Three Simple Suggestions for Email Analytics

I’m happy to see the increased attention companies are paying to their email analytics, this regular review is helping their programs become more and more sophisticated – here are some suggestions to enhance effectiveness:

1) Don't just LOOK at the numbers – All too often companies prepare reports for the sake of having reports to review. Apply your learning to your campaigns, studying the numbers to make sure you understand customers better. Pick two or three areas where you can apply the results of your analysis; else you will completely loose the value of your reporting. Simple first steps could be to retarget clickers with a special offer on what was clicked or thanking buyers with personalized emails or asking new subscribers what they expect from you.

2) Set goals – Create short-term, long-term and related goals. For a short term goal, you may pick a segment of prospects and attempt to move more people from opener status to become clickers; a longer term goal might be to use fewer incentives to convert prospects into buyers. Other goals could be to move those who have clicked to take a survey, get those who respond to the survey to into a special buyer category, etc. The goal would be to constantly evaluate different aspects of your program and seek continuous improvement.

3) Assign a value to the numbers – Start monetizing your research to show the value of your efforts; for example, you may have elected to mail fewer paper statements to your members by converting people over to electronic statements. Consider this as money saved through the application of analytics, this money should be applied to hiring resources – both people and technology. If you make an investment, it will help you improve your overall program.

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How to Leverage Black Turkey Week

Last week launched the start of the holiday shopping season – retailers launched cross channel marketing initiatives to drive foot traffic in stores, cross channel sales, and an attempt to grow their consumer connections.

The overall performance for most retailers was a little better than last year, and consumers too were also a little more optimistic – a lot of opportunity still remains to build continuous engagement.

Go back to the mid 90’s – Thanksgiving day was an actual day off with the consumer having the opportunity to plan their shopping strategy in retail stores. Each store also had two or three key items that were expected to lure the consumer in – hard to find deals that were of real value to the consumer.

Take a look at some of the messaging from the past week:

Shop Our Pre-thanksgiving Specials

Thanksgiving Week Arrives

It’s Super Tuesday

It’s Black Wednesday

Our thanksgiving sale has started (Thursday)

Kickoff Bonanza for Friday

Missed Black Friday? No Problem, Here’s More…

Monday Previews (on Sunday)

Final Hours: Black Friday Weekend Savings Expire @ Midnight

The consumer was kept engaged for the entire week with specials that were available for the asking. Perhaps Black Friday should now be called Black Turkey Week.

I believe Cyber Monday will just continue on the same theme as the past week – but here are a few good lessons that stand out:

1 – Know your consumers preferences so they don’t have to go through 800 items to find something of ‘value.’

2 – Provide instant testimonials through efficient user generated content – aka social media.

3 – Keep checking in with your consumer in real time across channels to see if they are satisfied with what they have purchased. Also, listen to them on social media channels – you will hear the real buzz and a little nudging from you will encourage a satisfied consumer to share their story with their friends.

Keep your focus towards building relationships with the empowered consumer. Remember – the consumer should always feel that they are first in line, and that they waited for the right time to make that purchase.

Let Black Turkey Week be the beginning of a grateful relationship.

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Leveraging Turkey Day

Three big days this week - Turkey Day (11/25), Black Friday (11/26), & then Cyber Monday (11/29). Many retailers have already opened up to consumers with previews of specials and some have even started the big sales. Friday & Monday promise to be better this year compared to last year.

Realizing that time is of the essence and that the inbox is going to be much more crowded from now to the end of the year; we suggest a few simple strategies:

1) Get to the Point – Spend a little extra time on your subject lines, there will be tons of sales, promotions etc. so you need to make your message stands out – clever subject lines may not get you the same response as a specific, clear introduction. Yes, you can make longer subject lines work this holiday season.

2) Keep your offers Interesting – Your customers and prospects know how frequently you mail; if you double the volume, they’re gonna notice. While consumers are expecting an increase in volume - think about coordinating your digital offers and also keep your offers interesting. Offer variety, don't just resend your email messages. Balance your frequency with the clarity of your offer.

3) Timing is Everything – Realizing the increased volume (from all eMarketers), it may be a nice time to play with the release times of your message. The increased volume could lead to your Monday @ 9:00 email being deleted – hold off a couple hours and avoid that just-back-from-the-holiday rush.

4) Go Social – You need to make sure you post your offers on your social media sites. In addition to that, make sure you listen to the conversations on social media. Watch the pulse of what your fans are saying about your company and the offers you are making. The consumer will be expecting deals on your social sites.

5) Turn up the Heat – Play with deadlines and incorporate the phrases “shop early” or “email only” where/ when they make sense. Urgency coupled with your creative could be great ways to triumph your efforts.

Also, even if you are not selling on the internet - don't forget to wish your consumers and engage them during the holiday season.

Happy Holidays – hope they are a success!

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Seven Subject Lines that Work!

Your subject line… the ticket that could earn you that coveted open. Unfortunately, so many eMarketers leave the subject line for the last minute; they simply throw something on to fit the need. Here are the first in a series to help strengthen your subject lines and help your message break through the inbox clutter.

1) Thanks for signing up!
Simple, but effective… your standard welcome email, you signed up and this is what we promised to send you. This email could be anything, the restatement of why you wanted them to sign-up, five tips on baking, 10 tips on dressing etc. This is your first step in establishing the value exchange.

2) What did you think?
After the first campaign goes out, ask people about what they thought about it. This feedback helps you craft future messages and sets expectations with the recipient, showing them that you are willing to listen.

3) Thank you for ordering (product/ service)
Be specific and thank the customer for the order they’ve placed, remind them about the advantages of the product/ service and your company.

4) How to use (product/ service)
This is an excellent way to stay top of mind post purchase; it also conveys to the customer that you’re the expert looking to enhance the value of what they’ve selected.

5) We want your Feedback
Just like the What did you Think email (example #2), this is an opportunity to collect information, show your involvement and open the door to an established dialogue.

6) We recommend…
Using the feedback collected, personalize future offers – a complementary product, service or suggestions based on what other (like consumers) selected.

7) Today Only!
The sense of urgency is one of the easiest ways to get attention, offer your recipients something unique at a great price. If the customer misses the offer, give them a second chance after they’ve provided more information and you’ve plugged the importance of your campaigns. Just be careful to balance these in with your regular offers… Today Only (three times a month) just isn’t the same.

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You Have to Recognize Your Consumer

We often talk about various channels available to the consumer, your physical location, self service device (ATM or Kiosk), email, call center, printed catalogs or statements, mobile devices and all things internet. Each of these channels offer multiple opportunities for the consumer to touch you, but as a company it’s not as easy to connect with them – you need their information, their habits and preferences to quickly leverage into a targeted message.

This empowerment shift means that a simple email offer isn’t going to cut it any more, to compete, Marketers need to concentrate on three areas:

1) Consumer Engagement – Social networks, mobile technology (and the emerging confluence of these channels) is putting the consumer in charge. Customers now have the ability to quickly find offers, eliminate vendors and learn more than some of your reps before even venturing out of their homes. Creating/ sponsoring social media outlets is a great way to accept User Generated Content and invite consumers to your site… not doing this may result in it being created for you.

2) Cross-Channel Offer Optimization – The consumer is expecting to be recognized, not only for who they are but as an interested party who wants you to guide them through their interactions. Engage them in a dialogue so they can continue to collect their preferences; optimize the time and offer by creating a conversation – don’t throw everything over to them, send three to five distinct offer components to test responses and facilitate conversation.

3) Educate the Frontline – CSRs, Sales Reps etc. are often THE impression for your company; keeping your team informed is the best chance you have to be prepared for the inquiries from customers/ prospects. Send your team the offers, emails and associated details to make sure your employee is the expert in the conversation.

The marketing game is changing; by staying current on the evolutions you’ll garner customer respect and hopefully their market share.

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Converting One Time Buyers into Relationships

This week launches the start of this holiday season. There are great specials to lure consumers in and one of the major challenges is engaging one time buyer – the shopper who comes in due to a lower price and then never returns.

Here are some tips on how to convert the one-time buyer into a regular shopper.

The first step is to thank them regardless of the number of past purchases. Second, focus on creating a dialogue to engage your recipients. Third, entice them to return.

1) Thank Them – You have to send the consumer a thank you email and do so in ‘near’ real time. This is good etiquette and also the foundation for your transactional receipt. The consumer is expecting this from you – in addition to a basic thank you - make sure that you include information about the transaction, & contact information.

2) Insist on Feedback – Ask for their feelings about the product/ service, ask for a quote and get them to rank your offers. When you get their feedback, make sure you thank them and remind them that their feedback helps you improve your process and find better products/ services for them.

3) Ask for Opinions – Request their opinion on related products or services, this is a way to remind them about your depth of offers and is a neat way to show that you could be their source for those products/ services going forward.

4) Offer a Two-Part coupon – Provide an instant use coupon and give them the second part to redeem within a certain number of weeks. If possible, send an email to remind them of the expiration of this second part coupon.

5) Don’t Forget Them – If they still haven’t come back to interact with you, send them a message after a few weeks – ask them how they are liking their product / service, solicit feedback, showcase new product, and offer an incentive to transact.

Recency is key, so be sure to leverage your bonding programs to create engagement and routinely offer email incentives to make one-time buyers more frequent. With a little luck, you can make the repeat purchase a little more likely.

Also, good luck this holiday season.

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Real Cross Channel Marketing Best Practices

Consumer engagement is not just about getting emails opened, responding to direct marketing, or driving offers through mobile. The key to success is to engage your consumer with coordinated cross channel messaging.

My financial institution continues to bombard me with communiqués that are best described as archaic – these are offers that I have already purchased or things I have no use for.

My favorite hotel chain continues to force me to get their credit card. Every two weeks, I receive a direct mail promotion telling me about those free nights that await if I get their card. What they don’t realize is that I have already told them no on their online channel.

A brick and mortar retailer plays online bingo by sending us 10% - 15% - 30% off coupons through two channels. We have learned the game and have multiple email accounts and ‘physical’ accounts (two at work and one at home) – between the nine possible offers we get each week, we always seem to find something at 30% off. I am not sure why they don’t get it, we tend to buy with the same credit card.

Very few organizations leverage the consumer data that they have across all channels. Ideally, they should be mining this data to know the consumers preferences, realize the offers that have been presented, and deliver the offers in a timely manner across channel.

On December 3^rd, 2010 – we will share with you some really good examples of companies that seem to get cross channel behavior. Join the last Service in Action call of this year as we share these best practices with you.

Service in Action brings together marketing peers across industry in a monthly discussion on best practices. These calls have been active since February 1997 – the oldest community gathering for digital & converged marketing.

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Conversational Surveys are Vital To Your Engagement

Be careful how you ask questions of your recipients, your tone is particularly important because if you imply that you are soliciting opinion to change things, you must be prepared to do so. Here are some potential pitfalls and ways to avoid them. Simply said here are a few ideas that are a better way to ask questions.

You could be asked to do things that you are simply not prepared to incorporate, for example if you ask the consumer if they want more or fewer messages their likely answer is going to be less. Circumvent by telling them you send x-number messages each month, and you’d like to know how many of those messages they read. This accomplishes two things, first you are telling the consumer that you have an important message and secondly you’re asking them to pay attention to at least some of them.

You could also get varying opinions about what would be best for your email communiqués; each may be a great suggestion but you may not have the resources to come up with that many versions of creative. A better way would be to ask people about the types of things they would like to see in your emails, then attempt to feature as many of these items in future campaigns.

Never forget the importance the text box plays in a survey, make sure it is prominently placed and that you are inviting the recipient to share colloquial feedback with you. Many people love to chat about themselves and their interests; the text box is an open invitation that allows you to gather feedback and segment. What is even better is to incorporate this feedback into your social media channels. Encourage the recipient to share this with their friends, or ask them if you could share it with the rest of your recipients.

Share your survey with a small group just before you deploy, include your team, others in your company and try to get an end-user’s perspective (i.e. first responders club.) Incorporate their feedback before you make the survey available to all recipients.

Remember, your survey should be conversational; never forget they are two-way communiqués and that a good marketing program is all about Creating Interactive Conversations.

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Five Simple Ideas to Enhance DIgital Acquisition

There is a frantic effort to collect as many digital consumer contacts as possible. Companies are springing up to seek and sell digital data. A list purchase is no panacea for your digital database. Remember you have to connect and if you do it well you will not only connet but you will also keep your consumer engaged.

On a positive note, you don't have to mail post cards, run an ad on TV, or even have a phone blitz to seek consumer contacts. You can leverage the web for engagement. Some organizations may ask you to 'Become our Fan on Facebook' or 'Follow us on Twitter' or 'Read our Blogs.'

Focus on intrigue, a genuine dialogue, & real time relevance to get more consumers to join your conversations.

Here are a few simple suggestions in how you can use Facebook, your Twitter account, & your Blog to make connections.

Ask people to join you on Facebook to see the latest pictures from your 'special events.' Encourage people to upload their own events and this is what gets the dialogue going.

Give people a few reasons to follow you on Twitter - perhaps a special promotion code, a white paper, good information, or even using Twitter to answer questions.

Offer part of your story in your Tweet or your Facebook update - put the rest of the story up on your Blog. You can use the blog to consolidate information and provide a headquarter location for all your social media.

Don't forget to tie all social media sites back to your consumer information file. Provide a link to allow consumers to update their preference pages. Your preference pages need to be cross channel. Be sure to ask for social contacts, email addresses, & mobile numbers as part of your engagement strategy.

Think about specific reasons why one should come to your social media sites. List those reasons down, and try to leverage them into your conversations with recipient.

Many organizations still block their 'workers' from social media sites. Instead you should mentor them on the use of social media and train them to engage the customer / prospect in a cross channel dialogue.

You have call centers and stores that are training their employees to direct people to social media sites. They list the question and the answer on the blog, they tweet about it, and even offer solutions on Facebook.

Social Media is here to stay. You have to learn to grow your database of contacts and plan out how you communicate with those that you connect with. Engagement has to become part of your natural conversation.

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Seven Steps to Building Social Capital

You measure the value of your programs by setting up different benchmarks that help you gauge success. How valuable your social program is will depend on how much social capital you build up. Just having a large number of followers or just being present on social media isn’t going to cut it.

Use these seven steps to help plan your strategy and build up social capital so your consumers (or fans) flock to you.

1 – Think about branding your program with a name – don’t just call it your social media program. Instead give your program a name and then invite your consumers to come join that program.

2 – Offer your consumers some relevant reasons to sign up for your ‘Named’ social media program. Your reasons should reflect your brand and are ideal if they match what your consumers expect.

3 – Leverage the reasons to get your consumers to be part of your social sphere of influence. Begin the solicitation process by advertising the reasons across multiple channels.

4 – Think about the first few messages after sign up. Once your consumer joins your program, think about putting together a welcome stream of messages for that consumer.

5 – Pay attention to what the consumer is saying and try to learn from the dialogue that is taking place in the social sphere. The easiest way to get input is to ask for it – so offer a link to a survey.

6 – Respond to consumers by answering their questions. Converse with them and keep the dialogue going, don’t be the only one starting conversations – join other conversations.

7 – Find your brand champions or brand advocates and endorse them. You can do this in a few ways. First, if someone is leading the dialogue (appropriately), thank them. Second, if this person continues doing good things – list them as a brand ambassador. Third, if they continue to talk about your brand, think about offering them ‘samples’ or ‘service experiences’ to evaluate and write about for the rest of your fan base.

The goal here is to continue to build up social capital by doing things that are relevant to the consumer and help you build relationships with that consumer. All of this adds up to help you stay engaged, and continue to serve your consumer.

(Do you know why peacocks dance?)

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Once Again: Seven Tips to Design the Welcome Message

As a marketer it’s easy to focus on the normal email campaigns, these are the ones that you most recently perfected, received management buy-in and the ones with current response data. Odds are you’re planning a couple weeks in advance too, never looking too far back so it becomes easier and easier to forget the welcome campaign that you created a while back… or inherited from your predecessor.

These welcome campaigns may be years behind your current design work or they could be doing only part of their job. Think of the campaign(s)) as your first impression, it’s the best chance you have for the recipient to add you to their safe sender list; your chance to highlight something they may have overlooked while on your site or simply introduce them to your full experience – either through a purchase, survey or social media offerings.

Evaluate these campaigns quarterly (monthly if you can); make sure they are serving your organizations needs:

· Show recipients a sample of what to expect

· Provide them with important information (something that will want them to keep your email for a while)

· Collect information from them – i.e. a simple survey (fill-in from the registration page)

· Push them toward other items – cool/ underappreciated part of your site or social media outlets

· Generate sales – this could be your best chance to convert!

· Don't think about just one campaign - plan a series of welcome campaigns (2 - 3) to help your new prospect become part of your family

· Mix it up – drive your campaigns to them through mobile, social, & email.

You need to use this first impression to start a dialogue with your consumers, it is the best way to learn about them, it is the best way to communicate, it is the best way to market - all towards creating interactive conversations.

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USA Today: Cops get screened for digital dirt

Kevin Johnson writes in today's USA Today about how law enforcement agencies are digging deep into the social media accounts of applicants, requesting that candidates sign waivers allowing investigators access to their Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, and other personal electronic spaces. He continues to say that some agencies are demanding that candidates provide private passwords, internet psuedonyms, text messages and email logs as part of an expanding vetting process for public safety jobs.

(The rest of this post is my opinion.)

Many businesses are already 'tactfully' checking up on applicants and HR departments are trying to enforce rules of engagement on social media.

The important things to consider here are that organizations are using your social interaction history, your social influence, and even your pseudonyms to create a profile for individuals. This means that this information exists, and can be accessed. With a little effort businesses who sell to consumers should try to leverage this information as they try to create empathetic conversations with the consumers they serve.

As you collect consumer data, make sure that you secure it as it can also lead to other privacy concerns. Also, make sure that you have a privacy policy on your site to tell your consumers what information you are collecting, how you plan using the information, and how the consumer ought to contact you.

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Once Again: 12 Absolutes for Email Success

I - Welcome Emails: You have to send the first message right away. You have to follow up with two to three more messages in an attempt to build up rapport and create a dialogue with your consumer. If you are not doing this - you’re missing a perfect opportunity to set the stage for future campaigns, reinforce the recipient’s expectations of your brand or even convert them to a customer right out of the gate.

II - Private Email Club: If you compare recipients across campaigns, you’ll likely see that there are a handful that consistently open and click. Acknowledge them; let them know they are in your First Responders Club. Give your first responders the perks of receiving offers a couple hours before the remainder of your list; or offers unique to them. This First Responders Club could evolve further, maybe even a Private Email Club – something that could include a paid membership for personalized emails with offers sent before the remainder of the list. Your cost could be based on the shipping fees your repeat customer made in the past year (play with it based on the customer.)

III - Bring out your Dead: Take the Dead (people who don't open, click, or order from your emails) out of your list. Don't send them every mail you send on a weekly basis, but reduce your sending to them to a bi-monthly or monthly basis. You may be surprised to find that a reduction in frequency could actual spurn a resurrection.

IV - Test, Test, Test: Take the time to test out subject lines, different highlighted products, and content. Just because you think it's a great subject line, doesn't mean your customers will. Try testing out these things to no more than 10% of your list, trying maybe three different variables. Then send the most successful performing content/segment to the rest of your list. This takes some planning, but it's worth it.

V - Segment for Success: Move away from the idea of "blasting" your customers with email, but instead focus on segmenting them and sending them email content that is relevant and interesting to them. This can help to boost your open rates and orders.

VI - Train your people: The best investment you can make in your email program is to train your touch points in the collection process. Start with the people who talk to customers and prospects, ask them to list three to five reasons why people ought to sign up for your email program. Put this list together and make everyone aware of it. Listen to what is being said to prospects on the phone and (if you can) ask the customer/ prospect what they thought about the solicitation for email. Your team needs to understand why you need email, you need to continue to give them updates, listen to their concerns and make it consistent across channels.

VII - Keep Asking: You never know enough! Create various conversation zones with your customers. Start with the sign up process; ask them for more than their email id. Insert a link in every email, soliciting feedback from your subscribers about your company, your service and give them a comment field. Make sure you act upon this feedback because you want to make sure that the customers aren’t ignored. Plan a quarterly email asking them about the style of your communiqués – ask them for direct feedback on ways you can improve your email program. In fact, why not ask them what they would like to see in print. In addition to asking, leverage their actual behavior; compare it with what they said they wanted and use this click data to further improve your email program.

VIII - Speed & Service: Email is fast and people love great service. As a customer service representative many years ago, I enjoyed anticipating events and freaking people out by showing up with what they needed almost immediately. Email allows you to get into the inbox almost immediately, use it to make sure you are providing a service. Take every single customer service communiqué within your organization and see how you can improve it through your email program.

IX - Tie in Social Media: User Generated Content is huge; it gives you the third party endorsement your product/ service needs. See how you can take this feedback and incorporate it into a Web2.0 medium – a community, a blog, videos etc. If nothing else figure out a way to make a presence on the various channels – put your TV commercials on YouTube, post your emails on a blog with a little comment about the campaign.

X - Don't forget Mobile: Capture the consumers mobile number and use it to give them things that you promised. Mobile on a smarter phone is more personal, can be accessed anywhere, & is immediate. You should look for ways to leverage it into your dialogue.

XI - Get in the Zone: Make sure you are compliant with the law, with proper digital ettiquette, & that you maintain a clean sending environment. Monitor your deliverability to make sure you are delivered into the inbox.

XII - Study your Reports: Make sure that you are watching all your metrics. Bounces, opens, clicks, conversions, & stages of conversions. Monitor the health of your list and most importantly involve your team in your results. Look at these results to drive future campaigns.

The future of email marketing lies in a marketer’s ability to create an interactive conversation with their clients and prospects. Leverage your knowledge about the customer, make your people part of your process and excel at service – it is as simple as that!

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Five Reasons to Be Wary of 'Experts'

Many companies purchase reports from experts or download white papers on how to run or enhance their digital engagement programs. We have all seen so many prescriptions of success on effective email marketing, best practices on mobile, and lots of opinions on social media effectiveness.

Before you listen to these experts, do consider the following

Does this expert know your business as well as you or others in your company? Why not try to ask your own customers what they think about or what they expect from your social media program.

A lot of ‘expert’ opinion is based on cumulative opinion. Cumulative opinion? This is opinion is based on what many others are already doing.

On the other hand ‘expert’ opinion also includes case studies that are unique and innovative. Unfortunately, this opinion is available to many others like you and this really make it loose the innovative aspect.

If you simply do what others are doing, you won’t be unique – you are simply going to ensure that you don’t fail – kind of stay average.

The reality of your success is going to be driven by a few simple things.

You need a good offering (product or service), next you need to make sure you know what your consumers expect, and the most important thing for you to do is to make sure you keep your entire organization engaged.

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What you shouldn't do with Social Media

A major business has built a ‘Twempire’ by giving away a no strings attached coupon to every follower. While the coupon is a small gift for each consumer – if you add everything that was given away it amounts to an astronomical payment for a following of over 2 million and growing.

Here are some direct issues –

First, they have an identity crisis – there are more contacts compared to the true number of people. People kept creating social identities to get the free money – no strings attached. They should have instead learned about the consumers preferences, asked for other contact information, forced the money to be spent within a short period of time and preferably given them $5 off at least a $10 purchase!

Second, there was never an engagement plan - They grew their list without a real plan to engage each consumer. They simply kept collecting cards. They could have done a better job if they had sent the consumer a follow up email with a survey soliciting additional information. They could have rewarded the consumer with another discount. An engagement plan of a series of welcome emails would have gone a long way in serving the consumer.

Third, they should have leveraged their brick and mortar - By inviting the consumers into their store by hosting ‘Celebrating Social Media Day’ or something similar for different age groups and genders. Driving in store traffic could potentially lead to a sale and definitely help build relationships.

So if you are out and about building up connections on social media – do have a plan to make sure that you are actually converting your connections.

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How to create an intelligent preference center?

An intelligent preference center is akin to a good hotel concierge – someone you approach for an answer or to solve a problem. When you approach a concierge, their formula for engagement is to listen, to research, and only then make their suggestions. The concierge is also prompt to follow up to ensure that all went well. They then add their insights learned to build up additional preferences for the consumer.

It does not matter that you are just capturing information to know the consumer better. The key to success lies in how well you apply a number of fundamental principles so you can drive effective engagement.

Knowledge about the consumer, subsequent relevancy, timeliness, consumer access to your brand, & your ability to respond to the consumer are all key considerations in building an intelligent preference center.

Most companies capture consumer preferences in multiple places and try to leverage this information to take care of their consumer. A few companies are actually framing their approach around the consumer in an effort to be ‘concierge like.’

Here are some examples from champions:

A major online retailer leverages consumer browsing, combined with interaction, to create a personalized stream of messaging.

A multi-channel financial institution leverages seven consumer touch-points to create a conversation with those they serve.

A large cross channel retailer captures consumer preferences leveraging them for a lifecycle of communication.

An international low cost airline tries to personalize every single consumer trip with relevance – this relevance results in real money being made.

Attending a sports event is not just about the ticket, or the concessions, or merchandise – it is about engagement experiences that drive up fan value. Fan value can drive real ROI.

These champions are driving response rates of above 70% and actually converting on 30% of their offers. How do these champions of engagement do this? Is it having data in one place? Is it being available? Is it being convenient? Is it being engaging? Is it having intelligent touch-points? How do you make your entire process intelligent?

If you would like to create an intelligent preference center send me an email at sundeep.kapur@gmail.com.

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The Anti-Phishing Checklist

For the novice, “phishing” is online fraud that can be driven by email, or even a link on social media sites. These fraudulent emails often include a legitimate company’s logo or images; the purpose of the guise is to illegally obtain customers’ confidential information.

There are many phishing attacks in play, these attempts appear to originate from your financial institution or transaction processing service.

Points & Protection:

Phishers can employ scare tactics in their messages or simply ask you to verify information – it’s natural to follow the links; this makes it really easy for the Phishers to harvest your data and either sell it or drain your account. Here are a few steps to take to safeguard yourself:

Check the address – The sender’s from email address (and links) often resemble the real institution's look, feel and URL. They’re betting that you will quickly glance at the images, and message. Look a little closer, especially if you don’t often receive notices from the company, the address may have something extra in there, or have a typo.

Do it Manually – If you’re unsure about the email notification, open another browser and type in the URL. Sure, it will take a couple extra seconds, but it may be worth it in the end.

Double Check – If you receive paper statements, (credit card/ banking or even hotel points) look over for unusual activity.

Be secure – Your firewall or other security program may include identity-protection, blocking or rating capabilities – USE IT. Be sure to avoid posting confidential information on your personal site, blog or social site

Blow the Whistle – Report any suspicious activity to the institution immediately; you may not be the only one impacted.

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Do you have a Digital Engagement Calendar?

Because of the ease, low cost, and immediacy of email marketing, many marketers don't put together an email calendar to plan their campaigns, as they might with other forms of marketing. Many tend to take a scatter shot approach, just sending mails on a whim or whenever sales are low.

Add social media, mobile & all the other digital engagement opportunities. It makes things tougher as so much has to be scheduled and the messages have to make sense to the consumer.

While a run as you learn approach can work for some, it is not the most effective way to plan your marketing strategy. It would be unthinkable for a marketer not to have a calendar for their radio, print, direct mail, or television. Why should email be any different?

At the very least, you should sit down and plan your digital engagement strategy for each quarter. This will allow you to maximize your creative and offers around special events and holidays. This will also give you the opportunity to better control costs, as you'll know what messages, including emails you have scheduled to send through out the year, and thus can budget better, and leverage the dollars you do have for the best benefit.

Having a digital engagementn calendar will also help you gauge your own reporting metrics as you have a consistent history to look at and compare to.

Once you have a schedule aligned with your needs you can still leverage the immediacy of digital marketing with a few impulse messages. I recommend creating a "rainy day campaign", a special offer you can keep in their back pocket to send whenever you need a boost in sales.

As always, we like to hear your success stories and experience in how you schedule your digital engagement campaigns.

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10 Ideas to Go Green

As an eMarketer, there are ways we can also be eco-friendly; here is a quick cross-industry top ten:

1) Use online surveys instead of paper response cards

2) Offer eStatements (financial institutions, transaction processing firms)


3) Offer online bill pay and eReciepts

4) Offer electronic manuals, warranties and product/ service updates

5) Send catalogues wisely – check for duplicates, extend the publication life with email and web channels

6) Use paper mediums judiciously – send an email first, invite recipients back to a portion of your website; send printed items to non-responders

7) Create online demos to reduce/ enhance brochure printing

8) Visit the online version of your favorite newspaper

9) Print only what you need to – there are a lot of people who print every email


10) Look to electronically automate internal workings of your company



Recycling Fun Fact:

Each ton (2,000 lbs) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings and 60 pounds less of air pollution – guess that means more digital marketing!

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Five ways to spruce up your social presence

Like it or not, your consumers are all over the social hemisphere. And interestingly with the buzz around social media, many companies are looking for the perfect way to engage with their consumer on social media channels.

Here are five simple things you could do to spruce up your social presence:

Listen & monitor – Listen to what your consumers are saying on various social media channels. Also, keep track of what your competitors are doing on these channels. Ask your staff for their feedback on how best you could engage socially. There are a number of social monitoring tools to help you as well.

Have a policy – So there are no surprises, define what your employees can and cannot do with social media. Create an aspirational list of things you would like to do with consumer engagement and then use that as a means to create an effective policy.

Show up – Don’t just create a social presence and not show up. There are so many Facebook pages, Blogs, & Twitter accounts that are totally dormant. It is embarrassing for a company to have a social presence, consumer followers, and then not be there.

Converse to engage – If you speak on social media channels you shouldn’t just keep hawking your brand. You need to engage your consumers in a dialogue and slip in a special offer every now and then.

Highlight your champions – A few of your consumers will be vocal proponents on your social media channels. Thank them, endorse them, and give them a product or service to try. Keep in touch with them as they will help you grow socially.

Social media is here to stay. You need to keep your users engaged and continue to build up your social capital.

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