Bronto Blog

Hot on the heels of our summer release, Clickz has an article, Sometimes, Email’s Not The Problem by Jeanne Jennings, which does an excellent job explaining the value of the sales funnel. You should take a few minutes to read this article - it talks to the need for analysis of your entire conversion path before placing blame on any one aspect of your marketing mix. Our summer release, only just out of the gate this weekend, includes metrics allowing you to do just that. Heck, we even included the funnel itself. Wondering where your recipients are dropping off? Want to know where you should focus your effort to optimize your email marketing? Well, it’s just as far away as your Bronto Message Tracking report.

For more information about the new metrics Clicked / Opened and Converted / Clicked check out our recent post.

Adam Covati
Product Manager at Bronto

This month’s Customer Email Showcase takes us to the Windy City for a peek at a well designed email from furniture retailer Chiasso. Changing seasons traditionally trigger a flurry of activity in the retail sector as shorts and flip flops get swapped out for sweaters and boots. Chiasso keeps customers abreast of seasonal changes via email; this message continues their strategy of announcing the catalog mailing, building anticipation in the consumer.

1. Alt text - Chiasso knows that most recipients won’t see images at open and they wisely include what may be the most thorough alt text we’ve seen. Instead of the image, readers are provided with a full description of each product, including price! Very impressive.

2. Header/Footer - The header is full of useful navigation, including a search feature, and the footer contains all the CAN-SPAM compliant boilerplate that Bronto loves. The addition of the privacy policy is a great touch.

3. Links - Brian Mehler, Chiasso’s webmaster and jack-of-all-trades, changed the format of the Fall catalog message to include photos of actual rooms rather than products floating on a background. This results in 15 products being displayed - compared to 6 in the Summer catalog message - and each one has a direct link. If something catches your eye, you can go right to it with no extra navigation.

4. Color - It doesn’t take a trained eye to pick out the color theme - there’s brown…and there’s blue. The email is designed to complement the product and does an excellent job of it. The only exceptions are the two red links, both of which point (with urgency) to the Sales Center, and the green gift card logo incorporated into the footer.

5. Branding - Chiasso designs their messages to be an extension of their brand; the look is similar in style and feel to the home page, right down to their affinity for lower-case letters. Clicking through feels like navigating to another page of the site rather than a departure.

For an organization that retails stylish furnishings, anything less than a polished, consistent message would be a red flag. Brian tells us the ROI on Chiasso’s catalog announcement messages continues to increase. With design this good, we’re not surprised.

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto

Your list of email addresses is growing exponentially. All of your hard work is finally paying off. The boss is happy. Champagne is flowing freely. It looks like the Red Sox locker room on October 27, 2004.

Flashback: July 2nd, 2007. You have just collected over 500 email addresses. Your best day ever. July 3rd - even better (700 emails). The trend continues throughout the month. By July 31st, you have collected over 20,000 new email addresses.

Fast forward to August 2nd, 2007 - your first campaign to the new subscribers. You send out the perfect email, brilliantly coded. But wait…your open rates decline, click-throughs stagnate, and complaints skyrocket. How can this be happening?

Now let’s take a look at why open rates are down and unsubscribes/complaints are on the rise. What critical step did you forget? The Welcome Message. Remember, subscribers make the decision to open, delete, or mark a message as spam based on “from name” and “subject line.” The first subscriber added themselves to your list on July 2nd. Almost 30 days have passed and they have not received any email communication from you. Will they remember you? Odds are, the longer you wait to send that first message, the greater the chance you will not be recognized.

How can you mitigate some of this “Who are you” risk? Send a welcome message. Think of the welcome message as the thank-you note after an interview or a receipt after a purchase - the excuse for another “touch.” Inform the subscriber of what they can expect to receive: content, frequency, and the value proposition.

This should result in fewer unsubscribes and complaints. Good news for you - Bronto enables this positive behavior in a few simple steps.

1. Design your welcome message in Bronto (Compose new message. Name it something memorable - “Welcome Message”)
2. Create a webform: Site–Landing Pages–Create Website Form
3. Edit the new webform: Select the “Notification” tab (see screenshot below)
4. Sit back and wait for higher open rates, more conversions, more champagne.

For those who collect addresses offline, you can also send a welcome message during the import process.

For further assistance, please contact Bronto’s Client Service Team today…

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto

The Engineering and Product teams have been hard at work and are ready to unveil the Bronto Summer Release. The new release will be going live Sunday, August 26, 2007.

This release is relatively minor and focuses on message reporting and tracking. Here are some of the highlights:

• New look for the message reporting page.
• Improved formulas (or is it formulae!) for open and click-through rates.
• More detailed bounce reporting. Read more…
• New message performance metrics - clicked/opened and converted/clicked. Read more…

More details await! We will be sending out a complete release description this Friday. Also, plan on attending the official Summer Release webcast Wednesday, August 22nd at 1:00 PM EST. To attend, go to http://webdialogs.com/join and enter the Conference ID 71280; Audio available at 888-676-3315 , Conference ID 71280.

Adam Covati
Product Manager at Bronto

In what rock and roll purists will consider a landmark event, rock legends Van Halen will be touring this fall with former lead singer David Lee Roth. And Bronto is proud to have helped put this together.

While Bronto didn’t make those late night calls to Roth’s manager, or schmooze with Eddie Van Halen over sushi, we are proud to be the email marketing solution for Van Halen’s official newsletter. And though Bronto may end up a minor footnote in the band’s history, we think it rocks.