Author Archive: Molly Niendorf
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5 questions with Peter Shankman
A bonus round with this week's Talking with Tom participant
Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique social media, marketing and PR strategy firm located in New York City. He’s the author of two books, Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them and Customer Service: New Rules for a Social-Enabled World, and he’s participating in Tom Martin’s social experiment, Talking with Tom. Go take a look at his interview with Tom, and then read below for more from Peter.
Describe your role in eight words or fewer.
Entrepreneur, VP at Vocus, Small Business Evangelist
What’s the most interesting thing happening in your industry right now?
The horrible economy is inspiring tons of people to make that radical change and start their own small business. It’s exciting as hell.
What inspires you?
Attempting that which has never been done before. Fear tastes good.
Which companies are leading the way in social media and customer service?
Morton’s Steakhouse, United Airlines, Starwood Hotels
What brand do you love right now?
About to turn my whole bathroom into one giant Moen Faucets and Fixtures bazaar, so I’d say them.
And a sixth bonus question …
You can invite any four people to happy hour. Who’d be there?
Richard Branson, Hugh Hefner, Bill Clinton, Jason Statham
Email strategy with Ashley Knecht
Mountaineers Books' digital media manager talks about audience engagement, triggers and more
Just another day for Ashley in Seattle's "backyard"
We are a nonprofit book publishing company, which is pretty unique. We were started by our parent company, The Mountaineers, an outdoor organization/club in Washington state. We have been dedicated to creating outdoor titles for over 50 years, and have grown to include two imprints, Skipstone Books (green lifestyle) and Braided River (conservation advocacy). In a time when publishers are scrambling, we’re working on mastering social media, redesigning our website, offering the most digital content of any outdoor publisher and becoming an email marketing super power. Plus, we’re crazy about the outdoors, which makes us super cool.
How long have you been using Emma, and how has the size and composition of your list changed?
We began using Emma in December of 2010. Our list started with people we’d gathered over the years with our old system. Using Emma, we created a mildly complex signup form that asked for name, email, state and outdoor interests. This way when we have a book coming out about stand up padding, for example, we can send our email only to the people who identified that they enjoy water sports. This has kept our open rate around 30-40%.
With our homepage signup form, we’ve only gathered 130 new names since December. But, in early March, we began offering small sections of our books to people using custom signup forms and triggers containing downloadable content, and we’ve gathered 1,409 (over 900 coming from one single download promotion) new names since the program began. With the hiking season in full effect, I’m creating downloads of free hikes like crazy, and the signup numbers have continued to rise!
We recently partnered with the Washington Trails Association, offering people who visit their site a free hike from our Backpacking book if they sign up for the Washington Trail Association and Mountaineers Books newsletters. Using our Emma signup form and a trigger, we gathered 956 brand new email subscribers in just five days. Five days!
I want desperately to learn the interests of our original subscribers (who we don’t have that info for). I even offer people a discount each quarter for updating their preferences and telling us their interests.
Using custom signup forms and triggers to offer content from your books is a fantastic idea! Tell us how you set this up and the kind of content you create.
We publish hiking guides, narratives about climbers, how-to books and more, so we have a lot of great content that is easy to piece out in small sections without losing the feel of the whole book. I ran a report of our top selling web titles of 2010 and began making small downloads for each book. Take our book, Day Hiking Snoqualmie Region, for example. From the digital book version I created three individual hikes people could download. I created three different signup forms in Emma, each with the name of the hike I would be offering. So, I made a PDF of the Twin Sisters hike, then made a signup form called Twin Sisters and then an email campaign called Twin Sisters. In the email campaign, I included the book cover, details about the hike and a link to download it for free. When someone submits their info to the Twin Sisters signup, they receive the Twin Sisters email with the download link. I place the signup forms on our book product page, as well as on our Freemium Download library for maximum exposure. I tweet about new downloads on Twitter and then repeat this process for all the books I can.
I’m gathering names like crazy. People are happy to subscribe to our newsletter if it means they can check out a free hike/route/content/how-to. Trying out the free hike usually leads them to buy the book. Plus, they already like what we offer, so the unsubscribe rate of our 2011 signups is amazingly low.
Some folks might say that this kind of customization is too time-consuming. How would you respond?
It is time consuming. Very much so. But things that work well that come easy just don’t really exist. If gathering engaged signups in large numbers was easy, none of us would be reading the Emma blog! For a book publisher, getting our content online is critical. So I’m dedicated to doing the work that I need to to ensure that we get new subscribers that are interested in what we have to offer. The turnaround is worth the work.
Are there additional Emma features you use to reach your audience on a personal level?
I live for search and segment. And triggers. Those two features sold me on Emma. We try to mass email our list only about four times per year. The topic has to be broad enough to ensure we don’t lose a bunch of subscribers, or I wont send it. Beyond that, I love using search and segment to find all of the people who live in WA and enjoy hiking, for example, so that when I have a new Washington hiking title coming out, I know just who to tell in our next email. That keeps my unsubscribe numbers low, my click-throughs high and my open rates skyrocketing!
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Give trigger emails a try for yourself. Read how-to steps in Emma’s Help Guide.
And the winner of the Last Word survey is … Stephen Colbert!
Can Tom Martin convince him to share his views on digital media?
Stephen Colbert captured 37% of the votes.
Each Monday since January, Tom has shared a new video interview with a leading digital thinker, asking them to answer the question, “What’s next {in digital media}?” He’s assembled an impressive list of folks, and as his last interview approaches in December, we wanted to help him kick it up a notch.
At the beginning of August, we drew up a dream list of possible interviewees for Tom’s 52nd — and final — interview, and after a month of voting by new and old friends alike, the winner is … Stephen Colbert.
Colbert received 37% of the votes on a list of folks that included Bill Gates, Arianna Huffington, Steve Jobs, Marissa Mayer, Kevin Rose, Chris Sacca and Sheryl Sandberg. Steve Jobs and Arianna Huffington came in second and third place, respectively. We also encouraged write-ins and saw suggestions such as Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Warren Buffett and J.K. Rowling. Even will.i.am got a vote.
“We handed the reins to you, the online community, to tell us who you’d like to hear talk about the future of digital media. And you picked a doozy,” says our CEO, Clint Smith. “But that’s part of the fun. The challenge now will be to reach out to Stephen Colbert exclusively through social media and convince him to be part of the video interview goodness.”
Yep, that’s right. Now it’s up to Tom to land an interview with Colbert via social networks alone. He can tweet at Colbert, send him a message on Facebook, try to join his LinkedIn network (A LinkedIn search reveals 256 results for Stephen Colbert – which one is the real Colbert?), make a video request and post it on YouTube, and, well, you get the idea. Think he can do it?
“To quote Yoda, ‘Do or do not. There is no try,’” says Tom. “It’s getting Colbert on camera or fail. I don’t expect it to be easy. I imagine I’ll need to spend a large portion of the rest of the year trying to Colbert to agree to give the last word.”
To follow Tom’s progress, subscribe to Talking with Tom here. And, while you’re there, check out the more than 30 interviews he’s already posted (they’re around two minutes each). Tom will also post periodic updates on his pursuit of Colbert on his blog. And stay in-the-know on Twitter by following @TomMartin and @emmaemail.
Oh, and it goes without saying, if you know Stephen Colbert or someone who knows Stephen Colbert … or someone who knows someone who knows Stephen Colbert, tweet at us. Let’s help make this happen, folks!
Meet UroMed, Inc.
Lisa Wells answers 5 questions and talks about increasing awareness
Lisa is a veteran of online marketing and e-commerce.
What does UroMed do, and how do you use Emma to communicate with your audience?
Most of our customers have chronic conditions like Spinal Cord Injury, Spina Bifida, Multiple Sclerosis and Transverse Myelitis, or have recently undergone surgery for serious conditions like Prostate Cancer and are currently using catheters. UroMed is one of the nation’s leading providers of urological and disposable medical supplies.
We began using Emma in January 2011 as a way to communicate more effectively with thousands of customers, as well as medical professionals and nonprofit organizations that help people with urological conditions. Our monthly newsletters employ a vibrant design and relevant, fresh content that caters to our readers.
UroMed's founder, Bert Burns
Our founder, Bert Burns, became quadriplegic as a result of an automobile accident during his youth. His desire to make a positive difference in the lives of people with disabilities led him to create a free motivational program for peer support and rehabilitation groups called Life After Spinal Cord Injury. Through email campaigns, we share a variety of helpful materials for our community, including information on LASCI events and resources.
As our visibility and outreach have increased through these campaigns, a variety of partners have aligned with us to further assist the wheelchair community. This summer, LASCI partnered with SPORTS ‘N SPOKES magazine, published by the Paralyzed Veterans of America, to provide our peer support group on Facebook with a list of accessible programs, places and events, spotlighting one state per day across the country between July 15-August 15, 2011. Viewers can also post photos of related family vacations and weekend outings on the Facebook pages or in a photo gallery on the S’NS website for a chance to win a range of prizes.
We use Emma everyday to connect our customers and medical professionals with the online resources available at UroMed.com and LASCI’s peer support community on Facebook. Regular visitors to the LASCI Facebook page come from as far away as England, New Zealand, South Africa and the Phillipines. For example, one lady in New Zealand uses content she finds on the LASCI group page to help inspire a peer support group that she leads for paraplegics and quadriplegics in her country.
What’s your best advice to writing accessible, memorable emails?
- Write for your audience’s benefit – not yours or your company’s.
- Illustrate points with pictures the audience will relate to and click on for details.
- Use a personal tone – no one wants to read an email that sounds like you have a banana stuck in your tailpipe. Treat your customers like they’re your friends, but not in terms of slang or being overly familiar. Do use layman’s terms, and answer questions or problems they may have.
- Link, link, link and link some more. The more direct access you provide to customer relational touchpoints, the better.
What do you enjoy most about working with your team?
Many of UroMed’s employees have a personal connection to understanding our customers’ health needs, as 20% of our customer care associates either have a disability or have a family member with a disabling condition. Our company was started by four people more than 15 years ago, and three of them use wheelchairs. It’s pretty hard to complain about your day when you know, firsthand, that your work helps serve your customers, your co-workers and your friends at the same time.
What events or milestones are your colleagues looking forward to this year?
In 2010, Life After Spinal Cord Injury helped more than 600 medical professionals, patients, former patients and family members with information, advice and encouragement. Thanks to the outreach tools provided by Emma and social media, LASCI has already quadrupled that number by July 2011, and our online peer support community has gone global! We are so excited about the impact this motivational program is having on the lives of people who use wheelchairs. The global awareness and accessibility of our resources is increasing tenfold because of the technology resources we’ve employed.
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Want to find out more about UroMed?
+ Thanks to an Emma-powered press release, 11 Alive NBC News in Atlanta heard about their efforts. Check out their take on UroMed’s community impact.
+ Join UroMed’s support community on Facebook.
+ Visit their website to learn more about Bert’s story.
Lisa will be presenting on the topic of social media at the 2011 HME News Business Summit on September 11 in Charlotte, NC.
5 questions with Frank Eliason
A bonus round with a social media expert and this week's Talking with Tom participant
Frank is SVP of Social Media for Citibank. He lives in the Philadelphia area.
What’s the most interesting thing happening in your industry right now?
Within social media it is conversation regarding Google+, and specifically Hangouts that I find interesting. I have always seen video as a disruptive option and hangouts make it easy. I am also fascinated with the notion of social fatigue, although I do not believe it is being discussed heavily right now. I watch my newsfeed on Facebook, as well as other spaces, every day and I am noticing less and less posts by those not associated with social media. I believe this is more fatigue, as individuals decide what they want to share, with whom and how often. In the service industry, I enjoy watching businesses start to realize the impact this social world has on the overall customer experience and how they need to improve that via all customer touch points. Service is the most important aspect to business and now the customer is making that point. Just appeasing those in social is not enough, and not the right approach anyway. If you want customers speaking positively about your brand, you have to provide the experience that would encourage that. It is no longer lip service.
What inspires you?
Passion! I love watching passionate people change the world. I see it through people like Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Brian Solis and others. This is what drives success. For me, I am passionate about the consumer, and I will live that in everything I do.
Which companies are leading the way in social media and customer service?
I still think Comcast is doing a great job. I also like watching Samsung, Dell Time Warner, AT&T and many others. At Citi we strive to lead by finding alternative solutions to better engage customers. As an example, the trouble with banking and social service is customer privacy concerns. Our solution is implementing secured click to chat. If you are talking to a Citi service representative and the conversation drifts to something that requires private dialogue, we can share a link and you will be able to continue the same conversation with the same person in a secured manner. If you are on a mobile device, we can send a similar link that will connect you to a call with the same person.
What brand do you love right now?
I have been an Apple fan for many years. I have also found myself purchasing many Samsung products for around my new home.
You can invite any four people to happy hour. Who’d be there?
Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King. Every one of these individuals were disruptive in their own way yet were able to achieve so much. In responding to this question I was able to think of so many others that would be fascinating, including artists, religious, world leaders (good and bad) and business leaders who truly generated change. I think many of us are doing that today through our thoughts on social media, yet others paved the way for this disruption to take place, and it would be fascinating to learn from them.
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Get involved with Talking with Tom! Vote now to help decide who gets the last word.
5 questions with Sarah Selecky
Sarah is a writer and teacher in Toronto.
Read on to hear Sarah’s refreshing and inspiring answers to five questions, plus a bonus question.
Tell us a little bit about what you do and how you use email to reach your audience.
I’m an author and a creative writing teacher. Last year, when I launched This Cake Is for the Party, I created an email campaign to let everybody on my list know about my book. But mostly I use email to keep in touch with my writing students — my campaigns let them know about my upcoming courses, workshops and contest deadlines, and I give them instruction and inspiration to motivate their writing practice.
Your emails have fantastic response rates (more than a 60% open rate on average). What’s your secret?
I did not build my list in a rush. I’ve always believed that it would be better to have 100 people on my list who really love what I send to them than it it would be to have 1,000 people on my list who don’t really care about my emails. I feel very grateful to the people who subscribe to my newsletters! There is so much stuff that fills our inboxes every day. I am honored that people sign up to receive my emails. So when I write my newsletters, I keep that respect at the front of my mind. I never forget that every single person on my list is a passionate and busy human being. I try to write emails that I would welcome in my own inbox: inspiring and energy-giving (not energy-sucking). I try to keep the clutter out of everything I send. I hate clutter, especially in my inbox!
Since you’re a writer, does crafting good emails come naturally to you? What advice would you give to folks who are staring at a blank email campaign (or blog page or computer screen), feeling stuck?
I wonder if being a writer actually makes it more difficult sometimes! With an email, I don’t have the time to write a draft and go over it for days and send it to an editor to make it “perfect” before sending it. I always take a deep breath and cross my fingers before I press send!
The best advice I can give people who are feeling stuck in front of the page is this: Write your emails and newsletters and blog posts as though you are writing to a dear friend or client. I always use Emma’s personalization feature when I send my emails out, but when I write my newsletter, I pick the name of one of my clients and I actually write the whole letter with that person in mind. I’ll literally write, “Dear Olivia,” and write a letter to Olivia. This makes it much easier to write honestly and openly. I truly care about all of my clients — but when I write my newsletter to a big general group of people, it’s hard to get that care to come across.
Describe your book, This Cake Is for the Party, in 8 words or less.
Stories about people trying to love each other.
Where do you draw inspiration?
From everywhere! But especially the natural world. I live in Toronto, and it’s a big, noisy city. As much as I love it here, I grow noticeably dull (and so does my work) if I don’t pay attention to the way water moves over rocks, or the way an ant crawls up a blade of grass, or the way tree branches look like capillaries. It’s easy to get so busy that I feel out of touch with nature — and this is not good for my writing.
What unrealized dream are you going to fulfill before the end of the year?
This is a big year! I am getting ready to launch an extraordinary digital writing workshop this September. It’s called Story Is A State of Mind, and it is the culmination of what I’ve learned from over ten years of writing, teaching, editing and coaching clients from around the world. I have designed the course for beginners and seasoned writers alike – this course is everything I know about how to write powerful, authentic stories. I am so excited about this because it is exactly the kind of writing course that I would want to take myself. There’s video, audio and text — it’s pretty special.
Of course, I’m also excited to launch this project because once it’s online and ready to go, I will have the time to do something else I’ve wanted to do for a long time — write my next book.
Now in your Emma account: A simplified send page
Sending email campaigns is easier & quicker with a new one-page sending process
See all delivery settings on one page.
- Manage all delivery settings — like from name and address, delivery style, scheduled sending time and more — on one page.
- Change delivery settings at any time without hitting the back button.
- Set up mailings to groups or searches, or based on a triggered event, simply and quickly.
- Confirm delivery settings at-a-glance in the Mailing summary sidebar.
We hope you’ll log into your account and give the new sending process a try. If you notice any trouble, make sure to clear your browser’s cache or hard-refresh the page before continuing. And if you need help along the way, visit our Help Guide or don’t hesitate to get in touch with our support team.
Stylishly formatted email campaigns, part two
How customers are making the most of Emma's layouts
Last month, we brought you five examples of customers using Emma’s simple, newsletter and advanced layouts in stylish ways. We received a lot of great feedback — most notably, that seeing solid campaign examples helps folks conceive their own fresh ideas — and so we wanted to follow up with some more outstanding campaigns.
Take a look at these examples, and why they work so well.
The Jane Goodall Institute (Hong Kong) | Layout: Newsletter 7
Click the campaign example to see the full version.
The Newsletter 7 layout combines alternating text and image boxes — without image captions — and works well if you’ve got short, differentiated articles to feature. (If you like this layout but need image captions, use Newsletter 9.)
Why it works:
- The Jane Goodall Institute does a lovely job creating visual balance. Images are about the same width and height across the campaign, and each story’s copy extends to the bottom of each image, and not much farther.
- They’ve selected images that complement the colors in the stationery’s header, lending a professional look to the email.
Creative Advocacy Network | Layout: Advanced 14
Click the campaign example to see the full version.
In last month’s post, SoDA also used the Advanced 14 layout. Its sidebar is ideal for special offers, ads and reminders. Here, CAN features a “Donate Now” button and an event calendar.
Why it works:
- Images are small and equally sized. (You’re sensing a trend here, right?)
- CAN features longer stories in the main well and reserves the sidebar for short calls to action and reminders.
Brad Paisley | Layout: Newsletter 8
Click the campaign example to see the full version.
Brad Paisley’s account, a sub account of Emma agency partner MusicCityNetworks, utilizes the Newsletter 8 layout to announce ticket sales and details about fan club membership.
Why it works:
- At the risk of sounding like a broken record (no pun intended!), short text blurbs and consistently sized images really do work.
- Horizontal lines, added using the Emma editor’s toolbar, break up sections of the campaign.
Spice of Life Catering Co. | Layout: Newsletter 4
Click the campaign example to see the full version.
Newsletter 4 works well if you’ve got a selection of images to highlight, with a longer story for the main text box on the right.
Why it works:
- The campaign announces upcoming Plated Landscape events (a series of “traveling dinners” in city gardens, fields and on rooftops), paired with images from prior events, to bring life to the events.
- The content in the main text box is a perfect length, minimizing white space at the bottom of the email.
We hope these examples have inspired you, and if you’ve got questions about arranging your campaign’s images and text, our support team is here to help.
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Have you designed a stylish email that you’d like to share? We’d love to see it. Share its URL in the comments below or over on Twitter.
Meet BookPage
How an Emma customer reaches readers everywhere
BookPage distributes a book review publication to more than 450,000 readers monthly through bookstores and libraries. The Nashville-based company also sends more than 270,000 emails per month. Keeping track of all of those emails — and the varying interests of their subscribers — is a challenging task, one that Associate Editor, Eliza Borné, has fine-tuned. Here, we’ll take a look at one of BookPage’s email campaigns and share how Eliza and her team have developed an email strategy that works for them and their growing list of subscribers.
Click to see the full campaign.
The send-off, at-a-glance
+ Sent on Feb 1 at 6:00 am to 25,598 people
+ Open rate: 53.1%
+ Click-through rate: 53.3%
+ 26 social shares
+ Created using a custom layout
BookPage sends their bi-monthly BookPageXTRA, like the one to the left, to more than 25,000 recipients. In the two years that Eliza has been managing XTRA, its open rate has been a steady 40-50% (or more), and it’s now benefiting from an increasing number of social shares on Twitter and Facebook. Maybe even more impressive than that, its list of subscribers has increased by 65%.
These striking results don’t happen over night, and Eliza says they’ve learned a few tricks along the way. Let’s take a closer look at their email strategy…
About their email strategy
In addition to BookPageXTRA, BookPage sends out a bi-monthly newsletter about books for kids and teens, a monthly newsletter to librarians and even a book review a day. They keep track of their subscribers and their preferences by posting a comprehensive signup form on their website. Subscribers select the types of newsletters they’d like to receive, and because the signup form is tied to the appropriate audience groups in Emma, the groups are automatically sorted in BookPage’s account. Just after subscribing, they receive an automatic welcome email. It’s an easy way for BookPage to thank new subscribers and to connect them to additional resources, including links to their YouTube page, blog and more.
Managing Editor Trisha Ping, Associate Editor Eliza Borné and Associate Publisher Julia Steele work on an edition of BookPageXTRA.
At BookPage, email marketing is collaborative. Employees from both the editorial and advertising side of their company come up with ideas — they spend a lot of time brainstorming and plan content in advance — and everyone helps to proof the emails.
Email is the quickest way for them to communicate with their readers, and they want to make sure their content is fresh. Eliza shares some of the ways they keep their readers engaged:
We keep readers excited with “best” lists — we’ve found that our audience responds most to any kind of “most-anticipated” or “top 10″ list. We hook them in the email by giving them the beginning of the list, then ask them to click through for the whole shebang. Click-throughs are important to us because we want our newsletters to introduce readers to BookPage.com and our blog, The Book Case. In the email above, we asked readers to click through to our blog and comment with book titles they’re anticipating but that didn’t make our list. In another XTRA, we crowd-sourced by asking readers for “best list” suggestions (the best of the best lists, if you will). We also include a book giveaway in every email. Our readers know there’s an incentive (free stuff!) in each newsletter.
This kind of content encourages participation and keeps readers coming back for more. Plus, it drives visitors to their website. For example, on June 7 when they sent a BookPageXTRA mailing, 75% of traffic to their site came from their enewsletter.
And they’ve got even more up their sleeves. They recently ran a promotion to get their Book of the Day audience up to 10,000 members. Talk about attractive incentives: they gave away a box of 10 books and a gift card to their 10,000th subscriber, and they encouraged current subscribers to share the promotion via email and social media. Random “sharers” were awarded with books, too. It was wildly popular, earning more than 400 new signups in ten days. And it was a great way to forge connections between their emails, social networks and blog. (Read more about the promotion here.)
Why we like it
An easy-to-spot signup form and segmented audience groups? Check. An auto-responder to welcome new subscribers? Check. Different content for different groups? A varied sending strategy (daily, bimonthly, monthly)? Check and check. A content strategy that takes into account reader participation and re-engagement? Ch– Well, you get the idea. BookPage is doing email marketing right, and it pays off in fantastic response rates, reader loyalty and new subscribers.
In short: Follow BookPage’s lead, and think strategically about your emails. Use brainstorming sessions to mine your team for ideas, think about sending frequency and differentiate your mailings by audience group. Find ways to connect your email strategy to other channels. Must you do it all? Certainly not. But do the things that make sense for your business, and realize that a smart strategy doesn’t just spring forth — it must be sustained.
We’d love to hear more about your organization’s email marketing strategy. Share your success story in the comments below, or tell us over on Twitter.
Emma is a member of the Email Sender & Provider Coalition and the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group.
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