NEW! "What is good about this email marketing message"

I look at email marketing messages a little different than others and that is because I have spent the last 10 years helping companies become smarter about their email messages.  So that being said I want to start by introducing a weekly "What is good about this email marketing message" post.  I hope that these insights can be helpful in your email marketing efforts.  Also if you have comments feel free to share.

Database, Mobile, and Image Based Marketing

Database + Mobile email + Image Based Marketing from Christopher S Munz

Calender support for email marketing

Have an event that you want to promote, maybe a wine tasting, beer tapping or a party for your 25th year in business.  Then you need to continue to read.  As marketers we have certain initiatives each year that are one day events that entail driving mass amounts of people to locations.  One of the hardest parts of creating these events is actually getting people to attend.  Since we live in the computer age and we all have some form of a digital calendar either it be Google calendar, outlook or iCal that we check on a daily bases.

So our email program is a perfect way to seize the opportunity to get on peoples calendar for the events we are planning.  Why not make the a call to action to add the event to your customers calendars so they are reminded of your event.  Below is a great example of a restaurant using this in their email message as well as a how to add an Outlook invite to your email marketing message.  Note that I only have the Outlook option you can also do this with other calendars but could vary based on calendar application.  I look forward to receiving your event messages and adding to my calendar.

Email Message 

Outlook Invite

Brio did a really nice job in introducing you to the offer and then setting the expectation that this is a one day event to create that sense of urgency that every marketer is looking to do.  They then took it one step further and made the secondary call to action to add to your Outlook Calendar as a reminder.

So by know I am sure you are all jumping out of your seat screaming at the top of your lungs "HOW DO I DO THIS".  Well you are in luck here is a quick video showing you how easy it is to:

1. Create the Event in Outlook (Good idea to put details of the Event in the body of the newly created Event.
2. Save Event as .ics file (save to public space within Dropbox
3. copy url of Event from the Dropbox folder.
4.  Place url in Email Marketing Message (Recommend using call to action button)

All in on Social - is it the right strategy?

The other day I was looking thorough my restaurant marketing email folder and came across an email from a restaurant company that has decided to close their email communications channel for good.  Yes that is right for good, shutting the doors on the loyal customers that trusted them enough to give them their address.  I have seen this a few times from restaurants that for what ever reason don't really see the value in the email channel.  I understand in some ways but  I guess I am a little bias in that I see plenty of restaurant groups that are able to balance the social and email world together and in fact help each other with content development.

I have mixed emotions concerning these decisions that marketers make like not continuing their email program.  I do think that marketers do things for a reason and some are better business decisions then others.  Why get rid of the  a loyal customer base that is established and likes to hear from you (this was not verified based on open rates for this mailing but at one time they did raise their hand and said they wanted email from your business) then why not just set different expectations if email is to cumbersome instead of pulling the plug.

What could they have done differently instead of choosing to stop email communication in one swelled swoop.

1. Communicated to the email list that they would only be sending an email once a month or every quarter.  That is if it was time consuming.
2. If it was open rates and traffic based on email it is quite possible they where not being engaged enough with their customers.  Here is a great indicator that they should setup a preference center that asks customer what they want out of a email communication.
3. At the very least have triggers setup for special occasions.  It is proven that with some up front work in the beginning email triggers with the right call to action can drive traffic year round with minimal effort to manage the program.

With that being said any decision about your restaurant marketing need not be taken lightly and all aspects should be well thought out before you pull the plug on a program.  This is why it is super critical to have a digital marketing partner to help advice you on all the variables that are impacting your business.  Don't get caught in the dark because you did not ask the question.