Online Marketing Awareness Map™

If you’ve been reading this five part series “Thinking Outside The Box On Marketing,” you’re acquainted with The Online Marketing Awareness Map (if not, please see part III published earlier in this space). We developed the Map as a visual aid to enable client discussions of online methods and media. Here, in Part IV, we would like to continue our brief survey of techniques. In particular, we’re picking up with a review of Social Networking, then with Webinars, Videos and (Email) Newsletters, and finally with a few key thoughts on Landing Pages and Analytics. The final post in this series, Part V, will take a preliminary look into online marketing strategy.

Social Networking

Social Media

Though there’s an abundance of new applications to chose from, for social media we think of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr. The growth rate of these applications has literally defined the participatory Web as a place where users access free utilities which give them the ability to upload and control their own content. Social networking allows millions of users to join online communities, share content, links, ideas, rediscover old friends and new online relationships. It’s fitting to mention that Twitter enjoyed a 93% growth rate in 2009. Additionally, there are more Facebook users worldwide than people in the U.S. It seems hard to believe that Facebook was a mere start up company in 2004. However, Myspace is now worth quite a bit less than the $770 Million that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp paid for it in 2005. Perhaps the shakeout in Social Media is still in the making?

As a result of these and other stories related to surging qualities of Social Media, many established marketers, especially smaller companies, are moving slowly to embrace it. Some national brands have been monitoring their online reputations by responding quickly to customer complaints — a natural arena for real time public relations.

What has most impressed us about Social Networking is it’s obvious popularity. People simply want to socialize and share links, a fact that seems to underscore a basic human need for connection. Additionally, these sites have been referred to as “digital campfires.” The fast penetration of social media into popular consciousness is very significant. Apart from online security or privacy concerns, socializing online is here to stay.

So why not enjoy yourself and jump right in? According to Larry Brauner at Online Social Networking, the social media curve is very steep. His Top 10 social media challenges include the following list of concerns:

• Results aren’t achieved nearly as quickly with social media
• It’s easy to spin wheels and waste lots of time
• Social media is still evolving rapidly and tends to be a moving target

However, there’s every reason to start your engagement with social networking. Just make sure to continue with your traditional direct marketing, in-house sales efforts and direct marketing for the time being.

Webinars, Videos & Email Newsletters

Webinars, Videos and Email Newsletters

Webinars have been enjoying a surge in online popularity. Content marketers often have them in mind as a goal when they begin blogging (of turning out an ambitious website). And, if it’s not a webinar per se, it may be that a mix of content from online videos and photography to email newletters that’s driving their development of special content. Think of this content as a special gift to your visitors, intended audience or current customers. A Webinar is a special form of educational experience controlled by you, as if you had a class in front of you. Additionally, with online videos you lead them through an important subject where you:

• Consolodate important blog posts
• Add sound to your PowerPoint show
• Entertain, teach, surprise, astonish
• Provide tutorials, manifestos, viral videos and exotic demonstrations

And, don’t think email is dead. Quite the opposite. Today, the email space continues to grow, especially if you follow best practices in using double opt in subscription and build your list organically (stay away from paid lists). With a quality email newsletter you can enjoy seamless communications with your best customers, an average open rate of 30% or higher and a click through rate of 10% or more.

Think of webinars, videos and email newsletters as contributing to a larger cycle of persuasion that builds over time, across many different types of people.

Landing Pages/Analytics

Landing Pages

Remember to keep in mind that landing pages for each campaign should mirror the advertisements that bring the traffic to your site. If the wording changes abruptly, or the visual themes don’t match, your bounce rate, or time spent on the all important landing page with fall off disappointingly. This is the place where it’s okay to do explicit selling. The visitor clicked on an ad that represents their interest in your product. Be sure to give them succinct copy loaded with benefits and maintain a warm, friendly tone of voice with a good call to action. Build confidence, desire, trust. Remember, selling is an art.

Regarding the subject of Analytics, the Web Analytics Association has come up with a common definition:

Web Analytics is the objective tracking, collection, measurement, reporting and analysis of quantitative Internet data to optimize websites and web marketing initiatives.

This is the part where clients really begin to see and feel some of the unique benefits to online marketing. Google Analytics is a very popular utility (it’s also free with your Google Account), that gives you the ability to see fresh data from your website domains and online advertising campaigns. It is a very important area for any online marketer. One book we advise you to read if you wish to become more deeply involved in this area:

Web Analytics, An Hour A Day — Avinash Kaushik

That pretty much sums up (in short space) a complex and challenging set of topics contained within our Online Marketing Awareness Map. These last two posts have attempted to introduce the topic of online marketers who may be considering their entry into the online marketing space.

What do you think? Did we adequately represent a useful overview? Experienced online marketers will be looking for more in-depth content. However, we have used the Map in private discussions and found it to be useful.

Please tell us how you feel this visual tool is working. We’d love to hear from you.

Additionally, please note that part V in this series is coming next.

Thanks for reading Infusion Blog.

Best…

GJ

Generating new business online is essential for high growth companies. Yet, for those who haven’t explored their online options until recently, there’s still some reasonably good news: it’s not too late to reap new rewards online!

A vase majority of websites provide too little content and information architecture to be truly effective. Apart from offering an online capabilities brochure, much of the what can be found online fails to catch visitor interest, or provide sales or opportunities for new business.

Yet, having a effective online strategy means more than having a website. One of the most important questions you can ask is: how can you integrate your existing website into a larger strategy for moving the business forward online?

Today, with big retailers and major companies leading the way, many smaller organizations think they’re over-matched, and therefore avoid direct competition with the leaders. Think of the golf courses, local banks, manufacturing companies, distributors, arts organizations and other non-for-profit groups with cursory websites that lack any real depth or content.

However, the Internet offers so many important innovations for marketers that it may be essential for your business to leap into a more aggressive pursuit of Internet initiatives. As of 2007 the Internet has become the fastest growing marketing medium in the world.

• The internet has brought unprecedented change.
• Consumer generated media is all the rage. Consider the rise of Facebook, YouTube, wireless computing, blogs and Google’s unbelievable run.
• Not to mention the long tail. Now we have the long tail of the Internet to consider.*
• Technology allows us to do things we could only dream of doing before the Internet.

Indeed, the Internet is no passing fad. The “trend” has grown up, it’s here to stay.

So, how are you going to develop better relationships? What are you going to do to strengthen your online marketing program?

First, start by thinking of your website as the base station for your online program. Here’s three main areas to explore in strengthening the base and developing a more compelling online program:

1. Leverage the power of email newsletters;
2. Improve or fix your current website;
3. Develop more site traffic through the use of a blog and search engine marketing.

Note that we have put search engine marketing in third place. That’s because we think the infrastructure of your online program should come first. As we’ll see, there are many reasons to leverage the power of an email newsletter, or at least set the stage for this investment in your future plans.

Here’s a first principal: People don’t develop relationships with websites.

Instead, they develop relationships with organizations that offer them something they want. This is often a monthly stream of tips, beneficial information, new ideas, coupons and other offers sent on a regular schedule of email newsletters.

According to Jacob Nielsen, an international authority on website usability, email newsletters provide the highest return on investment (ROI) of any other site upgrade:

“Email newsletters let you maintain a relationship with your customers that lasts beyond their visits to your site. The newsletter is the perfect website companion because it answers a different user need: newsletters keep customers informed and in touch with the company; websites give customers detailed information and let them perform business transactions… If you don’t have a newsletter, then publishing one is probably the single-highest ROI action you can take to improve your Internet presence. If you do have a newsletter, then improving it according to research findings will likely make it several times more valuable to your organization.” — Jacob Nielsen, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/high-roi.html

Forge a bond with your customers by publishing an email newsletter that follows the 80/20 rule: 80% or your content should focus on your customer and what she or he cares about (the news, tips or ideas that make them want to sign up). Then with the remaining 20%, you can focus on how your product or service will benefit them.

Put this rule into effect, and you’ll do much better in keeping your target audience involved, interested and engaged in your monthly email newsletter. Plus, you’ll do a better job of building improved relationships and customer loyalty.

Whether your content is developed as part of a website, blog, or email newsletter, you’ll be well advised to search online for other channels, blogs, sites and newsletters that tackle the same content. Try to develop a discerning eye for effective use of Internet tools.

Remember these three things:

1. Always be looking for fresh content. Publish as frequently as possible with new insights, ideas, and commentary.
2. Use effective keywords in your online publications and website.
3. Engage in search friendly design for your website and email newsletter.

Email Newsletters Are Bigger Than You Think

Growing evidence suggests that email users are bonding to their online subscriptions. Done well, with concise copy and compelling content, an email newsletter program can build better relationships with customers than any other single enhancement you can make to your current website.

According to The Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) Report on “Email Newsletter Usability,” online subscribers can often experience very emotional and positive reactions to email newsletters.

Indeed, this significant finding is good news for marketers who want to enhance their online relationships. The emotional attachment people feel with email newsletters can create a stronger bond between readers and companies. More so than anything a website can achieve. When users glance at a website, their immediate task or question reins supreme. Users want to get in and get out of a website “as quickly as possible.”

Not so with Email newsletters, which “…feel personal because they arrive in users’ in-boxes and users have an ongoing relationship with them.” In fact, according to the NNG report, the email in-box is “information central” for most of us, a special place where we check for personal messages and mail.

Here’s a few points to remember when designing an email newsletter:

• Though people are emotionally attached to email newsletters, there’s so much traffic, the stress of processing the mailbox continues to make them wary;
• Skimming is the “dominant mode” of dealing with a cluttered in-box. Over 69% of readers skim the contents rather than read each issue.
• Only 23% of email newsletters are read thoroughly.
• With so much to read, a rigorous edit is needed so readers can scan the contents. The writing style needs to support readers who will focus on a limited portion of the layout.
• Be relevant, address specific needs with work related news, professional tips or advice, events, prices, deadlines, sales, premiums, important dates, personal interests and hobbies (remember, this is a personal medium).
• Your attitude counts a great deal. An email newsletter that’s a pain to use, unsubscribe from, or that comes in too frequently, can create real animosity. Never attempt to trap the user into accepting your email newsletter or keeping them from dropping out by making the unsubscribe link hard to find. It’s far better to let them go and focus on building a quality permission based list.

How do you gain subscribers in a saturated market?

Your pitch to the reader should be made from a position of strength. Place your new Email Newsletter in its rightful place of importance and support it accordingly. Commit to a regular publishing schedule that’s not too frequent. The emotional engagement of readers is a precious commodity, offering strong potential. Don’t take it lightly.

• Your best prospect may be someone who is literally waiting to hear from you.
• Make his life a little bit easier, better, or more profitable.
• Let him know that your email newsletter will be easy to read and use.

It’s Friday the 13th.

I’m closing up. Ready to go home and enjoy the weekend with my family. Perhaps we’ll see re-runs of the movie “Friday The 13th” which memorialized the fictional teen killer Jason Voorhees and his fabulous atrocities on a popular group of teens, on this very night or nights, somewhere in a make believe town called Crystal Lake (no relation to the actual Crystal Lake, Illinois, where I happen to live).

Beyond Jason’s bloody exploits, I’m also thinking of another obsessive killer which is the practice of harvesting data at the expense of strategy. I know. This is a reach. But the topic continues to pique my curiosity.

Today I found one more “Email Insider” article from Media Post (by Amy D’Oliveira entitled “Going On A Data Diet”) while wandering through my little binder of good stuff. She brings three points to the table on how to differentiate between the “interesting ‘so what’ and the actionable ‘now what’… when looking at all the performance data, and how to tell the difference. Here’s her key action points…

• Define program success measures upfront and identify relevant metrics.
• Track these metrics over time and keep them consistent.
• When data mining, ask the hard question: “what will we do with this information to improve our program?”

With more information coming along so quickly and readily through the digital email dashboard, you have a choice of how to analyze your data and what you’re going to pay attention to, based on your strategic goals. In essence, you still need an overall strategy to guide you in digesting a plethora of information and fine tuning your program.

The abundance of data so quickly harvested, easily accessed and analyzed (correctly we hope) brings real prospects for automated marketing. But the essential questions shall always start with the customer and the individuality of their relationship to the product.

That’s the part that isn’t going to go away any time soon. We’re dealing with people, not just data. There is an essential level of psychology and understanding which must precede any key strategy decision. To investigate and ask questions, even if they’re rhetorical, is compelling to my interest in writing these entries.

So, who’s it going to be this Friday the 13th? Jason Voorhees? Or the slow suffocating presence of too much meaningless data?

Which do you fear the most?

My thanks to David Baker for his insightful brief (“Simplify Your E-mail Marketing Programs,” Email Insider, Media Post). His article is one of several we have been keeping in a binder for internal discussion. This particular entry owes a lot to his comments.

Here’s a quote: “”Many of you have patched together teams of multiple vendors: one for the business brief, another for the creative brief, an agency to build the e-mail, and then a provider to deliver your precious cargo. As a result, many programs suffer from the complexity… leaving no time for applied learning.”

Or, as I might say more generally in expanding on this topic: technique for the sake of technique often contributes to needless complications and distractions. Even perhaps to the formation of bad marketing ideas.

It so happens, e-mail marketing thrives on technique. It’s part of the nature of the medium. However, as marketers we must be concerned with the habitual chasing of ‘best practice of the day.’ Many benefits of marketing take time to develop. The voice and personality, not to mention brand formation, takes time. It should not be baked and served too quickly. Not if you want to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

In a world transfiixed by technology, many marketers pursue short term gains at the expense of long term goals. It is common to see people chasing technique, when they should be re-asking basic questions along the way: what are we trying to do? What are we trying to share in this new space (e-mail) that will reinforce customer perception and branding? What is the goal of this particular campaign or e-mailing? What are the objectives we need to reach in meeting them? Why should the customer care?

Chasing returns is counter productive in the stock market. But what about the stock we place in the brands we trust? Is it not counter productive to chase too many short term gains? What if these gains end up diminishing how the customer perceives our product?

Too many trees may obscure the forest. Just because the analytics and reporting are built-in, doesn’t mean you should live and die by them with such fervor in every e-mail. Relationship marketing is a carefully built process. To your customer or subscriber, the choices they make in opening your message, or in becoming “engaged” with it, may have little to do with the metrics of testing, which may better reflect the sender’s obsession with tactics and instant gratification (test, test, test, with lots of measurement, too little strategy?).

Your customer does not live with technology in the same way you live with it. She is definitely not sharing the fixation on measurement. We must always remind ourselves that measurement is often part of a larger more subjective analysis. It may be ironic that testing obsessions can end up becoming symptomatic of a continual misuse of data.

Let me replay the five guidelines from David Baker (in paraphrasing his originals):

1. Be clear about your goals and don’t get confused between goals and objectives. They are not the same.
2. If there is not going to be a measurable value attached to your test results, why do it?
3. Test only what you will be able to act on. Why measure what you cannot change?
4. (Quoted verbatim from Baker’s post): “Quantify response — both in cost to attain and cost to manage. If you don’t interpret this, it will be an empty open rate or click through rate.”
5. Stick to a six-words in summarizing your reasons for each new campaign or tactic. If you can’t say it simply, it may be too complex.

No sooner had I finished yesterday’s post on preview panes, than I ran across Email Diva’s take on the matter (Melinda Kruger, Email Insider, from Media Post). She suggests all email marketers should be optimizing for the preview, assuming that blocked images are the norm, by giving the reader a choice on whether to open or delete.

Seems simple enough. Just pack your punch in the upper left corner, work to get on the friend’s or safe list with each subscriber, and consider using Goodmail for Yahoo and AOL subscribers.

On the first of these, the advice still has me a little bit concerned. Perhaps so few are truly doing this. It may not be the ‘numbing down’ of the same layout over and over again which I’m so cautious about. As Melinda puts it, “While we are all tempted to put a big image and graphic headlines at the top of the e-mail, it more often than not comes through as boxes with red Xs in the corners.” She suggests you determine what makes your e-mail a must read and put those benefits top left. On working to get on the friends safe list the suggestion is to ask for this on the registration screen, in the welcome e-mail and in every single e-mail that follows. Then there’s Goodmail certification. Here the advice is to do it so your e-mails can arrive intact. Kruger says, “Goodmail certification also allows copywriters to curtail self-censorship… free is no longer a dirty word.”

While I like and admire the writing I see in the Media Post, I’m still a little worried about the standard advice, which seems a bit too much like a common recipe, something we all must do in the same way if we want to see results. If awareness advertising is the art of marketing and direct marketing is the science of getting people to respond and make decisions, then the science has trumped art. It is the science of direct marketing that is truly winning.

There’s no question that permission marketing has a defined set of best practices. However, the more we follow each other, the less true innovation in format and style we’ll see.

Maybe it’s just me. But I’m concerned with the straight-jacket that seems to be emerging.

Imagine the same restrictions on a print brochure. Or, a commercial. As consumers of media, we would go a little crazy with the monotony, redundancy and repetition if subjected to the same execution, over and over again.

Fashion icon Diana Vreeland once responded to the question, “what is style” by saying “True style has an animalistic, steely whip.”

Now that’s light years from permission marketing. But, the essence of it seems bear consideration. Real style, in anything you can name, will always be derived from genuine originality. The challenge for the creative person is to “find new patterns in old things.”

But how can do this, with so much imitation of technique?

I’m looking forward to learning more about the use of real creativity in email marketing.

Though distinctly different approaches exist for marketers communicating with consumers, versus those who reach a business audience, it’s a consistently held premise that HTML email must present a compelling design for the preview pane (that portion of the email interface that lets email readers partially scan their messages).

The reason is simple. Most readers use the preview pane to review their email before making a decision to open. If it ain’t happening in the preview pane, you may as well anticipate a much lower open rate, not to mention click through to your site.

According to Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald in their Seven Steps to a Better Template, the issue comes down to a central question: “Does the email message deliver its punch in a space roughly 4 inches wide by 2 inches deep?’

The preview pane has been compared to newspapers, where the portion “above the fold” creates the impact for a newsstand sale. If you’re a publisher or an advertising agency, you’re familiar with the idea of getting a compelling message across in limited space. For emails, this means packing as much information as possible up top, where the eye will see it quickly. Build interest and impact. Get them to click on anchor links to the text which follows, or simply use the upper left hand corner for a list of what’s to follow.

Yet, or course, creativity doesn’t stop on this point. Many designers now look at the top 200 by 300 pixels of an HTML newsletter or message, as a virtual banner. But this can lead to a uneven looking product for the reader, the experience of opening and reading an email can become so top heavy that there’s not much flow to the content, or breathing room for the story that follows.

So as in everything else, the question of balance comes into play. Popov and McDonald suggest that you redesign your template for a more horizontal format and pack as much information up top. Yet, that leaves me wondering how conditioned readers will become to the repetitive stimulus. Will it be too much of a good thing? What about the newsletter or message that simply unfolds in an interesting way? What happens then?

As in everything, sometimes the exception proves the rule. Here’s a quote from David Baker from the Email Insider that says, “You e-mail should flow smoothly and be evenly distributed if your intent is for the reader to flow through content.”

We think, that if you have an interesting story, you should tell it in an interesting way. This may mean topping up on flags, teasers, interesting link names, and anchor lists… or simply letting a great heading unfold into the story.

You’ll want to use images carefully (with alt tags), especially if your are doing a business to business communication, since many email clients turn off the images by default.

Always think about what you’re doing with great care. Follow general trends carefully, but follow your instincts most of all.

It’s been nearly a year since you authorized a monthly email newsletter program.

I was pleased to see you take the leap of faith in commissioning this assignment. The initial thrust produced a PDF attachment (two versions) which you asked us to produce in order to show off your portfolio of manufacturing solutions. A nice start, perhaps, but just the beginning. Sending personal messages from Outlook Express is not email marketing. I think you may have forgotten the original thrust of this idea, which is the start of a new marketing program. The PDF attachment was never intended to take the place of a scheduled HTML newsletter.

That’s why I am writing this gentle reminder. A lot has happened in the world of email marketing. We have hit a continuing pause, or point of procrastination, which you might want to reconsider in light of the proven effectiveness of permission based marketing.

Since your authorization was signed, the marketing world has literally exploded. It is now generally agreed this form of “seamless communications with customers” is perhaps the most effective marketing tool ever devised. In terms of ROI it outperforms everything else (by a considerable margin).

You know me to be truthful and deliberate. However, I hope you will now forgive me for blunt statement: it’s high time to forge ahead with the anticipated email newsletter program. There are many benefits for doing it. As a relationship marketer (the definition fits precisely) you’re in a position to iron out some marketing problems… and create a unique communications asset for your managers and company.

The seamless customer communications aspect of email marketing is driving the excitement. This, coupled with efficiency has enabled change. In manufacturing it’s often called CRM or Customer Relationship Management (“marketing automation” is another key phrase), but the heart of this digital revolution is permission marketing, and the heart of permission marketing is email.

Right now B2B marketing is moving away from hard-nosed sales efforts to a more efficient permission based approach. I believe your company will benefit by moving ahead with deliberate speed. Permission marketing, CRM, “marketing automation” is driving everything right now… for large companies, medium companies, and smaller firms. Literally a sea change in business communications is taking place.

We have the right tool, in the right place, at the right time. But we’re sitting idle.

Are you not ready to go forward? It isn’t too late to establish a strong permission based marketing system for your firm. But we need to act now.

The world is moving very quickly.

Sincerely yours,

Greg Johnson

Newsletters come in different sizes and types from print versions to the electronic variety called email newsletters.

Think of how many ways you might do them (or even spell the word, with or without a hyphen). A successful enewsletter can be informal, formal, long, short; humorous, colloquial, cut and dried, filled with coupons and offers, devoid of coupons and offers, friendly, superficial, detailed, in-depth, frequent, infrequent, published regularly or whenever you get to it.

The only requirement, to paraphrase the late Somerset Maugham, is the email newsletter must “interest” the reader. But wait. Your email newsletter will also benefit from a regular schedule, a solid reason for being, and a steady dedication to the reader’s self interest.

So what does your email newsletter look like? Is it breezy and short… Or, full of detailed information? How many ways can you do it? Have you ironed out the big questions? Have you arrived at a style that will last?

If you are a serious marketer with a point of differentiation in your product or service, this final question will become important. Style matters to nearly the same degree as substance. Without getting lost in that question, you don’t want to be re-inventing the program with every issue.

So here’s a baker’s dozen for important points on how many ways to spell email newsletter:

1. Maintain an attitude of simplicity in how you structure the program (which doesn’t have to mean “Keep It Simple Stupid” or KISS), because the simplicity may be a subtle thing that helps you organize and express sophisticated content in a reliably consistent manner. Think of simplicity of structure as having a lot to do with your publication strategy. Simplicity of structure will help you maintain your email newsletter and keep it fresh.
2. Seek to surprise your audience or customer with interesting content. There is no substitute for this. It’s the linchpin for permission marketing (see point number 4). Few people will sign up (or opt in) for boring, illiterate, insubstantial or non-existent content. It just won’t happen. Okay, so maybe a few friends or family members might humor you, but no one else will. You can hire a writer, or a firm such as ours to help you with this, but you must have good, interesting content in order to succeed at permission marketing. If that seems frightening, then you should a take a breath and think about where the digital revolution is going and how you may need to change. Your company or product is boring? Then perhaps you need to consider what made you get into the business. You might be surprised what a good writer, a bit of original research and a few interviews, and a commitment to talk to your customers on a regular basis can do for your company.
3. Design, graphics, typography, and color will help you outperform your competitors. Research has shown this conclusively with testing. HTML graphics based emails out pull text based emails. This happens over and over despite what people say about download time and their email preview panes. Graphics make a big difference. But you will need to understand preview panes, and where to put the most important message components.
4. Permission based marketing is everything. Your customer, or audience is paying for it on their Internet account. You must have permission to send. The sole reason is the value you’re providing in the messages you’re sending: the timely offers, the insider news they will be getting, etc. The reason you like it so much is that it’s so much cheaper and efficient than all that printing and postage you were formerly having to pay for. Now, it’s their quarter and they rule. You can’t just send stuff, or do a Blast email to thousands of addresses. You will be following a new set of rules.
5. But don’t forget to do some selling. It’s okay once you have established good will, and the trust in you as a provider of valuable content. People realize the email newsletter has an objective or purpose. As long as you put their needs first, you’ll have no problem with them coming on board for your brand. Just remember to put marketing before sales, and everything else should work out just fine.
6. Delivery is huge. Remember, this is a arena where technology is the medium. Personalization, subject lines, spam filters, working with lists, managing bounces, subscribes, unsubscribes, and feedback. This is where the right kind of technical support is so crucial.

Are you seeking new email solutions that can take you beyond delivery, list management and the burden of testing a hundred email filters?

Are you yearning for a little creativity to make your message more effective and engaging?

Yes, email marketing is technical. The mechanics and technology of the medium can inhibit our ability to see holistically, with fresh eyes. There’s more than technique and applied science going on here. With so many challenges in optimizing for email clients, using spam filters, email audits, managing black lists, opt-in lists, testing parameters, original offers, and key performance indicators, it is easy to lose your life in the passing days, evenings and weekends (if you don’t watch out).

It’s not surprising the marketing world feels the pressure to eliminate redundancy, reduce costs and gain greater efficiency. It makes you want to stop creating the new wheels and submit to the tried and true in remaking the old wheels, or in using a re-tred when it’s just too exhausting.

It’s much like other forms of marketing in this regard. Originality requires sacrifice. You must pay the price for it. But the sheer weight of creation amid the pressures to ‘get it done’ takes some getting used to. And, the sparkle of something new may get lost or forgotten. The investment required for a new solution, may become truncated, or simply cut off all together.

As Bill McCloskey has said (Email Insider, Delivering on the Promise), “Generic images. Text chosen not for its impact, but for its ability to slip through spam filters. Copy with all of the subtlety of the ads in the back pages of comic books. Where is the email that impacts my life, makes me laugh out loud, furthers the brand equity I have with the product or service?”

He’s right of course.

Where is that new creative?