Chris Baggott's Email Marketing Best Practices

E-mail continues to be a viable direct marketing tactic

E-mail continues to be a viable direct marketing tactic. Seventy-eight percent said they made a purchase as a result of an e-mail, 59 percent redeemed an e-mail coupon in a store and almost one-third have clicked on an e-mail and made an immediate purchase. Another third reported clicking on e-mails for information and returning later to make purchases.

This comes from a report put out by Doubleclick.   For all the talk of RSS & SPAM, people still love email when it's done properly.

Why I hate Aquisition Email

Ok; hate may be a strong word …and perhaps one of you could pull me back from the edge here….and I might have spelled acquisition wrong in the subject line……..But, please help me understand the mentality.

I was forwarded an email that went to a bunch of my clients (and a bunch of yours as well) that was from an email service provider.

How did this email get to this audience?   

The footer at the bottom had the following disclaimer:

“You received this email because we have an existing business relationship. You are a subscriber to ------- Magazine. Periodically, we will inform our subscribers of special offers and new products from third party mailers pertaining to your profession or possible interests.

To take your email address off of the list for future messages from third party advertisers, as well as notify this advertiser that you no longer wish to receive messages from them, please follow this link: http://pm15.net/o/?ZXD=84.3949296.1587882
Direct Magazine is not responsible for the products or services presented in this message.”

Now on what planet would anyone believe this is something we as an industry would be proud of? 

Starting at the first sentence:   “WE” do NOT have a business relationship!   I do subscribe to ----- Magazine (actually I think we advertised with them until today )

Oh; in spite of sharing valuable information from our “PARTNERS” …..WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES PRESENTED!!   Some partnership.

Now I’m not commenting on whether this is effective or not.  I will say that the people who have forwarded it to me have been at best good natured and at worst embarrassed for our industry by these kind of “permission” emails.

What we can learn from children about great marketing

You might remember that I’m a fan of Sharon and her company We Know Words.

Her newsletter this month caught my eye.  I wanted to share her first two paragraphs, and add my own commentary.  What’s interesting is that my conclusions are a little different from Sharon’s….

I just mailed off my daughter’s letter to Santa. It was an adorable letter, very sweet. In it, Emma said she hoped Santa wouldn’t have to deliver much coal and asked if coal were valuable because her brother says it is, and basically just wrote a chatty little note that didn’t ask for anything.

I thought Emma was writing to ask for a gift as in years past. As a mom, I’m delighted she didn’t because it means she’s writing to Santa to be kind and not to hit the old man up for yet another toy. There weren’t any hidden intentions in that letter. Emma didn’t expect any results other than making Santa smile.

Bingo!  Our goal as marketers is to create better relationships, not to continually exhaust our customers with solicitations.   

Here’s poor Santa; pounded to numbness with one selfish communication after another.  Along comes this nice letter from Emma.   It makes Santa relax just a bit, it also show’s that Emma respects Santa as smart and try’s to understand some of the unrecognized concerns that Santa might have this year (Rising energy commodities).   

What’s Santa thinking?   Here is someone nice.  Here is someone different.  Here is someone who respects me and what I’m going through.   You know what?  I’ll bet Emma gets just what she wanted this Christmas.

Help with email top trends

Ok, I’m in the process of compiling the top email trends for 2006.  It’s kind of a tough assignment since so many people are not yet doing top trends from 2005 yet (heck, most mailers aren’t caught up to 2004 yet)

So I’m asking for any ideas you might have for my compiled report.  If you have any trends that I should include please send them to me.  I’ll credit you in the report.

Thanks.