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Email Marketing: An Hour a Day

It's nice when the fruits of your friends' creativity and labor makes an impact, and I'm glad to have had an opportunity to offer some support. FYI, I recycled the banner from Lyris, my employer, and absolutely agree with the company's recommendation.

Email Marketing: An Hour a Day is a great book for marketers because email, or messaging in general, is core to marketing, communications and sales strategies. This is a practical, fact-filled book that will be a valuable resource for years.

Congratulations Jeanniey and David for your new book! You have inspired me to write a book someday and I will come back to the well for ideas and advice.

Integrated Marketing with Tri-Messaging

Wow, the first quarter of this year is flying by fast. I recently made a blog post on LyrisHQ.com about how integrated marketing communications has evolved into integrated marketing. Further, tri-messaging (crafted and well-orchestrated messages for email, social and mobile channels) is emerging as a new marketing best practice, given a number of factors including consumer behaviors and preferences. 

True, I'm being a bit brief this morning at ~5:30 AM (our daughter woke me up at 4:30 AM) and wanted to let you know about this topic -- because I think you'll find it interesting and relevant if you're a marketer with a flat or shrinking budget. DMNews also covered this topic in a recent "Technique" article around the notion of customer engagement and loyalty. Social media practitioners can take comfort in knowing that their world is now taking serious-center stage; no pun intended.

If you're going to Marketing Sherpa's Email Summit in Miami on March 15th, let me know and we'll connect in Florida. We have some productive and fun things planned for this event! 

Technique: E-mail remarketing can re-engage

by Erick Mott

Whether due to shopping cart abandonment or simple disengagement, remarketing e-mail messages can help draw customers back to your Web site.

I'm joined by three other experts including Arthur Sweetser, CMO at e-Dialog; Loren McDonald, VP of industry relations at Silverpop; and Morgan Stewart, director of research and strategy at ExactTarget to share some strategies on how to use trusted email to re-engage customers, in this week's issue of DMNews.

Email Reputation Management White Paper

by Erick Mott

I can't resist posting about a great white paper, with ROI calculation scenarios, that every marketer and Web 2.0 leader should read.

Bottom line, if your email messages (outbound marketing or hosted application) are not being delivered because ISPs and security solutions think you're a spammer or online threat, then you're throwing a lot of money down the drain! It's simple logic, especially in a slowing economy, to maximize your spend and to achieve the best return on investment. Futher, online brands suffer and customers punish businesses that are not sensitive to customers' needs or know how to cultivate and manage a trusted, online business.

Take a look and download this free white paper from Habeas, including case studies from Publishers Clearning House, Socializr and Burpee.

Exponential ROI with Email Reputation Management

by Erick Mott

Every business wants to maximize the value of its brand in the online arena. However, rising levels of phishing, spam and other online exploits are causing stringent email filtering by ISPs, enterprises, education and government organizations -- and consumers are more cautious (ie Email Insecurity Factor) about interacting online with unknown or untrusted brands.

In order to stand out from the flood of spam and other illegitimate online activities, and build trust with consumers and email receivers such as ISPs and anti-spam systems, legitimate businesses must apply the tenets and best practices of Email Reputation Management (ERM) to maintain positive online brand equity, trust and operational effectiveness.

ERM is a necessary discipline or set of best practices for any organization using email and the Web to conduct good business and create competitive advantage in the Internet Economy.  From Habeas' perspective, ERM encompasses (7) core elements:

1. commitment
2. online identity
3. compliance
4. infrastructure
5. consumer assessment
6. feedback processes
7. third party certification

A proactive approach to email reputation management ensures an entity will maintain a positive online reputation which will improve a business's email inbox delivery rates, email response rates, Web site traffic volumes and performance, and ability to partner with other organizations online.

I recently had the pleasure of working with innovators like Sal Tripi from Publishers Clearing House and Tim Denike from Socializr to discuss and uncover how they're applying email reputation management best practices for their successful operations. Learn more about how these leaders are increasing revenues, protecting online investments and brands, and reducing costs with ERM services and expertise from Habeas. Download a free white paper including tips, best practices, and ROI scenarios that were created with an interactive ROI calculator available from Habeas.

With a slowing economy and growing online community including increases in spammers and daily spam volume, ERM gives marketers, brand stewards and technologists an edge. I recommend reading this new white paper.

Your comments, ideas and links?

Driver Error. Land Rover Service Saves the Day.

by Erick Mott

I have never been a fan of an extended warranty program, or really understood the power of great customer service, until I was faced with a huge, avoidable expense this past January. It was like any other day until I got a call that our Land Rover had a transmission issue AND our extended warranty was not going to cover the nearly $5,000 expense. What, how could this be?  We paid for the warranty, yes. But we forgot to take the car in for service when it was due. Oops!

After pleading with the warranty company and getting no where fast, I decided to take the old fashion route of calling the service director (Phil) at Fremont Land Rover to seek understanding, state my case, and for us to agree on a reasonable solution. Let me be clear, I was not expecting a freebie and I was not going to threaten the dealership in any way. It was all about being a communicative customer and asking a service leader, who represents an exceptional brand, to make great things happen in a bad situation for all.  And Land Rover Service did, they saved the day!  The service department, dealership, manufacturer's rep and customer all worked together to put skin in a game where everyone won. The great news is the Mott family spent far less than the originally quoted price. 

Fremont Land Rover didn't stop there. They went the extra mile by giving us a luxury car to drive around for a week while the parts were on order. They also threw in the expensive service that should have been done two months earlier.  The lessons learned are simple: Drivers, stick to your extended warranty schedule and don't procrastinate. What would have been a $100 fee with extended warranty coverage ended up costing much more and created a lot of stress.  Enterprises, use your customer service teams and technology to truly serve customers, leverage for word of mouth marketing and grow brand equity.

10 things Land Rover does really well and other companies can apply:

1. Make customers #1, always
2. When a bad situation arises, policy first, then empathy
3. Consider the bigger picture and the power of Word of Mouth marketing
4. Negotiate a mutually rewarding solution to address the issues at hand
5. Be innovative and determined to solve the customer's problem
6. Don't give away high-value for free; customer needs to put skin in the game too
7. Go the extra mile, maybe two miles
8. Communicate with the customer and agree on expectations
9. Ask if the customer is happy and thank them for their business with a smile at POS
10. Use email alerts and marketing campaigns to notify busy customers about service deadlines, warranty risks and, of course, special offers (I'm now registered for Land Rover Service Email Alerts)

Through it all, I was reminded first-hand how powerful good communication, customer service and negotiation can be for a challenging situation like this one. Am I a happy Land Rover customer? Absolutely, and many others are too according to the voluntary feedback board at the dealership. Will I tell this story to others and recommend Land Rover to my friends? Apparently so.

Your comments, ideas and links?

Multichannel Revolution

by Erick Mott 

I just finished reading Forrester's "US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2007 to 2012" report authored by Shar VanBoskirk. I must say that it's an exciting time to be a marketer and working for a technology company that drives business results and customer satisfaction via the Internet. Four thoughts came to mind as I finished page 22:

• Email is still, and will continue to be, a killer app right smack in the middle of multichannel execution that relies on traditional and emerging channels to reach, transact with and retain customers
• The forecasted interactive marketing spend of $61 billion by 2012 is huge and will stimulate significant investments in both innovation and adoption of new technologies
• Distribution of spend will likely be equitable and not lean heavily toward any one channel
• Marketing organizations that consolidate will better manage "customer touch" across various channels and programs

If you're a senior marketer that already invests in interactive strategies (ie. email, search, blogs, Internet video, social networks, etc.) or investigating further, I suggest you purchase the report or read over the shoulder of someone who has.

Here's another tip. Register for a complimentary webinar that was recorded on November 13, 2007 entitled, "Multichannel Revolution - How Web 2.0 and Online Reputation Changes Strategy and Results." I moderated and we had some exceptional speakers from EEC / OgilvyOne, National Geographic and Habeas.

Register now for the on-demand webinar and share this link with your colleagues. Check it out.

Your comments, ideas and links?

The ABCs of ESPs

by Erick Mott 

Now here's a free webinar to plug into if you're a marketing, sales or service professional looking to learn more about how to optimize outbound email. FYI, email is still the #1 digital channel to engage, influence, and transact with prospects, customers and partners. Guest speakers include Shar VanBoskirk, senior analyst at Forrester Research; Derek Harding, CEO at Innovyx; and JF Sullivan, vice president at Habeas.

Staying competitive with email has never been more difficult. Further, the landscape for available service providers to help with this challenge grows increasingly crowded. Discussion topics include:

• What do consumers really think about email?
• How can ESPs (email service providers) help?
• What makes a good provider, and how should you measure success?
• What’s the connection between ESPs and reputation services?
• How much are marketers spending on email marketing today?
• How big will email marketing grow over the next five years?

Register to access this ~60 minute webinar (recorded live on Monday October 1st, 11:00 AM PDT). You'll also be able to download a rich presentation including research from Shar's collection of insight.

Your comments, ideas and links?

B2B Demand Generation Summit PPTs

by Erick Mott

This information is about 6 months old but I wanted to share some public nuggets from MarketingSherpa's B2B Demand Generation Summit I attended in November 2006 in San Francisco. Since most marketers are concerned with sales tools, lead generation, cultivation and retention that drives revenue  -- I think you'll find some of the session PPTs insightful and useful. Notable presentations were Day 1, #s 2 and 4; Day 2, #s 1, 3 and 5.

Some key tips:

• Content is critical!  And that means content for thought leadership, demand generation, purchase process, post sale and sell-through. It's one thing to create cool campaigns that get people excited, and another to actually deliver the right content, at the right time to support the relationship life cycle -- content that effectively moves prospects from oblivion to satisfied customers/partners.
• Create target audience personas to better understand who you're talking to, their pain points, and what they want to hear/experience from your company.
• Landing page strategies are changing! Consider using more audience segmentation and content variations in landing pages to attract prospects, facilitate decision-making and sharing, and increase conversion rates.
• There's a whole new set of metrics for outbound programs. Take a more holistic approach to measuring marketing impact that drives revenue, not just awareness and raw leads.
• Improve virtual teaming and info sharing -- with resources inside and outside of the company -- to communicate, execute and achieve successful results. 

2006 event PPTs are available for download. I plan to attend the 2007 Summit in SF and recommend it to others that value networking and exchanging best practices with marketing peers and industry leaders.

Your comments, ideas and links?