All posts in ‘Communication’
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Not only Amazon (which I told you about in my last post) but also Ebay uses my web history. They send emails with a list where they specify what I looked at last time and they ask me if I’m still interested in these articles.
In this case I had checked out a keyboard to my MacBook.
An interesting detail is that their emails are dynamically built. In the encircled area in the email above the products change every time I close and open the email – the same email, mind you. It’s not very common to see dynamical content in an email, especially where it’s used in such an intelligent way. Ebay really uses this cleverly. The disadvantage here is – I have to say – that everything is laid out as big pictures.
Ebay’s individually adjusted emails get three hearts out of five from me.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Have you ever experienced going to your local shop to buy butter – and returning home with everything except butter? I do that all the time. My head is full of thoughts, mostly thoughts about my job – seldom about butter.
That’s why I buy a lot of small things like screw drivers, for example, in web shops. It’s so easy to visit Amazon and click on the buy button as soon as I remember I need a screw driver. If I don’t do that I keep forgetting and what is broken remains broken for months.
Sometimes I even forget about the screw driver I’m about to click on if the phone rings or I get an important email. Anyhow, I shop a lot from Amazon.
When the above did happen, one day passed and an email from Amazon landed in my inbox. That screw driver I checked out, but forgot about, is the very first thing they offer!
I had had problems with finding good pens for some time, so I remember that I took the opportunity to search for pens at the same time. And yes, next time I visited Amazon there was a new offer: ”A livescribe echo Smartpen”!
There are many reasons why Amazon is a successful company. Do you by any chance believe that individually adjusted e-commerce is one of them?
Amazon ”remembered” what I was interested in last time I visited, they know how I want to pay and in what way I want my goods delivered. One click for one buy is everything they ask from me when I have put an article in my cart. And if I don’t click on the buy button, they remind me in their next email.
Listen and learn, e-retailers!
The individually adjusted emails from Amazon get four hearts!
Monday, 11 July 2011
I’ve so many times had to copy a link to an article or a funny clip in order to send it to a friend. I usually don’t want to show everybody everything I read or see and sometimes I will make sure that some special friend really reads my tip.
Facebook has – of course – understood this. I’d like to show you what me and Christopher discovered some time ago. We were reading this page and noticed a little blue send button:
Can you see the ”Send”-button between ”Like” and ”Tweet”? When you click on that button you can email a particular person – or several ones. Also you can mail a group on Facebook, something I will use a lot.
So, how does it look when it reaches the recipient? Well, take a look!
The fact is that you get a higher completion rate when you tip a specific friend than when you tip all your friends on Facebook. So use this refinement with finesse and check out the possibilities it offers. This is absolutely something you should add.
And yes – this is definitely something that offers enormous possibilities of marketing. But don’t forget: What you are able to do and what you should do is not the same in this case.
Friday, 8 July 2011
Social media is the king of sharing. Email just can’t compete in this battle. But, email does give you a higher completion rate. You can read more about this in a previous post by me here.
So, let your customers tell their friends about the products they like by using emails and social media. There are quite a few things we can improve concerning these ”tell-a-friend-mails”. For example:
- Design the letters in HTML, not just in a text format. Then the customer gets a much nicer letter in his/her inbox and gets to know your graphic design at the same time as you get statistics of what this person clicks on – and if he/she opens the letter at all.
- When someone tips a friend it’s much easier for you to acquire a relation to this ”friend”. You’ve been recommended, haven’t you? So, ask your customers to follow you on Twitter, Facebook or via email.
- Offer something that makes them want to follow you. And don’t forget the one who delivered the tip! A win-win situation!
I haven’t really found a perfect example, but I would like to show you this newsletter from Asos. I clicked on a product that I wanted to ”show” myself. This is how it looked:
They give the tipped person an opportunity to write a message of his/her own. So I click on ”Submit”.
This way of tipping your friends is very convenient and I also like the possibility of emailing another friend – although I think it would be a good idea to give the customer this opportunity earlier. It might be a little confusing to be asked to email a friend here. But it’s good that they make it possible for me to return to the product page to shop more or to tip about another product. Too many times I’ve experienced that the shop is closed down after this step.
What can I say about the email? It’s a good thing that they put my name first in the subject line or in the title of the email. The recipient probably recognizes my name, which will make him/her more willing to open it. The sender’s name tellafriend@asos.com also tells the recipient what it’s all about.
Unfortunately the letter is pretty boring with a text link. I’d preferred that a picture of the product was shown and that the letter had been a little hotter when it comes to design. And they don’t do anything in order to create a relation: no link to Facebook, or to Twitter, or a possibility for me to register for their newsletter. I might like to follow them … A good thing though is that they make it easy for me to get in touch with the customer service.
Now when you look at this – don’t you get a few bright ideas about how it could be done? Social media is the thing, so do something about it now! Good luck and send me an email if you make something new of your site. And tell me all about your thoughts!
Sarah@@@@@
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
I’ve always stressed that welcoming emails have to be extremely well thought out. The first impression is indeed an important one, but if it’s not a good impression, it will be the last impression. We don’t want our customers questioning why they ever signed up for that email in their inbox.
Let’s take a look at what happens when I first register for Innocents newsletter. Carefree, happy words of joy are sprinkled throughout this lovely welcome – assisting my mind in forgetting the fact that I’m sharing all kinds of personal information with them, including my preferred flavor of chewing gum. I smiled and told them what they wanted to know.
I also chose how often I wanted the newsletter. Have a look for yourself below:
Here’s something else to digest, saying “thank you”. It’s a lot better than: “You are now a subscriber to our newsletter.” Or even worse: “You’ve now been added to our list of subscribers.” As a customer, I don’t want to hear that I’ve just been “added” to a “list of subscribers”. I want to feel like an individual.
Facebook, Twitter, and blog integration are always major brownie points.
Nice work, Innocent! When you start offering spirulina juice I’ll become your most faithful customer!
Sarah@@@@@
