But still, I’d been specially selected, and they promised me lots of special features once I signed up for their private social network. Heck, maybe I’d find something redeemable on their schedule to watch, or maybe get them to bring back one of their older shows that they canceled ahead of its time…

Project FOX

Excitedly I clicked on the link, I would be a voice of influence on their network. That sounded good. It took me to a page with one question on it. The question regarded my occupation. I know I could have lied.  But, that’s not me…I answered truthfully.  After all, I’d been selected to join this community. They probably just wanted this information for demographic purposes. Then, the next screen came up.

Fox Broadcasting says Thanks but No Thanks

But… but… I was specially selected… I was going to influence your programming… you asked me to join. Now, I’ll go back to not caring about the former home of Firefly and Futurama.

Lessons to be learned from this:

1. If you’re going to have pre-qualification criteria, it’s probably a good idea to mention it somewhere – rather than promise the moon and then snatch it back. I’ve no idea where they got my email address from, but I can say that I had a slightly better opinion of FOX when I was blissfully unaware of this network than now.
2. More and more companies are creating branded private social networks to use as their own internal ‘captive’ focus groups. By rewarding participants with special features for their participation, they’re not only getting the benefit of instant feedback, but they’re also creating and fostering a dedicated group of ambassadors.
3. Companies such as FOX Broadcasting are using tools such as email to seed their social network. They’re not just taking the ‘build it and they will come’ attitude, they’re using the other marketing tools at their disposal.

Related posts:

1. LinkedIn – Social Media Overview
2. WOMMU – 2008 Miami – Day 1
3. Thinking of starting your own Social Network?
4. The Web Analytics Feature Race
5. Google’s “New” YouTube Program for NonProfits

Although I’d already decided that their email messages were not for me (obviously because I “unjoined”), but any respect I had for their organization I’ve now lost because they couldn’t properly English speak.

An unsubscribe message should be seen as an opportunity.  Not an opportunity to force another message down their throats or to fail at language, but an attempt to end the relationship with class. Make them feel as if they wished the conversation wouldn’t end…as if they’ve lost something special that they can only get back if they re-subscribe.

No one likes a boyfriend/girlfriend who won’t let you break up with them (Wayne Campbell: A gun rack… a gun rack. I don’t even own *a* gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack. What am I gonna do… with a gun rack? Stacy: You don’t like it? Fine. You know Wayne, if you’re not careful, you’re going to lose me. Wayne Campbell: I lost you 2 months ago. We broke up. Are you mental? Get the net!)

So, end your relationships with poise, class, dignity, and words that are actually in the dictionary.

Related posts:

1. Making a Mistake on your Blog

Hi,

I am basically interested for business reasons. I had written to you about the offer a few days back. Perhaps, you never got the mail in the first place. Anyhow, here is the deal. I found your sitehttp://endlessplain.com/ really enchanting and would like to buy a number of text-links on your site. Let me know if you would like to hear more of this.

Best regards, Tom

This was an email that I received last week. ‘Tom’ wanted to buy text-links on this site.  Yet, despite him finding the site to be ‘really enchanting,’ he couldn’t be bothered to add in the name of one person that works here to target it to. Based on his note and the fact that he didn’t send an earlier one, despite claiming to, this looks just like a typical form letter sent out to hundreds of site owners at a time.  There’s nothing to make me want to check out his offer, even if we did sell text links on this, which we absolutely do not.

This wasn’t the first email last week to give me cause to shake my head in disbelief, and it most assuredly won’t be the last. In fact, last week we received an email to the info@ account that had us all shaking our heads.

xxx is a well established search marketing firm seeking a partner for a strategic alliance or merger opportunity. Our firm is headquartered in xxx and is organized into two operating units.

Our Internet marketing services group offers advanced search marketing solutions for sophisticated Internet marketers. Our world class IMS team includes nationally recognized experts in the field. We have an international client base with spend rates well into six figures.

The second operating unit is a national yellow pages advertising agency with a stable, and geographically diverse, client base which includes a number of major national and global advertisers. The team offers both print and Internet yellow pages services for major advertisers with spend rates into seven figures.

We are open to discussing an alliance or merger with either or both operating units to attain immediate, and significant, revenue growth. Should you be interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact me to discuss the matter further via email or my personal cell phone number.

xxx CEO

Really, you want to merge with us? And the best way to do this is via a blind email? Given that it’d take you 2 seconds to go over to the team page and find out that Nan is the person that you needed to talk to?

Maybe, just maybe, if you’re wanting to talk about something as sensitive as a corporate merger, you’d at least call first to get her personal email address? After all, who’s to say that the email won’t instead go to someone else that’ll do something like write about it on the company blog?

Again, this comes off like a form letter.  There’s no talk about what would work with what we offer, what benefits each could generate from a merger or alliance, nothing.  Just a statement as to what they do.

Anyway Mr. CEO, if you’d like…I can put you in touch with Tom, he’d like to buy some text link ads on your site, and who knows, maybe he’d want a merger?

Related posts:

1. Announcing Serengeti Communications
2. Personalization
3. Beyond Email Marketing – Twitter and Blog.
4. Communicating with Younger Audiences and Cultivating Future Donors
5. Spammers or Reputation Management Problem?

Obviously, they’re scam emails. Yet there must be people who fall for them or they wouldn’t keep sending them out.

An even more insidious crowd are the Phishers. These are sites that replicate the interface of your banking website, or your credit card site in order to get you to enter your account information, which they can then use to empty your accounts.

These are more difficult to detect, simply because they look like they are legit. In most cases, the only giveaway is the URL associated with the email / link.

For example, yesterday I received an email allegedly from Yahoo, informing me that my PPC account was out of funds. Clicking on the link brought me to what looked like the login page for Yahoo, yet it was the wrong URL, and my browser was kind enough to inform me that I was on a Phishing site.

Another email I received yesterday was regarding my PayPal account being suspended (I used to love getting these when I didn’t have a PayPal account). Looking at the URL sent with the message, I somehow doubt that Papal.com is legitimate, although I do have to say that it most likely isn’t anything to do with the Pontiff.

I will admit though that I sometimes do have a false positive. I received an email from a local car dealer which I immediately discounted, as the domain of the email address didn’t match their website. However, after I did a little research I found out that this was the domain of the email vendor that they were using. I do have to wonder though, how many potential customers they are losing because of this. Do they realize that people are more aware of phishing scams these days? If they’d have only used their own domain in the from field they may have seen a larger open rate.

What about you? When you’re sending emails are you making sure that the ‘from’ is from your domain? If not, are you missing out on potential customers because they think that your email may be a scam? If you’re using a service that doesn’t use your domain, try doing a campaign with your domain and compare the open rates.  If you see a difference (which you should), then you’ll know what you’re missing out on – and can make the decision to switch vendors / packages.

Related posts:

1. Paypal Pushes NonProfit Program
2. Convio takes ‘open system’ to a new level. Security Breach
3. Think Again. Part Two in a multi-part Email Strategy
4. Cutting Through Inbox Overload
5. 3 Easy Ways to Encourage Word of Mouth Traffic

There are days when I swear at least half of my new emails are marketing messages or SPAM. Filters have helped, but our email inboxes are fuller than ever. Because of “inbox overload” and skepticism caused by SPAM and phishing, email marketing open rates are declining. So, how does an email marketer cut through inbox clutter? Effective subject lines are the first step and here are a few tips for writing them:

• Keep it simple. Straightforward, concise subject lines work best. Anything overly salesy or kitschy will likely turn off the consumer, resulting in an immediate delete.
• Subject lines don’t need to grab attention with ALL CAPS or exclamation points – they need to appear legitimate. You want your email to look like something a consumer asked for – not advertising or SPAM. Anything overly promotional will spark skepticism.
• Don’t nag or beg.
• Personalization/customization can work, but not always. If possible, make the subject line relevant and timely, relating to something happening currently – holidays, sporting events, economy, housing market.
• Test, test, and test again. The surefire way to find out what works for your particular product or service is to test. Guidelines are not absolute and something that didn’t work for one retailer, might just work for you.

Related posts:

1. Stop. Think. Who’s this coming from? Open Rate Research findings
2. Political Emails Gone Wild
3. Beyond Email Marketing – Twitter and Blog.
4. Convio takes ‘open system’ to a new level. Security Breach
5. Why AREN’T you testing your emails?

The active word for this multi channel marketing strategy is synergy . When you get all of those seeming disparate pieces working together, what you can get out is much more than if you had them working separately.

So, if we have a tv ad that ends with a URL, and a radio ad that ends with a url, how do we tell which is driving the traffic, if they’re both running at the same time? Easy, simply have your ads mention different landing page URLs. The tv ad can send people to a page that reinforces the visuals that they’ve seen on the tv directed at one demographic, an email landing page reinforcing the message sent to either an in-house list, or a rented list (different demographic potentials) and a radio landing page that reinforces the message heard through that medium. Could they be the same look and feel pages with just different tracking URLs? Yes they could, as long as you create the structure such that you avoid duplicate content issues.

If your company devises a new term, or product name, or service offering, or slogan, then your search effort should focus on ranking for that term, for people will search for it after they locate it through another medium, and by getting yourself listed you’re not losing that further opportunity to direct them through your sales funnel.

There have been many instances of companies doing their traditional marketing push, and not involving their search team. All that does is give someone else (your competitors) the opportunity to swoop in and pluck customers from your grasp, when by simply involving all of the channel owners in the planning, strategy and execution of the marketing plan you’d keep them and hopefully convert them.

Co-operation is the name of the game when it comes to making the most of your marketing budget, and we at Serengeti can help you determine the right mix for your Multi-Channel Digital Marketing Plan, and ensure that the message is consistent, and that the funnels to conversion flow as smoothly as possible.

Related posts:

1. Selling your integrated plan to the C-Suite : SES Chicago
2. THINK. A multi-part Email Strategy Series
3. SEO vs. SEM Landing Pages
4. Integrating Marketing Efforts for Your Nonprofit Social Media Plan.
5. Designing an Effective Company Blog

Email is not intended as a disruptive marketing method, but unfortunately, people do get overwhelmed by the amount of email that comes into their inbox sometimes, even if all of that email was invited and all spam has been removed. Around vacation times and holiday times, when people may be coming and going at the office, this problem may present itself in greater numbers.

So in addition to your email marketing efforts in 2008, I urge you to consider other forms of inviting users to discover your information and engage with you. Twitter, blogs, and the top social networks all allow for followers, subscribers, or friends.

2008 will be a great year for social media. Don’t get left behind!

Related posts:

1. Think Again. Part Two in a multi-part Email Strategy
2. Steps to Create a Successful Email Appeal Series
3. Email Standards Project Unveiled
4. Delivering on Your Email Capture Promise
5. THINK. A multi-part Email Strategy Series

You have an integrated marketing plan all ready, all you need is the approval from the C-level crowd. How can you make them understand what it is that you’re trying to do, and why the tactics that you’re proposing are the best way forward? That’s the idea behind this session, moderated by Rebecca Lieb of Click Z.

The first presenter is Kevin Lee of Didit, he identified 5 C-Suite motivators \ emotional hot buttons:

1. Greed – Play on the opportunity cost of not implementing the plan, point out that Search is important for branding
2. Fear – CMO tenure is under 2 years on average. CMOs need a bright spot to point to regardless of overall macroeconomic factors.
3. Vanity – C level don’t really understand search (don’t use acronyms), so educate them (explaining the acronyms so you can then use them), not on tactics, but on the holistic approach to marketing, including search.
4. Loss – Failure to follow up other offline market with a search plan is a huge waste of the original media, and interest that you’ve generated.
5. Competitiveness -Compare your business to your competition, this is a huge motivator for your C-level executives (com-score provides data that you can use to generate this).

If working with multiple vendors, keep your eyes open, as they may not try to work together as well as they could, as they either are, or beieve that they are after the same budget. Push instead for information sharing, to shape the best integrated marketing plan as possible.

Next up Sage Lewis with a very energy filled presentation. He talked about a 6 month review that his had recently team performed, which concluded with a 30 minute presentation to the CMO. The CMO only wanted to know how many customers the project brought in, and how much it cost him, not a full blown presentation on the entire marketing plan. Sage’s mistake was to not identify the requirements for the CMO before the meeting.

6 reasons that people buy Search engine Marketing:

1. Profit and Gain – Talk conversion rates.
2. Fear of loss – What are competitors doing? Demonstrate the increasing cost of entry.
3. Pleasure – Offer complete solutions instead of package, hourly, etc.
4. Avoidance of Pain – Make everything easy and straightforward, under promise, over deliver.
5. Pride – Discuss the cutting edge part of your services.
6. Desire for Approval – Offer press releases featuring the executive’s online prowess.

Understand the person – think from their perspective.

C-level executives tend to have Dominant or Conscientious personalities, you should identify which of these personalities you’re working with, and adjust your pitch accordingly. Be aware that when presenting to multiple C level executives in a tribunal type system, you will most likely be pitching to each. In that case try to pitch to a single C level executive first, and get them to champion the integrated marketing plan.

The final presenter is Bill Parkes, he has 3 main points.

1. Make sure your strategy is aligned;

The alignment is between the business objectives and the appropriate KPIs, what are you trying to do? Creating brand awareness and lead generation require completely different strategies.

2. …your plan unbiased;

Use modeling and date to remain unbiased.

3. …and the website included;

Make your website an integral component of your plan.

Related posts:

1. Selling Search Marketing Campaigns to the C-Suite: SES Chicago
2. Effective, Integrated Multi-Channel Marketing
3. SES Chicago 07 – Dealing With Difficult Clients
4. Before you Register for SES Chicago
5. Integrating Marketing Efforts for Your Nonprofit Social Media Plan.

Imagine that same email appearing without any images to spruce up the holiday element of the greeting.

Imagine that same email again appearing perfectly as intended.

This is what is happening to nearly all email marketers and email newsletters designers. Emails are being rendered differently based on the program used to open the email. Just see this dizzying array of charts on the CSS support in some major email clients.

For more on why web standards matter for email, discover the Email Standards Project.

Related posts:

1. Beyond Email Marketing – Twitter and Blog.
2. Think Again. Part Two in a multi-part Email Strategy
3. Delivering on Your Email Capture Promise
4. THINK. A multi-part Email Strategy Series
5. Steps to Create a Successful Email Appeal Series

Over at netsquared.org they have recently compiled thoughts and recommendations by members of their community on how non-profits can use the social web during the “giving season.”  Take a look and you might just find a new avenue that you may not have previously thought of.  Also check out Integrating Marketing Efforts for Your Nonprofit Social Media Plan and 5 Easy Social Media Wins for the Nonprofit Organization for more ideas.

Related posts:

1. Online and Offline Donations beginning to balance? Year-end Giving Strategies
2. Beyond Email Marketing – Twitter and Blog.
3. Nonprofit Web 2.0 Outreach Alternatives to Offline Marketing.
4. Integrating Marketing Efforts for Your Nonprofit Social Media Plan.
5. Communicating with Younger Audiences and Cultivating Future Donors