Tag: twitter

Twitter reactivation campaign: they missed me!

Jan. 11 Email Marketing, Social media Comments Off

I have several Twitter accounts, and a reactivation campaign has been triggered for one if the accounts: I received an email that I’ve been missed on Twitter and that I should build a timeline to enjoy the service.

Here’s the email I received as part of the reactivation campaign:

twitter_reactivation_campaign

The account concerned has been inactive for several months (this includes both logging in on Twitter.com as well as tweeting, regardless of client to post the tweet), so it’s not such an odd thing the reactivation campaign kicked into gear.

The way Twitter goes about it is quite simple actually, yet thought through: why does someone not log into or use Twitter for a while? Answer: because they’re not ‘hooked’ on it, there’s not enough in it for that person to keep them coming back regularly. Therefor they promote following more Twitter accounts (building a timeline that reflects me and my interests).

Next to that, they have some helpful links at the bottom. Because when you’ve been out of the loop for a while, you could have forgotten your password. Also, you might need help or tune the notifications settings.

All in all, it’s a decent campaign: another reactivation campaign in the same style is one where Twitter advises some accounts to follow based on who you already follow on Twitter. This one however is only sent out when you have been inactive for quite a while.

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Twitter introduces email from timeline option on twitter.com

Nov. 19 Social media Comments Off

Twitter has introduced the option to share messages via email last week: this option will be available directly from the timeline on twitter.com.

The way it works is to click on the more option below a tweet where you can also find the reply and retweet options: when you click email a popup will open that allows you to fill in one or more email addresses and a subject line.

Twitter introduces sharing to email from timeline

The option will be rolled out to all user in the following weeks.

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Email marketing with Twitter: Profiles feature product marketing

Sep. 27 Email Marketing Comments Off

Recently Twitter introduced the new profiles feature. It allows you to put in a profile picture (much like Facebook’s cover photo) and show your most recently shared photos. Twitter pushed out an email marketing product promo message, but it left me with more questions than answers.

Here’s the full message. Subject line: “Because you have more to show” – how cryptic can you get?

email_marketing_twitter_profiles

Let’s see what they got right, and what they got wrong:

- The subject line: doesn’t tell me anything about the content. Booh – a teaser is fine, but with a product update?
- Personalization: ok, nothing special.
- Product content: just saying I can put in a header image, browse my photo reel and see other people’s profiles.
- Call to action: a ‘Try it now’  button.
- Support, service pages: pass reset, unsub, prefs and help. Good. Also ‘not my account’.
- Reply address: n-esoretfzn=tznvy.pbz-92f72@postmaster.twitter.com  - really, I’m not making that up. Come on, it’s 2012. Surely they must be able to use something like product@twitter.com or support@twitter.com?

All in all, an offer of new options that seem like they are just copied from Facebook, and suggesting I should ‘Try it now’. Does it make my (or other people’s) tweets better? Can I find more interesting people to follow with it? I’m both unsure about the message and about the product update being offered.

When they build a way to rank (upvote!) tweets, people (in a better way than Klout, Kred and whatnot) and maybe even hashtags to follow, I’m all for it. But this just seems like a ‘me too’ product update without a true goal or concept behind it. Maybe I’m not too sharp in this, but if anyone can tell the actual use (except having more pixels @ twitter), please do. I always thought of Twitter as one of the simplest, fastest and tightest social media platforms. That thought is diminishing now…

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Email Marketing Design Week: Twitter

Jul. 03 Email Marketing Comments Off

Some of the biggest commercial email senders are social media platforms: we’ve touched on that recently with a case about Pinterest.

Twitter however isn’t sitting on the sidelines either when it comes to email marketing design: they’re improving their emails, and tinkering with subject lines as well.

Let’s look at the changes of their subject line notifications – since June 25th they’ve changed the subject line of their new follower notification. Here’s an example:

twitter_subject_line_email_marketing_design_week

Everything below ‘Emailblog, you ave new followers / a new follower on Twitter is from before June 25th. Why have they done it? To have you open that email of course, and find who the new follower is! So subtle yet so effective: one example of how to do better email marketing: don’t give away everything in the subject line, especially if it’s a notification.

What does the inside of such a new style notification look like? Here’s an example:

twitter_email_marketing_design_new_followers_notification

The email shows the profiles of the ones who followed you, including dedicated buttons to follow them on Twitter. At the bottom the option is available to see all followers, as well as some administrative options. Not bad for a notification email, right?

What if I’m really not that active? Twitter tries to persuade me to log in again and follow some users (also new style notification):

twitter_email_marketing_design_june2012

Subject line: We missed you on Twitter. Well, Justin Bieber isn’t really an attractive option for me to follow: the Dalai Lama might be a better suggestion. What’s also interesting to see is that it’s more prominent than in the previous email shown: the forgot password option. As if people who are out of the Twitter loop for a while might forget their password. Surely not, or do you?

For comparison’s sake, here’s one similar style notification email from February (subject line: Discover more on Twitter):

twitter_email_marketing_design_feb2012

The subtle changes in the header style are the only difference, except for the button: view your home page vs view all suggestions. What would make you click to Twitter?

Because that’s what it’s all about: Twitter wants you to be active on their platform. More visits = more activity = more ad views / clicks for the advertisers. The subtle subject line change tells it too.

I quite like the subtle designs: not too bumpy or pushy: their suggestions algorithm could be better though – maybe based on who I already follow (or lists I made) instead of ‘famous’ people.

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Zappos newsletter: follow our CEO!

Oct. 06 Email Marketing Design, Social media, Trends in Email Marketing Comments Off

Zappos is a quite succesful online shoe company with unique views on doing business and connecting with people. On the social media part in their emails they promote their Facebook page but also urge you to follow their CEO Tony Hsieh on Twitter:

Tony’s tweets from the Zappos account are a mix of general tips and links, news from the Zappos company and personal tweets. A sampling of the most recent tweets:

Currently the account has more than 1,7 million followers, so they must be doing something right. Having the CEO of a company do the tweets has certain advantages on the marketing front:

- A marketing channel by itself
- Giving people more insight into the company daily business, therefor conveying more openness
- Building a trust relationship: if ‘some guy’ tweets for the company it’s different then when the CEO tweets
- Letting the CEO get to grips with the newest forms of direct communication, two-way

I’m not sure whether everyone should now run into their CEO’s office and let them know they should tweet from the company account from now on, but the way Zappos is doing it so far turns out to be pretty cool. Know any other CEO’s tweeting from company accounts being promoted in email newsletters? Let us know in the comments.

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