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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

Being an email subscriber is a temporary commitment. Interests and circumstances change; expectations may not be met over time; email addresses are changed; perhaps other channels become preferred. And while things change, subscribers often don't bother to unsubscribe for various reasons, leaving marketers with inactive subscribers. What a marketer does next can have serious repercussions on their deliverability, in addition to depressing their email metrics.

To examine the state of inactivity management, we subscribed to the email programs of over 100 major retailers using fictional personas. We opened and clicked on the emails we received until one day we stopped--and let 40 months pass...

At the end of that more than 3-year period, we found that the majority of retailers were still sending emails, many of them at exactly the same frequency that they mailed their active subscribers.

According to Return Path research, only 81% of all permissioned email worldwide make it to the inbox, with the remainder either routed to junk or undelivered. Poor list hygiene and management of inactivity levels are big contributors to the reduced deliverability, which translates directly into lost revenue.

In order to consistently achieve high levels of inbox placement, marketers must develop a comprehensive plan to address inactives. This report will cover all the necessary steps to creating such a plan.

Download the Email Engagement & Deliverability Study from Responsys for free.

For tips on clever ways to avoid that preview pane paralysis see Amy Hamilton's post Designing for the Preview Pane.

The latest iTunes email came as a surprise to me because I was a little bit disappointed when I saw it. I had to remind myself these are the people behind iPods, iPhones and iPads. Apple's branding online and off is something companies recognise as being ahead of the curve. 

However, my opinion completely changed when I viewed the same email on my iPhone. The email was strikingly more impactful. It's crazy how much of a difference it makes to the observer.

Obviously, these emails were made to be ideal for smartphones because they hold much better on smartphones. In theory the only thing that has changed is the composition and size. But optically, the calls-to-action stick out more, the email navigates better (especially with a side rail on the right-hand side), and it's much more rigid--even the compact word count suggests this message is for a smartphone device.

To be successful, marketers' email designs must constantly evolve to meet the shifting needs and behaviors of consumers and adjust to email platform changes. Best practices are always changing, so we have assembled the 2011 Email Design & Coding Recommendations, which addresses the emerging design impact of smart phones and Facebook Messages on email marketing campaigns.

The first of its kind, this 26-page guide offers marketers valuable design recommendations for HTML, mobile and text emails, including specific best practice coding guidelines, to ensure marketers' emails meet the needs of consumers, perform well on mobile devices, achieve higher inbox deliverability rates, and optimize the user experience via email, mobile and social channels.

The Email Design & Coding Recommendations include advice on: •

• optimizing HTML email components such as the preheader, navigation bar, recovery module and footer, among others.
• mobile-friendly file sizes, email widths, button sizes and landing pages.
• elements to include and leave out of a text email, and how to handle calls-to-action.
• HTML and CSS coding to avoid and fixes to rendering issues caused by Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook 2007 and 2010, and the iPhone and iPad.

Read the press release, which includes comments on the email coding environment and on the impact of Facebook Messages.

Download the 2011 Email Design & Coding Recommendations from Responsys for free.

Sent: Wed 4/06/11 2:37 PM
Subject Line: Accept our apology, SHIPPING is on us!

There has been a flurry of site enhancements in the retail space. Companies are optimizing their sites for mobile, adding video, and increasing social media sharing opportunities. Customers benefit from a better experience, and businesses see revenue return on their UI investment.

But sometimes along with upgrades, come growing pains.

Saks Fifth Avenue recently added new features to their site and evidently experienced some issues. See how they turned the situation around with the following apology email and  free shipping offer.

A mistake can lead to surprising outcomes.

I learned this when I worked at Yahoo! in global direct marketing. The price of a service was listed incorrectly an HTML acquisition email, and I owned the email program. Great.

I got approval from one of our founders to send out an apology email to the original email recipients--explaining I'd made a mistake on the price. (In the meantime, I'm envisioning 11 million people demanding the incorrect price or the press attacking our partner at the time, SBC, for the incorrect price.) Plus, great way to have a meeting with one of the founders.

The unexpected happened. The apology email wasn't a promotional email, but the apology email resulted in the same amount of orders as one of our typical acquisition emails. Why? The stats indicated the subject line was strong: Apology from Yahoo!" This makes sense; the subject line is direct and short and an apology from a major company? Intriguing. Subsequent orders? Probably a combination of the additional touch point and the novelty of an apology email (this was about 8 years ago).

Could it be that its OK to show the human side of your business?

I do know this. Because of this experience, a good blueprint for a mistake: Take responsibility. Look for solutions. Apologize. (And as quickly as possible.)

How will you communicate with customers in the event of, well, an unexpected event?

I'm obsessed with what's new in online marketing. On a regular basis, I check out my favorite brands' email creative and websites (going to shopbop.com is research), and I also participate in online customer surveys.

Generally, online surveys aren't considered a marketer's sexiest vehicle, but they're clearly one of the most insightful. The online survey format has become streamlined over the years, but the hook to complete a survey is getting really stale. How many times have we seen, "Complete this survey for your chance to win__________?"

But this recent survey invite from Hulu caught my eye (click image to view):

Why this matters.

Through the invite, Hulu makes a viewer feel:

• Effective - I can help make a difference
• Empowered - I have control over the "prize" and future video ads
• Involved - I've become part of the Hulu ecosystem by providing feedback
• Important - I received a message from the Hulu CEO (with contact email)

What's in it for Hulu?

Engagement. Hulu has:

• Given advertising clients more information about their product, service, messaging, or advertising
• Provided viewers with a better understanding of a particular advertiser
• Reminded viewers they stream video ads for charitable organizations

Win (advertisers) + Win (viewers) + Win (non-profits) = Triple Win (Hulu)

Now, how are you bringing sexy back to your online surveys?

• The law applies to anyone in Canada.  You do not have to have a .ca address.  You could use any email address and be in Canada, or live in Canada.
• The recipient must give explicit consent to receive messages.  The consent must spell out the purpose and expectation of what will be done with this consent.
• This means "opt-in" and not "opt-out".  This is a big change for those familiar with CAN-SPAM.
• There is a provision for "implied consent" which is tied to an existing business relationship.  This relationship is defined further than we've previously seen in CAN-SPAM.  An existing business relationship is defined as the sender and recipient have done some business together in the two years before the message is sent, or an inquiry was made by the recipient in the six months before the message is sent.
• Consent must be refreshed every 2 years. (An important point)
• Senders must identify themselves, provide unsubscribe information and an address.  There must be an email address which recipients can contact to remove themselves from further mailings, and it must be active for at least 60 days after the message is delivered.
• Unsubscribe requests must be processed within 10 days.
• Cell/Text/SMS messages are included in the act.
• Penalties range from $1 million for individuals to $10 million for businesses.

• Move a call-to-action above the fold
• Create a primary message focus by expanding the hero image through to the left rail, or by bringing down the font size in the left rail so it's more obvious that it's a secondary message
• Use a unified headline and copy treatment (as well as HTML text for body copy)
• Clean up a bit of the cluttered imagery at the bottom

1. A top nav would be a great start. My suggestion: Wines, People, Notes, Clubs...at the minimum.
2. Including a few secondary messages that drive people to the site would be key, i.e. a small promo similar to what's on their homepage to entice people to write notes about the wines they're drinking now. It's a no-brainer; the promo is already built!
3. From an inbox perspective, I'd also change the "from" field to bottlenotes vs. The Daily Sip. They have "Daily Sip" in the subject line itself, so use the opportunity to promote the name bottlenotes in addition to The Daily Sip.

• Text-only welcome emails are becoming increasingly antiquated. More than 89% of retailers sent HTML welcome emails, up from 78% in 2007 and 69% in 2006.
• The role that welcome emails can play in ensuring future deliverability of emails is growing. More than 68% of retailers used welcome emails to ask new subscribers to add the sender to their address book, up from about 62% in 2007 and 49% in 2006.
• The number of top online retailers making their emails CAN-SPAM compliant rose significantly. Nearly 71% included both an unsubscribe link and their mailing address, up from 58% in 2007 and 52% in 2006.
• While 15% of welcome emails include a forward-to-a-friend link, none of those studied included a share-with-your-network (SWYN) link. We expect many marketers to adopt SWYN this year, including adding it to their welcome emails.