It’s no secret that we at Blue Sky Factory really love the articles posted by ClickZ, and this week’s “ClickZ Experts” newsletter is no exception. In this edition Karen Gedney recalls a few instances of companies making unfortunate errors in their email campaign, all of which could be avoided by simply checking work before hitting “Send.”

Karen proposes that every e-marketer create and use a checklist while setting up the campaign and launching, and I whole-heartedly concur with that idea. She outlines a great starter checklist that can be adapted to any marketer’s situation.

Take a look at her example here and consider adopting this practice yourself!

Earlier this week, Karen Gedney from ClickZ compiled a great list of email marketing stats in an article titled “E-mail Stats Every B2B Marketer Should Know.” The statistics were quoted at the “ClickZ Specifics: Email Marketing” conference two weeks ago, and our CEO Greg Cangialosi was one of the speakers. Here are some of the highlights from Karen’s article:

From “The E-mail of the Future” presented by Jeanniey Mullen, global executive director, OgilvyOne Worldwide, who gave the keynote:

• E-mail delivers the highest ROI among marketing vehicles by an eye-popping margin: a whopping $57.25 for every dollar spent on it in 2005, according to the Direct Marketing Association’s “The Power of Direct Marketing”(October 2006).

From “Cut Through the Clutter Creatively” presented by Blue Sky Factory CEO Greg Cangialosi:

• 64 percent of key decision-makers view your carefully crafted e-mails on their Blackberries and other mobile devices. (Marketing Sherpa Show, 2007)

From “Beyond Direct: E-mail Branding & Relationships to Build Business”:

• 81 percent of U.S. executives subscribe to industry e-mail newsletters for product information and business intelligence (Wall Street Journal).
• 60 percent of business decision makers said Internet and e-mail are the best ways for advertisers to reach them (Jupiter Research).

Many of these stats can be found at the Email Stat Center, a fantastic resource for E-Marketers. Click here to check out that site, and click here to view Karen’s article.

If you are on the west coast, or are planning to be in the bay area this coming May, please join me at these two great industry events. I will be participating in both events as a speaker. If you are planning on attending please drop me an email so we can make sure to link up. I can be reached at greg [at] blueskyfactory [dot] com.

May 16th, 2007 - Click Z Specifics: Email Marketing
San Francisco, CA - San Francisco Marriott
Presentation: “Cutting Through the Clutter Creatively”

May 31-June 1 - INBOX: The Messaging Industry Event
San Jose, CA - San Jose Marriott
Panel: “The Future of Viral Email and User Generated Media”

This post was derived from my recent speaking engagement at Click Z’s Specific: Email Marketing conference in NYC. I gave a talk titled “Cutting Through the Clutter Creatively” which focused on why marketers should be strategic when considering the creative variables that make up their email marketing campaigns.

More than ever the inbox is a challenging place to capture the attention of your recipients. Some of the stats that I referenced at my talk include the Nielsen Norman research whichs states that the average recipient of marketing or promotional email has an attention span of your email of five seconds or less. And those monthly newsletters we all work so hard on producing typically only capture the attention of users for 40-50 seconds max. This information reinforces the fact that creative elements can sometimes make or break your email marketing efforts.

The key creative variables in email that marketers must embrace are the following:

From: Build the trust of your recipients by making your identity obvious. Be consistent with your From line, make sure its branded with your company name or an individual from your organization.

Subject Line: Jupiter Research found that 35% of email users open email based on what is contained within the subject line. Be sure to include your company name or brand name within the subject line, as recent research shows this can have a dramatic effect on open rates.

Copy: Personalized, targeted and relevant are three words that should define the copy in your email marketing campaigns. Write clear and concise copy, putting your main message and identifiers above the fold, and make sure you use fonts and a font size that makes reading your email easy on the eye.

Imagery: Always include your company logo at the top right or somewhere on the header. This helps with establishing the brand recognition. Always have your audience in mind and use relevant imagery that is targeted towards your recipent and tailored around your message. Be sure to hyperlink all imagery to your main call to action.

Call to Action: Place your key call to action above the fold as often as possible. During your testing phase, conduct your own internal “5 second test” to a small group of individuals to make sure your call to action is clear and to the point.

During my talk I also mentioned the importance of keeping your landing page consistent with your email creative. If you do manage to get a recipient to open and then act on your email, don’t lead them astray. Targeted landing pages with consistent creative elements can go a long way in increasing your conversion rate.

Finally, we all know that one of the best attributes of the email medium is that its easy to test and tweak your initiative. Every audience is different, so learn as much as you can about your list of recipients by testing a variety of creative elements before drawing any hard conclusions on what works and what doesn’t.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of my power point presentation from Click Z Specifics, feel free to email me at greg [at] blueskyfactory [dot] com.

Happy emailing!

Here is a great article from ClickZ that outlines the rather complex chain of email deliverability. For anyone who has ever wanted to know all of the various steps involved in getting a message to a users inbox, this covers all of the steps. Check it out.

“Years ago, the e-mail delivery chain had just a few links. You loaded your e-mail and hit “send.” After a couple handoffs, the message arrived in your recipient’s inbox the way you sent it.

Today, that chain has many more links. Some block your e-mail, others help it along. Deliverability has become a big issue for many e-mail senders. It even spawned this column.”

Karen Gedney wrote a great piece for ClickZ this week on what it takes to be a good email copywriter. Here are some of the key considerations as it relates to effective email marketing and what it takes to get people to act:

- Funnel Your Creativity Into the Subject Line
- Know Your Template
- Activate the Impulse to Buy
- Divide & Conquer
- Email Assignments Are Like Mini Masterpieces

Check out the full article here.