DaxThink: Digital life

Click the link below to YouTube, it is somewhat like being in a timewarp for 6 minutes. This is a newscast from 14 years ago where the world is told about something new, the in-ter-net. It discusses its history from Arpanet, that people play bridge late at night, and has some classic comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n4fDgmrF3o

Watch out for a serious newscaster describing what is called 'an emoticon' and how it is used to convey true meaning of a comment.

And they send a message to "everyone on the Internet" asking them what the Internet means to them. Seriously quirky response from a British guy who reports that the "Internet allows him to indugle his deep passion for all things Thai". I will leave you to make up your own jokes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n4fDgmrF3o

(Thank you Charlotte for sending me this).

By Dax Hamman

2006 was the year of Web 2.0, as online social networks, blogs, RSS, podcasting, wikis, and all forms of consumer generated media exploded across the Internet. By most accounts, Web 2.0 encompasses the range of technologies that allows consumers to control how and when they access information. Forrester Research defines Web 2.0 as social computing, or a social structure in which technology puts power in the hands of individuals, not institutions. Overall, most agree that Web 2.0 represents a relationship shift between established firms and their customers.

But what about email? We’re now well into 2007 and these “emerging” Web 2.0 channels are becoming pretty mainstream, so mainstream in fact, that many email marketers are wondering how emerging digital media will impact their email marketing programmes. You might think that email marketing has been passed over by its new media cousins, but this workhorse of digital communications continues to outperform all other digital channels. Far from being relegated to the slow-lane, email marketing is now critical to your Web 2.0 strategy. How so?

First of all, it’s important to note that email does not seem to be losing share to newer technologies; a Bluestreak study from November 2006, titled Emerging Digital Channels: Consumer Adoption, Attitudes & Behavior, indicates that 100 percent of respondents currently use email compared to 63 percent using blogs; 36 percent using podcasting and 28 percent using RSS. In addition, 84% of respondents receive up to 30 email offers per week, and 72% of respondents open more than 60% of permission-based offers.

But how does email fit into, rather than compete with, Web 2.0 technologies? Again, it’s all about using consumer’s choice and putting power in their hands. Remember that email marketers are well-advised to let users change their email preferences (which newsletters do you want, how often do you want them, and in what form: RSS or email?). Start by making sure you have a great preferences centre.

Next, you should start to integrate email with social applications, like mapping sites for example. A classic Web 2.0 application, mapping sites are where consumers can overlay travel directions with information about products and services located along their route. So, let’s say you’ve used a map site to plot out a ski trip to the Alps. Users can also input directives like “show me hotels, petrol prices, theme parks etc along this route.”

Therefore, the user is signalling to a Ramada Inn marketer that she’s open to special discounts, via email, for their local area hotels). In using a mapping application, the consumer is pulling information in lieu of the marketer pushing it, but email becomes the logical follow-up for information requested.

Many people equate Web 2.0 with AJAX technology, incidentally, which is a relatively new technique used in web application development that allows more interactivity between web sites. For example, when on a mapping site, consumers no longer have to click away to other pages to find hotels, reviews, prices, etc (it wasn’t so long ago we were all clicking away to multiple sites!). AJAX is very prevalent on mapping sites, where users are constantly configuring content according to their personal travel needs. This type of interactive capability is a big aspect of social computing and there’s plenty of “community sharing” on mapping sites in which people trade itineraries and driving directions with others (refer a friend for special offers, invite peers to do reviews, invite people to join prize draws etc). And they do this by email.

Now, as you plan that ski trip to the Alps, some people will want to turn all that good information – e.g. personalised driving directions - into an individual RSS feed. While most people think of RSS feeds as standardised news or entertainment titbits fed to thousands of users, highly personalised RSS feeds like this are possible through some email service providers. Forrester Research’s latest report on Social Computing points out that a marketer’s approach to the two media (email and RSS) should overlap, because both deliver direct communications electronically, can be customized, and in many cases rely on a single technology vendor. Forrester’s report also reminds us that companies can start marketing via RSS without creating new content (e.g. email newsletters or on-site programmes can be easily repurposed for RSS delivery).

RSS is very well-suited to travel information because travel plans inherently need to factor in frequently changing content (e.g. weather alerts, hotel discounts etc) and need to be pushed quickly to the user. Feeds about petrol prices, and where one can find the cheapest petrol station near their destination, is a great example.

And where does email work into these communications? The consumer first pulls information by setting up an RSS feed, and a hotel marketer, for example, reacts by incorporating content from individualized RSS feeds into follow-up emails….usually resulting in pretty high click-through thanks to the message’s extreme relevance.

Note, when giving out their email in the Web 1.0 world, users were often asked to complete a checklist of preferences (hobbies, affinities) so the marketer “could send them relevant offers.” It became quickly apparent that very few people wanted to tick all those boxes. But today, simply through the course of interacting with a Web 2.0 site like a mapping website, you give up that kind of information anyway. After all, you’ve identified your hobby (skiing) and are busily checking out certain types of restaurants or hotels on the way. This kind of information lends itself perfectly to up-sell emails later on.

So we’ve established how personalized RSS feeds can inform email marketing communications. What about the reverse? Web analytics programs track shopping cart behaviour and subsequent email conversions and that information may then alter the content a marketer attaches to a personalized RSS feed. Check and see if your email service provider offers a shared RSS–email profile for the multi-channel consumer.

As previously stated, Web 2.0 is all about social computing. Now we all know about email marketing’s classic “refer-a-friend” technique. Social computing has enhanced “refer-a-friend” programmes: technology changes have evolved traditional “lead capture” techniques into a more Web 2.0 “involve a friend” approach. The traditional referral program just asked for friends’ names. Now you involve them. I know one such example in which a DIY chain in the US allowed customers to design a room online (paint colours and all) and then email different versions to friends. Those friends then voted on the décor choices, and in the process, received an invitation to opt into the company email newsletter. And as a great side benefit, the marketer was able to glean some of their personal preferences based on the décor choices they rejected or selected!

Overall, email was crucial in the Web 1.0 value chain. For example, the marketer would decide what product was “on offer” that week and push out email offers to the opt-in email list. Or, the marketer would use the website navigation hierarchy to drive purchase (e.g. promotions on the home page). Product relevance to the target email list was not necessarily high, it was simply what was being promoted that week.

In the Web 2.0 value chain, the consumer decides which products are most interesting to them through keyword searches or blog recommendations. The purchase is then initiated from deep inside a website – where the search navigation drops the user – and hierarchical web site navigation (i.e. starting on the home page) is ignored. If the shopping process is abandoned, remarketing emails can push a consumer over the finish line. Therefore email closes the “search loop.” Other places a marketer can use email is to encourage a customer to retrieve forgotten shopping bags, or share wish lists with family and friends.

So it’s not that email is no longer relevant in a Web 2.0 world, quite the contrary. It’s simply shifted position….which might be interpreted by some as a demotion. However, the better way to look at it is that email now completes the conversation, or prolongs the marketer/consumer dialogue, rather than starting it.

For those of you involved directly in email marketing, I will be one of 4 speakers at the IDMs email marketing course in May 2007.
http://www.theidm.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseAction=contentDisplay.&chn=5&tpc=123&stp=99&pge=19492

The course is led by David Hughes, and will also include presentations from Mike Teasdale, Steve Kernish and myself.

These 2 day courses are very thorough, and cover all aspects of email marketing including acquisition, testing, pitfalls, deliverability, ISPs, spam filtering etc.

http://www.theidm.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseAction=contentDisplay.&chn=5&tpc=123&stp=99&pge=19492

For any of you who commute anywhere near Victoria Station, you have the opportunity to witness an event that is uniquely a part of digital culture. There is a Flash Mob happening at 18:53 on Wednesday 4th April.

http://www.mobile-clubbing.com/

What does this mean?
Thousands of people will coordinate with each other using the internet to be in the same place at the same time. When the clock strikes 18:53 they will crank up their iPods and begin dancing as though they were in a nightclub.

Usually they only last a few minutes, but I would suggest if you get you chance you go down and watch.

The last one was at Paddington station and can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHehPb-Wj40

A little while ago I took part in a roundtable at Netimperative. The session was focused on inactive subscribers and how to rengage them, and it was introduced by Dela Quist of Alchemy Worx, who had just finished a study on this same topic.

For any email marketer this is an important topic, as re-engaging inactive subscribers is often a more cost-effective activity that having to recruit new ones.

We had a great panel on the day:

Dela Quist, Alchemy Worx
Anthony Chenery, Teletext
Mike Weston, Silverpop
Denise Cox, Newsweaver
Jennifer Curtain, Newsweaver
Mary Hirst, Pricejamieson
Sophie Townsend, iPoints
Andrew Gerrard, Consultant
Brenda Hobday, Boss Marketing
Roz Brown, iPoints
Robin Caller, Goallover
Paul Marchong, Two Way TV
Elly Towns, Norwich Union
Dax Hamman, Bluestreak
Andrew Robinson, Lyris
Chris Mason, Catapult Digital
Satin Dattani, Intelitracker
David Ding, WebOptimiser
Charlie Lines, Netimperative
Robin Langford, Netimperative

To listen to, or download, the two sessions, please click below:
https://www.netimperative.com/2006/12/11/Email_Marketing_RT