As I mentioned in my previous post, I am going to be taking a look at companies and their incorporation of their Twitter accounts into their email programs. It seems everyone wants to jump on the social networking bandwagon and what better way to do it than to stick it into your email. But does World Market do it right? Well below you see a copy of their latest creative with the famous line of “follow us on twitter”
Now lets look at their twitter account:
Verdict: #FAIL
They follow no one, which means they cannot actively engage with people who follow them. #FAIL. They had 14 tweets in the month of June #FAIL. Is it me or do you think they just opened up a twitter account because all of the cool kids are doing it?
Wake up World Market and get engaged with your peeps on Twitter. Also, instead of just slinging deals at us follow some of us….we have valuable things to say to you.
I welcome your input.
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world market, worldmarket.com, world market email, email marketing, social media, email strategy, email engagement, social media, social media marketing, email campaigns, email subscribers
As I continue down the path of looking at ESP’s and email marketing agencies/companies and their email practices, I received in my inbox today an email from Datran Media telling me about the ARF Webcast which is now available for me to view. The first shot you see below is the above the fold view in my gmail account.
Above the fold view
Notice how the call to action is no where to be found. The other disturbing fact is that nothing and I mean nothing…except for the Datran Media logo is clickable..meaning I have no where to go except to the home page of Datran. Oh wait..there is the whitelisting link in the pre-header…..but if you click on it..I get a page error. Second, the image that was put into the email is hard to read and since its not clickable, its worthless since I don’t know what it says. Lastly, the spacing between the first 2 paragraphs is messed up.
Now lets take a look at the entire message:
The entire message
The email to me feels cramped and oddly enough they have a long URL listed if I want more information, which to me is a big no-no. Since this email is likely geared to B2B, they could use the pre-header text a bit more to describe the email and at least carry me to someplace online to view. Basic stuff IMHO. To not have the white listing not work however is a rookie mistake.
Its great to see that they are trying to incorporate social media into their email and I did join their FB group. The shaded call to action is decent, but again, IMHO woudl be better suited with buttons of some sort to really make it stand out amongst the cramped copy.
I like Datran Media as a company. They have outstanding products and a great reputation in the industry, but I have said it before and will say it again, if you are in the email space and dispense email best practices your own email program should practice what you preach.
Datran..the best practice doorbell is ringing….will you answer?
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email, email marketing, datran media, email best practices, pre header, call to action, email newsletter, strategy, B2B email, webcast email, event email, datranmedia.com, email strategy, ESP, email service provider, email agency, bad email, bad email strategy
Well, the took the words e-Blast subscriber and made me just a subscriber, but now they have resorted to just calling it an e-Blast deal in their subject line
<sigh> Not much more I can say except hopefully newegg.com will hear my plea.
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newegg.com, newegg email, subject lines, email strategy, email marketing, email engagement, email content
I like Return Path. They have great products and some really smart people working over there. It’s a shame that in order for me to change my preferences, I need to go through a LONG and I mean LOOOONG multi-step process that is a user experience nightmare.
Step 1 – Click on “manage my subscriptions” in an email that I already got from them.
Step 2 – Get to web page. Enter in email address and click submit. Wait for email.
Step 3 – Receive email and click on “update my preferences” (now mind you…look at the creative. I have already subscribed. The email is catered to people that just signed up)
Step 4 – Get to preference center. Fill in some “required information” and click submit.
Are they serious? 4 steps to update my preferences!! By no means is this a great user experience and it certainly goes against the grain of what would generally be accepted as a “best practice” This is classic case of not practicing what is being preached. C’mon guys, you can do better than this.
I have said it before and will say it again…all ESP’s or agency’s or folks associated with giving out best practices in the email marketing industry should take a long hard look at their own email programs and if they truly are walking the talk.
Return Path: the best practice doorbell just rang…..are you gonna answer?
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Its a 9.95!!
Rarely do I run across a near perfect email in every sense of design and best practice, but today was the day that I received this beauty from ExactTarget. I like everything about it. It is well laid out, easy to read, has pre-header and the calls to action are clear and concise. Basically I like everything about it. ExactTarget….you win the email of month and perhaps the quarter in my book.
I would be remiss if I didn’t inject my smart ass humor with one very nit-picky comment. Guys…where are you links to your FB or Twitter account? Why are you not jumping on the “social networking injection into email bandwagon”? C’mon..bunch of hip folks like you should know better.
Take a look at this beauty below and witness an ESP that is doing it right……
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Most email marketing experts will agree that the welcome email is almost the single most important email a company can send. Its the first interaction a subscriber has of the brand in an email relationship and affords the company a great opportunity to make a generous offer or welcome the user to the program. With that in mind, I like to review welcome emails that I get.
So I dig Kirkland’s. I shop there with my wife and we sometimes get some good deals. As I passed one on my way to work the other day, I felt compelled to sign up for their email program and see what comes of it. To start, I received the welcome email almost immediately after signing up which is a good thing. They have a pre-header (I am a pre-header snob) and asked me to white list them, which is another good thing. Then the rest of email goes down from there. While the header was linked, pretty much nothing else was. In my image below you will see arrows which point to spots on the email which are not linked. The only other place which is linked in the body of the email is the offer of “click here” bubble which is in an odd spot and it happened to be below the fold in gmail. Needless to say, Kirkland’s is missing a HUGE opportunity here, because all I get is an email with pictures that I can’t click, a weird offer and nothing about the program I just joined.
Kirkland’s needs some help and I would be glad to help them free of charge if they want some advice. I welcome your input.
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email, email marketing, bad email, welcome email, kirkland’s, kirklands.com, email engagement, email content, deliverability, welcome program, email welcome, segmentation, email segmentation, triggered email
Solarwinds is a great company with great products and a great message. However their newsletter is one for the record books.
I dunno if anyone reads this thing from top to bottom, but they need to dial back the content. They call it “their legendary newsletter” and boy oh boy is it ever legendary.
Am I being too critical or is this not the longest newsletter you have ever seen?
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From time to time, I will continue to review ESP’s and email agency’s email marketing efforts to see if indeed they are practicing what they are preaching in terms of adhering too or engaging in email marketing best practices.
Enter Silverpop’s webinar invitation that came to me today.
The Good:
- The subject line was engaging and to the point.
- They had multiple places for me to go and register for the event, one near the top and one button near the bottom and one in the right hand nav bar.
- They gave me the ability to share this invite with my social network
- The copy was not too long and it they got their point across fast which is nice to see.
- They gave me the ability to go to a preference center to change my preferences
The Not So Good:
- No pre-header text..cmon basic stuff guys.
- The browser version text was not in the pre-header. It was in the body of the email, 1/2 way down and in the right hand nav. (maybe they are testing placement of this and would love to hear the results if they would share, but it seems like and odd place)
- There are 3 short sentences below the last “Register” button with 3 other links for me to go. To me, it takes away from all the other stuff they want me to do like share it socially, send to a friend, see their resource library, visit their site, read the email and oh yea..register for this webcast. Too much happening….like they are trying to force these last three things on me.
- The unsubscribe page is weak. There was no branding and it would have been better to incorporate an opt down.
All in all, its a pretty decent email despite the onslaught of links I can click within it. It appears as if they adhered to most of the best practices we are talking about in the industry although I would like to see them tighten up their unsubscribe page and incorporate an opt down. However, I am a picky ol’ email dude but again…a best practice is a best practice right?
I welcome your thoughts and feedback if you got this email too.
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silverpop.com, email, email marketing, best practices, email engagement, promotional email, email content, email rendering, ESP’s, email service provider
As a part of my new role as the Director of Marketing for Monolith Software, I decided to go out to all of the industry publications and sign up to receive their emails. One of the biggest and most respected sites has their email marketing heads screwed on backwards. After going through their site sign up, I decided to opt in for 8 different newsletters. I received my subscription confirmation email, confirmed my subscribtion and then about 15 minutes later, I received 8 separate subscription confirmations.
Why send 8? Why not just sent one with a summary of what I signed up for. This simple and obvious best practice was clearly overlooked and it started my email relationship on the SS Annoyance. One can only hope that their newsletters are jam packed with information or I will quickly become one of their email walking dead.
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email marketing, email, software, marketing, bad email, brading, frequency, best practices, welcome email, subscription confirmation
Circuit City may be back……and they maybe are sending email, but they returned in my spam folder.
Great that you guys are back and welcome…but get with your deliverability expert quick….
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Coastal Contacts gets my email of the week for their recent campaign asking me to friend them on Facebook for a chance to win a pair of sunglasses. The creative was succulent and had a strong call to action. My only knock on this email would be that there was no pre-header and the pink “join us” button was a little off from the theme of the email. However its a great way to promote your brand, build out a community and engage your audience in a place other than email.
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email, email marketing, social media, good email, email strategy, coastal contacts, facebook, promotional email, content, email content, email engagement, segmentation, email creative
Since I can remember, I have always associated Memorial Day Weekend as either a time to be off school, the start of summer, a day of coming back in the car from somewhere, a bbq with friends or family or something else fun. While those are fine thoughts and memories, I have in the recent years began to truly appreciate and comprehend why Memorial Day exists.
I have 1 son who is 7 and its great to see him really start to get “stuff”, which is why this Memorial Day I am going to start a tradition with him to participate in activities centered around the true meaning of Memorial Day. I want him to understand that men and woman, young and old gave their lives so we can enjoy freedom. Think about that for a second. Without the sacrifice of these braves folks the people who invented things like the internet, twitter, blogs, cars, eCommerce, the ability to drive to your local grocery store at 2 am for a jelly donut or a bottle of aspirin may not have been born or had the freedom to create these things.
I want to enjoy my Memorial Day weekend with family and friends, but I also want to give back and pay tribute to our fallen heroes. Whether you can attend a parade, a memorial or even shake the hand of a current veteran all I ask is that you try. If you can’t do any of these things because of something, then try to sit still and quiet for as little as 10 minutes or longer in complete silence and think about what these folks have done for us as I am sure you will gain something from it.
Have a safe and wonderful Memorial Day everyone..and God Bless America.
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Its great to see that Office Depot is dedicating a ton of space in their promotional email to asking people to write customer reviews. This to me adds value and validates their email program in truly wanting customers to engage.
I welcome your thoughts:
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email, email marketing, customer reviews, office depot, office depot.com, office depoit email, good email, email strategy, best practices, email engagement, engagement, content, email content
So much for segmentation. I get a bridal email from Dillards the other day (see below) and if that doesn’t add fuel to the non-segmentation fire, when I click on anything in the email I get the error tree in my browser. (see below as well).
<Sigh> So much to say about this big disaster….so I will refrain from totally taking them down, but I think its high time Dillards rethink their email strategy along with ensuring with their ESP that things work right.
Congratulations Dillards, you win the worst email of the month award and this month is not over yet.
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email, email marketing, bad email, horrible email, segmentation, email strategy, bad email strategy, email engagement, ESP, email service provider, relevancy, email relevancy
Is there such a thing as too much preheader text? Dunno know if you agree with me on this, but the latest JcPenny email is crammed full of pre-header text and appears as if they are trying to do too much?
Thoughts?
I tend to pick on Ubid.com a lot, but since I get an email from them almost every single day I am amazed as to the patterns I see. I think that because they tend to send an email everyday, it must be hard for them to come up unique subject lines. However, I did notice that they love to use the & More! a lot. Either they have tested into it, or its just has become standard protocol since early April.
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ubid.ubid.com, ubid.com email, email marketing, subject lines, redundant, email strategy
Great article by Jeanniey Mullen.
She mentions following best practices but like I have always said, that is easier said than done.
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email, email marketing, best practices, email strategy, content
“Feed the machine before it feeds you” is my new marketing motto.
What is yours?
Dylan over at The Email Wars has a nice post about emailers outside of the US and their use or lack thereof width in their email creative. I am with Dylan on this one…I like them wide as I do believe that they are leaving some valuable real estate on the table.
A great invention for you real techie types out there would be a way to create/code a template simliar to a liquid layout where the width of the email adjusts to the user screen……yea..that would be sweet.
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Check out the email that I have received lately from Staples. Either they are seeing great success from the use of the words “Free Gift” or their email department has not had a subject line brainstorming session:
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I like to throw out an email challenge to any retailer out there. I would love to see you send a postcard email with the text inside of it that says “buy now please” Nothing more…nothing less. Send it to segment in your DB that are typical responds and test it against your regular cadence.
Try it and let me know what happens.
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email, email marketing, email challenge, email postcards, email best practices, email test, testing, test and learn, segmentation
Count how many emails from company’s you get this week that talk about the use of “green” or organic products. I plan to see how many I get and share. I would love it if you did too.
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email, email marketing, green, organic, promotional email
Today was my last day as the Manager of Email Marketing Transformation at Sears Holdings. I spent 14 months there doing what I love which is email. I can certainly brag about my accomplishments there, but I wont, simply because I don’t want too.
However, I do want to say that during those 14 months, I was able to establish great working/personal relationships with a ton of folks. I consider each one of these people my friends before calling them my co-workers. I learned a lot about myself and about others and I want to thank all of those folks that contributed to my enrichment. What became evident to me today was that I was a person who had an effect on these people as well. What was supposed to be a small intimate going away party turned into a bar room full of about 25-30 people all coming out to wish me well in my new position. They showered me with gifts and lots of laughs and for that I am truly grateful.
I mean it when I say that these are people that I can/want to hang out with. They are not people I just work with, but they are people I want to be friends with. These folks made work fun for me and although it was only 14 months, made it seem like it was only 4.
I am honored and proud to have known and worked with these folks and will most certainly keep in touch with them. What makes it so cool to leave SHC is to know that I made a difference not only in the email program, but these folks’ lives as well. What they don’t realize is that I received more from them than they will ever know.
With that, farewell Sears Holdings email program…..hello to my new career and my friends who hung out with me tonight….you are more than welcome to come by anytime….I will always have my door open for you.
I really like the way that COMPUSA promoted their RSS feeds at the top of their promotional email. I don’t see too many retailers these days incorporating this sort of thing and it certainly differentiates them in the space. Now…..can they deliver on what they promise and offer up some good compelling feeds into their RSS.
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pre-header, pre-header text, pre-header best practices, email, email marketing, RSS, social media, compusa.com, compusa email
Ever wonder how your email marketing program would look if you let a team of your subscribers run it? Think about it the next time you push that button or work your creative with folks.
Next time you walk into a meeting with executives or people wanting to send out an email, ask them “what would our subscribers do?”…then stand back and watch the blank faces. You see….no one in marketing wants to imagine a customer running the email program. Most often people dont want their customers running their marketing…..let alone a medium such as email.
What would your subscriber really do if he/she would run your program? Why not ask?
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email, emaimarketing, subscribers, email subscribers, email management, user generated content, email services, strategy
Sorry folks…this email thing is getting lame. I am shutting down this blog effective April 2nd.
It’s been great everyone….thanks for all your support, but it is time for me to move on.
Scrappy is out of here.
I was in a well know home furnishings store over the weekend with my wife. As we were checking out, the clerk turned to me with a nice smile and said “Would you like to sign up for our email list to receive special promotions in your inbox”. In my mind I said “hell ya” being the email dude that I am.
After I said yes, she said “that’s great…go ahead and fill out that sheet on the counter and we will be sure to enter you into our system.” When I looked down on the counter there is was..in plain view, a sign up sheet (like the ones you had in school) with peoples names, address’, birthdays, phone numbers and email address’ right there for the world to see. I asked why they have a sign up sheet like this to grab my information, why they have it for everyone else to see my information on it and asked if they were concerned over my privacy as a customer. She smiled and then said “well our legal department says its ok…” as if she has said it a million times and totally felt comfortable saying so.
Folks..think about it. Just because its legal, doesn’t mean its the right thing to do. Yes, grabbing my email address at the register is a great thing for companies to engage in. Asking me to put it down on a sheet with a bunch of other information is a horrible violation of my privacy and makes for an awkward customer experience. Sure..it may be legal to do and your attorneys say its fine, but in the age of privacy concerns, its the wrong thing to do.
Just because its legal, doesn’t mean its the right thing to do should carry over to many aspects of your email program. If you want to do something, spend the time and do it right. I wonder how many attorney’s would fill out their information on a sheet of paper and wonder how many of you reading this would too.
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email, email marketing, email acquisition, capturing email, email privacy, privacy, email signup, email strategy, strategy, email management, bad email practices
