Our love for email, our thoughts on it as the amazing channel it is - if only used right.
Sarah and Christopher
Sunday, 20 March 2011
I like this email from Google, it’s very transparent. It’s always nice to know what’s happening behind the scenes. Frankly, I had no idea my phone was relaying my exact location in the background – and I must say, I’m a little surprised at how exact it really is. I wonder how many of us are wandering around right now, oblivious to how much of a blabbermouth our cell phone is..
Friday, 11 March 2011
Today has been crazy. Having zero time to eat, I decided to run down to the sushi place on the corner. Trying to be efficient, I had a look at their website to check out the menu while making a call. To my surprise, my little sushi shop believes in email!
The possibility of a free meal every week is yours… if you just sign up for their newsletter. Pretty easy, right? (Google Translate if you’re not a believer)
They get it – you have to give your subscribers something worth something. It’s a privilege to get an email address, and they repay that privilege. The question now is: Why can’t the bigger companies get this?
Off to get my free Yakiniku now!
Not really… But it could have been!
Sarah@@@@@
Monday, 10 January 2011
I’m tired of talking about whether or not email is still king, that is to say, king of all other channels. Will Twitter completely take over the world? Or will Facebook rule as Caesar and be the only thing you should bother investing any time in?
Does a carpenter love and cherish solely his hammer? Is it the only useful tool he has in his little toolbox? No. It’s the same for all the email and social media advocates. We have to put some energy into trying to understand how email combined with social media and other channels can climb new mountains.
So you know that I’m not lying, I’ll illustrate what I’m trying to say. Look at the cool figures below. Nilsson E-Handel pointed this out a while ago through a survey from eMarketer.
The fact is – and this is indeed a fact – whether email suppliers want to deny it or not, very soon other social networks, other than email, will become as popular as email when it comes to sharing stuff with your friends. If you ask me, I’d say that Twitter and Facebook will probably pass emailing in the very near future. To share with Twitter or Facebook is now just a click away. One single click, and you tip off as many people as you have friends.
Interestingly, there are more people ”listening” to tips and posts via Twitter and Facebook than there are to email. What I mean is that, more people click on the links with social media than they do via an email. Which makes sense though, Facebook and Twitter are public, exposed to however many friends you have. Quite logical.
Nilsson also points out figures showing that email is still an extremely effective channel by saying: “Investigations show that users that entered through an email had a higher completion ratio and they spent more time on the target site than those who entered via social media. So good ol’ email is still the best when it comes to sharing.”
Any great carpenter knows when, where and how to use his tools. So, you email social media marketing carpenters out there need to learn how, when and where to use all of the channels. To reach the majority of our customers, we need to behave like our carpenter, knowing when and how to use all of the channels in the right moment and place. Email in itself is not the best, but marrying it with Facebook, Twitter etc., you create a powerful monster.
Sarah@@@@@
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
I just have to show you this. I found it at Campaign Monitor and I couldn’t resist, I had to go and sign up for their newsletter.
“Iceland Wants To Be Your Friend” is the name of the website. As you’ve probably figured out by now, the purpose of the website is to get people more interested in this curious little island in the north – and to visit.
They have a pretty stripped down and textual design that they coat the website, blog, Facebook and all the rest with, have a look:
This is their Facebook Page, look at all that courier:
Unmistakably well thought out. And the same goes for their welcoming process for new subscribers via email.
On their blog under the “People” and “Places” tab they have a very obvious box to the right explaining how Iceland wants to be my friend. They ask for three things: name, email, and where in the world (literally) I live.
When I signed up, I got this:
So far, there isn’t the slightest slip in humor. It’s all been in the same funny uniform. “Iceland” then makes an appeal that you can’t refuse, that is to help ”him” find new friends. And they make the process pretty easy.
So, how does their welcome email look?
In the same entertaining and personified way, they talk about their little island in the middle of the ocean. They also explain that they won’t be that clingy and irritating newsletter buddy that invites themselves into your inbox all the time… without bringing anything. And of course, they joke about the volcano that messed up Europe’s airlines in the spring of 2010.
This whole idea, is very unique. It makes Iceland the friend you never had. You now want to visit it, call it, and post on its Facebook wall. And I like how they sprawl out the different ways you can interact and discover them. But of course this is two sided tape, the other side is they want to keep in touch with me.
A nice example to say the least. I’ve actually been to Iceland – and I wasn’t that impressed. But after this, I think I’ll give them another chance.
You can see the whole thing here.
Sarah@@@@@
Sunday, 21 November 2010
I’m not sure if you know or not, but we have an “I Love Email” Facebook page now. And if you haven’t been there yet, you should go there right now, it will change your life. While you’re there (which I know you are), look to the right of the Facebook page, you’ll see “Email Gallery on Facebook” link. Since we use MailChimp for sending our newsletter, we can use their application on Facebook to get more people to subscribe to our newsletter via Facebook. How?
After some genius tinkering on Christopher’s part, we now have this great “Email Signup” tab on our Facebook page… Look!
When you click the tab to sign up for this life changing newsletter, this is what happens:
Pretty awesome? Yep. Did I get a confirmation email?
Immediately, my lovelies, this email checks into my inbox!
There’s one more project for us. Here goes… So if you have a Facebook page for your company, you should be able to add this “Email Signup” tab on your private Facebook account too. This means that all of your friends can sign up for the newsletter on your personal profile page too. Think about it, all of your employees with this on their page, and all of their friends looking at it. Imagine how many subscribers they could rally up. Unfortunately, Facebook, a little over a week ago, made a change so that you can add the function on our private pages, but….the tab doesn’t show up… Yet.
We’ll keep our eyes peeled and let you know when Facebook fixes this.
If you want to read more from MailChimp about this, there’s a blog post here. A simple solution that could make it much more useful. Any of you lovely readers seen anything similar to this from another email provider? Don’t be shy, let us know in the comments!
Sarah@@@@@
