check out Bob’s email design advice and the other helpful tutorials at NETTUTS.

Popularity: 5%

In Advertising, specifically production of TV Ads, Radio Ads, and also Design work including Newspaper Ads there is a delicate balance between good quality work, deadlines, and cost.
There are three components that make up a job. They govern the process and the output.
The three elements are: QUALITY TIME COST
It would be great to be able to access ultra high quality work, with one day’s turnaround, for very low prices, but each element is inversely proportional to the other two. For example: if you would like a high quality job completed in 2 days it will cost a lot. Alternatively you can access a low cost job, completed in 2 days, but it will be of lower quality. The third option is a low cost job, where you demand high quality which will therefore take longer to produce.
There are a lot of companies out there, who are all competing for the same work. Many offering lower cost and decent turnaround, but look closely and you will see that this simple principle is in play. Where a company offers and highly promotes themselves as TWO of the three components they will most likely lack the final of the three components.
Ad Agencies need to be mindful of this rule as it applies to both our clients AND our suppliers. We also need to weigh up elements and define the most important aspects of a job that we may need to buy in, for example a print job, the filming of a TV commercial, or distribution of flyers.
Just like the 80/20 rule, this rule applies to almost any situation where you are primarily buying a service. It is far less applicable to products alone.
The rule of thumb is that of the three components, you can pick two.

Popularity: 3%

I know. You watch the reads and the clicks… and you measure by ONLY that. Rough.

Even when people are not opening and clicking on your emails, they are having a future lift impact due to the branding that takes place in the inbox. Studies have shown with larger travel brands that if they remove the email marketing in controlled selected groups, those groups were less likely to book with them when they were in the market to purchase. It is about being “there” and not just when people are “in market” to purchase. As you might never know exactly when that time is for everyone.What does this mean or have to do with you? Well it has to do with two things.

Frequency and Consistency. Right there they are out on the table for all to see. Well…. do you have them? Does your email program have them? And if you do… are they enough? How do you know?I ask as I see so many brands and campaigns racing to get content out or smaller groups saying let’s just do a quarterly newsletter or one when we have something to talk about. Really? Now that makes sense to you, the internal company, but does that make sense to everyone else that has subscribed and is looking to hear from you? Not at all.

Why is it always on your terms? If you are not building touch points into your program that keep your name on the minds of your customers and prospects in a positive and resourceful way, then you just lost. As if you are not top of mind they are just going to go to the site that was most recently telling them that they might be the place for them. So how do you do this? Well each site/brand/blog/etc has things that can be used. Everyone has content that can be leveraged. Everyone in email marketing needs to learn how to be a story teller.

That is what we are. If you are not a good story teller, you need to be. They can keep audience engaged, listening, wondering, thinking and waiting for the next line. Don’t you want your email programs to have that effect when you are not getting the reads and the clicks?So why are you always concerned about your immediate sales? Sure someone is always in market somewhere, but you need to be ready to build a relationship first. You need to be able to tell a story.

You need to be engaging not once, but all the time.Grab a good book and notice how the story telling goes. Even better, go to iTunes, look up Podcasts, and listen to a few of my favorites at THE MOTH (an event in LA and NYC of storytellers).

See how they keep you there, engaged, waiting, wanting, and ready to close when the time is ready.

Popularity: 3%

Just a friendly reminder for you to check to make sure your the images in your email have HTML “alt” tags, which displays a text description when the image does not display. Here is why… 

Need I say more? Well yes, I will say more. I have been on Reebok’s list for quite a while. The reason the images were blocked is because they changed the email address used for email.  That removed the inbox whitelist I had previously setup.  While they do have a link to “If you can’t read this newsletter, view the HTML version online”, with no ability to see anything referencing email content, why should I click that link? Because of the subject line?This leads me to another topic: Image only emails - Why? With all of the chatter from ESP’s and the Blogosphere on email rendering and conversion increases from well designed/coded emails, why do people still do it?  I will tell you why, because it is easy. It takes time to code email for optimal rendering. In an image only email, you can create a unique and dynamic experience.  But is that going to pay the bills?Make sure that your designers are aware of the complexities of the inbox BEFORE they start designing.

Popularity: 7%

 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.

Popularity: 7%