Bronto Blog

Email List Rental = Car Rental

2008-07-01T17:27:58Z

I was recently told that I’ve been on a “car kick” these past few weeks. It all started with my EEC post on June 13th, “Enterprise: Great Intent, Poor Execution” where I discussed how Enterprise sent me a confirmation email (good) but then continued to send me emails even though I didn’t confirm (bad).

Today’s post will continue down the automobile comparison road as it relates to the taboo subject of…list rental.

At this summer’s Email Insider Summit, I sat at a breakout session where marketers were debating 3rd party list rental. Suffice to say, the discussion got quite heated. Seems like you are either on one side of the fence or the other…not much room in the middle. If you’re in good company, list rental is just as dangerous a topic as religion or politics (”the things we don’t talk about”). Later that evening, I sat at dinner between a friend of mine from another ESP and a gentleman whose company provides email appends and list rentals. Emotions flew back and forth for over 30 minutes.

Why is the topic of list rental so controversial? But first…

How is List Rental Like Car Rental?

The Company: There are scores if not hundreds of different places you can rent a car from. Some are reputable, well-known companies (think Hertz, Avis, Enterprise), while others can be a bit shady (think Rent4Free, Rent-A-Wreck). Most often, you get what you pay for. The same goes for list rental services. Some list rental companies are backed by well-known organizations (see Return Path’s Postmaster Network).
The Car (List): Sometimes you get a good car (list), sometimes you’re not so fortunate. If you are lucky, the car drives well, responds to corners, gets good gas mileage. Other times, you get the leftover clunker that breaks down on the Pacific Coast Highway. Similar to email list rental, sometimes you get subscribers who are really interested in your product/services, more than likely - not.

Why is List Rental So Controversial?

The problem with list rental is that the subscribers are not nearly as engaged as those who find you directly and ask specifically to be included in your email marketing campaigns. To me, that is the biggest difference. From what I’ve seen, list rentals tend to have much lower open, click-through, and conversion rates. In and of itself, lower rates are not a cause for panic, but a damaged reputation is. In my experience, emails that are sent to rented lists have more complaints, are more likely to be marked as junk/spam, and have a higher unsubscribe rate. This is where you can run into issues.

I’m not quite sold on the concept of list rental. But…if you are going to rent, be smart about it. If you think about the first email as an opt-in vs opt-out, you’re likely to see a healthier list (with fewer subscribers). In my opinion, worth the trade off. A blog post from August of 2007 penned by Return Path’s CEO & Chairman, Matt Blumberg, lists 9 practices that are a must to help obtain higher inbox placement. In the same post, Matt closes with a very real, honest admission

“And, it’s worth saying: the key is that we do all of these things. Plenty of third-party marketers do some of them. But deliverability has never been about finding a silver bullet. It’s about pulling on all the levers that influence reputation to achieve optimum inbox placement. We’re not where we want to be, but we’ve made great strides improving our reputation and our inbox placement.”

I’m not sure I could have said it any better.

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto

How We Read Online: [Email Version]

2008-06-25T16:50:13Z

A fellow Bronto recently IM’d me a fantastic article from Slate author, Michael Agger. How we read online is a sagacious, witty piece outlining how:

We.

Read.

Online.

(Once you read his article, the 3 “paragraphs” above will make more sense)

Mr. Agger talks about reading online (aka, the Internet, World Wide Web). Much of what Agger writes is relevant not just to “online” but also to email marketing. Specifically, he recommends:

A short paragraph at the top of the page…surrounded by white space…in small type
Bulleted lists
Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
Short sentence fragments
Explanatory subheads

Simple, yet brilliant.

Take a few minutes to review your most recent email marketing campaigns. Do they utilize any of his suggestions? Are they easy on the eye? Do they grab your attention? Have you sent around the creative/copy to those outside of your circle for review? If not, ask yourself why. Think about tweaking your messaging to include at least a few of the above items. Then test test test (and share your results with me). Instead of this long paragraph, you could use a bulleted list (see #2 above).

I realize that Agger does not talk about other critical design concepts - image/text ratio, call-to-action, above the fold, preheader (to name a few). However, challenge yourself to integrate one or two of these suggestions while still maintaining pristine email rendering.

Jakob Nielsen also wrote a somewhat dated (2006) but relevant article on email reading patterns. I’d encourage you to read Agger’s entire article and think about how you can apply his recommendations into your email marketing campaigns. Start today.

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto

BrontoFire: Live - Welcome Messages

2008-06-19T14:16:26Z

Don’t underestimate the power of welcoming new subscribers to your email marketing efforts with a very clean, clear and convincing Welcome Message.

Can’t view the video? Try viewing it on YouTube.

In this month’s BrontoFire, DJ and I analyze welcome emails from the following big-name online retailers: NewEgg, Sierra Trading Post, Coach and John Deere. This simple yet very compelling message facilitates an immediate relationship with your consumers. Subscribers like to be recognized, thanked and embraced by a brand.

View our lively discussion on Welcome Messages today.

Next month, we’ll highlight online retailers implementing Preheaders.

Kimberly Snyder and DJ Waldow
Account Managers at Bronto

Why We Need to Think Customer Experience

2008-06-20T18:36:18Z

In our quest to achieve business objectives and to increase ROI, we often lose sight of the customer experience. We’re caught over-sending, using personalization incorrectly, not utilizing segmentation, or not effectively tracking customer behavior. All of these things add to a poor customer experience. We’ve devalued how important the role of customer experience should be in email marketing.

Here are just a few examples of low hanging fruit that can improve the customer experience.

Over-sending to your customer. Did your customer set preferences for frequency? If not, have you considered offering your subscriber that option? It’s key to allow your customers to tell you how often they are going to receive your marketing. If you have set frequency expectations, don’t abuse them. Respect your customer’s inbox, by doing so you will have a positive return.
Personalization used incorrectly. A colleague recently received an email that addressed her with her last name only. It seems the sender didn’t verify that the personalization they were using in fact targeted the first name. It may seem small, but to the recipient, it’s the first tell-tale sign that your message isn’t going to be relevant to them.

Irrelevant Content/Promotions. Are all of your customers receiving the same content regardless of interest? If so, you may want to rethink your content / promotion strategy. I’m a woman who loves shoes, and when I receive an email campaign that focuses on all-terrain tires, I’m quick to delete it, but send me a discount on your shoes, and I’m buying. Do you know what drives an individual to purchase? Consider using behavioral analytics, purchase history, or preferences to drive content and segment, segment, segment.

Your company can differentiate itself through its customer experience. Your email marketing can influence perceptions, preferences, and predispositions toward additional purchases. Customer experience, relevance, and timing all go hand in hand to create a meaningful dialogue between you and your customer. To get your email marketing program on the right track towards a dynamic customer experience consider the following:

Define the customer experience. What customer experience will also help you meet your ROI and business objectives? What customer experience speaks to your brand? Are you open to creating dialogue between you and your customer? All are important questions that need to be answered in order to really define how you want your customers to perceive your business.
Establish expectations, priorities, and performance perceptions. Have you set expectations around delivery? Have you prioritized what email campaigns really should be sent to all customers and which campaigns are better served using segmentation? Determine what expectations you have set for your customers, and if you haven’t set any, maybe it’s time you did.
Identify and measure opportunities for improvement. Our email programs are always in need of optimization, and this holds true not only for metrics, but also the customer experience. Think segmentation, good use of personalization, and relevant emails.

Your customers are ultimately the lifeline to you meeting or exceeding your business objectives. Create a relationship of respect and trust, and they will respond.

Social Media & Brand Champions – Build It and They Will Use It

2008-06-16T15:22:01Z

I recently attended a session at Internet Retailer 2008 Conference which focused on Social Networking. I was wary that the session would once again focus on why Social Media is growing and that it is a great marketing opportunity – which I have heard over and over for the past 24 months.

I really wanted the discussion to pivot around real life examples where marketers are utilizing these viral sites to sell their product and promote their brand. Heather Dougherty, Director of Research at Hitwise, gave me exactly what I was craving – a compelling and thought provoking session packed with great examples that I could internalize and run with.

I was inspired to re-think my overall concept on how marketers can empower consumers to become their “brand’s fans.”

As we all know, or at least have been told, Social Networks can build brand awareness and brand loyalty virally. Consumers of all ages are continually creating and updating their MySpace or Facebook pages with creative pulled from here, there and everywhere. Savvy marketers should be enabling their “brand’s fans” by giving consumers digital content that can simply be pulled down from your corporate site.

Consumers are yearning to be your brand’s advocate. Marketers should embrace these adoring consumers with a passion by building multiple badges to be displayed on their MySpace and Facebook accounts. According to the Facebook FAQ, “A badge is a customizable clip of your Facebook profile that you can share on other web sites. You can choose what information (e.g. picture, name, birthday, mobile number, etc) to show on your badge. The badge will be visible to anyone you want, even non-Facebook users.”

Zappos has brilliantly created nine unique badges for their “brand’s fans”. Zappos asks their consumers, “Do you heart Zappos.com? Show off your love for Zappos.com on your MySpace pages and blogs with these buttons.” Zappos clearly understands that if they build the creative and make it easy to grab their consumers will not only use it but use it everywhere. Now that is just beautiful.

Kimberly Snyder
Account Manager at Bronto

Internet Retailers Stand Tall With Email Marketing

2008-06-20T20:16:51Z

What’s the message from the Internet Retailer Convention & Exhibition in Chicago where Bronto has been exhibiting as an industry leader in email marketing this week?

In a slumping economy, retailers tell us that the effectiveness and efficiency of email marketing makes it even more important in their marketing mix. When consumer spending takes a hit, retailers need to work even harder to keep costs low, while maintaining revenue numbers. We’ve seen it before. Bronto client From You Flowers eliminated their catalog channel altogether; after realizing that the high costs of production (materials, printing, postage) didn’t come close to their email marketing returns.

In comparison to last year’s Internet Retailer Conference, where email marketing sessions focused on segmentation and many basic topics, this year the focus was on transactional messaging. Transactional messaging allows you to automate many of your processes while delivering relevant touches for the customer. In one session, Jeffrey Housenbold of Shutterfly stated that they receive 75% of their revenue from existing customers. More than customer acquisition, the ability to retain customers while nurturing and growing the relationship becomes key. And email marketing is an ideal channel to achieve that goal. Meanwhile a main goal in e-commerce should be to drive traffic back to your website. Do your email marketing goals work in concert with your marketing goals? Does every one of your email campaigns focus on driving traffic back to your website? You should have answered both of those questions with a hearty “YES.” If not, you should quickly realign your marketing goals.

During another session Cliff Conneighton, SVP of ATG, stressed that web shopping needs to be personal. This need provides even more reason to enhance those email marketing relationships, conveying high quality, a good name, and ultimately staying top of mind for when they’re ready to purchase.

Keep the conversation alive with your customers; nurture the relationship. If your customers are going to spend their money, make sure they’re going to spend it on your products.

So, without doubt, internet retailers are standing tall through these trying economic times, but it’s not without the help of email marketing.

Caroline Smith
Marketing Program Manager at Bronto

Petition to Ban The Phrase “Email Blast”

2008-06-20T20:22:24Z

“Email Blast” - the one phrase in email marketing that raises the hair on my arms. I equate it to the internet version of a space shuttle launch. I guess email is sent into space (kinda), but the terminology still does not fit.

I spend the majority of my day working with clients discussing email marketing best practices, innovation, and strategy. During this time I hear and see the term “email blast” more than I care to admit.

Below are snippets of actual client emails I’ve received:

“We’ve been doing email blasts for 10 years and…”
“…compare individual blasts to other blasts…”
“…sending direct mail and email blasts to customers…”

And client phone conversations I’ve had:

“I just sent out today’s email blast…”
“Hey DJ, can we review the blast results?

Many clients even name their internal messages as “060908BLAST” or “Tuesday_Blast”.

Type in “Email Blast” in Google and you get some interesting paid and organic results:

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It pains me every time I hear, read, or even think about the word “blast” following email. Who cares, it’s just a phrase, right? Wrong.

“Email Blast” sends the wrong message about email marketing. It is impersonal and cold. I envision a robot sitting at a laptop counting down - 3…2…1…(Email) Blast! It implies a message that is sent to the entire house file - no segmentation, no targeting, with no thought if subscribers actually want to read your message.

It’s time that we - marketers, ESPs, ISPs, and others in the email marketing ecosystem - begin to change our vocabulary. It’s time we eliminated the phrase “email blast” from our vernacular. Start today by sending me an email, a tweet @djwaldow or commenting on this post. Join the revolution.

*This post is one that has been stewing for some time. Just as I began formulating my ideas for it, Mathew Patterson and @justinpremick and beat me to the punch. Blasted! They both make some excellent points. Make sure to check out the comments also as their posts have spawned some great discussion.

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto

API - Driving Your Email Marketing Forward

2008-06-05T18:39:23Z

An API is a powerful tool that can open the door to high ROI email programs, but for the uninitiated it can be confusing trying to understand what they are really all about. Today we’re going to go over what an API is, and how you can leverage it to make your life easier, and your emails better.

What does API Mean?

API stands for Application Programming Interface, but I like to describe it as a language. It’s the language that is used to talk to a specific application. I’m not talking about an actual programming language, like C or Java. In the generic sense, this language allows you to provide commands or ask questions of the application at hand.

There’s some lingo that goes along with APIs that you should be familiar with as well. There are several different technologies that APIs are often based on, this includes SOAP, REST, and RPC. I’m not going to get into all those acronyms, that’s a whole other blog post, but you’ll probably see them thrown around when you talk API. Also, each time you talk to an application via an API it’s called a Making a Call, e.g. you would make a call to the api to upload a list.

What can an API do?

Once you know how to talk with an application you are able to ask it questions or tell it to do things. In general APIs provide much of the abilities that are available in the corresponding application, allowing you to automate processes, quickly accomplish repetitive tasks, and integrate with other systems. The capabilities of most APIs can be broken down into two main types of tasks: Data Manipulation Tasks and Operational Tasks.

Data Manipulation Tasks

These types of tasks involve pulling down data, pushing up data, and changing other data. In terms of email marketing, this means you can do things like upload new subscribers, synchronize with a local database, or update data for subscribers. Depending on what you are looking to do, much of this can be done with just a few calls (using our new lingo already!).

These tasks help you to create a solid base for your marketing activities; if you don’t have recent, accurate data then you can’t segment or personalize properly.

Operational Tasks

With these activities you are actually making the application carry out actions that you would normally have to log in to do. This can be helpful with actions you do on a recurring basis such as sending out a monthly bill or creating a new message. You can also integrate with other systems you use, allowing you to send out relevant messaging based on interactions with your subscribers, whether those are receipts, thank you notes, or follow-ups.

After you’ve automated repetitive tasks and integrated external systems you will have more time, made less mistakes, and have a much more relevant email marketing program.

Should You Be Using An API?

Ok, so now you know what an API is and what it is capable of. I bet you are excited to take advantage of one within your email marketing program. But before you do anything you need to know what it is you want to accomplish. Where are your pain points? What data isn’t making it’s way into your subscriber database? What types of messages could you be sending if your separate systems were integrated?

Once you answer those questions you’ll be ready to determine if an API is the answer to your needs.

Adam Covati
Product Manager at Bronto

The Need for Ease

2008-06-11T18:23:28Z

If you are like me, you wear more than just one hat. In addition to email marketing, you may also manage PPC, SEO, online advertising, or print. Some may even manage projects outside the scope of marketing. So how do you get everything done, but still have time to create relevant, timely email campaigns? Think trigger-based email messages.

A trigger-based email program puts the ease in email marketing. While creating workflow rules and implementation may seem tricky at first, the end result can be a truly relevant email campaign to customers and prospects that yields a greater ROI.

A few things to consider when creating a trigger-based email program:

Think customer first. What frequency of trigger-based campaigns will not bombard your customer or prospect leaving them fatigued from over-sending? What promotional opportunities make sense: cross-sell, up-sell, discounts, free shipping? The possibilities are limitless for how you will use trigger-based email campaigns, but always be cognizant of the impact on the customer. You want it to be a positive experience that reinforces trust.
Keep it simple. Your automated plan should mirror your brand. Once you’ve done the tricky part of configuring your trigger-based message, you’ll be able to learn and test on the fly, so pepper in new business rules and continue to polish messages.
Timing and relevancy are key. For any marketing program, timing and relevancy are critical to driving customer interest. Creating triggered-based e-mail campaigns activated by customer actions enhances their relevancy, and ultimately creates a better return.

Types of Trigger-based Campaigns:

Transactional triggers: Messages that are based on a direct transaction with a customer target such as a purchase, profile update, opt-in, or conversion are an underutilized tool in the world of email marketing. Think brand reinforcement, promotional opportunities, and trust recognition.
Recurring triggers: These messages are based on the customer’s profile. It could be a simple birthday trigger or a more complex product re-order message. For recurring triggers, the opportunities are limitless, but be cautious as these are easily the most recognized place for over-mailing.

My suggestion for you: put some ease in your workday. Consider how you can benefit from automation and trigger-based messages and start implementing a plan soon. To learn more about trigger-based email programs, download our whitepaper The Need for Ease.

Sally Lowery
Online Marketing Manager at Bronto

BrontoFire: Live - Subscription Landing Pages

2008-06-02T13:43:20Z

BrontoFire is live once again, focusing on the important role subscription landing pages play in forging an immediate relationship with subscribers.

DJ and I discuss the importance of utilizing this very effective email marketing tool to “sell” and ultimately “seal” the subscription.

Together we dive into how major brands are incorporating subscription landing pages and how some are missing a great opportunity to build a strong relationship right from the beginning. So, check out this new episode of BrontoFire and look forward to next month, when we analyze Welcome Messages with another live version of BrontoFire.

Kimberly Snyder and DJ Waldow
Account Managers at Bronto