This missive was inspired by a Tweet from Simms Jenkins of Brightwave Marketing, who wrote:

another difference between email & twitter is marketers think about what their audience wants b4 sending via email but not so much 4 Twitter

The nature of Twitter lends itself to quick-send behavior.  How much thought can you give to 140 characters anyway?! But to send an email to your list without planning is folly.  It’s also just as silly to think that Twitter and email is an either/or proposition.  It’s possible that Twitter could be used in place of email, but I think that time is still in the distant future.

Cost: Twitter is free monetarily, but there is a price to pay for irrelevant tweets. You alienate your followers and eventually cause them to lose interest, possibly to the point of removing themselves from your list.  Hmmm… this sounds an awful lot like what happens when you send inappropriate emails.

Audience: Your list of Twitter followers can fluctuate in size rapidly – someone can easily follow and un-follow your messages with one click.  But there’s no segmentation capabilities to tailor your tweets to different audiences. So everyone gets the same message – come one, come all.

Use Twitter and Email for same campaign

Cookware and cake-decorating accessory company Wilton has used social media and email in tandem to grow their audience.  Here’s a link to the Marketing Sherpa case study, which delves into their program further.

They used email to grow their social media fans (on Facebook and Twitter) and social media to drive subscriptions to their email newsletter.  Before a product was launched, they use Twitter to tease its release and developed a traditional email campaign to promote the product.

Promote your emails in Twitter

It’s also a good idea to send a Tweet of each email campaign by shortening the web URL of your message (the “view this as a web page” link that should always be at the top of your email) using a service like bit.ly.  When doing that, add a # and a keyword for your product or service. This will help your content be discovered by other Twitter users who have set up a filter for keywords of interest to them.

Twitter in place of email?

A recent ClickZ article suggests that tweets could replace subject lines in e-mails to drive potential customers to offer pages.  With Twitter’s ability to have offers pushed to you like e-mail, without exposing your e-mail address, this article suggests it “could threaten the e-mail marketing channel and reinvent the world of affiliate marketing.”

Let’s get started:

Step 1: Define inactive. This will vary based upon the desired activity you want your list members to perform. It could be anything from not opening messages to not making a purchase.

Step 2: Filter or segment out this inactive group from your master list.

Step 3: Communicate with care. The desired goal is to engage subscribers to the point of clicking, reading, or at the very least opening the email. Any activity is better than none and reinforces that the subscriber is still interested.

Here’s a three-step process to consider following:

1. Reach Out With a Special Offer
The first attempt to contact inactive subscribers could include a special offer such as a contest, survey, coupon or free whitepaper. If they take the bait, mark them as an active list member and remove them from the mailing list for the remainder of Operation Re-engage.

2. Attempt a Second Contact
If the special offer is unopened, then follow-up with a message that their subscriptions will expire soon and a link to confirm that they wish to remain on your list. If you keep the message brief, it might trigger formerly unresponsive subscribers. At the very least, include the benefits of subscribing and mention what they’ll miss out on by not receiving future messages. Just as with the above, be sure to remove anyone who expresses an interest in remaining on your from Operation Re-engage.

3. Send a Final Notice
If subscribers still do not respond, give them one more chance to remain on your list. In this e-mail’s subject line use language that announces it is the last copy of your newsletter or special notices, as well as creative that highlights what they’ll be missing out on in future e-mails.

Within each message, I’d recommend keeping a friendly tone and avoiding any mention of their behavior being tracked, i.e. nothing saying they haven’t opened, clicked, or otherwise responded in a long time (even though that may be the case). By mentioning this, you appear like Big Brother.

Each email should include a call to action for subscribers to demonstrate that they want to remain your list. This could just be a link to a landing page with a form for them to re-opt in to your list – or opt-out, since it’s also a good practice to give your subscribers a way to remove themselves from your list as well.

Step 4: Say Goodbye. It’s time to remove those subscribers who did not respond to your re-engagement campaigns from your e-mail list. Send a farewell message letting them know their accounts have been suspended and, for the last time, include a link to reactivate their accounts. Don’t unsubscribe the recipients from your database completely, but segment your data to prevent this group from receiving future messages. Use your other channels wisely, to keep your brand in front of these subscribers, and they’ll potentially reactivate their e-mail addresses in the future.

What are you going to do to get ready? From a marketer’s perspective, there’s plenty to work on in the course of readying your holiday email campaigns. Here’s a checklist of things to think about (in no particular order):

Landing pages: Every email should have a call to action. But where are you going to send your recipients to take said action? A landing page! You think your existing web pages may do the trick, but that may not always be the case. It’s worth considering creating a landing page tailored to each email campaign. This increases the relevancy factor, which can lead to a higher conversion rate. Here are a couple of links with more information about landing page design:
10 Tips for Writing the Ultimate Landing Page
Tips to Optimize Your Email Landing Page

List segmentation: I’ve preached the importance of segmentation before and will do it again here. The more you know about the members of your distribution list, the better able you’ll be to send them relevant information. The number of promotional emails landing in your recipients’ inbox will increase dramatically this holiday season. If you want yours to be among the ones they open, stand out with content tailored to their interests. A good subject line helps too. Which leads me to my next point….

Subject lines: I’ve always preached “tell, don’t sell” the content of your email. This means straightforward subject lines that clearly state the content inside the message. Here’s an article MailChimp wrote about subject line best practices (don’t let the fact that it was written in 2007 scare you.).

And here are some questions to ask yourself in the planning process that will play a part in setting a plan:

• What’s my budget? Knowing what you can spend will determine how many emails you’ll be able to send, which will control the time spent developing email content and landing pages. (OK, this may be the No. 1 thing you need to know before doing anything else mentioned here….)
• How often will I be sending emails? This will be a function of budget and workflow.
• What am I trying to accomplish? Knowing what it is you want to do is going to drive everything else mentioned. Is it sell more widgets? Increase sign-ups to my company newsletter? (Since it’s holiday season, I’ll go with the first question.) Staying true to your mission is a key success factor.

If you’re not an online retailer, this is still a time to be thinking about how you’re going to get the most out of your online shopping experience. Keep an eye on your inbox for special promotions from your favorite online retailer. Or sign-up for their e-alerts and promotions, if you haven’t already done so.

In the meantime, Happy Halloween!

Here’s a “before” snapshot of the friend request notification:

And here’s the “after”:

Facebook could have gone crazy adding features and links to these messages, but thankfully they kept it simple. In the past, the person’s name wasn’t familiar and you weren’t sure you wanted to accept the request to connect, you had to take a few steps to get more information to make a decision. Now, it’s much easier to make a (superficial) decision based upon their photo.

Twitter also recently switched from a text notification of a new follower to an HTML version. Click the images for a full size version of each.

Old – text	New – HTML

I mention these changes because it’s easy to write-off a transactional email and not give any thought to their design. The updates Facebook and Twitter made added a lot of value for the recipients without going overboard adding bells and whistles just because they could. The basic concepts guiding transactional email design apply to all marketing emails.

With the holiday season coming up and folks doing more online shopping, many companies will be sending emails whose only real point is to say, “Here’s written proof of your order. Thanks for shopping.” Take this opportunity to put some thought into your transactional emails and give them a refresh. But when you do, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does this add value to the consumer? Just because you can add images to HTML emails doesn’t mean you should. And this means including a banner ad. Nobody likes those, other than the guy who designed it. Those will just make the email clunky without adding anything to the user’s experience.
2. Am I over-designing it? Just as you shouldn’t go crazy with adding images, overdoing on fonts isn’t necessary either. Keep the file size small so it’ll load quickly. And keep the coloring easy on the eyes and consistent with your brands.
3. What useful information can I add? Answer this one as if you were the consumer, not as someone trying to sell more products. If your message is confirming a product purchase, try adding a link to a user manual. If you’re sending an email to confirm a dinner reservation, add a link to find directions to the restaurant.

If you think the above doesn’t apply to you because your business doesn’t send transactional emails, think again. These are basic questions that really apply to all marketing emails. I hope you’ll go forth and give a thoughtful approach to your email designs – transactional and otherwise.

There are a few ways to repurpose your newsletter’s content and disseminate this information via social media.  Here are some options:

Create Your Newsletter From Your Blog Posts – Instead of creating new articles for use only in your newsletter, post the content for your blog and have it feed into your newsletter automatically. (MailChimp’s RSS-to-email is one option). Or, include a summary of a few of your most recent blog posts in your newsletter and link back to the original post for the full article. 

Tweet every Newsletter – It’s a best practice to include a link at the top of every newsletter to view it as a web page. You should also include your address on the distribution list for every newsletter you send (one reason being that you experience getting a newsletter just like your contacts do).  Create an account with bit.ly and paste in the link at the top of the newsletter to shorten it and share it via Twitter.  Bit.ly allows you to see how many clicks your link received, as well as the source (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

Share on Social Networking Sites – Facebook and LinkedIn allow users to post short messages either as a status update or a network update. Paste the subject line of your newsletter and bit.ly link into this box.

These options allow you to cover all of your bases to spread your company’s good news.  Email is a universal channel. The other networks mentioned above will help you reach those not on your email list with the ultimate goal of converting them to newsletter subscribers.  Don’t limit your bragging to the people who are already believers – reach out beyond your core audience!

Of course, to do this, you’ll need to have a Fan page and the HTML opt-in form code from your ESP. Here’s the static FBML application that’s mentioned in the blog. You’re really just adding this to your Fan page and then adding the HTML sign-up form as you would on any other web page.

Be sure to check out the Return on Subscriber blog, which even includes screenshots with its instructions!

Their response follows:

Social media is a powerful channel, but it works in conjunction with other efforts, such as email. You should get your email marketing tactics nailed down first, before you make a big social media push.

Here’s why: Engaging with customers and prospects through social media is another channel for two-way communications, like email. A well-developed email program can help you learn important things about your communication strategy, such as:

• What types of content resonate with your audience
• How frequently they want to hear from you
• How to segment your audience to deliver relevant messages
• How to convert visitors into subscribers who want an ongoing relationship with your brand

I’d like to add:

Before doing the above, make sure you have the infrastructure in place to handle a two-way conversation.

If you open a dialogue by sending an email, it’s important to have measures in place to keep up your end of the discussion. This means assigning someone to check the inbox of the reply-to address on your emails. It’s important to remember that someone may reply to your message with a question or solicitation for more information. Having an email like that go unanswered is a surefire way to lose a customer and inspire bad word of mouth.

The exception to the above is transactional emails. In those messages, be sure to include something like the following in your footer that’s linked to the page on your website with contact information:

Please don’t reply to this email. We don’t monitor this email address and won’t be able to reply to email sent to it. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us.

Above all, ask yourself, “Why are we doing this?”

If the answer is, “Because everyone’s talking about Twitter so we may as well do it” then you need to re-think your plan. Email is a great way to stay in touch with your constituents. Shore up the points above and you’ll be well on your way to having an email program in place that will complement your social media strategy.

Again, if you’re interested, here’s where you can sign-up for the I Send Your Email newsletter.

Here’s the chart, taken from the organization’s Benchmark Survey:

A takeaway from the above is that just as many people said email is cheap or free and fine as it is as did those who find it to be a powerful tool that’s worth spending enough on to stay on top of it.

Yes, email is an inexpensive marketing tool, but I think the “junk-in, junk-out” rule applies here.  Companies will only get so much out of their email programs if they don’t allocate proper resources towards them.  MailChimp blogged about a company that notched a $157,000 ROI from its email campaign.  (OK, this company deals in precious metals, but still.)

It is my hope that the 31% group grows and more companies begin to realize the power that the channel carries.  As the market for mobile messaging grows, I see email as a complementary channel growing alongside it.

It’s lovely to look at, but it goes against everything I believe in as far as email design is concerned. I’ll give the team credit for blasting this message at 4 a.m., mere hours after the deal to acquire QB Brett Favre transpired. But I wonder how many Jets fans, before they’ve had their morning coffee, opened up their email to find something that appeared as jibberish to them. This could have been how some even learned that their beloved Gang Green was now home to the former Green Bay signal caller!

I know, more questions than answers here. But another example of how something rushed into the pipeline could have resulted in some missed opportunities.