Here’s a scary fact for you. 20% of legitimate email never actually reaches its intended destination; the inbox. Can you imagine if the Royal Mail only delivered 80% of its mail? Mmmm actually, let’s not go there! Anyway, you understand the point I’m attempting to make. Deliverability is a big issue.
The culprits for this statistic have to be the ISPs, right? Wrong! Well, they are partly to blame as they are certainly making things harder for legitimate email marketers like you and I. However, when 90% of all email is spam then they really do have quite a job on their hands if they want to keep one step ahead of the spammers. I’m afraid if there is any doubt as to the legitimacy of your email messages then you are going to be spammed. You can’t blame them can you? When 9 out of 10 emails are spam then they’re bound to lean on the side of caution.
But the real culprit for this frightening statistic is you and I. We are to blame. It’s our sending practices that determine whether our email message reaches their intended destinations. However, with blame comes responsibility and with responsibility comes the ability to change and improve. We have the power to control our deliverability rates.
I don’t think many copywriters enter the ad industry believing they’re going to be paid millions, never mind millions every year, but in 1907 one copywriter came along demanding just that… and he got it too!
That man was Claude C. Hopkins, a legendary copywriter who worked in the early 1900s on behalf of many companies, including: Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company, Swift and Company and Dr Shoop’s Patent Medicine company.
It was only after making some very successful ads for Schlitz beer that his fortunes grew astronomically. He was 41, and was approached by the advertising agency, Lord and Thomas. He agreed to work there full-time after being offered a wage of $185,000 – the year was 1907 – by today’s standards that comes in at a whopping $2 million. Nice if you can get it eh?
Several years ago my art director and I devised a campaign for Rolls Royce that we called ‘whispers’. The campaign was created in reaction to the belief within BMW Innovations (which ran the marketing for Rolls Royce) that Rolls Royce did not need to advertise due to the prestige nature of the brand.
Our ‘whispers’ campaign went like this. We had a new Rolls Royce Phantom that would basically be seen in all the right places. From Yacht Clubs in the South of France, to events around the world held at prestigious places where only the very A-list people would be seen.
A couple made-up of an older gentleman (think George Clooney look-alike) and his younger gorgeous model-like wife, would pull up for lunch at a Yacht Club or attend a party. They would be allowed to leave their Rolls Royce Phantom outside the front entrance or in the near vicinity… before walking into the party, enjoying themselves and then driving home.
As fellow marketers it can’t have escaped your attention that the marketing landscape in which we work is changing at an amazing rate. The way we communicate with our customers isn’t the same as it once was and it is certainly going to continue changing over the forthcoming years.
Traditionally, we have spoken to our customers via direct mail, email, tv, radio and the telephone. However, due to the boom of social media this one-way communication flow is changing into a more dynamic two-way conversation.
In my view, the major change that has occurred is social media is giving our customers a voice; it’s giving our customer’s power. So whereas the customer was only able to affect our business through their purchasing behaviour they can now have the power to influence our future by what they say about our brand, product and service offering. However, although these are undoubtedly exciting times they are times that should be treated with caution as we have very little control as to what our customers say about us and we have even less control over who they speak to.
Saturday morning, whilst tucking into my crunchy nut cornflakes, I watched a rather interesting news piece on the BBC about how newspapers are essentially suffering from a failing business model; and are looking at new ways to raise income due to the falling numbers of people buying papers… mainly because of the Internet.
Their immediate solution is to start charging readers a subscription fee for looking at content online, an initiative that is being championed by Rupert Murdoch, and admit that one day, newspapers will no longer be around.
As an ‘Ad Man’, I find something incredibly sad about the migration of newspapers away from traditional print and on to online. Especially as it seems very real that one day newspapers will no longer exist… especially with the rise of e-readers… meaning we could one day say farewell to the beautiful art-form that is the ‘long-copy advert’, which these days is a rare beast, but when it appears it’s a compelling and persuasive one.
On the 7th June 2007 I got the phone call to say…..I had secured the position as Junior Marketing Coordinator at Red C in their London Office. I was absolutely ecstatic as this was a bit of a double whammy for me seeing as it was also my birthday! I will never forget how happy I was to hear such good news.
In August 2007 I began my placement year with Red C. Moving down to a new city, was exciting but also made me very nervous at the same time; however the nervous feelings soon diluted as I began my placement journey. During the start of my placement, the routine of getting up early everyday and concentrating for the whole day was daunting and I did struggle to get into a regular pattern in the first few weeks.
Last year, like many brands and organisations, London Fashion Week flirted with Social Media by having event details, links to stories and comments posted on Twitter and Facebook… so far so very 2009!
This year, though, sees London Fashion Week take a great leap forward by embracing even more Social Media technologies and making London Fashion Week open to the masses rather than the privileged few… and they’ve done it in some predictable and also some surprising ways.
I know… I agree… it does seem strange having the words ‘fun’ and ‘insurance’ in one headline but have you noticed nearly all the leading insurance brands are attempting it? I know that Meerkat has just popped straight into your head but it’s not the only insurance brand to be using a ‘character’ to try and instil more fun (and consequently more brand recognition of course) into the fight for your insurance quote.
We all hate getting them… whether its quotes for home, car, pet, buildings, contents (the list goes on) and all we really want is the lowest price with of course the most comprehensive cover, so is this approach working for insurance brands and how are they achieving it?
Back in November 2009, I promised a series of blog articles detailing why I enjoy being an email marketer. In my first article I outlined the brilliance that is heat map analysis and how potentially rewarding it can be. This time I’m tackling something that is viewed by many as the next big thing in email marketing: triggered emails.
There are two types of retail focused emails:
1. The trunch email – These are emails sent to batches in batches.
or
2. The triggered (or automated) email– These are targeted emails sent out based on a customer’s action, either positive or negative.
The triggered email has been around for a while, an order confirmation email sent after you’ve made an online purchase is a good example. However, as we become more sophisticated with our email marketing, this type of email has a more important part to play in email marketing strategies.
Earlier this week I gave a talk on digital video and how advertising agencies are changing to facilitate a wide range of video needs that are required by clients. From high budget brand TV adverts to medium budget DRTV adverts right to low budget web-video… the demand is increasing and now’s the time to invest in skills and training.
I gave the talk on behalf of GBM at ‘Band on the Wall’ in Manchester and have split it into three parts of around 10 minutes each. Thanks to GBM and everyone who came to the talk, I hope you found it informative… I certainly enjoyed putting it together.
Parts two and three can be viewed by clicking the red button below.
