Lean Manufacturing Photo by Numerical Precision Inc.

Can internal production teams involved in continuous improvement and lean manufacturing help us discover new marketing ideas? If so, can lean manufacturing provide hidden benefits beyond the shop floor.

As always, by simply looking for new ideas one can often find them.

On 16 November 2011, I attended a Lean Manufacturing breakfast held by the Shah Center in McHenry, Illinois. The Shah Center has been doing these meetings for a few years, thereby providing a place for regional manufacturers to make “lean” presentations on what they’ve been doing to eliminate waste and inefficiency while following up on shared themes such as:

• Value Stream Mapping
• or reviewing the Toyota Production System
• or gaining a greater understanding of the Seven Wastes

As a creative marketing professional I always find the slide shows intriguing and fascinating to behold. Though not so much for the design values or creative impact of the presentation — they often seem much too long, convoluted and amateurish. Yet at times while listening, I’ve said to myself:

Does their marketing department know what they’re up to on the shop floor? With so many innovative ideas and processes the energy level must be high. The ideas flowing. Is there a unique proposition based on the actualities of a particular lean manufacturing practice that be might be moving prospective customers to place new orders? And, if that’s the case, where is the marketing department or creative agency in all of this?

Mr. John Huber, Continuous Improvement Manager for Watlow, a world leader in heaters, sensors and controllers, was the main presenter on this particular morning. He commented on how customers often appreciate lean manufacturing. In particular he referred to reducing those aspects of the procurement cycle where the customer felt the most ‘pain.’ By implication, I assumed he was referring to delivery, quality and/or engineering issues. Additionally when he spoke of value streams, he made my ears ring.

Whenever you have breakthroughs in manufacturing that concern a potential shift in perceived customer benefits, the marketing department should be there actively watching. However, in following up on “lean” benefits the marketer shouldn’t be trying to lead it, or mess with it. Just be there to listen, learn and look for new themes and ideas for Internet marketing, social media, public relations, etc.

In fact, today the Internet is driving something I’ll call “Lean Marketing.” It is a very pervasive world-wide trend incorporating content marketing (or inbound marketing if you will), social media, SEO, online advertising, intelligent calls to action (CTA’s) and landing pages using specialized information transactions.

Okay, so here’s my hypothesis. It’s a simple one:

Lean Manufacturing can help drive Lean Marketing.

It may be too early to be carried away with this idea; it’s just a hypothesis. In my view Lean Marketing is driven mostly by the Internet. But the lean manufacturing movement seems to me as if it’s moving in a parallel universe.

Anyone care to add a few points to this?

Your Website Can Do More, Cost Less and Pull In Better Traffic

Many site owners fail to realize their website is just the beginning of a larger process. Though they may understand usability, keyword optimization and branding. Often, there’s much that can be done to bring real excitement and fresh results. If you’re passionate about serving your customers and proving what you can do for for them, you’ll enjoy having a website, or company blog, that pulls more qualified inbound leads and customer traffic. Transforming static pages into a compelling inbound program — with blog posts, web video, social media, carefully tested landing pages, new conversion steps and more — requires the ability to look at your product with fresh eyes.

Start re-thinking your website. Ask, “how can we add more compelling content on a regular basis?” Now, you’re getting closer to the real challenge. A website that’s easily updated. A website that pulls in more leads. A website:

• That you can update
• That grows over time with useful news and information
• That offers every opportunity to demonstrate your responsiveness
• That’s very search engine friendly
• That “works for you.”

Building websites using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) benefits you because:

• WordPress is the world’s leading blog software
• It is one of the fastest growing platforms for building business websites
• Major Search Engines love blogs
• Using a CMS allows you to think about your content in a more fluid style
• Your site can help you attain more: Energy, Excitement, Opportunity, Sales.

There’s always more to say on the subject of blogging, especially for business. What do you say to your management team? How do you get them to commit to a company blog that drives new traffic and results?

Consider The Long Tail When Thinking About Strategy (image from Wired Magazine).

As you think about developing a unified strategy for Internet marketing, you may find many points of creative fusion between your traditional advertising program and the emerging possibilities online. When you study unique characteristics, such as the Long Tail, you’ll encounter many transformative new ideas that may completely reshape your assumptions about business. As you get underway please remember:

1. Simply building a website won’t grow your business;
2. You’ll need an effective strategy to be successful online;
3. In fact, your current website may represent only the first step in a larger online program.

Many marketers fail to realize their website is just the beginning of a larger process. The overall purpose and depth of content on your domain may suggest a compelling new strategy. It’s important to have a sense of where the latent energy of your site may be going: to substantiate your credentials? Tell a product story? Generate leads? Or, direct sales?

Marketers Often Become “Stuck” On Strategy

Most people think creativity has more to do with art, music and literature and less to do with business, science and engineering. But that’s not the case!

• Creativity is the act of producing new ideas, approaches and actions;
• Innovation is the process of generating and applying ideas in a specific manner and context;
• Both definitions apply for your business, especially if you’re planning to leverage Web 2.0 applications;
• The Web is all about innovation!

Here’s where it gets interesting, and potentially exciting, especially if you think outside the box. Today, new competitors are rapidly emerging as traditional marketing practices evolve into new online propositions. To ride the waves in today’s economy we need to engage in lateral thinking and divergent thought. Today it is possible to do things we could only dream a few short years ago.

1. If you check out wootwine.com you’ll be looking at a special sale, for one day only. “Woot” is a domain that specializes in daily deals, one item only, at a very discounted price. We learned of them in a recent issue of Inc. Magazine. They build their customer relationships via Twitter. What’s interesting to us is the simplicity of the business model, one sale each day on one select item, a strategy that would be nearly impossible in the traditional retail world.
2. Kogi Korean BBQ, a company with just a little over one year of operations, serves Korean style meat in Mexican-style flatbread (an innovative idea!) in Los Angeles. Kogi designed its delivery system using Twitter to inform customers where their delivery truck is headed during the course of the day, so impassioned customers can enjoy their Korean fast food fix (see kogibbq.com).
3. Ms. Brigitte Dale won Yahoo!‘s Best Internet Personality 2008 for her quirky video blog posts. What’s she selling? Her creative talent of course. Though it may be difficult to envision her approach for business, these charming online videos feature sharp scripts, self-produced on a shoe string with surprising sophistication. Here’s a recent post on YouTube.

Practical Questions Must Be Encountered

Successful strategy is often built from tactical advantages (note our Online Marketing Awareness Map). Whether to build slowly with a focus on Content Marketing or more quickly with Internet Advertising, may depend on whose asking the question.

I. An e-commerce site dealing in branded items sold at discount might focus on:

• Area 1: Websites;
• Area 2: Online Advertising;
• Area 6: Landing Pages, Analytics & Conversion.

II. Whereas a manufacturer or B2B services firm might focus on:

• Direct mail and inside sales;
• Area 3: Content Marketing or Blogging;
• Area 5: Online Video;
• Area 6: Landing Pages, Analytics & Conversion

Start With Small Steps

It helps if you have a strategy. It can make a huge difference. But if you don’t have one (or, it’s just too confusing) you’ll benefit by taking smaller steps. It is hard to go wrong with good landing pages and well designed content featuring important keyword groups and site analytics. Pilot programs make sense. Add a company blog to the mix, or perhaps a Google Adwords campaign. Adwords can work quickly, which is one reason why sponsored search listings are so popular.

Yet, a hasty campaign cobbled together with little planning is unlikely to work very well, unless you’re very lucky. False starts can be demoralizing and damaging due to the possibility of a poor Quality Score from Google, which can take months to overcome. Better to work deliberately and strategically, even with a small beginning. Content marketing, especially from blogging, is designed to build up carefully over time.

Once again, let me suggest an important reminder: We’re striving to keep things simple (not simplistic) to help you in framing your initial approach. What’s right for you will depend on your product and the unique vision you may have for your business or enterprise.

Be Thorough In Developing Keywords

Marketers engaged in their first encounter with online advertising are often surprised at the amount of time they need to develop effective keywords and Adgroups. Using Google’s Keyword Generator can help you create hundreds of keywords. But don’t fall into the trap of letting the software do your thinking for you. Instead, as a first step, take the time to really think about your customers. Stand back, look at them as real people and don’t pigeon hole them. Ask how they might type a search query to find your product or service. Doing this in a candid manner makes you relate to them personally. This is a simple step that can help your website, online advertising or content marketing as well. It is also a great marketing practice for strategic planning in any medium.

There‚ is no end to the possibilities one can use in making the transition to online marketing. This may be a great time to reexamine your business and restart your marketing in a more innovative direction. We can take you through a few current campaigns we’ve done in helping our clients create a smooth transition to online marketing:

• Dorion-Gray Retirement Planning, Inc.
• Numerical Precision, Inc.
• RaueInsider.com

Thank you for taking the time to explore this “outside the box” online marketing series.  If you have any questions on how to get started, contact us, or leave a comment below.

Additionally, please take a moment to share any interesting strategies that you see online!

In this third part of our series we cover an important topic. Based on recent pieces we’ve seen online, or in magazines, many private business leaders are frustrated with the complexity of digital marketing and it’s new applications, online tools and strategies. While many of today’s consumers blithely transition to the Next Thing,* a host of marketing managers and corporate VP’s find themselves camped on the threshold of important changes.

Our Online Marketing Awareness Map

How to make the right decisions with so many new choices? We’ll admit there’s no single easy answer to that question. But then, marketing has never been easy. Web 2.0 is often called the participatory Web, a place where blogs, social networking sites and media sharing sites have transformed the world of marketing.

Our own efforts in this regard are straightforward. We developed an Online Marketing Awareness Map as an early step in creating a visual tool for discussion. It has since led to a laptop presentation, and to this particular series of Infusion Blog posts (please see Part I and Part II if you haven’t already read them).

Your Website Is The Base Station For Your Online Marketing Program

Websites

Our map begins (see illustration) with the top circle, labeled Websites. Today we field fewer questions about websites (we’ve all seen our share). Yet many clients do not fully realize their website is just the beginning of their online marketing program. Yes, it must be supplied with good content, usability, optimization and branding. It is indeed the base station for an entire online marketing program. Yet, it’s also a latent form of energy. For most business websites there’s much to be done in bringing real excitement, traffic and new results. Often the goal is to transform a static asset into a compelling and effective online marketing program. Think of  your business site as the first step. It’s important to have a sense of where that latent energy may be going: to substantiate your credentials, or tell a product story, or generate direct e-commerce sales. The purpose and overall depth of content on your domain may suggest a follow up strategy for online marketing.

Online Advertising

Moving clockwise to Online Advertising, our next circle. Again, few of us are strangers to this. By online advertising we refer to web based ads such as banners, tiles, widget ads or sponsored listings on Google (organic listings are discussed in Content Marketing). For banners, tiles and other units we’re looking at a Push Strategy similar to offline advertising, where you pay for exposure based on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Sponsored listings emulate the search characteristics of organic listings in everything but price, since you must pay for them, typically using a Pay Per Click (PPC) model. Online advertising in all its forms… requires a direct monetary investment. Dollars for traffic!

Dollars for Traffic!

For many marketers this is as far as they go: build a website and buy online ads linked to specified landing pages. An ecommerce site with branded items or specialty merchandise, coupled with good prices can do this pretty well, especially if they have read their niche properly.

Content Marketing - Builds traffic, credibility and reputation.

Our next category is Content Marketing. We see Content Marketing as long content designed to display thought leadership with high “favorables” on search engines. This means well developed websites, blogs, or sites in combination with blogs. With a blog you add fresh content and a new page to your domain with every post. Attract visitors with comments and your blog is building inbound links, another natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit. Blogs build traffic, credibility and reputation — nice things to have for one’s professional life or brand.

A good approach to blogging may require originality, or an Outside the Box approach to a niche topic. But it doesn’t have to be creative per se. Start by solving a problem your audience cares about. Find a voice. Build trust, confidence, desire. Be engaging. And, don’t oversell. In effect, you may want to begin by commenting on something that others in your industry have expressed or said. When you begin blogging, you’ll want to read other blogs and make appropriate comments. Join the discussion. Just don’t be too obvious about selling or becoming a shill for your product. Think of yourself as attending a business reception. Show a sincere interest in something someone else has said or written, that’s a good way to obtain natural reciprocity in a return visits to your blog.

Blogs humanize a brand, which is a very special thing. Who is blogging these days? A huge number of organizations and people involved in virtually every business and profession, from software development, training and freelancers, to product manufacturers, distributors, wineries, galleries and travel destinations, etc.

As with everything else, you’ll want to open yourself and your business to further innovation. Think of it as a creative fusion between the offline marketing you may be accustomed to and the new digital marketing you’re seeking to engage.

This discussion of the Online Marketing Awareness Map continues in Part IV.

Stay tuned.

Best wishes…

Greg Johnson

We’re continuing our discussion of digital marketing strategy and why many marketers should look at their business with fresh eyes. In this post, we will briefly review two illustrations, then look into how Web 2.0 might affect your future marketing decisions.

Traditional Sales Funnel - Push Strategy

In the Traditional Sales Funnel the marketer targets a “universe” of people through demographic and psychological profiling and sends out branded messages in conventional advertising campaigns, public relations, direct response, sales promotion, trade shows and other tactics. In simple terms this is known as a Push Strategy. The marketer is pushing his message through to a targeted population, hoping to inform, persuade, remind and influence their purchasing behavior.

As you’ll note in the illustration, nestled nicely under the target universe is funnel which represents the collective efforts of the company’s sales department. Essentially, the marketer is looking to generate “precipitation” from their advertising in the form of sales leads, retail traffic, bounce back cards and other prospect behavior. The company seeks to control the funnel as their sales people work to convert their prospects into customers.

Internet Sales Funnel - Pull Strategy

Now in contrast to this, let’s take a look at an Internet Sales Funnel, which is considerably different from the traditional one. Here the entire world sits atop the World Wide Web. Although there is a certain amount of Reach and Frequency based advertising in this model,* the primary focus is different than conventional advertising.

By virtue of the sheer mass of Internet activity, for business, education, shopping, and entertainment, etc., a natural funneling takes place based on the stuff people are doing online.  This funneling phenomenon occurs every minute of each day. Someone searches for a digital camera, or advice on photography, or photographic supplies, or a professional photographer. Each user finding appropriate sites and information without any third party controlling of their quest for information.

The marketer doesn’t control this funnel. Instead of pushing a message through to a targeted online audience, the marketer engages a Pull Through Strategy to capture a share of traffic from people who are looking for their service or product in real time on the Web. Translation: every day people are looking for you. They have begun their shopping online. They’re already funneled into millions of discrete points of interest. Your task is to pull your fair share of this traffic by being in the right online place at the right time with a profitable click through rate.

How To Be Found Online?

How to be Found Online?

That’s the big question for most online marketers. Here’s a short list of the most often used techniques:

1. Online advertising: includes display ads or sponsored listings on websites & search engines. Basically you are exchanging dollars for traffic, based on Cost Per Thousand (CPM) impressions or Pay Per Click (PPC).
2. Content marketing: through blogs, social media, wikis, media sharing, email newsletters, webinars, etc. You are investing your time and resources in building great content and optimizing your web presence, so it becomes much easier to attract more visitors and traffic. Technically speaking, organic results from search engines is free.
3. Traditional marketing activities such as advertising, direct mail and public relations.

Spending money to generate traffic from online advertising is done in two distinct ways: A) through a somewhat traditional model of reach and frequency exposure** from banner ads; or, B) through sponsored listings sold as Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements.

The second method of online discovery is through Content Marketing. Here we open the world of Web 2.0 and start thinking about blogs, social media, wikis, media sharing sites, email newsletters and webinars. Essentially, we’re seeking to engage in spirited Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices by creating a site, blog, wiki or social networking that results in higher organic search rankings, or viral marketing exposure. Link building, online conversations and social bookmarking are continuous efforts which the marketer might choose for this strategy.

Our third method, Traditional Marketing, won’t be covered in this series—except as it may help us make a particular point or reference. The thrust of our effort is focused on Web 2.0, content marketing and social media.

Outside The Box Thinking Can Help

Most users engaged in serious online advertising or content marketing are surprised at the amount of time they need to develop effective keyword phrases. Using the Google Adwords Keyword Generator can help you create hundreds of keyword phrases. But don’t let the software do your thinking for you. Instead, take the time to consider your customers. Stand back from them, think of them as people (don’t pigeon hole them) and ask what they might type into a search query if they wanted to find your product or services. Doing this forces you to relate to them more personally. For many companies this is truly outside the box, because it makes them engage the psychology of their customers.

Stay tuned. There’s more to come on innovative thinking.

Best wishes…

Greg Johnson

This may be a great time to restart your business in a much more innovative direction.

There’s such an abundance of information on Web 2.0 that it is hard to write a focused summary of current use. The term Web 2.0 emerged in 2004. It is a popular label for the “participatory web” now so prevalent in the rise of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Flickr and other social media. Additionally, Web 2.0 encompasses the continued growth of the blogosphere, and the ever increasing number of hosted applications that run through web browsers and allow users to own and control their own information. This architecture of online participation, and its surging popularity, has changed the face of marketing.

Transitioning To Digital Marketing

So, the question of how to think outside the box on marketing using Web 2.0 is a very important question if you’re thinking about using social media, or building and maintaining your professional blog, or engaging in link building and search engine optimization (SEO).

We have seen marketers who think that a blog is a static thing, similar to a website. They may also assume their blog content should mimic their other advertising and marketing, not fully realizing they need to completely retool their approach. Additionally, we see and hear a lot about social marketing from customers who seem willing to dismiss it as too much work. They fear it will become a huge drain on their time and lead to false starts in an unproven medium.

Digital marketing presents a path of confusing complexity for many potential clients. Where a comprehensible program of traditional methods once prevailed, a new set of digital choices has emerged that represent game changing possibilities. Additionally, this new paradigm may not fit in with the current company culture.

If you have encountered Infusion Blog before, you may be aware that our firm (rnjohnson.com) specializes in working with independent companies. Many of our customers are transitioning to digital marketing. This blog is written for them. We make it our business to synthesize information and provide helpful guidance to independent marketers (i.e. small companies) about what to do and why.

Looking At The World With Fresh Eyes

As a first step, we have stressed the need for all parties to start looking at the world with fresh eyes. This may be a great time to reexamine your core strategy and marketing tactics using new techniques and restarting your business in a much more innovative direction.

But you need to look at the basics and be creative about content. To gain online traffic to your blog, you’ll need to jump start the process with new thinking, analysis, product demonstrations or a more effective and creative way to showcase  your expertise. Maintaining a blog allows customers, prospects and outside experts to interact with you online. But, the old command and control management style may get in the way. That’s why you’ll need to spend time thinking “outside the box” on a host of new questions.

• Are you ready to provide compelling blog content on a regular basis?
• Have you been visiting blogs, or participating in social media on your own, taking the time to understand what others in your industry are doing?
• Are you ready to respond helpfully and quickly to blog posts?
• Do you have a strategy for attracting readers and leveraging the blogosphere?
• Most of all: are you prepared to think outside the box?

Most people think creativity has more to do with art, music and literature and less to do with business, science and engineering. But that’s not the case. Creativity is the act of producing new ideas, approaches and actions. Innovation is the process of generating and applying ideas in a specific manner and context. Both definitions apply, especially if you’re planning to leverage Web 2.0  for your business.

But how to do this? What’s the best way to engage this process?

Good question. We have been working on this five part “Outside The Box” series as a way to share our thoughts and research. There’s so much occurring with Web 2.0 applications in social media, search engine optimization and link building that it is virtually impossible for a smaller marketing agency or company to stay abreast of everything. Our solution is to adhere to the principle of simplicity (some may say we’re simplistic) in seeking original ways to categorize or map the world of online marketing, to break out the fundamental action steps a potential client might use to prioritize their investment.

We considered a wealth of data. There’s such a long list of sites, blogs and major publications covering the world of technology. We’re grateful to the writer’s, contributors and publisher’s who enabled us to stand back and consider the larger picture of online marketing:

• Hubspot.com
• Online-Social-Networking.com
• Medialifemagazine.com
• Mediapost.com
• Mailchip.com
• Copyblogger.com
• Wearesocial.net
• Web-strategist.com
• Online.wsj.com (Wall Street Journal Online Edition)
• Ephrononmedia.com
• Wikipedia.org
• Mashable.com

Since we allude to innovation, and the ability to think outside the box on Web 2.0, we thought it might be fun to reference the Nine Dot Puzzzle (at right) and ask you to attempt it on your own. We’re told the puzzle appeared 1914 in a early humor magazine and that it was rediscovered after WWII. If you have never worked on it, please print this page and try to connect the dots. For the answer, see Part IV Thinking Outside The Box On Strategy.

And here is one final question: would you like to share a creative online marketing solution with us?

Test your creativity... Answer: See part V of series.

We would love to hear from you.

Best wishes…

Gregory Johnson

Next up is Part II: Thinking Outside The Box On Web 2.0, Blogs and Social Media

The reasons people ask this question differ slightly. Perhaps they’re skeptical because a previous advertising campaign didn’t work. Or their website generates little interest or comment. Some are uncomfortable with the hustling and hype they associate with marketing and they assume we will be offering the same old stew.

That’s why we don’t just sell creative services; we produce creative marketing. There’s a difference. Creative marketing is based on two principles:*

• That a great idea is often based on a new combination of old elements;
• That a new combination of old elements depends on the ability to see relationships.

A common definition for marketing means matching products and services with the people who need them. In practice it is the sum total of everything a client may be doing to gain customers and keep them. Creative marketing looks at baseline fundamentals. In particular, how the customer sees the product, including the psychology, product quality and underlying chemistry that makes the sale. Between every product and its best customers… there is an individuality of relationship which may lead to a big idea.*

Why hire a creative marketing firm?

Let us list a few reasons:

1. To save money and attain higher ROI
   Much of what you’re currently doing may be a waste of time. That’s the part where you save money. When you move on to more effective techniques, you end up with more qualified prospects per dollar. Assuming your conversion rate is a good one, this means higher ROI.
2. To help you drive better results
   There are so many new and exciting ways to engage customers. The Web is the fastest growing marketing medium in the world. We can help you make good use of it.
3. To gain outside perspective
   We look at your product with fresh eyes and help you focus on the most compelling message. The outside perspective we bring to the table is one of the best reasons to form a relationship with our firm.
4. To attain renewed focus on what matters most to your business
   You’re paid to focus on your customers and their needs. Not the tedious time it takes to handle your own direct marketing, web development, advertising or online marketing. By partnering with us you can spend more time working with your customers and serving them. Isn’t that the best use of your time?

Additionally, since you will be hiring us for what we do best, we can help you by continually look for better ways to increase the results of your marketing.

Peter Drucker puts it well: “Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results. All the rest are costs.”

Dear Copywriter,

It’s never so easy. No matter how much advertising you have been exposed to in your lifetime, hitting the right copy is a great achievement.

Here’s a few thoughts.

1. Bernbach once said: touch the emotions of the reader.
2. Try removing any mention of the company or brand from the appeal, concept or headline. Work directly with the subject. Think only of the reader.
3. The reader will see the logo. We don’t need to push the client’s name.
4. Make a little magic. Introduce the product in a new way.
5. Capture the reader with a fundamental truth, stated memorably.
6. Link a unique selling proposition (USP) through the copy or subhead.
7. Yet, even without a USP, just capture the magic. Build readership for the message.

You have a few good starts. But we need more creative push. But don’t be too cute. Report what the product will do. Be intimate. Capture the reader by appealing directly to her desire and self interest. We’re trying to capture a fundamental truth on the unique relationship between customer and product.

If you feel stifled, try writing a personal letter to a friend. Show real enthusiasm for the product, how it will make her feel better, or help her do more things, or improve her health. Don’t mention the client. Just capture the story in a compelling way. This will produce a few lines of useful copy or headline. Maybe a strong headline.

Remember, it’s the emotions. Hit them in the right way; the rest comes on its own.

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.