This is not news, but you might be unaware: back in 2004, the states of Utah and Michigan enacted Child Protection Registry Acts. The goal was to prevent inappropriate content from getting through to minors — including references to alcohol, tobacco, gambling, or pornographic content. The vehicle for achieving this is a secured, Do-Not-Contact database of children’s contact points — email addresses, mobile numbers, fax numbers, and instant messaging IDs — submitted by parents and maintained by the states.

Legitimate marketers who are dealing with potentially objectionable content in their email or mobile campaigns need to scrub their lists against the Child Registry Database. The scrubbing process will cost 1.2 cents per email address (a fee assessed by the states), and you will be returned a cleaned up list with any registered addresses removed. In addition, the scrubbing process must be repeated every 30 days.

Failure to comply can result in parent complaints and stiff fines from the states — potentially for both the sender and the client company. In our legal counsel’s opinion, objectionable material on the landing page or destination site (even if absent in the campaign message itself) can also get you into trouble. This has been significant to our hotel-casino clients, who may be sending out emails about low room rates, but are also linking to their company site that presents casino and gambling promotions.

Two commonly perceived loop-holes:
1. Hey, I’ll just exclude UT and MI addresses from my email campaign: Wrong. If you are collecting zip code or state information during opt-in, don’t assume that your recipients are volunteering accurate data.
2. Hey, I asked for date-of-birth during opt-in — I’ll just exclude the minors: Again, wrong. Asking for a recipient’s date of birth during opt-in does not protect you from prosecution under this act. Inclusion in the registry trumps opt-in consent.

Fluency Media is one of a handful of approved ESPs providing the list scrubbing service. Contact us for more information, and of course check with your own legal counsel.

Pure Michigan has received a lot of credit for its marketing program lately.

It looks like michigan.org will seal another year as the nation’s #1 Visited State Tourism Website.

And, within just 90 days of launch, michigan.org was rated the #1 Social Media Program (Gammet Interactive) for its aggressive push into social networking – boasting 20,000+ fans on their Facebook Fan Page, along with vibrant Twitter, and blog presences.

But it really shouldn’t be this way…

What about Hawaii, New York, Florida, and California; big states with “Nation-Sized” budgets and economies?  Tourism meccas blessed with the best climates on earth and larger than life attractions (Statue of Liberty, Disney World, Golden Gate Bridge)?

The answer is simpler than you think.

Michigan found a way to use the online channel to make its brand assets work smarter and harder. Let’s take a look at some of the key foundations for Pure Michigan’s dominance:

• Full Participation for Every Marcom Stakeholder

Online marketing has as full seat at the table. Often, the lure of traditional media overshadows the blocking-and-tackling judo employed by digital specialists.  In Michigan’s case, digital was given the resources and attention it needed to deliver results.

• Integration

Early on, the Travel Michigan team tied its objectives to the seamless integration of its web initiatives.  Our team at Fluency Media delivered digital programs that collapsed silos and combined the strengths of multiple platforms.

Quickly, we saw email marketing (still a killer app) spark rapid growth in all social media channels.  Integrating pay-per-click and SEO led to Michigan achieving top rankings on terms long dominated by private travel aggregators.

Across the board, integration proved its mettle by knitting together a formidable blend of tactics.

• Rigorous Tracking and Testing

From the beginning, Michigan used analytics to guide decision-making and strategy.  Every meeting was led by reporting of quantitative results.

Over time, Michigan was able to parlay small improvements into dramatic increases in visitors, subscriber sign-ups, and social media participation.

Like all successful marketing strategies, getting started is the most difficult step.  However, Pure Michigan’s case study offers some fascinating insights into outwitting and outplaying larger rivals.

But if you don’t have the time or resources to build a “Giant Killing” marketing program from scratch, your best move is to work with an experienced partner that has already built the best practices to succeed.

What does email marketing cost? A penny per email? Half a penny? And what does that really get you? If you send out a ‘blast’, you can always expect some response (and perhaps even an outstanding ROI). However, email is not a typical media buy with an easy to predict, CPM cause-and-effect. The right investment can take your email program beyond a crude blast tactic and into a meaningful, ongoing customer interaction.

When evaluating your current email marketing spend and ROI, consider the following:

1. Are you maximizing every available lever? Optimizing an email program takes time and testing. Smart improvements in combination can lead to incredible gains in engagement and conversion rates.
2. Are you listening and learning? Email can act as a huge, ongoing customer survey. Incorporate direct survey mechanisms, and offer a customer profile page with the option to send direct comments regarding your email program. 

Even more informative is the data gathered by user activity: look for common themes in click-through activities, on-site conversions, or subject lines that drive opens. This is how your customers tell you what they really want. Cross-reference these trends with other factors, such as frequency, mailing time of day, and day of week. These nuggets of insight will inform your future messaging and strategy, and can drive your program in new and profitable directions that you did not anticipate.
3. Are you making your other channels stronger? A good email program will incorporate cross-analysis with other channels. Simple example: if you are seeing a strong click-through on a particular product in your emails, be sure to test bidding on related pay-per-click terms, and consider optimizing your site for those natural search terms. 

This can also be applied to offline marketing. For instance, successful call-to-action language from an email (Schedule a Meeting Today, etc) can inform which phrases you use in print materials.

In our experience, incorporating these practices can lead to conversion gains of 1,000% or more. So now, what is that worth? As your email marketing program is grown and optimized, it will transcend its commodity status and become one of the strongest weapons at your disposal.

We’re tooting our own horn here.  It’s not often that you can catch Marketing Sherpa’s attention, that’s why we’re proud to brag a bit with our client, Travel Michigan.

Here’s the story –

Last year, we were asked to dramatically boost the effectiveness of the Travel Michigan email program.  A multi-million dollar media buy was in the works and the Travel Michigan team wanted to make sure that website visitors turned into a vibrant database for follow-up email marketing.

We took them up on the challenge and implemented four programs to achieve their goal:

1. An attractive email opt-in offer using a surprisingly effective “off-the-shelf” product
2. Systematic testing to prove effectiveness before a national roll-out
3. A controversial online tactic that still works when implemented correctly
4. A Welcome Email Series that turned subscribers into active community participants

Here’s a peek at the result that counts –

“The impact of the email tests and new tactics exceeded our expectations in every way” – George Zimmermann, VP of Travel Michigan, Michigan Economic Development Corporation

Intrigued?  Check out the MarketingSherpa Case Study, then come back and tell us what you think.

2009 was definitely the year of Social Media.  Businesses in all industries aggressively implemented social media plans and began testing out this new relationship-building tool.  However, for most, fan and follower growth stalled.  It seems that it was easier to start a Twitter account than to fill it with a loyal (non-spam) following.

Surprisingly, we’ve discovered that the best tool for building thriving social media communities is probably the dullest, least sexy tool imaginable…email.

Guess what, email is still alive and well and it’s a “killer app” for jumpstarting social media communities. Let’s see why -

Social Media and Email – The Greatest Partnership Since PB&J

At its core, Social Media is a relationship-building tool. Up to this point, you’ve probably been using email for this task.

Your current prospects list is the best place to find enthusiastic fans because they already have a relationship with you. An invitation to engage with your business on Facebook and Twitter feels natural and is a logical extension of their current experience.

Quick Tips for Getting Started

Use the Cute Icons

Immediately add the appropriate social media icons to the bottom of your email messages.  Also add a quick line of text promoting the benefit of connecting with you via social media. If your design template permits, consider moving your social media icons to the top of your email rather than burying them in the footer.

Our experience has shown that prominent placement of these icons communicates your willingness to engage in a conversation and dials-down the corporate feel of your emails.

Give Your Social Media a Shout Out

As you write your email messages, add social media to the conversation. Prompt readers to engage with additional content on your blog or Facebook.

If you have ongoing event schedule, encourage readers to follow you on Twitter to stay updated

Get Your Community Signed Up

Add an opt-in box to your blog to add subscribers to your in-house email list.  The real value of social media is in its ability to attract targeted visitors and transition them into your marketing database for follow-up.  Consider offering a premium such as a Special Report to entice visitors to provide their email address.

What to do next

Social Media and email integration is a mindset as well as an ongoing marketing process. Recognize that you are building a multi-touch communications channel where each tool plays an important role.

You’ll find that tightly integrating your email and social media platforms will lead to a growing and vibrant community of buyers (and fans).

What do your database contacts really want? Within your email marketing program, all of the A/B testing, tracking and optimization boils down to this one, simple question.

But what’s the best way to ask your database what they want?  If you’ve missed the boat on asking follow-up questions during the opt-in process (when they’re most inclined to volunteer some optional data), you’re going to need some sort of survey or polling mechanism. A survey form embedded within your email is not viable – most email clients will automatically strip out the code.

Including a link to an online survey may not get enough participation (even if you offer an incentive – always recommended, by the way).  Furthermore, individuals with enough time to take a lengthy survey may not be representative of your ideal customer (most C-level execs that I’ve met don’t have time for surveys).

Enter the one-click email survey. We recommend taking the most important profiling question that you want to know and place it into your email layout as a simple, multiple-choice set of links. Because you’re using simple hyperlinks, there is no form code to be stripped out.  Styling the links to look like radio button choices makes it appear more ‘poll-like’.   When your contacts click the links, personalized tracking data associates their click ‘answers’ with their profiles, and they are redirected to a ‘thank you’ page with additional calls-to-action available.

Sample screen capture:

Testing this approach revealed some key insights:

• Survey participation was significant – 21% for one client (incidentally, it was sent to a list of C-level executives)
• Inclusion of the survey did not reduce response rate for the email’s primary (non-survey) call-to-action, even when the survey was placed in the upper-right corner of the layout.
• Unsubscribe rate actually dropped when the survey was included.  This indicates that recipients are more engaged when they know that you care about their preferences.
• Some users clicked different choices at different times. Since this is really a real-time profile update, simply use the last clicked answer as the current answer (it may change over time, depending on your question).

Over time, you can use this tactic as a soft approach to build more profiling into your database.  Ask the same question in sequential mailings until you get enough data, and then switch it up. Ask all of the key questions that you forgot to ask the first time around.

Email marketing success often comes down to small, incremental changes that really add up. Optimizing the small levers in your program can act like force multipliers, with each improvement snowballing into the next. With time and testing, the combination of improvements will ultimately yield dividends much larger than your time or money investment.

We always recommend addressing these factors first:

1. Email Opt-In Form: Is your site’s email opt-in form converting to its potential? When looking at your form, consider the placement on the site, form fields, and by all means offer an incentive for opt-in (however small) when possible. A recent Fluency Media redesign of one client’s email opt-in form has increased email subscriptions by nearly 1,200% (more than the previous 11 months combined).

2. Welcome (“New Best Friend”) Email Series: Many companies still do not engage their new subscribers within the first 24 hours. This is a key window of opportunity, when subscribers are fresh and excited about your brand. The recent introduction of a 2-part welcome email series for one client has increased visits from the entire email channel by over 80% and conversions by over 70%.

3. Delivery: How good are your in-house servers or current ESP at getting emails through to the Inbox? There are several potential points of failure, including:

· IP or domain level: many server IP addresses or domains are already blocked by major ISPs. How would you even know if you’re being blocked? Fluency maintains and monitors the excellent standing of its sending IP addresses with the major ISPs (including Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail and AOL), and we consistently have delivery rates of 98% or more. For one client, moving to Fluency’s sending servers alone resulted in a 20% delivery boost as compared to their in-house server.

· ISP queues: Some ISPs will ‘grey-list,’ or defer your messages from getting through. Unless your system attempts to re-send those messages, they’ll eventually be lost in a delivery black hole. Fluency’s email system will attempt to re-send queued messages for up to 48 hours before ending in a soft bounce. We estimate that this saves up to 5% of messages from being lost.

· Content issues: a single word in your subject line or copy can send an otherwise fine email message into the Spam / Junk folder. We test and re-test messages to ensure delivery to the Inbox for all major ISPs and Outlook.

4. Subject Lines: A targeted subject line is your best opportunity to get an email message opened. Testing on personalization, length and content can boost open rates by 5% or more.

5. Layout: Once the email is opened, how will it be viewed? Is it readable if the recipient hasn’t “turned on images?” What if it’s viewed on a mobile device? Fluency has tested hundreds of iterations of email layouts to ensure that what is most important in your messaging is viewed first, and that it looks great in all of the leading email clients.

6. Offer: Are you testing your offers? How aggressive do you need to be in order to move the conversion needle? Try sending A/B (and C, D, E if necessary) tests of your offer out to a small percentage of your database. This will allow you to find the offer sweet spot before rolling out to the larger database.

7. Call-to-Action Placement: What will make them click? It’s important to find the right wording, design and placement for your call-to-action to maximize click rate. A/B tests make finding the right combination quick and inexpensive.

8. Landing Page: Where will they arrive when they click? Does the messaging and branding of the landing page match the email creative and continue the promise delivered in the email message? Is it easy for the visitor to do what you want them to do? A recent Fluency redesign of a client landing page resulted in a 33% conversion rate boost.

9. On-Site Sales Flow (Conversion) Optimization: What about the subsequent steps needed to purchase or perform whatever desired tasks on your site? It’s critical to identify and remove the bottlenecks to conversion. On-site A/B tests can help identify the winner of several variations of a checkout page, sales meeting request form, etc.

10. Send Frequency: Most companies are scared to contact their database more than once a month (or even less). But your contacts may wish to hear from you much more often – perhaps even twice a week. That is just money left on the table. One client’s frequency testing program yielded a 20% revenue growth from the email channel in a relatively short period just by testing their assumption that once a month was the “right” frequency.

Optimizing any one of these factors can dramatically improve your program. Added up, your email marketing results can be spectacular – challenging even the sexy, offline advertising channels for conversion numbers.

Email is unique in that it’s a low cost, high performance channel that can be used to really learn about your database.  By developing an ongoing testing plan, you can collect some valuable behavioral data on your consumers that will inform all of your programs.  (Check out this ClickZ article on using the applying the scientific method to behavioral marketing across all digital channels: http://www.clickz.com/3633553)

Testing means more than a haphazard A/B split every month or two.  It means developing a long term plan and sticking to it.  The good news is that the method has already been developed – it’s the Scientific Method, used by scientists of all kinds the world over. 

Here are the 6 steps to the method, and how to apply them to your email marketing plan: 

1. Make An Observation – Identify the metrics that you want to improve.  Pick one at a time, and start with the one that is the easiest, and will make the most impact.
2. Ask A Question – Determine what elements of your email affect the selected metrics. (i.e. if you’re looking to boost open rates, you might want to take a look at your subject line)
3. Form A Hypothesis – This is where you decide what you’re going to test against your standard.  Don’t enter into this step blindly – do your homework and make an informed guess on what the B version is going to be, and why it should outperform the A version.  Write down your hypothesis. 
4. Conduct an experiment – Run your test, and do it right.  If you’re testing subject lines, then make that the ONLY difference.  Don’t tweak the copy or change the offers or move the CTA.  One thing at a time – that way you’ll have fully attributable results.
5. Evaluate the results – When the numbers start pouring in, pull out that hypothesis you wrote down, and use it to evaluate the data.  Did your B version outperform the standard A version on the metric you were testing?
6. Do it all again – So you found your winner, the better of the two, and have improved your program.  But, there’s something out there that’s even better, that’s going to boost performance even more.  How do you find it?  By continuously repeating the process.