On the heels of ranking #1 in "The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Vendors, 2012" report for the fourth consecutive time, Responsys has been named a "Strong Performer" in "The Forrester Wave™: Cross-Channel Campaign Management (CCCM) 2012" report.

 

One of the industry's foremost independent evaluations of the leading cross-channel campaign management providers, the study looks at how vendors support traditional campaign management capabilities, as well as meet the emerging needs of marketers in cross-channel execution.

 

 

Forrester identified Responsys as "a strong choice for interactive marketers," noting "Responsys' continued growth proves that it can sustain the on-demand, interactive CCCM category it created." Forrester also predicts Responsys is "poised to disrupt the campaign management market by delivering integrated campaign execution focused on interactive customer dialogues."

 

Highlights from the report include: 

·         Forrester found Responsys' Interact Suite customers to be "highly pleased with the product's flexibility, personalization, integration capabilities, and ease of use."

·         Responsys customers were very pleased with the company's level of account management and strategic services, citing the company is a "good partner in the evolution of marketing programs."

·         Nearly all of Responsys' clients gave high marks to the application's ease of use. One client stated that with Responsys, "campaign design is awesome."

·         Clients were well-pleased with the application's cost-to-value ratio. Responsys was the only vendor to achieve the highest score in the cost category (5.0/5.0).

Forrester's findings in both these reports are a strong validation of Responsys' vision and belief that every marketing organization will need an integrated cross-channel marketing platform with strong support for the key interactive channels of email, mobile, social, display, and the web, to reach consumers across the digital customer lifecycle.

 

Download the full report on our website here: http://responsys.com/land/forrester-cccm.php

We're kicking off 2012 with some great news! For the fourth time in a row, Responsys has been recognized by Forrester Research as the leader in email marketing according to "The Forrester Wave: Email Marketing Vendors Q1, 2012" report.

 

We pride ourselves on being the innovator in the email and cross-channel marketing space, so to be recognized since 2005 as a leader in Forrester's Email Marketing Wave is an incredible reinforcement of our team's hard work and commitment to continued excellence for our valuable customers.

 

Highlights from the report include:  

 

• Responsys has achieved the highest overall score in the report and is the only company to be named a leader four times in a row: According to Forrester, "This is the fourth time in a row that Responsys is named as a Leader in this evaluation."
• Responsys is the only company to earn a perfect score in the "Strategy" category and all four sub-categories: "Executive Vision," "Strength of Management Team," "Development Strategy", and "Global Strategy."
• 'Responsys' current offering is 18 months ahead of Contenders': According to Forrester, "Responsys develops a concise corporate vision and then rallies people, plans, products, and positioning toward enabling this vision. The result? Its current offering is 18 months ahead of the Contenders."
• Responsys received highest score in technology platform: Forrester notes, "Responsys lands as a leader for its flexible data model, which allows users to self-define segment parameters while a campaign is running..." and "...for its leadership and clear product vision."

We look forward to partnering with our customers for continued success in 2012. Download the full report on our website here: http://www.responsys.com/land/forrester-wave-email.php.

 

 

I was recently having a conversation with the online marketing manager for a major retail brand, discussing the constant effort to expand its email list size. The retailer had already completed most of the common best practices to make it easy for people to subscribe, so we began discussing not only the how of email permission, but the where and when. 

People typically opt-in to receive email messages when a brand is top of mind. So, it's important for marketers to think about the various consumer touch points available in the online and offline worlds. A website is obviously a popular and appropriate place to encourage email subscription, but it shouldn't stop there. Given the ubiquity of mobile phone usage (75.7 percent of the population uses mobile phones, according to eMarketer) it's worth taking a look at how to leverage SMS messaging for email permission.

For starters, currently 99 percent of mobile devices are SMS compatible according to Nielsen Online. By enabling consumers to sign up for email communications over SMS messaging, brands open up new opportunities to be where and when those consumers might be more willing to opt-in. For example, once you enable email subscription via SMS, it's easy to add calls to action in various places - in-store, associated venues, relevant events, print advertising - where consumers not only have the willingness to engage with your brand, but a few moments of spare time to do so.  I like to think of these as captive audience opportunities, the most obvious being a line of some type where consumers are standing around waiting and using their phones to help kill time.

One company that has used mobile to support its overall list growth is Responsys customer, Southwest Airlines. With its Click 'N Save program, Southwest Airlines encourages consumers to sign up for deals by sending their email address to the Southwest Airlines mobile short code. The airline informs flyers of this program in the airport via large scale advertisements and on the plane itself with ads in the in-flight magazine and mentions on the drink napkins. By reaching consumers when they are most engaged with their brand, Southwest continues to grow its largest direct communication campaign. 

 

If used correctly, SMS messaging can be a great channel for engaging consumers as well as an effective channel for gathering email permission.  It bridges the online and offline worlds and allows brands to reach people when and where they are open to engaging

Please note: This article originally ran in Mobile Marketer

All signs in the market and among consumers say that mobile has finally arrived. Until now, marketers have remained cautious, limiting investment and experimenting with smaller campaigns to test the waters. 

With more mobile devices in the hands of consumers around the world, major brands are ready to make mobile a definitive part of their marketing strategy.The sheer size of mobile users makes a compelling argument that marketers cannot ignore.  For example, there are now more than 2 billion mobile subscribers worldwide and 230 million in the United States alone. What is more, an astounding 99 percent of devices are SMS compatible, per Nielsen Online - and this is where one of the biggest opportunities resides for brands that want to build a meaningful, long-term relationship with their customers.

SMS or text messages remain popular because they are fast and easy to use, saving time and allowing for both privacy and personalization. Some people read text messages before email, choosing the speed and responsiveness of text messages. 

Before marketers can use text messages to reach consumers, they need to build a personal connection first. Marketers need to earn the trust and permission of consumers and offer something of value that makes them want to receive text messages about their service or items such as specially discounted products or promotions. 

There are three strategies that marketers need to consider when creating an SMS campaign in the marketing mix:

1. Do not wait to build your target mobile list
Building a detailed list of current and potential customers is the first critical step to an effective SMS campaign. 

• Consider acquiring mobile numbers through signage at stores, events, billboards and other traditional advertising vehicles. 
• Look for the opportunity to gain email and mobile opt-ins together from customers to maximize engagement across channels. 

For future campaigns, it is also important to capture event, demographic and location details of the customer when you received permission.

Southwest Airlines had great success connecting with customers where they were most engaged with the brand - at the airport. Using mobile opt-in, Southwest promoted campaigns across the Web, television and print ads and at Southwest gates. The airline far exceeded the breakeven number for customer acquisitions in a short, tightly executed three-week campaign.

2. Engage customers
The ultimate goal for marketers is to build long-term relationships with customers, and it starts with earning trust by delivering value. 

Get started with transactional text messages that can quickly open doors to deliver more value. 

For example, Southwest confirms important flight information via text messages and then, with further opt-in from the customer, provides additional promotions. 

Marketers can engage their customers through highly targeted campaigns that use profile and behavioral data to personalize messages with relevant information for that particular customer. 

In-store SMS campaigns are another way to provide value to customers with on-demand access to store information and savings.

Retailers might consider providing an instant coupon for use in-store or allow customers to receive more information about a product.

Online grocery store and food delivery service Schwan's takes this approach by letting customers choose to receive delivery notifications at checkout time. 

Schwan's provides value by sending customers a text message when the delivery is 30 minutes away so that customers have time to prepare. This also becomes an opportunity for its customers to get ready for to place their next order and in turn boosts Schwan's business.

3. Monetize SMS messages
Marketers can easily track campaign performance by including promotion codes for specific promotions. 

One of the clear advantages of today's mobile technology is the sophistication and experience of the mobile Web. This provides marketers the possibilities of adding multiple strategies to the marketing campaign. 

For example, a text message can lead consumers to an engaging mobile Web site or application. The mobile Web can act as the glue between online and offline experiences, and text messages deliver the right message at the right time to motivate customers with a specific action. 

Mobile technology is opening many new doors for marketers, but the beauty of SMS campaigns is it does not take the most advanced smartphone to implement them. 

A well-crafted SMS campaign will take advantage of location and time to deliver a simple message that engages customers. 

Once a meaningful relationship is built with customers, mobile campaigns will deliver significant ROI and continue to demonstrate why they are a critical investment in the marketing strategy.

THE WORLD OF mobile marketing is here to stay, and marketers can start with SMS and then gradually open up to additional avenues like mobile Web, mobile applications and mobile advertizing. Providing a cohesive customer experience across all avenues of mobile is what marketers need to start thinking about and is key to marketing success in the mobile medium.

In April of last year, Facebook launched Facebook Studio, a site showcasing the innovative ways that marketers use Facebook to support clients' business initiatives. As the site puts it, Facebook Studio is "a place to celebrate the agencies and marketers that are driving business growth through real connections and authentic conversations made possible with Facebook."

The Gallery makes it super simple to find sample campaigns, featuring a library of examples that are sortable based on filters like industry, target country, and Facebook features used by a given campaign.

And the Learning Lab is a helpful resource to reference when trying to understand the various tools & products available on the Facebook platform.

What a great resource for marketers! I'm really excited to be able to use Facebook Studios to find stellar case studies for client presentations, and I'm even more excited to have a go-to site for cross-channel inspiration.

Plus, how cool would it be to see your own work featured in the Spotlight?! Something to aspire to...

» Explore Facebook Studio

In 2011, promotional email volume once again reached an all-time high. After a year of tracking the email marketing activity of more than 100 of the top retailers, we've put together this infographic that highlights trends that will help you define your 2012 email marketing strategy.

>>View the Retail Email 2011 Year-End Trends Infographic full-sized with sharing links. >>Read the press release

Okay, we all know Kate Spade emails are great, and I'm far from the first person to give them props (just search 'Kate Spade' in the New School Marketing blog and you'll have enough material to avoid your real work for at least a few more hours). Even so, I wanted to point out one of their campaigns I enjoyed following throughout 2011.

The "Year of Color" campaign turned what could have been a banal 'new arrivals' message into a thoughtful, engaging piece of creative. Each month introduced a new color, which was in turn featured in a collaborative effort with a new artist on their blog. The color theme was incorporated into their creative (which still focused the messaging around 'new arrivals'), including a little status bar in the recovery area showing the featured colors of previous months, and encouraging customer's to stay tuned for the unveiling of the colors in months to come.

This is my favorite email from the "Year of Color" campaign, but see below for the links to the hosted emails for prior months. A few notes on what I like about this one:

Kate Spade, August 4, 2011, 2:18 PM
Subject Line: new arrivals + the color of the month is...

-A simple image of a telescope is pulled in nicely with the copy on the top banner: "we've set our sights on BLUE as the color of the month".

-Great use of animation. It's a basic gif, but it adds a lot to the design. See the animation here.


January | March | June | July | August | September | October | December

Please note: This article originally ran in ClickZ

My personal inbox and I just embarked on a promotional-email purge.

I maintain 2 email accounts—personal and promotional—so, when I realized that my personal inbox was getting increasingly flooded with non-personal emails, I needed to do a little cleansing to make sure the right emails were being sent to the right inboxes.

During the process, I received a couple messages that made me curious about the need (or lack of need!) for unsubscribe confirmation messages.

The first was a confirmation message from Hotel Tonight. While I appreciate that they took the time to acknowledge my unsubscribe (and also gave me the opportunity to resubscribe with a different email address), this may have been better handled on an Unsubscribe or Manage Preferences page.





The other confirmation email was from Virgin America. Along with a super-clever subject line ("Roger That") and well-written copy, Virgin did a great job of calling out that they will still be sending me booking emails—an important distinction to make for a company who sends both promotional and transactional messages.

So, what do you think? The Unsubscribe Confirmation Email: Thumbs up or thumbs down?