Archive for: November 2011

Atos banning internal email for 74,000 employees

Nov. 30 Email Marketing News 4 comments

French tech firm Atos has started to implement a new policy where its 70,000+ employees will not send and receive any internal email anymore. CEO Thierry Breton notes that only 10% of the 200 messages employee get in their inbox every day are are useful: about 18% is spam.

The plan is to move from email to alternative ways of communicating internally within 18 months from now. Apparently Atos has already reduced the amount of email by 20 percent in six months, but now the goal has been set to quit email completely.

Back in February the policy was already announced, but the time has come that the implementation is taking effect. Alternatives to email for internal communications will include Atos Wiki, which gives employees the tools to communicate by contributing or modifying online content (sounds a bit like Google Wave) and Office Communicator. That last platform is the company’s online chat system which supports video conferencing and file/app sharing.

According to a spokesperson employee response has been positive and they are already digging into the new tools for internal communication.

In the end, employees will still have an email client for outside communications so email will still be part of the channels available: however new channels/platforms will have to be used for internal communication.

It is not clear whether Atos has proposed rigorous rules on internal email to stem the tide at first: 200 emails a day seems a bit much, especially if only 10% is useful. For internal communications email should be fine, as long as it’s used correctly. This last bit goes for all communications tools, so I wish them good luck in using Atos Wiki and Office Communicator as alternatives.

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Cutting edge technology vs tried practices

Nov. 28 Email Marketing Comments Off

As you may have noticed I try to give some coverage on new technology and techniques in email marketing on a regular basis. Just recently the interview with Movable Ink for instance. Also the growing support for html5 by email clients is something covered regularly.

However, don’t be blinded by everything that is shiny and new. We humans have gotten into the habit of embracing all the next best things, regardless of whether they really are ‘ best’. It is driven in part by the frantic tempo of developments in the tech world, but also the consumerism fueled by the retail industry.

What I’m getting at is that all these new developments are nice, but people focussing on the new stuff sometimes neglect the tried and basic practices in email marketing. Just recently I saw a great example of a not so great welcome email, posted by Loren McDonald on Google+.

The contents of the email were just this: “Newsletter subscription success” – and that was the subject line as well. A huge opportunity lost to welcome a new subscriber properly. A welcome campaign should be part of one’s basic email marketing skills – be sure to check yours.

If you don’t have your basics right, don’t pick up that new and shiny email marketing technology just yet, regardless of how cool it is. Those basics are much more important than doing funky stuff with html5 in email or streaming live content.

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Top ten email subject lines for 2012

Nov. 22 Email Marketing 4 comments

Long Island, Whitsunday Islands, Australia

Yes, everyone’s busy with the holidays – Santa is knocking, right? And it isn’t even December, yet.

However, you as an email marketing veteran have already thought out, planned and executed all your holiday campaigns way back in July, when the temps were high and the barbecues were hot all the time. This means you will have time in December to think of your 2012 email marketing plan: we only have just over a year left, right?

Without furter ado, here’s my top ten email subject lines for 2012. To be taken with a grain of salt, of course: but based on experience, trends and gut feeling. Oh and spam filters, of course. Got to love those spam filters…

10. We’re sorry about our mistake: let us make it up to you.

9. We have news, you want small talk for the watercooler

8. Summer Sale – Two for one on everything over $50.

7. 10,000 people can’t be wrong: our service rocks your socks off!

8. Our new website is live! Give your opinion and get cool stuff

6. Only a few left: order now before you miss out!

5. Webinar event reminder – Register now

4. We know where you live, therefor free shipping on everything!

3. Palm trees, white beaches and waving crabs: book a trip to Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Islands

2. We’ll let you in on this secret, this time

And the number one subject line for 2012:

1. Win an iPad 3, 100% guaranteed for free!

 

Now some of these might seem odd, but many of them play on the human pysche a lot. Scarcity (6), urgency (5) and apology (10) are well known ways to play a person’s emotions. There might be some creepiness in 4, but then again, why not put it to good use and add a little humor? 7 is about peer pressure: your most fave variant of that one would be ‘all your friends already use it, why are you still in the dark?’. 2 is about secrecy, 8 about ‘can’t miss’ options. 3 plays with people’s wants: everyone wants to get out of the daily grind and relax, right?

I chose the number one subject line because it will win even though it’s not the most creative one – simply because like with the 1 and 2, everyone will want one. If it won’t cost you anything, why not open the email? At worst you could win an iPad 3, right? If anyone uses number one in 2012, let me know how it has performed :)

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Facebook hires MailRank team, Messages services getting update

Nov. 18 Email Clients Comments Off

In a blog post on their website the MailRank team notes that they have been hired by Facebook effective this December. Remember Project Titan? Eventually it was launched as the new Facebook Messages in November last year. In the meantime things have been awfully quiet around the service – not to mention the very small amount of people diggin a @facebook.com email address.

MailRank is a small team dedicated to getting your email priorities right without technical fuzz, helping email users keeping a lid on their email volume. In the blog post, MailRank is not getting into details what they exactly will be working on, but with their email prioritizing experience chances are big that they will give the Facebook Messages service a push in the right direction.

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Email winner: Special mobile email webshop promo by dELiA*s

Nov. 17 Email Marketing Design 1 comment

When you want to keep in touch with your audience, you have to make sure you are seen on the right platforms. Girl/Teen clothing webshop dELiA*s certainly understands this: they have dedicated a complete focus on mobile email to promote their new smartphone optimized webshop:

Recognizing where your audience is, is one thing: but acting upon it and promoting the new webshop solely for mobile is another. Over time dELiA*s has probably seen a steady growth in mobile visits, but maybe not in conversion. Even though they have an e-catalog app available, having the full webshop functionality available is one step further. This goes to show that apps aren’t everything: they can be nice and definitely fulfill a purpose, however a dedicated mobile website/shop can mean that much more.

Slight mishap in this email is the sub-headine: “…from any iPhone, Android, HTC, or any other Smart phone”. I guess the marketing department responsible for this email doesn’t know iPhone is a product, Android is a platform and HTC is a brand..but that’s slightly besides the point :)

I believe it takes courage and getting priorities right to go all the way with a mobile site: it just goes to show that the future of online commerce is on mobile platforms, not on classic desktops.

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