliverability. ISPs have stated they’re measuring such things as viewing time.”

“Over-mailing = complaints = negative reputation at ISPs. Diversify less critical messages using Social Media. Save the good stuff for email.”

“Drop the noreply@. Gmail’s begun testing turning on images for senders who have received two replies from a user; other ISPs should follow.”

“Let the customer drive. From the onset and through Preference Centers let them dictate how much and what sort of email they want to receive.”

“Stop marketing, at least occasionally. Actual content is likely to score better as ISPs look at engagement and complaints when filtering.”

“Test, test, test. Day of the week, time of day, and level of personalization and segmentation will all improve engagement and pay dividends.”

“Authentication will continue to be a major factor. Senders who have not adopted DKIM as their auth method of choice should do so this year.”

“Just like DKIM, domain-level reputation is on the rise. For portability’s sake, make the From: and Friendly From as consistent as possible.”

“Even though engagement, DKIM, and domain-rep may be on the rise they’re not the only factors. IP-based reputation still matters — a lot.”

“ESPs can do many things but your content and frequency aren’t among them. What/when/how you mail is largely dependent on your deliverability.”

- Scott Hardigree | Indiemark | @indiescott

Knee-Jerk Reaction: Quiznos Email

Ring ring. “Hello Quiznos? This is 1999 calling, we’d like to get our design back. Oh, and if you’re not too busy with all the aluminum brushing take two minutes to read up on  in-line styles, it’ll clear your nasty little text-wrap issue right up.”


Dylan’s Candy Bar: A Retailer’s Email Marketing Saga Revisited

It’s been exactly three months since I signed up to receive email newsletters from Dylan’s Candy Bar. I got my first one today! I also received a second promotional announcement from Dylan’s, regarding their showing on QVC, three days later. I suppose they’re making up for lost time.

In my original post (Dylan’s Candy Bar: Semi-sweet Email Marketing) I discussed the hits and misses of Dylan’s email marketing efforts. Now that the first of their regular communications has been received, it’s apparent that their biggest and most basic challenges are in creating emails that are intuitive, skim-able, and most importantly actionable.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of the brand. I only criticize because I care.

Subject Line

The Subject Line reads:
Personalize-able treats, 20% off beauty and Free Delivery. Could it get any sweeter?

• It’s long (84 characters with spaces). But it is in-line with the content of the message.
• Greater attention should be paid to formatting to improve readability.
• The use of question marks is often practiced by spammers and/or overly aggressive marketers to encourage opens. As a practice, I’m not opposed to using questions in a subject line (I’ve done it myself) but it if you’re going to risk the dreaded spam folder it should have the propensity to improve results and at least relate neatly to the offer.
• The email also did not take advantage of pre-header text to further the message in the subject line. The subject line in conjunction with the pre-header text read “Personalize-able treats, 20% off beauty and Free Delivery. Could it get any sweeter? Having trouble viewing this email? Click here”

I would like to have seen something with a holiday fare and time-sensitivity, considering that the personalized treat is a Chocolate  Gingerbread Man and the Free Shipping promo expires in three days of mailing.

Subject Line Recommendation:
Personalize-able Holiday Treats, 20% Off Beauty Products, + Free Delivery!

Subject Line Recommendation (with Pre-header Text):
Personalize-able Holiday Treats, 20% Off Beauty Products, + Free Delivery! Order before Dec. 7th and save on these sweet deals and more!

With Images Blocked

It’s encouraging to see Dylan’s using Alt text in their images to help make sense of the offers while the images are blocked. Nevertheless it would be best to greatly improved mix of images and text.

A good text to image ratio in email newsletter marketing is easily accomplished and will help the subscriber to not only skim the offers but also improve usability. In the Free Shipping offer, for example, they could have used both text and images to convey the offer and allow the subscriber to copy/paste the promo code.

Note that they did include the promo code text below the graphic offer, but the readability of the text is poor (due to basic formatting) and gives the feeling that it is detached from the graphic above. Again, if they were to have combined the text and graphics they could have drawn greater attention to the offer and reduced the length of the email.

With Images Viewed

Speaking of size, this could easily be the longest HTML email I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t need to be. Nay, it shouldn’t be. But if the intent is to beat the current Guinness World Record for email length, I strongly recommend the use of internal links (anchor tags) at the top of the creative to outline their many offers.

As you can see their use of imagery in the three primary offerings is inconsistent, which lends them more to banners then offers.

On a Positive Note

I’m happy to see Dylan’s integrating their Twitter and Facebook pages in their email. Perhaps they could use those channels to drive newsletter subscriptions and fans much like how Outback Steakhouse, who grew their list by 125,000 between Nov. 16 and 24 by offering a free Bloomin’ Onion to the first 500,000 people who became its fans on Facebook.

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