UNSUBSCRIBES - Anatomy of an Email Inbox - SOUR eMail Oct 26, 2016

The unsubscribe process is another one of those elements of email marketing that just makes me SOUR!  Too many marketers do not take into consideration my desire to leave them and the difficulty of doing so can sometimes be infuriating.

First, the law actually prescribes how unsubscribes should work.  Here's the exact wording:

"You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request."

While this allows for some latitude, it is clear that the actions I need to take should be limited and brief.

Some do this extremely well and even brand it via the "SafeUnsubscribe" that Constant Contact users experience.

Others bury it in very small type or with other options to make it harder for you to find.  While I get that they don't want you to leave, I would suggest they do a better job with what they send.  Then I wouldn't be tempted to want to quit receiving these emails.  I'm leaving these the way they were in my email to demonstrate how small they really are.

It also makes me SOUR when they make me go to a web page and then I have to re-enter my email address.  Hello!  I just came from an email you sent me and dynamic programming allows you to easily pass the email address to the page, or even better just say thank you for unsubscribing and be done with it.  You have already made me unhappy to the point of not wanting to hear from you.  Do you really think it helps to make it hard for me to say good bye?  What brand value does that drive?

So here's a summary of 10 of the emails in my inbox today and what is good and bad.

Anything in Stained Glass - seems that smaller companies using Constant Contact have it made as they benefit from the platforms method for unsubscribing.  The unsubscribe is just one click and the platform thereafter insures you don't receive emails without the sender even having to think about it, so kind of idiot-proof.  Congratulations to Constant Contact!

World Market - unsubscribe was buried in the footer and very small.  They did remember who I was so I didn't have to re-enter my email address, but they did make me check and uncheck preference boxes to keep getting some, all or none of what they had to send.  While this isn't necessarily bad, it should be part of a preference center and not combined with the simple act of unsubscribing.  Remember once I get to this step, I'm not happy - don't make it harder for me.

Eventful - they make me read to figure out where I even need to click to unsubscribe (the link is "click here" within a sentence that says "to unsubscribe from other deals...")  Once I click, they make me tell them again:  "are you sure you want to unsubscribe?"  Really?  I'm checking yes just because you made me even more SOUR.

Hampton Inn by Hilton - the unsubscribe link is one of several options.  Once I clicked, they gave me the option of what I was unsubscribing to - just these special offers or all of Hilton communications.  They also populated my email address for me - see I knew it could be done!  They also tell you how long it will take - good - by law, they have 10 days to discontinue sending you emails.

Coffeeforless.com - grouped with other options of "preferences" and "forward to a friend."  Once I clicked, I did have to reconfirm with a second click and they also gave me the option of changing my preferences with another link.

Hotwire - by the way, I love these guys and always use them for personal travel for hotels and cars.  Always get good deals where I want and I like getting to try hotels I might not otherwise find.  Staying at the Gwen in Chicago over Thanksgiving which I booked through them.  So, even though I won't unsubscribe, they again have the unsubscribe grouped with other options and are a bit busy once I click combining preference changes with the unsubscribe process.  They try to be a bit subtle and dray your eyes away from the "unsubscribe all" in an attempt to keep you on the list.

First America Home Warranty - I included this one here to make the distinction between transactional and promotional emails.  I received this email in response to a service request I placed for my home. Transactional emails do not require unsubscribe options and this one did not have one.  While some might include as a courtesy, it is not required via the CAN-SPAM law.

Younkers - the emailer I put at the top of my SOUR list.  They provide the unsubscribe option within a long list of choices, almost purposely to hide it from me. On the landing page, they bury the unsubscribe in a preference center, long form that asks if I want to change my frequency (actually good), change my email address (not sure why that is there) or select from a long list of content types that might be in my emails (also good, although I don't have any evidence that they are using this).  But most SOUR - I have actually unsubscribed from their emails many times over the past several MONTHS and they still keep sending me emails.  I did it again today, so after I scrolled down through all those choices and clicked to unsubscribe, they added insult to injury by asking me why.  I ask - if you were monitoring your database and had a good handle on your email statistics, wouldn't you know what was working or not?  Actually, I would really like to help these guys and even sent a LinkedIn message to their CMO.  Sorry you aren't listening!

CMO.com (Adobe) - I don't put many B2B email samples in my posts, and this is part of future conversations as in general I think B2B marketers do a better job at email marketing.  One click from the unsubscribe link at the bottom and I was done.  They told me who I was receiving the email from and once I clicked, I was done - no re-typing my email address, no questions, no preferences, just done.  Now I didn't really want to do that, so now I will go back in and resubscribe, but it should be really that simple.  The only improvement would be a link on the confirmation page to re-subscribe. 

CNN Breaking News - I'm surprised that an organization like CNN is doing such a poor job. Now, I like getting my breaking news emails, but the unsubscribe mechanism is just SOUR.  They actually don't include a link but only a long URL that I have to cut and paste into my browser.  When I do so, they make me type in my email address to unsubscribe.  All I can say is "wow." 

Unsubscribes

Today's Sample: 10 emails
Overall Grade: C
Top Performer:  Anything in Stained Glass (Constant Contact) and CMO.com (Adobe) - Grade A

My rating is based on the unsubscribe process itself and the ease of unsubscribing.  If you are doing a great job of email marketing, making your messages relevant, timely and of interest, very few of your subscribers will want to go here.  If they do, then you should happily and easily let them go and look at your practices to see how you can improve.

Today's Tips to Improve Your Inbox Anatomy and not be a SOUR eMailer:

-  Make your unsubscribe as simple and easy as possible with only one click required.
-  Allow people to manage email preferences for type of content and frequency of emails, but keep that as a separate option in a preference center.  AND make sure if you ask for this that you use it to make their emails more personalized.
-  Don't bury the unsubscribe with other options and in long sentences.  However, do place "preferences" in close proximity so they can see that they can change if they don't want to be completely gone.
-  Make the word "unsubscribe" be the link, not "click here" and certainly not a URL.
-  Use a preference center to allow people to select what they want and when; make this part of the subscription process (future post topic).
-  Make sure you abide by the law and honor the unsubscribe request within 10 days.  There are financial implications of not doing so - you can be fined up to $16,000 for every infraction.
- Don't ask for reasons why they unsubscribe - use your data to figure that out.
- On the unsubscribe landing page, thank them, let them know how they can opt back in (with a link directly there) if they want and how long it will take for the changes to take effect.

Use these unsubscribe process tips to make sure you meet CAN-SPAM requirements and to manage a process that is required but undesirable.  Don't be a SOUR emailer and you will minimize these clicks.

TOO MUCH EMAIL? - Anatomy of an Email Inbox - SOUR eMail Oct 18, 2016

As I mentioned last week, I took a short vacation over the weekend so for the most part was away from my email with any regularity.  Now that I have returned, I took a look at my inbox and it got me to thinking about the topic I covered two weeks ago related to timing and frequency.

So, I asked myself and I ask you, how much email is too much for you?  In that time frame from 10/10 through 10/17, I received 525 emails.  That equates to 75 emails a day.  Given this is a personal account, it seems like a lot.  Here's some mind blowing statistics:

-  205 BILLION emails are sent a day (as of 2015)
-  average U.S. desktop open rate is 18%
-  42% of  Americans check their email in the bathroom

We have a love affair with our email almost as strong as that with our phone and given that 66% of emails are opened on a mobile device, that makes sense.

Given all this, are we getting too much email?  My vote is yes.  Just in my one post a few weeks ago, I identified some of the egregious uses of email marketing and where people are just doing "spray and pray" - something that should be long gone in this day of predictive analytics, big data and dynamic targeting.

Why do marketers send too much email?  I can think of all kinds of reasons like lack of strategy and focus, lack of talent, lack of tools and more.  But, we can do better.

What I find interesting is the differences between industry and genre of email.  Here's a good summary of email statistics by industry.

This summary tells you something about the psyche of email recipients and perhaps why we continue to send too many emails.

Daily deal emails have the lowest open rates at 13.87%, but also the lowest unsubscribe rates.  We don't want to miss a deal even when we don't engage.  How can we deliver fewer emails while still serving the consumers need for a deal?  We know that when people are ready to transact, they will first search for a "deal."  Just check your brand name in a search with the word "coupon" or "deal," or look at the sites that make their living offering deals like ebates or coupons.com to name a few.  We send thousands and thousands of emails with deals, take a look at just a few from my inbox this week.

These all came within the past week without regard to my purchasing history:  what I purchase, when I am likely to purchase again or what I might purchase.   Does the deal drive me to take action?  While it might if I had already been thinking of purchasing, it is more likely the trigger is something else.  What if instead of receiving these unwanted emails that are not in alignment with my need for the product or a deal, I could get the deal when I am in the transaction process?    Would that increase my conversion during that time?  Would that keep me on the site and not distracted by other searches to find that deal?  How would I feel about the company if they made it easier for me to purchase with a discount when I want to purchase?

I don't propose to have all the answers, but it does seem to me that as marketers we should be asking these questions and finding better ways than sending millions of unwanted emails.

I would like to see my inbox filled with 20 highly relevant and compelling emails than the 75 I averaged this week of which very few did I open and even fewer did I take action on.

We can do better.  SOUR eMail can and should stop.  What are you doing to improve your email performance?  What is good performance for you?  Is it getting better each week, month and year?  What are the right metrics to even use?

We will answer some of these questions in our next post on email metrics and what you should be using to measure your success and how to continue to improve and evolve your email marketing.

"FROM" ADDRESSES - Anatomy of an Email Inbox - SOUR eMail Oct 10, 2016

Week two of SOUR email and it's more fun than ever.  I'm traveling this week to connect with some of my girlfriends for a weekend in the mountains of Chattanooga, TN, so I thought I would focus today on some of the travel emails I receive and talk about how to best use the "From" address in your emails.  It seems like it should be a basic and simple thing to consider and do well and is also regulated by CAN-SPAM laws.  What can and should you do to leverage this important element of your email and one that pretty much everyone looks at in determining if they will ignore it, take action or something in between?

The CAN-SPAM act specifically requires that you must accurately identify the person or business who initiated the message.  The specific language is:

1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.

But if you look at the elements of "from" lines that your recipients see, there are several parts to the From line that can be leveraged to your benefit and to help your list members clearly understand who you are and perhaps why you are sending this email.

You can use these elements to clearly articulate who you are and to make your from line more personal, relevant and beneficial to the receiving party.  The ESPs typically allow you to customize these elements of your email.

So let's look at some to see where we have some SOUR eMail and who is doing well.

First from above, while the "from" name certainly does tell us it is from "Secret Escapes," is it relevant to the receiving party that it is "US?"  Do I care that it came from the US part of Secret Escapes and will it make me behave differently by having that there?  I venture to say "no."

The actual email of the sender is also not helpful.  Do I want to see an email from "support?"  Maybe, if this is a support email.  Does "support" mean something in the email is about helping me with my order or trip?  Given the subject of this email was "Sun or City" I don't know why receiving it from "support" is helpful or provides me with any insight as to what "support" I might get from the content of this email. Is it necessary to include "email." after the "@?"  I know I am reading email, so it doesn't really tell me anything I don't already know.  SOUR eMail.  We can do better.

Several of the emails I looked at had these same type of issues with the email address including superfluous words that really didn't help clarify or improve the address or provide anything of value to the reader.  Things like:

"tvtgmail@list.vacationstogo.com"

"postmaster@listserv.crystalcruises.com"

That really doesn't make me feel that these companies care about me.  I am simply part of their "list" or "listserv" from their "postmaster" or even worse "tvtgmail."  While I am sure these terms had some logic to the programmer or whomever was setting up these emails, I think we could do better.  SOUR eMail.

There is also opportunity in these terms to provide some meaning to the message and use this most important content to connect or tell our readers something.  Some of my travel sites did try to get a bit better than the above with things like:

"hhonors@h1.hiltonhonors.com"

So at least the words made sense.  However given the "from" line before the actual email address had these same terms "Hillton Honors," they missed the opportunity to tell me more and simply repeated the same words in total three times in this space.  The actual full line looked like this:

"Hilton HHonors <hhonors@h1.hiltonhonors.com>"

NOTE:  Not really sure why they needed the "H" honors, but again, it must have meant something to someone in the creation process, although probably not the recipient. 

Here's an interesting way that Hotwire used the "from" to say more even though they were still repetitive between the "from title" and the from within the email address:

"Hotwire Recommended Deals <hotwire@e.hotwire.com>"

They met the requirements of CAN-SPAM by telling people who they were, but they took the opportunity in the from line to reinforce the overall message of the email and tie the from to the subject line which was "3-start Chicago hotel from $90, Ft. Lauderdale rental cars from $23 plus more."

I also liked a few others who used the email address to help clarify the message intent:

"Airbnb <discover@airbnb.com"

"TripAdvisor <memberupdate@e.tripadvisor.com"

"Lake Leelenau RV Park <info@lakeleelenaurvpark.com"

Only one in my inbox this weekend however really made it personal by having the email address be from a real person:

"Steppes Travel <justin.wateridge@steppestravel.co.uk>"

Who would you rather receive an email from, "Justin" or "list?"

"From" Addresses

Today's Sample: 12 emails
Overall Grade: C
Top Performer:  Steppes Travel - Grade A and Hotwire - Grade B

I decided because of the elements within these two they were both worthy of recognition - Steppes for using a real email address and Hotwire for creatively using the "from" to extend their subject line content.

Today's Tips to Improve Your Inbox Anatomy and not be a SOUR eMailer:

-  Don't include superfluous words and sub-elements within the email address - be specific and only include your root domain if possible
-  Make it personal - send the email from a real person, not a box or technical term; if you aren't making it from a person, at least use the email address to tell them something as Airbnb, TripAdvisor and Lake Leelenau RV park did
-  Leverage the "from" line to extend your subject line.  This is a really creative way to get more for your money
-  Don't make the "from" line too long and don't abbreviate unless it is a high recognition brand abbreviation

Use these "from" line tips to make sure you meet CAN-SPAM requirements and to connect to your recipients and obtain more interest and action!

TIMING AND FREQUENCY - Anatomy of an Email Inbox - SOUR eMail - Oct 6, 2016

People who have worked with me have heard me talk about timing and frequency of emails many times.  Some of the culprits that soured me the most were the book stores.  What are they thinking?  I don't know about you, but I am a prolific reader, both for pleasure and for work but I certainly don't go to the bookstore every day or even every week and sometimes not even every month.  However, it would never fail that I would get emails from the bookstores that I subscribed to every single day.

Did they really think I had the time to read these or that I wanted to?   With email open rates consistently hovering around 20 to 25% and click through rates far less than that, (2 to 3%), we can do better. What happened, which is what happens I suspect, to a lot of emails is they became disinter-mediated from my attention.  I patently ignored them and ultimately unsubscribed from those emails as they were just filling up my inbox with little to no value.  No more waste for me and no more money for them.  SOUR eMail

I took a look at my email box over the last few days and here's what I see.

Loft

Between sender "Loft" and "Loft Card" I have received 7 emails as of 7 am this morning (I know I will receive one more today!) since October 3rd - that is 2 per day (not counting the "sponsored" email).  Now, I love clothes, like I love to read, but do I really need 2 per day?  I can't even tell you the last time I walked into their store or went to their website and I haven't been compelled by their subject lines (another topic coming) to open.  Even, the "Free Shipping + 50% off everything" one is losing out on my attention because I get too many - SOUR eMail!  Loft, you can do better.

I also wonder why they aren't coordinating their lists and emails to reduce both their workload and my irritation.  Most Email Service Providers (ESPs) have automated resting rules that let you set a standard of how many emails you send a day, but if you are using different accounts or have different teams working on these programs, this is being overlooked.  For all of you Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) and marketing leaders, have you developed an email marketing strategy and systems to support this?  It appears from my inbox that this is not happening with Loft and many others.

Side note:  Look at the image below - this view is from a search in my inbox for Loft - you can see that Loft is not titling their documents, so the content I see includes "untitled document" as the description.  SOUR eMail and a big missed opportunity to tell me something of value.

Not to just pick on Loft, here's a few more:

-  Costco - 1 per day

-  Secret Escape - 1 per day

-  Rugs USA - every other day (a little better)

-  White House, Black Market - 1 per day (plus one from WHBM Outlets - again I ask, CMOs', where's your strategy?)

-  VRBO - so far only 1 in 4 days (Yes, I don't take a vacation all the time, not that I wouldn't like to!)

Discount Contact Lens

So who is doing better?  There is a dearth of examples of someone doing well in frequency and timing, but I did have one this week that exemplifies the right way to make email relevant and impactful.  Here's why:

-  I know the brand and they know me

-  They know that I am a customer (good connected databases) and it has been about 90 days since I ordered my last supply of contacts

-  They aren't sending me emails in between my need period (i.e., running out of contacts)

-  They make it personalized by including the exact brand I order

-  They are making the title relevant, telling me they know I am running out

-  They aren't leading with a deal, but are using it to make sure I convert and buy from them (I normally do check for others with a better deal when I'm ready to order - who doesn't like to save money if we can?)

-  When I clicked, it sent me to a landing page with the offer and a reorder button (button could have been higher on the page)

They could be a bit better though:

-  They use sponsored emails to find potentially new customers (but appears they likely aren't screening out their current customers from these, so perhaps a waste of money)

-  When I clicked on the sponsored ad it just took me to their home page rather than a specific location to make it easy for me to respond and see the promotional details

Timing and Frequency

Today's Sample: 291 emails
Overall Grade: D
Top Performer:  Discount Contact Lens - Grade A-

Today's Tips to Improve Your Inbox Anatomy and not be a SOUR eMailer:

-  CMOs and marketers need to have a much more thoughtful and strategic approach to their email programs
-  Database structure and where your data resides across business units and channels is critical to success
-  We need to do a much better job of using the data we have to send fewer but more relevant emails:  collect only the data you need, consolidate it into one database and leverage it to send the right message at the right time to the right person
-  Use resting rules to automate the limits of emails being sent
-  Make sure any landing pages you use are relevant to the reason you are sending the email and make it easy for the recipient to take the action you want
-  Think about your product and frequency of purchase - what is the right communication cadence?  Too many of us over communicate through email.  Test a change to your cadence and measure against open rates, click throughs and ultimately ROI.  Don't forget to consider the opportunity costs of the team members time executing unwanted emails and how they could be better deployed to higher value activities.

The goal of email marketing is to stay relevant, serve our customers and prospects needs when they want and need us and ultimately deliver revenue and ROI to the company.  Email marketing is one of our highest ROI channels, but could it be even better?  Stop SOUR eMail  Let's get smarter about how we execute in this valuable channel before it becomes less so due to our bad practices.

Sources:
MailChimp
MainStreetROI

PERSONALIZATION - Anatomy of an Email Inbox - SOUR eMail - Oct 3, 2016

Today starts the formal beginning of the next phase for me.  I've never been a prolific writer and am certainly not a pro at it.  But, I am a career marketer with opinions and thoughts and as I decided to go down this new path in my life, I wanted to find something that I was passionate about, could engage with regularly and perhaps would be something that people are interested in.

As a digital marketer since the beginning of the world wide web, I've been developing and deploying email marketing programs and campaigns.  This goes all the way back to the late 1990's when I set up the first ongoing email communications programs for Certified Vacations Group, a now defunct business (a casualty of 9/11 among other things), that operated vacation products for major brands such as Delta Vacations, Continental Airlines Vacations, Marriott Villa Vacations and more.

Our tools back then were not nearly as sophisticated as what we have today and our data and analytics were nowhere near the predictive modeling, triggers and other dynamic tools we routinely use now.  Since then, I've deployed email strategies for home builders, travel partners, restaurants, home services and more using tools like ExactTarget (now a part of SalesForce), Bronto, Market First, Marketo and others.  What really amazes me even after all these years is how poorly we still do with email marketing.  Thus the birth of Sour eMail.  Like sour milk, these things just don't sit right!

So look for my regular posts on the Anatomy of an Email Inbox where I will use my own (and I hope others will begin to submit to me samples of theirs) to showcase the really dumb things we do with email and how we all should endeavor to be better.

I think this is hugely important to all marketers, from the c-suite to those writing copy and deploying these communications.  We all read the statistics on the importance of email marketing.

-  91% of consumers check email on a daily basis
-  people who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more
-  89% of marketers say email is their primary channel for lead generation

The reality is that email marketing well done is powerful and beneficial to the recipients.  BUT, email marketing done poorly is just, well, SOUR eMail.

Anatomy of an Email Inbox

Thoughts for today, October 3, 2016

Personalization

Today's Sample: 18 emails (midnight to 7 am)
Overall Grade: D
Top Performer:  Kohl's - Grade B

When virtually every Email Service Provider (ESP) allows for personalization, why is it that only 1 of the 18 emails that reached my inbox included my first name in the subject line?  Only 4 of the 18 had my first name in the body.of the email.  That means that 78% DID NOT use personalization in their communications with me today.

While no one rates an "A" in today's batch, Kohl's gets top honors for not only including my full name, but my loyalty account information and points balance.

SOUR eMail!

Email statistics show that marketers who use personalization in their subject line see 26% more opens!

We can be better!

This is not a hard thing to do and is worth the time and effort.

Today's Tips to Improve Your Inbox Anatomy and not be a SOUR eMailer:

Insure your sign up forms ask for a first name
Include the first name in the subject line and in the body of your emails

Are you leveraging personalization to win the inbox?

Sources:
OptInMonster
Capterra Blog