3 Trends Among Best-of-Breed E-mails
August 12, 2009 By Ethan Boldt, Editor-in-chief, Inside Direct Mail
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More value, more effectiveness. That is what companies expect from the e-mail channel today, but many are not yet maximizing the potential of e-mail's effect on CRM, according to the recent whitepaper Email Breakthrough Report from StrongMail Systems, a marketing and transactional e-mail solution provider.
To illustrate how innovative e-mail can be, StrongMail chose five campaigns that leverage the full power of this channel by either using communication strategies or technical features that helped them stand out. Here are three trends that were noticed among these campaigns:
1. Bringing Social Media on Board
In a June 2009 survey of 511 marketers by StrongMail/Zoomerang, social media was found to be emerging as a direct marketing channel—36 percent of respondents claimed that social media is owned by the direct marketing department in their organizations. Among e-mail marketers, 66 percent plan to integrate the two channels in 2009, and 48 percent already have developed strategies for achieving this initiative.
2. Integrating Video
Web 2.0 video is huge on the Internet, so some e-mail efforts show simple screen captures of videos to get people to click through to their sites. Hot, new technologies from Liveclicker and Goodmail now offer the illusion of video playing in an e-mail or even the streaming of live video into e-mail in AOL inboxes.
3. The Image/Text Balancing Act
Images don't automatically render within all e-mail software, but StrongMail finds nearly every test shows images outperforming plain text and driving better response. All five e-mail campaigns it chose use a balance of images and text, so the effectiveness of the effort remains intact when images are suppressed.
To illustrate how innovative e-mail can be, StrongMail chose five campaigns that leverage the full power of this channel by either using communication strategies or technical features that helped them stand out. Here are three trends that were noticed among these campaigns:
1. Bringing Social Media on Board
In a June 2009 survey of 511 marketers by StrongMail/Zoomerang, social media was found to be emerging as a direct marketing channel—36 percent of respondents claimed that social media is owned by the direct marketing department in their organizations. Among e-mail marketers, 66 percent plan to integrate the two channels in 2009, and 48 percent already have developed strategies for achieving this initiative.
2. Integrating Video
Web 2.0 video is huge on the Internet, so some e-mail efforts show simple screen captures of videos to get people to click through to their sites. Hot, new technologies from Liveclicker and Goodmail now offer the illusion of video playing in an e-mail or even the streaming of live video into e-mail in AOL inboxes.
3. The Image/Text Balancing Act
Images don't automatically render within all e-mail software, but StrongMail finds nearly every test shows images outperforming plain text and driving better response. All five e-mail campaigns it chose use a balance of images and text, so the effectiveness of the effort remains intact when images are suppressed.
Companies Mentioned:
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Social Media ROI
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