pick a voice & go all in

One way to get noticed in the Black Friday madness is to identify your brand voice and stick to it. Moosejaw, the outdoor apparel and gear retailer, has a distinct identity it doesn't stray from: Moosejaw Madness.  The madness includes a casual and irreverent style, straight talk and humor at every turn.  The emails so entertaining, Moosejaw gets to break rules by sending paragraphs of text: we'll read it because they're fun.  Great job, guys.

smartphone purchases will explode this holiday season

Over 50% of smartphone and tablet users plan to shop with those devices this holiday season.

Check out the eMarketer research analysis, Smartphones Hit the Holidays.

big data + email

I came across an insightful piece by Kara Trivunovic about big data and how to utilize it for email marketing.  Two recommendations are particularly useful:

First, she reminds us not to use data just because we can.  Segment and target because we need to, and only do so if we can measure the results.

In her words:

Watch Out for Hyper-Targeting

Achieving a near 1:1 email communication experience has long been the Holy Grail of the email marketing vertical. With the highly dynamic tools and technical capabilities available today, the ability to communicate in that manner is relatively easy to accomplish - the challenge arises when you want to learn what the engagement means to your business overall. Many times, the success or failure of leveraging big data to drive targeting and segmentation doesn't happen because of your ability to do it - rather your ability to measure it.

Second, customers are getting used to this special treatment.  Watch out for the bait and switch.

In her words:

Know What to Say

Whether big data is on your radar as an analytic effort for your marketing department or your email program specifically or not, you are certainly hearing the conversations about it. We all have the ability to be more prescriptive with the consumer today and oftentimes there is an expectation that you "just know" these things about them. Acting contradictorily to their expectations could be detrimental in the long run. After all, you don't want your recipients closing out your email, asking themselves, "Don't they know me at all?"

Read the complete original.

mail hosting reviews

Email distribution service providers - a collection of evaluation resources:

WeRockYourWeb writeup
WeRockYourWeb comparison chart
Joomla! Hosting Reviews site
Brian Gerald blog

handmade communication with viral energy

If you haven't heard about the Snail Mail My Email (SMME) project from last summer, be on the lookout for the book that's just been released. Ivan Cash offered to take an electronic message, transcribe it on paper, and then send it anywhere in the world, for free.  It went bananas.

What a great reminder that human connection can be the most important component of social energy.

Here's a FastCompany piece about it.

email content tips

Content tip: don't forget WIIFT (What's In It For Them)

When we send promotional - or even stewardship - emails, our focus is always what we, the organization, need to gain.  That's why we send the message.  But the recipients care about their universe, not ours.

Recipients have a limited amount of time, space and attention span.

• Did you miss our in-store sale? Here is an online promo code.
• Will you be out of town and miss our conference? We can link you to the webinar and send materials afterwards.
• Want a deal this Saturday while you're running errands? Here's 20% off.
• Do you have zero time? We have organized gifts for you by recipient and price.

Solve their problems.

segmenting your email list: e-commerce.

Use every ounce of customer data to your advantage.  Email segmentation shouldn't be limited to multivariate testing of subject lines, frequency and image placement.  Utilize customer browsing data, demographic information and purchase history to segment your messages as well.  Specifically, putting the correct products in front of a customer can be the best way to trigger a transaction.

Here are some supporting articles worth checking out:

Matthew Kelleher post on eConsultancy

MultiChannelMerchant’s Daryl Logullo