The Nigerian con-artists that once littered your inbox with wire transfer requests have upped their game and infiltrated Facebook. Karina Wells, a Google employee in Australia, had logged on for a little mid-afternoon poke and wall post action when she received a message from what appeared to be one of her friends claiming to be stranded in Nigeria and asking for money to purchase a plane ticket home. The scammer’s use of the term “cell phone” instead of the more common Australian phrase “mobile phone” tipped off Wells (apparently the whole unexplained excursion to Africa didn’t quite set off the alarm) and she contacted authorities. The incident represents a growing trend of cybercriminals moving to the 2.0 world and, despite assertions from Facebook that “only a small percentage of Facebook users have been affected by recent attacks,” the social networking site still plans to boost its security systems. And a little common sense reminder: your friends are far more likely to end up penniless, without a ride somewhere like a bus stop or the mall, but likely not in west Africa.

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Undoubtedly, e-mail remains a great way to build brand recognition. But how does a new e-mailer capitalize on all the benefits that the channel has to offer? This dilemma comes up fairly often. As a result, I find myself giving a crash course in E-mail 101 to many a bewildered client. They don’t know how or where to start. They ask questions such as “Do I need to track the results on my end?” or “Do I need to have a landing page?” I assure them that they will learn all they need, and I begin my overview.

Here’s a short list of e-mail “how to” basics that I have developed over the years.Develop your creative in an HTML format Don’t sell the product/ service in the creative. You want to give them a taste. Keep copy to a minimum. You want a clear call to action and a strong enticement so the recipient will click through to your landing page. Once they’re there, it’s up to you to close them.From and subject lines should get you noticed The From line must not be misleading.The subject line shouldn’t be more then 45 to 50 characters, so use this space wisely. You want the subject line to be like catnip to the reader. Tempting as it might be, try to refrain from using the word “free.” Do remember to use spell check!Include unique tracking codes You will know with these which list a responder came from. Without this valuable information, you won’t know which list worked. It also will help you compare the tracking reports provided by the e-mail provider with the activity from your Web site.Be flexible E-mail urban legend No. 1: There is no best day to deploy your campaign. It really depends on your offer. For example, if you target work-at-home moms with school-age children, consider sending your message during the school day.Understand CAN-SPAM law I can’t stress enough the importance of this step. You must have a postal address (physical) for the mailer and an active opt-out link for the recipient to use. I recommend putting it in the footer of the e-mail. It must remain active for at least 30 days after the broadcast. If the recipient uses the link to opt out, you must remove them within 10 days of their action.By now, my e-mail neophytes have absorbed all they can from their first lesson. Soon, they will be ready to move onto E-mail 202, the deployment. But that’s a lesson for another day.Michele Volpe is VP of sales and marketing at Media Source Solutions. Reach her at mvolpe@mediasourcesolutions.com.

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Have you taken a look at your welcome email lately? Does it…

• Thank people for joining?
• Point them to helpful resources, such as an article, FAQ or product/service tour?
• Tell them how to connect/get in touch with you, and encourage them to do so?
• Anything at all? (Do you have a welcome email?)

I was reminded of the importance of a good welcome email last week after signing up with SlideShare to post the slides of my Podcasting and Email Newsletters presentation.

Shortly after signing up and confirming my registration, I received an email welcoming me to SlideShare. And I was impressed.

Their welcome email does a lot of great things that we can all learn from and apply to our email marketing campaigns.

SlideShare’s Welcome Email

Below is the email I received from SlideShare after activating my account (click the image to see the full email).

While it’s a short, simple message that anyone could write in minutes, it does a great job of getting me interested in using and exploring SlideShare.

Here are just a few things SlideShare does well in their welcome email:

Welcome New Users

Both the subject and first paragraph of the email are short and to the point: they tell me that my account is verified and welcome me to the service.

One often-overlooked purpose of welcome emails is to remind people that they signed up in the first place.

If your subscriber doesn’t check his/her email right away and/or is distracted when reading your first email, s/he may not understand why you’ve sent it, or remember signing up.

Point Out Helpful Resources

SlideShare links from their welcome email to an online tour, and their blog’s RSS feed.

On top of that, they list out a number of things that users can do with the service – in effect, pointing out extra features and benefits that the new subscriber may not have known about. (I think anyone running an email marketing campaign can see the value in doing this!)

These resources encourage users to get more value from their subscription (in this case, both immediately through the tour, and also later through the blog).

Is This a Perfect Welcome Email?

We’re doing a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison here since SlideShare’s welcome email isn’t designed specifically for an email marketing campaign, but even so…

I don’t think this is a perfect welcome email. There are a number of things I would have done differently.

I think SlideShare should promote other ways for subscribers to connect with SlideShare (through their Community section, for example, or through external social networks) and that they should link up a few other useful areas of the site (this email doesn’t even link to a login page, which is a definite “whoops” for an online service).

But those are really minor details. This welcome email does a great job of making me want to dig deeper into my new SlideShare account. And the more I do that, the more value I’m going to get out of it, and the more I’m going to tell others about it.

Your Turn: What Makes a Good Welcome Email?

• Do you think this is a good welcome email? What would you do differently?
• Do you do these things in your welcome emails?
• What other companies do you think create good welcome emails (and why)?

Share your thoughts and suggestions below!

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11 Tips For a Happy Family Newsletter

Brad Isaac

1.

Set ground rules AHEAD of time — not after the fact.

2.

Put the ground rules in writing in the sidebar of the newsletter and remind people how the whole family, young and old, will get the newsletter.

3.

Pick ahead of time how much foul language or adult content you’ll allow.

4.

Limit jokes and other “stock” content (if your brother just loves jokes and sends 15 for each issue, you might want to limit the number of jokes per issue to one.)

5.

Set a rule that family squabbles cannot be resolved through the newsletter. But if a 15 year feud ends it can be announced as long as both parties agree.

6.

Similarly, although bad news sells major newspapers good news is the only thing that will keep yours alive. Be sensitive about announcing divorces, job layoffs, firings, jail time and other negative stories. Only announce something negative if the person it involves drops you the story himself or herself.

7.

Put one or several requests in each newsletter. Ask for participation. Your newsletter’s survival depends on other family members participating.

8.

Make it easy for people to contribute.

9.

Family politics can be a pain so avoid stories involving feuds, disagreements or offensive topics.

10.

Edit spelling and grammar, but leave content alone. If someone feels they were misquoted in their own family newsletter, they’ll never participate again.

11.

Remember, it’s your family’s newsletter, not your newsletter. Let other family members edit newsletters too.

Cool and useful stuff. Thanks Brad!

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BtoBOnline posted some predictions for 2009 Email Marketing Trends from the folks over at email vendor Campaigner.They are forecasting that the following will be hot topics in the next year:

• Automation heats up. Everyone in 2008, it seemed, wanted to personalize and better target their campaigns, which led to better segmentation. However, human beings were still overwhelmingly pulling the trigger on so-called “triggered” campaigns. Next year, as companies start to take advantage of the avalanche of data sitting in CRM programs, triggering will happen automatically.
• Marketers tap integrated marketing programs more often. E-mail marketing used to be relegated to the Web marketing team or to someone hired specifically to do e-mail marketing. This coming year, as head counts shrink and companies realize the value of controlling the entire message, integration will take a bigger role.
• List hygiene becomes a must. “People will become less concerned about how big their lists are or how many people are opening their messages, and more concerned that the people who are opening them are finding that message relevant and are receptive,” said Luc Vezina, head of marketing for Campaigner. To that end, companies will integrate individual e-mail lists into a single, manageable list, he said, which will also make it easier for companies to comply with CAN-SPAM.
• Mobile e-mail marketing becomes a standard option.  By offering a mobile e-mail option, marketers will make sure messages are deliverable and readable.

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