Worse than unexpected, that one decision caused email designers everywhere much consternation. When recipients upgraded to the new Outlook, they lost animated gifs, background images, and so much more.

So now with a new version of Outlook coming out, many designers were hoping for an upgrade to the rendering technology. Microsoft, however, opted for more of the same.

Why, Microsoft? Why?

An outcry on Twitter orchestrated by fixoutlook.org caught the attention of Microsoft and a reply was provided. You can read the Outlook team’s response for yourself. Essentially they have some pretty weak reasons that everyone else has already ripped apart. So at the end of the day, we can complain about it, but I’m not expecting they’re going to change their minds.

What It Means For You

So we’re stuck with pretty much the same old ugly, difficult Outlook for a while longer. But that’s the good news too. We don’t expect there will be many changes between the current version of Outlook and the release in 2010. So there is a silver lining. You shouldn’t have to make many accommodations for this new version of Outlook, something that can’t always be said for email viewer upgrades.

We’ll have more information for you when they get closer to the final release, but we don’t expect there to be a lot for you to do.

What This Means For Email

As Mark Brownlow’s points out, this provides us with a chance to think about the direction and purpose of email. Email viewers, like Outlook, aren’t created for marketers; they are created for emailers.

The main purpose is for people to send a text based messages to friends, family, or for business purposes. Marketers have jumped into the channel and found a good use for it, but it’s not where the average person derives most of their value. As Mark said:

Perhaps it serves as a useful reminder: the format of the medium is important, but not nearly as important as the basic value of the delivered information. We need to make people care what their commercial HTML email looks like and can do.

So perhaps we should focus a bit less on sophisticated layouts and a bit more on providing a solid, relevant value for our recipients. Of course, pretty emails would be nice too. Come on Outlook, where’s the love?

Adam Covati
Product Manager at Bronto

Related posts:

1. The Scoop On Outlook 2007 If you haven’t caught word already, then allow us to...
2. Rendering in Outlook 2007 - Uncovering a Great Mystery As a support associate here at Bronto, I not only...
3. Rendering in Outlook 2007 Part 2: The Search for Answers In my last post, I detailed the testing I did...

You can when you set up automated (or triggered) messages!

There are many different types of communications that you can set up to run in the background of your email program while you concentrate on the messages that need to be uniquely created and set up.

Not sure how to start?

Think about what information (usually fields in a database) you have for your contacts that you can leverage to send one-off, extremely targeted mailings.

Here are some automated messages ideas to consider based on this kind of information:

1. The birthday email. A classic. Offer a great discount to readers on their big day.

2. The “renewal” or “It’s been a year since…” reminder. If you run a subscription-based business, setting up automated reminders prompting folks to renew is essential and time-saving. You can also use this same idea to remind folks that they took a certain action this time last year and they may want to consider doing so again (great for annual fundraising or events!).

3. Balances updates each month. Running a loyalty program? Want to update your customer base on the points they can redeem now before they expire? Set up an email with a dynamic balance field to go out at the same time each month.

4. Gift reminders. Have a business based around special occasions? If I bought a bouquet or box of chocolates for Alexandra’s birthday last year, why not remind me that her birthday is coming back around and offer me gift ideas? (Note: You can do this retroactively, but it’s even better if you ask customers to set up gift reminders at point of sign-up.)

5. Product reviews. Send an email asking for a review of an item purchased (or event attended!) a number of days after the purchase date (when you believe the customer would have received the product and had time to use it). This helps the customer feel that their voice matters and you get reviews to use in future marketing efforts or on your Web site.

Don’t have as much customer data as you’d like? Take a survey, ask contacts to update their info and incentivize them to so.

You can also set up automated message based on email behavior, such as:

6. A welcome message for new sign-ups. A must!
7. A follow-up email to those who click through on particular messages.
8. A remail of a message that is not opened a certain amount of time later (with a new subject line, of course!).
9. A follow-up email for those who abandon shopping carts.
10. A “helpful hints guide” for using the widget just purchased. This is a great way to build customer relationships.

Some of these practices are expected, such as sending a welcome email after a sign-up, while others can/should be more subtle pushes (or gifts) based on behavior. You definitely want to beware of creating a Big Brother/”We’re watching you!” vibe and alter your messages accordingly.

Bottom line: Setting up automated message rules is one of the most effective ways of targeting your emails and getting the results you want. Spend a day or a week setting some up and see what happens. Once you find that your messages are working and tweaked to be optimal, you can let them run on their own in the background- at least until sometime later in the year when you wisely re-evaluate all your automated campaigns.

So, get moving and let me know how they work!

Kristen Gregory
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Tuning Automated Messages With Easy Testing I recently waxed philosophically about the wonder of Automated Messages...
2. The Need for Ease If you are like me, you wear more than just...
3. Creating Relevant Messages During Acquisition Lessons Learned from Bronto’s Marketing Team Conversion Pathing, Part 3...

Chris, already well established in the deliverability arena, is an active blog contributor to the Deliverability.com blog and will be an contributor to the Email Experience Council blog and Bronto Blog.  In his first week at Bronto, Chris has already hit the ground running.  So, without further adieu, let’s meet Chris:

Trouble viewing the video? Check out YouTube or Blip.tv.

With the addition of Chris’ experience both on the customer and ESP side, we are strengthening an already strong deliverability foundation of Bronto.  I hope you join me in welcoming Chris aboard!

Carolyn Sparano
VP of Client Services

Related posts:

1. Client Services Expands Its Reach To better serve you, the Bronto Client Services team is...
2. New (Very Large) Faces in Client Services Our Client Services team has become so adept at helping...
3. Having Trouble Viewing This Message? You’ve probably heard that all of the cool kids: Windows...

By sending this confirmation, CB2 is setting themselves up for complaints. Below, I go through the elements of the unsubscribe process from start to finish to show what’s most effective so that you can ensure complaints don’t happen to you.

A) Unsubscribe placement in email

There are plenty of options around where to place the unsubscribe: In the footer, in the preheader, directly beneath the header, or in the main body of the message. How questionable your list or content is will likely determine where the unsubscribe should go in the message. The more questionable, the higher the unsubscribe should reside. Testing placement will also help you find the best place for it to live.

Bottom line: Make it easy for people to find the unsubscribe or they will complain.

B) Unsubscribe language in email

Following are two examples of marketers that have made it very clear how to opt-out of their email communications:

1)

2)

There is no question on how to unsubscribe from communications from these marketers. You don’t want to make the mistake of not including an unsubscribe link or option, as seen in this example from Alibris. While it may not have been done intentionally, CAN-SPAM requires that every marketing email contain a clear unsubscribe. You also don’t want to place the unsubscribe in an image or bury the unsubscribe in legalese and gray it out. Both are confusing and ineffective.

Bottom line: Make it easy for people to unsubscribe or they will complain.

C) Unsubscribe landing page

First and foremost, you want to make sure that the unsubscribe link in your email goes to a proper landing page where it’s easy for people to perform one click to unsubscribe. However, this landing page is also the perfect opportunity to open communication and determine why the subscriber is unsubscribing like Petco does, or to try to look for ways to keep the subscriber engaged by providing opportunities to opt-down on frequency, like Chefs.com does. You can also provide alternative channels for subscribers to interact with your brand like social sites or blogs, for instance. Supplying alternatives will also help to combat the top two reasons people unsubscribe: lack of relevancy and frequency.

Loren McDonald shared a presentation on why the unsubscribe doesn’t necessarily have to mean goodbye with tips and tricks for how to keep subscribers engaged, which you can find here.

Bottom line: Provide options for subscribers and you will potentially keep them engaged.

Remember, subscribers unsubscribing does not necessarily mean they no longer want to hear from you (just that they don’t through email at this time) and it certainly doesn’t mean they’ll stop shopping your brand. Just let them go! The spam button is prominent in most email clients. Don’t give people a reason to use it.

Kelly Lorenz
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Launching a New Brand? How to Do It Right the First Time In the past, I’ve talked about spamtastic attempts at launching...
2. Mistakes happen. Are you prepared? You create a beautiful, well-designed email. You test the...
3. 6 Considerations to Lower Complaints & Improve Your Sender Reputation Got complaints? The bad news: Complaints are the best...

JCrew.com’s New crewcuts Children’s Clothing Line

From: crewcuts (jcrew@e.jcrew.com)
Subject: introducing our first ever crewcuts catalog + free shipping

What doesn’t work about this:

• The From Name – “crewcuts.” I didn’t recognize it and nearly marked as spam.
• Typical of J.Crew emails, they used one large image that is completely lost without images enabled. The only visible text is the preheader, links to online and mobile versions, a useless alt tag of “JCrew.com” and the offer’s fine print.
• I always like to see a preheader, however, it is just a repeat of the subject line, so it doesn’t provide any added value to the unfamiliar reader.
• The unsubscribe page takes you to a page where if you continue, you will be opted out of ALL J.Crew messages. I don’t have kids, but I still want regular J. Crew emails, so am I going to be forced to receive every crewcuts promo in the future? (Answer: so far, yes, I’ve gotten one every week since this launch.)

What does work:

• The subject line. I didn’t know what crewcuts was, but I was intrigued enough to open. A new product line and free shipping is a good way to grab attention.
• The link to mobile version is a nice touch.
• The design itself once images are enabled is clean, appealing and the kid is cute, I have to give them that. Lisa at Smith-Harmon agrees (Be sure to check out the comments too for some great banter).

So, what have we learned?

Lesson 1
First and foremost, respect your subscribers. You worked hard to build up your lists, why risk eroding those lists for the sake of trying to drum up sales for a new venture? Ask them to sign up for your new brand’s offers and give them an easy way to opt-out if they are not interested, without removing themselves from your original brand’s list.

Lesson 2
In conjunction with this, use your own From Name and make your messaging clear (in the subject and in the body) that this is your company’s new site, and you are inviting customers to check it out.  Once launched, your new brand’s promotions should start coming from a new  address and From Name, and going only to the people who have opted in for them.

Lesson 3
While it’s tempting to take advantage of your main brand’s list, don’t abuse it. Promoting the other site from time to time within Brand A’s messaging is fine (as a sidebar, not the entire focus of the message), but don’t go overboard with the Brand B shoutouts.

Lesson 4
To help build up your new lists, use other channels like PPC, direct mail, in-store promotions, order fulfillment stuffers, etc. to drive opt-ins on your new brand’s signup page.

Lesson 5
A clean and attractive design is awesome, but it’s wasted if you don’t design well for images off. Alt tags and good old text can be an email marketer’s best friends.

P.S. Shoes.com still hasn’t learned their lesson. While ShoeSteal.com has gone silent, they recently launched FergieShoes.com and spammed me yet again (see the message here). Though this time they were nice enough to ask me to join “Fergie’s All-Access Email Club” (all-access to WHAT, exactly?), I’m still getting their messages after not opting in. Not cool.

Julie Waite
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Why is “testing” my favorite word? For many of us, the word “test” evokes all sorts...
2. Data: Jump on it! What do you do with the data from your...
3. Creating Relevant Messages During Acquisition Lessons Learned from Bronto’s Marketing Team Conversion Pathing, Part 3...

As I finish my time at Bronto (more on that later), I thought it would be fitting to leave you with some parting thoughts on email marketing best practices - what I’ve learned, shared, and preached most over the past ~1,460 days. Buckle up and enjoy the ride with me.

4 Key Lessons From The Trail

1. Don’t BLAST: Never ever (ever) use the word blast in the same sentence as email or email marketing. Never. Blast is what space shuttles, Super Soakers, fireworks, and volcanoes do. Not strategic, smart email marketers.
2. Send timely, targeted, relevant emails to subscribers who have asked for them - also known as “The Perfect Email.”
3. Test. Then, when you are done testing, test again. Then retest. You get the idea.
4. “Email is free. Email marketing isn’t.” Enough said.

What’s Next?

Rest assured that with my departure from Bronto, this blog is in great hands. For the past year, these posts have been chock full of incredible content from some of the best in the industry - of course I am referring to Bronto Blog contributors Kristen Gregory, Kelly Lorenz, and Julie Waite. These three email marketing strategists will continue to produce words of wisdom on a regular basis.

As you may be able to decipher from the Google Map above, I’ll no longer be in Durham, NC but will certainly be cheering Bronto from afar.

In the words of Bronto’s fearless leader, “Onward and Upward.” In my words…

Stay classy, Durham.

DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto

Related posts:

1. 4 Email Marketing Goals For 2009 On January 1, Chris Brogan truly inspired me with his...
2. Calls-to-Action: Read This Post Now. Arguably one of the most important elements in an email,...
3. Priceline.com Nails the Post-Purchase Email Earlier this week, I wrote about The Perfect Email. The...

Last week I spoke at the HiMA (Houston Interactive Marketing Association) luncheon. The topic of the conversation was, “From Creation to Conversion: The Journey of the Perfect Email.”

I discussed what I consider to be the 6 parts of email:

1. Forehead/Hair: Preheader
2. Face (eyes): From name & subject line
3. Neck and Arms: Navigation bar, sidebar, logo/brand
4. Midsection (guts): Main call to action
5. Quads, Knees, Shins: “Other”
6. Feet: Footer

See the full presentation below or go to Bronto’s Slideshare account.

Do you have other analogies that relate to the wonderful world of email marketing? Please share. We’d love to hear from you.

DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing: 5+ Tips (Presentation) Are there really only 5 tips for more effective...
2. 10 Suggestions to Improve Email Templates Templates. The starting point for many email marketing campaigns....
3. Don’t forget to ask: Gaining interested email subscribers It doesn’t hurt to ask. You’ll never know if...

Less marketing budget = more email reliance

First, because email has a reputation of lower cost and higher ROI compared to other marketing channels like direct mail, businesses are moving into email when they hadn’t really been playing in that arena before. We’re also seeing established email players ramp up their email frequencies to make up for revenue losses or budget cutbacks elsewhere. This practice can be harmful, of course, and marketers should test and watch stats to make sure they are not overmailing.

Marketers must target to trim the fat

While some businesses are emailing anyone and everyone possible, other companies recognize that email isn’t free. With tighter times, they are getting smarter about their marketing. They are taking the time to target and segment their emails to people who are more qualified and apt to care about the particular message they are sending out. The “batch-and-blast” (or “spray-and-pray”) approach, in addition to being recognized as less effective, is now also being seen as wasteful by marketers.

Priority #1: (Show) Value (to) current customers

Additionally, there is a recognition that current customers/subscribers are extremely important to retain and nurture in today’s environment. This involves, again, making emails more timely and relevant to the end reader. Establishing lifecycle marketing campaigns (i.e. sending emails based on the customer’s recent behavior such as a new sign-up, purchase, inactivity, etc) is essential. There is more focus on fine-tuning automated message rules (or triggered emails) and creating value-add content (for example: someone purchases a widget and a week later an email arrives with helpful hints on using the widget). Dialogue and relationship-building are top of mind.

Clearly, these kind of practices will not only optimize results in tough times, but ultimately position businesses for better success once the economy rebounds.

What other ways are you seeing the economy affecting the email marketing arena?

Kristen Gregory
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Earn Your Keep: How to Measure Email ROI By now your planning for 2009 email marketing should...
2. How does your email marketing stack up? We asked, and you answered. From analytics to personalization, visitors...
3. Internet Retailers Stand Tall With Email Marketing What’s the message from the Internet Retailer Convention & Exhibition...

Keurig added 1 million new subscribers in less than 12 months

I’m hoping that a few thoughts/questions came to mind as you (re)read that sentence.

1. Wow.
2. Wow.
3. Wow.
4. How?
5. Cool, but did that lead to more conversions? If so, how many more?
6. Great, but did they remember to capture email addresses?
7. Awesome, but it’s less about list size … more about relevant messaging, right?

How Did Keurig Do It?

According to the Internet Retailer article (read entire story)

Each morning an associate in the Keurig marketing department goes online to monitor the leading coffee drinking and coffee equipment blogs ranked on the Google and Yahoo search engines. When it comes across a blog posting about a Keurig or Green Mountain product, the Keurig manager will contact the blogger and offer them a membership in Coffee Club, Keurig’s online customer loyalty program, free gourmet coffee samples and or an in-home trial of a Keurig brewing system. Keurig, which sells direct to the public online and through retail chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., also placed more coupons good for discounts or free merchandise on multiple pages of its user’s manual and even on the warranty registration card.

So, it seems to me like they used some of the free tools (Google and Yahoo search) and “new media” (blogs) to listen. However, they went beyond this initial step. Keurig then responded to the bloggers by thanking them with a membership in the Coffee Club. A relatively simple strategy, and one that is easy to implement.

Yeah, But Did It Lead To More Conversions?

Per the article, “…the number of repeat buyers on Keurig.com in the past 12 months has increased from 15% to 30%.” This statistic alone would indicate an increase in conversions. However, what is unclear (to me) is what impact the bloggers who Keurig offered the membership in Coffee Club had on the top line. Did these bloggers spread the word? Were they the “connectors” as Gladwell calls them?

Did Keurig Remember To Capture Email Addresses?

As an email marketing company, this was actually my first question. Well, 2nd. I shouted “Wow” out loud first 3 times. The article mentions nothing about email, which was pretty disappointing. I’m very hopeful that part of their new Coffee Club membership drive included collecting email addresses, sending welcome messages, etc. One can only hope. *If you have information about the email component of this campaign, please share in the comments below.

Less About List Size, More About Relevancy

As Mark Brownlow wrote over 2 years ago, “…we have this unhealthy obsession with list size.” This same post challenges marketers to “Reclaim your list!” I believe this is one of those blog posts that is timeless. Marketers today still are often compensated by the size of their list, while they should be more motivated by sending timely, targeted emails to those that have asked for them. Part of a presentation I gave at the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) Whistle Stop Tour focused on this very point - relevancy. This is not a presentation you want to watch if you are hungry.

Read the entire Internet Retailer article and tell us what you think. Can anyone help in answering #6 above? Did they remember to capture email addresses?

DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto

Related posts:

1. How We Read Online: [Email Version] A fellow Bronto recently IM’d me a fantastic article from...
2. The Upromise Annual Membership Requirement My sister has 14 children. Ok. I may have...
3. Welcome Message: The Most Critical Email You Will Send Your list of email addresses is growing exponentially. All of...

Before beginning, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I testing for the sake of testing or testing to learn? This may seem like a dumb question, but all too often the plan for next steps post-test are not put in place, making testing moot.

2. Am I ready to implement results of the test? As a follow-up to the first question, you need to have a plan in place to implement and scale the result of the test. Whether that means a small tweak or a massive overhaul, you have to be ready.

3. How do I know when a result is conclusive? After testing, you should be taking a hard look at your metrics and determining what margin decisively proves the end result.

4. How many times will I test an element of the program/campaign before declaring a “winner?” Testing an element, like a subject line, one time is often not enough to draw conclusions, but how many times makes sense? The answer to this question will be based on your individual business model (and through testing).

After you have answered these questions, it’s time to establish a plan for which elements you will test. It’s important to only test one element at a time so the results do not get muddled. The most common tests are:

A) Time of day or day of week - Have you always sent Monday morning at 7AM? Maybe it’s time to try 3PM or sending Tuesday instead if you’re seeing low open and interaction rates.

B) Subject lines - Does a personalized subject line work for you?

C) Calls-to-action - Are strong or passive calls-to-action more persuasive to your audience to click-through?

D) Images/graphics - If you are using a large hero image, is it taking away from the main message of your emails or should you include many images to create an experience with your brand? Or does an “image-light” email work best?

E) Products/sales message - Would placing more emphasis around education and information increase your sales? Don’t be afraid to mix up your emails once in awhile.

F) Landing pages - Does sending subscribers directly to product pages increase conversions?

At the conclusion of the test, implement what you’ve learned and move on to the next element to test. Never test once and be satisfied with the result as you can always improve on the status quo. Get out there and start testing! What are you waiting for?

Kelly Lorenz
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Recap - Friday Webcast - Testing I lead a brief presentation today touting the virtues of...
2. Embrace Testing and Reap the Rewards While you sit alone in your office, do you often...
3. Friday Webcast - Testing Folks - it is important that you test your messages...