Return On Subscriber – Email Marketing Blog

Here it is, your May Email Marketing Idea Calendar. May is interesting month for marketers. The sun is coming out, people are starting to plan vacations and think about having fun. What a perfect time to establish a good season-long relationship with your subscribers. Time to brighten things up in your emails and have some fun with campaign ideas and creative.

Below is a list of holidays, wacky holidays, and pop culture events in May and ideas you can utilize to develop timely and relevant email marketing campaigns.

Saturday May 1st – Kentucky Derby

The “Greatest Two Minutes in Sports.”  Talk about an event rich in tradition! Roses, Mint Juleps, fancy hats, bottles of milk – the list goes on and on.

Tuesday May 4th – National Teacher Day

On National Teacher Day, thousands of communities take time to honor their local educators and acknowledge the crucial role teachers play in our society. Giving a discount code or special for teachers would be a nice touch. Or perhaps a gift campaign to allow your subscribers to purchase something for the teacher in their life.

Wednesday May 5th – Cinco De Mayo

If you sell goods or services, think buy 5 get one free, $5.00 off, 10% off all products that end in 5… you see what I am getting at. If you are a destination, Americans are always looking for a reason to go out and party. Why not celebrate Cinco de Mayo at your establishment or event. Make sure you get it on their radar a few days in advance, then send a reminder early on Monday.

Thursday May 6th – International No Diet Day

KFC, there has never been a better day to promote the “Double Down“!

Sunday May 9th – Mother’s Day

A holiday that needs no explanation, it’s for Mom. But how do you stand out in a crowded inbox? (more…)

Here it is, your April Email Marketing Calendar. April is an interesting month. From April Fools to Tax Day to Earth Day, the emotions run the gamut.

Below is a list of real holidays, wacky holidays, and pop culture events in April and ideas you can utilize to develop timely and relevant email marketing campaigns.

Thursday April 1st – April Fool’s Day

April Fool’s Day is the one day of the year you have free reign to play practical jokes and pranks on family, friends, coworkers, and most importantly your email subscribers. I will warn you, this is very dependent on your product or service. If your content is heavy and serious, you will want to consider whether a joke is appropriate. On the other hand, it may be the perfect opportunity for you to loosen up your tie and connect with subscribers on a different level.

Sunday, April 4th – Easter Sunday

The nice thing about Easter is that you have multiple angles you can work from a marketing standpoint. Easter bunny, Easter eggs, Easter basket, etc… One idea to consider is to add a hidden element to your email layout, which is essentially a hidden item that is only accessible by discovering a hidden link (known as an “Easter Egg”). Since users don’t typically spend a great deal of time with an email, you need to make sure the hover isn’t to difficult to locate – think 20x by 20x pixels instead of 5px by 5px.

Wednesday, April 7th – No Housework Day

Think of all the great products, services and locations that can be enjoyed instead of housework. Procrastinators world-wide will rejoice with your No Housework Day special!

Monday, April 12th – Walk On Your Wild Side Day

Push your edgy content on Walk On Your Wild Side Day. Some fun creative of your staff or some of your more eccentric content will do the trick. Lou Reed approves.

Thursday, April 15th – Tax Day

For the procrastinators out there, April 15th might not be the day. It might be the 16th, after a good night of sleep and dreams of refund or less worry about payment just paid. If you want your subscribers to blow off some steam and celebrate, it might be interesting to A/B split the 15th & 16th and see what works best for future campaigns. Stay away from politics and focus on the value your content of offer provides.

Friday, April 16th – High Five Day

National High Five Day originated at the University of Virginia in 2002, and has since spread across the globe. Anything and everything can be high-fived, and gives a perfect opportunity to focus on the social/viral side. The official website gives some great ideas. Can you adapt them to your email?

Monday, April 19th – National Hanging Out Day

The goal of this holiday is not to sit on a couch, it’s to educate communities about energy consumption. National Hanging Out Day was created to demonstrate how it is possible to save money and energy by using a clothesline. Can you come up with a list of ways to save energy with your product or service? If not, maybe just in general?

Thursday, April 22nd – Earth Day

This year is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, and a chance to provide the tools and structure for individuals and organizations to organize around environmental issues. The official website offers ideas and tips to take action.

Wednesday, April 21st – Administrative Professionals Day

We all know how important the administrative professional is, don’t we?  Celebrate them, empower them, reward them, or spoof them (in a fun way). Think about your list…how many of them consider themselves “Administrative Professionals”?

Last Friday in April - National Arbor Day

You can find the official date for your state here. Continuing on the environmental kick in April, how do you reward your subscribers for planting a tree?  How can we prove that they did it?  Easy: through user-generated content on Flickr, Twitpic, YouTube, etc. Sounds like a perfect chance to seed a social campaign through email!

See you next month for the May Email Marketing Calendar… in April.

Screaming Deal (Nau: Off the Grid)

What’s comfier than Santa’s lap? (Pier 1 Imports)

Men’s SALE NOW 60% off! KAPOW! (Barney’s New York)

Yelp: Piping Hot & Liquored Up (Yelp – Portland)

Now even MORE $5 Tees! Come and see! (Threadless)

Don’t Miss Out! 24 Hour Sale + Last Minute Deals in NYC and Vegas‏ (Hotels.com)

Jingle Jams: A Holiday Music Mix‏ (NPR Music)

I know that I have commented before on this, but I have been let down again and again but consumer email efforts. Consumer email marketing has moved toward the marketing strategy, which the auto industry affectionately calls, “people moving.” It is all about how can I get people in (or on) my store ASAP. We can worry about next weekend next week. I have had to reduce my frequency or unsubscribe all together for a ton of email I am subscribed to because there has not been any notable value in their email programs. Everything from Nordstrom to Anthropologie to Ruth’s Chris to Circuit City to Ritz Camera is all about SALE, SALE, SALE. Yeah, I get it, you are having an amazing online sale this weekend. What happened to the days of your corner store providing great value and customer service? Because of that, you shopped again and again. You had quality product, quality customer service and always were willing to listen. Email marketing for consumers has turned into speed dating, I miss the days of being wined and dined.

(more…)

The Federal Trade Commission’s latest update on CAN-SPAM regulations take effect in less than two weeks. Is your email compliant? Not sure?

We have the nitty-gritty on what the new provisions mean to email marketers. The updates include:
- Good news (what didn’t change)
- Five major provisions to review
- Definition of a sender
- How to handle re-subscribes
The Federal Trade Commission’s latest updates to the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM) become enforceable on July 7. So, it’s prime time for a look at the updates – and at CAN-SPAM in general – to make sure your email programs remain on the up and up.

Read the Full Article

I recently tried a new technique for a client who send predominantly full image emails. With many email clients blocking images by default, it is more important than ever to use Alt Tags and HTML elements to get the subscriber to unblock those images and view your email in all it’s glory.

HUF, a hip chain of skate culture shoe stores in SF & LA, has a pretty hip and fun audience, so I took a little different approach to the image ALT tag….

(more…)

Logitech is not what you would think when you consider cutting edge campaigns, but I was pleasantly surprised when got the email, even more when I saw the site, then it fell apart.

The Email
Solid creative, a great subject line, and good use of best practices (even though the whole email is images). The call to action at the top works great in the preview pane. The branding of “Remote Disasters” is solid – it does not make me feel like you are selling me something. The call to action to pass along to a friend is clearly either the agency’s or Logitech’s poor attempt at viral.

(more…)