This Is My Favorite Marketing Newsletter Because ...

I get about 60 digital newsletters a day. I love this one.

The graphic header is recognizable, yet shallow enough to show the crux of the blog post without scrolling down. So critical. 

Hubspot sends this out multiple times a day (two? three?). I always glance at it and I often read the intro. I click through maybe four out of 10 times.

Sometimes I tweet it. Every month, I draw from it for Marketing AdVents, the award-winning monthly newsletter of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DC), which I edit. 

This newsletter meets the objective: It makes me click through to the blog.

Yes, the blog content is superb, but the enewsletter design gets me there.

Finally, this is the only enewsletter I receive that looks like this and persuades like this.

Serving Enewsletters? Get to the Meat!

©CreativeCommons by Heather Joan

I got an e-newsletter today-- one of about 60. This one featured four boxes, each with a stock photo. Every box had a headline, 35 words of fluff copy, and a link to the company’s blog. The meat sat on the click-through. I never got there.

Here's a better recipe for electronic newsletter tidbits:
1. Skip the headline.
2. Cut the intro.
3. Jump to the meat.
4. Serve.
5. Repeat.


Details
This copywriter served four dishes and four headlines:
• 10 Easy Ways to Grow Your Social Presence Now
• Is Your Brand Too Bland? Avoid These Pitfalls of "Wallpaper Copywriting"
• Reputation Management — the Secret Weapon
• 3 Twitter Tips That Will Boost Your Twitter Marketing

Not horrible, but very commonplace headlines. “Nothing to see here. Move on."

So what brought me back?
Nothing tasty, that's for sure. Just curiosity. A couple minutes later I wondered if these guys could teach us all a lesson. I went back to my trash folder, retrieved the email, and checked to see if they had anything to offer.

Here's my review.
• I've seen those headlines too often.
• The short 35-word intros to each item were even more trite than the headlines (for example, “Twitter is a fast moving social network. New content pushes older content out of the way fairly quickly, meaning that it's easy for your tweets to go unnoticed. If there's an important tweet that you want your customers to…”) [yawn]
• The meat was buried on the click-through link. I never made it there.

Cure
If you want readers to look further, tell us one thing we don't know. A single item we don’t know is better than four items of old news.

Sadly, the meat (see below) was there! But it was buried in paragraph three on the blog post. Why not put this on the cover page instead?

"When you pin a tweet, it's the first thing visitors will see when they come to your Twitter page …Here's how to pin a tweet:
• Locate the tweet you’d like to pin.
• Click the three little dots (extra tools) menu at the bottom right of the tweet.
• Select 'pin to your profile page.'"

Forty-eight words of pure meat. So why didn’t the writer serve me this tasty morsel first?

Beats me.

How They Forced Me To Choose "Yes" and Like It

Crossroads by CarstenTolkmit @CC

GraphicDesignBlender came up with a sneaky way to push website visitors to choose “yes.”

I hopped from their excellent Design Blender newsletter to an article on the myriad benefits of featuring testimonials on your website.

When I landed at the article, a free offer popped up on the screen. The pop-up invited me to download a free ebook. I was in a hurry and started to click “no.” That's when I noticed the wording Design Blender had attached to my "yes/no" options:

___ Yes, please send me your free book on "How to Find Clients."

___ No,  I already have enough clients.

I didn’t particularly want the book, but I simply could not check a box that said, “I already have enough clients.”

Call it superstition, call if fear of tempting fate, call it gut reaction. I just couldn’t do it. I gave them my email address -- which was, of course, their purpose -- and downloaded the book.

Their spine-chilling “No” option was the only reason I caved.

Magic, huh? And an awesome way for copywriters to score.

p.s. The free download is actually pretty good.


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You Might Think Everybody Does This. Uh… no. But Everybody Should.

Writers tend to do a lot of online research. As the editor of a marketing newsletter and a relentless blogger, I visit hundreds of websites, download dozens of whitepapers, pile up racks of statistics, and read a lot of blogs.

Sometimes a website will ask me to leave an email address and I will (though often reluctantly) IF I want the product badly enough. That’s what happened when I visited Vidyard.com to download their whitepaper “Video: the New ROI Star of Marketing.” What I never expected was the simple, non-pushy “nice-to- meet you” email that arrived 24 hours later:

Hi Nancy,

Thank you for stopping by the Vidyard website. I wanted to reach out to you to see if you were looking to learn more about video marketing or if you have any questions about Vidyard.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or if you think Vidyard might be a fit for your specific use case.

All the best,

Ally

From all the websites in all the urls in all the world, this is the first-time I’ve ever received an email like this. Phone calls from salespeople, yes. Thank you for downloading XYZ, yes. Glad you downloaded, now how about buying this, definitely.

But a simple, short, no-pitch email offering help if needed? Not once.

This classy follow-up tells me these folks are very good at what they do.

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Talk Nice and Other Tricks to Make Your Email Kissable

In April, SilverPop released a white paper useful to any marketer responsible for “talking to” customers, particularly when the channel of conversation is email.

The essential message of “5 Tips for “White Space” Emails,” is keep it useful and make it look good.

To that end, fill promotional emails with useful, educational, enteraining content—photos, humorous stories, info graphics, tips from other customers/donors. 

For example:

1. Seasonal tips and stories that tap into your customers’ time-sensitive needs: spring clean-up, holiday recipes, December charities, March madness, etc.

2. Personality and humor. Write chatty copy that reflects your customers’ attitudes and interests.

3. Other-user-generated content. Search out customers’/ donors’ own words. Find them in social media comments, letters to customer support, etc. 

4. Buying tips: Customers don’t just buy; they interact with products and services for a reason. Broaden everybody’s buying experience through education. Political donors go to the polls and have experiences to share; nonprofit supporters embrace values and belief systems with a community of people; folks who “like” products are interested in how other customers make choices.

5 Usage tips. Focus copy on innovative ways customers can use your product or get involved in your charitable activities. For copy ideas, talk to customer service reps who hear feedback in customers’ own words.

Source: SilverPop white paper,  5 Tips for “White Space” emails, April 2014, http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/overview/

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Hoku: The Masters of Electronic Bait and Switch

I got an email this morning from Hoku Unlimited in Van Nuys, CA. As an editor in the direct marketing industry, I receive all sorts of industry-related “information.” This one looked legit. It listed three questions [with partial answers] that a marketer should ask a potential list vendor. The info looked on target. Links proliferated. Links to the “full article;” links to “here;” and links to “list vendor check.”

All of the links went the same place: Nowhere.

What was the point? To get me to provide my name, email, phone, company, and a comment.

Who Is Hoku Unlimited? Nobody knows.

What am I giving Hoku? Exactly what they gave me: NOTHING.

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Best Idea for 2011. It’s Easy As Pie, But I Bet You Aren’t Doing It.

Margaret Farmakis writing for Return Path posted the question, “Is Email Sexy?” She then offered three reasons why email is sexy and three reasons why it’s not.

Margaret's article is quite good but I think one of the reasons she cited for email's allure is misleading -- namely, our ability to dialog with it.

Fact is, most of the time it's pretty difficult to dialog with email -- at least in the case of most content-rich email coming from corporate and information-delivery sources. That's a shame, because those content-rich emails are exactly the ones readers want to chat with.

In my June 29 Marketing Brillo blogpost titled “Auto Stealth: THIS Is the Top Marketing Idea of the Year,” I touted the brilliance of an email I got from Tim Pitts at Trendwatching.com. Why did I love it? Because it appeared to be from Tim to me (and only me) and because it invited my input.

The bulk of the email I get comes from the webmaster (whoever the heck she is). I checked my “electronic newsletter” folder to confirm that this is true. It is. I’ve also got entities writing me who are named newsletter, workforce, social media, reply, ncreply2, support, and editorinchief (a slight improvement in that this appears to be an actual human being .. or at least an avatar).

Margaret says, “A one-way conversation is never sexy. A dialog that elicits a response definitely is. Email enables marketers to create a dialog with their subscribers, customers and prospects.”

Maybe, except "webmaster" keeps getting in the way.

Could this be a workable New Year’s Resolution for marketers -- to send customers an email they can respond to? I mean -- if under the new model -- everything else is going social, why do you suppose email is so darn .. well, one-sided?

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Advice for Cross Media: Just Because We Can, Doesn’t Mean We Should.

I received an annoying email from HarryandDavid this morning. This was definitely not an accident. I didn’t like it and here’s why.

The HarryandDavid Harvest 2010 catalog showed up in my mailbox yesterday, complete with Intelligent Mail Barcode and a note to the Postmaster to deliver in the proscribed two-day window.

When the IMB data alerted the mailer that the catalog had been delivered, the email dropped. This morning’s email, clearly, was a “follow-up” to the catalog mailing. Cross-media at it’s best.

So what’s the problem? No problem at all with the system. In fact, it’s brilliant and a good reason for direct marketers to adopt the IMB now, even though its use isn’t required until May 2011.

The problem was with the creative in the email. H&D has information about me and they just couldn’t wait to let me – or anybody strolling by my computer -- see it.

The subject line was good. A message about your Harry and David account … Show me somebody who doesn’t at least look at email about their “account,” and I’ll show you a person who doesn’t have email. So, yes, I took a look.

The message told me that my “Personal Giftlist is now online” and offered me two quick links so I could “review and update” the list. The email explained that the links would lead to my “private, secure listing.” I had no intention of doing H&D’s record keeping for them, so I ignored the invite and was about to close out. But then, a bit further down, I saw my son’s name in big capital letters, along with a short description of a gift I sent him and his family four years ago.

If this was a private, secure listing, how come the meat of the data showed up in the body of the email! H&D explained they were listing names of “up to five people” to whom I had previously gifted H&D products. They were doing this for me, you see, because they didn’t want me to ever again forget to send a gift. Excuse me!?

That’s too much information. Imagine where this little email might take somebody who happened to see it, by accident or otherwise.

So, yes, direct marketing technology – especially cross media – totally rocks. But, as always, just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Emails are no place for a recitation of your customer’s relationships. Before we flex our digital muscles, let’s consider “how much information is too much information” and leave the online personal stuff to Facebook.

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Auto Stealth: THIS Is the Top Marketing Idea of the Year

Twenty minutes ago I got an email from Tim Pitts at trendwatching.com.

Tim wanted to know what I think of the trendwatching service. What I like and don’t like. What (if anything) would make me want to buy the premium service. What else I’d like to see the trendwatching masters do.

This email is revolutionary. I've never seen this done before.

The email was not a survey. There was no form to fill out and no buttons to push. Tim invited me to write whatever I want and send it back to him ... you know, write a return email with my thoughts and hit “reply. Simple.

Nothing in this invitation -- at least visibly -- was/is automated. This is friend-to-friend, I-ask-you-tell, human communication. That's how it felt to me and that's good enough.

I've just seen the top marketing idea of the year. I'm going to call it "Auto Stealth." It's new-school and smart marketers will be figuring out pronto how to copy trendwatching. It's real.

Now, back to my email to Tim...

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Auto Communicate with Social Media “Friends”? Uh-huh.

Flowtown can automate your social media contacts. As the YouTube video demonstrates, all you have to do is import your email contact data into Flowtown and then you can email everybody with whom you’re also connected on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr. The process is automatic and en masse.

At $17/month plus 4.5 ¢ per import, it’s not cheap. In fact, for an entrepreneur who works on a selective basis with other businesses, that’s a deal breaker.

Others disagree. Email marketing software developer Mail Chimp lauds Flowtown in Ben Chestnut's blog. Could be that Chestnut is onto something. He's clearly no dummy, which is apparent from the excellent pricing of MailChimp. Hurray. If you’re managing up to 500 names, you can use MailChimp for free. Now that's a good one. I signed up.

In the process of blogging today, I realized I don't feel good about automating messages to people with whom I’ve “connected.” All my social media folks are real people. I totally get sending them an enewsletter or an evite or something that everybody recognizes as mass produced. But how can I pretend to be “social” en masse? In fact, I can see that backfiring, BIG time.

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Email Marketers Get It. My InBox is Bloated But Beguiled.

Seth Godin’s post this morning about the easy availability of “slick” products got me curious, so I clicked through to Moo Cards and signed up. This was simply my most recent excursion into “Sure. I’ll take that.”

I’ve been busy “signing up” all week. Tuesday I put my email address down to receive daily alerts from Groupon, Specialicious, and Living Social. These money saving opportunities are hard to resist. Better yet, I’m learning a lot about where I live.

Wednesday I signed on to Hot Potato, the new and groupier Twitter. Last week I evaluated the cloud with Google Docs, Zoho, and boxnet. Zoho is superb, but Google is utterly free -- no premium upgrade fees -- and it's connected to so much of my other Internet activity. What to do? What to do?).

Marketing newsletters also swell my inbox. My faves are anything from Media Post, MarketingVox, Who’s Blogging What, SmartBrief on Social Media, and bNet. I manage the email onslaught by directing various eAlerts to targeted folders. When I get around to checking, the info is like a White House briefing.

Sure, a lot of stuff is clogging my inbox, but – increasingly – it’s stuff I want. Even more significantly, a lot more of what’s coming is stuff I asked for. Seth Godin said this would happen and he was – way back then, at least -- right. Email marketers who ask permission are winning.

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Today's NEW Marketing Report (For Today Only)

Saturday's email and Twit-fodder spotlighted trends in today's marketing ("today" being April 17; this will all change tomorrow).

1. We've gone to the movies.. the SHORT movies. Meet the irresistible Loic Le Meur and his report of YouTube mastery. Loic describes himself as a "French entrepreneur who lives in San Francisco, and is founder of Seemic and LeWeb conference." Loic told Twitter followers that he's posting a new YouTube daily, getting 3,000 hits a day, and has logged 1.7 million views. I believe it. This guy rocks (today). See a sample here.

2. Coupons Are Selling Us Out. Comrade Gabe Goldberg linked to a New York Times article that reported on information-gathering (some might say "spying") capabilities of online coupon vendors. If you're inclined to paranoia, don't read this -- especially the part that says barcodes on some of these coupons have the user's Facebook information embedded. (Does that include the office party photos? Ooops.)

3. Banks Want To Talk To Us. Well, they don't really want to talk to us; they want to "connect" with us online. (No, not in line; they don't want to talk to us at all in line. Online. Get it?) The Marketing Vox reports that banks are turning to social media to make "real, live" connections with customers. The horse left through the barn door long ago on that one, guys, but ... Bank of America's is reportedly using "many different strategies" to build -- or rebuild -- conversations with customers. (I suggest checking in with Frank Eliason, who's tweeting as "comcastcares" to see how that's working out.)

4. Social Media Friends Aren't All That. Writing on SmartBlog, Jesse Stanchak reports on Edleman's 2010 survey that says peers trust one another 20% less than they did in 2008. Edelman blames the recession, but Stanchak says social media may have redefined whom we consider peers, to wit: "The challenge is clear: We have a long way to go in understanding how relationships are formed, what they’re based on and how influence spreads. For now, we only know that consumers are becoming more discerning." (And just when we thought it was safe to go on Twitter...)

Speaking of social media gone bad, could "live, present, and in person" be the hot new secret marketing weapon? You heard it here first. And that's enough shocking news for one day.

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From Marketing Sherpa: A Lesson in Content Giveaway

Getting bloggers to repost your stuff is one objective of any content provider bent on going viral. Today, Marketing Sherpa -- which has great members-only subscription content (and well worth it) -- found a clever way to get bloggers involved.

One link in their free e-newsletter hopped to a post titled New Chart: "Do Email Tactics That Take More Work Get A Bigger Payoff? The link included “The Chart of the Week,” [above] which displayed the “Levels of Effectiveness” inherent in various email marketing activities. That was good, but better was the clever note for bloggers posted at the bottom of the chart:

Feel free to post this chart (in its entirety) or link to this page. Sherpa’s Chart of the Week is yours to use in your blog, presentation, or simply for reference.

p.s. The chart shows that the most effective ploy of email marketers is delivering content relevant to segments. But that takes effort. The chart indicates that adding event-triggers to emails takes some front-end work, but also boosts the effectiveness of non-house lists.

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Lots of Questionable Emails Lately … So What?

I keep getting questionable emails from “PayPal” asking me to click on a link to update my information. Like I’m going to do that.

A recent email from “Lowe”s invited me to visit a website to “track the status of your mail-in savings submission.” Except it came from an incredibly weird url: BounceBack_5733_7456045@FulfillmentProcessing.com.

Lately, I even got nervous when Bank of America prods me on my credit card statement. How can I be sure the email is really from Bank of America – or from any cited source? Not long ago, I got an email ostensibly from a close friend who's name and email address I recognized immediately. The email (subject line "lvoeyou" [sic]) suggested I go to http://evenguile.com (close, but not the real url.. hey, no way I’m spreading this virus).

The bottom line is, increasingly I’m disinclined to click on any link that comes via email, especially when it has something to do with money. Which is not to say I’m criticizing the value of email. Far from it: I more or less live by email. Which leads me to wonder why some influential commentators hate direct mail so much?

Yesterday Seth Godin posted a blog piece that put direct mail – he calls it “postal mail” – on the scrap heap, along with “graffiti” and “art” – all of which he declared of “little commercial value.” Godin’s post left me speechless, but not too dumbstruck to share his viewpoint with LinkedIn’s Direct Mail Group. Quite a few people were as astonished as I that one of the most respected voices in marketing – albeit, author of All Marketers Are Liars -- would denigrate the commercial force that is direct mail. According to The DMA, direct mail drives 9.9% of America’s gross domestic product and results in 2.06 trillon dollars in sales. Even adjusted for bias, these are commercially viable numbers.

With the rising threat of cyber attacks, a lot of us may be looking back fondly on the lazy, hazy days of “junk mail.” At least USPS-charitable solicitations don’t explode in our mailboxes, try to steal our identities, hunt our computers for passwords, or spam everybody in our address books.

Look, every marketing and advertising strategy has its squishy spots -- and the bigger the tool gets (like direct mail and, now, email), the more susceptible to abuse it becomes. The problem doesn’t lie with the any particular marketing strategy, but with the bottom feeders who try to exploit all of them.

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Here's WHY Direct Mail Is Alive and Well

I’ve noticed something since the recession rose to top of mind in January. I’m receiving regular direct mail appeals from 10 to 12 progressive nonprofits – both ones I’ve supported in the past and new charities committed to similar causes. For these campaigners, direct mail is working and it’s working well. This we know because direct marketers only keep mailing as long as they’re making money. Direct mail is a science.

On July 28, MAGNA released its Media Advertising Forecast. Not surprisingly, the figures predicted a fall-off in traditional advertising across the board. Only a segment called “direct online media” (search, lead generation, and Internet yellow pages) was projected to enjoy a modest boost in spending (2.9%). Every other media spend – television, newspaper, magazine, radio, directory, direct mail, and outdoor advertising – was projected to drop off.

The big surprise here is the modest decline (11.2%) projected for direct mail. Except it's not a surprise.

Actually, direct mail doesn't belong on this list at all. Direct mail is nothing like traditional advertising—it's measurable, testable, adjustable, person-to-person, delivery-targeted, multi-functional, returns-based marketing. It’s marketing that can be fixed very quickly when it’s not working. Direct mail is a science.

Some people may throw around the cute term “junk mail,” but smart marketers know this medium can do what no other advertising can: hit exactly where it’s meant to strike.

Don't worry. We're never again going to see the multi-million piece mailings that flooded households in the 90s. Today, shotgun campaigns are both too costly and too eco-damaging to be of any use to informed direct mailers. The Christmas of a Thousand Catalogs is gone as well (also, too costly). But make no mistake: we’re still going to get direct mail.

In 2009, the folks who are mailing to us know exactly who we are and what we tend to buy or believe in. We’re carefully screened before we're mailed to. And the truth is, most of us not only don’t mind, we appreciate coupons and product announcements from stores where we shop, appeals from charities in which we believe, information about service-providers in our area, catalogs from municipal governments, and -- when we have a junior in high school -- promotional material from colleges and universities.

People who hate direct mail probably think a protest of the masses killed it. Actually, the shrinkage is primarily related to external forces: the industry itself, which is focused on getting better results from fewer pieces; the severe financial troubles of the U.S. Postal Service, which have made mailing far more expensive for everybody; improvements in printing technology, which have nudged mailers to smaller, more personalized campaigns with targeted text and images; and leapfrog improvements in data collection, data analysis, modeling, and list selection and tweaking. Again, direct mail is a science.

Don’t expect direct mail to disappear. Do expect it to get better.

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Push A Button and Send Your eNewsletter Content Viral

The various Smart Brief newsletters have done a very smart thing. They’ve added social media "share" buttons at the end of each article. Now subscribers can easily and instantly post favorite articles to Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Most electronic newsletters are opt-in, and thus “for subscribers only.” Still, I’m wondering why I hadn't see these systems “go social” until yesterday. Folks who do subscribe are connected to other folks just like them, which creates a perfect viral opportunity for eNewsletter publishers.

Bottom line: Watch for social media share buttons to pop out all over the electronic newsletter industry.

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Which Media Died Last Night?

First it was direct mail dying. Now it’s email.

Uber-blogger Jason Baer reports hearing lots of talk that email is gasping its last. "Every conference I've been at, and at least 10 blog posts I've read this year, have proclaimed the death of email." As Mark Twain famously said, “The reports of [said] death are greatly exaggerated.”

Baer rightly notes that “... [electronic communication] isn’t a zero some game.. you have to have an email address to sign up for a social network. Further, most of my social network alerts are delivered by email.” Nicely said, Jason (so maybe it's more like email is evolving into everybody's online real ID?) Not quite yet. When Jason asked his Twitter homies what they check first in the morning (email, Twitter, or voice mail), 76% said email was still their first touch point.

Meanwhile, amid the funerals, there also are rumors of pregnancies (GoogleWave) and recent births (Bing). Seems like media life is cycling faster than the fruit fly.

The long and short of it is this: a lot is happening and everyone is predicting something, but, like Heraclitus observed, nobody is in a position to step twice into the digital river, let alone say where it's going to fork or converge. Me? I'm just trying to keep my footing.

p.s. I think I heard that journalism is dead, too. Can somebody tell me where that funeral was? I want to send regrets.

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Testing Will Test Us All

This morning, I got promotions from Silverpop and Marketing Experiments. Silverpop was inviting me to a webinar series “In Search of the Ideal Email Send Time.” Bottom line promise: Reach recipients on the precise day and precise time they’re likely to be checking email and increase e-marketing returns by 30 to 100 percent. Marketing Experiments has a webinar, too: “Optimizing Your E-commece Site” focuses on test strategies that will boost revenue 56%.

All this testing is a daunting responsibility for marketers used to simply uploading e-stuff “whenever,” but testing and adjusting always has set direct marketing apart from other forms of promotion. For years, we’ve paid production experts to help us execute and measure sophisticated direct mail tests. Now we need to do the same for email and e-commerce. Our skill-set requirements are changing rapidly and it’s a bit scary, but the chance to learn something new while doing better also comes with the evolving e-territory. E-victory!