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I’ve been hearing a lot of questions surrounding the best application of social media to the marketing mix, but one that has been slightly overlooked and under-discussed is who should really own it within an organization. And until you can figure that out, it is really difficult to hold any one internal resource responsible for devising a solid and actionable social plan.

To that end, StrongMail Systems recently conducted a survey to see how marketers were approaching the social space and who planned to own the channel. More than 500 marketers responded, and the results validated our suspicions. Social media is emerging as a direct marketing channel, and marketers are planning significant investment in email marketing and social media programs in the second half of 2009.

One thing the survey clearly conveyed is that ownership of social media within the various facets of marketing is still up for grabs, with 29% of respondents stating that responsibility is owned by multiple departments. But for 36% of the respondents, social is owned by the direct marketing organization, which allows for significant alignment with email marketing efforts. Social media was initially seen as a terrific vehicle for public relations, but surprisingly only 9% of respondents reported PR organizations owning the social media channel, which suggests that marketing teams value social media more for its demand generation potential than awareness building. A paltry 5% have a dedicated social media department.

Other notable facts from the survey include:

Michael Kelly, Director of Business Development at ClickMail, recently presented at the Silverpop Summit. His presentation on email marketing metrics that matter was so well received, I thought it fitting to recap it here.

Titled “Proving Your Worth with Metrics,” Michael’s presentation was partly drawn from MarketingSherpa’s 2009 Best Practices in Email Marketing Handbook which Michael played a part in pulling together. Get Michael’s presentation for a preview of some of the compelling stats and numbers.

Michael covered why to measure, what to measure, and the challenges of measuring, among other topics, including what to do with that data once you have it, and new tools for compiling and learning from that data in real-time.

But why is measuring your data so difficult? Lots of reasons, including conflicting metrics and not knowing what to measure. In the email marketing industry, we suffer from conflicting metrics because there are so many things to measure. We measure how many mailed, delivered, opened, clicked through on and more. The lack of consistency in calculating key performance metrics makes it impossible to establish industry benchmarks or to effectively compare results.

Sometimes we forget that email marketing is about more than just clicks. Email can achieve numerous significant goals beyond a sale. The purpose of email marketing is to trigger an action, not only to get a click. That action might be a forward to a friend, signing up, a visit to a brick-and-mortar store, attending an event, or simply being more aware of a brand.

And knowing all those actions are possible reactions to your email makes measuring even more of a challenge!

Again, we’re back to metrics. Remember, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

Real danger lurks in not measuring the right factors or not measuring accurately. You could suffer lost revenue. You might not know which messages are working. And your sales team won’t know what to focus on. On the other hand, there are huge advantages to knowing your numbers so you can:

The past year has flown by and as we approach the last lap of the 08-09 eec Nonprofit Project, the team wanted to share two key accomplishments—these are just two of many wins from the eec team and the Agassi Foundation since last July.

1.) New creative strategy and assets—convincing the Agassi team to transition from sending a digital version of their print newsletter to a more email friendly one was easy. But no one imagined the bump in response they saw! With open rates close to 40%, the new newsletter creative saw nearly a 390% increase in click thru activity. Check it out here.

2.) On the social side, the eec team looked for ways to help the Agassi Foundation add to their existing partnered presence in the “social” world with organizations like Athletes for Hope. Enter the badge download page: view it and download your own Agassi Foundation badge here.

Even though the 08-09 Nonprofit Project isn’t over yet, it certainly has been rewarding for the team to help out such a great organization, cause and group of people. We’ll be back at the end of the project with a full wrap-up.

*If you haven’t gotten involved yet, now’s your chance to sign up and do something—the eec just announced the 09-10 project - the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF). Contact Ali for more information and to join the team.

- Chris Frasier & Rachael Anderson, BlueHornet
Agassi Project Team Leads

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I’ve been in the business of delivering email now for quite a long time. I’ve spent more than 10 years managing, creating, or observing email communications in some fashion. I have worked on the client side, with partners, with vendors, and on the ESP side. This week while I was reflecting on what I’ve learned (don’t laugh, I can get introspective), the thing that kept coming back to me was one word…process. Process is such a basic thing that is so often ignored. We have very little margin for error when delivering an email. If you make a mistake it is out there for the world to see, usually with bells and whistles as Mr. Murphy seems to take over. I wanted to talk today about how solid process can help eliminate errors, increase productivity, and boost morale within an email team.

I am going to give away an interview secret of mine here for everyone to see. I guess that means I will have to make up another one, but here we go. I always ask candidates to tell me if they have multiple tasks to do, how do they stay organized? I am not looking for any specific answer, just an answer. A person who has a clear method of organization can go a long way in our business. You can use a white-board, sticky-notes, calendar, reminders, you name it. The key to organization is an understanding of how to prioritize and remind you of critical tasks as crunch-time nears. All email campaigns have a moment of truth where everything has to come together. I believe that predetermined process is the single most important factor in making that moment of truth a smooth one.

Here are the main areas where it is important to inject process:

As we all know from our own experiences as subscribers, the marketing emails that people look forward to are those with the most distinctive personalities. Subscribers are much more eager to engage when they feel like they have a relationship with an individual or a persona than with a company.

For most brands, infusing messages with personality means cultivating a unique and consistent tone with design and copy choices. Increasingly, though, brands are finding ways to put actual human faces and/or human emotions into their email, making the messages seem more personal and creating continuity between messages. Below, we’ll take a look at how some top retailers are adding personality to their email.

• Backcountry’s memorial message is the most sincerely poignant example of personality in email that we’ve seen recently. The April 10th Backcountry email was sent with the sole purpose of memorializing a professional skier and inviting subscribers to help support his family. The message fosters a supportive sense of community between Backcountry subscribers.

• SmartBargains’ holiday message shows subscribers the actual people behind the brand. This is an approach not usually taken, very literally demonstrating that actual people are creating and sending the emails.

• Crutchfield’s marketing email features a picture of and quote from their CEO. In a similar way to the SmartBargains message, this makes it easier for subscribers to feel an individual connection to the company.

• Urban Outfitters’ top reviewers email creates a community feeling and also encourages the subscriber base to become more active. When they see reviewers recognized, subscribers understand that their own reviewing efforts are valued, and they may be inspired get more involved. Sephora customer reviews function similarly.

• J.Crew’s Jenna’s Picks is a novel way to put a face on the fashions. The only problem? In many J.Crew emails, we don’t quite know who Jenna is! In this message, they describe her as “our in-house style expert and muse” (vague, but we’ll take it), but in other messages they just call out “Jenna’s Picks” without reminding subscribers why we should care about Jenna.

• Barneys New York’s Barneys Babble invites us into the sharp, funny mind of Simon Doonan. We get to follow Simon’s adventures and hear his insights on fashion, and Barneys thereby takes on more character.

• Nordstrom’s “At your service” email makes online shopping seem more personal by calling out special services. It’s always personal to shop in-store at Nordstrom and interact with sales associates, and this email extends the service experience across the email channel.

There’s room in almost any brand voice to add a personal touch that will invite your subscribers to feel more connected with your company. For more musing on this topic, check out Silverpop’s Engagement Marketing Blog article, Do Your Emails Have a Personality?.

Bubbling with Personality,
Lisa Harmon and Alex Madison, Smith-Harmon

–>Read other Make it Pop! posts.

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