Here is a great example of making your transactional email more than just a notification. When done right, transactional email can be a great branding opportunity.
Check out this awesome shipping confirmation email from Cd Baby below (click to enlarge).
I saw this image on Dump.com, a great website.
The Online Marketing Summit (#OMS) is a education based event focused on best practices in online marketing including Email Marketing, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Search Engine Marketing (SEO & PPC), Web Analytics, & Usability. They have a running policy of no tradeshow booths or vendor pitches disguised as education, which gives the event a unqiue place in the marketing world.
I have had the great pleasure of speaking at this event this summer and will be giving 2 more presentations in Portland on June 29th and Seattle on July 1st. The topic I will be covering is “Designing Your Email Program From Online Outreach to the Welcome Message”, where we take a look at the entire process from opt-in to the first few emails to a new subscriber. I have a lot of fun with this topic and I love crowd participation. I hope to see you there!
I had the great privilege of speaking at the Ad Fed of Central Oregon’s monthly “AdBite” series. The presentation focused on lead generation and retention marketing techniques in today’s economy. The good folks at Pinnacle Media captured the presentation in a live stream on Ustream.tv. I had a great time and met a lot of really nice folks. If you have never been to Bend, get there. It is an amazing city. Enjoy!
Various studies have reported that 25%-50% of your subscribers are blocking Images in HTML emails. So why are so many companies still sending image-only emails?
Let’s take a look at an example of both the right way and the wrong way from JetBlue Airlines.
All Image Email
Image/HTML Text Email
You can clearly see above, that a balanced email with HTML text still gets the point across, while the all image email is basically blank. So why would a company like JetBlue, or any company which knows the best practice way to do it, still send an all-image email? Here are two reasons this happens: (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…)
Don’t ask me how I found this, but it is amazing, and totally serious. I’m not sure how people would ever get to this from these Drug spam emails, but you have to watch. “It is not your intent to annoy or harass our customers…”
Even though email marketing is a permission based marketing channel (hopefully), you still get some irate emails in all caps requesting removal. Emails like “REMOVE ME NOW, I HOPE YOU DIE” or “I WILL NEVER USE YOUR COMPANY” are common replies. What can you do?
This particular email was a small victory in the email wars:
“Remove me please. Nice looking AD, by the way.”
Validation of great creative from a unsubscriber. What more can an email marketer ask for?
Actually, it’s “Gold Consumer: Best Promotional Blast-Direct Sale or Lead Gen Offer” – Wacom & eROI’s 2008 Email Marketing Award from Marketing Sherpa.
Marketing Sherpa has posted all of the winners, with creative and details. You can get a lot of great ideas from these, I know I did.
Came to my inbox this morning to find the Apple February newsletter….all code, no images, and a total mess.
We all mess email marketing up once in awhile, no one is perfect. A typo here, a broken link there, and un-targeted offer, etc… Hopefully your brand and campaigns have generated enough goodwill that your subscribers will let it slide - just don’t make a habit of it!
Here is Apple Feb. Newsletter in gMail
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