If you have read any of the eROI quarterly email statistics, you will see a consistent trend of smaller email list size, resulting in higher open and click rates.

This doesn't mean that you have to reduce the size of your mailings. What it does imply, is that you should try to break your lists into more targeted groups, and use dynamic data rules or placeholders to deliver content that is relevant to the recipient.

Traditionally, I have focused on 3 ways of segmenting stakeholders:
1. Demographic: Geo, Age, Gender, Language, Marital Status, etc.
2. Behavioral: Usage Rate, click history, purchase method (online, phone, in person)
3. Psychographic or IAO (Interests, Attitudes, and Opinions): Personality, values, lifestyle, etc.

In a recent webinar, Alex Williams, points out 2 additional methods that really make sense.

The first, or 4th if you are keeping track, is:
4. Stage the customer lifecycle: Have they simply expressed interest (newsletter), are they engaged with a salesman, a customer (if so, how can you up/cross sell).

The 5th is a mix of IAO, behavior, and stage in the customer lifecycle. Just winging it, I will call it:
5. Brand Relationship: How long have they been on your mailing list (familiarity with what you have to say), do they forward campaigns (brand evangelists), are they engaged with you at multiple points (newsletter, events, webinar attendees, etc.)

Hear what Alex has to say yourself. Posted by: Andy at 7:49 PM  |  Permalink

In short, CES buzz this year is all about video to mobile. Seriously though, when they are selling phones with 40 inch monitors, can the iPhone even compete?



Only time will tell my friend. Posted by: Andy at 2:35 PM  |  Permalink

Turns out that Microsoft has replaced the rendering engine in Outlook to Microsoft Word. Here is a more in-depth article from the Tech Times.

Luckily, there is an outlook validation tool that you can use to
test your CSS and HTML.

Posted by: Andy at 2:21 PM  |  Permalink

This is one of the more novel social sourcing business models I have seen in a while. I can search on my own, or I can have a consultant making 8.3 cents per min. help me.

I think I will go ahead and "search with guide." Give it a shot. Posted by: Andy at 8:07 PM  |  Permalink

10. Social networking will get more and more niche. Social Networking has blanketed the news for the past 18 months because it works. YouTube and MySpace have built loyal communities through entertaining user-generated content and great tools for communicating with other like-minded people. However, Social Networking is going NICHE.

9. Viral campaign websites will have a purpose. Over the past couple of years, I've been forwarded hundreds of quirky sites that are experimenting with the whole viral marketing thing and that have no further purpose whatsoever. There are no calls-to-action or indications as to why these sites exist.

8. User-generated content will be a component on most new websites. Many companies are just starting to realize the great potential of websites with user-generated content that enable customers to co-create with their brands. Read my post a few weeks ago about "letting go" in 2007.

7. Email marketers will demand more strategy from their marketing agencies. From the client-side email marketer's perspective, there are only minor differences (see the ReturnPath Story) between the top email marketing software platforms, so expect no less than service and strategy.

6. Great Content is King. Quality content is more important now than ever before. Each of us receives dozens of email newsletters on a daily basis. There are over 100 million viewings DAILY on YouTube. One in twenty visits on the web is to a social networking site where new content is generated every second. There is a glut of content and it's only going to get more crowded.

5. Most successful companies will become media companies. Microsoft became a media company when it began its blogging program a couple years ago. The lawyers lost and marketers won - revealing the inside scoop at Microsoft was virtually the only thing that has healed the company's battered reputation.

4. Democrat majority in Congress swings the tide of online marketing. Marketers will push the envelope far more aggressively in 2007 now that the fear of death by Republican firing squad has been reduced.

3. Greater integration of Video into all websites. Yesterday, I visited the homepage of CRM juggernaut, Salesforce.com, and was immediately struck by how quickly the video flash piece engaged me. Video is not just for TV and YouTube anymore.

2. Email mantra: list segmentation + relevant content = improved results. eROI published an email study earlier this year showing a direct correlation between smaller, more relevant lists and higher open and click through rates. Instead of sending all emails to a Main List of all of their contacts, marketers are starting to segment their lists into product categories, service categories, press lists, webinar lists, etc.

1. Thoughtful, cause-related marketing is the biggest winner in 2007. Pay attention. If you do this right, you will put your company on the map AND make the world a better place. This may just be the best business advice you get all year.

Take a look at the complete list with comments here. Posted by: Andy at 10:26 AM  |  Permalink

A colleague sent me an email today, pronouncing her new years resolution of running 25 miles per month. I dropped into the Nike Microsite that is tracking her progress, and was very impressed with the design and stickiness of the campaign.



What really caught my attention, was the product integration with iTunes. This is a true partnership. Posted by: Andy at 10:37 AM  |  Permalink