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Casino Morongo – Mistakes with Email

August 11th, 2009

It seems as of late that several casinos are making some decent sized mistakes with their email initiatives. Don’t these companies have big marketing engines? It’s clear that the email department is not getting the attention it deserves.

Changing gears and looking at a smaller (compared to Vegas) casino, I joined the mailing list for Inland Empire based Morongo Casino and Resort. I believe it’s one of the largest in the area and I do see quite a lot of local advertising.

The recent email I received has some clear areas of improvement

1. It’s one big image: We’ve discussed this several times before, but pay attention to your text to image ratio and don’t create a single image for your entire email.

2. I’m not in this segment: Why am I getting a ’seniors special’ promotion? This is because they are either sending a big shot-gun email and not implementing a rifle or blowdart approach, or they don’t have that data available for me. If we give them the benefit of the doubt and go with the latter, then it can be a good idea to send an email to subscribers that you don’t have a lot of data for and invite them to complete their profile (I’ll do a post soon just on this topic).

3. Design: It’s simply not A-grade work, or even B-grade work for that matter.

4. Navigation: It needs to be at the top. We’ve discussed the benefits of having navigation in your email in previous posts. They did have a navigation bar at the bottom (screen grab below) but that doesn’t do much good for subscribers that don’t scroll below the fold.

This email doesn’t need any more analysis as items mentioned above need to be flushed out first. Casino Morongo, along with many other casinos and card rooms, have a great opportunity to create meaningful segments and leverage the email channel to increase their customer relationship and engagement. I’m on a search now for some casinos that are implement solid email strategies.

Cheers,

Forest

Questions or inputs? Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email.

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Posted in Analysis of Live Emails, B2C, Design, Red Flag Mistakes, Segmentation

Personalization + Dynamic Content = Efficiency

August 1st, 2009

Note that the content of this post is working its way into a new case study, but here is an overview.

A client I work with manages hundreds of sites that collectively have thousands of service provider listings. Each service provider has a profile and we needed an efficient way to have them update their information, and notify them of their regional representative contact.

For this, we created a clean text-driven email with a bunch of personalization and some dynamic content. This allowed us to reach thousands of providers with the same email, and create an efficient system for getting updated information.

Below is a raw screen grab with filler content.

In the above example, there are several points of personalization and dynamic content:

1. First Name: Simple and easy

2. Organization Name: We of course want to personalize this with the name of their organization

3. Update Date: As a reminder, we included the date that they last updated their profile

4. Profile Link: This takes them to their specific profile

5. Info on Record: We have the Address, Phone and Email that is currently listed on their profile, plus a link to view the profile again to see the rest of the info

6. Edit Profile Link: To make changes, we have a link implemented that takes them directly to a page where they can submit updated information

7. Dynamic Content: We have a section for CSA contact information (their local representative) that we have dynamic rules set up for based on what product they fall under and their county. E.g. IF product=xyz and county=Los Angeles THEN CSA Contact = Jim Smith – jim@email.com

Below is the same screen grab with highlighted personalization elements.

A very simple email here creating a 1-to-1 communication and an efficient system. This email didn’t need flashy design, or excess copy — just personalized content and some top-level organization to make the process seamless. While the nature of this particular email is very specific, the concepts can apply to a broad range of initiatives. It’s very important to create a personalized experience with our subscribers, and with available technology email marketers should look at how they can better leverage their efforts.

Cheers,

Forest

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Posted in Analysis of Live Emails, B2B, Dynamic Content, Email Marketing Strategy, Personalization

Wynn Comes Close to Great Email

July 29th, 2009

In a previous post I discussed how Wynn Las Vegas was dropping the ball by making it very tricky to get on their email list. It was later discovered that they actually do have a sign-up form on their website. You have to click Guestbook and then fill out 4 required fields.

The focus of this post though is on a pre-trip email from Wynn’s Encore. A friend of mine will be visiting the new resort next week (I’m jealous I couldn’t make this trip!) A week before the arrival date he received an email from the concierge which got us talking about Wynn’s email strategy here.

Subject: During Your Upcoming Stay at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas.

Body of Email (Click to Enlarge)

Landing Page (Click to Enlarge)

Anyone who spots the first problem of why a user has to click through to see any content gets points.

Comments & Suggestions

1. Approach: I love it! For a resort like the Wynn/Encore, there should absolutely be a high level of personalized email communication that is consistent with the level of service they provide. They are on the right track here, but still several steps away from a solid strategy (some steps being beyond the scope of this post).

2. Improved Approach: What I would do here though is have the focuses of this email separated into two campaigns. On one end they are offering a personalized welcome message. This is great and absolutely needed. Make it personal and have it directly from the concierge. On the other end they are offering recommendations and using the email channel as a cross-sell opportunity. This is also fantastic and justified for its own send. Provide some timely recommendations for shows, dinner specials, new casino games etc. (Of course even better if they integrate data from previous customer behavior to make it more of a rifle/blow-dart approach). But at the very least, do let me know about other ways I can enjoy my stay — and provide direct links to make reservations etc.

3. Email Body: Now why would Encore not just have the main content in the body of the email? Here they have an image of an envelope to click through to a landing page with the actual content. Some might argue that since this is going to registered hotel guests, the click-through-rate should be off the charts. Yes – this is very true, however it will not be a 100% CTR. They could be attempting to build excitement and value once you do actually click — but I think much more can be accomplished with a well structured main email.

…This email got me very excited about all the opportunities a resort like the Wynn has with the email channel. They are on the right track with this transactional approach, but still miles away from a top-notch program. I do hope they put in the time to make improvements to their strategy and execution as I know it will pay big dividends.

- Forest Bronzan

Questions or inputs? Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email.

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Posted in Analysis of Live Emails, B2C, Design, Landing Pages, Personalization, Promotions

eHarmony Misses Segmentation Opportunity

July 17th, 2009

In my preview post, I pointed out how eHarmony.com was doing a nice job of utilizing the preview window. Many email marketers drop the ball here, but the online matchmaker has done well fusing a simple and aesthetically pleasing design with best practices for engagement.

With that said, they are missing a segmentation opportunity. These inputs are based solely on personal experience, so perhaps there was a simple list mistake, but nonetheless – a mistake and lost opportunity.

Background: I’m an eHarmony.com promoter. My girlfriend and I met through the service about 18 months ago, loved the infrastructure and experience and have been happily living together for a while. We suggest eHarmony to most of our single friends and have also been in contact with the ‘follow up’ folks there to keep them up to date.

Segmentation Problem: All of the newsletters I receive appear to be structured with a nice dynamic content engine. They also have a basic preference center in place, so I’m able to decide which top-level communications I want. The problem is that the content I’m receiving is not quite relevant.

Most of the articles in my newsletters are for ‘dating tips’ ‘pickup lines’ ‘moving too fast?’ etc. These may be great for someone currently using the service or thinking about using the service. – Someone that is in the dating or pre-dating stage.

eHarmony knows that I’ve closed my account, they know the reason, and they know a general time frame of events. So wouldn’t it be a good idea to provide content more relevant for a serious relationship, and also content to encourage me to promote? (I don’t need it, but it should be there). There are many great life-cycle opportunities here that I feel they are missing. It would be a robust email infrastructure, but nothing too overwhelming for the marketing engine eHarmony has demonstrated throughout the years.

I will give them some credit though; the content appears to be getting slightly more targeted, but still some elements in need of adjustment.

A more extreme case from personal experience were the email blunders from 24h Fitness (who later made progress to redeem themselves in a follow up post).

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Posted in Analysis of Live Emails, B2C, Personalization, Segmentation

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