The Messaging Times

What if the President was on Your Email List?

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

Seth Godin says in his post, The Pope is coming:

“…Whether you run a hotel or a retail store or a parts supply store, things change when you find out the Pope is coming for a visit.

The fresh flowers get delivered, the beds are made a little tighter and your best staff are waiting out front. Everything is a little bit cleaner and shinier. Maybe, a few staff bring in their kids to sing a song or two…”

How true!

The extra effort is made because we know that things can be better than they are; and we want to be at our best when the Pope arrives (or the President, or a celebrity or the boss). What about making things the best that they can be for everyone – especially your next customer? The reality is, neither the Pope nor the President will show up at your place. But your next customer will.

The same is true for email marketing. If you knew that the Pope or the President or an A-list celebrity was going to receive your next email, you’d probably invest a little more time and effort to make sure that it was perfect. You’d choose your words carefully, test all of the links and use your best content.

What if you did that every time you sent an email?

Every person on your email list is important. With regard to your business, the people on your email list are even more important than the President or the Pope. So why not give them the best that you’ve got?

Posted in communication, Customer service, email, email marketing, emarketing, Insights, Marketing, newsletters | Tagged being your best, email list, email marketing, email newsletter, Pope | 2 Comments

How To Be Incredible

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

I found a really incredible video montage today on Renee Blodget’s blog, Down the Avenue. It shows how Apple communicates, in no uncertain terms, how awesome they are.

In the Apple Keynote presentation, the following words are echoed over and over again: Great, Incredible, Really cool, Awesome, Just amazing, Wonderful, Really nice, Really easy, Outstanding, Better and better, Smarter and smarter, Priceless, Unbelievable, Beautiful.

The words we use are important. They influence the perception that others have about us. If we don’t tell our audience how wonderful our products and service are, there is less of a chance that they will remember that our products and services are wonderful. If we use positive words enough when communicating with our audience, people will associate our brand with them over time.

Of course, over time, words alone won’t convince people that a mediocre product or service is remarkable. But they can make good products seem great to people who hear the message enough.

How incredible are you?

Posted in communication, Customer service, design, email, email marketing, emarketing, Insights, Marketing, newsletters | Tagged Apple keynote, awesome, beautiful, better, great, how to be incredible, just amazing, outstanding, really cool, really easy, remarkable, smarter, wonderful | Leave a comment

Configuring GroupMail for Your Comcast SMTP Server

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

If you want to route your GroupMail messages through your Comcast SMTP server, click on Tools/Account Manager (or Manage Accounts) and click “New” when the Account Manager screen opens.

1. In the User Information Screen, provide a descriptive name for the account. The Information that you enter in the “Name” and “Organization” fields is what will be visible in the From field of your email. Enter your Comcast email address and an email address where you want replies to be sent. Then, click on the Delivery Options tab.

2. Enter the SMTP server address for Comcast and check the “Requires Authentication” box. On this screen, you can also control the speed of delivery of your messages by increasing or decreasing delivery connections and pause rates. Click Setup.

3. Check the “Use SMTP Authentication (outbound)” box and enter your Comcast email address and password. Click OK.

4. Click the “Advanced” button at the bottom of the “Delivery Options” screen and change the SMTP Port from 25 to 587. You can also change the SMTP Domain from the system default to comcast.net. Click OK.

5. Click OK on the Account Properties screen to save these settings.

Comcast allows residential customers to send 1,000 messages per day through their SMTP server. Business customers are allowed to send 24,000 per day (1000 per hour). Contact your Comcast representative to inquire about limitations for Business accounts in your area.

Note: The SMTP server for Comcast Business Accounts is different than the residential SMTP server address. Contact Comcast for your Business account SMTP server and authentication details.

Posted in email, email marketing, emarketing, GroupMail, Infacta, Marketing, newsletters | Tagged Comcast SMTP server, Comcast SMTP settings, configuring GroupMail for Comcast, email settings for Comcast, GroupMail settings, SMTP server, SMTP settings | Leave a comment

Holiday Email Marketing Strategies

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

I spent Sunday afternoon at a local apple orchard in Bellingham with my family. The smell of apples, cider and caramel reminded me instantly that Autumn has arrived. As someone involved in marketing and email, the smell also reminded me that it’s time for holiday email marketing campaigns.

My daughter Aoife at the pumpkin patch

Christmas is 101 days away, but holiday email marketing campaigns are well underway.

If you want to run an effective holiday email campaign, it’s time to start now. Holiday email campaigns are not defined by a company sending out a single special offer email in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Effective holiday email campaigns involve months of planning, preparation and implementation. A holiday email campaign is built around a series of messages using multiple channels to communicate your holiday story to your customers and potential customers. Chad White writes about the 18 Phases of Christmas:

“…The first salvo of holiday email marketing has already been fired, with 8% of major online retailers having already mentioned the holidays in their email campaigns. While most of those were running “Christmas in July” campaigns, a few were just getting in early references to be top of mind later in the season. August is traditionally a non-event for holiday marketing, but September will mark the beginning of a continued effort to win holiday sales that will continue into January.

As discussed in the recently released Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season, holiday messaging goes through 18 phases…” keep reading

A comprehensive holiday marketing strategy will leverage Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years themes. It will respond to the season as it unfolds and offer the following things repetitively – excellent value, easy ordering and timely and accurate fulfillment.

My wife and I have already begun our holiday shopping. Here’s what we look for (in no particular order):

Low prices
Free shipping/delivery
Unique items
Good customer service
Special offers
Local products
Green/non-toxic/environmentally friendly products
Customer feedback/reviews

What do you look for?

Of course, the most important part is being visible. You are competing with so many products and services that will be stuffing inboxes like Christmas stockings during the holidays. What makes yours stand out?

Posted in email, email marketing, emarketing, Marketing | Tagged email marketing strategies, holiday email campaigns, holiday email marketing campaigns, holiday email marketing strategies, holiday marketing | 9 Comments

The Email Marketing Nightclub

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

When I was studying in Mexico, a new nightclub opened in Cuernavaca. There were colorful posters everywhere and club promoters took to the streets during the weeks leading up to the grand opening handing out VIP passes to the big event. My friends and I were definitely in the market for a new place to go and it wasn’t too often that we were treated like VIPs as university students; so we took the bait and marked the calendar.

The big night came and we found ourselves standing with the mob of VIPs which formed a line around the corner of the up-lit building. We were excited and eventually found ourselves walking through the neon entrance. It didn’t take long for us to realize that the place was all hype and no substance. The drinks were watered down and overpriced, the music was too loud and too dated and the dance floor didn’t accommodate the crowd. We stayed for a couple of hours before deciding to relocate to an old familiar bar, where the beer was cold and the staff was friendly. We never went back to the club and never recommended it to anyone we knew.

Email marketing is a lot like a nightclub. There are two important elements in successful email marketing; building your list and retaining it. If you do a great job getting people to subscribe to your email, but don’t provide a good experience or good value in your campaigns, then you are wasting your time because those new subscribers won’t stick around for long.

But if you focus on the experience of the people who have already subscribed (those people already on your list) – if you work hard to ensure that your recipients have a good experience – if you surpass their expectations with each message that you send – then not only will they stay on your list, but they will more than likely recommend you to their family, friends or colleagues. Ultimately, your email subscriptions will increase in line with the satisfaction of your existing subscribers.

In Seth Godin’s post The big drop, he explains how the experience of the first group of people that you get to buy your product or listen to your record or read your book will determine whether a second group of people, or a third will want to experience it.

“…If the first circle is excited about what we do and it’s remarkable enough to talk about, they’ll tell two or six or ten friends each. And if we’re really good, the second circle, the people we don’t even know–they’ll tell the third circle. And it’s the third circle that makes you a hit, gets you elected and tips your idea…” continue reading

Attracting new subscribers is important. But keeping them on your list and exciting them enough to spread the news is the real rave in email marketing.

What’s it like inside your nightclub?