The From Line

This time last year I predicted that basic batch and blasters would start to look at RSS as an alternative to email because of cost and deliverability.  Boy was I dead wrong.  Now that I look back at my words, what the hell was I smoking?   Most batch and blasters aren't sophisticated enough to even figure out what RSS stands for let alone how to implement it.  In my opinion RSS didn't make the slightest ding into email's market share and penetration in 2007.  All the RSS proponents that declared the death of email in 2007, where are they now?  They're either jobless or banished to work in the coat closet since they cut their email marketing budgets in 2007 when email returned 48X for every dollar invested.  Ha! Ha!

Don't get me wrong, RSS is a power tool for content syndication... but it's not replacing email.  Not for the rest of 2007 and not in 2008.

What's my prediction for 2008?  I have another few more weeks to figure it out.

Last year, advertisers spent nearly $10 billion on search engine marketing, more than 60 percent more than 2005. The value of SEM to increase the visibility of your Web site and company, and as an advertising tool is clear, but it’s also an effective tool to generate database leads.

Incorporating eLoop features into your SEM campaign can maximize your marketing efforts and increase awareness of your company. The goal is to create a landing page that represents your overall brand and that conveys a clear, concise message about your company. The landing page, more importantly, captures contact information for future communication. Using eLoop and the landing page feature also allows you to automatically follow up with leads to peak the recipients’ interest and increase the chance they will opt-in to receiving future messages.

For detailed instructions on how to create a landing page, log into your account, mouse over the Help tab and use the “eLoop 4.0 Knowledge Base.”

Understanding how and when to use Action Based Messaging, or ABM, starts with knowing what ABM is. ABM is a process that allows you to send follow-up messages to an initial campaign based on the action that they take. An action-based message is automatically sent to the recipient in response to their action. For example, if the reader clicks on a link for more information, they might receive a follow-up message that asks if the link they were taken to provided the information they needed or if they have additional questions.

 ABM is an effective tool to follow-up with readers, automatically customize messages based on their response, and increase the success of a campaign. So, why isn’t ABM used in every campaign? The simple answer is that it doesn’t fit every campaign. ABM works best when there is a strong call to action and the opportunity to customize the follow-up messages.

The benefit of ABM is that it works automatically. Despite our best intentions, marketers often forget or ignore the importance of consistent follow up to encourage readers to take the next step. ABM solves this problem because, once set up, it does the work for you.

Follow these instructions to add ABM to your next campaign.

1. Move the cursor over the Outbound Messaging item in the Main Menu Bar, then select the Scheduling menu item.

2. Select the Campaign that you want to send (schedule).

3. Click the appropriate radio button to determine whether you want to schedule the date and time to send the Campaign, or if your want to Send Campaign Now. If you choose to schedule the date and time, use the calendar component to select the date. You can also set the time zone using the drop-down menu.

4. Check the box if you want to add Action Based Messaging to the campaign.

5. Click the Continue button.

6. Review the Campaign's Message before you execute the Campaign. Inspect both the HTML and Text messages to ensure that they contain the information you want to send.

If the HTML and Text messages are correct, click the Execute Campaign button.

If the HTML message and/or the Text message need to be modified, click the Do Not Execute Campaign button. Use the Message editor to complete your changes, then re-start this process to schedule your Campaign.

1. If you checked the box labeled I would like to add Action Based Messaging to this campaign, another window opens. Select the campaign that you want to use ABM from the ABM List.

2. Click on the New icon.

3. The Add ABM section appears. In this section, you specify the parameters for the Action Based Message.

Select the message to send -- this drop-down menu lists the available Messages.

NOTE: The Message you want to attach to the action must already exist.

Select Action Type -- click on the radio button that best describes the action taken by the recipient on which the Message will be based. Depending on the action selected, another set of fields and/or menus appear to further define the action.

1. When you have completed describing the action, click on the Add ABM button.

2. You will return to the ABM List window. Click on the Complete button.

3. You will return to the Schedule Campaign window. At the bottom of the window, you should see your campaign added to the Campaign Queue. From here, you can cancel the scheduled campaign, or you can edit the execution time for the ABM (if used).

The technology to deliver e-mail marketing campaigns is better than ever. The success of the campaign, though, is still only as good as the content that the message includes. Follow these tips for improving your copy.

1. Know your audience – good marketing is all about knowing what the audience you’re trying to reach will react to. The goal of the message, and the text within the message, is to achieve a reaction from the reader. To achieve that reaction, you need to know what the reader’s wants and needs are. In most cases, the marketer can make some assumptions about the reader by looking at demographic information. Find out what the audience’s likes and dislikes are and tailor your message accordingly.

2. Include a call to action – messages should include an action step for the audience to complete. It might be to make a purchase or complete a survey or simply to visit a particular Web site. Whatever the action is, it should be clear and easy for the reader to complete.

3. Keep it short and sweet – don’t ask that your readers go through mountains of text to reach the information they want or need. Anticipate what it is that they want or need and give it to them. No one has time to read through long messages, nor do they want to.

4. Write, review and revise – a common mistake for marketers is that they write the message and send it out, ignoring the two last (and arguably the most important) steps of the process. Write your copy and take a step back from it before you review it with a fresh eye and make the necessary revisions.

5. Consistency in marketing is essential – if you don’t have a set of key messages that you draw from, create one today. Key messages are short statements that convey the most important elements of your company/organization or campaign. All marketing copy should include the key messages. The goal is for the reader to see the messages so they reinforce what it is you want them to do.

Writing e-mail copy that conveys a consistent message and encourages the reader to act is an art. With these easy-to-implement tips, you can take your message text to the next level.

We are trained as children (and even sometimes as adults) to learn from our mistakes. Making a mistake is human, but failing to recognize the mistake and learn how to avoid it in the future can be disastrous. This is especially true for e-mail marketers. Repeating common mistakes can lead to deliverability issues and cause the intended reader to ignore the message or send it directly to the junk mail folder—a worse fate.

 Mistakes come in all shapes and sizes, but here are a few that we see too often.

• Failing to close the loop. Email marketing is a cyclical process that ends with evaluation of metrics to determine what works and what doesn’t. Every audience is different. Using the data available in the “Reporting” section of eLoop will help determine the features to which your audiences respond best.

• Links that link nowhere. Using links in a message is just one of the standard elements of our business, but not testing the links can be disastrous. Nothing can frustrate a recipient more than clicking for more information only to be routed to a page that doesn’t work. Test your links.

• Ignoring the advanced features. These days, anyone can send an HTML message, but do you want to be just anyone? Incorporating the advanced features that eLoop offers can expand your readership and, most importantly, improve your campaigns. The features are there for a reason. Take a few minutes to play around with them and learn how to use them to your benefit.

• Customizing your opt-out form. If you haven’t already customized your opt-out form, drop what you’re doing and log into your eLoop account now. An effective tool to limit your list attrition (the fancy phrase for recipients opting out of receiving any communication from you) is to give them some options. Maybe the reader wants to receive some correspondence, such as a newsletter, but doesn’t want others. Let them choose and you may find that they’ll stick around instead of opting out all together.

Don’t wait until New Year’s to make a resolution to avoid these mistakes. Resolve to do better today.