The Problem: They had a technical error in their deployment where the titles of the their dynamic rules displayed in place of the actual content. Starting with the Subject Line: %%CONTENT1%% — which of course should have been calling whatever content they had in ‘content1′

The issue continued to the entire email with pretty much all dynamic sections (images, content etc) displaying the rule code.

On a good note, they had solid intentions of providing some personalized content via a dynamic approach. When executed properly, this can add significant value to your email efforts. Unfortunately there were some technical slip-ups here that resulted in poor presentation. Additionally, no follow up email was sent (at least I didn’t receive one). If the issue was detected, and corrected, re-sending with the functioning version could have helped a great deal.

We all make mistakes and have stories of technical frustrations. This email here may be a good opportunity for Skin Store to review their testing process, email platform, and deployment procedures in order to make improvements to their program.

The next page had a great  preference section that was obviously specific to this particular promotion. I was able to indicate if I wanted reminders for Laptops, Desktops, Monitors, etc. You’ll see in the screen grab below that they have large visuals for each of the options which is a nice touch. Not only is it more usable, but seeing the products makes a user more likely to want to receive updates on them — tech “eye candy” if you will.

They offer an opt-in check box to subscribe to additional offers and also allow you to subscribe to mobile reminders. On the confirmation page though, Dell had a really cool move of providing links to “Shop Now” for the categories I selected to receive updates on. Sounds like common sense, however many retailers take you to a general thank-you page and you have to navigate your way to certain products. Dell does a nice job here of making it easy for the user to get where they likely want to go and retain visitors while they are in the buying mindset.

Great opt-in process from Dell here. They stay consistent with their brand and usability of their site, offer a reason to opt-in to their list, provide user preference options so they can further segment and provide more sophisticated dynamic content, and they integrate the process with other site goals. One quick area of improvement would be on the first page where you click “Need a Reminder…” and then go to the opt-in page. I would recommend having a quick sign-up here (have a field to enter your email address) accompanied by a button reading: “Click to subscribe and select product preferences” — or something to that effect. By doing this they likely increase their opt-in conversion rate by acquiring more sign-ups from the main page and drawing additional attention to the fact that there is an email sign-up option.

The next post will focus on the reminder emails deployed during their campaign.

Cheers,

Forest

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

The big win for Southwest is with their focus on email preferences. As we’ve discussed many times before, allowing your subscribers to select from a range of email options will be a win-win for everyone. Bronto had a good rundown of Do’s and Don’ts in this post.

Southwest started getting it right by having a very simple email sign-up and then making additional preference options available later. In the confirmation email they had the following call-out that was right to the point with great architecture and design.

On the landing page they had detailed preference options as follows:

Several nice things going on here:

1. They start off by giving you a great reason to fill out your preferences — so you can help them send you more relevant offers. Relevancy is key and becoming increasingly important.

2. Rapid Rewards: By asking for this, they should have access to detailed data on past purchase behavior which can be gold for segmentation.

3. Trip Related Preferences: They ask for items such as home airport and favorite destination, along with types of trips such as last minute vacations, business travel etc. This will provide Southwest with great information to further segment and provide relevant content.

4. Activity Related Preferences: Finally, they ask about activities you enjoy while traveling. This potentially takes their email program into another category by being able to provide partner offers, destination activity recommendations, and engaging content. I’ve seen Hotels.com and a few other related sites to this pretty well.

This is a great example of a company going the extra step to not only provide an email preference center, but one that is fairly detailed. Keep in mind though that this model would not be realistic for some smaller companies. By collecting these preferences they have the ability to provide some extremely targeted and relevant blow-dart like communications, but it creates the need for a more robust technical infrastructure and time-consuming content development. If done right, it can be gold — but make sure your foundation is ready to execute before implementing a detailed preference center. When in doubt, start smaller and scale up accordingly.

It has been a few weeks and nothing extremely targeted has come my way, but I’m looking forward to seeing what Southwest puts out and am excited to see how well they execute here.

Thoughts or questions? Feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

Cheers,

Forest

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

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.

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).

Every email marketer you ask will likely balk at the shotgun approach and jump straight to a rifle strategy. While in theory this is ‘optimal’ – it’s not always that black and white. Additionally, many email marketers pick up the rifle, put on their sniper costume, and call it a day. While this of course is a great starting point, there are opportunities to have a greater impact with multiple approaches also utilizing a high powered blow-dart.

Let’s Examine the Shotgun, Rifle and High Powered Blow Dart

1. Shotgun Approach

Basics: Your email communications are broad and promotions are developed for a wide and diverse audience. In other email terms; you are sending one general email to your entire list with no segmentation and little or no personalization.

Why it’s Bad: For starters, you are not leveraging the email channel. With available technology, you have the opportunity to create targeted segments and dynamically insert personalized data. With a ‘batch and blast’ approach like the shotgun, everyone receives the same email and promotion.

However: What if you don’t have any data (outside of email address) to segment? Many companies starting off with email don’t implement all the best practices for list acquisition, not to mention proper tracking of email engagement for segmentation purposes. In this case, you may be limited to a broad email – and this creates an opportunity to quickly get important information about your subscribers for more refined communications in the future.

For starters:

A. Make sure you have navigation in your emails — which will help you segment based on click activity.

B. Conduct A/B subject line testing to better leverage that big send.

C. Create an email preference center to get more data from you subscribers.

D. Implement some email segmentation just from email engagement.

We of course want to strive for targeted, ‘rifle like’ communication with our subscribers – and when possible this should absolutely be implemented. But In the event you are unable to do this from the start, do begin collecting information that will allow you to make better use of the email channel in the future.

2. Rifle Approach

Basics: Your email communications are focused and campaigns are directed to a select target audience/segment. Promotions are extremely relevant and timely, and you strive to create the impression of a 1-1 communication.

Why it’s Good: Instead of sending one message to 100,000 subscribers, we may be sending 20 messages to 5,000 subscribers based on strategically defined criteria. Here we place our subscribers into meaningful segments and serve them relevant content. This may be done through individual messaging or utilizing dynamic content to execute our segmentation and content strategies.

This will have tremendous impact on the success of your email efforts, and should be implemented whenever possible. This is an extremely summarized description, but the basic premise is that we want to provide relevant and extremely targeted communications and promotions to our subscribers.

3. High Powered Blow Dart

Basics: The blow dart picks up where the rifle left off. With the rifle approach, we are creating targeted segments, developing relevant and timely communications, and creating a better experience for our subscribers. This may or may not include advanced personalization within the email, but we like to make sure it goes that extra step and utilize a blow dart, if you will, to truly strive for a 1-1 communication.

Here we make sure we utilize dynamic content when possible, and further personalize the communication by inserting data that is relevant.

Example of dynamic content from American Advantage

Example of simple personalization from Wells Fargo

Summary

1. Create targeted email segments and focus your content and promotions. Become a sniper and provide extremely relevant and timely communications.

2. If for whatever reason you don’t have data to segment, then start on a basic level with email engagement, reviewing your acquisition process, and upgrading to a better email platform if needed. There is no reason you can’t segment based on some criteria (historical opens, click activity, list origination, products purchased etc)

3. Create an even more personalized experience and utilize dynamic content, personalization, and even more specific targeting.

Cheers,

Forest Bronzan

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Here, we see several good things going:

1. The subscription form is in a nicely contained box.

2. They ask for your name and email, and then give a preference option for HTML or text

3. They offer 3 reasons for why you should subscribe! This is a nice touch many companies don’t bother with. It’s good to focus on what’s in it for the user.

Three items to make it better:

1. The title ‘What’s New Email’ is somewhat difficult to read. I would make this really stand out. I would also have more direct copy here, such as: “Sign up of for our Newsletter” or “Exclusive Email News”  — something to that effect.

2. It’s nice to have the bullets for ‘why subscribe’ — but I would also have a link for ‘view a past newsletter’ — so the individual subscribing can get a hint of exactly what they will be signing up for.

3. The thank you page after clicking ’subscribe’ was ok, but it would could have been better with additional options (after I already opted-in) for my newsletters. In a previous post we discussed email preference centers, and how they are great for the subscriber AND the marketer. I’m sure New York Life has some form of this, but it wasn’t easily available during the sign-up process.

Wells Fargo’s business banking has done a nice job with email personalization. Many email marketers simply insert a subscriber’s name and think they have accomplished personalization greatness. While this can of course be of benefit, there are additional pieces of data we can use to create a better experience for our valued subscribers. Remember though, it depends on your business, customers, and must make sense for your products and email strategy.

Looking at the email below from Wells Fargo, we see 4 points of personalization:

1. Total Points: Here they are dynamically inserting the reward points that this subscriber has earned. What a nice reminder!

2. Account Number: They also have the last 4 digits of the account number in reference.

3. Name: Being a b2b email, they opted to insert the business name in the Dear, field. This makes sense in this context.

4.Dynamic Rewards Suggestions: The last orange box in the main copy reads: “At ____ points you can select from…” Here, Wells Fargo is inserting a ‘next level’ point value, and using dynamic content to provide recommendations for rewards. Depending on the ‘point level’ a subscriber is at, different images and reward copy will be populated here.

A very simple design with effective email personalization. Sometimes it doesn’t take much at all to transform a generic blast email to a highly personalized communication.

- Forest Bronzan

3 Good Elements from the Screen Grab Above

1. Pre-Header Options: They have two links for ‘view mobile version’ and ‘view as a web page’ . A common used practice is: “Click here if you have having trouble viewing this email” — or something similar. Here they do provide the web version but also mobile — very nice.

2. Ensure Delivery: In the upper right you will see a text link titled, “Ensure delivery” — I don’t see this too often, at least not in this form. Email marketers most often have a line of copy reading: “To ensure delivery of future emails, please add newsletter@xyzcorp.com to your address book.” Here, they provide a link to a landing page with actual instructions for different email providers (pasted below). I don’t know how effective this is, but it’s a nice addition to cover their bases.

3. Personalization: While there are more direct ways to make an email personal and targeted, they do a nice job here of providing options that are useful to me. A link to log in to my account, view my favorite restaurants, or access my account center. These dynamic URLs help integrate my user experience and make the process one step easier.

Landing page from the ‘Ensure Delivery’ link in the email

- Forest Bronzan