The Manifesto Bym Si ms Jenkins, CEO Intru od ction

Email's new role in Text Messaging In this tough economy, digital marketers are looking to their email communications with renewed hope. Here's what you need to know about the latest shifts in the fundamentals of email marketing.

Old is new again, and boring is the new sexy. At least, that is what we're seeing with regard to email marketing's renewed role as a Social Email Voice central digital communications hub during this rough-and- Networking Marketing Messaging tumble economic time. A recent StrongMail study1 showed that more than half (51 percent) of the nearly 1,000 global business leaders polled plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2009 to focus on programs that yield a higher return on investment, such as email marketing and search. On the other hand, many plan to decrease spending on costly, less targeted programs like Search Marketing and trade shows.

This is a rare opportunity for all digital marketers -- not just email marketers -- to thrive in a difficult and challenging environment. StatShare: Not using this opportunity to greatly improve your email 50% of consumers said they're more likely to buy products marketing program for the sake of your broader digital efforts from companies who send them email, whether their would be short-sighted and foolish. purchases are online or at a place of business. That said, where should you focus such efforts this year? In this Epsilon (Feb 2009) article, I will discuss five ongoing shifts in the fundamentals of email marketing, as well as how these changes should influence your campaigns.

Overview on BrightWave Marketing Bri ghtWave Marketing is an award-winning agency specializing in the strategic optimization of email marketing and digital targeted messaging programs. Services include Email Marketing, SMS, Social Network and Voice messaging. BrightWave Marketing focuses on creating and managing exceptional digital messaging programs that drive revenue, cut costs and build relationships. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, BrightWave Marketing has done work for a blue chip client roster including California Casualty, CoreNet Global, CVS, Lowe's, Sports Illustrated and Ted's Montana Grill as well as leading advertising and marketing firms. BrightWave Marketing is also the creator of Ema ilStatCenter.com, the leading authority on email marketing metrics and its CEO, Simms Jenkins, is the author of "The Truth About Email Marketing" published by Pearson's FT Press. Visit www.TheTruthAboutEmailMarketing.com for more information on the book.

1StrongMail, Dec. 15, 2008 "Businesses to Increase Marketing Budgets in 2009 on Programs that Yield High Levels of Return Such as Email and Search Marketing"

This White Paper is adapted from an article written by Simms Jenkins and first published in iMediaConnection on February 4, 2009.

Web: www.BrightWaveMarketing.com • Voice: 404.253.3797 • Email: [email protected] • SMS: Text BWAVE to 39044 1 © 2010 BrightWave Marketing. All Rights Reserved Part 1 - Email is increasingly a marriage of data and advertising. At its best, email marketing blends art and science, and an email marketing star can wear both hats equally. True permission email marketing success occurs when a marketer delivers a relevant message on target with the audience's needs. So what Email does that mean? Marketing

The relevance side has to do with creating a message that speaks to what your subscribers signed up for and what they expect and want. No, a recycled offer of your newspaper ad or a cut-and-paste job of your direct mail piece in HTML form does Words of Wisdom: not accomplish this. As I have said many times, most email “Do not use stats as a drunkard uses a lamp post – for marketing campaigns are based on a company's marketing support rather than illumination…the only three business goals, rather than what subscribers want and need. metrics that count are increased revenue, lower expenses and increased customer satisfaction” So create a list of the following: Jim Sterne, Author, Founding President of the Web · Business goals of the campaign Analytics Association Other marketing tactics and their approaches (how will · they complement email and vice versa) · Your past campaigns' success areas (what subscribers clicked, what they didn't) · Key message/value proposition (try summarizing in one bullet) · The call to action/specific value for the subscriber · How the creative will accomplish your goal (include rendering and user experience here) · How you will measure and define success · What's next after this campaign? The data side is what separates email marketing from its marketing brethren. So use it. So how do you leverage the data you have, even for databases that only capture minimal aspects of the subscribers?

Compile a list of answers to these questions: · What aspects of your campaign do you want to test (subject line, message, creative, offer)? How do you want to segment your campaign based on your database (gender, ZIP code, customer · versus non customer)? How do you plan to treat your email subscribers based on their "performance" (users who clicked, users who didn't open, · users who signed up in the past 30 days, etc.)? How will you follow up based on their "performance" (send follow-up message to those who clicked on the call-to-action · but didn't convert, users who did not open or click, etc.)? · How will you measure success? · What's next after this campaign? If you read closely, you will notice that determining success and performing post-campaign "autopsies" are a common thread in these two lists. These elements are among the most important -- as well as the most ignored -- aspects of any email campaign. Ensure these are on your lists; it's worth the time. If more evidence is needed, several of our clients have done this with great success. Additional research and case studies can be found at: http://www.brightwavemarketing.com/casestudies.php

Web: www.BrightWaveMarketing.com • Voice: 404.253.3797 • Email: [email protected] • SMS: Text BWAVE to 39044 2 © 2010 BrightWave Marketing. All Rights Reserved Part 2 - Targeted messaging now requires email, mobile, and social networks. Email marketing can no longer operate in a silo. Whether you are an email marketing manager, VP of sales and marketing, CEO, or agency- or ESP-side executive, keeping email isolated does none of us any long-term good. So where do we go from here?

While traditional advertising still serves a need for most companies, the ability to deliver and track specific custom messages to users' preferred points of receipt is what separates the potential of some digital channels from that of offline tactics. Email marketing's ability to accomplish this is well Targeted documented. So we must now address the question of how to complement email's capabilities, rather than view email Messaging marketing as an island that is ready to get overtaken by these other channels.

Mobile and social networks are the perfect complementary Words of Wisdom: tools for most companies looking to offer a truly targeted messaging solution. Mobile or SMS messaging takes the email “Advertising’s new role is to drive prospects to the web for marketing concept and strips it down to achieve the same kind memorable, relevant opt-in involvement” of messaging goals in a different format. Yes, you must take Stan Rapp, Author and Founder of Rapp Collins, during Keynote Speech at Email Evolution some of the creative (and some of the branding impact) out of Conference 2009 the equation, and you must have a different call to action. But the upside in doing so it is that you can deliver the message to opt-in users who prefer another communication channel, thereby potentially targeting them one step closer to the point of sale, whatever that may be.

Social networks provide a new set of rules and options for digital marketers. Therefore, be prepared to sink or swim. However, there are many targeted opportunities to communicate with these entrenched users at their preferred point of online engagement. Don't miss out and just go with a passive branding play in these venues. If you develop the right messaging strategy, this can be equally powerful in terms of taking your message to these folks.

The best marketing campaigns are ones combining all three elements discussed here -- email, mobile, and social networks. Such campaigns enable your customers and prospects to pick and choose, taking your marketing a step further, on their terms.

Web: www.BrightWaveMarketing.com • Voice: 404.253.3797 • Email: [email protected] • SMS: Text BWAVE to 39044 3 © 2010 BrightWave Marketing. All Rights Reserved Part 3 - The consumer's preferred Text Voice inbox is changing. Messaging Messaging You may not agree that you need a messaging strategy Social outside of email marketing, but you must adapt to the reality Email Networking that how consumers get their content, promotions, and updates has changed. Most online users don't just rely on their work and home email address for these communications anymore.

As discussed earlier, some consumers prefer to get special offers via SMS messaging, while others may ignore their Hotmail or Gmail accounts and head right to Facebook for all of their communications -- whether from their old college StatShare: girlfriends or their favorite restaurants. 32% of survey respondents said they have stopped doing business with at least one company altogether as a result You may be fortunate to build what amounts to subscriber of its poor email practices. communication preference segments based on all of these, Merkle (2009) whether you know you are doing so or not. Most companies won't thrive if the only way of opting in with the company is through a website-based email signup form that captures only an email address. Establishing ways to capture preferences and points of communication is crucial as your customers' habits evolve and migrate to other digital channels. This leads us to the next item in the 2009 Email Marketing Manifesto.

Part 4 - 2009 is the year of the User Choices preference center. Email Mobile With this sea change happening in front of us, companies that Voice Messaging fail to offer their customers more choices will be in trouble. So Social Networking this fundamental digital principle -- offering the user more choices -- is the right place to focus in 2009. = Better Marketing Data

Over the years, companies have offered an email signup page and/or website registration form (albeit sometimes mutually exclusive of each other) to capture consumers' opt- StatShare: ins, which are arguably one of the most valuable commodities in the digital world. Remember, these are More than 88% of respondents said they would like customers and would-be customers raising their hands to organizations to give them more choices over the content and frequency of the they receive, including options say, "Yes, please market to me." That doesn't happen in all on advertisements, special offers, articles, newsletters, media and marketing, so elevate the value of these opt-ins white papers and other specific content options. within your marketing strategy. Habeas (2008)

Web: www.BrightWaveMarketing.com • Voice: 404.253.3797 • Email: [email protected] • SMS: Text BWAVE to 39044 4 © 2010 BrightWave Marketing. All Rights Reserved In 2009, marketers need to offer a clear and seamless user experience through which interested parties can sign up for communications (B2C newsletters, B2B whitepapers, special offers, breaking news, etc.) You may be saying, "Yeah, we've got that."

But do you provide the following? · Ability to receive communications in multiple platforms (email, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) · Ability to change preferences, formats, devices, languages, etc. · Ability to choose frequency of updates · Ability to choose types of communications and adjust as you go, as opposed to unsubscribing from all · Ability to get a sneak peak of any offered communications · Ability to understand how data will be treated and information on other privacy issues · Ability to remove oneself with ease from any or all communications

Part 5 - Email is an increasingly specialized form of marketing -- now treat it as such. Hopefully, you now see email marketing as part of a bigger digital beast. But wait, it's really its own animal. Or is it?

The email marketing landscape seems to change just as fast as email offers can pile up in your inbox. How do you keep up with Email these changing best practices, consumer preferences, CAN-SPAM Marketing provisions, and the 82 daily tips you can find from helpful writers, bloggers, and executives?

This speaks to a larger organizational issue for most companies in terms of where email programs and teams live within the organization. We can't expect email to succeed in the long term when most of us can't properly address what role email plays in the big picture, or what email wants to be when it grows up. All StatShare: good email marketers have to keep their eyes on the ball, which 80.4% of marketers surveyed chose email marketing as can be hard if you are given a minuscule budget, insufficient the most important advertising medium they will use team, and vague goals. So how do you redefine your email in 2009. marketing role and program? Datran Media (2009) Start here: Create a mission statement and strategic brief for your · vision of your email marketing program. · Create a set of goals and a scorecard for your email marketing success measurements. · Document what you do on a day-to-day basis and at a broader strategic level. · Share this information with your broader organization and related stakeholders.

Web: www.BrightWaveMarketing.com • Voice: 404.253.3797 • Email: [email protected] • SMS: Text BWAVE to 39044 5 © 2010 BrightWave Marketing. All Rights Reserved Draw up what you would need (in terms of budget, resources, StatShare: · partners, and anything else under the sun) to accomplish your goals and the company's goals, assuming there were no Email marketing’s projected return on investment is barriers in these areas. $43.52 in 2009. Association (2008) Revaluate your partners based on where you are, where you · want to be, and where you need to be. · Set up debriefing meetings to continually update others on how your email program is doing in terms of success. · Define success in business terms -- not clicks, opens, and bounces. Ask yourself a few more questions with regard to your email program: Does email marketing really still deserve a miniscule percentage of your overall marketing budget in this economic crunch?

If email marketing is the workhorse of your marketing platforms and generating much of the revenue, do you penalize it because of its high ROI? Why not devote more to it and generate more sales, get more leads, and speak directly with your most attractive audience?

Also, think about where the majority of your budget goes: Is it in sending the email or in making the campaign better?

Does most of your email marketing budget go directly to the technology infrastructure or to areas that can be optimized to improve the results and stretch your dollar and impact? If, for example, more than half of your email marketing budget goes to your ESP, you are limiting the results of what you can do with the hand you have been dealt. Most ESPs have great distribution platforms but limited services and abilities to improve your ROI. In fact, they make their money on volume, so you probably won't be told you are sending too many emails even if you helped achieve the new email volume record over the 2008 holidays. (This is a dubious accomplishment, in case you were wondering.)

So take your budget to where you can make an impact and raise the level of your specialized program through added strategic expertise. Testing, new creative, strategic assessments, and optimizing other areas of your program (like transactional emails) deserve more of your budget than the commodity-driven send button.

Web: www.BrightWaveMarketing.com • Voice: 404.253.3797 • Email: [email protected] • SMS: Text BWAVE to 39044 6 © 2010 BrightWave Marketing. All Rights Reserved To learn more about why BrightWave Marketing is the best solution for targeted messaging success, please contact Business Development at 404.253.3797 or [email protected].

For additional information and resources on email marketing and targeted messaging, BrightWave Marketing offers you the following destinations:

The BrightWave Report The BrightWave Blog A quarterly review of email marketing Named one of the top email marketing and digitial messaging trends & news blogs by Email Marketing Reports Learn More » Read It Here »

EmailStatCenter.com Mobile BrightWave Updates The Leading Authority on Email Text BWAVE to 39044 Marketing Metrics Email marketing and messaging news, trends Visit The Site » and other updates delivered to your mobile Join the LinkedIn Group » device. (Standard Messaging Fees Apply)

The Truth About Email Marketing (Pearson/FT Press, Aug. 2008) The Definitive Book on Email Marketing - written by BrightWave Marketing CEO Simms Jenkins Visit The Site » Become a Fan on Facebook | Join the Facebook Group »

Web: www.BrightWaveMarketing.com • Voice: 404.253.3797 • Email: [email protected] • SMS: Text BWAVE to 39044 7 © 2010 BrightWave Marketing. All Rights Reserved