Click. Connect. Communicate.

Email well-suited for today's changing business rules

by Ron Daly 

[[Editor's Note -- This was an excerpt from an article in this month's DigitalMailer newsletter. To sign up for our monthly e-mail newsletter, click here.]]

We live in an ever-evolving, technical world - one that requires creative thinking and adaptability. Email marketing is not for those who seek comfort in the status quo.

To make this point, a recent Email Insider article ("Put The Old Rules Out to Pasture," 6/8/09) highlighted the new book, Death to All Scared Cows: How successful business people put the old rules out to pasture. The book's authors, David Bernstein, Beau Fraser and Bill Schwab, challenge some of the business world's widely accepted assumptions about marketing. Building on this theme, Email Insider suggests e-marketing professionals should think beyond worn-out business rules, key among them:

Old Rule #1: Focus on the numbers and the rest will take care of itself. Focusing on quantity over quality can threaten your reputation, as well as the usefulness of your email contacts. Emphasizing numbers and data, rather than long-term consequences, can backfire. Building a large email database using precarious list-growth tactics, or sending lots of emails based on watered-down permission tactics may well cause an uptick in unsubscribe rates and spam complaints.

Old Rule #2: The goal of marketing is to sell a product. Not necessarily, marketing's real goal is attracting customers. For email marketers, this means not only inviting contacts to opt in, but also providing ongoing value to keep them subscribed. Going light on email sales pitches will help to attract and retain subscribers, building relationships, not just occasional customers.

Old Rule #3: Business should be serious. More businesses are throwing this rule out the window...and discovering success with a lighter approach. The authors put forth Apple as an example. Within their long-winded, small-print disclaimer on the iPod Shuffle box is the warning: "Do not eat iPod Shuffle." Apple has developed an upbeat, "today" personality, and customers like it. For marketers, emails are well-suited for similar informal, conversational communication. Keeping your messages light - even on the humorous side - can help them stand out in the crowded inbox.

Remember, just because it worked once doesn't mean it's the best tactic now. Take time to review each situation – and then be open to making adjustments. Whether it's via email or mobile messages, DigitalMailer's products can help you make the most of marketing dollars – visit www.digitalmailer.com/arb.html to learn more or email us at info@digitalmailer.com.

SMTP vs. SMS: What’s best for text marketing?

No doubt about it: We live in a mobile world. A recent PEW Internet study (The Mobile Difference, March 25, 2009) found that 39 percent of consumers have increased their use of and improved their attitudes about mobile communication devices. This is good news for savvy e-marketers who understand the unique characteristics of reaching consumers effectively via cell phones or other wireless devices. But in the area of text marketing, a debate has been brewing: Is it best to send messages to consumers via SMTP or SMPP?

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) was developed primarily as a method to send email messages. Using SMTP, marketers basically send emails to cell phone numbers. To consumers, the messages look just like texts. And like emails, there are no fees for delivering SMTP messages.

Using SMPP (Short Message Peer-to-Peer Protocol) to exchange SMS (Short Message Service) messages, marketers send true text messages, routed through cell phone carriers. There is a fee charged for each message sent.

Stocking Up...

by Ron Daly

This week is Hurricane Preparedness Week. Here in Virginia, an area that is commonly soaked by the weather systems that push up from the Gulf, we have a Tax Exempt holiday in which we are allowed to purchase certain items tax free (see the .pdf of items here). 

I think this is great, and not just because I love deals. It's great to have a kit prepared for ill weather, especially for situations in which you might not have power or communication for a while. Some of the things on our tax exempt list: 

Can I See Your ID?

by Ron Daly

When you work in online services, issues of trust and reliability are on the forefront of any discussion you have about your product and how it will be perceived by users. E-mail marketing, for example, suffers from the perception that messages sent won't make it to the inbox. DigitalMailer's spent nine years getting white listed by the largest ISPs in the world, so we can answer most critics with a high rate of delivery and a set of standards and best practices that keep words like SPAM out of our vocabulary. 

Ebay, Amazon, Netflix, - they all had to take into account that they'd be doing business behind a curtain. When you buy from someone online, whether they're the vendor or they're acting as a middle-man, they would need to establish privacy regulations and a level of dependability in their services. 

What if the system worked both ways? 

Sorry, Twitter - Rob's Just Not That Into You.

by Ron Daly 

Believe it or not, this blog will be one year old this month. One of our first posts came from COO/CIO Rob Banker, who was extolling the virtues of Twitter (click here to read). He signed up for an account and started Tweeting. 

And then, one day, he disappeared. 

Apparently, he wasn't the only one. It seems Twitter is having trouble keeping users. According to eMarketer, Twitter only retains about 40% of new users/followers (click here). To get further insight as to why Rob walked away from the popular mini-blogging site, we asked him some questions about his exodus from Twitter and social media altogether. 

So, why aren't you on Twitter anymore?

Simple... Signal to noise ratio. And this was before the mainstream explosion on Twitter. I was following a few dozen Twitter feeds of people in tech and a few other industries as well as a few friends. The quality of information wasn't worth the time. I don't fault the writers so much, 140 characters isn't enough to say anything particularly useful. Unless you're writing haiku.

What do you think of the mainstreaming of Twitter (and social media in general)?

Feels like 1995 all over again. Everyone had to have a homepage. They didn't know why, but they had to have it. I fell for it too. I spent a week long vacation creating a website. There's seven days I can't get back. It was a good education, but ultimately the site served no value for the company. It was just too soon. Being an early adopter isn't necessarily a good thing.

An Inconvenient SPAM

by Ron Daly 

Last Wednesday was Earth Day, which is why you couldn't go to any site without seeing a fleet of recycling tips. We decided to do our "green" article today. Call us crazy. 

I got this article emailed to me the other day. It says that the amount of spam sent every year is the equivalent of driving a car around the earth - 1.6 million times. 

We've been over the amount of CO₂ emitted by Google Search (click here for that article), but this is pretty crazy. SPAM? Those goofy messages you get from nobody about pills and car-title loans? How could something like that be detrimental to the environment? 

From the article: 

The study, which was conducted by consulting firm ICF International, concluded that spam-related emissions for all email users world-wide creates a total of 17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, 0.2% of total greenhouse gas emissions. (Wall Street Journal's Marissa Taylor, "Spam's Noxious Carbon Footprint", April 15 2009) 

Isn't that insane? 17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide! And most of that comes from energy exhausted searching for real messages in the clutter and deleting/sorting the SPAM itself. 

Reducing SPAM via filters is one thing, and is very effective. Wouldn't it be great to only get the messages you really want, though? 

UPDATE - Not saying we're ahead of the curve, BUT...

by Jimmy Marks

A few days ago, Greg and I posted this story about the difference between social media comprehension and...well, what's going on nowadays. My Internet Friend (boy, THAT'S a depressing phrase) Ron Shevlin stopped by to talk about what the role of social media is and whether or not you can "vet" a social media expert. Or whether or not one exists. 

Well, Ron sent me a link to a MarketingSherpa article which shows that most organizations think that, with no social media experience, marketers are still somewhat knowledgeable about social media techniques. 

A copy of their chart: 

Chart: How Knowledgeable Are Marketers With No Social Media Experience?  

MarketingSherpa seems to have summed things up very well:

This was confirmed in MarketingSherpa's Social Media Marketing and PR study where we found that the "lack of knowledgeable staff" was the most significant barrier to social media adoption. When making the initial jump into social media, many organizations start by delegating responsibility to the first staff person they find with a profile on Facebook or LinkedIn since very few people have any level of practical experience in this new strategy. The result is usually a marketing program pre-destined to failure. [Click here for the full article from MarketingSherpa]

Exposure does not equal experience. Just keep that in mind. 

Separating the Businesses from the Bots: What Social Media REALLY Means

by Greg Crandell and Jimmy Marks

If you're a CEO of a major credit union/business/non-profit, you're probably wondering

a) Do I make so much money that people are going to start picketing me at my house?
b) Am I really worth all that money if I'm wasting my time reading this blog all day?

and, most importantly: 

c) When are all these little DORKS going to stop pestering me about Web 2.0 and Social Media?!?

A and B, we can't help you. C, we know. 

We have already talked at length about how business professionals are sick and tired of hearing about Social Media (click here to read). So they hire these people...usually whippersnappers like Jimmy*...to sign them up for the holy triumverate of bad Web 2.0 decisions: 

1. A do-nothing Facebook page that has no actionable links or content
2. A Twitter account that pats itself on the back 
3. A YouTube channel with two videos which are poorly produced 

*Jimmy's Note: Being young has NOTHING to do with being good at social media. If young people were any good at managing content online and being good at representing a cause, they'd never get in trouble for having pictures of themselves smoking marijuana on their MySpace. Vet your online content managers/web specialists with the same jaundiced eye you'd use in selecting an accountant. 

Life is brief, but e-mail is forever: Who takes over your online presence when you go?

by Ron Daly 

I don't need no aggravation
when the train has left the station
if you're there or not, I may not even know

Have a round and remember
things I did that ain't so tender. 
Let the train blow the whistle when I go. 

That song is an old one. It goes back to a time when dying was as simple as getting shot in while rustling cattle, and the biggest request you had upon death was "O, bury me not on the lone praerie." 

Nowadays, it's all about who handles your will, who inherits your belongings...and who's going to keep your long-standing Twitter legacy going. 

As online users get more and more dependent on the web to manage their information and run their lives, a grim eye moves to the future. Sure, older folks who are going off into that gentle night aren't using the web with the frequency of the generations that they sired. But nobody here is getting younger, and the question stands: who will take over your online accounts when you check out?

One solution, according to the Wall Street Journal, is the virtual safe deposit box (click here to read). Once you are proven dead, your "e-xecutor" will be given the login information of your online accounts. From there, they can take on your accounts and manage further payments in your name, close accounts, etc. 

DigitalMailer is working on its own version of this, which will allow you to keep digital copies of your deposit box contents inside your customer communication center account. Will this trend only grow as the years go on? I can only assume it will. After all, being gone doesn't mean being forgotten...and it doesn't mean you can't send e-mail. 

Do you have a backup plan for your online info? 

Leave your thoughts below. 

The Internet is Eating Me.

by Jimmy Marks

My mom got a free iPod Touch with her computer when she bought it about seven months back. She loves her MacBook, she's getting better with putting picture albums and email together. She's one of a growing number in her generation that's only getting more computer savvy as they age, and I'm quite proud of her. But the iPod Touch was just a bit much; if you've just grown used to CDs as your means of music, something with as much functionality as the Touch can be more frustrating than satisfying. 

(Brief sidebar: My mom, back when we had a cassette player in the car, bought the Bible as read by James Earl Jones. We listened to the book of Jeremiah four times, because the tape player flipped the tape automatically and mom kept flipping it manually. I love you, mom.)

So, long story short, we're switching iPods. She's getting my old 40 gig with some of her favorite albums on it. I'm just getting used to the Touch. Love it. Now, I can get email, Safari, maps, my calendar, YouTube, and I plan on downloading Twitterific for it so I can tweet on the go. 

And today, it hit me: the Internet is eating me.