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E-mail Marketing & Reputation in a 2.0 World
By Bradly Montague President & CEO NOMAMONT, Inc.

E-mail has become both the most effective marketing medium to emerge since the introduction of television and the most annoying medium for conveying an advertising message. Therefore your reputation is everything. Users are simply able to make a quick decision about your e-mail without even opening it if they don't like what they see in the "Subject" or "From" lines, the delete key is just a click away. As marketers you must also contend with the increasing negative connotation of "spam" a term that is now actively connected in the minds of consumers to ANY unwanted e-mail, even if they are legitimate marketing messages to which recipients have opted in for. Added to your difficult mission, ISPs in response their customers' frustrations have created new barriers. Our experts have examined the ways in which e-mail marketers can manage their reputation.
According to a recent Jupiter Research survey, 60% of business decision makers prefer e-mail and the Internet over other mediums for receiving marketing messages. Not to mention that the cost-per qualified lead can be 5% to 15% less when using online media. Today e-mail is reaching consumers no matter the time of day or where they are. Most marketers say that, for business-to-business offers, the middle of the week especially Tuesday is best; people have too much mail to wade through on Monday, and by Friday they have other things on their mind. For consumers at home, weekends are best; some send on Thursday or Friday, knowing it won't be read till the weekend. One axiom of DM is that longer copy pulls better than shorter. Not so in the digital age "In some ways the comparison between postal and e-mail seems good, but really it's closer to a TV news story where you have to capture them immediately or they're gone," says Media Synergy's Coulman Some marketers prefer personalization; others think offers work best in getting recipients to click open the mail. But the results from testing subject lines can be surprising. Stephanie Healy, interactive sales manager for Omaha Steaks, said a "buy one, get one free" subject line beat out one about "grilling perfect steaks ". On the other hand, for Memorial Day she tested a subject line about getting free franks or burgers with a purchase against one about big savings for the holiday, and the latter was beating out the former.

However, technological limitations, different phone models screen size and e-mail clients all mean that marketers need to carefully craft the messages they plan to send. Once you understand consumer preferences, design the content specifically for its intended use. Make it simple to engage. People will navigate away from an e-mail in seconds if it doesn't load. Today mobile e-mails should be brief and require little scrolling. You should place the call to action as close to the top as is possible. A single-column setup should be implemented because most mobile e-mail readers, including those installed on Symbian devices, Palms and BlackBerrys, can't display multiple side-by-side columns. They will arbitrarily reorganize your message back into a single-column screen. Think about how you link. Hyperlinking text will not always render and remain clickable. Ensure that your links will be clickable by the broadest range of readers possible. BlackBerrys have minimal JavaScript capabilities; marketers should not use scripts within the HTML page. While Apple's iPhone appeals to a broader demographic. The iPhone's unique ability to offer a full-screen Internet experience closer to the personal computer means that design issues aren't as important. No matter what device, mobile e-mail allows for richer messages and other content with an immediacy factor are some of the mobile e-mail opportunities awaiting marketers — and their engaged customers.

Start scoring your e-mail list based on a recency, frequency and monetary (RFM) analysis. Create these lists for future campaigns based on responses to your previous campaigns. You can then identify customers who share the same RFM characteristics as those from the list but to whom you haven't e-mailed a similar communication previously. This way you’re sending out fewer e-mails, the number of people opting out of receiving e-mail from you should be down and your cost of delivery will decline. For example, where you might have sent out 200,000 e-mails in the past for a campaign, you're now getting the same or better results with between 30,000 and 40,000 e-mails. You could then experience a 20% increase in e-mail marketing revenue, a 14% reduction in the number of opt-outs and an overall decrease in e-mail marketing costs by 25%. The positive numbers above are a strong reason to make the change but the real reason is tied to the key driver of delivery to an inbox the “reputation” of the sending IP address. While each ISP has a different reputation assessment formula, many of the leading influencers are hygiene related, such as bounces, spam traps, unknown addresses and complaints. Building RFM programs will enhance your reputation and optimize delivery by lowering the potential for complaints and bounces, and reducing the risk of mailing spam trap names. It will also change your measurement denominator so that all other metrics go up — most importantly, ROI.
Used correctly, e-mail is a cost-efficient tool for nurturing existing leads and formulating an effective marketing campaign. The Direct Marketing Association estimates e-mail ROI in 2008 at $45.65 for every dollar spent. E-mail, while offering a cost-effective way for targeting prospects, allows interested recipients to qualify themselves by simply responding to marketing messages. This saves time and effort for both marketers and consumers.

The bottom line: Don't forget your DM basics just because you're doing e-mail and look at the differences in terms of what the medium offers.

China Plans $440B Stimulus Funding for Renewables
SustainableBusiness.com News

China is planning to invest $440 billion (3 trillion yuan) in stimulus funding on renewable energy, according to an AFP report. The report cites the Beijing Morning Post and a State Energy Administration official who said much of the investment will go towards wind power. The timeframe for the stimulus spending was not reported. China wants accelerate its plans for wind power, aiming for more than 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2020--more than triple the goal of 30 GW announced in 2007. The report follows an announcement made last week by Zhou Xi'an, a director general at the State Energy Administration, stating that China wants 6% of its power to come from renewable energy by 2020 (excluding hydropower)--up from a current level of 1.5%. China currently depends on coal for nearly 70% of its energy production. Last November, China unveiled a $584 billion stimulus package supporting its auto industry, petrochemicals and eight other sectors.

In Related News... The Philippines wants to attact $9-10 billion in investements in renewable energy projects over the next 10 years, and has created generous incentives that go into effect next month. Read Reuters coverage at the link below. Website: planetark.org/wen/53071

Sustainable Packaging To Be A Third of Market by 2014
SustainableBusiness.com News

Sustainable packaging is a fast-growing segment of the global packaging industry, and will grow to 32% of the total market by 2014, up from just 21% in 2009, according to a new report. Plastic-based packaging, which represents 35% of all materials used, will be the fastest-growing sector of the sustainable packaging market over the next five years, according to cleantech analysts at Pike Research. Metal-based packaging, one of the easiest materials to recycle, will continue to be the sector with the highest percentage of sustainability--by 2014, more than 63% of metal-based packaging will be environmentally friendly. Paper and paper-based packaging are the largest sectors with more than 40% of the global packaging market.
“The $429 billion global packaging industry is huge but extremely fragmented, with no clear market leaders,” Pike research managing director Clint Wheelock said. “As such, the move toward sustainable packaging represents a broad-based effort by manufacturers, retailers, industry groups, and governments to promote the design of minimal packaging that can be easily reclaimed. A tremendous amount of innovation is going into reducing energy requirements to manufacture packaging and using more recyclable and compostable materials, but there is still a long way to go.” The report estimates the worldwide market for packaging is currently $429 billion and will surpass $500 billion within five years, an annual growth rate exceeding the total global increase in GDP.
Website: www.pikeresearch.com