Constant contact put out a survey on Mother's Day Marketing to it's own customers and came back with some wild stats.

According to them, the survey went to:

The 2006 U.S. Small Business Mother's Day Outlook survey was conducted through targeted online distribution to U.S. small business owners, who are current customers of Constant Contact, recording results from nearly 500 respondents. The survey was conducted from April 14th - 25th, 2006.

According to the survey, when asked to reveal the various methods they will use to promote Mother's Day offerings, e-mail marketing prevailed at 81 percent; online marketing was second at 42 percent; followed by fliers (25 percent), direct mail (23 percent), and print/broadcasting/radio advertising (21 percent).

You're kidding, right? It's all about the sample.

via DMNews

Technorati Tags: email marketing, mother's day, constant contact

Incompetent Email Marketing = Lost Future Opportunities

According to Jakob Nielsen:

I'm a little further into the book The Virtual Handshake, and I came across a chapter on Email Lists. Hmm, I thought. What the hell is a chapter on email lists doing in this book on using "cutting edge" online social networking tools & techniques?

Well, quite a bit when you really think about it. Tools like LinkedIn and others are still based on email, and for those of us that are in moderated email discussion lists, we still find ways to connect with others 'outside the list' and form our own discussion lists on topics that are mutually interesting.

I think about what I do when I get a lead on a job that people in my network might want to know about it. Sure, I'll blog about it, but if I really want to get to someone, I'll send out a group email and let a select group of folks know that there's something they might be interested in. Likewise, I enjoy seeing emails from trusted folks on topics that interest me. It's personal, it's relevant, it's timely. Hmmm, just like blogs and RSS feeds.

Teten & Allen list a few reasons why 'personal email lists' are still highly valued:

Moreover, email to colleagues invokes a sort of reciprocity that blogs and other 'indirect' forms of communcation can't match. I almost always get replies from folks to whom I've sent articles, job leads and important links. Call me old fashioned, but I like getting a ping back when someone liked something that I sent...

eROI, mentioned by Martina in her newsletter, has a niftly little blog on the subject of email marketing.

E-consultancy just published the output from a recent roundtable on Email Marketing to help you get the best from your campaigns. Brief details as follows:

Main issues addressed in this 15 page guide are:
- How to improve delivery rates
- Capturing the right data to improve the effectiveness of campaigns
- Timing the delivery of your emails to boost response
- Content vs offer-based emails: what works best?
- Rich media, video and functional emails
- Targeting, segmenting and personalisation

You can see an exerpt here, but they want you to pay for the whole thing. If anyone buys it and likes it, please comment here to let others know what you thought.

As many times as this has been talked about, it simply can't be stressed enough, and I know full well that most organizations aren't doing the 'email marketing thing' to its full potential.

All customer-service representatives should be aware of the benefits available to customers who receive regular E-mail communications from a company. They should promote such contacts in each call. And, they should be feeding back to marketing that information which will help better communicate with customers via email.

Keep in mind that E-mail marketing, per se, isn't just about marketing. What about when your company is rolling out enterprise-wide changes, or a major supply-chain element has changed and will affect your customers, or when there are overarching price changes that everyone needs to know about? Typically, these types of initiatives would have been dumped on the sales force, as they're the direct link to the customer, but that's not necessarily the best use of their time. More to the point, customers are accustomed to receiving mission-critical information via email, and in my recent experience in travelling with our sales reps and visiting with customers, they are very appreciative of the 'state of the industry' type emails we send, or when we alert them of major initiatives via email.

According to Forrester, nearly 80 percent of us have signed up with at least one company to receive regular e-mail updates. Take a look at your regular 'customer communication channels', how expensive are they. Email is one of the least expensive ways to stay in touch with consumers. Sure, you have to follow CAN-SPAM and all, but don't let that fear bring down the potential of the medium. Corporations need to weave E-mail programs into contact-center promotions and articulate the benefits to customers who are considering opting into E-mail lists. Companies need to either 'do email' or not 'do email.' It truly can become as fundamental to your customer communication as your sales channels and press releases.

The best way to get customers to agree to E-mail contact is by promoting the newsletter through other channels. Read the '29 Ways' article for a cadre of effective ideas for gathering customer E-mail addresses, but only once you've stated the benefits of your email communications very clearly to your customers.

[via CRM Daily]

The CAN-SPAM Act, which went into effect on January 1, 2004, contains multiple regulations for email whose "primary purpose" is commercial activity. Since its enactment, several compliance issues have been raised, including the need for further clarification on the "primary purpose" rulemaking.

This week, the Federal Trade Commission proposed criteria for defining which email communications are "commercial" under CAN-SPAM. The FTC has proposed a basic "primary purpose" test, which in summary includes:

1. If the message contains only content that advertises or promotes a product or service.
   
2. If the recipient would consider the message advertising or promoting a service by reading the subject line, or if the "transactional or relationship" content does not appear at the beginning of the email.
   
3. If the recipient would conclude the message to be advertising or promoting a service, even if the message is blended commercial and transactional.

I've had several requests today from folks to add them to my newsletter. Which, at this point, I don't have.

However, I'm really interested in what you all want to hear about in a newsletter. I'd be more than happy to write one!

Leave a comment or two if you have ideas.

In the meantime, subscribe the RSS webfeed to stay current :)

Funny - I just got the email labs newsletter today that they have an article on 28 ways to build your permission email list, which reminded me of the article that Sue Duris and I did this year, 29 Ways to Build Your House Email List. Similar, but not exact...

Our List -
29 Ways to Build Your House Email List
- Feb 15, 2004

Their List -
28 Ways to Build Permission-Based Email Lists
- April 29, 2004

This is an awesome story about the power of targeted, relevant, and useful email marketing. I love stories like this because they underscore how powerful email marketing is, even in the 'age of SPAM', when you actually THINK about what your company is sending, and strategize on how you bring value to your customers.

The Scotts corporation (any of you who have lawns know who these guys are) has a robust, targeted email marketing regiment that targets consumers of its products with a lawn-care reminder service, in which subscribers get e-mails when it is time for them to put down lawn applications. Reminders are sent based on where recipients live and their grass type, ensuring, for example, that customers with St. Augustine grass receive different care recommendations than those with Kentucky bluegrass.

These e-mails go four to six times a year depending on grass type. Scotts divided the country into 18 lawn-care regions defined by conditions and the types of grass that grow in each region. Think of the type of content that Scotts needed to develop - it's a bit, yes, but not anything they didn't already have down somewhere in house! I think of the typical manufacturing company - they have data on what products work where, test information, application and maintenance information, ideas for how to best use the products, and so on and so forth. How hard would it be for the average company, on a shoestring budget (Scotts started the reminder e-mails on a shoestring budget in 2000, and they grew to about 300,000 subscribers by the end of 2002) to start some relevant and emails to a base of consumers and watch the list grow!

What's better, is Scotts is driving traffic to their local retailers every time they send a reminder out! "The scotts.com Web site is not at all an e-commerce site, and so our objective with the site and our e-mail programs is really to build lasting and individual relationships with consumers..." Further proof that manufacturers can have brilliant and relevant relationships directly with their consumers that help everyone in the value chain!

Joel Reimer is the Manager of Interactive Marketing at Scotts and the genius behind the campaign.

[via DMNews - Scotts' E-Mails Grow Strong Customer Roots]

I love spring. I love new ideas. Here's a few from ClickZ this morning on "new" approaches to e-mail marketing. Remember, nothing is really "new" (well, few things) but if you haven't heard these, they're "new to you"! :) (me too...)

MarketingSherpa: 57% of Consumers Will Give Email Addresses to a Local Retailer

I know, this is old news. But I know that I'll need this information somewhere down the line so it's best to blog it. Which brings me back to the mission of this blog as a personal KM device, and a way to share ideas with others. Can't forget the personal KM elements...

How can you take advantage of the fact that people trust local retailers with their email addresses? Well, for one, start with your in-store promotions!

Have consumers will fill out a card to receive email alerts when asked to by a clerk at a local small business such as a beauty parlor, car-repair shop,
or restaurant.

When you couple this with data from Quris' email study last summer, that revealed consumers vastly prefer receiving email from local "traditional" businesses to any other type of marketing messages, it opens up a world of opportunity.

Realistically, the whole idea of leading the proverbial "SMB Horse" to the proverbial "E-Marketing Waters" has been a hard road for some . Many SMB (small to medium size business) owners are not e-biz savvy, and take time to convince. In fact, recent research bears out that only 11% of SMBs are using pay-for-performance search.

For nearly every SMB out there, e-mail marketing and loyalty programs are an outstanding idea. For those small business owners who actually have a head for business, they'll reap the benefits of their technologically backward competitors sitting on the sidelines.

Mounting evidence suggests that brevity is key in E-mail marketing. via OPA Intelligence Report

NN/g: Keep e-newsletters brief, less frequent
Let's keep this simple. Nielsen Norman Group's second email newsletter study brought good news, bad news and some tips for online publishers. Good news: Recipients can tell the difference between spam and opt-in newsletters. Bad news: Recipients are still stressed about inundated inboxes, and have less tolerance for newsletters that waste their time. Tips: People want email newsletters that are informative, convenient, and timely. "General information such as that in human interest stories and columns works best in traditional media," study co-author Jakob Nielsen told Clickz News. "Email newsletters must leverage the benefits of new media -- instant transmission and narrowcasting." Duly noted.
» Study: E-Newsletter Readers Grow Itchy Trigger Fingers (ClickZ News)
» Nielsen offers e-newsletter usability guideline (Publish)
» Study: Email Newsletters Too Long, Too Frequent (MediaPost)
» Email Newsletter Usability (NN/g executive summary)

Permission Marketing-NZ: Is your “From” address working for or against you?

I know I've bitched about this before, but I still see so many major name companies sending marketing emails using "From" addresses that are complete nonsense. Some of my personal favorites:

Using the "From" address of:

MCP Magazine: Anti-Spam Law Ineffective
So if the law can’t help, what can you do? Go back to basics.

CRMIQ: Wilson: E-mail marketing as a contact sport

Aside from the fact that this reads like a press release for RightNow’s eService Center, there are some terrific insights in here about how Wilson Sporting Goods gears up their customer contact center and practices 'iterative updating' on their website in the wake of each email marketing campaign they send out.

If your concerned about what to do with the flood of customer inquiries that could result from a mass mailing, here's a few ideas that you can apply, regardless of what CRM package you're using...

A Key to Email Marketing Success: Stressing the Role of the Offer

What is an offer?

An offer is the carrot, or incentive, you give your target audience to incite them to action. The offer can include price but encompasses more than that. Compelling offers make your email message stand apart from the clutter.

The best email promotions usually contain primary and secondary offers.

The primary offer is created to appeal specifically to your defined target audience. The secondary offer comprises your brand, your services or products, and everything else that is your business.

In the Feb. 15th edition of the AMA's Marketing News, Sue Duris and I published an article titled "29 Ways to Build Your House List." I've put it online for those of you who aren't in the AMA.

MX Logic Finds That Only 3 Percent of Unsolicited Commercial Email Complies with Can-Spam Law

MX Logic announced that over the past 30 days, on average only 3 percent of a sample of unsolicited commercial email complied with a new federal anti-spam law

[BtoB's E-mail Marketer Insight] 5 signs it's time for a new e-mail vendor

1) You're paying for your own information.

2) You're on spam black lists and you can't get off.

3) Response rates are low or nonexistent.

4) Customer service requests go unanswered.

5) All your lists are rented or purchased from the vendor.

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind before outsourcing an e-mail
campaign:

* Getting around anti-spam software will continue to be difficult, but you
can improve the odds of your e-mail getting through by making sure your
recipients opt in at least once.

* Make sure your e-mail marketing outsourcer has not been blacklisted from
major Internet service providers or corporate e-mail systems. A lot of the
outsourced providers have relationships with the ISPs or they have
technologies in place with which they can manage the spam filters or
comply with them.

* Don't outsource if you demand highly sophisticated data analysis. If you
manage e-mail campaigns internally, there's a lot more you can do with the
data, such as identify who purchased from you in the past 60 days.

In the wake of the new federal CAN-SPAM Act, an EmailLabs audit of more than 100 opted-in emails (non client) discovered that a majority of permission marketers are exceeding most requirements of the Act, but remain confused over administrative aspects of the law.

In a new benchmark audit of major email marketers, EmailLabs found that 95 percent include an unsubscribe process, as mandated by the law. At the same time, just 56 percent were in compliance with one of the simplest aspects of CAN-SPAM - the new requirement to add a postal mailing address.
http://www.emaillabs.com/article_CANSPAMAudit.html

If you're a member of the American Marketing Association, (or consider joining if you're not) you might want to check out the virtual panel on CAN-SPAM starting on 2/2. It's part of the Internet/eCOM SIG (Special Interest Group) and will feature the following folks who might know a thing or two about the different aspects of how CAN-SPAM is affecting marketers.

Since the new federal anti-spam law risks getting legitimate e-marketers in trouble, companies must train employees, especially those in sales and marketing, to be fully compliant, writes columnist Neil J. Squillante. A separate article discusses a new report by Jupiter Research that estimates the costs of blocking legitimate e-mail will increase from $230 million in 2003 to $419 million in 2008.

Anti-spam organizations recommend you always report spam to the FTC, which maintains an email spam database that is the reference point for taking action against those who send deceptive or fraudulent email.

If you have a specific complaint about an unsolicited commercial email you received, you can fill out this FTC Consumer Complaint Form. This is also the form they want you to use if your "opt-out" request was not honored.

If you want to report any fraudulent spam or violations of CAN-SPAM, simply forward the offending email directly to uce@ftc.gov. You do not need to fill out a complaint form for this.

Every time I get an email from 'webmaster', or 'info', or 'newsletter', or blah-dity-blah-blah no name can't distinguish you from my cat, email sender, I reply to that company suggesting that they change their From name so that I know who the hell they are.

Out of all of the one's that I bitch about, there are still so many that have not changed this very simple element of their email campaigns. Seriously people, everyone sends emails this time of year stating "2004 e-Marketing Predictions". If you consider yourself worth reading, and your From name is 'newsletter', do you think I'm going to read yours, or the MarketingSherpa email I got yesterday?

Hopefully, all of the email marketers who are not yet enlightened will read the most recent article from ClickZ called "Sender Line More Important Than Subject Line."

Read it. Implement it

**Update - I think this list has really gotten out of hand, but then again, it is a compendium...**

It seems that everyone and their brother has written a piece on CAN-SPAM. Here are links to a few of the more reputable pieces on the subject. Also, if have a dedicated email campaign manager/service provider for your marketing emails, contact that vendor for their take. We have been getting a ton of stuff from Email Labs, our email vendor, on how they are working to get all of their clients in compliance with the act.

3/2/04: Internet Retailer: How CAN-Spam helps marketers sharpen their e-mail skills
http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=11412

3/1/04: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - GETTING spam under control
http://www.jsonline.com/bym/tech/news/mar04/211385.asp

2/28/04: Mondaq - United States: The Federal CAN-SPAM Act -- New Requirements for Commercial E-Mail
http://www.mondaq.com/i_article.asp_Q_articleid_E_24583

2/23/04: Opt-in News - THE Great CAN-SPAM Freak Out
http://66.102.98.167/4-9-15-00.html

2/23/04: AZCentral.com - Companies battling spam despite new law
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0223spam23-ON.html

2/18/04: PC Magazine - Spam: A Reality Check
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1529307,00.asp

2/10/04: InformationWeek - Can-Spam Changes Life For Legit E-Mailers
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=17602839

2/9/04: BtoBOnline - CAN-SPAM alters e-mail list rental practices
http://www.btobonline.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=12276#columnb

2/9/04: DMNews - List Firms Provide E-Mail Suppression Services Under CAN-SPAM
http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=26424

2/6/04: Arial Software - The Top Five Questions and Answers about Responsible Email Marketing
http://www.arialsoftware.com/topfivesummary.html

2/4/04: eWeek.com - Keeping Up With CAN-SPAM Act
http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3048,a=117732,00.asp

Fast approaching is the implementation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 regulates all commercial e-mail, both requested and unsolicited. Beginning Jan. 1, federal law requires that all commercial e-mailers:

The Wall Street Journal has a great section devoted to the evolving discussion on unsolicited email.

www.wsj.com/junkmail (subscription required)

Also, here are a few more reputable resources on the topic. Most of these are taken from the point of view of the public - better know as "your customers." The marketer's points of view can be found in other places, which I'll post later. For as much bitching as the DMA did on the DNC list, I'd like to see as much applied to the rights of legitimate permission-based e-mail marketers, and less effort on thwarting the progress of AIM.

• Pew Report: Spam Degrades Life on Internet
www.pewinternet.org

• Compilation of U.S. and international Spam laws
www.spamlaws.com

• Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail
www.cauce.org

• Spam.org
www.spam.org

• Federal Trade Commission's Facts about Spam
www.ftc.gov

• Association for Interactive Marketing's Stop Spam page
www.interactivemarketing.org

• Report spam at SpamCop
www.spamcop.net

ClickZ: The 10 Biggest Spam Myths
- Rebecca Lieb lists the top ten misconceptions about spam. The column collects in one place a great many answers to some of the spam debates more controversial questions.

http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/advertising/article/0,,5941_3092451,00.html

Justin Hitt just posted an excellent, albeit quick, post on the value of offering e-newsletter subscriptions in conspicuous places.

This is a personal pet peeve of mine. If you offer an e-newsletter for your company, and you're committed to email as a strategic e-marketing initiative, you should offer every single opportunity for people to subscribe. Here is an ever growing list of places to offer subscriptions:

***Thanks to all of the members of the AMA Internet/SIG for contributing to this***

1. The homepage. Never, ever forget the homepage. (some companies still do...)
2. The persistent navigation of your site - offer it on every_single_page
3. Send A Page forms - allow people to check a box to be subscribed to your newsletter when they're sending links to friends from your site.
4. From within the Send A Page emails - when that "friend" gets the email from his friend, via your company, offer a direct subscribe link into your list.
5. Literature order and download - Anytime anyone has to register to obtain something off your website, hit them up for newsletter subscription.
6. Links within your RFQ or RFI forms - If yours is a lead-generating site, ask people to sign up for your newsletter when they're requesting info.
7. Out of office emails - Have employees put a pitch for the newsletter in their out of office email replies.
8. Email footers & signatures - Better yet, get a program like Tumbleweed, which can insert marketing messages on every email sent from your company
9. Web co-op programs with complimentary sites that link from their newsletter to yours [Jerry Kaup - the e-mail ad agency]
10. Online ads soliciting subscribers – potentially offer a free incentive such as a pen or ½ pound of coffee. [Toby - Bloomberg Marketing]
11. Co-registration - involves placing a checkbox for your newsletter on other sites that reach the same target market. Essentially, it is where your subscription piggy-backs on another subscription or sign-up form somewhere else. [Scott - brandadvocate.com]

***I'm sure there are MORE - Please comment if you think of them!

Don't forget the offline components as well!
* Brochures
* Warranty Cards
* Direct Mailing
* Catalogs
* Product Packaging
* Trade Show Booths (computer kiosk @ trade show?) [Karen - Millennium Chemicals]
* Print Ads
* Include an announcement on your voice-mail or message while
people are on-hold or being transfer within your phone system [Ryan - ExactTarget]
* Sales/distrib. channel
* Sales people/Cust. Serv. /Field engineers [Sue - M4 Communications]
* All other media ads e.g., radio, TV – If you use those to drive traffic to your site, why not mention the availability of a newsletter and position it as value-add?
* Billing inserts [Toby - Bloomberg Marketing]
* Business reply cards which include a check box and space for email. [Joan Damico]

** From Joe Tyler at www.Informz.com
You really need to give people compelling reasons to sign up for your
newsletters. We find this to be more important than the number of times you
ask them if they want to subscribe. The reasons you give will depend on
your business. You may give them something free (like a whitepaper or a
coupon) or you may be able to entice them by providing offers and incentives
in the email that they can not get anywhere else.

If you have different business units, you may want to give subscribers who
subscribe from a particular unit different options than someone who is
coming from the main corporate site. We have found this to be very
effective.

The bottom line is: Stay in touch with customers through any channel possible.

Also, thanks to Sue @ M4 for suggesting the thought of creating a write-paper/checklist of all customer e-mail acquisition points for a newsletter. It will be a fairly lengthy list and should serve as a reliable resource tool for someone starting out in acquiring or expanding their e-mail database. Be on the lookout for that shortly.

Rok Hrastnik, MarketingStudies.net editor-in-chief, is hosting a running online debate on the death of email marketing and the advent of RSS. To chide in, get in touch with Rok by visiting Marketing Studies.net.

I've had little time to put together my collective thoughts on the subject, except to say that email marketing is growing and here to stay, and that there are several barriers to full-scale RSS adoption.

AIM Releases Long-Awaited E-Mail Best Practices

After months of delays and rancor, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)'s
Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM) on Thursday released recommended
best practices for the delivery of e-mail marketing messages.

The eight-page document posted on the AIM Web site instructs commercial
e-mailers on the steps they can take to avoid getting tagged as spam by
Internet service providers. However, the guidelines fail to address the
definition of spam. (Read the document here.)