Be Relevant! Email Marketing Blog

links for 2008-02-28

• MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2008 - a photoset on Flickr
  some pictures I took at the conference
  (tags: events)

MarketingSherpa Names Winners of 2008 Email Marketing Awards

At MarketingSherpa's 3rd Annual Email Summit award ceremony held today, Jeanne Hopkins and Exact Target's Joel Book presented Email Awards in recognition of the year's most outstanding email marketing campaigns. Logitech's campaign submitted by Direct Impact, "Logitech DiNovo Edge and Logitech MX Revolution," was named Best of Show.

The awards are rewarding campaigns that work successfully in the real world. Entries were submitted into 10 categories and further broken into B-to-B or consumer. Attendees of the Email Summit will be given the opportunity to review all the winning campaigns. 

The 2008 Email Marketing Awards include: 

• Best of Show: "Logitech DiNovo Edge and Logitech MX Revolution" submitted by Direct Impact (Consumer: Promotional Blast-Direct Sale or Lead Gen Offer category) 
• Best (or most dramatic) test you learned from (B-to-B) Gold: "Southcentral Foundation Company Newsletter" submitted by Southcentral Foundation 
• Best (or most dramatic) test you learned from (Consumer) Gold: "Key Messaging MultiVariate Test for Kolbe Corp." submitted by Mighty Interactive Silver: "Insurance.com - CYQ Urgent Email" submitted by Insurance.com 
• Best Automated Series (Auto Responder) (B-to-B) Gold: "VMWare - Customer Cost Savings" submitted by VMWare Silver: "Dell - Customer Ratings & Reviews" submitted by T3 (The Think Tank) Honorable Mention: "CoastGuard Automated Series Upgrade 2007" submitted by Placeworld Marketing 
• Best Automated Series (Auto Responder) (Consumer) Gold: "Intellidyn Lead Incubation" submitted by Intellidyn Corporation Silver: "Farecast Alert - Airfare Predictions" submitted by Farecast Honorable Mention: "Les Roches Autoresponder" submitted by Internet Strategy Group 
• Best Email Opt-in Campaign (B-to-B) Gold (Information Management): "IBM - Gain Greater ROI" submitted by IBM Gold (Telecom): "Motorola WiMAX Global Relationship Marketing Campaign" submitted by Motorola Gold (Largest Entry): "Rainmaker Report - The One Piece of Advice You Can't Generate Leads Without" submitted by RainToday.com Gold (Technology): "The Sun Asian Pacific Re-Engagement Campaign" submitted by Acxiom Digital Silver: "Germanwings October Revolution" submitted by rabbit eMarketing Honorable Mention: "MomAgenda" submitted by Portent Interactive 
• Best Email Opt-in Campaign (Consumer) Gold (Retail): "Circuit City Marketing Email" submitted by Circuit City Gold (Recreation): "AMF $50,000 Summer Free-For-All" submitted by Fishbowl Inc. Gold (Publishing): "BHG.com & Parents.com - 50 Days of Giveaways" submitted by Meredith Corporation Gold (Education): "Learning A-Z - Open House" submitted by Learning A-Z 
• Best Non-Email Opt-in Messaging (B-to-B) Gold: "Dell - Email Registration Direct Mail" submitted by T3 (The think Tank) Silver: "Royal Caribbean Cruises - VIP CruisePass" submitted by OTOlabs 
• Best Non-Email Opt-in Messaging (Consumer) Gold: "U.S. Army Recruiting" submitted by U.S. Army Silver (tie): "Motorcycle Insurance - In the Saddle" submitted by Ariad Marketing Communications Silver (tie): "Vail SnowMate" submitted by Recreation-OTOlabs 
• Best Postcard-Style Campaign (B-to-B) Gold: "Internet Marketing Services - A Holiday Gift" submitted by Blue Tent Marketing 
• Best Postcard-Style Campaign (Consumer) Gold: "Renault SIAB" submitted by White Image Silver: "Indiana University - Fiscal Year-end Thanks You Email" submitted by Indiana University Foundation 
• Best Promotional Relaunch Blast (Consumer) Gold: "Spencer Gifts - Fart Machine - "That Ain't Hot Air - Fart-O-Nator" submitted by Spencer Gifts 
• Best Promotional Blast-Direct Sale or Lead Gen Offer (B-to-B) Gold: "Dell - Top Rated Products" submitted by T3 (The Think Tank) Silver: "SAP PartnershipEdge Program" submitted by SAP America Honorable Mention: "Biolase Ezlase Diode Laser" submitted by Biolase Technology 
• Best Promotional Blast-Direct Sale or Lead Gen Offer (Consumer) Gold: "Wacom: Power of Pens" submitted by eROI Silver (tie): "Kodak - "Two-fer" submitted by OgilvyOne Worldwide Silver (tie): "Windows Live Hotmail Incentivize Migration" submitted by VML Seattle Honorable Mention: "Raptors - Oh My Bosh!" submitted by Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment 
• Best Single Welcome Letter (to New Subscribers) (B-to-B) Gold: "Priority club Meeting Rewards - Welcome Emails" submitted by Digitas 
• Best Single Welcome Letter (to New Subscribers) (Consumer) Gold: "Maxwell House - Spruce Up Your House" submitted by OgilvyOne Worldwide 
• Best Triggered Personalized Email (B-to-B) Gold: "Wer liefert was? (WLW) Customer Loyalty Program" submitted by rabbit eMarketing Silver: "Dell Small & Medium Business Saved Cart" submitted by T3 (The Think Tank) 
• Best Triggered Personalized Email (Consumer) Gold: "Happy Birthday from Pepsi" submitted by Tribal DDB Silver: "Tennessee Dept. of Tourist Development - License to Ride with Elvis or Dolly" submitted by Paramore/Redd Online Marketing 
• Best Email Newsletter for Marketing Purposes (B-to-B) Gold: "Sun Microsystems Global Channel Partner Newsletter" submitted by Connection2 Silver: "Cars.com Dealer Advantage" submitted by Cars.com 
• Best Email Newsletter for Marketing Purposes (Consumer) Gold: "HP Home & Home Office Store Newsletter Redesign" submitted by Yesmail Silver (tie): "My Coke Rewards Newsletter" submitted by Yesmail Silver (tie): "Sears - What's in Store for You? email program" submitted by M Marketing Inc.

More Coverage from MarketingSherpa's Email Summit

As you may or may not know, MarketingSherpa invited me to attend this year's summit as a blogger. But I wasn't the only one that blogged about the event:

Read Anna Billstrom's coverage of the event here:

• Power Outage at MarketingSherpa
• Celtics: Winning With Segmentation, Multi-Channel, Series Campaign
• Keynote from Stefan Tornquist
• Interview: Eric Stockton
• Certification: Data vs. Guts
• Interview: Jeff Cram
• Interview: Stephen Wellman

It was great meeting you, Anna!

Read John Jantsch's coverage here:

• Marketing Sherpa gets practical, gets community
• Email marketing research keynote
• Is email certification an answer

Read Chris Knight's coverage here:

• MarketingSherpa President Advocates Email Newsletter Investments Based on Best Friend Theory
• Inventing Must-Read Content For B-to-B Newsletters Interview with Robin Anna Pernice of JPMorgan

Read EmailGarage's coverage here:

• Day 4: relevancy, first impressions and other crucial email tips
• Day 3 - part 2: segmentation is king
• Day 3: new objectives in email marketing for 2008
• Day 2: email capture, optimization and landing pages

More:

• Email Summit 2008 from MarketingSherpa Day 1
• Adequacy Is The Enemy of Excellence in Marketing
• Live Blogging: MarketingSherpa Email Summit - More on List Building
• How to ensure consumers think your email is useful
• 29,000% ROI on an email campaign: the "secret" is one word
• Email optimization training was intense at MarketingSherpa eMail Summit, day one
• Partnerships and email
• Beginning of the end at the MarketingSherpa Email Summit
• Correct is not always the most effective
• Day two - Email Marketing Summit
• Testing and segmentation to avoid full Email boxes
• Start of Day 2 in Miami
• MarketingSherpa Email Summit Day 1 - Email Certification Course
• LIVE from the MarketingSherpa Email Summit

Al Iverson (who is the godfather of deliverability - at least that's how he was described by someone here at the conference) saw everyone was live blogging from the MarketingSherpa event and although he wasn't there he decided to jump on the bandwagon :-)

If I missed any blog posts in this overview, feel free to add them in the comments!

Top 5 Takeaways - According to MarketingSherpa

We had a major power outage and some internet problems today so as from 11am I couldn't post anymore. The summit is over and I will be writing my top takeaways later today or tomorrow. In the meanwhile, here are the top 5 takeaways as MarketingSherpa saw them:

1. marketers have to be more than marketers: they need to get along with sales, the CFO,... it's not just about delivering demand.

2. Is 2008 the year that email marketing get religion on landing pages? For the first time the landing pages are almost always part of the discussion.

3. It's all about the message: use the click-to-open rate to measure the quality of your content. It will tell you over time what kind of subjects your readers like.

4. Marketing + IT = a Happy Family :-)

5. EMAIL ISN'T DEAD!

Live Blogging at MarketingSherpa's Email Summit - Day 2 Part 1

Blogging at the MarketingSherpa Email Summit: B2B Segmentation Strategies and Newsletters

Blogging at the MarketingSherpa Email Summit Day 1 Afternoon

Blogging from the MarketingSherpa Email Summit

I arrived in Miami yesterday. The weather here is great and I am allowed to go shopping on behalf of  British Airways because they managed to loose my luggage and at this point they still don't know where my clothes are :-( Other than that, life is great! :-)

Like I did last week at the EEC event, I will be live blogging again. Today we start at 8.45am Eastern time (2.45pm CET). Stay tuned.

Mobile RSS Reader with Pre-Loaded Email Marketing Blogs

eROI wanted to give marketers a new mobile tool to help them stay connected to the sites and blogs that they should be reading on the go. Therefore they brought together a collection of some of the top sites in a handy mobile RSS reader app. You can even add your own content from a library of sites and blogs as well as add any RSS feeds you might find useful. Get it here!

Thanks Dylan! We love you! :-)

links for 2008-02-21

• iMedia Connection: 2 email strategies most marketers forget
  Welcome and transactional emails both provide great opportunities for engaging with potential customers but are greatly underutilized.
  (tags: transactional_emails contact_strategy)
• Email linking to PDF - what are B&T thinking? « Online Marketing - internet marketing - online strategy - websites
  "unfortunately one of my favourite daily email newsletters has just taken what I consider to be a big backwards step."
  (tags: cases)
• Yahoo! Mail Update: Now in Full Compliance of Acid Test | Email Standards Project
  "The Yahoo! Mail team was not satisfied with their acid test results, even though they only lacked support for a single item on our list. So they went off and remedied the bug and are now in 100% compliance."
  (tags: industry isp yahoo)
• Email Insider » Tracking Email Campaigns Using Google Analytics
  Dave Kearney explains how to easily tag your email links in Google Analytics so you can better track your email marketing campaigns.
  (tags: metrics analysis)
• MarketingSherpa: Sherpa Kit: Conducting an Email Audit
  everything you need to conduct an email audit
  (tags: strategy analysis)

Interview: How NorthStar Doubled the Number of Client Engagements in just One Year through email marketing

Yesterday I had the pleasure and the privilege to interview Vicki Morris, who is VP of Marketing at NorthStar (the leading provider of wealth management software to financial services institutions).

In the interview, I asked Vicki to tell us a bit more about NorthStar so that I could get a better feel of their business and target audience. She said that in their industry it's all about who you know, so it's very relationship-based. Because of this and because they are on a tight marketing budget, Vicki was tasked with finding both an innovative and cost-effective way to tell their market that a new class of software was available and of course to generate leads and sales.

To achieve her goals, Vicki and her team experimented with 3 different types of strategies. She will share the results and outcome of these three strategies in her session "B-to-B Segmentation Strategies and Procedures" at MarketingSherpa's Email Summit next week but she already shared a lot of the information and best practices with me yesterday.

So, if you want to find out how she managed to double the number of client engagements and revenue of her company in just 1 year, you should definitely listen to my interview with her (mp3, 7MB, 29 min).

You can find a sample of their newsletter here and here is an example of the email postcards they use:

links for 2008-02-20

• Mobile e-mail marketing 'musts' for 2008 - DMNews
  Savvy marketers have already implemented best practices to support a mobile e-mail marketing strategy. Have you? Consider these mobile e-mail marketing “musts” for 2008.
  (tags: mobile design)
• Word to the Wise » How to be a spammer
  your mail will not be blocked if it does not look like spam. What kinds of things do I mean? Here are things that spammers do, that often non-spammers do as well.
  (tags: deliverability)
• High Margin Email: Getting Past the Discount Habit
  The importance of both discounts and free shipping offers as determinants for opening and reading email messages rose by 15% last year. However, this figure is not as significant to the subscriber as knowing and trusting the sender and "prior value".
  (tags: strategy study messaging metrics)
• How to Guarantee Your Site is Blacklisted for Email | The Marketing Technology Blog
  Read this and then have a look at your own contact form on your website.
  (tags: deliverability)

Blogging at MarketingSherpa's Email Summit, Feb 24-26 in Miami

Last Friday I returned from the EEC's Email Evolution Conference in San Diego where I spoke on a keynote panel about blogging. It was a great event, both in terms of sessions and in terms of networking.

Next week I'll be attending MarketingSherpa's 3rd annual Email Summit in Miami. MarketingSherpa actually invited me to their event as a blogger and have asked me to attend the sessions and blog about what I learn at the event. So look out for more live blog posts early next week!

If you are attending the summit next week, let me know! We are arranging an informal get together with some folks from the Email Marketer's Club.

links for 2008-02-16

• Live from Email Evolution Conference: Bloggers Unite: Passion, Power, or People?
  The final day of the Email Evolution Conference opened yesterday with a keynote panel discussion focused on the power of blogging.
  (tags: events)
• Live from Email Evolution Conference: Luncheon Keynote Panel Focuses on Email, US Policy and Beyond
  Relevance and vigilance: These are two watchwords attendees most likely carried with them from a luncheon panel discussion held Tuesday during the Email Evolution Conference hosted by the Email Experience Council (eec) and DMA.
  (tags: events)
• Live from Email Evolution Conference: The Consumer's Perception IS Your Reality
  “Email is only as good as it is to your consumers . . . . It is the consumer that matters the most to us,”
  (tags: events)
• Live from Email Evolution Conference: DailyCandy's Pete Scheinbaum Keynotes on Facilitating Passionate Communities
  “The cornerstone of any company’s business and marketing strategy should be understanding and facilitating relationships and communication between their customers,” said Pete Sheinbaum, CEO of DailyCandy at the Email Evolution Conference.
  (tags: events cases)
• Wacom and eROI Win Email Experience Council's Email Performance Award
  The Email Experience Council presented Wacom and eROI with its 2008 Email Performance Award, which recognizes an organization that has created an email marketing campaign that demonstrates the full power of the email channel.
  (tags: events)
• DMA’s Email Experience Council absorbs Email Measurement Accuracy Coalition :: BtoB Magazine
  The Email Experience Council announced Tuesday that it is “taking over guardianship” of the Email Measurement Accuracy Coalition, an independent group formed last April that has been working on establishing e-mail marketing measurement standards.
  (tags: industry metrics)
• Miss the Email Evolution Conference? Catch Up Here (Email Experience Blog)
  If you missed out on the Email Evolution Conference this year you’re not completely out of luck because bloggers and reporters were all over it.
  (tags: events)

links for 2008-02-15

• Postal vs. Email: Odd Couple or Match Made in Heaven?
  Email and postal are a match made in heaven. Both are direct media and both want to elicit a response from the intended audience. The only place they differ is in their delivery, but so what? You don't have to choose one or the other.
  (tags: integration strategy)
• Dedicated IP or not a dedicated IP
  MarketingSherpa's paper Top 12 Email Newsletter Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes insists that you request a dedicated IP from your ESP. This sounds great in theory, but not in practice.
  (tags: deliverability esp)
• RetailEmail.Blogspot: Takeaways from the Email Evolution Conference
  Chad White provides some great insights and learnings from the event.
  (tags: events)
• An alternative email marketing glossary
  time to lighten things up with the follow-up to the alternative email glossary. This time: email marketing jargon you never heard of, but probably recognize...
  (tags: fun)
• Email Insider » Email’s Future: Marketers Who Adapt Will Rule
  Should email marketers be worried about statistics claiming that young people don’t use email anymore?
  (tags: industry)
• From the EEC Conference: The DailyCandy story | Constant Contact
  DailyCandy is, “a free daily e-mail newsletter and website, that is the insider’s guide to what’s hot, new, and undiscovered — from fashion and style to gadgets and travel.”
  (tags: cases)
• Email Undervalued, Works Best In Symphony With Other Tools - 02/14/2008
  Email is a powerful tool for reaching consumers, and it works even better in conjunction with other disciplines, both online and offline. But marketers are still running up against obstacles.
  (tags: industry integration metrics analysis)
• BrontoFire - Email Design (Live at the EEC) | Bronto Blog
  On Monday, Chad White and DJ Waldow discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly of four email designs by BlueFly, All Recipes, PajamaGram, and American Airlines.
  (tags: design cases)

links for 2008-02-14

• From the EEC Conference: Creating a VIP email program | Constant Contact
  In the session Uncovering the True Value of a Customer’s Email Address, Lawrence DiCapua (PepsiCola) covered the topic of creating a VIP program for your most active subscribers, especially those who are telling others about you by forwarding your email
  (tags: cases events)
• denise cox’s blog » How recipients and marketers are handling email (eec conference)
  Here are Denise Cox's general thoughts and notations from the opening Key Note session yesterday. It included lots of statistics
  (tags: events)
• Email Insider » The DMA Gets It Right
  (tags: industry events)
• The Email Wars: eROI's New Mobile RSS Reader
  eROI wanted to give marketers a new mobile tool to help them stay connected to the sites and blogs that they should be reading on the go.
  (tags: blogs)
• RetailEmail.Blogspot: EEC releases ROI calculator for retailers
  The Email Experience Council's List Growth and Engagement Roundtable has developed an interactive Excel calculator to help retailers measure the ROI of their acquisition and retention email mailings
  (tags: tools)

Live Blogging from the Email Evolution Conference - Day 2

links for 2008-02-13

• Adventures in Email Marketing » Interview: Stephen Wellman |
  Anna Billstrom interviews Stephen Wellman from Informationweek about their newsletter program. Some great recommendations here.
  (tags: cases)
• Will Yahoo block messages that aren't signed? - Network World
  Yahoo Mail exec explains plans for non-authenticated e-mail
  (tags: isp yahoo dkim)
• MarketingSherpa: Special Report: iPhones & Email Marketing - 10 Pros & Cons
  It’s clear that the iPhone is more than a fad. In a little more than six months, 3.7 million Americans and around 400,000 Europeans have purchased an iPhone.
  (tags: study mobile)
• EEC to lead EMAC - DMNews
  The Email Experience Council, the Direct Marketing Association's e-mail marketing arm, is taking over guardianship of the Email Measurement Accuracy Coalition, which was formed in April 2007 to establish e-mail marketing measurement standards.
  (tags: industry metrics)
• Insights from the Email Evolution Conference | Constant Contact
  Amy J. Black attended one of the pre-conference sessions at the EEC event called the "Email Marketing Bootcamp". This was a session that had roughly 50 people from different companies (medium to large in size) who wanted a crash course in email marketing.
  (tags: events)

Live Blogging from the Email Evolution Conference - Part 2

EEC Conference: US Legislation and Beyond

Here are my notes from the "US Legislation and Beyond" lunch session:

FTC is especially concerned about malware and spyware and online behavioral advertising

Eileen (FTC) talked about email and Can-Spam

www.ftc.com -> new report on Spam

ISP email filters are increasingly effective in keeping spam out of consumer inboxes

the spam that is getting through is a vector for crime  -it has code loaded on it that installs malware etc

the real spam they are up against is of the criminal type -> they urge everyone to work with criminal enforcers to support their efforts

can-spam enforcement is still a priority for them though

"you are responsible for knowing how your ads are being delivered to people's computers" -> is your agency displaying ads and at the same time installing stuff without getting specific consent? -> the FTC is very strict on not downloading software onto people's computers without their prior consent

online behavioral advertising -> they focus on data security as well -> need to have measures in place to prevent hackers from accessing your customer data
-> check out the FTC website and comment on their guidelines (by April 11th) - they want the industry to be self-regulatory -> however, they expect to have federal legislation on the use of personal data in the future.