It’s the night before A-Level results are announced.

You’re nervous – trying to stay calm with thoughts abounding about what your future might hold.

*ping*

You look across to your email inbox and spy something from UCAS (the organisation that processes university applications) with the subject line ‘You have been accepted…’.

What the…? Have I really been accepted? But results aren’t out until tomorrow?

As your heart starts pounding you click through to the email to find out it’s promotional spam from UCAS regarding Hewlett Packard (HP) laptops. The whole subject line actually read ‘You have been accepted to receive big discounts on HP laptops!’. Here’s a copy of the actual email.

This was the scenario that faced a number of students last Wednesday evening and unsurprisingly many of them were furious to have received the misleading emails – with a number taking to online forums to complain and some even setting up a Facebook group vowing never to buy Hewlett Packard product again.

Arguably the prospective students should be smart enough to know that exam results come by post but today’s freshers were born in 1996/7. They are digital natives, growing up in a world that has always had mobile phones and broadband internet. They find snail-mail quaint and old-fashioned and would expect an organisation such as UCAS to use email for expediency, cost and environmental issues even if a confirmation was later received by post. It wouldn’t be rocket-science to let them know via Facebook.

Then there’s the issue of behaviour and context. Most email clients display the name, date, attachment and subject line so, even on a large monitor, users can only see the first 4 or 5 words of a subject line. Many of us who use email a lot will look at the sender, scan the subject line & guess the content of an email in an instant. Good email marketers know this and use that knowledge.

UCAS are obviously renting-out their mailing-list to raise revenue. There is nothing wrong with that, providing UCAS are transparent about it. Renting (as opposed to selling) mailing lists is a very common tactic and can be a good way for email marketers to reach a specific audience. Someone at Hewlett Packard (or their agency) obviously thought so, or they wouldn’t have seen it as a viable marketing opportunity to sell to students.

UCAS, it must be said, may have done nothing especially wrong beyond acting very naively but surely the actual email content, timing and subject would have been dictated by Hewlett Packard (or the agency acting on their behalf), and they should know better.

To be fair to UCAS it looks like they responded with a prompt explanatory and suitably contrite email to those students who contacted them to let them know their anger, confirming that things were being reviewed internally.

An official statement was also released quickly which underlined their regret at what had happened and suggested that the email had been processed through the usual editorial controls but that the truncation of the email subject line hadn’t been factored in.

It’s easy to see what UCAS were trying to do here and, given they are a charity, this fundraising activity is a key part of keeping costs down. However, abusing their position of influence and getting people’s hopes up at such a sensitive time is incredibly callous.

In a week where we have seen a great example of digital communication that builds trust and positive emotional connections with a brand (see Gillette serves up internet hit) this episode is an example of how things can easily backfire and damage that customer relationship.

At least, thanks to their prompt and honest response to the issue, UCAS has the chance to conduct their internal review and then start rebuilding that trust with engaging, well-timed and informative communication.

It shows Roger Federer serving a ball at a man from approx 20ft and knocking a bottle off his head, not once but twice, before nonchalantly disappearing out of the room to his next meeting. 

The video quickly went viral and, at time of posting, has amassed nearly 2 million views in just over three days. A quick search on Google also shows the video being discussed across the world – Roger was even quizzed about it at his press conference at the Cincinnati Masters. He remained predictably non-committal as to its authenticity.

But where has this success come from? Why did it spread so quickly? Why has it gained so much attention? Well, the behind-the-scenes nature of the clip feels inclusive, human, charming and, of course, it’s an awesome display of sporting skill. It accurately captures the nature of YouTube videos, going further than a typical TV ad and gives us a stolen glimpse of the real person behind the sports star. Sharing this clip helps to build Federer’s brand and, by association, that of Gillette. It’s a win-win all round.

But another aspect of the success relates to the authenticity of the clip. You’ve only got to scroll down the comments to see the intense debate raging between viewers – what about the health and safety implications? If he missed then there’d be all sorts of trouble. Look at his eyes…he’s not looking where he’s serving! But he’s the greatest player of all time – if anyone can do this then Roger can….and so on.

What this ultimately proves is that a successful viral campaign is all about providing content that gets people talking, encourages lively debate and entertains at the same time. It’s easy to believe that a man of Federer’s class and ability could pull this off. But an increasingly cynical modern day audience can take a lot of convincing and there are risks for advertising agencies – and the brands they represent – when obvious practical jokes backfire. Long term customer loyalty – and advertising itself – requires trust to work so a badly executed campaign can do irreparable damage. 

In this case, whether the clip is genuine or not it has been very well executed and pitched perfectly to generate debate with enough reasons to believe that it could be real. As we post, this has appeared on the Gillette UK twitter feed:

For the record, as good as Roger is (and if he is acting here then those skills are on a par with his tennis ability), we’re struggling to find anyone in the agency willing to be his human target the next time he’s in town…

Of course, there’s a lot more to great email communications than I can go into in a blog post, so this is just an overview to help you see if yours are being as effective as they could be.

Have a Plan
Email marketing has been around for a long time and has evolved into a serious business tool with specialist software, guides for writing & design and best-practice policies. It can be succesful on its own but, like most channels, it works best when part of an integrated strategy. That’s why it’s important that all these involved understand where your email comms sit in your overall plan, even if that means it sits outside of it.

Getting Read?
If people aren’t opening your emails, you won’t get your message across. Make sure your subject lines are pithy enough to catch attention and get opened. The “right” subject line will always depend on your audience, so bear them in mind when writing it.

Make sure you’re not using the kind of terms and keywords in the subject (and body) that get caught by spam filters or you’ll never make it to the inbox. “Special Discount Offer” is instantly marked as spam and many corporate spam filters are especially harsh. Most email marketing services can and should test your email’s content for a “spam rating” before sending, saving you wasted time and effort.

Tracking open-rates can provide some useful statistics but open-rates are not 100% accurate and should never used as the sole metric to measure your email’s success. Tracking open rates is better suited to spotting trends, for example: indicating which subject lines trigger higher open rates.

Be Clear
Most people have better things to do than read a corporate email, so make it absolutely clear what you want the reader to do. If you want them to read a blog post or buy a product, make that very clear in the design. Clear calls to action that are immediately visible when an email is opened let the reader know what they’re in for, allowing them to make an instant decision.

Tracking clicks is a far more useful and accurate metric to gauge how well your email is performing. We often track which readers showed an interest in which link, providing info on the most popular content and the opportunity follow-up on those leads where relevant.

Give Value
An email doesn’t just need to contain marketing content & discounts. It can contain industry news, views, interviews, charts and graphs, links to blog posts and anything that is relevant to your readership. Try to provide at least one thing that will help your reader to do their job,to look good in front of their boss or give them a smile. And remember, they have given you permission to contact them, so don’t abuse their trust or you’ll lose them and never win them back.

It’s always worth checking out the competition so sign-up to their emails. Review them and set your own benchmarks against them. Try and find where can you make improvements on theirs or how can you generate better value to your readership? Never assume they’ve got it right, though, and never copy them because the chances are you share some of the same readers.

Join it up
Always link back to your website. You don’t need to send volumes of text in an email and it’s more likely to get read if you keep it short & pithy, linking back to your website for more information. You might include links the most popular pages, products or search terms on your site because, after all, we’re looking to save people time and effort.

If you’re business is active in other online spaces like a blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube, include links to those places, too.

Your readers are far more likely to do something if you make it easy for them so, if you mention something a product, event or something you liked, try to provide a link directly to that information instead of your home page.

Try It Out
Even the most gifted and experienced marketer can only give you their best guess, so try to factor in some testing-time for your email before you send it to everyone. Create a few small test groups and try different versions of your newsletter, a different subject line, lead offer or article. A little testing and refinement can dramatically increase your open and click-through rates.

Get Real
Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Lunar Calendar? Think about how much resource you can commit and how often your readership wants to hear from you. If you publish important financial news, your readers may want to know about it every day at 8am but that may not be true for a volume house builder.

Generating enough valid, topical content for a daily or weekly email can quickly suck-up a lot of time & resources for any business, so monthly or quarterly may be more appropriate. Whichever route you take, be regular, reliable and consistent.

Targeting & Personalizing
When I go into my local corner shop, Dave the shopkeeper greets me by name and asks if I want “the usual paper”. He might also tell me what he’s planning to do with the drinks refrigerator or ask my opinion whether they should put the chocolate in the fridge during summer and he will ask about my family. He does with all his customers because he values our custom, our opinion and sometimes he acts on it. He doesn’t do email marketing but he does demonstrate all the skills required for personalized engagement with a consumer.

It’s so easy and normal to personalize an email with the recipient’s name that it’s hardly worth mentioning but if you look into your contacts database you might find a lot more useful information. You might have recipients’ location, purchase history or other data and, if so, you can create more personalized and potentially more effective emails.

You could segment your database by region and invite those people to an industry event or give a regional offer. If you know their purchase history you can see which readers bought which products and when, tailoring offers around their purchases. Of course, getting a Happy Birthday message from your insurance broker might be a bit creepy, so don’t go crazy.

Creating different content for every group of readers can be time-consuming but it can also generate much more effective campaigns, but judicious use of personalized content doesn’t have to be hard-work.

Timing
Tying your email marketing to events, seasons, national holidays etc is a simple way to stay relevant but you have to be ahead of the game. Proclaiming how well you performed at a trade show last month means that you missed the chance to invite them along. Plan ahead to stay relevant and generate more impact.

There has always been a lot of speculation and discussion about the best time to send marketing emails. Should they go out monday at 11am or Thursday at 2pm? The simple answer is, pretty much anytime (within reason) as long as it’s consistent.

Get Me Out of Here
Always make it easy for people to unsubscribe. You can can even make that process fun with cheeky farewell messages.

It’s also important to keep your database clean and up to date. How often you do that is up to you. Make sure those who unsubscribed are removed and, if an address bounces more than a couple of times, remove it. If you’re tracking open rates, ask those that are showing as “not opened” if they still want to receive your emails. Remember open rate tracking isn’t always accurate so only delete those that say “no”, or bounce.

Never forget, it’s not numbers that matter but an readership that is willing to hear from you.

At BMB, we offer a huge range of services from the purely strategic consultancy to content creation, creative and technical, providing our clients with everything they need for effective digital marketing campaigns. Get in touch for a chat if you’d like to know more.

This is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to email marketing. I haven’t even mentioned issues with HTML formatting, for example, but if you’ve got anything you’d like to add or any suggestions, please pop it in the comments.

The fact that we had previously scooped their award for stand design and build supplier of the year meant we had an enviable reputation to live up to – and the challenge for our creative team was intensified as we had a 2m x 2m space in which to communicate our message.

Yet again our Live team excelled themselves with an eye-catching concept that put the frighteners on our competition and left a number of the show visitors open-mouthed.

The focus of the stand was on our capacity to develop powerful creative solutions – so who better to demonstrate this than one of our top creatives?

However, with clear evidence that his explosive capacity for original design had seriously wounded several of our clients’ competitors, he needed to be suitably restrained in public.

A padded cell, mask and strait jacket did the trick. Along with advice to visitors that they shouldn’t get too close unless they had a challenging brief with which to defend themselves.

Thankfully, there were a number of brave visitors willing to step up and take a closer look, ask some questions and have a read through our case study newspaper.

And for those of you wondering…we didn’t have any fava beans but managed to keep visitors refreshed with some fine Chianti. (Click on image to view more)

This summer Luton Culture is hosting the Luton Summer Season, which comprises the annual Stockwood music concerts, the Luton Fringe Festival of comedy, music, theatre and dance, and the Luton Summer Festival – a series of free events taking place in the centre of town.

In previous years, the three elements of the Summer Season each had their own brand identity meaning that there was no visual cohesion between the different events. Under the guidance of our design and production team, the students were tasked with rectifying this and creating a youthful and engaging identity for the Summer Season and its three sub-brands before applying the results to various elements of the promotional campaign which included bill boards, brochures, flyers and press advertisements.

The students rose to the challenge and used a combination of distinctive illustrative characters, bold colours and stylish typography to create an instantly recognisable brand with appeal for the season’s varied target audience. Luton Culture were delighted with the finished results, all items have now been printed and delivered and the students have some exceptional work to add to their portfolio.

With designers like these making their way into the industry, the future of creativity in Bedfordshire is in safe hands.

]]> http://www.bmb.uk.com/2010/07/14/inspiring-creative-excellence/feed/ 0 http://www.bmb.uk.com/2010/07/09/brand-engagement/ http://www.bmb.uk.com/2010/07/09/brand-engagement/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:50:06 +0000 Mark Sowerby http://www.bmb.uk.com/?p=3636 Creative minds meet serious business challenges. See the results below.

Fully integrated into our PR, marketing, advertising and communications teams, we use our strategic and creative experience to develop effective, innovative digital campaigns that focus on tactical output with measurable results.

Underpinned by a highly skilled and technically proficient development team, we’ve delivered major applications for a range of blue chip companies. These include online vehicle ordering tools for the likes of Saab, Vauxhall & Chevrolet alongside real-time customer verification systems for their dealer networks. We have created real-time booking & fulfilment systems for Big Yellow Self Storage in addition to data driven, content-managed sites for the likes of Travis Perkins.