January 30, 2009 by ian
I've decided to start a new segment: 10 best e-mail marketing subject lines of the week. It's completely sarcastic, by the way. I'm sure you're shocked. This may be a one-time segment, depending on response, so enjoy: Bring business directly to you, online! I've never heard that one before. What time is okay for you. First rule of e-mail marketing: Be specific. This subject line is, er, very... Never mind. Meet CMO's who are ready to buy. The company that keeps sending me this crap, and calling me to 'follow up on my request', is the biggest bunch of sleezebag…
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January 2, 2009 by ian
[I get paid if you buy a copy - full disclosure. It's a dang good book though.] When someone tells me that, to improve my e-mail marketing, I need to "write more compelling content", my first impulse is to hit them with something heavy and unforgiving. These kinds of vague pronouncements are like telling me I can lose weight by eating less and exercising more. Marketing Sherpa has mastered the art of not doing that, which is why I am an unabashed Sherpa fanboy. I love their books. Their 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide is no exception. It's chart geek…
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October 14, 2008 by ian
When I say 'become a spammer' I mean it in the FBI/Mulder profiling way, not the Buy-lots-of-servers-and-send-out-millions-of-messages-an-hour way. You can become a far better e-mail marketer if you study really crappy e-mail marketing. All those e-mails that look like they were written by a troupe of crazed chimpanzees hold invaluable lessons in how to: Get your message delivered. Establish trust with the recipient. Get your message read. I'll demonstrate with an e-mail I got today. I blurred out their contact information, although God knows they must not be easily ashamed if they're sending out this kind of dross: You glance…
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February 8, 2008 by ian
Rented and purchased e-mail lists seem like a great idea. Lots of addresses, targeted to you, dirt-cheap. But they rarely work. Why? Their lists are messy. Chances are they got a lot of the names on their list through something called 'e-mail append', where they take existing direct mail lists and scour the web for those folks' e-mail addresses. Or they bought the e-mails from another, less savory source. Or they obtained the addresses through co-registration systems. The recipients don't know you. Even if the list is immaculate, and every person on it opted in, they don't know you.…
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January 14, 2008 by ian
Test your subject lines, and you can easily double your open rate (the number of people who read your message). If you use an e-mail marketing service, such as Whatcounts or Emma, they deliver 3 critical statistics: E-mails sent. E-mails opened. Links clicked. If you're not using one of these services, you need to. Prices usually start at less than $40/month. That's all you need to double the number of people that open your e-mail marketing pieces. Here's how: Write 2-3 subject lines. If you need help, read Copyblogger's excellent articles about headlines. Divide your list into segments. Chances are…
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November 23, 2007 by ian
In this episode, Clarisonic illustrates how to produce a truly awful e-mail marketing piece: The subject line was Time sensitive: Help us tonight at 8 PM and get a free brush head. Yikes. Here's what I'd change to make this better: Change the tone. The writing style in this reads like it was sent by a spammer. I actually spent an hour trying to figure out if this was an elaborate scam by a competitor. Use a more personable tone. Get rid of the all caps text at the bottom. Change the process. Right now, Clarisonic promises to refund the…
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October 24, 2007 by ian
Things go wrong. Sites break. Sometimes, though, a web marketer finds a way to make lemonade. I like Performance anyway, but now I really, really like them: Technorati Tags: e-mail, e-mail marketing, internet marketing…
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October 12, 2007 by ian
Even marketers suck at e-mail marketing. One of my staff just received this from the American Marketing Association: Brian opted in to this list. But this was still flagged as spam, at least mentally. What could the AMA do to make this e-mail better? Don't!!! Use!!!! So!!!! Many!!!! Exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Nothing screams “I am cheesy†more than lots of exclamation points. Except maybe all caps. Oh, wait... DON'T USE ALL CAPS. All caps is just grammatically incorrect. It's wrong, OK? There's no reason to use them. I know it's a Net Research knowledge base. You don't have to yell…
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September 28, 2007 by ian
Last time we talked about how you apply personas to your overall internet marketing strategy. Now we'll get a little more tactical, and use 'em where most folks forget: E-mail Marketing. Follow these three rules: Design for convenience, for that persona. 'Convenience' means different things to different people. For me, it means messages I can easily scan and delete or act on. For someone else, it might mean all the information they need, right in the e-mail. Tailor every offer to that persona. Sending a 10% off deal to a persona who wants luxury at any cost won't get…
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September 19, 2007 by ian
Why do we hate e-mail spam with such a passion? I mean, I hate it far, far more than the reams of direct mail I receive. Yet e-mail spam is easier to get rid of, easier to spot before I open it, and doesn't give me paper cuts. So what's the deal? Anyone? Bueller?... Technorati Tags: e-mail marketing, spam…
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August 25, 2007 by ian
I just sent out a small, targeted e-mail to about 1400 bloggers, regarding the event I'm streaming next week. I needed to keep the message out of spam mail boxes as much as possible. Here are 3 things you can do to accomplish the same thing: Whitelist: Ask list subscribers to add the 'from' address for your list to their address book. Most e-mail software will automatically not flag known addresses as spam. So, provide whitelisting instructions to your users. Something as simple as “Please add 'news@mysite.com' to your address book' will do the trick. This improves delivery by…
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May 31, 2007 by ian
Your house e-mail list - the list of people who subscribe on your web site - is your greatest asset. I surveyed 10 clients' marketing campaigns over the last year. Their house e-mail lists performed best, even compared to search marketing or print direct mail. Conversion Rates are higher: And the value per visitor is higher: Yet most clients I work with neglect their house list. They're afraid to e-mail to that list and make their customers angry, or they simply feel they don't have the time, or they're not aware that it's a gold mine. Here are a…
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April 12, 2007 by ian
E-mail marketing is still your best direct online marketing channel, and that's not going to change any time soon. But it can also make people hate you in a hurry. Here's how to maximize results and get some customer love at the same time: Be polite. Use an opt-in list. 'Opt in' may not mean they said 'please e-mail me'. It may mean they said 'please contact me'. But regardless, only e-mail folks who indicated they would like to hear from you. The one exception: We've had good results e-mailing past customers, regardless of opt-in, but only if the…
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March 7, 2007 by ian
Ink & Toner: The Gift Of Love Really - I just received an unsolicited e-mail that had that as the subject line. Technorati Tags: spam…
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February 12, 2007 by ian
If you're responsible for your company's e-mail marketing, here are five things that'll generate better response and make you a hero: Add 'whitelisting' instructions on the signup confirmation page: Telling folks to add your email newsletter's 'from' address to their address books will mean your e-mail lands in fewer spam folders. Adding this to one of our client newsletters improved delivery by 25%. Link to a sample newsletter, from the subscription page: A preview will mean more subscribers. Write a great subject line: “20% Off All Acme Widgets†is a lot more powerful than “Acme Widgets Discountâ€. I've seen…
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January 12, 2007 by ian
Campaign Monitor has a post about Microsoft's Outlook 2007 implementation of HTML e-mail. It's not good. Exactly what genius decided to yank standardized HTML support and take a 5-year step backwards?! I won't waste time in a tirade. If you're an e-mail marketer, here's what you'll need to consider: Avoid multiple column layouts: Outlook 2007 won't support a lot of the CSS layout tools you might use to properly format a two- or three-column e-mail layout. Stick with one column. Don't use background colors or background images, because Outlook 2007 either won't support them or will do so without…
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January 4, 2007 by ian
I reached a major milestone today, when some spammer somewhere lifted text from this blog for use in their filter-fighting gibberish. I'm just giddy. It's like the excitement I felt the first time someone plagiarized the entire Portent Interactive site. Click the image below if you want to see the full-sized version. Technorati Tags: e-mail marketing…
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December 2, 2006 by ian
A 'house list' is any list of e-mail subscribers that you've built yourself. Examples include a newsletter e-mail list, a list of past customers, or a list of customers who've asked that you notify them when you have a sale or announcement. House lists generate the best e-mail marketing results. So how do you grow your house list? Here are strategies I use: - The special offer: Invite users to subscribe to your e-mail list in exchange for a deal - a free consultation, a white paper, a discount, etc. all work. - Guilt: Provide customers with a special…
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November 29, 2006 by ian
As the holidays approach a lot of clients are asking me where they can find new customers. Have you tried your old customers? Opt-in direct e-mail is still one of the best online marketing tools, and your existing customers are your best resource. My favorite method, which I learned from Ogilvy on Advertising, is the Thank You Note: An e-mail from the company's founder or CEO telling existing customers “We know you are responsible for our success. I want to say thanks by giving you... [insert special offer here]â€. That sounds trite when I write it here, but if…
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October 25, 2006 by ian
The Holiday Inn shows how opt-in marketing should be done. I was in Chicago last week, speaking to a conference about search marketing. I stayed at a Holiday Inn there. It was great, by the way. When I got home, this e-mail was waiting for me. Nothing pushy. And note, it asks for my permission to keep in touch. If I don't respond, they won't send me more stuff. Absolutely textbook Conversation Marketing. Technorati Tags: e-mail marketing, internet marketing…
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July 11, 2006 by ian
To a car manufacturer who will remain nameless: If you are sending out an e-mail newsletter, don't use stock photography in the e-mail. You know what I mean: Those pictures of models pretending to be businesspeople/parents/whatever else that scream 'I bought this from Getty Images'. Even if I did sign up for your e-mail newsletter six months ago, I may not remember. I'm already annoyed at receiving your message. Don't compound it by sending me something that loads slowly, gets tagged as spam because of the image, and completely dehumanizes your company. Trust me. No stock photos. And while you're…
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August 1, 2003 by ian
Is e-mail going to be the death of the Internet? Some people think so. Spam - those useless messages that bury our inboxes every day now - is taking over. But I've long suspected that most spam isn't meant to be spam. At least, I believe that most spam could be rendered far less offensive if the folks sending it put a little effort into designing useful, targeted campaigns instead of shotgunning tens of thousands with total dross. A perfect example? An e-mail I received (supposedly) from the Arnold for Governor campaign.…
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