Outlook 2010

Various industry blogs have been commenting on the upcoming release of MS Outlook; although still in beta testing, the word on the street is that Outlook 2010 will continue to use MS Word as the rendering engine (same as the current 2007 version.) This decision will continue to impact your email rendering; specifically your emails delivered to Outlook, users will NOT have support for:
- Background images (HTML or CSS)
- Animated GIFs
- Forms
- CSS floats or positioning
- Flash or other plug-ins

One of the best detailed write ups is posted on the Email Standards Project by Dave Greiner (Email Client News.) This post details more about the issues at hand and shows how these decisions will render emails going forward. The part that I find most interesting is the social media response (via Twitter.) Tons of interested parties have gone out to voice their opinion on http://fixoutlook.org/, you too can weigh in and possibly influence the release of Outlook 2010 (approximately a year away.)

This is yet another use of social media to group and influence change in our industry.

Fiskateers

A few weeks ago we posted about the success Liz Claiborne New York saw through the creation of an online community. Their story is a great example of how to boost brand awareness and loyalty while simultaneously getting insight from their target market.

Cut to a related story on Fiskars Brands, 350+ year old Finland-based Company, they were seeing low brand loyalty following the introduction of a knock-off version of their products… in response they launched a huge R&D push which showed that despite recognition, they weren’t making an emotional connection. With the goal of increasing brand name mentions and sales in specific geographic regions, Fiskars sent out a national call for part-time (paid) Fiskars Ambassadors, after selections and an intense few days of training the five selected Ambassadors began spreading the word about the true Fiskars products.

These Ambassadors regularly post to a blog about their work – attending tradeshows, lead classes, chat online and interact with stores/ owners to build brand but never sell. In 24 hours they had 200 Ambassadors. There was an increase of conversations online – some 600%. They saw a near 60% increase in hits online, increased sales in stores that hosted a Fiskateer and most importantly saw the creation of marketing tools, events (online and offline) as well as valuable feedback to marketing and product development while strengthening the company's connection to customers.

Just more proof that social media is a great way to connect with existing and emerging consumers… will you have the next big idea?

Capturing IDs Correctly

A friend of mine runs marketing for a major sports team, during each game he has interns walking through the aisles handing out paper to get fans to enter a contest – a single entry collects the fan’s email and other contact information and gives them the chance to win a season ticket package and other prizes. They have tons of entries but it’s a logistical nightmare… his team is really behind with entering the information into their database he even has to throw out some of the cards because the info is illegible

Another friend runs a major charity; she tries her best to have volunteers collect money at public places. People are kind to her but she struggles to get enough volunteers to stand out in the weather during the holidays and solicit donations. Her bigger challenge is how to collect personal contact information from the donors – after all, these are people who have donated something and are likely to give in the future. Obviously adding this to the volunteer’s responsibilities will be a pain, and will likely reduce their success rate… plus she’ll have the challenge of inputting all the information in a timely manner.

A third friend works for a major financial institution, he has great signage to collect email IDs but only has about a 30% capture rate in his bank branches… what’s worse is that people don't pay as much attention to the campaigns after they’ve signed up.

All three of them seek your input; give us your ideas and suggestions to better capture information and improve readership! Your comments will help all blog readers!

Email & Sleep Deprivation

We took an informal poll of eMarketers to find out what elements of their email program keep them up at night. We wanted to know their challenges and hope to incorporate these in future Service In Action call topics and Panel of Peers sessions. Here are 15 from some of the best in the industry:

1) How do I get higher conversions/ clicks from the people who’ve opened? How to boost sales?
2) How do I make sure the data is segmented correctly?
3) How do I improve my deliverability?
4) How do I truly integrate different channels; where should I start? How should I combine the cross-channel data collected?
5) How do I deal with unsubscribes – reduce the number and deal with those who want to drop off?
6) How do I best explain our eMarketing program to management?
7) How do I really get started with social media?
8) How do I integrate social media marketing in my overall marketing efforts (print)?
9) How do I reduce the time spent on executing email marketing campaigns?
10) While analyzing results, what should I look at first? Who else should analyze results?
11) How do I reduce marketing spend without leaving out impressions?
12) How do I deal with email being perceived as SPAM?
13) How do I make sure the recipient is not receiving too much email? How often should he/ she be targeted?
14) How do I survey the recipient? How do I ask questions? What should I ask?
15) How to grow the list (effectively)?

Be sure to share yours with us, a quick email or comment can get your idea on the radar for a future Learning Network event.

Ask Them (Part III)

So you have their information (tips from yesterday and Tuesday) in your database, including their email ID… now the challenge is making sure you get them to pay attention to your campaigns. We all know that an email capture is not just about getting their ID; it’s about ensuring that your recipient is interested in what you’re sending.

Start by getting your team to be proficient users of your email program, your goal should be 100% opens and clicks by your own people. If your team is paying attention to your program – they’ll be in a better position to describe the emails to your customers/ prospects. Don't forget to have signs in your store/ branch and posted on your other channels listing the benefits of your email program – really crisp messages to 1) entice the user to sign up; and 2) stress to the recipient that you have a program worth their attention.

Try to keep your solicitation messaging consistent across channels, run internal contests to reward your own people – on email collection and email capture effectiveness. Define email capture effectiveness as a scoring system for a customer to both open and click your campaigns. It is not just about collecting names, it’s about getting people to pay attention.

Share your ideas with us and look for future posts on effective ideas to get your customers engaged.

Ask Them (Part II)

My friend (yesterday's post) has learned a lot about her program over the past year and offers a fresh perspective based on lessons learned, here are some tips I’ve offered to enhance her outreach:

1) Spend a little more time engaging the customer in relevant dialogue; talk to them about the product they’ve purchased, solicit their input and point out your digital assets – sell them on visiting these portions of your site and sharing information.

2) As you sell them on these digital assets and associated benefits, be crisp and precise – make sure you have this scripted so there is no confusion by the reps. A consistent branded message across channels goes a long way in keeping things clear.

3) Take a little extra time to get their email ID, get them to notice your Facebook page, let them follow you on Twitter. Don't just ask for their email first, describe the benefits of your program and only then ask… this increases your chances of collecting the information.

This intelligent conversation gives your brand credibility, makes your reps look real and helps to engage your customers.

Ask Them (Part I)

A friend of mine runs marketing for a retail store chain and does a great job collecting customer information; at check out, the store reps ask customers for additional information with the following offers:

1) If we add you to our database, you’ll be able to look at your purchase history online
2) You’ll be able to return/ exchange items without a receipt
3) You’ll get advanced notice of sales and special events – before the public

Her capture rate is high, both in-store and across channels – web and catalog – with the majority of customers including their email addresses (regardless of channel.) Apply her model to your marketing program – tie your customer contact info with purchase history, you’ll be able to segment and target with 1:1 personalized offers. You can also do follow up on returns/ exchanges with targeted messages that can inquire about the reasoning, experience and/ or prescribe an alternate. The pre-sale events are always good, this could be in the form of additional days notice or through a special event after (before) store hours and could be the pre-cursor to a first responders club.

Talk to your ESP about extending their data storage for you so that you can capture additional data fields on your customer base and their purchases. Your site, email and their transaction could be used as a contactless loyalty program system.