Unsubscribe vs. Update Your Email

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on December 24, 2008

I really wouldn’t think this would be such a tough topic for email marketers to understand.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many emails I receive each day at the email address that I’m migrating away from (because as soon as I leave Road Runner, I’ll lose it) and how many companies would miss the chance to market to me if I didn’t take the time to return to their site and re-sign up for their email newsletter… all because of one simple mistake:

they only provided me with a link to unsubscribe from their newsletter… rather than a link to manage my preferences/online profile/information or to update my email address!I can guarantee you that there are many busier (or lazier) individuals out there who will just click “unsubscribe” and go about their merrily. What are you left with? A shrinking audience.

Remember – visitors to your website and subscribers to your email newsletters need to be handed their options on a silver platter in the easiest to navigate and understand manner as possible. Without boiling your content down to it’s most basic essence, you might unknowingly compromise your effectiveness and (gasp!) – your audience altogether.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and best wishes for a successful 2009!

Email Marketing Surprise

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on November 25, 2008

Forever 21 – the discount trend retailer – just sent me a snazzy little email offering up $300 gift certificates to the first visitors in participating stores on Black Friday, etc., etc.

No surprise there.

This was the shocking part, nicely embedded between the Black Friday details and an offer for free standard shipping with orders over $75 or more:


(Click to enlarge)“Join us in supporting the American Auto Industry”?

Well that’s something I’ve never seen before from a clothing retailer… at least as a “cause”.

Personal Peeve: Facebook Fakers

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on November 17, 2008

It makes me cringe when I get a “friend request” from a business, organization, or association. I cringe less significantly when it’s a group, but there’s still a little sting.

This is a classic case of jumping right in without a little doing research.

Those who would take a little time to explore facebook and learn about its features would have learned a few things that would make them appear less “new” at this social networking game:

1. Profiles are for people. How in the world can I really be “friends” with an organization? I can be a fan, but not a friend. 9 times out of 10, unless it’s something or someone I really care about, I deny the request until the group can get it together and make a page.

2. Pages give you “insights”, which are facebook’s versions of watered-down analytics. That’s valuable info my friends, not to be tossed by the wayside lightly.

3. The number one reason I don’t want to “friend” you or join your “group” is because I don’t want you poking, writing on my wall, or messaging the heck out of me. That’s what updates are for, and when they’re sent out in their rightful place, they’re received with higher effective rates.

So please, stop making yourselves look so ridiculous.

Also, from what I hear… they make you pay to create a profile as a non-personal entity. Throwing away money on something they’re giving away for free are we? Bad form.

/rant. Thanks for letting me vent!

Like to Save $700?

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on November 14, 2008

I sure do!

Good news in the real estate world today – thanks for the heads up, Ashton!

HUD Issues New Mortgage Rules to Help Consumers Shop for Lower Cost Home Loans
New ‘Good Faith Estimate’ will help borrowers save nearly $700

WASHINGTON – For the first time in more than 30 years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today issued long-anticipated mortgage reforms that will help consumers to shop for the lowest cost mortgage and avoid costly and potentially harmful loan offers. HUD will require, for the first time ever, that lenders and mortgage brokers provide consumers with a standard Good Faith Estimate (GFE) that clearly discloses key loan terms and closing costs. HUD estimates its new regulation will save consumers nearly $700 at the closing table.

It took 30 years to make this happen? Click through to read all the details from this week’s news release.

Don’t Underestimate Technology

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on November 12, 2008

I was just reading up on the Simply Stated: Technology blog this morning where the writer talks about the advantages of predictive text and how it enables smart phones to facilitate faster texting, emailing, etc. It got me thinking about one of my biggest pet peeves: advertisers who don’t accommodate for new technologies.

How many times have you heard or read an advertisement, or even just a supporting document, that instructs you to dial “1-800-TEC-HELP” (or something along those lines), but because you have a Blackberry (and the copywriter forgot to provide you with the 1-800-832-4357 below the easy to remember phrase)… you just couldn’t! Unless you have a traditional keyboard phone handy, chances are you forgot to follow-up on the task at hand later.

As common place as technologies like this are becoming , we are moving away from standard formats. If businesses don’t accommodate for these changes, we run the risk of losing interest and potential business.

The Mother of All Blog Giveaways

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on November 9, 2008

…which no, I am not hosting (but I definitely think it’s worth acknowledging in my business blog).

One of my favorite personal blogs to follow is Lauren’s at Adventures of a Southern Newlywed. A few weeks ago, she posted about how her husband had gifted her with a Keurig – one of the coolest cup-at-a-time brewing systems – something I’ve seen popping up in corporate world since last winter and now personal worlds… a lot lately.

They really are a neat little system with very little mess (see the official Keurig website for how it give you lots of coffee/tea/beverage choices in little pre-packed cups and brews them each individually) for brewing beverages, but at cup-at-a-time rate – which is great for cutting down on waste and costs (which is my guess as to the source of the backbone of their success in business settings).

Anyways, back to tying this into business – lots of brands are standing up and taking note of personal bloggers and their influence on their followers and offering up free products for the bloggers (usually females, as I’ve noticed) to give away on their blogs in a contest for one of the lucky readers who make themselves known and leave a comment.

Keurig has offered Lauren their Platinum home model – which at $199.95 MSRP – is no small gimme!

My question for business-followers out there is this – are you participating the blogworld, do you know who is talking about your products (or would be interested in your products), and are you turning that into a revenue stream?

If not, it’s so worth a shot. (You can’t tell me you haven’t heard the old addages about the power of word-of-mouth.)

“Media Guerilla points to interesting research from Intelliseek that finds that consumers are ‘50% more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads.’”
Source: Business Week

Enough said.

(Note: As always, this is not a paid endorsement of Keurig, just an observation from my own personal Google Reader subscriptions of how businesses are leveraging the power of social media.)

Two Years Later – Really?

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on November 7, 2008

Email marketing tip of the week: always build your contact list, but please… don’t wait two years to send the first communication!

During January of 2007, about 20 of my sorority sisters and I visited Washington, D.C. for a weekend of celebrating the installation of a new chapter of Pi Beta Phi at GWU. During this time, we chose to stay at the D.C. Hampton Inn (which is not my preferred choice of hotels, but the D.C. HI was nonetheless very nice, well-equipped, centrally-located and very well-priced).

I made my reservation online, received the confirmation emails, etc. and went along my merrily. A great time was had by all and the weekend was a great success.

Point of the story? Here I am in November of 2008, nearly two years later, checking my email when what should appear in my inbox other than a promotional message from “my friends at the Hampton Inn – D.C.” – the first promotional message at that.

Seriously?

The most ironic part is that I was actually just in D.C. last weekend. Luckily, I stayed with friends and didn’t need a hotel, but wouldn’t it have made better sense for the Hampton Inn to occasionally contact me every few months or so after my stay instead of two years later? Just imagine how many times I could’ve realistically visited D.C. since.

Long story short: building an email list is great. Waiting two years to put it to good use? Slack.

PS – Since making my January 2007 reservation, my email address has changed as I’ve migrated away from my ISP-specific email address (here’s hoping I’ll one day be able to get away from the mini-monopoly that is Time Warner Cable). Luckily for the sender, I have it forward to my Gmail address, but MANY emailers aren’t that tech-savvy… I wonder what their bounce rates were like!

White Paper Quickie

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on October 29, 2008

I’ve mentioned Marcia Yudkin and her Marketing Minute before – this week, she mentioned that she’s making available (without having to give up your contact information) a 12-page pdf white paper on Thriving During a Recession and encouraging those who enjoy it to pass it along for free to their colleagues and peers.

I’ve just downloaded it and will be reading it tonight!

Keep Doing What You’re Doing

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on October 18, 2008

I know that I’m surrounded by good business people because nearly everyone I know is personally connected, and connects their business, to one or more great causes.

Even though the economy is a bit – gross? – right now, there’s good news for those who’ve continued supporting their favorite causes:

Cause-related marketing still works, study shows

“In this experiment, products with cause-related marketing enjoyed as much as a 74 percent increase in sales compared to products with generic ads.

Participants spent nearly twice as much time looking at cause-related ads compared to generic ads. Lead researcher Gavan Fitzsimons said, “Consumers are paying more attention to cause messages, and as a result, are more likely to purchase them.”

The second part of the study, an online survey of more than 1,000 Americans, showed that the cause, the nonprofit organization associated with it, and the product itself are all important factors in the purchase decision.”

The linked article above notes the most favored types of campaigns but there’s one segment I think they’re sorely missing: animals and rescue organizations. Maybe that’s grouped into one of their broader category titles.

A few (but in no way all) of my favorite local causes (in no particular order):
SPCA of Wake County
Brittany’s Battle
Racing Heroes Charity Auction
Dress for Success – Triangle NC Affiliate

GoDaddy.com

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on October 17, 2008



GoDaddy.com because of their cheesy superbowl advertising with less than classy depictions of women, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say I can look past that when they give me the capability to call them at 3am on Sunday morning to fix my website.

If you’re considering DIY-ing some (or all) of your website/email/domains/etc. (which you should – your phone company/website provider/whoever should NEVER be able to hold any part of YOUR business hostage and prevent you from maintaing it on your own, should you so choose – but that’s beside the point), I highly recommend GoDaddy.com for domains and hosting because honestly, I find it incredibly useful to have everything grouped together in one nice place with one username, password, and passcode* and be able to instantly have someone answer the phone who can ACTUALLY HELP you.

LOVE IT.

*Ever tried to get anything done through a vendor’s customer service only to be blocked because you don’t remember whatever random word you’re supposed to say? Insert frustrated face there.

PS – Seriously, take a “intro to web design” or “web design for the real world” class (and even better, big ol’ series of classes) at your local community college and learn to do some of it on your own.

PS 2 – While it’s super easy to learn to maintain sites on your own, I do recommend getting a freelance or small agency “designer” to build your layout… it’ll be a lot prettier.