links for 2008-05-18

• Spam law affects affiliates - DMNews
  The Federal Trade Com­mission's just-approved new rule provisions for the CAN-SPAM Act largely place the onus on e-mail marketers and their affili­ates to take responsibility for clean e-mail lists and clear communica­tion among marketing partners.
  (tags: legislation spam)
• EmailKarma.net: Transactional Email That Markets Effectively
  Some key rules that you should follow for transactional emails
  (tags: transactional_emails)
• How New CAN-SPAM Rules Affect Marketers
  Listen to this podcast to discover how these changes will affect email marketers and what they’ll have to do differently to be in compliance.
  (tags: legislation canspam)
• How To Measure The Value Of An Email Address by Julie M. Katz - Forrester Research
  Forrester's three-step formula provides marketers with a method to determine how much the customers on their lists are worth.
  (tags: study)

New FTC Rules Under the CAN-SPAM Act In Layman's Terms.

Recently the FTC has approved four new rules under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. You can find the press release here.

In this article, Mark Merckler, General Counsel for UniqueLeads explains what it all means in layman's terms:

1. Contrary to what many believed they would do, the FTC did not shorten the time frame for honoring opt-outs. For the foreseeable future it will remain at ten (10) days.

2. The FTC limited acceptable opt-out procedures to simple, one step operations, requiring no more than the user supply his or her email address and preference.

3. The FTC modified the definition of “sender” to make it easier to determine which party is responsible for complying with the Act’s opt-out provisions.

4. The FTC specifically allowed the use of a USPS PO Box, or private mailbox service as meeting the “valid physical address” requirement. (Thank goodness the legal folks won’t have to negotiate this point anymore.)

5. The definition of “person” was expanded to clarify that the Act’s provisions apply to companies as well as individuals.

These are the most important points affecting our industry. However, the Commission’s Statement of Basis and Purpose will be published in the Federal Register in the next several weeks. It will provide a lot more guidance on what the FTC was thinking when it promulgated these new rules.

Source: dmconfidential.com

links for 2008-05-16

• The Email Wars: MySpace Wins Largest Anti-Spam Award in History
  MySpace has informed us that on Monday it was awarded $234 million in statutory damages, the largest anti-spam sum ever made under CAN-SPAM and apparently ever under any law.
  (tags: spam canspam)
• What the Changes in CAN-SPAM Mean for You
  (tags: canspam legislation)
• Videos in email: best practices
  (tags: vi)
• Can We Talk? The eec's New Speaker Bureau (Email Experience Blog)
  The new Speakers Bureau will match eec members with speaking opportunities at events that without our support would have little or no programming about email marketing.
  (tags: industry)

Clever pun or typo?

When crafting your subject lines, you have to consider how your audience will perceive it, especially if you want to get 'cute' with it. And be sure to follow up right away in the message...

This morning I received an email from a retailers in which I immediately noticed something odd in the subject line. First a little background... In Canada, we have a long weekend in May around Queen Victoria Day (May 24). This weekend also usually means the start of hot summer weather after a cold and dreary winter. So naturally, it usually means packing up and heading to the cottage or camping to drink a few cold ones. Therefore this weekend is commonly referred to as "May 2-4 Weekend"

Back to the email-- the subject line reads "May 2-For Long Weekend", which obviously says to me it'll be a 2-for-something sale. However when I open the email:

There's really no mention of any sale or promotion, except for the 35% off circle, which has nothing to do with 2-for-anything. It's not until I scrolled down to see the "2-for-$100" text at the very bottom of the email.

I guess this is more of an above-the-fold lesson--but if you're going to use a clever play on words in the subject line, make it obvious right away when the email is opened!

links for 2008-05-15

• Virgin lands in the rough with email invitation to golf resort event
  The company sent an email on Thursday inviting people to an event at The Grove Golf Resort Hotel, Herts, an 18th century country estate. But the offer was intended only for the 75 members of its first class Traveller club.
  (tags: cases)
• Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers
  14 reviews of the must-read blogs on email marketing
  (tags: blogs)
• C Suite Favors E Media, Study Finds 'Business Elite' Embracing Online
  54% now depend on email newsletters as their primary source of media industry news
  (tags: study)
• MarketingSherpa: Coca-Cola's Top 5 Strategies to Build a Successful Rewards Program
  See how Coca-Cola boosted interaction with its My Coke Rewards program by switching to highly personalized and segmented emails. Their average clickthrough rate increased 46%, and member activity is up 57%. (open access until May 21st)
  (tags: cases)
• Creating effective HTML email campaigns - webinar
  May 28, 2008 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT - Learn how HTML design and rendering tactics impact the deliverability of an email campaign as well as the response it generates from recipients.
  (tags: events)
• The Truth About Email Marketing
  New book on email marketing written by one of the industry experts: Simms Jenkins. Don't forget to check out the resource center!
  (tags: books)
• Secrets and lies about international e-mail marketing
  (tags: strategy international)

Conference: Customer focused email - marketing to people not lists

In this day and age of marketing via the email channel, it's becoming more obvious than ever that we, as marketers need to change our methods to keep up with our subscribers' requirements. We need to be more subscriber/customer focused and ensure we deliver emails which the subscriber wants. In return we will be rewarded with better deliverability, increased ROI and happier subscribers.

Stephanie Miller of Return Path, a great advocate of the 'subscriber experience' will be Keynote Speaker at the UK DMA's Email Marketing Conference coming up on June 5th at the London Zoo (and yes, you can visit the zoo in your lunch break!). The title of the conference is: Customer focused email - marketing to people not lists.

To find out more about the conference go to :

http://www.dma.org.uk/content/Evt-Article.asp?id=4300

User Experience Testing: Best Practices

User experience testing is a powerful e-mail optimization technique. Unlike multivariate and A/B testing, it tells you more than what users do with your e-mail. It tells you why they do it. But there are essential best practices to consider if you want to get the most out of testing. Here are a few.

• Begin testing by giving participants context. If the e-mail is triggered from a Web site, make sure participants first interact with that Web site. If the e-mail is one piece of a multipart series, show participants all preceding e-mails. If it’s generated after users interact with print collateral, show participants that collateral. These measures will prevent you from being sidetracked by context-dependent problems that will resolve themselves in the real-world experience.
  
  
• During testing, use true-to-life viewing and interaction methods. If the e-mail will be viewed on a computer screen, test it there instead of on paper. Paper-based testing doesn’t assess text tolerances and doesn’t show how content can fall below the fold. Similarly, if users will interact with the e-mail on mobile devices, be sure to test it on these devices to understand interaction challenges—like those caused by scrolling and stylus pens. Also, be sure to test shorter e-mail exposures to understand the effect of time-limited viewing. Short-term user perceptions are often much different than long-term designer perceptions.
  
  
• After testing the e-mail, show participants what happens next to determine whether the larger system of communications makes sense. If the e-mail leads to a Web page when clicked, show participants that Web page. If a subsequent e-mail will follow after a delay, use a distracter task so that participants forget some of what they just saw and then show that e-mail. These measures will tell you whether the test e-mail needs modification to work within the larger communication context.

Source: BtoBOnline.com

Email Marketers Report Improved Results

In March of 2008, SubscriberMail surveyed marketing professionals around the world to gain insight into the way email marketing was being used, the level of success they achieved and the challenges and opportunities they have faced for their email marketing efforts over the past 12 months.

Here are some of the results:

• Email marketers report improved results over last 12 months
• Conversion rate the top metric used for assessing email marketing effectiveness
• Majority of marketers integrate email marketing with other channels, most often with sales force and print
• Swamped inboxes and delivery cited as greatest challenges to email marketing success with marketer time and resources not far behind
• More than two-thirds of email marketers fail to send a welcome message to new subscribers

Read the full article and view the charts here.

links for 2008-05-14

• Email Marketing for Nonprofits
  Whether you're launching a membership drive, soliciting donations, or selling tickets to a fundraising event, email marketing can provide the biggest bang for your buck.
  (tags: strategy non_profit)
• EEC and DMA Members-Only Conference Call About New CAN-SPAM Rules
  Friday, May 16 at 1pm EST - The Direct Marketing Association is hosting a conference call, which is only open to Email Experience Council and DMA members, to brief members on what the new CAN-SPAM rules mean.
  (tags: events)

links for 2008-05-13

• Let them unsubscribe … or pick ‘email me less frequently’
  great example from J.Crew, which gives the subscriber an opportunity to control the frequency - or to easily go on to totally remove themselves from all J.Crew mailings.
  (tags: cases unsubscribe)
• eec Does Good
  This is just one of the great things that the eec is doing for the not only the non profits out there, but the email industry as a whole. Way to go guys.
  (tags: industry)
• FTC Releases new CAN-SPAM regulations
  the FTC has finally released updated regulations to CAN-SPAM in response to many questions that have come up over the years.
  (tags: canspam legislation)
• Email Marketing For The Small Business
  Start with a plan, utilize turnkey execution, ask for email addresses when you talk to customers, and measure the results of your efforts. Remember not to over-mail or under-mail, and only send relevant and timely information.
  (tags: small_businesses getting_started)
• Maximize Email Marketing Results with Web Analytics - Webinar
  Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - Strategies for leveraging web analytics to create effective customer-centric email marketing campaigns
  (tags: events)