Return On Subscriber – Email Marketing Blog

Our Creativity Journal Contest is nearing an end on February 28th. If you are still interested in getting your creative into the mix, send it on to create AT eroi.com.

This past holiday season, we put together a creative journal and send it out to some of our select customers. These journals were a hit, finding their way into the hearts of all who received them. Thank you emails rolled into our inboxes, many asking, “Can I get one more for a co-worker?” Well due to the love of these Creativity Journals, and the fact that we have a few boxes of them left, we wanted to hold a contest with our subscribers to send us their BEST email campaign creative. Now this is open to eROI customers and subscribers alike, so no pressure as everyone has a chance to get a journal. The only requisite: the creative must ROCK.

To enter, simply send us your email creative in HTML, JPG, or PDF format by February 21st, 2007 and we will hold an internal review by our entire team to choose 10 winners. These winners will have their work featured on ReturnOnSubscriber once they are chosen and our comments will follow on this blog. Please make sure to attach your name, company, email address and 100 – 250 words describing what the campaign was for, the target audience and what time of year it was sent. Also important is the Subject Line, or lines if you did an A/B list split by Subject Line.

We look forward to your submissions and if you have any questions, reach out and touch us at “create AT eROI.com”
Submit Your Campaign By Feb 28th

2 questions to ask yourself before doing online surveys:

1. Are you prepared to use the answers from this survey to implement change in your product/brand/service?

2. If you ask an open-ended question with a comment box, are you going to read every answer and respond to the surveyee with how you will use the input they have provided?

I don’t know too many people who like taking surveys. (“I took an awesome survey yesterday from my vendor!”) Make sure that this survey is going to mean something, and before you create the question, think about what you are going to do with the answer.

You are asking a lot of the subscriber, respect their time and energy by having a plan…and don’t forget to thank them for taking the survey. Twice.

I recently found myself with some emails from an employee that moved overseas and needed to move him off these lists. Not that I did not like them, but that he had opted in for them and not me. So they were not relevant to me. This one in particular made me laugh at the humor that was on target with the brand.

Think about if you are going to lose someone to let them know that they were appreciated (they may come back later) and if you craft the exit message you might just get some word of mouth out of it.

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If you are farmilliar with the ABC show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, you know that Ty Pennington (usually shirtless) and his crew come in and completely tear down and rebuild a home to the unbridled excitement of the owners. Rebuilding a website is a similar process. Maybe I’m strecthing, but I thought it was a good analogy.

After the jump you will see the before and after of the website redesign of the Alima Cosmetics webiste developed by eROI. Orders for the new site are up 15%!

Here is what Kate O’Brien, the owner of Alima, had to say about “her new house”. “I can’t tell you what a pleasure it has been working with the team at eROI. We’ve had lots of wonderful feedback on the new site, and find it easy to use both from the front end and through the admin area. After working with several other firms, I especially appreciate eROI’s first rate support. Whenever a question or problem arises, it is quickly and professionally resolved, a great relief when my business is so dependent on having a smoothly functioning website.” – Kate

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Welll what do you know. We were honored this AM to find that we are one of the email marketing blogs up for the ClickZ awards 2006. Please give us your love with a VOTE. (Not fair that 2 out of the 3 blogs are ours!!)

Finalists were selected from reader nominations for the ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards 2006 that met eligibility requirements. Voting is open now through the close of business, 5 pm EST, on Wednesday, November 8, 2006. One vote in each subcategory per person (we have our ways of knowing). Winners will be announced on Monday, November 13, 2006.

VOTE for Us

We have worked with a number of companies and organizations that want to do a multi-part email campaign that is automated based off a customer response (such as a purchase). One thing that most companies want to do is mold everyone into a campaign that is generic and timing is set the same for everyone. Now, the point of these campaigns is to provide value to each customer.

Adding flexibility in your schedule and content is key in this area. Ask them questions down the road that readjust their campaigns, adjust content based off of items of interest (base this on behavior, not just what they say), stop sending emails that are not helping the cause – which if you forgot is to create an advocate out of your customer, that nirvana a customer reaches when they would spar with Roy Jones Jr just to tell people about your company.

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I am Cool, Creamy & Green

I’m cool. Yeah. I know it. Laid back, easy-going and breezy. Nothing ruffles my feathers. I’m the one everyone wants around in a crisis. I keep my head about me. I may even walk around like I own this place. Underneath my cool exterior, though, is a passionate, self-possessed person who knows what’s right and what’s good.

We worked with Kettle Foods (LOVE THE CHIPS) again to put together a great new Crave Club Site. Hats off to Kettle as they are great designers and to Maxwell PR for the direction.

I am Bold, Grown-up Cheese.

I’m a bold, big city person. Museums, theater, fine dining and cool shops… I can even appreciate performance art. I’ve got grown-up tastes but I’m not stuffy or stiff. I know how to have fun and I’m just as comfortable at a white linen-laid table as I am at the hot dog cart. I’ve got style. An individualist who isn’t afraid to show my true colors or to stand out in a crowd.

We have looked at ways of providing value to your subscribers by giving them targeted offers and relevancy, but how do you just say thank you? You could give them a discount or admission into an event. The other option is to just give them an Old-Fashioned High Five with a new twist.

Check out sendahighfive.com

We recently launched a campaign for a Lexus dealer group in the Midwest. This is a full service client where we designed the email, created the offer, targeted the appropriate segments within their database and delivered the email.

Within two weeks of the email drop, we generated over $70,000 in service and maintenance revenue for the dealerships. Now imagine if this campaign cost $5,000 to run end to end, would a return on your investment of 14X be sufficient for you while also establishing a new line of communication with your customers.

Personally, I still receive postal mail from my local Nissan Dealership, the offers are often delayed, not personalized, much more costly than email (I am sure of that), and since I get the mail after I get home from work, does not allow me to instantly respond.

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