Tag Archives: email marketing

The New York Times Email Mistake: Can It Happen To You?

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By now you probably know about the New York Times’ little email error on Wednesday, December 27. But if you don’t, here’s the nutshell: The Times sent a ‘Cancellation’ email to 8.6 million people, presumably every single one of their online email subscribers. The email was meant only for those who actually subscribe to the paper’s home delivery service.

First the Times claimed it was spam, then blamed their email service provider Epsilon, and finally fessed up; The Times did it themselves.

As I’m sure we’re all wondering: How exactly did it happen? And how can you avoid it? Only people at the Times know for sure, but it’s possible, in fact easy, to guess. In fact, it’s a worthwhile exercise, because it may help you to avoid copying their mistake.

Let’s consider what we know:

  • The email itself is of the ‘transactional’ variety, designed to be sent to people who canceled their subscription recently, supposedly about 300 people, not 8.6 million.
  • It is very likely that the emails were triggered to send immediately after some change in the database, like an upload of canceled subscribers. This may have been automated or transferred as a .CSV or some other kind of data file compiled by the circulation department.
  • It is likely that the Times uploaded, updated or moved their entire subscriber database, changing the field that is used to trigger the cancel emails, which is how 8.6 million people would wind up in the ‘Canceled’ category.
  • If the database driving the auto-trigger is part of a web analytics platform or the site’s backend, it could have been altered by another department doing something that was considered purely technical and unrelated. This could mean the marketing and circulation departments had nothing to do with this. The database update was made by people whose primary focus is elsewhere, and whom are not familiar with the email system.
  • Or, it is possible that someone in the marketing or circulation department was playing with the database, maybe ‘cleaning up’ fields, without considering the consequences.
  • Finally, while it’s interesting to imagine that someone pressed the wrong button somewhere. It may have been an automatic change triggered a long time ago, when somebody set a transactional mailing to run for a very long time, like 24 months, before expiring and throwing the emails into the regular queue.

What doesn’t seem likely is that someone manually set up the ‘Cancellation’ email and selected the entire database by accident. I’d like to think the people at the Times are beyond that.

The bottom line:

Today’s most advanced email systems have a lot of moving parts, including triggers and filters, database connections, hundreds of fields, countless segments, dynamic content, differing browser compatibility, myriad admin levels, and multiple departments with people of varied experience. How many marketers have made manual uploads, global field changes, or set up automated systems and made a few compromises?

It isn’t just a matter of testing the content and using a browser with your email platform (though these measures help). You have to run all the scenarios. You have to think about the worst case outcome before uploading a file, integrating a database, eliminating or merging a field, or setting up a trigger.

Somebody within the New York Times is being called onto the carpet, where the explanation may be too technical and complex for the bosses to understand. That somebody, who may or may not even be at fault, is headed for the door. Don’t be that person.

Email is an extremely powerful communications tool. And remember, with great power…

Crossposted at The Net Atlantic Email Marketing Blog

GMail Changes Ad Display Rules – Now What?

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Google is changing the game for email marketers – again. They’ve reconfigured their ad-delivery mechanism to bring GMail users fewer, better-targeted ads. That they’ve changed some code is not a big deal. That they’ve further honed their Priority Inbox technology to drive targeted content is.

Priority Inbox is already a turbocharged email engagement algorithm designed to funnel only the inbound emails that are most likely to be opened to the reader’s immediate attention. Everything else goes to the regular ole’ inbox. It’s not in the junk folder, but more like email purgatory.

Well, Google figures, if you can make a piece of code do that, you can certainly make it prioritize the ads that display while a reader uses GMail.

Now, as an email marketer, you may think, this changes nothing for your campaign strategy. You’re going to continue sending well-segmented, highly relevant emails to your best audiences. Right? And you’re going to run ads in Adwords that carry the same keywords so when your readers engage you, they also see your ads. Right?

Oh, wait a minute. That sounds like quite a coup. And some high-volume online marketers will probably get away with it. It’s also likely that your email will trigger your competitor’s ad, or something relevant but in a hilariously negative way. Fun.

The bottom line: There’s nothing you can do to change that, but just know that if your reader opened your email, it’s a step up from an ad impression. You can try to think a step ahead of your competition and stuff your email with new, trend-inducing keywords they can’t use. A lot of market-leaders have taken exactly that path, and transformed not only their companies but the industries they operate in.

When you ‘own’ a keyword, it means people automatically think of you when they see or hear that keyword. A nice spot to be in. Google’s recent changes to GMail should only encourage you to think a step ahead. Relevance is not enough to drive email engagement. Leadership is the new bar.

Watch Google’s video:

Marketing Spin: How Far is Too Far?

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Marketing Spin: How Far is Too Far?Try #1:

While trying to start my car the other day, I heard that terrible clicking sound that you hear when the key doesn’t do what it is supposed to. I also felt that instant of internal disappointment, knowing that something I trusted had suddenly let me down. A few more times turning the key didn’t change things; the battery was dead. (The next sound I heard was the clinking of money ringing in my ears). I was going to have to find another way to get to work.

Then it hit me: the dead battery was a lot like some email marketing campaigns I’ve seen. You know when you see a brilliant subject line from a trusted sender, you open the email, and are disappointed by the content? It turns out not to be the insightful and enjoyable read you thought you were getting, but instead just another lame pitch. Don’t be the dead battery in your reader’s inbox.

Try #2:

While eating ice cream one hot afternoon with the kids, I found it hard to keep the ice cream from melting down the cone and all over my hands. They never give you enough napkins at the ice cream shop window, so you’re forced to deal with about a quart of vanilla nut crunch dripping all over the car and trying to mop it up with a single-ply tissue the size of a business card.

My first thought was about how this was exactly like dealing with email deliverability issues. Every time you think you have it licked, the spammers find another loophole and force the ISPs to make changes that catch your legitimate emails in the dragnet. Your email service provider’s compliance department is already catching up to current best practices, and now they, like the tiny napkin, are hopelessly outpaced and saturated with hot fudge and jimmies.

Try #3:

While crossing the street downtown, I stood by the crosswalk for a good fifteen minutes waiting for the cars to stop. Stopping for walkers is the law in my state, but motorists see that as more of a suggestion than a moving violation. Finally, somebody stopped; a nice, little old lady in a 1984 Buick (in mint condition, of course). I waved and stepped out, cars honked, hand gestures were offered, vulgarities were issued, and then I was nearly run down by cars going in the other direction.

“This is exactly like email compliance,” I realized. One good email marketer sends their perfectly compliant, well-messaged, highly-engaging, double opt-in email, while all the other messages in the inbox are like the other drivers on the road, honking, gesturing, screaming for attention. The legitimate email marketer is in a tough bind; how to get read while surrounded by so much nonsense?

@myleftone: So marketers: How far can you stretch the spin? #marketingspin

From: sales@company.com (aka DELETE ME)

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Readers delete impersonal emails

What is the best email address to use for your email marketing messages?

If you’re struggling with this question for your own campaigns, congrats! You’re thinking pretty deeply about optimizing engagement and interactivity with your readers. There are basically two schools of thought: 1) Your readers want a ‘personal’ approach and will respond to an email from their friendly sales executive named Joe instead of an impersonal, faceless corporation, or; 2) Your readers understand your brand and will welcome news and updates from your company, but will feel ‘tricked’ by your attempt to use a personal name.

Notice, in both cases, I assume you have an opt-in relationship with your readers.

When you want to purge your own inbox, where do you start? Do you line up all the emails from “Company ” and delete the group (like I do)? Do you then go after the “Joe ” or “Company ” emails? If you’re like me, maybe you save the ones from “Joe ” for last. Unless I’ve heard of the company, it’s gone. If I haven’t heard of the person, it gets read, but boy will I be ticked if it’s junk. Maybe enough to hit the spam button.

So what do you do? I hate to say this, but it depends. It depends on who you are, what your company does, what your readers want, how they found you, and which way the wind was blowing that day. Since you can’t segment based on the whimsical nature of reader expectations, you can at least play the percentages, so here are a few tips to help choose which approach is right for you:

Use the “news@” (or “sales@”, “updates@”, “stuff@”, etc.) approach if:

  • Your brand is well-known to your customer base. If your readers and their grandmothers know your company but couldn’t pick the CEO out of a lineup (like almost any restaurant chain), you should use your company name to send the email.
  • Your brand has a personal approach to messaging. If you position your company as more like a friend than a business (airlines come to mind), you should maintain that friendship without complicating things.
  • Your brand scores well for quality, reliability, service or other measures of trust. If you just plain make the best. Period. And your readers know it, you’re in brand nirvana. Use your brand as the foundation for your campaigns.

Use the “Joe@” approach if:

  • Your business is built on personal relationships. If the first impression your company makes with most of its followers is through a sales executive at a conference or a regional sales agent, that person should be the name sending the email.
  • Your business is centered around a celebrity or personality. If your CEO is a well-known visionary who overshadows the technology and even the company, make your emails a personal communique from the CEO (Really, do you want an email from Martha, or from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia?).
  • Your business has a rich, personal engagement approach. If your company is built on superior service, or technical know-how, put one of your technical people in front of your readers with tips, updates and best practices to form a solid relationship. Some companies even make up a person (think car insurance) and use that character’s name for campaigns. But ideally, authenticity counts.

If your business is large enough to need different approaches with different segments, you’ve got a lot of work ahead. If not, and you have a pretty good evaluation of your brand, the tips above should help you decide whether you are “Updates@company.com” or just “Joe”.

Cookie Cutter Social Media Strategies (For Cookies Only)

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Look, I’m new to social media, so I won’t shovel you expert advice about building a huge following. Your Twitter mojo is probably a thousand times mine. If you rock the social media house, keep doing whatever you’re doing. I’m probably learning a lot from you.

(The truth is, I’ve never worked for someone who saw any value whatsoever in social media, and I wasn’t able to sell it to the boss. So my opportunity to jump on the social media bandwagon was spent doing old-school stuff; powerpoint decks, data sheets, press releases. I know, I know. That’s another post.)

But like everyone else, I do have an opinion on how best to use social media to grow your business. That’s what it is ultimately about, right? Growing your business? Building a base of people in your community, so that you have a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw on to help you deliver a finely-honed service or product to the people who are willing to pay you for it? Creating mind-share? Getting noticed?

I’m looking for all of that, too, and the advice I’ve found on how to use social media in my marketing strategy follows a massive bell curve. The range seems to break down like this:

Social Media Strategy - Bell Curve

The advice in the middle approaches a ‘best practices’ tactic for social media in marketing. Although I think we’re still a long way from that. If you are a thought-leader who publishes new material all the time, social media is exactly what you need it to be. You can gain a massive following and if you’re good, you can monetize that following.

But a cookie-cutter strategy won’t cover everyone. No more than a great cookie recipe will help you make a cheeseburger. If you’re selling air conditioner parts, the best social media model really isn’t there yet. If customers found out about you through Twitter, it’s a safe bet you’re a long way from a sale. You should use social media to build a community and get links, but not leads. And that reality will drive your strategy more than anything else. For the average B2B company, social media is still a luxury.

So if you’re not a constant online publisher, why worry about strategy? You’re still in the “Just Do It!” stage. Jump in.

Look at email marketing, which was the Wild West about ten years ago, but is now a (variably) respected marketing and communications tool that offers tracking, best practices, compliance guidelines, and an entire realm of best practices and expertise. Social media looks at email marketing the way email marketing looks at postcards. The strategy will come.

I’m not going to prescribe any specific approach, except to suggest that you take advice that works well for a publishing model with a grain of salt. In ten years it will be easy to know the best way to use social media, but today, despite all the hollering, we know nothing. I’m just saying; “Relax!”

What is a “Real” Social Media Success Story?

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Whenever you read about companies and celebrities using social media such as Twitter and Facebook, you hear all the stories about how these organizations and people have become huge social media success stories. They have expanded their reach to more followers and created another portal for constant engagement and brand-building.

A rundown of these social media success stories usually includes the following:

  • Oprah Winfrey
  • Ashton Kutcher
  • CNN
  • Walmart
  • Apple
  • Skittles
  • Marriott
  • Kodak
  • McDonald’s
  • CVS
  • Hershey’s
  • Staples
  • Intel
  • Cisco
  • UPS
  • The Home Depot
  • PepsiCo
  • Discovery Channel

Do you notice what they all they have in common? They all existed before the rise of social media. Beyond that, they were all huge before the rise of social media.

Oprah, for example, got famous for creating one of the better daytime talk shows, and making it the cornerstone of her media empire. Every day, she touched a nerve with viewers and guests, and stayed away from the circus atmosphere of some other daytime shows (you know who I mean). She covered topics that were touching and interesting, and developed a brand that was largely based on her personality and interests.

In other words, she was a social element before the medium she could really exploit was even born. And you might notice that her show is still on television, and is still the foundation of her empire. Her followers would not be her followers without it. So is Oprah really a social media success story?

Similarly, Ashton Kutcher was not unknown before the rise of Twitter. It turns out he was already a very talented and funny actor, and the star of a hit television show, a veteran of several movies, a teen magazine heartthrob, and his posters graced the walls of girls’ bedrooms everywhere before he ever sent his first Tweet. Without all that, he’d probably be a geeky-but-dreamy guy working at Wal-Mart, known for his ability to make friends, but not a social media legend.

While we’re on the subject, Kutcher challenged CNN to gain more Twitter followers. He won, and claimed the victory showed that “Social media and social news outlets can become as powerful as the major news outlets.”

But CNN still seems to be standing. 90 million people subscribe to it through their cable providers and several million viewers tune in each day. Kutcher relies on reruns, movies, Nikon ads and tabloid covers to keep his name on everyone’s mind. When he covers a foreign war, humanitarian disaster, or the daily economic report using only his Twitter account, I’ll be impressed.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, you might have noticed that the company is larger than some countries in revenue and total square footage. This had nothing to do with social media, and neither will the company’s future. Wal-Mart’s only possible strategy with social media is to strengthen its relationship with followers, most of whom shop there only because of low prices (based on forcing its manufacturers to exploit slave labor overseas).

Apple took a lot of flak until very recently for being late to the party, and even discouraging the use of social media tools. The company is now on board, but with such a dedicated base of followers and some of the most innovative consumer-oriented multimedia tools, it’s surprising they didn’t lead. Apple’s finally building outposts using social media is not an example of a success story.

Skittles are tasty, fruity sugar drops that got to be one of the biggest sellers before the Internet was even around, so what is the point of a candy having a website anyway? Well, the Skittles marketers thought the same thing and replaced their website with a Twitter window and a little Flash with promotional offers and links to Facebook and YouTube. It’s brilliant, but is it a social media success? Skittles isn’t even a company. It’s just a brand sold by Wrigley Bros., which in turn is owned by Mars, Inc.

So what exactly is a social media success story?

It has to go beyond creating an outpost and generating buzz. A true social media success story should have been virtually unknown before using social media, and should be a legitimate business. A business is something that fills a market need, has a sustainable revenue model, and has the potential to enrich more than just the owner, but also its community, industry and audience. A lot of people make money from their blog, and they advertise their blog through social media, but have they created something that can continue to operate and adds value for others?

There are a few examples:

Zappos
http://blog.davemadethat.com/2008/07/09/communication-20-zappos-a-social-media-success-story-interview-with-tony-hsieh/

Bacon Salt
http://www.baconsalt.com/

Cold Stone Creamery
http://social-media-optimization.com/2007/07/social-media-marketing-success-stories/

MyWorkButterfly
http://mashable.com/2009/04/28/grow-social-network/

Indium
Finally – a success story that more closely matches every marketer’s situation: How to take an existing business with a small budget and little name recognition and gain market share using social media.

http://www.indium.com/