Sure, email helps social, driving fans and followers through buttons and sharing but what about how to leverage social for your email program, the one driving all of that revenue? Social check in, QR Codes, SMS, Facebook and more will be covered in how they can take your email program to the next level.
Simms Jenkins, founder & CEO of BrightWave Marketing, North America’s leading email marketing focused digital agency, is the presenter and author of "The Truth About Email Marketing." The companion white paper "Email Acquisition 2.0" can be found at http://bit.ly/BWCaseStudies
9. “ I have never used as much email in my entire life as I have this year. The daily deals are part of it, but my entire work life has become centered around using email on my phone . Previously I communicated in other ways, but as of this year it seems that email is certainly making a comeback.” - C.A Advert Solutions 2011, The Year of Email
15. More than 90% of adults internet users in every age group subscribed to emails from brands, while significantly fewer "liked" companies on Facebook or followed them on Twitter. - ExactTarget "Subscribers, Fans, and Followers: Digital Morning" (2010) Email Vs. Social?
35. QR promotion in-store QR Code prominently placed on hanger to attract smartphone users. Back-up URL for those without QR code scanner would also be placed on hanger. Aisle Hanger Mobile Sign-up Email Coupon
42. Google+, It ’s about the Circles Email Nerds 176 People who are dead to me 5 People who have read my book 2 Ex-girlfriends who stalk me 40 People I met @ Connections 1,045 Social Ninjas 7,344 Family 18 Family that will never know what Google+ is 17
in fact, some experts have said this it the year of email. OK, so this particular expert happens to be my boss but just Google “the year of email” and see all that is being said about the rise, in importance of email this year. So what’s happening how is the Inbox changing? Well, one reason I chose this article as my sample is because one of the first comments posted summed the direction we are moving nicely…
Bacon… they signed up for it but don ’t necessarily want it… they aren’t always unsubscribing or rejecting… maybe they don’t see the email, maybe they are lazy or scared to unsubscribe or maybe they are really just waiting for an email to be relevant again. Either way, it’s something marketers have to deal with… you have to figure out if you are now the bacon or at the very least how your “wanted email” is competing with Bacon. A good way to tell if you have fallen into the former is to see how many subscribed addresses you have compared to the level of activity over 3 or 6 months. If you see a low level of activity then chances are people have “emotional unsubscribed”… in which case you may be the bacon and need to adjust your tactics accordingly. I don’t want to dwell on this too much but it may be the number one problem you are facing today so please take note. (? If you think you fall in this category you can always ask me about what to do later)
The graph (provided by Symantec Intelligence ) shows significant drops in spam levels occurred when investigators coordinated their efforts and brought down numerous major spam networks such as “Rustock,” said to be responsible for 40% of all junk email. As you probably noticed on the last graph, the good news is that spam is on the decline. It ’s not time to start celebrating yet, it is still a huge problem, but things are moving in the right direction. This is mainly due to two factors, increasing intelligent spam filters and a couple of major spam outlets getting shutdown… both of which are making it increasingly more difficult for spam to be profitable, which is discouraging would-be spammers. The result? People are using email more and more as they get less frustrated with it… as long as they don ’t choke on the bacon.
Just a few more trends to uncover, email is still very strong. It ’s still the number one way to share things on the internet. As email marketers we need to remember this, incorporate it into our campaigns, and track it as closely as possible. Did you know it was possible to track forwards? I’m not talking about the forward to a friend button, that rarely ever works… I mean actual forwards. There are some methods to track forwarding and printing email that don’t work in 100% of email clients but are enough to measure trends. (channel a little bit of James Spellos)
Even compared to other ways to interact, email still seems to be the thing people will use the most. Look where Face-to-Face ranks, and by “Face-to-Face” I can only assume they mean video chat So you guys have now survived the chart section of this presentation… I only have like 2 more charts in this whole deck… hopefully it gets more interesting for here on. But one last slide on “the current inbox state” and why this year is different… and it just didn’t fit in nicely anywhere else… one trend happening now has greatly effected email…
Deals! That ’s right, the rise of deals, local deals, daily deals… all the bargain, couponing stuff has increased the use of and interest in legitimate email. Most all these sites uses email as their primary distribution method… it’s almost as if their product is the email itself. How many people in here are signed up for Groupon, Livingsocial, Facebook Deals, Google offers or something similar? Something to consider with this trend… it ’s training people to expect deals… or at the very least “finds”… something that they are getting for having signed up that they want to know about right away and that it’s getting posted publically to everyone on a social network. Start thinking about how you can work this trend into your marketing campaigns… not that you have to give deals, but what can you do differently knowing that this is what people are coming back to the inbox to do?
09/16/11
Almost done with the charts, I promise… but this one is fascinating to me… not only is social not killing email, it seems that people who use social networks are the most likely to check email the most frequently during the day. This says a few things to me… 1) it ’s a myth that people who use a social network preferred to communicate through that network… I think people prefer to be communicated in different ways for different things. 2) Social network users are obviously highly active and could be the most active users on your email subscriber list… 3) I’m betting a lot of this correlates with the usage of a mobile device… as in the user is checking it all day. 4) Email is social… I don ’t mean is “like” or “ works well with”… I mean it is a social media.
Facebook Tabs/Pages
Over 50% of foursquare uses are on twitter
Who has heard of Google+? How has opened an account on Google+? Why is it important to email?... I think it ’s a glimpse into where things are going and a step in the evolution of digital messaging integration.
"It only takes 20 people to bring an online community to a significant level of activity and connectivity." (Ning via TheNextWeb ) Facebook has lists and groups, but it didn ’t start out that way Conditioning users to think in circles