Archive: January 2011
Geek love in Portland
Today, we’d like to send out a proverbial Valentine’s Day card to the tech community in Portland. Geeks just rock our world. We loved you even before technology made you powerful and Wired made you fashionable. This love is the real deal.
And you know who else loves geeks? The City of Portland. Portland is like a Judd Apatow film realized. Here, the nerds, geeks and freaks rule the land, and it’s a big part of why this town is so awesome. Portland likes them so much that the Mayor’s office has launched an initiative to promote and expand the tech community. As a company in town (and as a company that is hiring), we support that.
This weekend, one of Emma’s own, the esteemed Selena Deckelmann, is headed down to San Francisco to attend the She’s Geeky unconference to network with a bunch of women possessing mad skills. Founded in 2007, She’s Geeky gives geeky women from across the land a place to support, educate and share experiences with each other. One of Selena’s goals is to meet women programmers with an interest in moving to Portland. She might even be holding a handmade sign that says, “Work in Portland. It rules!”
Working in Portland does rule. The tech community is rich with talent and activity, and there’s plenty of room to join the movement. Even better, there’s lots of opportunity. Here at Emma, we’re looking for talented developers to join our team, and our friends at Puppet Labs, Urban Airship and About Us are also hiring.
Oh, and if you’re planning on attending She’s Geeky and want to connect with Selena, drop her a line here. She’d love to tell you the 40,000 reasons why Portland is the cool kid you should get to know.
You can read more about our job openings here.
Our Facebook poll sparks a discussion
Last week, we posted a quick poll on Facebook about our email sending strategies, and we were happy to see so many fans weigh in. What’s equally wonderful is their willingness to share their strategies with others and keep the dialogue humming.
We asked, “Do you send one newsletter per month? Or do you send more or less frequently? Tell us and share your reasons.” View the results on our Facebook wall, and take a look at a few of the responses here:
- “We take the best of our blog and share it with our list every quarter.” – Tim Frick, MightyBytes
- “We publish 3 monthly, 1 bi-monthly and 2 quarterly e-newsletters, each to specific audiences and with specific goals. We also publish 2-5 ad hoc email communiques each month depending on the time of year.” – Mike Barzacchini, Mike Barzacchini Communication
- “Once a month, except December – 4x. I’m in retail. Concerned that more than once a month would be a turn off to clientele.” – Susan Iris Landa, The Fossil Cartel and Let It Bead
- “We try to keep our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages very active during the week so our students and fans can know what is going on while also getting a meatier communication via your newsletter system monthly. We’ve found the diverse marketplace of our demographic (18-60+) have so many preferred ways to reach them (Facebook, email, phone, newsletter, Twitter…) that the only way to truly embrace their needs is to be as diverse as they are in our communication strategies.” – Momenta Workshops
All of these great responses got us thinking about sending frequency and segmentation, namely…
1. How do you know when you’ve reached the point of saturation?
Some folks rely on gut feeling or personal experience, knowing that they don’t appreciate an over-cluttered inbox. Make sure to employ the response metrics at your disposal as well. For example, do your opt-out rates increase when you send more or less frequently? Do open rates increase or decrease? If you’ve noticed a shift in either direction, it’s worth some attention. And check out Megan’s post with more tips for avoiding the affliction known as email overload.
2. Are you segmenting your Emma audience appropriately?
Remember that your audience is made up of a variety of members with different tendencies and needs. Your biggest fans may want to hear from you more than once a month, while others prefer less frequent communication. Use Emma’s search and segment feature to create audience groups based on location if you’d like to send more regularly to subscribers in your home city, based on or purchase history, if you’d like to concentrate on recurring buyers. The best way to gauge audience preferences? Ask them.
3. What’s your content strategy?
While it’s important to consider sending frequency, don’t forget that your best ammunition is your content. If you’re crafting stories that people love, they’ll find time to read (and share with their friends) at any time of the week or month. Your sending schedule can be as flexible or rigid as you like, as long as you’re taking the time to develop compelling content.
4. Have you diversified your communication channels?
As our friends at Momenta Workshops recognize, your communication strategy should extend past email. An integrated approach — using email, social media and, yes, even phone calls — means you’ll reach each sector of your audience at the time(s) they’re likeliest to be receptive.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our Facebook poll! If you’d like to contribute more to the conversation, please leave a comment here.
Fancy that: Valentine’s Day design
Here at Emma, we often say that your emails should be personal, timely and stylish. But how about making them a little romantic every now and then? Our brand-new, limited-edition design theme for Studio Design is here to help you promote your Valentine’s Day festivities in style.
(These examples are in black and white because part of the beauty of Studio Design is that you pick your favorite combination of elements and textures and colors … and then a designer makes a custom creation based on all of your selections.)
Let’s take a look at a few of my favorites from the new gallery.
Heartstrings texture
I personally envision this pattern being repeated in the background of a stationery header, paired with the cupid motif (look for element #6 in the Valentine’s Day gallery as you’re building your design) to create a dynamic contrast of the cupid sketch versus the simple, tiny hearts cascading down the header.
I think that playing with a twist on typical Valentine’s Day colors (perhaps some darker reds with much softer pinks) would add a really nice, interesting touch.
Lace texture
I absolutely love the versatility and sensuality of lace. This texture could easily look polished and sleek, soft and romantic or even vintage-boudoir.
With this texture, the font and color scheme would really have a big impact on the final effect of the design, so be sure to think through what the goal of your stationery is before making your selections.
Lovebirds element
Lots of people like to go the traditional route with hearts and flowers, but how about something more unexpected like these sweet birds? This image will convey the same romantic tone, but in a fresh way. The illustrated look of these lovebirds adds an especially warm touch.
Rose element
The rose element looks classy and fabulous, and I would especially love to see it blooming out of the edge of the stationery.
When placed over our texture options, it really pops aesthetically and is a great visual summation of Valentine’s Day.
Hearts texture
This is a cutesy texture that works into that hand-made, collage-chic aesthetic, and it would pair nicely with some of our other illustrative options. It wouldn’t really have to be overtly romantic because a slightly offbeat color scheme could easily lend a more alternative, funky-flirty vibe to the design.
Ready to request your Valentine’s Day Studio Design? Head on over to the form if you’re a current customer, or give us a shout if you’d like to open an Emma account.
Painting (and singing) in the rain
Selena, Michelle, Kris and Jenny from Emma's Portland office were on hand to brighten the day.
On Saturday, January 15th, a few folks from Emma’s Portland office teamed up with the extraordinary Hands On Greater Portland to participate in the MLK Day of Service. We’ve long been fans of the Hands On Network, which connects volunteers all across the country with opportunities to create and sustain positive change through local service. For our project, we headed over to the Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare facility to put a fresh coat of paint on their ground floor.
Cascadia supports people in the Portland community struggling with mental illnesses, addiction and homelessness. Through services ranging from mental health counseling, crisis intervention and addictions treatment to transitional, residential, and permanent housing, they empower individuals to find recovery, hope and opportunity.
Our day began in typical Portland fashion with soft pattering rain — the perfect kind of weather to hunker down with an awesome group of volunteers and brighten up the facility. We painted and rolled while listening to a hilarious soft rock station, occasionally pausing for spontaneous sing-a-longs to classics like “Eternal Flame” and “Right Here Waiting for You.”
When we finally peeled off the tape and cleared the dropcloths, it was a brand new room, bright and cheerful, reflecting the vision of Cascadia’s mission of hope. We rounded up the day at Alameda Brewhouse. Over pints of beer, we toasted Hands On, Cascadia and all the people who work to improve the quality of life in this incredible town we are proud to call home. Hats off to you all.
Things we love: Weekly link digest emails
A few weeks ago, I started to hear some buzz on Twitter for a new site called JavaScript Weekly. It’s a simple digest of notable articles from the past week curated by Peter Cooper.
This kind of site is fairly common: a link blog or “tumblog.” What makes this site interesting is that it’s not a blog — it’s an email newsletter.
A simple, smart way to deliver content.
This is such a great way to deliver relevant content to an interested audience. I immediately thought, “I could do that!” And if you keep up with articles and blog posts relevant to your business’s industry, I’ll bet you could too.
For example, if you collect links with a service like (the now nearly defunct) Delicious, Google Bookmarks or (my personal favorite) Pinboard, you’re already collecting a ton of great content that you could be sharing in interesting ways. Grab some of those links, add some brief descriptions and wear out that “Create a New Mailing” button, folks.
P.S. Here’s my collection of personal bookmarks in case you need some nerdy inspiration.
Design showcase: Some favorites from 2010
For this month’s edition of the showcase, some of our designers picked a few of their favorite stationery creations from the year. The selection represents a diverse range of clients, and we like how each design clearly reflects both the personality of the brand and the skill of the designer.
Client: Centennial Pediatrics
Emma designer: Elizabeth Williams
Design level: Concierge Design
Centennial Pediatrics is a Nashville-based health care center and a leader in pediatric research and parent education. They already had a solid logo and some good-looking supporting graphics to work with, so Elizabeth’s primary challenge was to enhance those images for the world of email. It turned out to be a great working relationship, and the resulting stationery became one of Elizabeth’s favorites from the year.
“I loved working with these guys, and they were super pleased with the stationery,” says Elizabeth. “They weren’t sure how to incorporate their website elements into the design at first, but it turned out to be a fun design for parents and kids alike.”
Client: Julie Hanna Photography
Emma designer: Kelly McClain
Design level: Concierge Design
When Julie Hanna requested stationery for her photography business, she wasn’t sure about the style she wanted to convey. She wanted a visually compelling design, but nothing that would distract the eye or detract from her logo. She sent us a photograph of a woman wearing a scarf that she found particularly beautiful, and Kelly used it as inspiration for the design.
“I tried to create a look that had a similar, flowy feel to it,” says Kelly. “I was excited to experiment with different styles because she was so open to trying something new. I ended up layering textures to achieve the final look, and it turned out really well.”
Client: U Scoop
Emma designer: Taylor Schena
Design level: Stationery Suite
Maddy from Uscoop needed a decidedly collegiate feel in her stationery design, and she wanted it to be fun. Taylor had the additional challenge of creating a full stationery suite of three designs without a finalized company website to use as reference, and without any supporting graphics beyond the logo. Fortunately, Maddy gave her several inspiration files and the thumbs-up to try some new ideas.
“We talked on the phone about their company, their demographic and business goals, and what they wanted to accomplish with their stationery,” says Taylor. “They really liked type with personality — scripts, academic looks and hand-made styles — and they also had an affinity for wood grain textures, old books and paper textures. But they didn’t have anything specific to provide, so it was really fun because I had so much creative freedom.”
Client: Gill Lindsay
Emma designer: Jessica Peoples
Design level: Custom greeting card
When Gill Lindsay decided to send her save-the-date notices via email, she went straight to Jessica, one of our senior designers. Jess also got married recently, so working on this design created a special moment for her to share with her friend. (Author’s note: Congratulations to both of the happy couples!)
“I loved this one so much because it’s personal, simple and inviting,” says Jess. “It’s always exciting to add drawn elements, and I love using design to make people smile.”
For more examples of Emma brand stationery, click here. Ready to request your own? You can reach us here if you’d like to open an account, or here if you’re a current customer.
Here’s to a design-filled 2011,
Your Emma Design Team
How to avoid overloading your customer’s inbox
We’ve been hearing lots of chatter about the impact of email marketing on the 2010 holiday shopping season for retailers. Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that the largest retailers increased their email marketing campaigns by 15% over the 2009 season and, on average, large retailers sent out 152 emails per subscriber in 2010.
The article includes a quote from Responsys Research Director, Chad White, who cautions that the increase in volume could have consequences, namely that “subscribers might either opt out or they’ll tune out, or, worst of all, they might file a spam complaint.”
Very true, Mr. White, we couldn’t agree more. And that’s the rub. While email marketing remains the most cost-effective, most trackable direct marketing method and is still the champ when it comes to marketing ROI, those juicy returns only come with forethought to strategy and smart implementation.
A few things to consider before upping your frequency:
- Prepare your audience in advance. Encourage your recipients to update their preferences or answer a survey prior to increasing your volume. This simple step can build trust and decrease opt-outs and complaints.
- Segment your audience and target your messages accordingly. Gone are the days of the mass e-blast (or as I call it, the e-bludgeon). Send targeted campaigns highlighting products and deals that you know will appeal to smaller segments.
- Pay close attention to response rates and be flexible. Don’t send it and forget it. Check your data for trends that show negative or positive reactions and then adjust your strategy accordingly.
- Be purposeful. While the holidays are an obvious time to increase your sending, look for opportunities (an event, a new product launch, an off-season sale) to up your frequency throughout the year.
With a little strategy and planning, you’ll be on your way to email marketing greatness and an increased bottom line.
Videos in email? Yes, please.
How two customers increased audience engagement with videos in their email campaigns.
You know how it’s fabulous to celebrate your birthday for your entire birth month? (Is that just me?) We feel the same way about celebrating the new year: The month of January is meant for resolution and reinvention. Whether at home or at work, it’s time to set new goals and pave the way for a smarter 2011.
If you aspire to refresh your email marketing efforts this year, resolve to add video content to your emails. Video is a personal, interactive addition to your campaign strategy, and it lends your campaign an extra boost of expertise — you can show off a new product, highlight the happenings at a recent company event or give a virtual tour of your store or office space. Further, you’ll be able to track who clicks to watch your video, and then you can follow up accordingly.
Take a look at this fantastic email from Asking Matters, a team of fundraising experts in New York who help their members effectively ask for donations and funds. The campaign received a strong 20% click-through rate, and the video was its most popular link by far. They’ve extended the conversational tone of their email in a video of the same ilk, and they’ve included friends and colleagues in the conversation. Asking Matters also got extra traction out of the video by posting it on their blog with a full list of resolutions gathered.
Visit their website
Sign up to receive their newsletter
You may have noticed that Asking Matter’s video was not embedded directly in the email. Mail servers aren’t fans of bulky videos, and many servers will often outright block an email that contains an embedded video clip. Keep in mind, too, that not all recipients will have the same video player at their disposal. And an embedded video clip cannot feasibly be tracked.
Instead of embedding the video in your email, a better bet is to post your video online — on YouTube, Vimeo or your company’s website — and link your recipients to it. Take a screenshot of your video, save it as a jpeg or gif and add it to a ‘your image here’ placeholder in Emma. Then, link that image to the video clip.
Here’s another great example from Blue Ocean Ideas out of Towson, MD. They help emerging and enduring brands design their logos and messages, build their websites and engage with their social networks. What do we find so engaging about this video campaign? It’s simply designed and allows their subscribers to better get to know co-founders Greg and Brody. And their subscribers must be interested: This video received a whopping 60% click-through rate, a 45% increase in clicks as compared to their fall newsletter.
Visit their website
Follow them on Twitter
What if you’d rather not post your video on your website or a public video site? Emma’s document library lets you upload Quicktime videos, MPEGs, Flash movies, WAV files and more, and then you can link to them right from your campaign.
Ready to try your hand at adding video to your email campaign? Keep these recommendations in mind:
- Choose a video format that’s compatible most everywhere, or consider offering a few different formats.
- Post your video online or upload it to your document library in Emma rather than embedding it in the email itself.
- Center a special campaign around your video content, or place your video in the sidebar of a regular monthly newsletter.
- Remember to check your response numbers, and think about the most appropriate way to follow up with video viewers. You might create a link-based trigger that automatically sends to folks who clicked to view the video.
- Get the most mileage out of your video by cross-promoting it on your blog or Facebook page.
If you’ve added videos to your email campaigns in the past, tell us about them. Or, grab the Online Version of your campaign and share it with us in the comments below.
Giving back and looking forward
We’re looking forward to finding new ways to give back in 2011, and we’re taking a look back at our favorite moments from 2010, too. We had fun finding new ways to push our efforts even further this year and to add in a little creativity wherever possible. I’m so proud of the work Emma does to give back. As you reminisce with us about our 2010 highlights, feel free to give us a shout with any community initiatives that are important to you and your company.
Jessica and Christy with Sam, a favorite on our Meals on Wheels route.
Mobile Meals at St. Luke’s
Every Wednesday, two Emma staffers buddy up and deliver meals around the community for St. Luke’s. The route lasts about an hour and is a perfect break from the regular workday. Not only do we get to chat with a colleague and maybe even discuss another new project we’re working on, but we also get to meet some folks around Nashville and be a part of their lives. Sam seems to be a favorite — he loves the Emma crew, always keeps his yard pristine and is often at the door with a perfectly knotted tie.
Another good friend is Sergy, who’s originally from Russia and has a to-die-for smile and peppy attitude. Sadly, his pup passed away a few weeks ago. We all knew and loved that dog, so we found the perfect card for Sergy — no words, just photos, so that he would know we were thinking of him despite the language barrier.
Kiva
Our involvement with Kiva warms us up like hot cocoa. It’s a fantastic organization that helps empower small businesses around the world with entrepreneurial loans. Throughout this year, we’ve lent money to 25 different people trying to start businesses in countries ranging from Benin to Lebanon, Kenya to Costa Rica, Nicaragua to Iraq. We can’t wait to get this year’s loans started; already on the 2011 giving list are start-ups in Uganda and the Kyrgyz Republic.
DonorsChoose
Did you hear about the lady who covered all of the DonorsChoose California requests? That was Emma. Just kidding — but we *were* inspired by that incredible example of generosity. We’ve been working with DonorsChoose for quite a while now, and the California story has been a great motivator for us to push ourselves further. In 2010, we covered costs for 35 classrooms in need. Many teachers go to work every day without adequate supplies to teach their students, and DonorsChoose allows teachers to post their needs online and request help from anyone who wants to give. As with Kiva, our staffers volunteer and select the classrooms online. Then the best part, of course, is seeing all the sweet thank you notes from the cute kids.
Kelli, Elizabeth and Mary Claire enjoying the Jack and Back ride.
“Bike to Jack and Back” Bike MS
Every year, Jack Daniel’s sponsors a two-day bike ride from Nashville to their legendary distillery in Lynchburg, TN, and then back to Nashville. When a staffer forwarded an email about the event to the rest of the company, we quickly realized how many Emma friends and family have been affected by multiple sclerosis. For the first time this year, we had a whole team of riders and volunteers involved in the event, and we began our planning and training in April.
The best part was our not-so-silent auction. We created a sort of online marketplace where anyone from Emma could bid on goods and services offered up by other staffers, and all the money went toward Bike MS. Items staffers offered for auction included eating tapas with our CEO Clint Smith while listening to ’80s rock music and one-day-only rights to have Community staffer Kelli Liszka do backbends on command. We had a blast and raised more than $5,000.
Some other organizations we supported this year:
- Hands On Nashville
- Feeding America’s Backpack Program
- Halloween at St. Luke’s
- Blood:Water:Mission
- Clips of Faith Beer and Film Tour
Does your company also love to give back? Let us know what kind of groups inspire you … we want to hear your ideas.
Want to work at Emma? Our sales team is hiring
What is Emma’s New Years resolution? To hire more sales people for our Nashville office, of course!
We’re adding to our direct sales team here in Nashville. Our current roster includes folks with proven selling skills, strong customer service backgrounds and a healthy knowledge of technology and online marketing trends. Emma is a bastion of personal service, and that commitment infuses everything we do – so any potential customer’s interaction with us starts with a top-notch sales experience that is decidedly not “salesy.”
What might an Emma “non-salesy” sales person do all day? Allow me to take you on a tour (and we’re walking, we’re walking). My typical day starts with reaching out to folks who inquire about our services. We take a consultative approach to selling, so I dig beyond the basics to help small businesses and non-profits shape their communications strategy, teach them how Emma can be a part of it and help them get started in their accounts.
When I’m not on the phone, I’m answering emails, so excellent verbal and written communication skills are invaluable, not to mention a healthy dose of patience, flexibility and humor. Within an hour’s time, I might find myself teaching a boutique owner how to effectively grow her mailing list, chatting with the IT team of a technology firm about the best way to implement our API and then responding to a non-profit board member with a joke about our shared love of all things bacon-wrapped. Mmm, bacon.
Now it’s your turn to visualize. When you join our team, you’ll be responsible for meeting (and exceeding) a personal sales goal, but you’ll also be working with the entire sales team to reach larger goals. You’ll spend some time each day researching industry trends and helping the sales team stay up-to-date on the changing landscape of marketing best practices. You might find yourself involved in an impromptu Hall & Oates sing-a-long before moving on to work on any number of exciting projects and initiatives around the Emma house. You’ll work closely with other departments to enhance and improve the Emma product and the overall Emma customer experience. We’re all responsible for shaping the future of Emma, and that’s pretty darn cool, eh?
Emma’s open, learn-as-you-go environment encourages an entrepreneurial spirit and a lively workplace atmosphere. That leads us to have more than your average amount of fun on a daily basis, but we’re also focused on our goals. The right candidate to join our team will have that same spirit, drive and work ethic. Love of bacon not required. (Love of Hall & Oates is another story.) Sound like the gig of your dreams? We hope so. Learn more about the position or apply here.
Emma is a member of the Email Sender & Provider Coalition and the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group.
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