Optimization - Make Your Email Stand Out in the Crowd - What's more likely to happen to permission marketers: being mistaken for a spammer or getting lost in the inbox? This article lays out the challenge and how to meet it.

Delivery Trends - Comment on CAN-SPAM Changes: Deadline June 27 - The FTC wants your input on proposed rules for implementing CAN-SPAM. One cuts the time you have to pull opt-outs off your list from 10 days to three. Find out here how to speak your mind.

The Lab - Lucid Marketing Triggers Email Success With Moms
EmailLabs' technology and customization helps power Lucid Marketing's successful email programs targeting moms.

Quick Tips - Just Say No toPrechecked Boxes - Read this if you use prechecked boxes to collect permission on your Web registration page.

StatWatch - Top 12 Reasons Retailers are Bullish on Email Marketing - So much for email's demise. An Internet Retailer survey finds out why more email marketers are ramping up their programs in 2005.

Make Your Email Stand Out in the Crowd

Time for a pop quiz!

What's the biggest challenge that spam poses for permission marketers?

1. Recipients who can't tell the difference between you as a sender
and spammers who send them unsolicited or junk email.

2. Recipients who can't find your email if it gets rerouted to their
junk-mail folders or buried under spam in their in-boxes.

Answer:

Assuming they give affirmative consent (the U.S. government standard, meaning they actively opt in to your mailings, not just leave a prechecked box unchanged), today's consumers are usually savvy enough to recognize email with your name on it.

In fact, a new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life project shows that though Americans say they are still getting spam in their home and work inboxes, they are less likely to let it affect their email habits and trust (See the full report (PDF) with statistics here).

For true permission marketers, the challenge comes later in your
relationship. If you don't send your first email until weeks after the
opt-in date, and if that email goes into the junk folder or gets buried
under spam in the inbox, your recipients likely will never see it.

That's your big challenge. You know your recipients want to hear from
you, because they've asked to be put on your mailing list. Now, how do you make sure your email stand out from the spam crowd?

Here's a list of best practices that have proved to work for other
emailers: Read the full article...

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Previous Optimization Column - Open Rates Don't Matter

Comment on CAN-SPAM Changes: Deadline June 27

Affiliate marketers and ad-supported email newsletters will be most affected by the Federal Trade Commission's latest rules and clarifications (PDF) of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The FTC is seeking public comment on five proposed changes and clarifications. Two are the most crucial to email marketers and publishers:

1. Definition of the "sender of an email message"

2. Shortening the deadline to remove opt-outs from the current 10 days to three. Read the full article...

 Full Article | Feedback

Lucid Marketing Triggers Email Success With Moms

With nearly 75 million mothers of all ages in the United States controlling 80 percent of household spending, Lucid Marketing, (www.lucidmarketing.com), a marketing and media services company specializing in marketing to mothers, is committed to providing marketers with unique access to this demographic via targeted and relevant marketing programs.

To help deliver on this promise, the company realized it needed email marketing capabilities that would afford its clients the ability to customize and automate campaigns. By leveraging EmailLabs' sophisticated automation, event-based emails (trigger technology) and flexible database, the company has created innovative campaigns to take its clients' marketing programs to the next level.

Special Delivery Email: A Family Occasion

One of Lucid Marketing's current client campaigns requires customized content to be sent to multiple users under one email address. For example, the "Johnson family" signs up for the email campaign, which is designed to automatically send "Mrs. Johnson" product-related information 30 days before each of her children's birthdays. At the same time, customized birthday messages are scheduled for each child and are triggered to be sent to the same email address three days before their birthdays.

It is generally difficult to execute these types of campaigns since email addresses are usually the unique identifier. However, Lucid Marketing leveraged EmailLabs' flexibility to create new database fields, such as Mom1 and Child2, which are used as the alternative unique identifier in this campaign.

Automation and event-based emails were also instrumental in allowing Lucid Marketing to automatically calculate children's ages and segment them in predetermined age brackets based on their birth date. This ensured that the children are receiving emails focused to their specific age groups. For example, a 9-year old boy's birthday message would include different content than that of an 11-year old boy.

Just Say No to Prechecked Boxes

You know you shouldn't add email addresses to your list unless you get permission first. But, can you help the process along a little bit by prechecking the opt-in permission box on your Web registration form?

We say don't. CAN-SPAM defines permission as "affirmative consent," not the passive "negative consent" that comes with leaving a prechecked box alone. You're asking your users to say "no" to you before they even get to know you. How can you build trust and loyalty that way?

Want a legal reason? CAN-SPAM doesn't explicitly outlaw prechecked boxes, but a New York state judge ruled in 2002 that they don't constitute true opt-in permission. So if feel you must use prechecked boxes, to comply with the "affirmative consent" role in the CAN-SPAM Act, you'll need to add a disclaimer in your emails that the message is a "Promotional" or "Advertising" message.

True, you won't collect as many valid addresses if you use an unchecked box. But you'll know that the people who are on your list are there because they want to be, not because you roped them in, and that will pay off in a higher-value list.

Top 12 Reasons Retailers are Bullish on Email Marketing

A recent Internet Retailer survey gives email marketing a big thumbs-up, especially for its response rates and cost-effectiveness.

While some respondents were concerned about spam issues, more than two-thirds of respondents said they were stepping up email programs in 2005.

Why are marketers bullish on email's prospects this year? Here are 12 key findings from IR's survey:

1. Sixty-eight percent of responding e-retailers said they plan to increase their email marketing this year, with a majority saying they believe email is an effective way to communicate with customers, even if that communication doesn't produce a sale.

2. Thirty-eight percent of those who are boosting their email program this year said they are responding to the growth of their online business. Read the full article...

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Dear Reader,

Email users are savvier than ever at spotting spam in their inboxes. But permission-based marketers still need to help recipients find and open their messages. Our list of quick tips will show you how easy it is to stand out in the crowd.

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