Recent Posts

BtoBOnline noted in a recent article on video email, “B-to-B marketers are finding that using video in email can help deliver their messages to audiences more effectively, as long as they follow a few simple rules.” The article urged marketers not to “shy away” from using video in email.

I think our sales team here at Bulldog would agree. The team has been experimenting with a new video email product—to rave reviews. With a webcam and a relatively simple setup process, they’re creating and sending personalized emails containing short videos, clickable links and a call to action. No additional burden on the production team: Just record, write the message and send.

Bulldog’s CEO, Rob Solomon, embraced the technology immediately, as he always does when he suspects something will be both fun and productive. The rest of the team, after working out the “I don’t understand this!” kinks, is also getting into it.

After a testing period, we’ll measure the results, comparing traction (opens, clicks, demos) sans video email with the results we’re seeing from the video email. We’ve been testing more complex video components for a while in our monthly newsletter, where the addition of video is driving interest in the content, and in client campaigns, where video is being used for promotional invitations, registrant communications and follow-ups.

But those are heavier lifting, requiring scripting and production. Seeing the results for our sales team of the high level of personalization being added with relatively low labor requirements is a great way to end the week.

—Amy Bills

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Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

2007 Animation in Retail Emails Study - Executive Summary
The Executive Summary of the 2007 Animation in Retail Emails Study.

2007 Animation in Retail Emails Study
The animated gif strategies used by the largest online retailers and the pitfalls to avoid.

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

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Is it just my imagination or is there a resurgence in CAN-SPAM interest in the news recently? Between the INBOX session on “Getting Email into the Inbox,” where we chatted on a couple-few issues related to what being CAN-SPAM compliant really means, to press coverage by Inc.com selecting a CAN-SPAM-compliance monitoring solution for a “Best for… Making sure your outbound mail works” award, it seems there’s a surprising increase in interest in this topic. I checked with our own support team and lo and behold…higher volumes of questions last week about what it means to be CAN-SPAM compliant. It’s gotten so bad our email policy director has taken it upon himself to write a white paper enumerating what it means and, more importantly, what it does not mean to be CAN-SPAM compliant.

Frankly, I find this all rather odd.

Odd because CAN-SPAM compliance should be called what it truly is…ineffectual legislation from the one part of our industrial economy that is least likely to produce efficient policies—the government. I hear folks intimate this all the time. CAN-SPAM compliance is the most negligible form of email marketing compliance that you can actually do. If you are building a program and infrastructure to effect CAN-SPAM compliance as your only goal, then by all indications you will essentially appear to be a spammer. You may ask yourself why that is, and while there are many reasons, it basically comes down to permission. CAN-SPAM doesn’t require permission from the end user while the industry at large does.

Congratulations! You won’t be able to get your email delivered but your CAN-SPAM compliance will be beyond reproach.

There are a great number of checklist items that EEC members in aggregate will advise people to do for effective email marketing. Certainly CAN-SPAM compliance is on that list. But always remember that this is very basic stuff that you simply have to do. In the way of a simile, it’s like going out on a first date. You know you need to perform a set of personal hygiene acts. CAN-SPAM compliance is akin to just brushing your teeth and throwing cold water on your face. If you hope to get a second date or even a phone call, you need to put your best foot forward. The latest threads and a bit of cologne might be in order. Aiming for the bare minimum shouldn’t be your goal and that is what CAN-SPAM is—the bare minimum.

—J.F. Sullivan

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I spoke at INBOX and Internet Retailer in the past five days, and at both events heard smart marketers say, “Why do readers unsubscribe/ignore/complain about my emails? They opted in!”

The answer is that permission is not forever. Subscribers opt-in and then promptly forget about their actions. It’s not unusual to see a high number of complaints and unsubscribes on a Welcome Message. Nor is permission a panacea. Opt in doesn’t replace relevancy and keeping your promises.

To that end, here are a few key moments in the subscriber experience when permission should not be assumed:

• When you add a new content set
• When you launch a new product/press release, etc.
• When you haven’t emailed in a really long time (like more than 3 months)
• When you “find” an old file that hasn’t been used (maybe ever)—yes, this happens all the time!
• When you’ve already sent more email this week/month than you promised.

Do you need to re-permission everyone just to send a press release or introduce a new type of email promotion/newsletter? Not necessarily. But be sure to make it really clear that you are sending subscribers something outside the original permission grant, and give them a very visible and prominent chance to unsubscribe. Do this for several messages in a row, not just once. I know it feels counter-intuitive to encourage an unsubscribe, but really what you are doing is re-confirming the permission grant. And, when you use a Preference Center, an unsubscribe request can be “flipped” into a satisfying interaction with your brand and email program.

The alternative is higher ISP complaints (and depressed deliverability) as well as brand degradation and reduced subscriber satisfaction. Subscribers have a lower tolerance for email messages than we marketers do. Be sure you understand and respect what we call the Subscriber Fatigue Factor—when subscribers start to turn off your email program for lack of relevancy or too high frequency. Your Subscriber Fatigue Factor can be determined through control group testing.

But for now, avoid sending more than you promised, and always be clear what the value is to the subscriber before you send.

—Stephanie Miller

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Every week the EEC adds new content to its Whitepaper Room. Here are the latest additions:

E-Marketing Strategies: E-Strategy for Fossil Rim Wildlife Park
How a welcome message roped in free-roaming subscribers.

Chad White: Reportlet - Retail’s Email Frequency Outliers
One-third of major online retailers deviate significantly from the industry average.

*Have a whitepaper you’d like to contribute? Email it to whitepapers@emailexperience.org.

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