2008 Panel of Peers: Taking Stock II

Building upon yesterday’s post, we’ve expanded with the true applications. Today’s build-out is straight from the learning we gained in Las Vegas earlier in the week… if you missed yesterday’s post, be sure to start there first.

Your list has to grow
Most company’s have an email file that is about 20 – 30% of their direct mail file and most consider contests as the top collection method. While an effective strategy, the effectiveness of an email collected via a contest diminishes significantly; a more effective strategy would be to reward your employees in the collection process. Help educate them in the collection process and provide them with scripts that sound natural and explain the value of the email program.

Also, take a harder look at your churn and attrition – one-time buyers, unsubscribes or the recipients who have simply started ignoring you. This group has to be placated and the net effect has to be positive on your business.

Remember customers are expecting you to ask them for an email ID.

You have to know more
You need more than an email ID or mailing address; while this is good information, it doesn’t help your segmentation strategy much. In order to make the most of your communiqués, you must leverage preferences which requires that you first ask for choices and then track their clicks – tracking will help validate their sign-up and determine if other categories are of interest as well.

Request, track and keep asking questions, be sure to include survey data into your overall customer profile; many of us use the survey data as stand alone information far diminishing the effectiveness.

Remember customers expect you to know them, not just on the email channel, but across all channels.

You have to interact often
This isn’t a strategy of more is better; the dialogue needs to be deliberate. Start trying to build up the frequency of your communiqués over time and think about setting up an email center – a notion of a help desk that answers questions directed via email. Your responses from the help desk should be via both phone and email. If you have a big newsletter, allow people to see the entire piece and follow up with some of the non-clicked articles.

Remember you have to create a back and forth dialogue; if you do it via email, it becomes so much easier to track.

You have to Micro-Segment
Most email marketers have their segments split into buyers and non-buyers; some have enhanced these segments by leveraging preferences, even fewer have leveraged transactional data into the mix. The elite are beginning to take a new approach, one-to-one campaigns with dynamic personalization. The more you can target the end user, the better your result. A small company with an email department of one has a list of 200K, this company breaks their email campaigns into two streams – a recurring dialogue with about 45K people who are buyers, the rest of the file is broken into 32 segments.

Remember, technology and data can facilitate effective targeting. As a marketer you have to derive these segments.

You have to communicate across channels
Your email file should be included as part of the overall communications, direct mail is not the only other channel. You have your branch/ store, call center, print, mobile, ATMs/ self-service kiosk and you have people. Every one of these channels can and should be coordinated into an effective stream of messages. If you don't have a big database – no big worries start small by using email to drive behavior both towards each of your other channels and from these other channels.

Remember your messaging has to make sense, even for in-bound transactions.

You have to leverage Social Media Channels
The goal of your messaging is to create a dialogue and a hub for your users to take part. New media Web 2.0 channels are an absolute for any business, consider MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs. The role of email is evolving into a coordinating channel that facilitates these other channels.

Remember, your web site by itself is just an order form, email is a push channel and social media is a pull channel. As a marketer you have to plan and leverage this.

You have to provide Superb Service
Your channels cannot hide from each other; your consumer keeps a score card. As you target the customer or prospect with different messaging – a single act of lousy service can totally tarnish all experiences. A lot of companies are beginning to think about implementing sophisticated loyalty programs. The best first step here is to focus on your people and channels – train your people to recognize and serve the customer well. Also, if you simply offer superb service, the customer will not forget.

Remember, you have to focus on intangibles and make goodwill deposits – all of this adds up to great service.

To recap the seven absolutes – grow your list, know more, interact often, micro-segment, cross channels, leverage social media and provide great service.

2008 Panel of Peers: Taking Stock

The 2008 Conference has come to a close; and as a result we’re putting together a two-day series to help you take stock of your email marketing program. Take some time and reflect on the questions below; tomorrow we’ll offer insights to help you leverage this information and improve your program.

Your List
Start by evaluating your list, how much has it grown over the past five years? How much has it changed in the last 12 months? Take some time and write down the amount of new email IDs you are collecting each month, your bounces and unsubscribes. What percentage of your contacts do you have email IDs for?

How much do you know?
In addition to collecting email IDs, what else do you ask for; how much do you know about your customer? Do you survey – via paper or electronically? Is the data you collect in a format that can be queried?

How often do you interact?
If someone signed up for email with you – how quickly do you email them? If someone inquired about something, how quickly do you get back to them? How often do you interact with your customers and prospects?

How do you segment?
Do you segment your list into different groups; what are those segments? Do you create different offers or pre-release information/ offers to these segments?

How do you cross channels?
How long does it take for your message to make its way across channel? Does your call center, store or branch know about the offer prior to the email being sent out? If a customer walked into your store/ branch with an email – would your people be able to find the offer?

How are you leveraging social media channels?
Outside of your work email and site, what three sites do you visit first every day? What do you consider your top three Web 2.0 initiatives? What plans do you have to implement social media channels over the next 12 months?

How is your service?
If someone was to ask your customers or prospects about your brand – how do you think you would get ranked? Do you solicit customer testimonials, do you conduct non-buyer surveys? How do you recognize your employees for a job well done?

These are just some of the topics discussed at our Panel of Peers; tomorrow, we’ll share some of the ideas generated. So be sure to jot down your responses to these questions… you can even email your thoughts if you like.

2008 Panel of Peers

Day one in Las Vegas had a couple of session front runners – the informal, end of day poll proved that the Search and Web 2.0 sessions were among the most popular.

The Search Panel covered the free tools that are available in the market – Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, AdWords, Suggest, TrafficEstimator – as well as other tools including Hitwise or Omniture. We discussed the challenge of affiliates and their marketing efforts that could act counter to your efforts. All in all, the verdict was that “if you ain’t first, you’re last” (Thanks Ricky Bobby!)

The Web 2.0 session covered corporate applications of blogs, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace and communities; examples from Dunkin Donuts, Columbia (SC)’s Colonial Center and even Obama’s use of Twitter were shared.

We’re in the midst of day two now with presentations on Deliverability, CRM and Campaign Metrics… more to come!

2008 Panel of Peers

It’s not every week that you have 50-something eMarketers in the same room; but that’s exactly what our Panel of Peers Annual Conference has accomplished. Our ninth annual event is meant to draw a select group to discuss – this evening’s networking dinner was a great success for everyone to meet and prepare for the two days ahead.

About Our Event
The Panel of Peers brings together eCommerce marketing professionals for interactive learning and networking. Our workshops and annual conference focus on trends & best practices in eMarketing. Learn more on the Panel of Peers site.

2008 Panel of Peers

We kick off our Panel of Peers this evening with a discussion around best practices. One thing is for certain – email has evolved into a channel that can make a dramatic impact, it’s cheaper, quicker and can be tracked to perfection... but the challenge lies in how acceptable marketers make it amongst both the recipients and their own companies. Here are a few things to consider, as I brush up on my Blackjack skills:

1) Customers assume they have to provide you with an email ID; you are expected to collect it.

2) Customers expect you to know them; it is your responsibility to leverage this information across channel.

3) You have to create a back-and-forth dialogue – the recipient has to pay attention to your communiqués (track ‘em to know for sure.)

4) Take time to prepare each response; it may sound impractical, but you have to learn to target smaller segments with perfect personalization.

5) Your cross channel messaging needs to be coordinated. Even if a customer walks into your branch or calls your call center – you need to make sure you recognize them and treat them with respect.

6) Your website is turning into an order form, email is a push channel and the use of social media (if done correctly) will continue to attract customers and prospects for you to target.

7) You have to make good-will deposits with your customers. By focusing on intangibles, you can prepare your campaigns for even better results. Your service has to be exemplary and consistent – each opportunity to serve has to be the same or better, it can never go down… your email program depends on it.

Las Vegas Bound

Next week is our ninth annual Panel of Peers conference in Las Vegas; we have close to sixty markers who will be descending on sin city to share best practices on Multi-Channel Communication Strategies, List Growth, Search, Web 2.0 Marketing and evolving electronic mediums.

Our goal is to share the key finding each day in a recap blog post; just forgive us if it’s a little later in the day than you’re accustom… time zones and all.

Upcoming Events
The success of our annual conference has launched regional, half-day sessions throughout the country and internationally; Sundeep and I have conducted eight this year with the ninth in Columbus on March 28. We’re planning additional stops in the third quarter of the year – so check the Panel of Peers site for upcoming dates and locations.

CRM – Building a Smarter Database

This is the fifth in our speaker preview for the upcoming Panel of Peers Annual Conference in Las Vegas… getting close to that seven-day advance flight, better get a move on!

About the Speaker: CRM – Building a Smarter Database
The best way to communicate with customers and prospects is to engage them in interactive dialogue; build your repository of preferences and then keep serving exactly what they want. Enhanced segmentation, multi-step campaigns and timely relevance are all a product of diligent understanding of customer needs. It is easy to do all of this with a small group of customers – true success occurs when you can treat each customer as if they were one in a million.

Having a CRM may be a necessity, but it’s no guarantee for success – the data entered and the manner it’s leveraged is what drives success. We’ve invited a true leader in the field of relevancy marketing; he leverages a cross-organization CRM database to offer tickets and merchandise to customers and prospects around the globe. His biggest challenge is how to stay current with the consumer – anticipating their needs, synchronizing channels and creating a stronger customer dialogue.

I am convinced that his insight is something that we will all appreciate. To learn more about our upcoming conference and other sessions, visit our Panel of Peers site. It’s not too late to join us in Las Vegas; hope to see you there.

Web 2.0 Marketing

This is the fourth in our speaker preview for the upcoming Panel of Peers Annual Conference in Las Vegas. Each week we’ll profile one of the speakers to entice those still considering joining us:

About the Speaker: Web 2.0 Marketing
The www has evolved so much in the last ten years, even in the last ten minutes – years ago, the focus was on a killer look and feel, a site that was easy and intuitive, coaxing the customer to stay on the site and make a decision. There was talk about targeted up-sells, cross-sells and dynamic personalization. The only problem was that this was a singular focus…

Today’s online balance includes so many other channels – blogs, communities, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter… the new challenge is leveraging all these into your eMarketing mix. Companies that you wouldn’t typically expect are making strides in world of Web 2.0, incorporating user generated content to engage others.

I’ve invited a speaker for this year’s Panel of Peers Event who has been conducting seminars throughout the country on how to leverage Web 2.0 techniques; she’s had the opportunity to mentor and lead many organizations; helping them connecting with emerging markets and taking advantage of available technology.

I am convinced that her insight is something that we will all appreciate. To learn more about our upcoming conference and other sessions, visit our Panel of Peers site. It’s not too late to join us in Las Vegas; hope to see you there.

Catalogue Reading

I had the opportunity to read a specialty catalog this week that offered more than 50 ideas to spruce up my yard. The catalog was divided into five different sections, each led with a lifestyle-based photo followed by product pictures. The copy detailed highlights, great tips and testimonials. They even quizzed you and had an answer on the next page.

As the Email Yogi, I was pleased that they sold email on page two! They also had references in the catalogue back to the website encouraging the reader to go find more online – further encouraging sign-up. Here are some of their reasons to subscribe to their email program:
1) Special tips
2) Special offers
3) New product sneak peeks
4) Fun contests and awesome prizes

The Early Bird
Follow this cataloger’s lead; the issue I reviewed went to their special buyers section, regular buyers who were members of an exclusive club. Being members entitled these customers to receive discounts and automated purchases based on predetermined frequency. Maybe this could apply to your offering, devote a special online section for your members asking them to sign into your community. This should be commercial-free but include the behind-the-scenes tracking so you can see where people visit – that way you can include those items in email campaigns.

Other great ideas that they had were the incorporation of quizzes – just be sure to provide the answers using another channel maybe through your call center, a recorded message or email.

Offer a video or photo tie – all of this company’s products were fun, outdoor products that could be captured and sent back. Ask users to send how they’ve personalized your product, where it’s installed… some may be entertaining. This also helps inspire your copy, focus on the lifestyle aspect and encourage people to read more online.

Finally, figure out how to tie your channels (regardless of the number), make sure they reinforce each other. My favorite travel club does an awesome job of pushing me to their email newsletter through direct mail pieces.

Flying In
If you’re in Vermont, join us next week! We’re focused on best multi-channel practices along with catalog readings for those need them – it’s similar to a palm reading, but more focused how to hook channels and enhance the customer experience. Sign-up for the Burlington session on our Panel of Peers site.

Taking the Pulse of your eMarketing Program

This is the third in our speaker preview for the upcoming Panel of Peers Annual Conference in Las Vegas. Each week we’ll profile one of the speakers to entice those still considering joining us:

About the Speakers: Taking the Pulse of your eMarketing Program
I met Sharmila and Philip in 2004; both were very insightful marketers who decided to join our team.

Now, years later, we discuss campaigns and share best practices often on a daily basis. The difference is that Sharmila and Philip take it a step further; they have an opportunity to look inside many types of email marketing programs. Their experiences and drive towards perfection have inspired suggestions that have resulted in remarkable ROI for a number of different companies. This insight is what they are planning to focus on – their dos and don’ts will help you chart an effective strategy.

Philip is the original blogger (Phil the Cable Guy) and Sharmila is our local ISP Prize Fighter, holding the Deliverability Title. They wear many hats and probably touch more campaigns in a month than most eMarketers send in a few years.

I am convinced that their success is something that we will all appreciate, so I have invited her to share insights and experiences with us at this year’s Panel of Peers. To learn more about our upcoming conference and other sessions, visit our Panel of Peers site. It’s not too late to join us in Las Vegas; hope to see you there.

More Killer Secrets

I thought I would build upon Jeff’s five killer secrets with another five of my own:

1) Leverage Social Media – Email is a push channel that should be used to coax the recipient back to your site, give them something special when they get there a YouTube video, Flickr photos, a cool Twitter entry or interesting blog post. In addition to the natural search benefits, these channels will help you create a foundation of communication opportunities. Just be careful not to force any of these channels, work them into your mix naturally.

2) Ask powerful Questions – Create conversation zones with your recipients, from the time they sign up to key interaction opportunities. Ask them what they think about your products/ services, but more importantly, be sure to act on the feedback.

3) Stay Current – Your audience deserves timely, relevant and concise information. Use the information from the conversation zones to produce the right message, for the recipient – purchasing a queen sized comforter from Overstock.com results in targeted queen size sheets etc. They send it on time and make sure it corresponds to recent purchases.

4) Make the Communiqué Interactive – The goal of your email is to engage the recipient, challenge them by throwing in a single-question survey or trivia point. Let the response be on a subsequent landing page where you can ask for their feedback to leverage in your next campaigns.

5) Training – Brief your team on the important email metrics; in many companies, email is a mainstream program driving revenue. The important thing is to make your company (top to bottom) understands what is possible and why email is so important.

Send me your feedback and, if you’re in the area, sign up for our Burlington (3/11) and Columbus (3/28) Panel of Peers Workshops.

Looking Within & Outside – Campaign Relevancy

This is the second in our speaker preview for the upcoming Panel of Peers Annual Conference in Las Vegas. Each week we’ll profile one of the speakers to entice those still considering joining us:

About the Speaker: Looking Within & Outside – Campaign Relevancy
I met Ms. C in 2001, full of energy and very creative; she ran eCommerce for a travel company that provided superb membership benefits. They were doing very well and the email program was a necessity because it seemed like everybody was doing it. A few months after we met, her management team started looking for ways to cut expenses and her program was on the list.

Rather than give up or reduce the frequency of her email marketing program, she gave affiliates the opportunity to advertise in her newsletters. At the end of the month, she went back to her advertisers and showed them the number of impressions, click throughs and conversions – her affiliates were impressed, her management was impressed. What she had done was absolutely brilliant; and still carries on today with the affiliates funding her email endeavors.

She was one of the first companies to examine campaign frequency, identifying the point of diminishing returns. She had test groups she would target with a series of campaigns and started looking at how mailing frequency influenced overall results. She came up with the Tuesday/ Thursday test; she tried two versions to small segments of her list on Tuesday. The strongest creative, subject lines and offers made the Thursday distribution. Her testing continues today, just with shorter time lags.

She wants to make sure that what the user receives is timely and relevant; if no one clicks on an article/ offer she politely pulls the plug. She looks at her campaigns as a journey, every campaign and click through tells her something. She doesn't just look at the result of one campaign; she looks at a recipient over a series of campaigns. Every month, she takes a hard look at her numbers and the real results to drive future communiqués – her mantra to success, test, test and test again.

Ms. C, who I affectionately call Just the Facts is a big believer in testing and numbers and her approach in 2001 is an excellent lesson for all of us.

I am convinced that her success is something that we will all appreciate, so I have invited her to share insights with us at this year’s Panel of Peers. To learn more about our upcoming conference and other sessions, visit our Panel of Peers site. It’s not too late to join us in Las Vegas; hope to see you there.

Life Beyond Email

We’re gearing up for our annual Panel of Peers Conference and want to give you a little sneak preview to some of the topics for our Las Vegas event. Each week we’ll profile one of the speakers to entice those still considering joining us:

About the Speaker: Life Beyond Email
I met a young lady three years ago when she started off as an email marketing manager – her first job was to coordinate the email creative, create the segments, fire the campaigns, track the results and repeat. Her job was easy, I joked…

Life evolved for her interestingly; as a former gymnast, she was used to perfection and kept refining her segments, tracking groups, working on the perfect message. All of this was done with the goal of improving not only sales but overall response rate. She focused on getting non-openers to open, openers were coaxed to click, clickers were persuaded to purchase and purchasers were moved to repeat buyers.

Her results were very good and she moved up to accept more responsibility – in addition to email, she ran the partner program, the website and tracked the analytics over all online channels. Her mentors were phenomenal.

Meanwhile her previous “coach,” who used to run the web moved over to the company’s catalog. This coach was used to things happening at warp speed because of her experience with online efforts… this coach had to learn to wait and watch and she too began to discover equally revealing results, she furiously believed in testing and leveraging both online and offline channels to serve the customer.

In tandem, these ladies kept growing their program to be one of the finest in the world. They sell internationally and their coordinated marketing endeavors are truly world class. It is interesting to see how multi-channel their campaigns have become simply by looking at customers and prospects beyond the email – while realizing that email is the key to open other doors.

Email is an effective way to reach out – a mechanism that should be in harmony with your website, self-service kiosks/ ATMs, catalog and/ or physical store/ branch. How can you best leverage everything to speak to your customers/ prospects in the most efficient manner? This session will focus on:
1) How to leverage email in your other eCommerce endeavors
2) How an email marketing manager should plan for their own growth

I am convinced that their success is something that we will all appreciate, so I have invited them to share their insights with us at this year’s Panel of Peers. To learn more about our upcoming conference and other sessions, visit our Panel of Peers site. It’s not to late to join us in Las Vegas; hope to see you there.

Times a wastin’

One of the most popular questions we receive during our Panel of Peers Workshops is about message timing and when to send. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast answer – but here are a few points and examples that may help you determine what’s best for your business.

One of the examples we typically share is from King Arthur Flour, their emails are timed based on content – emails that include breakfast foods are sent in the mornings. Emails with baked goods (cookies, brownies etc.) trigger mid-afternoon – capitalizing on that 3:00 sugar craving, an excellent strategy for customers like me.

Another example we share is from Overstock.com, their emails deploy to all who fit the segment rule at the same time (regardless of geography). Their philosophy is to equal the receipt time of the message, this is their way to level the playing field since they cannot control when the recipient checks their email.

Again, these are just examples from two companies to stimulate thought. Determining the best time for you is going to require some testing and a little creative segmentation.

Off to the Races
We’re headed to Golden Gate Fields, for the second in our West Coast Panel of Peers series, maybe we’ll see how to balance horse racing with eMarketing. For a little fun, say this horse name five times fast, Hoof Hearted. Not sure when he won, but the announcer made it on a bloopers show recently.

eMarketing Map

AAA Carolina’s Christine Talbert shared her knowledge as an online marketer with those who attended the Columbia Panel of Peers Workshop (Friday, January 18.) Here’s a recap some of the key things she covered:

1. Always look at your numbers: Christine showed a summary of her newsletter and the click troughs associated with each article. Interestingly, location of the offer wasn't as important, it was all about the interest in the offer. Remarkably, one email campaign even had a last minute link thrown at the bottom; this link earned the highest click through.

2. The power of connection: Don't make assumptions about your segments, including the older population segment; they’re just as likely to click through on useful information. Christine talked about her list, member demographics and how important some of these communiqués were to her older segments. She also asked people to test things out themselves rather than blindly accepting industry data.

3. Revise, Review and Recreate: Christine talked about testing your communiqués over and over until you get it right. Why waste the opportunities in the online channel, you can keep on creating until you get the perfect campaign.

4. Stay in Touch: During the holiday season, Christine put on her holiday hat and started looking for things to offer members. She learned that her own company’s offer of discount passes to some theme parks was better than what the theme park offered. Quickly, she put together a short campaign telling her members of these deals and reminding them of the benefits brought by her organization.

I’ve had the privilege of working with Christine for over five years; I appreciate the energy and commitment she brings to work. Her ideas are great and she is always looking for the next big trend.

Web2.0
Reagan led the discussion around the relevance and necessity of leveraging Web2.0 channels into your core marketing mix. A number of case studies were discussed showing how some companies are doing this successfully. We quickly applied this learning into practical ways of how attendees could apply these techniques to their organizations.

Social media is going to define the future of eMarketing – try to leverage YouTube, Blogs, Twitter, Flickr or MySpace into your core marketing mix. Don't forget, you need an email as an address into someone's online world; keep on collecting and interact often... you’ll achieve that M2.0 nirvana (leveraging Web2.0 techniques) soon enough.

The next Columbia Panel of Peers will be in April – until then, be sure to participate in our monthly call, the next one is February 22.

2008: Five Must Dos...

1) You MUST grow your list
Look back at your list over the past five years (or longer) and see how many new names you have added. Look at your direct mail file. I have checked with financial institutions, catalogs, retailers, travel, entertainment or other companies to find a common thread – the average percentage of names for which people have email ids is less than 20%. Meaning you have another 80-something percent to tap into. More importantly you have to look for constructive ways to grow your list. This means every name counts, so reduce churn and get creative. Your entire team needs to work on helping you grow the list.

2) You MUST know more
About your customers and prospects, that is. Just having an email association is not enough. You need to survey your list at different stages – during the sign-up process, various transaction points as well as stages of inactivity. You need to keep this information in a preference table and also build up operational preferences. Operational preferences are tracking information about a particular recipient – whether they open your emails, they click, or they simply haven't cared. Your approach to asking questions needs to be direct and beneficial; put on your own user hat and see what is really helpful.

3) You MUST interact (across all channels)
No more left hand right hand dislocation – your recipient is on the receiving end of a number of different communiqués. They expect you to make sure they are served appropriately. There is no channel conflict in their mind and you better treat them that way. Some of my friends have started splitting parts of a story across their paper communiqués and online messages… their recipients are beginning to realize that it is the same company that is communicating seamlessly across multiple channels. During a subsequent post, we will discuss ways to make sure your paper communiqués are revered by your recipients.

4) You MUST sizzle
The three Cs – Creative, copy and overall content; focus on what is inside your newsletter or email offer. Recipients are expecting you to grab their attention, keep them tuned-in and steer them towards the offer. Depending on the size of your email program you can have a person or a team dedicated to the online media. You can leverage the same information you put together across other Web 2.0 channels. Think about every email as a piece of art – take time to put it together, and you will see your efforts pay off. The email channel has arrived.

5) You MUST make it to the party
As recipients, we often take deliverability for granted; we expect you to show up in our inbox. As email marketers, deliverability should be monitored and perfected daily. Your other customer touchpoints should be trained on what bounces and deliverability means so they can carry out intelligent conversations with intended recipients. You are legitimate, your offer is legitimate, and you have taken time to put together the offer – make sure you make it to the inbox.

One more… A MUST Attend!
This year we have invited our friends to our Annual Panel of Peers – a peer-based discussion group that brings together marketers across industry in an interactive discussion around best practices. Our event will focus on these subjects and more with real case studies, best practices and practical learning that will help you with your email endeavors. Mark your calendars for March 24-26; visit the site for more details.

Again, happy New Year and best wishes for the year of 1… (more on 1 later.)

Best Practices Workshop

The Yogi and I are conducting a best practices workshop in Atlanta today – visit the Panel of Peers site for additional Yogi Tour dates, we may be in your city soon.

Aha… Woodstock!

“Absolutely Phenomenal!”
“Practical and Effective!”
“Timely & So Simple!”
“A lot of great information bundled together very well; I have five pages of ideas.”
“Good stuff, damn good stuff!”

These were some of the comments we received on the workshop in Vermont. The idea exchange at the seminar in Woodstock (VT) was very good. The attendees shared some great feedback with us and we truly want to thank every one of them for their ideas – it was great learning for us as well.

Here are some ideas for all of us to apply to create interactivity and a sense of community amongst our clients and something to engage our prospects:

1. Keep them coming back – have a thought for the day/ week on your site. Get people to come visit, engage them and offer them an opportunity to browse a part of your site or give you comments. Perhaps a little quiz, a story that continues about the many 'characters/ personas' that your brand supports, perhaps the result of a weekly contest that was initiated via email. Keep one thing in mind; don't force any sales on this page as it is harmful to your overall brand strategy.
   
2. Create bookmarks – Even if you are not sure about your overall strategy on MySpace, Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Go ahead and reserve your spot then one small step – go ahead and add some basic information on each of these sites. If you have a blog write a little note about your company, go ahead and add a little information about yourself on MySpace – essentially try to mark your space in the electronic world.
   
3. Ask them, watch them – Keep asking your customers and prospects what they want, this will help you serve them better as you will be tracking their preferences. But please keep validating their preferences; make sure they are truly following through on what they are saying. Many times people say one thing in a survey, yet they do something completely opposite.
   
4. "HEADS UP!” – Many providers insist on marketing on your dime (their logos on your emails) Why should you sacrifice your brand by marketing the email provider? You will hear all kinds of explanations as to why it is good, etc. This is simply something you should not accept.
   
5. Create a community of customers – get them together, get them to give you feedback (positive feedback and negative). If someone gives you negative feedback that is valid, and you can quickly fix it, others will appreciate the information. If someone gives you negative feedback that is not valid – you will find that some of your customers will come to your defense. Positive feedback is always welcome and more valuable when you’re not scripting it yourself – just ask people for it. People love reading reviews from their peers.

Thanks again to all of you that came. Many thanks to Reagan for running the event. Thank you for all the ideas and don't forget the next local gathering will be held on November 15 in Lebanon, NH.

Off to see the Yogi!

I must admit that I was a little nervous setting up the Panel of Peers in Vermont/ New Hampshire this past week – mainly because the regional format was new for us, this was the first session I’ve coordinated and because it’s just my nature. Thankfully, this worry was unnecessary – everything went smoothly and we’ve had nothing but positive feedback.

In all we had 28 customers and friends from Boston to Maine join us in Lebanon, New Hampshire for a day and a half of networking, best practices and sharing. Attendees included eMarketers focused on various retail industries, with ranging customer types and list sizes – we even had a couple technology firms join us. Despite their focus, attendees had commonality… they all wanted a fresh perspective and to see the Yogi!

If you couldn’t make this event (or would like to join us for a future date) simply check the Panel of Peers site. New information on 2007 Tour Dates will be live before the end of the week.

Regional Panel of Peers

This Thursday and Friday (August 23rd & 24th, 2007) in Lebanon, New Hampshire, Sundeep will be hosting a regional Panel of Peers session. To read the agenda, click here. If you're in the VT/NH area, and are interested in attending, please contact Sundeep of Reagan for more info.