Return On Subscriber – Email Marketing Blog

Yes, you read that right.

Britney wants more followers in her quest to the be the most followed person on Twitter. So instead of buying billboards or doing a PR blitz a la Asthon Kucher, she used her most effective channel: her email list. (Why am I on Britney Spears’ email list? We’ll save that for a different post.)

Here’s the creative (click to enlarge):

Why is this a great example of email driving social? Let’s break it down: (more…)

Nothing frustrates me more than getting sent irrelevant emails from clothing websites. For a store that sells to both men and women, you need gender to provide relevancy. Some stores have the data and don’t use it out of laziness, others don’t ask for the information or don’t have it.

I clicked on a link in a tweet recently that said “my favorite website of the moment” which led me to a clothing site called ASOS. They sell to both men and women and used a great segmentation technique I had never seen before. Instead of having a traditional submit/subscribe button, they had 2 buttons – women & men:

The best user experiences on the web are simple. This doesn’t take much thought and is perfectly intuitive.  If you rely on gender to provide relevancy to increase conversions, this is a great first step. I would give it a try – there is no wrong answer.

My only let down was that I didn’t receive a welcome email after opt-in.  This email could have really focused in on the male content and would most likely drive a lot of page views and conversions for ASOS. Maybe it is in the works…

Have you seen other uses of this opt-in technique on the web?  Let us know in a comment below.

First off, Happy Birthday! (whenever your b-day is).

Birthdays are great opportunity to mix up your messaging to an email subscriber and give a non-sale oriented, warm and fuzzy to build trust and enthusiasm with your brand and email program.  That doesn’t mean you don’t get to sell and covert though!  Let’s take a look at how to set this up, automate, and also a few content ideas to get you thinking.

Setting up a Birthday Email

First off, your going to have to know their birthday. The best practice here is to capture that data at the opt-in. You can always get this information later through progressive profiling, but I would recommend adding it to the initial email capture so you can automate the email trigger from day one. Making this a required field is also a good idea if you are serious about birthday emails.

Remember, you don’t need the year they were born, unless you plan on sending different content based on their age. It will also make the opt-in process faster.

Triggering the Birthday Email

Your ESP should have the ability built in to capture this in your form generator. In emailROI, one requirement is to choose the format of the date:

Once you have chosen the format, you will have a consistent format in your database to work with. Then, you can assign that birthday event trigger to a specific email message in your email app. This email will either reside independently or within a list or group.

This email should allow for personalization of name and or creative elements and coupon codes or offers. This also gives you flexibility to contiunally edit the message with out changing your opt-in code.

Birthday Email Ideas

Restaurants & Retail are going to have the most flexiblity here, as they can allow for free items or discounts. Let’s take a look at few that provide these:

Here was an email I recieved from Wendy herself. Along with a birthday greeting, it gives me a link to $1 off coupon I can use at any location.  This is effective and trackable outside the online channel.  They use Coupons Inc. to facilitate barcodes and personalized online printing. They also make good use of the preheader space with “Get Coupon” to tease the present.

Here is an email from Adidas that does a technqiue here that is noteworthy.  Aside from the 15% off coupon, they give a secondary call-to-action to join the Addidas Insiders club. This takes advantage of the Birthday message to cross promote their club.  I would be intrested to know how this element performs. Lesson here is that the email doesn’t have to include only 1 item.

El Gaucho, a fabulous NW steakshouse, doesn’t waste their birthday email opportunity with a small discount.  They come right out with a $25.00 off discount that is sure to drive visitors. Every business is different, but to me, if your going to give someone a birthday gift, give them something they will remember.  A halo effect will be placed on future campaigns to that subscriber, both online and offline.

Before you Implement Your Birthday Email Campaign – Some Things to Consider

A few questions to start: How easy is it for a potential email subscriber to sign up for your website?  Is it obvious on your home page? How many hoops do you make them jump through? How much information are you asking for?  Are you going to use that information right away to personalize or segment?

I wanted to use this post to highlight the Opt-In process of Palm, the company behind the exciting new Palm Pre that is launching next month. I went to the site looking for information on this new smartphone. This is a no-nonsense process that I thought was worth highlighting.

Home Page – Calling out the Opt-In Form

I really liked the execution of this call out. “Stay in Touch: Get the Latest on Palm Pre” conveys what is about to transpire, but gives them (more…)

The eROI crew descended on the desert earlier this week for the Email Evolution Conference. While attendance at trade shows has been spotty die to the economy, the EEC pulled together a lively event.

eROI participated in a few panels and attended almost all of the sessions collectively. The saying at the New Orleans Jazz Fest is that “it’s not what you saw, it’s what you missed to see it”, which is exactly how I felt this year.  Rather than go into deep analysis of each session, I compiled a few of my favorite soundbites, quotes and tidbits from 4 of my favorite sessions from the event:

Topic: Email Design

3 things that need to be in your pre-header: Branding, Primary Message, Main Call-to-Action. Keep it tight.

Whitelist requests need to happen early (welcome, confirmation, transactional) in your program, so you can use the pre-header more effectively.

A logo (with link) in your header is not only a consistent branding impression, it will drive the most traffic to your site over the life span of you program.

Navigation menus (above or below header) drive sales, especially “sale” or “clearance” links.

Pay more attention to your Footer – add more options, branding, social, viral SWYN/FTAF link, and repeat the main call-to-action. (more…)

Watch this post for live updates from Email Marketing Twitterati at the Email Evolution Conference in Scottsdale, AZ.

While this email from Paypal might not blow your mind, I think it is effective and well thought out. How well did it convert?  We don’t know that (hint, hint Paypal email marketing team).  But let me tell you why I singled it out and what you can learn from it for your campaigns, after the jump.

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What you are seing in this image is the rollover Mail preview on the AOL homepage. Look at how much “trailblzaers” sticks out in that list. If you read this blog you know I hate webmaster@ in email marketing. This validates that point. This view is very similar to the view on a mobile device as well.

Brand before the @ in your from address and you will see improved open rates, guaranteed.

First off
I think it is time to put an end to email campaigns being sent from the “webmaster@” email address. There are more reasons not to do this than I care to list here today. Same goes for info@, no-reply@, etc…

Plus, most people think a webmaster is like that SNL skit “Nick Burns, your Company’s Computer Guy.” This is who you want your readers thinking is running the email marketing program?

Here are 2 reasons to change this:

1. Branding
In email clients like AOL, that don’t show the masked “From” name, this is the first thing a subscriber sees.
Volvo does a good job with this: volvo@volvocars._.com.

2. Calling out Content
If you have a specific segment, you can use this space to call out “specials” or “events”. This can help get an open just as much as a subject line. Some I see in my inbox today are: dailydeals@, specials@, events@,

Little things like this matter.

Rednering. I mean Rendering, I knew that did not look right didn’t it.

If it does not look right or does not look attractive, you are wasting your time. Run some rendering tests, e.g., Return Path. The best offer and most compelling copy is wasted on an email I cant interact with easily.