Every Friday, we tweet a question from the @dotmailer twitter account with the hashtag #dotFoolery, picking a random winner from all the successful answers the following week.

This week the question has a political theme:

Which former British Prime Minister released his memoirs this week?

To be in for a chance to win, direct your answer at @dotMailer with the #dotfoolery hashtag and who knows, it might be your lucky day.

The winner will be revealed next Wednesday and this week, the prize is a Condiment Gun- so you have to ask yourself the question, “Do you feel lucky, punk?”

So, get tweeting and tell your friends.

Without further ado, we wish you a big Happy Friday dotFoolery!

Another analogy which would seem completely natural delivered in Swiss Tony’s smooth southern drawl, but let’s look into this in more depth.

Every car owner has their own priorities and preferences when it comes to what car they drive. For some it’s a simple means to get from A to B while others require the fastest, sexiest car on the market.

Things are much the same in the world of email marketing. For example; some companies will prioritise ease of use, while others place huge value in having every possible added function, whether it’s likely to see use or not.

Categories

But how do you know which is best for your business? Let the analogy continue…

Cars are categorised into different classes including sports cars or 4×4s – the same is true of email marketing platforms.

At one end you have your cheap providers; little or no license fee, straight forward template construction and a polished, easy to use interface.

These are your ‘super minis’ or Smart cars. They look nice enough, get you to where you need to go and are certainly economical – but there are big sacrifices in power.

Start your engines

Super minis are perfect to get you around the local town but not ideal for taking you anywhere especially interesting or doing it in style. Any endeavor of a more ambitious journey will find you struggling along the motorway being overtaken by every other car on the road.

This is down to them having very little real power under the bonnet- the same being true of many email marketing platforms. Functionality like segmentation, split testing and survey tools are essential to make sure you’re living life in the fast lane.

They also rarely follow best practice standards. For example, allowing users to type in their own email from address, potentially sending from unauthenticated and killing deliverability.

This, coupled with the inevitable piece of branding at the foot of each email and virtually no support or advice to help standards improve, means that although they’re a great place to start with email marketing, their lifespan is limited for organisations hoping to go places.

Going Places

At the other end of the scale you have huge, well established enterprise solutions that have been around for years and offer a wealth of features with all the support you could ask for.

All they ask in return is massive license fees and often hefty ongoing support fees. Costs for sends can seem to be good value but only if you are sending huge volumes- at least in the hundreds of thousands.

For a large organisation looking for the ultimate solution these platforms would seem the logical choice, but unfortunately many of the providers in this part of the marketplace are not quite what they appear.

Consider these your top-end sports cars and executive cruisers, an Aston Martin or Rolls Royce. Great if you can afford it? Possibly, but only if you are buying a brand new model; not such a safe investment once they are a few years old.

Coded many years ago in ’old fashioned’ languages, they struggle to keep up to date with the latest functionality. Some of the most established brand names in the industry can be out performed by more modern solutions with more advanced technology at the core.

The compromise

This leaves us with the rest i.e. the middle ground cruisers where many different options are available. They are the popular choice like a Ford or BMW, offering far better returns on your original investment.

Which is best is down to your preferences and what suits your business but there are a few golden rules that may help you end up with the right partner:

1. Take a trial – it should be free.

2. Get a demonstration – it will help you make a decision.

3. Don’t base your decision purely on lowest price – you get what you pay for.

4. Do your research – this is a big decision.

Unlike when buying a car, it is rarely just one individual who chooses an email marketing platform. There are all sorts of considerations such as ease of use, functionality, costs, support/account management etc

All you can do is pick the provider that offers the best overall package to suit your business needs, now and in the future.

When in house professionals are slaving away on their digital marketing RFP, a lot of the same preconceptions come up time and time again.

For example:

• A shiny new website will attract more customers
• Build a forum and we will get lots of users
• Lots of community members = sales
• High search engine position = high sales
• Increased website traffic converts to more profits
• PPC is a cheaper alternative to SEO
• I need to buy more data

People believe they know what the key to success and sales is, and they’re quite genuinely looking for help to make it happen.  However, too often, digital agencies will nod along and promise to fulfil needs without asking that most important question: Why? What are you trying to achieve?

When someone requests a full shiny website overhaul or decides they want a community as part of their site, any responsible consultant should be scrutinising these factors and analysing whether this is really the best advice.  But this isn’t always the way and as a result, quotes can vary wildly and cause comparisons which really aren’t apples for apples. Getting under the skin of what’s actually required is exactly the kind of commitment that should be top of the list when considering your provider – the experts role is to educate and inform, not to take requests at face value without providing value of experience. It’s the right thing to do and it makes business sense for everyone – the more accurate the brief, the happier and more successful the client.

While a lot of this input can be dispensed early on in the process, to really do the issue justice, scoping sessions are often the best way to truly immerse yourself in the problem, objectives and requirements – there really is no replacement for this in depth understanding.

In half a day or so, you can look at past, present and future, considering what has worked and what doesn’t and what the needs of the business really are.  By this point, those preconceptions we mentioned earlier are a distant memory and what dominates is the real task at hand and how to get the results required.

With all this in hand, ROI can’t help but come along sooner rather than later.  If you want to find out more about how we go about this and have us challenge a few of your preconceptions, contact us, we’d love to hear from you.

You can check out more about our scoping session service here.

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As a marketing technique, sometimes I feel that people undervalue email as a channel because it’s ‘cheap’ and easy deploy. The knock on effect is that it can receive very little in the way of board-level attention. This makes it really hard for marketers to get more budget to support their email marketing campaigns.

However, there are other ways to think about email, which might help you make a more powerful case!

The DMA’s email marketing council did some research which found that the lifetime value of an email address to an organisation was on average £9.11

Why £9.11?

It is worth examining this £9.11 figure in a bit more detail. It is an estimated average based on ROI from transactions relating directly to email marketing – a snapshot in time across a broad spectrum of different verticals, strategies and techniques.

This figure will be different for every organisation, but working out what it is for your company is an exercise I would recommend you conduct on a regular basis.

How to make the CEO sit up and take note

I was inspired by a conversation I had some time ago with Stefan Elliot a colleague of mine on the Partnership hub at the DMA’s Email Marketing Council where he described emails lists as your ‘Email Asset’. I am surprised how few people still to this day do not properly understand the value of their data, and types of data with it.

Identifying this is a useful starting point for assessing the value of an address over time but an internal benchmark can also assess a number of contributory factors as well.

It all adds up

Taking this one step further, it can help to assign specific monetary value to each data element you hold in your database. For example, what value would you put on holding a record for Age (£1), Location (£0.50) or Eye colour (£0.10) etc.. You decide based on your business.

Then add these amounts to the value of the email address, and consider the total value of a completed database record. Next, consider how many users you do not hold this data on and therefore the opportunity lost here.

It’s possible to take this further by assigning a value to actions including an open, a click, purchase and so on. The value of each potential recipient is far greater if they are active and engaged. They are more likely to be engaged if you have put in place a strategy to collect this additional demographic data and used it to personalise your communications.

This does take some time and sometimes budget, but for the results it achieves it is worth it.

Benchmarking

Use this benchmarking scheme to help you to make a strong case for email, by doing the reverse in your next meeting with the Board. For example, a 100,000 strong email list is, as a statistic alone may be fairly meaningless to a board of directors. But when you use the £9.11 figure ( or let’s round it up to £10 per email for now to make the maths easier) to attribute to it a value of £1,000,000, they will start to take note!  This is a company asset they should after!

And what happens if email marketing isn’t carried out effectively? Well, it damages this asset. Let’s say you see a 10% unsubscribe rate due to poor design or a lack of a call to action, that’s a £100,100 loss! This is a great way to build a business case to convince your FD or C-level executive to invest in a new email template design, testing strategy, list building strategy or some additional copywriting resource!

Invest in your email asset

And the even better thing is that, if you invest in email marketing, your asset can grow in value. Once you have this initial benchmark in place, the emphasis should move to ways in which you can increase this value.

Which segments are underperforming? Are there any similar traits that can be identified? Could you be getting even more out of your top performing email addresses? Do you need to build a more concentrated campaign for particular subscribers, perhaps with a targeted micro site to convert?

There is a small, but growing elite of email marketers who already understand and are applying these principles, reaping the benefit. The refined nature of email marketing makes it a fundamental part of the entire marketing mix – building brand identity, developing and prolonging relationships whilst remaining visible. Elite emailing will increase the real value of your email list and could make £9.11 seem like a drop in a much larger ocean.

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Every Friday, we tweet a question from the @dotmailer twitter account with the hashtag #dotFoolery, picking a random winner from all the successful answers the following week.

This week, we’ve got a question for you, the answer to which should be crystal clear:

Which dotDigital sponsored footballer made his Crystal Palace debut this week?

To be in for a chance to win, Tweet your answer at @dotMailer with the #dotfoolery hashtag and who knows, it might be your lucky day.

This week, the prize is a mystery gift but trust us, it’s a good one. All will be revealed next Wednesday when we announce the winner.

So, get tweeting and tell your friends- one clue we can give you about the prize is that you’ll need a chum to make the most of it.  It’s time to team up- perhaps get the whole office involved?

Anyway, without further ado, we big you Happy Friday dotFoolery!

P.S. Clue: Look down…

We all love a good analogy, and none more than Swiss Tony from the Fast Show who would no doubt approve of the example above.

However, does the statement hold any water? Well let’s see.

The first challenge

The first hurdle is to get permission; this is certainly true in both instances.

Callous advances towards a woman you have never met before are likely to earn you a slapped face and dented pride. If you go too far or offend too many then there is every possibility of being sued for harassment.

For a company sending unsolicited email these penalties are replaced by spam complaints and a tarnished brand reputation. Ultimately you risk a hefty fine; recent cases have cost some companies over £500,000 – this is quite a precedent!

So far so good then, but where do we go from here… chatting them up?

Step 2

In order to get anywhere in love you need to get to know the person first. Cheesy chat up lines will get you nowhere, while a good conversation on the first date can make all the difference.

Sure, lots of companies generate sales with a snappy subject line or tempting offer, but this is no basis for a long standing relationship with your customers.

Taking a little more time to find out what your prospects are interested in will enable you to email them with more relevant content that they are happy to receive.

This is proven to get results and will mean you’re far more likely to retain recipients’ interest for a longer period of time, hence increasing the value of your opted in data.

Size up the challenge

To draw another risque analogy; it’s not the size of your data list that matters,it’s how you use it that really counts!

So once you know your customers are regularly engaging with communications, what is the best way to convert this interest into revenue?

Simply consider the phrase: “fortune favours the brave”. Those afraid to ‘go in for the kill’ never get anywhere in love, life or indeed, email marketing. Many a nice, attractive girl and boy have missed their chance with the person of their dreams simply because they were afraid to lean in for the kiss.

Likewise, many organisations use email as a way to communicate with their customers and add value around the services they provide, but what’s the point unless you push the advantage?

Take the initiative

A strong call to action as part of a well-designed and targeted email campaign can directly drive sales and earn revenue through e-commerce or micro sites.

If that’s not working for you then invest in a proper e-commerce website and consultation from experts to maximise conversion rates – it will pay dividends.

If you sell over the phone then use the fantastic reporting available with any decent email marketing platform to set up easy wins for your sales team. Every time a recipient clicks on a link they are telling you what they might buy – You have the information, so use it!

Adam Gould

Many names come to mind when you mention the name Crystal Palace Football Club. Sansom, Hilaire, Wright, Bright, Johnson, Coppell. And now, dotMailer.

That last one is a recent addition to the list but get used to it – this season dotMailer is proud to announce its sponsorship of Edgar Davids’ away kit. Why the away kit? Well, because it’s the best and one most famous looking kits in football of course!

With those ever present orange goggles, there’s something of the digital about Edgar as it is, so he seems the perfect match for what the dotDigital group (and blog) is all about.  Edgar is also one of the most socially connected footballers you’re likely to find on the web, constantly tweeting and replying to fans.

Indeed, in reaction to Crystal Palace’s recent financial woes, some of the fans tweeted to Edgar to see if they could bring him on board to help. Not only did he call his own 11,000 followers to support the club but ultimately sign up on a pay by play basis, making his debut last night.

While his arrival didn’t herald the showering of glory that Palace needed, it’s still evidence of what can be achieved through social networks and we’re very happy to be associated with the whole phenomenon.  The question is, can this performance be replicated by other teams and will it become an influencer in the future?

Will we see email marketing campaigns attempting to motivate supporters to put such pressure on players? Time will tell, but in the meantime, keep an eye on our man Edgar- we look forward to watching him focus his two big orange eyes on the ball.

P.S. For a limited time only, the phrase EAGLES will get you a discount on your dotMailer order. Give it a try!

This week’s email comes from one good cause (Cancer Research) and is personalised for another – my birthday!  Since signing up for a sponsored run, I’ve been on the mailing list but was impressed enough with their latest effort to make it our Email of the Week.

To read the full email click here

I liked… the keen and eye-catching personalisation. With just a week to go until my big day, they’ve managed to get my attention in the subject line as well as the customised ‘from’ address, something not often seen.  Thematically, it all fits well with the tone and call to action, standing out because it acknowledges something personal to the reader before moving on to another personal topic.

I didn’t like…  the small rendering issues which plague the email.  Especially evident with images turned off, it immediately reveals a disappointing lack of detail suggesting that the message hasn’t been properly tested before sending.  Although clicking the “can’t read” text improves the problem, there’s no avoiding the impression gained from the preview pane.

I liked… the first visual which simply and powerfully communicates both the birthday aspect and the call to arms.  Whether you believe in the fold or not, it’s hard to avoid the first impression that the fully rendered email gives and the message it’s trying to communicate.

I didn’t like… it breaking from the theme with links in the main body. Having established the colour scheme thoroughly throughout, the default blue hyperlinks stand out like a sore thumb and show how a lack of attention to detail can be jarring for any template.  By contrast, the links in the footer appear to be formatted in line with the theme, reinforcing the idea that this could have used some more time and attention before distribution.

I liked… the balance of text to image and the spacing of the copy which allows me to easy engage and follow the intended message.  Emails today can often provide too much information for the modern attention span but this hits just the right level and caters for a reader who needs the quick message as well as those searching for more detail.

The verdict

In conclusion, Cancer Research have put together a good template that engages the audience with really clear calls to action. Notably, the buttons stand out vividly and make good use of the company colours that most will be familiar with, while the copy is well formatted and to the point.

In this case, the only let down is the lack of attention to detail which gives is something of an unprofessional feel here and there. The lesson is to make sure an email has been checked, double-checked and checked again before it goes out.  This thoroughness can pay dividends for the impression on your reader.

Last month we launched a toned and buff new website design for USN Ultimate Sport Nutrition, one of the UK’s leaders in sports nutrition and supplements.

The back story

The dotCommerce team had already migrated USN’s previous website over to the dotCommerce platform in November 2009.

The priority was to get USN’s ecommerce site onto a stable, flexible platform that could support their business needs and customer demands – exactly what dotCommerce does so well.

Once they had a flexible ecommerce solution they could rely on and grow with their business, the next step for USN was to focus on their search engine optimisation, in order to drive quality traffic.

dotSEO – our sister SEO agency – began working closely with USN to optimise their website in November 2009. By March this year Lee Mcardle, USN’s Marketing Manager, was tracking impressive traffic developments.

“Since we signed up with dotSEO in November 2009” says Lee, “we’ve seen our daily website traffic volume double, with an increase in organic search traffic of over 40% in the first 2 months of 2010 alone, successfully adding 16 keywords to our page 1 rankings and tripling our traffic from social media in a very short time.”

SEO drives website design

There are many components that make up a solid SEO strategy, but one that is often overlooked is the design of the site itself.

Earlier this year, after carrying out a complete audit of the site and its target search keywords, the dotSEO team recommended that USN undertake a revamp of their website design, to maximise the ROI on their effective new search marketing strategy.

dotCommerce won the project and set out to radically redesign key elements of the USN site to increase the site’s ability to attract, engage, convert and re-attract high quality visitors.

In particular, we focused on:

* Radically improving the checkout process and experience
* Completely redesigning the navigation for both SEO and user journey
* Creating a contemporary, fresh, brand enhancing look and feel

The results

Since the new site launched in July last month, the early results have been impressive:

* 7% increase in visits
* 71% increase in pages viewed
* 7% increase in time spent on the site
* 27% reduction in bounce rates

By taking a holistic approach to their online selling, and incorporating highly effective ecommerce site design with professional SEO and targeted email marketing, USN are showing how each element of the digital marketing mix can help to drive and enhance another.

We speak to lots of clients who have reached a bit of a rut when it comes to their email marketing. They send the same type of message out to recipients and, while the results are ok, they know there is more they could be doing.

It’s often hard to keep coming up with fresh new ideas but, to really get the best results, it is vital!

With this in mind, here are my top tips for revitalising your email marketing campaigns!

1. Get a new template design – the look and feel of your message is absolutely crucial. It’s important to give your recipients a bit of variety though, so if you’ve been sending the same template for a while, consider changing things a little bit. Don’t forget to get a professional to help with the design, as it’s not quite as easy as you might think!

2. Keep your copy short and snappy – does your email contain vast swathes of text? We read very differently online than we do offline, so try and keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point. This will keep your recipients engaged and they will be more likely to take action.

3. Experiment with more images – the old saying really is true: a picture is worth a thousand words! Including more images in your emails can help you deliver more of a bang. Keep an eye on your open rates however as sometimes, if your recipients have images turned off as standard, they might not be able to see you full message first time. If in doubt, segment your list and see if you get better results with more images or not. Or alternatively, apply for email accreditation and your emails can in some circumstances have images turned on by default.

4. Try using a friendly ‘from’ email address – friendly ‘from’ addresses are a great way to inspire confidence in your recipients and encourage them to open your email. If you don’t have a friendly ‘from’ address, then consider investing!

5. Segment and test – segmenting your recipient list and then testing different aspects of your campaign is a great way to find out elements that could be improved. We’ve put together a handy list of different parts of your email campaign that can be tested.

6. Give your subject line a makeover – your subject line is the first thing your recipients will see and so is vital to improve open rates. Therefore it must pack a real punch to convince your recipients to open. Here are some tips on how to get the most out of your subject line.

7. Start collecting more data about your recipients – if you want to really start doing some advanced segmentation and targeting, then you’ll need to collect more data about your recipients. You can do this by linking your email marketing platform up with your CRM database and/or by running a survey.

8. Include social media sharing links – after you’ve made all these changes to your email, I’m sure your recipients will be delighted with the messages they are receiving. Chances are they might want to share the message with their like-minded friends. To encourage this, include social media sharing links in your email message. Don’t forget to include a subscribe button too so that the new people that read your message can sign-up to receive further emails in future.

Have you tried any of these? Have they worked? Let us now in the comments. And make sure you subscribe to our blog to get our regular tips and best practice email marketing advice.