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 usehis 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 ofthe 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.
Everyone’s always asking about buying email addresses. It’s just a couple of thousand? That’s all right, right? After all, there are plenty of companies here in Sweden, and the rest of the globe selling addresses, so what’s the problem?
Most email suppliers point out very explicitly in their user agreement, that purchased email addresses, or addresses obtained in some other creepy and obscure way, are NOT allowed on the email lists. Principally because it looks good on their part. But the point is, they’re out there, these addresses are floating around in cyberspace, and email suppliers aren’t incognizant of this. Many email suppliers solve this little mini problem by sending to these suspected email lists from lower priority IP addresses. They send from sources where they know that they, in the worst case scenario, might run into a few unsavory bumps: being blacklisted at the receiving servers. Am I saying that everybody does this? No, but it happens.
It’s irresponsible, and no one is the winner in the long run – well, except for the companies that sell the addresses.
Put your 20/20 business glasses on and work for the far sighted end. Create great, quality email lists. Doing this will give you excellent results, and more possibilities in the long run. The e-commerce world of tomorrow will without a doubt… demand this.
It’s not just about the internet, email has a prominent spot in this video too… but I just don’t get how some people out there can say that email is dead.
Ahh, Etsy, you know…you truly are dear to me. How I browse the myriads of handmade trinkets and organics to the wee hours of the night. Distracting myself with the countless pages of Apple protective apparatus. I then hand over my precious currency across the information highway, into your many users’ hands.
Aside from the nerd poetry written above, it would be accurate to say that Etsy is an exciting new world. If you don’t know what Etsy is, take a peek at their website. It’s basically a buffet of handmade everything. But if you’re an Etsy regular, and get their newsletter, this will be familiar.
Etsy’s newsletter is… nice. I actually really like it. I’ve been signed up for a while now, and I’ve seen it go through quite a few changes. But let’s talk about how it is now.
There are three great things Etsy does that I want to point out.
1: Themes. All of their newsletters have themes. Have a peek:
I like the themes because of this: It helps me decide if I want to set aside time to look at it or not. I’ll be honest, the “Farm Fresh” newsletter… didn’t read it. But “Man Cave”? Read it. They have an “Etsy” newsletter, and then they have “Etsy Dudes”, which of course is for us closet Etsy zealots who happen to be men.
I think this is good because it creates focus. With themes, we know beforehand what we’re about to look at. Etsy comes out victorious with keeping their focus, and this is throughout the whole “Etsy experience”.
2: Sharing. Sharing the Etsy love on Facebook and Twitter etc.. Feast your eyes below:
They have some pretty hefty icons at the bottom for Facebook, Twitter and email. I’m a firm believer in picture tiles and icons, text is so boring, and people don’t want to shuffle their eyes through lines and lines of text and links. Etsy has a good grasp on icons and picture tiles, they use them a lot.
3: They have the support from all the Etsy employees. Look hard:
This one by far is the most powerful. It reminds me of this article. Etsy has different employees collect their favorite items throughout the website, and then they compile them in a newsletter. They used to have a picture and the name of the person who picked the items (here’s the old one), now it’s just the name of the person which doubles as a link attached to the employees website bio/profile. This creates enthusiasm from within the company, which filters to the reader and creates a personal attachment with the Etsy employees and the reader. This is brilliant – everyone at Etsy is involved this way. The employees who pick, no longer just work there, they contribute their opinion. They see their picks being sent to thousands of inboxes. Would that make you feel valued at your job? What about enthusiastic? Yes sir, I think so. But Etsy? How about the pictures of the “pickers” again?
It’s not all rainbows and butterflies though. Three things I would like to see change, or rethought.
1: The newsletter literally comes almost every day. Can we do something about that? It used to come once a week or so. That was good. But now with everyday, you lose a lot of that anticipation factor. You gain the “Oh, didn’t I just get one?” factor. Honestly, I don’t read them anymore. Before, I got excited about reading them. Now? Not so much. Etsy? This has to change.
2: Signing up for the newsletter should be more obvious. Try to find the sign up link in the picture below. The average person doesn’t think about newsletters, and they don’t know that they want them. So to assume your average person will find the newsletter without it being obvious… is silly. I actually had to hunt around for the newsletter button. And if I have to hunt for it, how will the average person find it? I want a huge button on the front page.
3: Clutter. The newsletter is cluttered. It hasn’t always been though. Now it’s a series of picture tiles in different sizes, with other themes within the already themed newsletter. There’s just too much happening on the page, too much to see, too much to focus on, too much to be interested in. One theme is perfect, if people want to see more categories of items, they can go to the website. Put it on a diet.
Etsy has a nice newsletter, one you’d expect from a handmade products website. Their newsletter is obviously going through some change, it’s changed many times in the last year. They seem to be exploring and trying to find their nesting area. However, I hope they don’t lay down to rest where they are now. I’ll keep you updated on the whirlwind world of Etsy. There is more to be said on Etsy.
I had an excellent meeting in Copenhagen last Friday in October. Responsys has had an office in the center of Copenhagen since August, and I had the privilege of visiting them.
Responsys was rated as one of the best email tools out there in this study by Forrester Wave.
I’m pretty excited to hear about this, because they really have a wide spectrum, they look at it from the big picture, it’s not just about email for them. Email marketing together with mobile, social media, and the web can do some pretty powerful things together. Responsys has a way of working, or a method, that has awesome results in just six months. Basically, Responsys wants their customers to see them as being practical, and they also want to reach a pretty advanced level of “customer-unique” communication. All of this in six months!
With their system, you get an excellent overview of all of your customers and potential target groups. This means that you can focus on…well, just about everyone individually.
Online retailers or marketers want to know when I click on something in their newsletters. They want to know when I’m surfing their website and when I tell friends and colleagues about their company online. They want my email address, mobile number, and they want to be part of my “social networking world”. This is pretty obvious. But, the tricky part for a company is knowing which avenue or channel I like to use and which is the most useful way to interact with me. Also, when does my behavior change and what does it change to? This is what Responsys focuses on, helping customers with much more than just email.
I haven’t seen the tool yet, but when you meet someone who works with this and in a matter of minutes they explain how to revive an abandoned shopping basket, how to wake up sleeping recipients, and how to connect Twitter with email…doing it basically automatically – you know it’s good.
Too good to be true? I hope they get to join us at our Bootcamp in Åre, Sweden, and I really hope to work with them at the eCommerce Summit in Stockholm in May, 2011. Check them out with us! Responsys? Yes please.
Thanks Martin for an inspiring meeting and a fantastic Danish lunch!
