Design with the mangle in mind: E-mail creative tips
Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Ken Magill
Ahh, if only we could go back to the good old days when designing direct mail collateral involved simple decisions such as paper stock, colors, fonts and where to put the “call to action.”
Enter commercial e-mail, the only channel in direct marketing history in which the designers must make choices based on the knowledge that a significant percentage of their messages will be mangled beyond recognition by the time they reach recipients.
With images and links turned off by default as the rule rather than the exception at most inbox providers — such as Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and Microsoft Outlook — commercial e-mail designers now face the task of simply getting their copy points to appear.
And even when e-mail graphics do appear — or render, as e-mailers prefer to say — they do so differently from account to account.
“In print design, you can go any which way your imagination takes you,” says Len Shneyder, director of partner relations and industry communication for e-mail deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity. “Your only limitations are the size of the page and how much it's going to cost. In e-mail there is a different problem.”
For example, he says, there's no standard governing how HTML graphics are to be rendered when they are received. “Every receiving body can render it differently and choose to support different aspects of the HTML standard,” Shneyder says.
As a designer you have a standard for how to code, but that doesn't translate into how it's going to display, he says. “And this is across the board for the entire receiving ecosphere, from mobile to desktop Web e-mail clients. They're all a little different.”
But there are some fairly simple techniques e-mail marketers can use to help them get their messages across to as many subscribers as possible.
Shneyder's first piece of advice will be recognizable to traditional direct marketers: “Test, test, test,” he says. By this he means viewing the e-mail on as many platforms as possible, such as Yahoo and Gmail accounts, an Outlook address, and on mobile devices. “You cannot rely on any single e-mail account as being the basis for display,” he adds. There are even display variations within various iterations of Microsoft Outlook, says Shneyder, though getting an Outlook 2003 account and an Outlook 2007 account will cover most of the Outlook market.
E-mailers can also gain insight into which e-mail readers they should be designing for simply by eyeballing their lists.“Understanding your demographic and where the majority of your e-mail is going to land will narrow down the scope of your design requirements,” says Shneyder. Pivotal Veracity has recently published an e-mail design guide for its customers that explains the quirks at the various ISPs.
Keep it simple
In e-mail design, less is more. “You don't have to package every offer under the sun,” says Shneyder. “Make sure your call to action is clear and keep it simple. Deliver a few choices, not so many that recipients will be prone to not making a choice.”
Shneyder also urges marketers to employ so-called ALT tags, or HTML instructions that provide alternative text to appear when graphics are shut off. For example, a “50% off shoes” graphic with an ALT tag would at least display the words “50% off shoes” if the graphic came through broken.
The number of people who don't use ALT tags is shocking, says Shneyder. “It's a second line of defense and it's so easy to do.”
You don't need to do this with every image, he adds, but if you have a main body graphic that's carrying your brand name, or a call to action, give it an ALT tag that explains what it is. “That'll be your next best way of conveying the message if the image is disabled.”
Another challenge for e-mail designers is the prevalence of preview panes, those little windows that show a portion of the message when the e-mail is highlighted but unopened in the recipient's inbox. A significant percentage of people read much of their e-mail solely in preview panes.
“You always want to put your branding and your prime content as far to the left and as far up as possible,” says Shneyder. “The default state of the preview pane is either under the list message view or to the right, meaning the preview pane will cut off things on the right and on the bottom.”
He also advises marketers to “get away from delivering a Web page to the inbox.”
But this bit of advice runs counter to a recent study by interactive agency eROI.
Just over 30% of marketers include navigation tabs from their Websites in e-mails, according to eROI. But of those who use it, 15% said site navigation tabs are better than the main content of their e-mails for driving clicks, and 11% said the tabs are better at driving conversions than the main content.
“Site navigation [such as, say, ‘shoes,’ or ‘shirts’ on an apparel site] is a familiar way to browse content,” says Jeff Mills, the head of research at eROI and author of the study. “If I can get better clicks and conversions from [including] site navigation, why am I not putting it in e-mail? I just think it's an opportunity, and that marketers should be at least testing it.”
The subject of subject lines
And speaking of testing, eROI found that just 25% of e-mailers test their subject lines on a regular basis.
Mills believes marketers' lack of e-mail subject-line testing stems from a drive to create the perfect message. “People want to create the perfect e-mail, and that means a perfect subject line,” he says. “Or it's simply a case of the CMO wants that subject line in there.”
He also says marketers will avoid A/B split testing because they're afraid half their campaign will flop. “But think of it this way: Do you want 100% of your campaign to flop?” he says.
Moreover, marketers tend to create the subject line at the last moment even though it is easily one of the most important parts of the message — if not the most important part.
“People get very focused on what the creative will look like,” says Ernie Vickroy, marketing director of Time Consumer Marketing. “A lot of times, we'll get down to the wire and people will say: ‘What's the subject line?’ ”
Vickroy is a vocal advocate of spending the time to craft subject lines and test them against one another.
The reason: As is the case with traditional direct marketing, the most effective subject lines are often not the ones a marketer would predict to win.
For example, Vickroy says, his firm recently tested its control subject line, “Your Subscription Information Page,” against “Manage Your Account Online.”
“You read so much about how the customer wants control,” he says. But the control subject line won by 25%. “I don't really know why it won, but it won again.”
He adds that marketers should treat their e-mail creative as they would direct mail.
“How much time would a direct marketer spend on an outer envelope?” he asks. “Subject lines don't get the same kind of attention. Yet they're just as important.”
Brevity is also important in a subject line. Pivotal Veracity's Shneyder recommends keeping subject lines to 40 characters or fewer if possible.
As for the “from” line, Shneyder advises branding the company in it and nothing else because the majority of people decide whether or not to open an e-mail based on who sent it. And no matter how strong the urge to start pitching, the from line isn't the place to do it, he says.
“Your from line is your calling card,” he says. “Don't turn it into a door-to-door salesman.”
There are some fairly simple techniques e-mail marketers can use to help get their messages across to as many subscribers as possible.
1. Test, test, test
2. Eyeball your lists
3. Less is more
4. Employ ALT tags
5. Keep in the confines of the preview pane
6. Test your subject lines
7. Brand your company in the “from” line
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
R.I.P. Studs Terkel
If you haven't read his book WORKING then you should, it's truly brilliant, especially the sections "The age of Charlie Blossom" & "From the Cradle to the Grave", on second thought, read the entire thing and ponder the interview with Mike at the beginning.
Friday, September 26, 2008
From My Working Life...
Youth and mobile philanthropy in Hollywood
Hollywood has a longstanding tradition of celebrity philanthropy, from Jude Law’s promotion and work in Afghanistan to Julia Roberts’ work with UNICEF.
A new campaign and foundation, launched Sept. 15, is tapping the latest mobile technology for nonprofit giving. Hollywood socialite Nicole Richie and her fiancé, Joel Madden, have announced the launch of the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation.
The foundation’s aim is to build a playground at Beyond Shelter in Los Angeles.
The concept is rather simple. If you feel like you are in a giving mood, simply text CHILD to 90999. A charge of $5 is added to your phone bill at the end of the month and you are part of a community of texting philanthropists.
The campaign has partnered with MySpace to promote the effort. The domain at http://www.richiemaddenfoundation.com redirects to a MySpace page.
The idea here is that teens and fans of Ms. Richie and Mr. Madden may be inspired to donate money to a worthy cause without the hassle and burden of paperwork, or for that matter, a commitment.
Or is there a commitment?
Imagine you are a parent who has three high school-aged children all duly armed with mobile phones so that you can get a hold of them anytime, anywhere.
The children in turn can text themselves into happy oblivion, keeping in touch with their friends in other classrooms when the teacher isn’t looking.
Do you have that picture in your head?
Well, now imagine what would happen if at the end of the month you receive your family phone plan and realize it’s $10, $20, maybe even $50 higher than normal thanks to your children’s generosity and your pocket book.
How would you react?
Sure you can take away their mobile phones or make them get a job to pay for their own data plan.
But, in reality, shouldn’t the mobile companies offer parents some level of control to prevent their children from spending Mom and Dad’s hard-earned money, even for a cause as noble as Beyond Shelter?
Now just to be clear, I don’t believe you have to take out all the swings and doo-dads on playground parks that could give a kid a bruise.
However, I do believe in allowing parents the right to moderate their kid’s spending habits and mobile phone use.
The target audience of the foundation runs the gamut, from preteen to young adults. This is nothing new when you consider mobile usage demographics.
Encouraging the youth to become philanthropic do-gooders with Mom and Dad’s hard-earned cash runs the serious risk of a backlash from parental organizations that want to control every aspect of their children’s lives.
What is of major importance – marketers listen up – is how mobile technology is being socialized and injected into fundraising and nonprofit arenas in order to tap a young generation.
I can almost hear JFK asking us what we can do for our country and inspiring rapid thumb movement donation.
Mobile is proving yet again that it is not elitist per se, but rather can appeal to a broad base through careful contemporizing of the message, content and mode of delivery. Ask yourself: Are you contemporary, or have you fallen behind the times?
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder [-aatt-] pivotalveracity [-dott-] com.
Hollywood has a longstanding tradition of celebrity philanthropy, from Jude Law’s promotion and work in Afghanistan to Julia Roberts’ work with UNICEF.
A new campaign and foundation, launched Sept. 15, is tapping the latest mobile technology for nonprofit giving. Hollywood socialite Nicole Richie and her fiancé, Joel Madden, have announced the launch of the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation.
The foundation’s aim is to build a playground at Beyond Shelter in Los Angeles.
The concept is rather simple. If you feel like you are in a giving mood, simply text CHILD to 90999. A charge of $5 is added to your phone bill at the end of the month and you are part of a community of texting philanthropists.
The campaign has partnered with MySpace to promote the effort. The domain at http://www.richiemaddenfoundation.com redirects to a MySpace page.
The idea here is that teens and fans of Ms. Richie and Mr. Madden may be inspired to donate money to a worthy cause without the hassle and burden of paperwork, or for that matter, a commitment.
Or is there a commitment?
Imagine you are a parent who has three high school-aged children all duly armed with mobile phones so that you can get a hold of them anytime, anywhere.
The children in turn can text themselves into happy oblivion, keeping in touch with their friends in other classrooms when the teacher isn’t looking.
Do you have that picture in your head?
Well, now imagine what would happen if at the end of the month you receive your family phone plan and realize it’s $10, $20, maybe even $50 higher than normal thanks to your children’s generosity and your pocket book.
How would you react?
Sure you can take away their mobile phones or make them get a job to pay for their own data plan.
But, in reality, shouldn’t the mobile companies offer parents some level of control to prevent their children from spending Mom and Dad’s hard-earned money, even for a cause as noble as Beyond Shelter?
Now just to be clear, I don’t believe you have to take out all the swings and doo-dads on playground parks that could give a kid a bruise.
However, I do believe in allowing parents the right to moderate their kid’s spending habits and mobile phone use.
The target audience of the foundation runs the gamut, from preteen to young adults. This is nothing new when you consider mobile usage demographics.
Encouraging the youth to become philanthropic do-gooders with Mom and Dad’s hard-earned cash runs the serious risk of a backlash from parental organizations that want to control every aspect of their children’s lives.
What is of major importance – marketers listen up – is how mobile technology is being socialized and injected into fundraising and nonprofit arenas in order to tap a young generation.
I can almost hear JFK asking us what we can do for our country and inspiring rapid thumb movement donation.
Mobile is proving yet again that it is not elitist per se, but rather can appeal to a broad base through careful contemporizing of the message, content and mode of delivery. Ask yourself: Are you contemporary, or have you fallen behind the times?
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder [-aatt-] pivotalveracity [-dott-] com.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
RIP in Mahmoud Darwish
Psalm 9
O rose beyond the reach of time and of the senses
O kiss enveloped in the scarves of all the winds
surprise me with one dream
that my madness will recoil from you.
***
Recoiling from you
In order to approach you
I discovered time.
***
Approaching you
in order to recoil from you
I discovered my senses.
***
Between approach and recoil
there is a stone the size of a dream
It does not approach
It does not recoil.
***
You are my country
A stone is not what I am
therefore I do not like to face the sky
nor do I die level with the ground
but I am a stranger, always a stranger.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
From my working life...
Tips on designing mobile Web sites
In a world that is big on standards but short on implementation, I’m going to take a firm stand on what appears to be common oversights in the design of mobile Web sites.
During a recent hunt of large brands on the small screen of my smartphone I began to wonder if there was any consensus on the sub-domain or folder nomenclature used by companies to denote a mobile site. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when I say I was unable to find any rules. But I did notice some general trends.
The most common way of creating a mobile domain or mobile site is to create a sub-domain http://m.widget.com where m=mobile. Other variations included http://mobile.widget.com and http://www.widget.com/mobile and, in one case, http://wireless.widget.com.
All of these variations are perfectly valid and all of them fit into the general structure of “m” as the designation or commonly anticipated designator of a mobile site.
However, think small. Your users are fat-fingering words, names and numbers on those tiny QWERTY keyboards constantly. So what’s easier to spell – m or mobile?
But is there even a need to spell it correctly?
Well-coded Web sites should have the ability to automatically redirect requests from mobile browsers to the appropriate mobile site.
Mobile browsers identify themselves through a user agent string when they issue a request to pull down an HTML page at which point the site should serve up the mobile version if a mobile browser properly identifies itself.
I’ve run across several large brands that have mobile iterations, but are not automatically serving them up when called from a mobile device. Go the extra mile. It may compel users to return to your site on their desktop if they have a good experience on their handheld.
To make this a trifecta of recommendations let’s consider the <title> of your mobile page.
Again the rule of thumb here is short and to the point. Try and avoid pitching your company’s core competency in the page’s title – “Widgets.com, the market leader in all things widget.”
Do the selling or pitching of services on the site and not in the title, because if someone chooses to bookmark this page the default name of the bookmark is essentially the name contained between the <title></title> tags.
Here’s an example of a title that’s direct and to the point: <title>CNET Mobile</title>. Facebook’s title tag is fairly short but could stand to be shorter: <title>Facebook | Welcome To Facebook</title>. MySpace’s title is short but lacks any identifying criteria <title>Member Login</title>.
I doubt that with all my bookmarks that I’d remember Member Login = MySpace when I haphazardly scroll through the list to find something.
There are lots of small nuances to take into consideration.
Mobile presence is about streamlining not only your offering but a user’s experience of your mobile presence. Think down the chain of events and how each keystroke represents precious time.
Smartphones are here to help us be more efficient. Don’t be the weak link in the chain of the user’s mobile experience.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder@pivotalveracity.com.
In a world that is big on standards but short on implementation, I’m going to take a firm stand on what appears to be common oversights in the design of mobile Web sites.
During a recent hunt of large brands on the small screen of my smartphone I began to wonder if there was any consensus on the sub-domain or folder nomenclature used by companies to denote a mobile site. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when I say I was unable to find any rules. But I did notice some general trends.
The most common way of creating a mobile domain or mobile site is to create a sub-domain http://m.widget.com where m=mobile. Other variations included http://mobile.widget.com and http://www.widget.com/mobile and, in one case, http://wireless.widget.com.
All of these variations are perfectly valid and all of them fit into the general structure of “m” as the designation or commonly anticipated designator of a mobile site.
However, think small. Your users are fat-fingering words, names and numbers on those tiny QWERTY keyboards constantly. So what’s easier to spell – m or mobile?
But is there even a need to spell it correctly?
Well-coded Web sites should have the ability to automatically redirect requests from mobile browsers to the appropriate mobile site.
Mobile browsers identify themselves through a user agent string when they issue a request to pull down an HTML page at which point the site should serve up the mobile version if a mobile browser properly identifies itself.
I’ve run across several large brands that have mobile iterations, but are not automatically serving them up when called from a mobile device. Go the extra mile. It may compel users to return to your site on their desktop if they have a good experience on their handheld.
To make this a trifecta of recommendations let’s consider the <title> of your mobile page.
Again the rule of thumb here is short and to the point. Try and avoid pitching your company’s core competency in the page’s title – “Widgets.com, the market leader in all things widget.”
Do the selling or pitching of services on the site and not in the title, because if someone chooses to bookmark this page the default name of the bookmark is essentially the name contained between the <title></title> tags.
Here’s an example of a title that’s direct and to the point: <title>CNET Mobile</title>. Facebook’s title tag is fairly short but could stand to be shorter: <title>Facebook | Welcome To Facebook</title>. MySpace’s title is short but lacks any identifying criteria <title>Member Login</title>.
I doubt that with all my bookmarks that I’d remember Member Login = MySpace when I haphazardly scroll through the list to find something.
There are lots of small nuances to take into consideration.
Mobile presence is about streamlining not only your offering but a user’s experience of your mobile presence. Think down the chain of events and how each keystroke represents precious time.
Smartphones are here to help us be more efficient. Don’t be the weak link in the chain of the user’s mobile experience.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder@pivotalveracity.com.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Original Joker
The original model for the joker is Conrad Veit who starred in the 1928 silent film "The Man Who Laughs" ... just a bit of trivia on a Monday morning...
Friday, July 18, 2008
From My Working Life
The Mobile Mob
July 1, 2008
Yes, you can make your e-mail advertising look like a Web page, with loads of content and complex HTML. But your mobile audience is walking around with an inbox-in-hand, reading e-mails, browsing the Web and making split-second decisions based on a screen that isn't much bigger than a credit card.
The old technique of delivering a Web page to the inbox isn't going to work. On the contrary, it'll prevent clicks rather than encourage them.
Here are five simple rules to consider when designing e-mails for the 21st century inbox — the small one.
* Focus messages and calls to action
Attention spans are short; people will navigate away from a Web page or an e-mail in seconds if it doesn't load. Whether you're targeting the young, the middle-aged, or old, stodgy business users like me, long messages with too many offers are a turnoff to fast-paced users who're scanning messages on mobile devices.
Target your offer, create clear and concise calls to action, limit text content and segment by demographic and/or purchasing habits and patterns. Mobile e-mails should be direct, brief and require little scrolling. The call to action should be moved as close to the top as possible along with identifying information.
* Use prime real estate effectively
The new fold line (the point at which you need to scroll to see more content) is at most 320 pixels down and is measured in inches that never hit double digits. The space above the fold is the new preview screen. It's prime real estate, and these few precious lines shouldn't be wasted. Simply put, what you include here can make or break your campaign results.
For example, traditional best practices typically call for add-to-address-book language at the top of the e-mail. Many mailers do this in a smaller, lighter font than the core content. But in mobile, the smaller screen means there's less room to see your message and the general lack of HTML formatting support means your fonts all appear in the same size and color. The result is that the first and only thing visible to the mobile reader without scrolling may be your add-to-address-book language. The mobile mob is a highly focused audience. Make sure you're providing enough information upon first glance to engage it.
* Use a single-column setup
Marketers often design HTML e-mail so it looks like their Web site to preserve the user experience. But many sites use multiple columns to organize information.
Most mobile e-mail readers, including those installed on Symbian devices, Palms and BlackBerries, can't display multiple side-by-side columns and will haphazardly reorganize the page into a single column. A few readers can render a multicolumn e-mail, but the limited horizontal space forces the user to scroll left to right using arrows and other physical navigation keys (remember, there's no mouse). Keep the e-mail straightforward and let it flow from the top down.
* Limit links
Mobile users don't have time to click and load every link in your e-mail; they're not casual Web surfers. The best mobile sites are created to deliver core content and functionality, so e-mails should contain only the links needed to direct users to that content.
* Think about how you link
Keep in mind that mobile users treat links differently than traditional PC-based e-mail readers. Hyperlinking text will not always render and remain clickable. Let's focus on Symbian. By all estimates, 85% of the world outside of the North American market is using a Symbian device. Symbian effectively drops all HTML tags and renders the text of an HTML e-mail. All of the formatting, image references, font sizes and other tags are dropped, including the critical A HREF of your link. But if you use a fully qualified link such as http://, it will remain clickable after Symbian parses the e-mail. Thus, if you want to ensure your links will be clickable by the broadest range of readers, make sure you use the fully qualified URL for the most critical links.
2007 marked a new era for mobile devices. There were more than 3.25 billion users, and sales of smart phones exceeded PC and laptop sales for the first time. While PCs offer a richer experience because of size, speed and extensive media support, mobile devices allow marketers to reach customers anywhere, and at any time.
All of us in marketing should re-evaluate the content, relevance and design of our e-mail communications for one very good reason: Customers are reading our e-mails on both their PCs and mobile devices. The question to ask yourself is whether your e-mail program is in accord with the latest mobile innovations or still moving to the click-clack of a rotary phone.
LEN SHNEYDER is director of partner relations and industry communications at e-mail deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity, Phoenix.
July 1, 2008
Yes, you can make your e-mail advertising look like a Web page, with loads of content and complex HTML. But your mobile audience is walking around with an inbox-in-hand, reading e-mails, browsing the Web and making split-second decisions based on a screen that isn't much bigger than a credit card.
The old technique of delivering a Web page to the inbox isn't going to work. On the contrary, it'll prevent clicks rather than encourage them.
Here are five simple rules to consider when designing e-mails for the 21st century inbox — the small one.
* Focus messages and calls to action
Attention spans are short; people will navigate away from a Web page or an e-mail in seconds if it doesn't load. Whether you're targeting the young, the middle-aged, or old, stodgy business users like me, long messages with too many offers are a turnoff to fast-paced users who're scanning messages on mobile devices.
Target your offer, create clear and concise calls to action, limit text content and segment by demographic and/or purchasing habits and patterns. Mobile e-mails should be direct, brief and require little scrolling. The call to action should be moved as close to the top as possible along with identifying information.
* Use prime real estate effectively
The new fold line (the point at which you need to scroll to see more content) is at most 320 pixels down and is measured in inches that never hit double digits. The space above the fold is the new preview screen. It's prime real estate, and these few precious lines shouldn't be wasted. Simply put, what you include here can make or break your campaign results.
For example, traditional best practices typically call for add-to-address-book language at the top of the e-mail. Many mailers do this in a smaller, lighter font than the core content. But in mobile, the smaller screen means there's less room to see your message and the general lack of HTML formatting support means your fonts all appear in the same size and color. The result is that the first and only thing visible to the mobile reader without scrolling may be your add-to-address-book language. The mobile mob is a highly focused audience. Make sure you're providing enough information upon first glance to engage it.
* Use a single-column setup
Marketers often design HTML e-mail so it looks like their Web site to preserve the user experience. But many sites use multiple columns to organize information.
Most mobile e-mail readers, including those installed on Symbian devices, Palms and BlackBerries, can't display multiple side-by-side columns and will haphazardly reorganize the page into a single column. A few readers can render a multicolumn e-mail, but the limited horizontal space forces the user to scroll left to right using arrows and other physical navigation keys (remember, there's no mouse). Keep the e-mail straightforward and let it flow from the top down.
* Limit links
Mobile users don't have time to click and load every link in your e-mail; they're not casual Web surfers. The best mobile sites are created to deliver core content and functionality, so e-mails should contain only the links needed to direct users to that content.
* Think about how you link
Keep in mind that mobile users treat links differently than traditional PC-based e-mail readers. Hyperlinking text will not always render and remain clickable. Let's focus on Symbian. By all estimates, 85% of the world outside of the North American market is using a Symbian device. Symbian effectively drops all HTML tags and renders the text of an HTML e-mail. All of the formatting, image references, font sizes and other tags are dropped, including the critical A HREF of your link. But if you use a fully qualified link such as http://, it will remain clickable after Symbian parses the e-mail. Thus, if you want to ensure your links will be clickable by the broadest range of readers, make sure you use the fully qualified URL for the most critical links.
2007 marked a new era for mobile devices. There were more than 3.25 billion users, and sales of smart phones exceeded PC and laptop sales for the first time. While PCs offer a richer experience because of size, speed and extensive media support, mobile devices allow marketers to reach customers anywhere, and at any time.
All of us in marketing should re-evaluate the content, relevance and design of our e-mail communications for one very good reason: Customers are reading our e-mails on both their PCs and mobile devices. The question to ask yourself is whether your e-mail program is in accord with the latest mobile innovations or still moving to the click-clack of a rotary phone.
LEN SHNEYDER is director of partner relations and industry communications at e-mail deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity, Phoenix.
Friday, June 13, 2008
From my working life...
The iPhone factor: To Russia with love
The summer is here and I’m on the road. I have a Lonely Planet guide, a digital camera, cargo-conversion pants, rain shell, sandals, sunglasses, sunscreen, maps, money, a passport and three iPhones.
Yes, you read it correctly: not one, not two, but three iPhones.
Why am I carrying three iPhones you ask? Well I’m travelling to Russia and I was contacted by my friends who begged me to buy them iPhones and bring them back to Russia as they are going for 20,000 rubles there, or almost $900 apiece.
A few years ago Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs talked about the sea of white headphones that he would see in any major city. The white headphone was attached to an iPod, a revolutionary new device that became not only an integral part of daily life for millions of people around the world, but as my Israeli friends used to say, “the new American passport.”
Today, the new new passport is the iPhone, which in its first year of existence and at the dawn of version 2 has captured 20 percent of the North American smartphone market.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on technology: it’s the new designer handbag. Fashion couture dictates that an authentic Gucci or Coach handbag is the hallmark of the fashion and a disposable income.
However, today’s iconic status symbol is the mobile phone. People are changing phones more often than they are laptops or desktops.
My friends in Russia wanted access to the status symbol of the West. They are not rich by any stretch, but moderate and middle class. Yet they are ready and willing to spend money on the cool new gadgets such as the iPhone not only for the social identifier that they are, but also because of the practical, utilitarian application: ability to make phone calls and surf the Web.
All is not roses out there in the world. The inaccessibility of iconic technological devices in certain world markets has created an overpriced black market.
This should come as no surprise. The markup for an iPhone, however, is surprising – a 200 percent-plus market is fairly shocking. But when you consider how much less the average Russian earns a month, that markup is more like 300 percent to 400 percent, if not 500 percent. And yet they are still willing and eager to own one.
As a marketer of the 21st century I have to think that my potential market is as big as the world. Digital commerce is not necessarily local anymore; it’s global.
If I know there are users in foreign countries ready to pay for digital and specifically mobile innovations, shouldn’t I be ready to provide services and content for that specific mobile niche?
The forecast for the future is this: devices will drive service and product innovations. Savvy marketers will create custom applications for these iconic innovations of technology.
The first-to-market will have legions of dedicated users who will perceive quality through integration and customization that takes advantage of their unique digital handheld devices.
Because, really, who wants a device that looks good, but does nothing? We want to be power users. Marketers that enable users to maximize their mobile experience will be poised to reap great rewards.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder@pivotalveracity.com.
The summer is here and I’m on the road. I have a Lonely Planet guide, a digital camera, cargo-conversion pants, rain shell, sandals, sunglasses, sunscreen, maps, money, a passport and three iPhones.
Yes, you read it correctly: not one, not two, but three iPhones.
Why am I carrying three iPhones you ask? Well I’m travelling to Russia and I was contacted by my friends who begged me to buy them iPhones and bring them back to Russia as they are going for 20,000 rubles there, or almost $900 apiece.
A few years ago Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs talked about the sea of white headphones that he would see in any major city. The white headphone was attached to an iPod, a revolutionary new device that became not only an integral part of daily life for millions of people around the world, but as my Israeli friends used to say, “the new American passport.”
Today, the new new passport is the iPhone, which in its first year of existence and at the dawn of version 2 has captured 20 percent of the North American smartphone market.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on technology: it’s the new designer handbag. Fashion couture dictates that an authentic Gucci or Coach handbag is the hallmark of the fashion and a disposable income.
However, today’s iconic status symbol is the mobile phone. People are changing phones more often than they are laptops or desktops.
My friends in Russia wanted access to the status symbol of the West. They are not rich by any stretch, but moderate and middle class. Yet they are ready and willing to spend money on the cool new gadgets such as the iPhone not only for the social identifier that they are, but also because of the practical, utilitarian application: ability to make phone calls and surf the Web.
All is not roses out there in the world. The inaccessibility of iconic technological devices in certain world markets has created an overpriced black market.
This should come as no surprise. The markup for an iPhone, however, is surprising – a 200 percent-plus market is fairly shocking. But when you consider how much less the average Russian earns a month, that markup is more like 300 percent to 400 percent, if not 500 percent. And yet they are still willing and eager to own one.
As a marketer of the 21st century I have to think that my potential market is as big as the world. Digital commerce is not necessarily local anymore; it’s global.
If I know there are users in foreign countries ready to pay for digital and specifically mobile innovations, shouldn’t I be ready to provide services and content for that specific mobile niche?
The forecast for the future is this: devices will drive service and product innovations. Savvy marketers will create custom applications for these iconic innovations of technology.
The first-to-market will have legions of dedicated users who will perceive quality through integration and customization that takes advantage of their unique digital handheld devices.
Because, really, who wants a device that looks good, but does nothing? We want to be power users. Marketers that enable users to maximize their mobile experience will be poised to reap great rewards.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at lshneyder@pivotalveracity.com.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Fight Prop 98 - Mobile Dance Party
Saturday, May 31st
Reclaim The Streets! Mobile Dance Party!
- Because dancing in the streets is more fun than driving in them!
Starting 1pm at Dolores Park! From there, we take to the streets!
This event will last ALL DAY, be entirely outdoors, 100% FREE.
They're trying to get rid of rent control in San Francisco through Prop 98, so we decided we'd throw a party to get the word out and to celebrate the city we all live in! Meet us in the streets at the end of May to dance, sing, resist and take the streets!
Renters Rise Up is first and foremost a party. It is a community party, being thrown for anyone who wants to participate by anyone who wants to help plan it. And what better place for the community to have a party than in the streets?
Why are we having this party? Why does anybody have a party? To celebrate.
And what are we celebrating? We are celebrating ourselves and our communities. We here in the Bay Area live in a pretty amazing place. But it is the people of the Bay Area who make it what it is. And let's face it. We here in the Bay Area are pretty kick-ass people.
If that wasn't reason enough to have a dance party in the street, right now we need to stand up and appreciate what we have made here. Because we and our communities are under attack.
This is because rent control, the law that makes cities like San Francisco affordable to regular working people, is in danger of being overturned.
Against Landlords - Against Prop 98 - For Freedom in the Streets
--
Reclaim The Streets! Mobile Dance Party!
- Because dancing in the streets is more fun than driving in them!
Starting 1pm at Dolores Park! From there, we take to the streets!
This event will last ALL DAY, be entirely outdoors, 100% FREE.
They're trying to get rid of rent control in San Francisco through Prop 98, so we decided we'd throw a party to get the word out and to celebrate the city we all live in! Meet us in the streets at the end of May to dance, sing, resist and take the streets!
Renters Rise Up is first and foremost a party. It is a community party, being thrown for anyone who wants to participate by anyone who wants to help plan it. And what better place for the community to have a party than in the streets?
Why are we having this party? Why does anybody have a party? To celebrate.
And what are we celebrating? We are celebrating ourselves and our communities. We here in the Bay Area live in a pretty amazing place. But it is the people of the Bay Area who make it what it is. And let's face it. We here in the Bay Area are pretty kick-ass people.
If that wasn't reason enough to have a dance party in the street, right now we need to stand up and appreciate what we have made here. Because we and our communities are under attack.
This is because rent control, the law that makes cities like San Francisco affordable to regular working people, is in danger of being overturned.
Against Landlords - Against Prop 98 - For Freedom in the Streets
--
Thursday, May 15, 2008
From my working life
By Len Shneyder
CTIA – The Wireless Association reported that in 2007 mobile subscriptions grew to 252 million. This means that 85 percent of the U.S. population is essentially paying one carrier or another, but it also means that 85 percent of the population is capable of receiving smart and targeted content delivered by savvy marketers.
Meanwhile, a recent BusinessWeek article reported that carriers were losing market share in the content arms race. However, according to the article, carriers such as Sprint Nextel weren’t at all afraid as the lost revenues would be made up in the growing demand for wireless Internet access. Data packages for mobile phones which rose 53 percent to $23 billion in 2007, according to CTIA.
So what does this mean for the average consumer?
Well, in one frustrated user’s humble opinion, it means that the pinch is on and we’re all about to get squeezed.
From double-dipping to surcharges on international texting, carriers have found ways of nickel-and-diming consumers.
But what does this mean for marketers? It means that consumers paying premium fees for nominal services are less inclined to pay for content and media, making it more challenging for marketers to cross the mobile divide.
However not all hope is lost. Understanding a few of the ways in which consumers are saving money may offer insights into how marketers can stay competitive in this new and important channel:
Learning to do it yourself. Media for a mobile phone is fairly simple to create. There are a host of tools on the Internet which empower users to make their own mobile desktop backgrounds and ringtones, for example.
As consumers realize the cost savings of doing-it-themselves, marketers can stay relevant by empowering end users through innovative desktop-to-mobile tools which take advantage of existing services but are optimized for the mobile audience.
Email is the consumer’s best friend, especially if his or her friends are overseas. Avoiding surreptitious fees associated with services such as international SMS is as easy as sending an email.
Consumers will eventually maximize the use of their data packages to offset per-use charges. Email is still mostly free, SMS is not.
Marketing via mobile email is also less expensive than SMS and richer so long as you understand the basic concepts of smaller and more targeted emails.
Wi-Fi to the rescue? The Apple iPhone and other mobile devices can connect to wireless networks in order to download content and media. As a matter of fact, the iTunes store on an iPhone will only work on a Wi-Fi network.
All signs point to increased wireless access of the Internet which will spur innovation and enrich available content through available packages and services.
As a savvy marketer of the 21st century, be aware of your consumer’s existing fees and needs. Find the niche where your products and services help mitigate those fees to stay relevant and on the consumer’s radar as useful tool, rather than just another fee.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix.
CTIA – The Wireless Association reported that in 2007 mobile subscriptions grew to 252 million. This means that 85 percent of the U.S. population is essentially paying one carrier or another, but it also means that 85 percent of the population is capable of receiving smart and targeted content delivered by savvy marketers.
Meanwhile, a recent BusinessWeek article reported that carriers were losing market share in the content arms race. However, according to the article, carriers such as Sprint Nextel weren’t at all afraid as the lost revenues would be made up in the growing demand for wireless Internet access. Data packages for mobile phones which rose 53 percent to $23 billion in 2007, according to CTIA.
So what does this mean for the average consumer?
Well, in one frustrated user’s humble opinion, it means that the pinch is on and we’re all about to get squeezed.
From double-dipping to surcharges on international texting, carriers have found ways of nickel-and-diming consumers.
But what does this mean for marketers? It means that consumers paying premium fees for nominal services are less inclined to pay for content and media, making it more challenging for marketers to cross the mobile divide.
However not all hope is lost. Understanding a few of the ways in which consumers are saving money may offer insights into how marketers can stay competitive in this new and important channel:
Learning to do it yourself. Media for a mobile phone is fairly simple to create. There are a host of tools on the Internet which empower users to make their own mobile desktop backgrounds and ringtones, for example.
As consumers realize the cost savings of doing-it-themselves, marketers can stay relevant by empowering end users through innovative desktop-to-mobile tools which take advantage of existing services but are optimized for the mobile audience.
Email is the consumer’s best friend, especially if his or her friends are overseas. Avoiding surreptitious fees associated with services such as international SMS is as easy as sending an email.
Consumers will eventually maximize the use of their data packages to offset per-use charges. Email is still mostly free, SMS is not.
Marketing via mobile email is also less expensive than SMS and richer so long as you understand the basic concepts of smaller and more targeted emails.
Wi-Fi to the rescue? The Apple iPhone and other mobile devices can connect to wireless networks in order to download content and media. As a matter of fact, the iTunes store on an iPhone will only work on a Wi-Fi network.
All signs point to increased wireless access of the Internet which will spur innovation and enrich available content through available packages and services.
As a savvy marketer of the 21st century, be aware of your consumer’s existing fees and needs. Find the niche where your products and services help mitigate those fees to stay relevant and on the consumer’s radar as useful tool, rather than just another fee.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Another from my working life...
By Michelle Eichner and Len Shneyder
Social networks have evolved to fill every societal niche. There are sites dedicated to business networking like LinkedIn, special interests such as Vampirefreaks.com and monolithic sites like MySpace that have become hubs of innovation with features such as artist pages that provide struggling musicians a fast and easy means to promote their talents.
Why so much buzz about social networks? In a recent Reuters article, MySpace was quoted as having 110 million users and Facebook boasted 67 million active users.
It’s not just about size, though – social networks have mastered the art of engagement as evidenced by enviable stats such as 20-plus visits per month, 500-plus viewed pages per visitor and 200-plus minutes per visitor per month.
Mobile? You’d think these fat cats would be resting on their laurels, but they’re not ...
While most businesses have yet to embrace an increasingly mobile audience, social networking sites are setting the trend.
With the exception of Friendster, the majority of industry leading social networking sites, including Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn (in beta), Twitter and even a Russian site called Vkontake, have firmly planted themselves as mobile-ready by creating light, sleek and relevant versions of their sites for mobile devices.
One of the challenges in mobilizing your site is adapting your content to an extremely limited environment – both in size and in functionality.
This requires trade-offs between what you want to promote to consumers and what will compel them to use your site from their smartphone.
In the case of most social networking sites, the mobile landing page tends to be the friend update section, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that people are using social networking sites as a means of keeping track of what their friends are doing.
Instead of bombarding mobile users with promotions, social networks’ mobile sites have honed-in on the core services and functions that their customers are most likely to need or want when on-the-go.
The cue we can take from the social networking world is that regardless of how popular you already are or aren’t, providing easy access via any means a user might possibly want is a critical key to retaining and growing your user base in the 21st century.
While the rest of us are repeating the mantra of targeting the right person, at the right place, at the right time, social networking sites recognize that to do so successfully today means cross-platform capabilities.
It’s not only about reaching consumers when they are sitting in front of their computer but also when they are standing at a subway stop, walking down the street or sitting on top of a mountain with their smartphone in hand.
Don’t dig social networking sites or need another reason to create a mobile-ready site? Take a look around you the next time you’re waiting for your flight: How many people have a smartphone in hand?
Smartphones are not just the mainstay of busy travelers; they are a hot-ticket item amongst consumers of all generations. The future is here: mobilize with it.
Michelle Eichner is co-founder and vice president of client services for Pivotal Veracity, a Scottsdale, AZ-based deliverability consultancy and service provider.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity.
Social networks have evolved to fill every societal niche. There are sites dedicated to business networking like LinkedIn, special interests such as Vampirefreaks.com and monolithic sites like MySpace that have become hubs of innovation with features such as artist pages that provide struggling musicians a fast and easy means to promote their talents.
Why so much buzz about social networks? In a recent Reuters article, MySpace was quoted as having 110 million users and Facebook boasted 67 million active users.
It’s not just about size, though – social networks have mastered the art of engagement as evidenced by enviable stats such as 20-plus visits per month, 500-plus viewed pages per visitor and 200-plus minutes per visitor per month.
Mobile? You’d think these fat cats would be resting on their laurels, but they’re not ...
While most businesses have yet to embrace an increasingly mobile audience, social networking sites are setting the trend.
With the exception of Friendster, the majority of industry leading social networking sites, including Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn (in beta), Twitter and even a Russian site called Vkontake, have firmly planted themselves as mobile-ready by creating light, sleek and relevant versions of their sites for mobile devices.
One of the challenges in mobilizing your site is adapting your content to an extremely limited environment – both in size and in functionality.
This requires trade-offs between what you want to promote to consumers and what will compel them to use your site from their smartphone.
In the case of most social networking sites, the mobile landing page tends to be the friend update section, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that people are using social networking sites as a means of keeping track of what their friends are doing.
Instead of bombarding mobile users with promotions, social networks’ mobile sites have honed-in on the core services and functions that their customers are most likely to need or want when on-the-go.
The cue we can take from the social networking world is that regardless of how popular you already are or aren’t, providing easy access via any means a user might possibly want is a critical key to retaining and growing your user base in the 21st century.
While the rest of us are repeating the mantra of targeting the right person, at the right place, at the right time, social networking sites recognize that to do so successfully today means cross-platform capabilities.
It’s not only about reaching consumers when they are sitting in front of their computer but also when they are standing at a subway stop, walking down the street or sitting on top of a mountain with their smartphone in hand.
Don’t dig social networking sites or need another reason to create a mobile-ready site? Take a look around you the next time you’re waiting for your flight: How many people have a smartphone in hand?
Smartphones are not just the mainstay of busy travelers; they are a hot-ticket item amongst consumers of all generations. The future is here: mobilize with it.
Michelle Eichner is co-founder and vice president of client services for Pivotal Veracity, a Scottsdale, AZ-based deliverability consultancy and service provider.
Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
From my working life...
When less equals More
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM , BY MICHELLE EICHNER AND LEN SHNEYDER
Change how you're acquiring customers
The goals of those involved in acquisition are often at odds with today's e-mail reality. When success is measured on the number of new registrants and cost per registrant, marketers often rely on tactics that pose substantial risks to the health and well being of core customer communications. This is because they are likely to be adding names that have no real interest in receiving your ongoing e-mails.
Again, more is not better! One such tactic is incentive-based — the heavy use of promotions and sweepstakes to quickly and inexpensively acquire new names for your database. Folks sign up for the sweepstakes and then immediately unsubscribe or, worse yet, complain tht you are spamming them. Remember, at ISPs such as AOL if a tiny fraction of your customers complain you are spamming them, you risk having all your mail blocked (yes — that means all mail — including the mail to your active and engaged customers!).
Another tactic is what we call the “hidden-agenda method.” You may make a compelling benefit such as access to key information on your Website contingent, upon the person providing you their e-mail address.
In many cases, the customer may want access to your site, but has no interest in ongoing e-mails — so to accomplish this, he or she provides a fake address. As a result, your bad-address rate spikes for newly acquired names, and you once again risk having all mail blocked.
E-mail appends, unqualified co-registration programs, the list goes on — but the risks to your good mailing reputation cannot be ignored and should be measured. Only then can the potential impact be quantified and fully understood. Today, clarity is king. More names is definitively not better, and you should always provide a clear, unencumbered, and conspicuous opt-in to your ongoing e-mail communications.
Change what you're sending your customers
Not every customer should get the exact same thing. This becomes even more true over the course of their relationship with you. Your customers are unique individuals; providing relevant and personalized content will inspire and motivate them to visit your site and hopefully purchase your products and services.
Leverage the power of e-mail! Affordable e-mail technology allows you to provide a truly one-to-one message based on three main data sources: who they are (age, gender, geographic location, job type etc.), what they want (stated preferences at e-mail capture) and what they do (interests you ascertain by tracking what they click on — including e-mail and Web).
But too little consideration is given to the fact that your customers' interests evolve over time. The end result is that your customers, bored with your content and annoyed by the frequency of your mailings, will unsubscribe or report your e-mail as spam. Therefore, it is critical that you do not forget to revisit your segmentation strategy continuously over the course of the customer lifecycle.
Fine tune the frequency of your communications
Not every customer needs — or wants — to get an e-mail every single time you send one out. Mail smarter and to the right people. As we've discussed, there's an inherent danger in sending too much mail. Do not overestimate your customers' appetite for your e-mails — you don't want to burn out the new subscribers and you don't want to anger older ones who may have forgotten how or why they wound up on your list.
Sending friendly and gentle reminders requesting profile updates, and those such as “We haven't heard from you in a while, would you like to remain on our list?” are excellent tactics and provide a personal touch.
Another practical approach: Do not mail everyone at the same time. Send your most active names first and allow those to deliver. Then create a separate and relevant e-mail to your least active names and send that at least a full day after you've delivered your bread and butter. This may also have an added benefit of smoothing Web traffic and fulfillment.
And last but not least, remember: Although every name on your list represents incremental revenue, those names just as easily represent exponentially greater amounts of lost revenue because they can impact the delivery of your entire campaign. This is why less is truly more when it comes to e-mail marketing.
Michelle Eichner is chief operating officer/vice president of client development and Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications for Pivotal Veracity, an e-mail deliverability service provider.
Between a rock and a hard place
A client e-mails all opt-in names weekly (excluding those who have unsubscribed, bounced, or generated a spam complaint). In late 2006, Comcast blocked its IPs, preventing the client from being able to deliver any e-mail to Comcast. We contacted Comcast to ask why the client's e-mails were being blocked, and learned Comcast's filter (Brightmail) reported X% of this client's mail as spam. Based on a request from us, Comcast removed the block and the client continued mailing without changing its practices.
Business continued as usual, but so did the specter of less equals more. The client mailed its entire house file again and triggered Comcast's filters again. We again had the block lifted. But this quickly became less than ideal for the mailer, Pivotal Veracity, and Comcast; something had to be done.
The mailer's first tactic was to e-mail only subscribers with any post-signup activity, such as clicks or purchases, regardless of how long ago. Unfortunately, this also resulted in Comcast blocking the mail as in previous campaigns. The implication: Just because someone was engaged at one time does not mean they are still engaged and, as many folks do, they used the report-as-spam button to get off the list.
Rather desperate now, the mailer decided to test e-mailing only to Comcast addresses that had made a purchase; a dramatic measure but one with dramatic results. Since employing a Comcast mail strategy that includes buyers only, this client has received consistent 100% inbox delivery.
Older, inactive users were complaining, which caused the entire e-mail to be blocked by Comcast. Although the inactive names as a segment were producing incremental revenue as a small fraction purchased, the effect of sending e-mails to these users actually resulted in a net loss of revenue because it affected the ability to mail any e-mails to Comcast.
By taking proactive measures, the client has been able to successfully deliver to the inbox across all subsequent campaigns.
— ME/LS
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM , BY MICHELLE EICHNER AND LEN SHNEYDER
Change how you're acquiring customers
The goals of those involved in acquisition are often at odds with today's e-mail reality. When success is measured on the number of new registrants and cost per registrant, marketers often rely on tactics that pose substantial risks to the health and well being of core customer communications. This is because they are likely to be adding names that have no real interest in receiving your ongoing e-mails.
Again, more is not better! One such tactic is incentive-based — the heavy use of promotions and sweepstakes to quickly and inexpensively acquire new names for your database. Folks sign up for the sweepstakes and then immediately unsubscribe or, worse yet, complain tht you are spamming them. Remember, at ISPs such as AOL if a tiny fraction of your customers complain you are spamming them, you risk having all your mail blocked (yes — that means all mail — including the mail to your active and engaged customers!).
Another tactic is what we call the “hidden-agenda method.” You may make a compelling benefit such as access to key information on your Website contingent, upon the person providing you their e-mail address.
In many cases, the customer may want access to your site, but has no interest in ongoing e-mails — so to accomplish this, he or she provides a fake address. As a result, your bad-address rate spikes for newly acquired names, and you once again risk having all mail blocked.
E-mail appends, unqualified co-registration programs, the list goes on — but the risks to your good mailing reputation cannot be ignored and should be measured. Only then can the potential impact be quantified and fully understood. Today, clarity is king. More names is definitively not better, and you should always provide a clear, unencumbered, and conspicuous opt-in to your ongoing e-mail communications.
Change what you're sending your customers
Not every customer should get the exact same thing. This becomes even more true over the course of their relationship with you. Your customers are unique individuals; providing relevant and personalized content will inspire and motivate them to visit your site and hopefully purchase your products and services.
Leverage the power of e-mail! Affordable e-mail technology allows you to provide a truly one-to-one message based on three main data sources: who they are (age, gender, geographic location, job type etc.), what they want (stated preferences at e-mail capture) and what they do (interests you ascertain by tracking what they click on — including e-mail and Web).
But too little consideration is given to the fact that your customers' interests evolve over time. The end result is that your customers, bored with your content and annoyed by the frequency of your mailings, will unsubscribe or report your e-mail as spam. Therefore, it is critical that you do not forget to revisit your segmentation strategy continuously over the course of the customer lifecycle.
Fine tune the frequency of your communications
Not every customer needs — or wants — to get an e-mail every single time you send one out. Mail smarter and to the right people. As we've discussed, there's an inherent danger in sending too much mail. Do not overestimate your customers' appetite for your e-mails — you don't want to burn out the new subscribers and you don't want to anger older ones who may have forgotten how or why they wound up on your list.
Sending friendly and gentle reminders requesting profile updates, and those such as “We haven't heard from you in a while, would you like to remain on our list?” are excellent tactics and provide a personal touch.
Another practical approach: Do not mail everyone at the same time. Send your most active names first and allow those to deliver. Then create a separate and relevant e-mail to your least active names and send that at least a full day after you've delivered your bread and butter. This may also have an added benefit of smoothing Web traffic and fulfillment.
And last but not least, remember: Although every name on your list represents incremental revenue, those names just as easily represent exponentially greater amounts of lost revenue because they can impact the delivery of your entire campaign. This is why less is truly more when it comes to e-mail marketing.
Michelle Eichner is chief operating officer/vice president of client development and Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications for Pivotal Veracity, an e-mail deliverability service provider.
Between a rock and a hard place
A client e-mails all opt-in names weekly (excluding those who have unsubscribed, bounced, or generated a spam complaint). In late 2006, Comcast blocked its IPs, preventing the client from being able to deliver any e-mail to Comcast. We contacted Comcast to ask why the client's e-mails were being blocked, and learned Comcast's filter (Brightmail) reported X% of this client's mail as spam. Based on a request from us, Comcast removed the block and the client continued mailing without changing its practices.
Business continued as usual, but so did the specter of less equals more. The client mailed its entire house file again and triggered Comcast's filters again. We again had the block lifted. But this quickly became less than ideal for the mailer, Pivotal Veracity, and Comcast; something had to be done.
The mailer's first tactic was to e-mail only subscribers with any post-signup activity, such as clicks or purchases, regardless of how long ago. Unfortunately, this also resulted in Comcast blocking the mail as in previous campaigns. The implication: Just because someone was engaged at one time does not mean they are still engaged and, as many folks do, they used the report-as-spam button to get off the list.
Rather desperate now, the mailer decided to test e-mailing only to Comcast addresses that had made a purchase; a dramatic measure but one with dramatic results. Since employing a Comcast mail strategy that includes buyers only, this client has received consistent 100% inbox delivery.
Older, inactive users were complaining, which caused the entire e-mail to be blocked by Comcast. Although the inactive names as a segment were producing incremental revenue as a small fraction purchased, the effect of sending e-mails to these users actually resulted in a net loss of revenue because it affected the ability to mail any e-mails to Comcast.
By taking proactive measures, the client has been able to successfully deliver to the inbox across all subsequent campaigns.
— ME/LS
Monday, March 03, 2008
New poem up on Sidebrow
I've a new poem up on Sidebrow as part of the litopolis project. Go check it out... www.sidebrow.net... for one Mr. Armand F. Capanna II...
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Ted Koozer on VD
Ted Koozer was just on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED reading his little poems. He was quoted as having said that "Valentine's Day is the poet's holiday." He went on to say that Valentine's Day was all about expressions of sentiment... puhleeeeeeze... when asked why I don't think of myself as a poet it's because there are self righteous Koozers running around laying claim to hallmark holidays. It's ok, step away from the ledge, put down the pretentious boat anchor, you can still hang yourself without splitting the pavement with your gizzards.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
...
Somehow the dream last night had a pause button,
every traffic light was stuck
on a yellow like blood
not quite orange or what you squeezed for breakfast
not quite the color of a dress
not really the consistency of rain
or something slicker
last night this morning was fast forward
and after birth came meetings
corporate slag, so many slivers to yank
from your finger tips holding
the bleeding edge of a metaphor
caught in the weather
after something like lunch
the guy crossing the street
you couldn't help but stare at his crotch
the last dream you had post dreaming
filtered with possibilities where coffee
seemed to loose its luster
as the emotional pay cut arrived with a title.
every traffic light was stuck
on a yellow like blood
not quite orange or what you squeezed for breakfast
not quite the color of a dress
not really the consistency of rain
or something slicker
last night this morning was fast forward
and after birth came meetings
corporate slag, so many slivers to yank
from your finger tips holding
the bleeding edge of a metaphor
caught in the weather
after something like lunch
the guy crossing the street
you couldn't help but stare at his crotch
the last dream you had post dreaming
filtered with possibilities where coffee
seemed to loose its luster
as the emotional pay cut arrived with a title.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
From my working life....
Trouble with Comcast? You’re Not Alone
Feb 5, 2008 2:30 PM , By Ken Magill
Dave Linhardt isn’t the only e-mailer apparently having trouble with Comcast.
The chief executive of e-mail marketing firm e360 Insight sued Comcast recently, claiming the cable and Internet service provider was blocking his e-mails from reaching recipients.
It turns out Comcast is blocking a lot of senders’ e-mail, according to multiple sources.
Comcast, however, begs to differ.
Multiple e-mail deliverability specialists are reporting that many of their clients are having difficulty getting their e-mail into Comcast address holders’ inboxes.
“I can usually tell when one of the ISPs makes some change to their incoming spam filtering just by my call volume,” wrote co-founder of deliverability consultancy Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, on her blog. “The past few weeks, the ISP in most of my calls has been Comcast. And, what do you know, they have made changes to how they are filtering e-mail.”
This is not a small problem. Comcast is the No. 2 Internet service provider with 12.9 million subscribers, according to ISP Planet.
Comcast recently began using technology from anti spam firm Cloudmark. The change apparently resulted in heavier filtering of incoming e-mail.
Also, Comcast has been fiddling with its throttling rules resulting in fluctuations in the amount of e-mail it will accept from mailers, according to Len Shneyder, director of partner relations for deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity. Comcast has also limiting the number of connections any sender can establish with its servers.
As a result, e-mail is getting into Comcast more slowly.
“In general, the entire industry is experiencing problems with Comcast due to heavier filtering and rate limiting,” Shneyder said. “This is not unusual for ISPs in their fight against spam as they fine tune their systems to cope with the ever-increasing volume of spam.”
What to do? Shneyder recommends throttling, or slowing the amount of e-mail sent to Comcast addresses. He adds this may be difficult for some mailers with internal e-mail or home-grown systems, but most e-mail service providers can throttle e-mail by domain.
Shneyder said his contact at Comcast told him last week that mailers should limit outbound messages to Comcast addresses to six recipients per second.
Shneyder also said his Comcast contact told him senders should limit their connections to its servers to 10 per IP address.
Meanwhile, Jay Opperman, director of security and privacy for Comcast, said he isn’t aware of any widespread deliverability issues affecting incoming permission-based e-mail at the cable provider.
“The way I tell if it’s a big broad problem is I’ll get escalations, and we’re not seeing that,” he said. “Metrics that I have say we’re getting to the phone and answering people’s phone calls.”
He confirmed that Comcast implemented new anti-spam measures at the end of the third quarter of last year, including switching from anti-spam technology provider Brightmail to Cloudmark.
Opperman added that like many ISPs, Comcast places great weight on spam complaints from subscribers when determining how to handle incoming mail.
“Principally, a lot of actions that we take are based on feedback from our customers,” he said. “The issue that we run into with most of e-marketers is they don’t have a clean list.”
Opperman also said Comcast is considering increasingly using mailers’ so-called reputations—generally defined as the number of spam complaints a mailer gets, and the number of dead addresses and spam complaints a mailer hits—to determine how to process incoming mail.
“We’re looking at it,” he said. “We have not implemented a reputation-based filtering system at this point.”
Opperman added that when Comcast blocks a sender’s mail, the mailer will get an error message with a code and links they can follow for instructions on how to solve the problem. Mailers who experience deliverability issues should follow the links and fill out the appropriate forms when the situation warrants. They can also call Comcast’s anti-spam team, he said. The number is (888) 565-4329.
“If they don’t feel that their problem is being addressed, they can always escalate,” he added.
Feb 5, 2008 2:30 PM , By Ken Magill
Dave Linhardt isn’t the only e-mailer apparently having trouble with Comcast.
The chief executive of e-mail marketing firm e360 Insight sued Comcast recently, claiming the cable and Internet service provider was blocking his e-mails from reaching recipients.
It turns out Comcast is blocking a lot of senders’ e-mail, according to multiple sources.
Comcast, however, begs to differ.
Multiple e-mail deliverability specialists are reporting that many of their clients are having difficulty getting their e-mail into Comcast address holders’ inboxes.
“I can usually tell when one of the ISPs makes some change to their incoming spam filtering just by my call volume,” wrote co-founder of deliverability consultancy Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, on her blog. “The past few weeks, the ISP in most of my calls has been Comcast. And, what do you know, they have made changes to how they are filtering e-mail.”
This is not a small problem. Comcast is the No. 2 Internet service provider with 12.9 million subscribers, according to ISP Planet.
Comcast recently began using technology from anti spam firm Cloudmark. The change apparently resulted in heavier filtering of incoming e-mail.
Also, Comcast has been fiddling with its throttling rules resulting in fluctuations in the amount of e-mail it will accept from mailers, according to Len Shneyder, director of partner relations for deliverability consultancy Pivotal Veracity. Comcast has also limiting the number of connections any sender can establish with its servers.
As a result, e-mail is getting into Comcast more slowly.
“In general, the entire industry is experiencing problems with Comcast due to heavier filtering and rate limiting,” Shneyder said. “This is not unusual for ISPs in their fight against spam as they fine tune their systems to cope with the ever-increasing volume of spam.”
What to do? Shneyder recommends throttling, or slowing the amount of e-mail sent to Comcast addresses. He adds this may be difficult for some mailers with internal e-mail or home-grown systems, but most e-mail service providers can throttle e-mail by domain.
Shneyder said his contact at Comcast told him last week that mailers should limit outbound messages to Comcast addresses to six recipients per second.
Shneyder also said his Comcast contact told him senders should limit their connections to its servers to 10 per IP address.
Meanwhile, Jay Opperman, director of security and privacy for Comcast, said he isn’t aware of any widespread deliverability issues affecting incoming permission-based e-mail at the cable provider.
“The way I tell if it’s a big broad problem is I’ll get escalations, and we’re not seeing that,” he said. “Metrics that I have say we’re getting to the phone and answering people’s phone calls.”
He confirmed that Comcast implemented new anti-spam measures at the end of the third quarter of last year, including switching from anti-spam technology provider Brightmail to Cloudmark.
Opperman added that like many ISPs, Comcast places great weight on spam complaints from subscribers when determining how to handle incoming mail.
“Principally, a lot of actions that we take are based on feedback from our customers,” he said. “The issue that we run into with most of e-marketers is they don’t have a clean list.”
Opperman also said Comcast is considering increasingly using mailers’ so-called reputations—generally defined as the number of spam complaints a mailer gets, and the number of dead addresses and spam complaints a mailer hits—to determine how to process incoming mail.
“We’re looking at it,” he said. “We have not implemented a reputation-based filtering system at this point.”
Opperman added that when Comcast blocks a sender’s mail, the mailer will get an error message with a code and links they can follow for instructions on how to solve the problem. Mailers who experience deliverability issues should follow the links and fill out the appropriate forms when the situation warrants. They can also call Comcast’s anti-spam team, he said. The number is (888) 565-4329.
“If they don’t feel that their problem is being addressed, they can always escalate,” he added.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Le Scaphandre et le papillon
Go see it... seriously... what are you reading this for? Just go see the film "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly", just be aware that you'll be emotionally hungover, as one critic said, for about a week afterward. One of the most lamentable and difficult to watch stories since "My left foot" and up there with D.D.L.'s performance in that film.
I managed to hunt down the playlist as there's no soundtrack available on Amazon...
'The Diving Bell & The Butterfly' Soundtrack tracklist
1. Charles Trenet - La Mer
2. The Dirtbombs - Chains of Love
3. Tom Waits - All the World Is Green
4. U2 - Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
5. Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle - Don't Kiss Me Goodbye
6. The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
7. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Ramshackle Day Parade
8. Paul Cantelon - Theme For the Diving Bell and the Butterfly
thanks to The Play List for posting the fabulous tunes in this film that have left me with an aural hangover when thinking about Le Mer...
I managed to hunt down the playlist as there's no soundtrack available on Amazon...
'The Diving Bell & The Butterfly' Soundtrack tracklist
1. Charles Trenet - La Mer
2. The Dirtbombs - Chains of Love
3. Tom Waits - All the World Is Green
4. U2 - Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
5. Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle - Don't Kiss Me Goodbye
6. The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
7. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Ramshackle Day Parade
8. Paul Cantelon - Theme For the Diving Bell and the Butterfly
thanks to The Play List for posting the fabulous tunes in this film that have left me with an aural hangover when thinking about Le Mer...
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Between Japan and Sea world
there's the faith of dishes and die cast reflections
things in the mirror are twice as clearly mirrored
i've a finish for a first remembrance
crash-holed the story and wept a gentle rain
while the first girl we kissed and misplaced in our
hairpins and leaves of the living left slumbered
look it's not poignant if no one here dies
sit back relax, strap on your new nuclear tie
without it our intollerance grows
but that's how it works, every time
makes you just a little bit weaker
and cyring once a year is ok
but twice your a crier and that's not allowed
and all things verbotten verukt and vergessen
how can it taste more like the sea
but simple rules are simply kept
salt of the earth salt over my shoulder
salt and the bread
salt and the pepper
and some kept apart.
things in the mirror are twice as clearly mirrored
i've a finish for a first remembrance
crash-holed the story and wept a gentle rain
while the first girl we kissed and misplaced in our
hairpins and leaves of the living left slumbered
look it's not poignant if no one here dies
sit back relax, strap on your new nuclear tie
without it our intollerance grows
but that's how it works, every time
makes you just a little bit weaker
and cyring once a year is ok
but twice your a crier and that's not allowed
and all things verbotten verukt and vergessen
how can it taste more like the sea
but simple rules are simply kept
salt of the earth salt over my shoulder
salt and the bread
salt and the pepper
and some kept apart.
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