Everest Base Camp & Email Marketing

It’s been almost exactly one year since I returned from Nepal and hiking to Everest Base Camp and the email landscape is a lot like the hiking trails to EBC. Along the way there were many trekkers who were going it alone without the help of a guide or Sherpa.  The Sherpas are there for a reason, they know which route to avoid and which ones offer the easiest path.  Our Sherpa “Nima” was making his 85th trek to EBC so we felt very confident that whatever obstacle we found ourselves faced with, that he would help us to successfully navigate our way to EBC. 

 When it comes to making the transition from one ESP to another, you should ensure that the new ESP knows the route to success.  Having a team of ESP savvy marketers along with an experienced project manager is a must.  You should ensure that your assigned ESP project manager has “walked the hills” with previous implementations.  Like trekking, an inexperience project manager often doesn’t have the on mountain  experience to navigate the issues that will invariably arise during the transition. 

Transitioning from solution to another can be a daunting task, just think about the last software implementation you were involved with, it was probably behind schedule impacted your day and cost more than budgeted.  A Sherpa who has been down the path many times can help to navigate the path to success, and he / she can avoid the potential challenges and pitfalls that arise during any implementation. 

Switching Email Providers doesn’t have to be painful

As many of you know, I recently returned from Nepal and hiking to Everest Base Camp. Along the way there were many trekkers who were going it alone without the help of a guide or Sherpa. The Sherpas are there for a reason, they know which route to avoid and which ones offer the easiest path. Our Sherpa “Nima” was making his 85th trek to EBC so we felt very confident that whatever obstacle we found ourselves faced with, that he would help us to successfuly navigate our way to EBC.

When it comes to making the transition from one ESP to another, you should ensure that the new ESP knows the route to success. Having a team of ESP savvy marketers along with an experienced project manager is a must. You should ensure that your assigned ESP project manager has “walked the hills” with previous implementations. Like trekking, an inexperience project manager often doesn’t have the on mountain experience to navigate the issues that will invariably arise during the transition.

Transitioning from solution to another can be a daunting task, just think about the last software implementation you were involved with, it was probably behind schedule impacted your day and cost more than budgeted. A Sherpa who has been down the path many times can help to navigate the path to success, and he / she can avoid the potential challenges and pitfalls that arise during any implementation.

Why are Welcome emails so important?

As a marketer, you need to pay attention to your welcome email program.  Remember the welcome email is the first email interaction you will have with your new subscriber.  Making sure that interaction is relevant and meaningful is critical to the lifetime value of that subscriber.

Here are a couple of questions to ask:

• Does the welcome email come right away?
• Does it say thank you, use the subscribers first name, look nice, render across browsers and/or mobile devices?
• Do it make your new scriber feel good about your organization?

You only have one chance to make a first impression.  Make it count with your welcome program.

Email integration with Pinterest to grow

Pinterest and email integration to grow. The first uses of  Pinterest content and calls-to-action appeared in retail emails in February 2012. By  the end of October nearly 60% of retailers had used a “pin it” button in their  emails or promoted their Pinterest boards or a Pinterest-based contest.

The holiday season halted most Pinterest-email integration efforts, but in 2013 you can expect further adoption, more frequent promotion of Pinterest in  emails, and more movement beyond simply adding a Pinterest icon that links to a  brand’s pinboards.

Responsive Design for Email

What is responsive design, its new buzz word that I am hearing about from BlueHornet.  The concept is simple.  A designer can change content based on the WIDTH that it’s being viewed.  The design is responding to the width of the viewer’s device… hence “responsive design.”

Responsive design has nothing to do with detecting what type of device is being used… it doesn’t matter if it’s an Blackberry or an iPhone 3 or an iPhone 5… the only thing that matters is how big the viewing window is.  And that’s what “Responsive Design” is all about… targeting widths, not devices.

Email Win-Back for Non-Responders

What is an email non-responder?   A recipient who is not opening your email, are they not clicking on the email? Over what period of time?  Some say 12-18 months is the appropriate window of time to measure this.  To me, to do this right, you really have to go back and apply non-responder rules to the context of the “source” where you received permissions.  Was it through promotions from the past, site promotions, third-party promotions? There are a lot of reasons why people don’t respond to email – as marketers, we can only guess. Some rules should apply to flagging non or under-performing segments, but should you suppress from mailings?  That’s the million dollar question!  Maybe awin-back series to see if they are still interested.

Email Security Breach

I have received three messages in the past few days from organizations where I do business.  The emails were notifications or alerts announcing the their ESP that my email address and other personal information “may have been exposed by unauthorized entry into their system.”   Two were financial institutions.   When picking your next ESP, make sure you do your homework and pick one that is financially sound.

Mobile Rendering with Email

When creating an email marketing message, you need to remember to optimize the mobile and preview pane view. The number of users checking email on their mobile devices increased 35.8 percent in November – from 51.6 million in November 2009 to 70.1 million. Therefore, make it easy for a user to view and act upon the email without viewing the full creative.  You should have a link in the pre-header, make the navigation HTML and clickable, and build the email so the top left creative has an action in it.

Email Call to Action

To drive better conversions or to get the results to improve, it is always key to put your message or call to action “above the fold”. Most recipients preview their emails in the preview pane. Remember the real estate is limited. Your key call to action and or graphic must reside in this area if you want to maximize open rates.

Understanding Opt-in

Smart marketers should offer a very clear opt-in mechanism so visitors understand they are proactively giving consent to receive further communication from the brand. The best marketers also offer choices about which types of communications consumers are agreeing to receive and how often they wish to receive them (i.e., special offers vs. company highlights).  Do this and you should see your open rates and conversion grow.