Does your recipient data go the distance?

The Hunt
It's been several years since email marketers combined the power of email with product lifecycle messaging. It's a perfect fit for makers of electronic goods and computer peripherals. I gladly register my products with the brand website and review email offers that help me improve my experience or provide me with special deals to compliment whatever device that I have attached to my computer. The fact that I get a notification from my HP printer to let me know that my magenta ink cartridge is running dry makes me giddy. Supporting promotional emails; however, need to be keyed off of data or information you know about me and the products that I've purchased. If your data doesn't go the distance, neither will your offer.

The Skunk
My little trusty "all-in-one" HP printer, fax, scanner gets a pretty good workout in my home office and for the most part, the emails that HP send regarding the device that I registered with them are very relevant to me and my needs. The email that I received today is not so much a “skunk,” but rather a “you should have done a bit more homework with this special offer.” The promotion arrived with a subject line stating $50 Cash Back - Trade In Your Old Laser Printer Today. This is all fine and good but I've never owned a laser printer and my 3-year old printer is working great!


The Resolution
So there are a few things I would have considered if I was on the sending end of this message. First, does the recipient currently own one of our products, and, in this case, is it a laser printer that is old and may need replaced? Depending on the product, a lifecycle-type message promoting an upgrade or replacement after a year or so may not be a bad idea.

Second, be careful with making an offer that hinges exclusively on the recipient meeting criteria that you can't confirm (or didn't take time to confirm.) If I don't have an old laser printer lying around my office, there is not much I can do with this offer. This email did contain other links to items that would be of interest but the main call-to-action is not applicable to me.

Last but not least, use your data regarding your recipient/user to determine if the offer is applicable or at least tailor the offer so that it will not exclude the recipient if they don't meet the necessary criteria to be able to participate. I'm a self proclaimed gadget freak and am not opposed to the idea of upgrading to a new printer but I can't do anything with this offer. It's a little like inviting a friend over for dinner when you know they are going to be of town.

Over Two Dozen Emails for Mother's Day.

The Hunt
As marketers we all understand the concept of reaching your email recipients at the right time and with the right messages (well the good ones that is.) Knowing just how many messages you should be sending to get your promotion in front of your recipients before they start tagging your message as SPAM is not so much science or art as it is common sense. In advance of Mother's Day this past weekend, a very well known online retailer, FTD.com and their partners, slammed my inbox with countless offers delivered in a multitude of formats.

The Skunk
Beginning May 1st, I received 26 email communications from FTD.com and their sending partners. Now not all were from the official FTD.com website, at least 50% came from other sending partners that perhaps have some sort of affiliate relationship with this brand. Being part of the email marketing world, I realized that FTD.com wasn't responsible for the full spectrum of floral offerings delivered but for the every-day consumer, when the sending name contains FTD they are going to assume that the message is coming from the brand itself.

At first I just started deleting the messages but after I had received 8 messages before May 5, and with 5 more days to go before Mother's Day, I thought I would keep track of the total - just for giggles. Boy was I amazed at the volume that was sent before the big day. I wonder what damage was done as far as recipients unsubscribing both from the actual FTD.com emails and that of their partners.

The Resolution
Remember that increasing frequency can sometimes mean more sales however; you run a greater risk with damaging your sending reputation if the recipients start tagging your emails as spam or fail to open your communications. ISPs look at both of these metrics when determining what type of marketer you are and how deserving your messages are for their customer's inbox, bulk folder or worse - not delivered at all. It is not uncommon for an ISP to take delivery of your messages and simply not forward along to the recipient if their classification processes deem your message as unsolicited...that's just the way it is.

Your reputation with the ISPs aside, the rapid-fire email approach to message frequency will damage more than your ability to get your message into your customer's inbox. Once you harm the perception of your brand by over communicating, it doesn't really matter what you send at a later date, your brand can be tarnished and future emails simply not read.

You should also be very aware of the sending frequency of your affiliates and partners - especially when they may be using a "from name" that is similar to your official brand "from name." Remember the customer will most likely not realize that FTD.com and FTD Special Offer is not coming from the same sender.

If you don't know what and when your partners are sending, you need to start tracking them. Your well thought out email strategy can quickly be derailed if your recipient's inbox is flooded with similar and multiple offers that appear to be from you. I suggest that you learn more about tracking your competition with a product from Email Data Source called Alerts. You can even sign-up for one free Alert (no strings attached) to help you track messages that your affiliates or partners may be sending. This is also a good way to see if anyone is spoofing your "from name" and sending unauthorized messages.

Don't forget to check your ALT tags!

The Hunt
As email marketers, we should ALL be designing our communications with the assumption that our messages will be delivered with the default rendering "images off." Most email clients, unless the recipient has added you to their "safe sender" list will be delivered without the images "on." One way to get your communications viewed in their full HTML glory is to ensure that your image ALT tags are coded correctly and have a few words that reinforce what the image represents within your message. This is very critical if your call-to-action is an image however; using text/image based call-to-action is not something we would recommend.

The Skunk
While triaging a slew of personal emails via my Blackberry device the other day, I happened across an email from one of my favorite retailers - Molton Brown London. They produce a line of luxury soaps, candles, shave creams, colognes, makeup and such. Molton Brown has a global presence and I know that they send emails to both recipients in the UK and US markets (and other global markets I assume.) As I was scrolling through their message on my Blackberry, the first thing that caught my eye was that the ALT tag for their call-to-action listed was a UK based "free-phone" number (aka "toll-free number") instead of the normal 800 number for the US.

The odd ALT tag prompted me to save this message and review on my laptop. I had added their sending email address to my address book many months ago so the only way I would have noticed this is reviewing on my Blackberry. For Molton Brown’s email recipients that have not added their sending address to their personal white list, the message as it was delivered looked very different than the fully rendered HTML. Looking at the message further with images off, there were a few other HTML programming best practices that they need to apply to ensure that their messages are being opened by their recipients. Take a look at the message below with images on and off.


The Resolution
Let’s start with the image ALT tags. Of the 13 images contained within the message, only 3 were tagged with image ALT tags. As we all know, an ALT tag serves as a little description of what the image contains. In this case, 2 of the call-to-action images that were suppressed in the header and footer contained what should have been US based toll-free number to order via phone. During the QA process, they most likely forgot to switch out the ALT tag to the appropriate number. With images off, not only did the recipient not see the supporting product images, they don’t get the correct number to call to place an order. This could lead many recipients to think, "this message was not intended for me."

The remaining ALT tags were not populated with anything and leaves the recipient guessing as to what the big empty image boxes should be displaying. Except for a brief introductory paragraph in the top of the message, the call-to-action is virtually lost.

One other item of concern is the use of white fonts over a dark background color. Although some consider aesthetically pleasing, if these background colors are suppressed within the massage (as they could be in several email browsers) any critical information contained in these copy blocks will simple not appear on the screen. For this message, the housekeeping notes at the top of the message that invite the user to click if they don’t see the full message as well as white listing information do not show up. Other important links as well as terms and conditions are formatted in a white font over dark background in the footer of the message as well. These critical links, although there, do not render when the background color is suppressed. This is particularly important when the recipient cannot see the link to unsubscribe.

The moral of the story is, make sure that you are testing each version of your message and looking at your ALT tags. Programming/testing only once for one segment will limit the effectiveness for other segments if they are getting the wrong information. Use image based text call-to-actions sparingly and be sure that these are not the only call-to-actions within the message. Don’t forget to tag ALL of your image ALT tags, the recipient will use these to help determine if they want to interact with the message. Last but not least, if you are using a colored background, don’t forget that whenever these background colors are stripped out, using a white or light font will either result in no text rendering or text that is impossible to read.

Simple mistakes can lead to big problems when your message is delivered to your recipient's inbox. Put together a QA check list that covers all aspects of message testing and religiously complete these testing procedures for each and every message that you send.