Internet Marketing

Two bits worth a browse today.

Grokdotcom is out and about and with a great story on how writing is worth more attention (time and money) than it frequently receives.

And yes I have read the copy from the Permission web site and it fits into the “dull” category. Expect a brush through there very soon.

With this in my inbox I have a good article on automated email marketing from Christopher Knight. I have talked before on the power of these types of messages. It seems as though RSS could add a new flavour to this theme.

This Computerworld article reviewing a recent conference at MIT gives some hope to those like me who have an Inbox groaning under the weight of SPAM.

Here’s just a small quote grab…

“On the legal front, Jon Praed, founding partner of the Internet Law Group, drew cheers when he reported that convicted North Carolina spammer Jeremy Jaynes was sentenced in November to nine years in a Virginia jail. Jaynes — No. 8 on Spamhaus’s Register of Known Spam Operations, or Rokso, list — was charged with sending millions of pieces of spam via a program called RoboMail to America Online Inc. customers in 2003. AOL is based in Virginia.”

Earlier on last week, Simon Young, dropped in and interviewed me for an article he is writing for Marketing Magazine. I was one of many being quizzed so not sure if any of it will make it into print but it was fun. This is the un-edited, “just as it went” version.

We covered these points: -

Stream out the audio from the player below or click here for the native 35min approx MP3 file

Want a really simple way to publish your email newsletter as an RSS file?

Well look here at Dan Bricklin’s product ListGarden, RSS Feed Generator Program. It works a treat and is makes it simple manual process to get you going. Would be ideal if there was an automatic process though. Any thoughts of others that fit this bill??

Here is my first Instant Video post. Yes its quite rough, yes it is well short of content BUT it is a start.

Last February I ran conference on email marketing in Auckland and invited Derek Scruggs to make the trip down to the South Pacific from his home in Boulder Colorado to provide some future insight. Now nearly a year on I called him up, put him on the spot again and asked for an update on:-

What keeps him busy these days. (Links to the two businesses he comments on are Click Thru Stats and Fan Prints.)

Streaming audio player is below, or pick up the MP3 (4.5Mb approx 25 mins) here

Recently I have noticed the tactic of quoting the email address used for the send at the bottom of my email messages I have received. See those samples below.

I think it’s a smart move. Those relying on receiving your mail via the forwarding from old addresses can see where the message was sent originally too and can ask for it to be updated (the second example shows this well with a link for subscribers to update their records.)

What could be even better is the quoting of the date and time the person subscribed. Then there could be no confusion of how and when the person arrived on the list. Are you collecting this subscription information?

Last year I published the article below to help subscribers make the most of the limited attention time I could see email marketing capturing in the subscribers inbox. Today I see MarketingSherpa supporting this theory with some good findings from EmaiLabs.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi

Here’s a quick way to dramatically improve the success of your e-mail marketing. It costs nothing to implement, requires no fancy technology and is perfectly legal…

But before I tell more, a few details on the problem it solves.

When I picture your e-mail subscriber the moment before your message arrives I see the worst possible scenario. A strong cup of coffee sits half full on their desk, while a list of daily tasks lies by their side, the Inbox is open but chock-a-block, this is a person with not a lot of attention to spare.

So somehow your message needs to fight the caffeine, break their concentration and get that elusive double mouse-click of a message open. Here are three ways to increase your chances and my quick tip to help you choose which one to use when.

First you need a skinny message. The days are over for multiple page e-mail newsletters. Don’t’ squander the little attention you have on too many choices for your subscribers to take. Or put another way don’t deliver a magazine’s worth of copy when what’s needed is a half page flyer. But when you have more “news” than your “letter” can hold, reach for your trusty aid, the database.

It is easy to shrink your messages when you know who wants to read what. Either use on-line surveys to pose these same questions, or purchase a professional e-mail delivery application to help you learn what is and isn’t being read. Once you know what news to produce then you need to tell your tale efficiently.

Writing short copy helps your cause. You know the adage “If I had longer I would write a shorter letter?” Well the same applies to writing for e-mail marketing. Precise, clear writing is never in such demand than in the Inbox of the hurried executive. If you struggle in this area then buy the resource in.

So what’s my test to increase your chance of success?

Here you go.

It’s best done in the middle of writing your next e-mail marketing piece. First open the message in front of you. (There’s another whole article to get your messages opened.) Then SHUT your eyes for 3 seconds. Now OPEN them for another count of 3 seconds.

If you can’t get the gist of your message in this time then the message fails.

That’s all you have; three short seconds to make your impact.

Cut, slice, dice and bold, do whatever you can to come in under the time limit. Once you are confident, test the message on your workmates, and edit some more.

Good Luck

Listen in as I take you through the top six mistakes I see frequently made in email marketing. I will stream out through your speakers so no phone connection will be required. Expect a 25 minute quick fire presentation with as little ramble as possible.

When: Wednesday, 19 January 2005 at 12:30:00 p.m California time.

Here’s a link to the time clock to see what time this is where you are at.

Just 10 places in this one so register quickly. Just visit my enquiry form here, letting me know you are in and I’ll send you the login details.

All the best,

Chris

MarketingSherpa are out with their annual words of wisdom supplied by their readers. Get that printer primed for the paper onslaught.

I don’t think that a strategy of improving relevance in your email marketing is a “one size fits all” kind of thing for email marketers to embark on in hope of improving their response rates in the New Year.

For a start it takes a fair bit of work to complete effectively. Plus it’s a long term commitment that needs to be thought through rather than something to “give it a go” for this month’s newsletter.

There are many ways in which you can start to go down this path.

Past purchasing behaviour; the stage customers are in with their business relationship and even asking them to stump up with their own take on the preferences they want fulfilled in their Inbox; any of these done well will help you make your “one message fits all” plan splinter out into many messages to suit the groups you form.

But does all this work pay off for all industries?

I don’t think so.

About four years ago, I started an email marketing newsletter on email marketing in New Zealand. Just to be a bit flash, I announced to subscribers that they could choose what type of information on email marketing they want to receive: B2C, B2B, Research, Billing etc. At that time, this type of content mix and match inside a message took a lot of technical juggling to achieve.

Much to my dismay, when I looked at the list subscription reports after six months, I discovered that not one subscriber had chosen to segment their content. They had all chosen to receive everything!

All that programming my team had done to achieve this mix and match inside a message was wasted. When I called people up and asked why this was the case they told me that
the content was not broad enough to warrant them choosing among options. Knowledge on email marketing was at such an early stage that people devoured ALL the information they could get their hands on.

So in what circumstances do businesses risk being seen as irrelevant?

Broad product / information ranges coupled with separate and distinctly different customer groups are a good sign that segmenting your messaging could work out well.

Otherwise, why not hold back on the email relevance spend and put your money to work elsewhere?

OK the last few posts on RSS / Email have had assumption in them that possibly they shouldnt. I could try to explain all but Dan Bricklin has done a much better job of explaining it all on his log here