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Update - Email marketing trends and challenges in 2011

This is a short, fun video recorded at MarketingSherpa's Email Summit in Las Vegas a couple in Feb 2011. I think it reinforces nicely the main trends in email marketing which need to be managed by email marketers. In the video, Jeff Ginsberg from TheEmailGuide.com interviews several attendees asking what they thought was the the biggest challenges for email marketers in 2011. These are the main challenges I took from the video: Relevance - nearly everyone mentioned this and the segmentation needed to deliver this. Engaging content which will be shared, especially with competition from content shared within social networks Integration with social media marketing Adapting email to be a conversation (my favourite) Testing and tracking Changing regulations - review your opt-in regulations and tracking Designing emails for mobile devices (Anna Yeaman of Style campaign mentioned that their clients are seeing 5-15% of emails on mobile devices …

Approaches to increase the value of your email messages Part 2 When resources are scarce

When we try to make email more valuable for subscribers, we tend to focus on technical and transactional optimization. Which means we focus on making the actual offer/content more targeted, mainly using tools like segmentation, dynamic content personalization etc. That's a good thing. But there are two limitations to this approach. First, we forget that value doesn't just lie in the relevancy of content and offers. Second, the required tools, data and/or resources for technical and transactional optimization aren't always available to marketers with budgets to care about. Part 1 of this article explored how you might use personality, human voice etc. to address the idea of emotional value: building an emotional connection that keeps people engaged even when the content or offer misses its mark. In Part 2 I suggest five relatively simple concepts you can use to build more…

Creating an enewsletter that keeps subscribers engaged

As I've shown with these examples, the design and layout of your email newsletter is important, but it's the content of course, which really helps engagement. The chart below shows that online users aren't set on shopping primarily, rather it's learning, having fun or socializing! Source: RF Intent Index

The sell-inform-entertain balance

For me, getting the correct balance between using your newsletters as a sales tool and adding other types of value is key to their success. This applies equally to other e-communications like a blog, Facebook or Twitter. (more…)…

What does your email signature say about your brand?

A signature is like a snapshot of your personality. Do you know when you sign your name in a personal or professional communication unknowingly you disclose much more about yourself, than you want to. In this post I surface some recent examples of the email signatures in customer service and offer thoughts about the personality of those behind them and the brands they represent. As a security conscious citizen I rarely disclose my signature for others to see. So increasingly I have become surprised when I see what seem like genuine signatures being used within customer service communications, particularly email. It also strikes me as odd that companies continue to 'sign off' their emails as if it is a traditional letter. Don't get me wrong - of course your email needs a footer and further contact information but when is it appropriate to add…
We know that email subscribers, and now social media followers, are so valuable since they've given permission to receive communications. The problem is that vanilla flavoured, promotional messaging en masse will fail - the different audiences in those channels most likely have different information needs. I read an interesting case study that's similar to another project I have been working on. It's a US business effectively combining email and social tactics creating 120% increases in traffic - and to the right web pages. I thought I'd share the summary here. The good news - this case study is not a mega brand like Starbucks or Oreo, so it's a bit more real, the company is a much smaller cookware and cake decorating business called Wilton, an established business of 80 years, one that has grown adept at push marketing via email . The business had two realisations (I hope more companies have…

Approachs to increase the value of your email messages Part 1 Emotional value

Subscribers give you an address, attention and access to the inner sanctum that is their inbox. And they expect something in return. Some kind of value from your emails. This value ensures you don't outstay your welcome in that inbox and drives responses, whether direct (e.g. sales) or indirect (e.g. awareness). No surprise, then, to find email marketing experts regularly admonishing senders to increase the value of their messages. It's one of the ways I highlighted to ensure email success in 2011.

Your options for increasing value?

For many experts, the answer lies in using technology to increase the functional "transactional" value of an email. Which largely means better targeting through integration of web analytics, customer databases and email systems...supporting segmentation, personalized offers/content, one-to-one trigger messages etc. That's quite a mouthful and quite a challenge for those without the resources. But it's not…

How Cisco approach reactivating their inactive subscribers

Value: [rating=3] Our commentary : We're alerting you to this Marketing Sherpa post reviewing a Cisco.com campaign since it's got a specific process you could follow for a common problem in B2B or B2C marketing. It's also got some example subject line or creative to inspire! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="652" caption="Source: Marketing Sherpa"][/caption] Marketing implications My summary of the process followed is: 1. Select a segment of database to test 2. Review segments in terms of potential value 3. Brainstorm and select the right segment for the audience (in this case based on position) 4. Send creative - example subject lines and creative are shown Recommended link: Marketing Sherpa B2B Cisco Email case study…

A tool to compare marketing automation systems

Value: [rating=3] A marketing automation research tool, courtesy of Software Advice. Our commentary : If you're selecting a provider for a marketing automation, CRM or other Ebusiness system then you may find these Software Advice sites useful for an overview of the options. They have a series of usable step-by-step guides and this widget which is shareable to other sites - a nice example of viral marketing. Marketing implications : Take care with using this widget though since it has a strong US focus and some of the well-known marketing suppliers such as Eloqua or Marketo are missing. They do have a slightly broader list of Marketing Automation suppliers but again a US focus. Remember that many email service provider solutions can now provide marketing automation or integration with existing customer management systems and they'll often be more capable as email broadcast platforms. To see a…
Despite the proclamations that email marketing was dead in 2010,  the data and practice by marketers suggests that email marketing is alive and well and will continue to be a mainstay of customer communications in 2011. Given the continued importance of email marketing, as we go into 2011, I thought it would be useful to highlight some of the opportunities to make better use of email marketing based on my following of the trends and the email marketers, email consultants and agencies I spoke to in 2010.

5 success factors for your email marketing in 2011

1. Decide how email best creates value for you in 2011. One of the best posts giving advice here is by Loren McDonald - read his 8 implications for email marketing in 2011. For me his suggestions show how you must understand the value email marketing can create for your organisation. This starts…

A manifesto for integrating email marketing with other channels based on marketplace trends

So, yes, it's the traditional time of year for posts offering perspective and prophecies on what you need to do to get through the next year successfully. Instead of listing predictions, I'm going to pull out some broader trends and suggest five ways that email marketers might account for them. And I hope you'll chip in with your own perspectives and suggestions in the comments. Digital marketing is characterized by the constancy of change. What's trendy today is typically trash tomorrow. But here are four developments I see continuing to influence (email) marketing in the coming months and years. Choice and control Competition Trust Expectations

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