Chances are you have a number of different inboxes, all competing for your attention. Professional and personal e-mail accounts. Voicemail and instant messaging at the office, your mobile device and at home. And now there’s all the social media inboxes – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yammer, YouTube, Flickr – the list goes on and on.

Talk about your inbox insanity.

While many internet marketing professionals thrive on exploring ways to use these tools to generate and share content, we are a clear minority. Indeed, a vast majority of our customers and prospective customers are finding the proliferation of inboxes overwhelming. And as a result, 1:1 social media networks are beginning to fragment in the same way traditional media did before.

These are all insights Jeffrey Rohrs, Vice President of Marketing for ExactTarget, shared with about 150 MIMA members and guests at our February workshop. Speaking to us on a snowy morning at the Depot in downtown Minneapolis he also shared these observations on the current state of email marketing, some tips for successful practice and a vision for the future.

Observation one – Marketers are not in control. Consumers now scan and delete messages that do not appear relevant to them to manage their busy inboxes. Plus, they appreciate the greater control over the source of messaging they receive offered by social media inboxes. So email marketing messages must become more personal and less promotional to be opened, read and acted upon.

Observation two – Marketing communications increasingly exist by invitation. This is especially true for Millennials.

Observation three – Invitations are easily revoked. Remember the recent Burger King “angry Whopper®” offer for a free burger to anyone who got rid of ten Facebook friends? Demand was so high, they had to shut down the application.

Observations one, two and three demonstrate that permission and relevance matter. Fail to heed this simple rule and risk being deleted from the inbox or dropped by the consumer.

Tips for implementing a successful email marketing program
• Create conversations, deliver meaningful offers and don’t push for the sale
• Give consumers the information THEY want and the respect THEY deserve
• Don’t “pollute” the inbox with irrelevant communications
• Position your communications as customer service opportunities
• Create “subscribers” who opt-in and look forward to your communications

Based on these observations and tips, Rohrs said to be effective email marketing programs must be built on smart use of market data. Shockingly, he cited research from the CMO Council 2008 that reveals that few of us are prepared to succeed.

• Only 6% of CMOs surveyed said they have excellent knowledge of their customers.
• More than 50% of CMOs surveyed said they had little or no knowledge of their customers’ demographic, behavioral, psychographic or transactional data.

Clearly, these numbers need to change. Rohrs suggests marketers strive to transform from thinking like siloed businesses to thinking like publishers. Based on this concept, he and his firm, ExactTarget, believe that the future of email marketing will belong to those who take an agnostic approach where subscribers rule.

Key take aways
• Serve individuals
• Honor their unique preferences regarding communication, content, frequency and channel
• Deliver timely, relevant content that improves their lives (always send value)

When I first saw this month’s MIMA event was about email marketing I figured I could skip it. Mass emails and spamming are not my gig. Yup, that’s my first thought when I think email marketing – SPAM!

But yesterday as the MIMA event got underway I got curious. What does everybody else think of first when they hear email marketing? Do they have the same attitude as me? Why do I ignore email marketing when most other aspects of internet marketing really intrigue me? I’ve done a limited amount of email marketing in my past and know there is much more to it than spam blasting to a massive list of unsuspecting recipients. But for some reason email marketing has always been an easy topic for me to ignore in practice and study. I just have not been interested.

To quench my thirst for answers before my interest once again waned on the subject, I fired up the MIMA Live feed of the event (great feature by the way) along with Twitter and Twitter Search. I asked my fellow tweeters What do you think of first when you think of “Email Marketing”? The people I hang with on Twitter includes a good share of marketing type peeps so keep that in mind when reading their responses. Not all responses came from the marketing world though. Here are the replies I received….

AaronWeiche ROI

GraemeThickins that’s easy… spam

justrobyn Ad/specials, and exposure campaigns to new or existing cust’s via email.

brichterv i think email marketing is great but somehow it gets misrepresented as spam

_Dave_E Spam. Irksome, at best.

leeodden Email marketing is still one of the best return on investment marketing tactics and ties in perfectly with social media marketing

DazzlinDonna The first thing I think of when I think of Email Marketing is Companies leverage existing client base to sell products to them in the future. Easier to sell to existing clients than to attain new ones.

martinbowling First thing I think of “spam” hehe

TwisterMc Are effective campaigns about the words or graphics?

RuudHein spam. carpet bombing. blast marketing. gimmicky. sell vs. help.

martinbowling We use email marketing but only as a communication devise we try not to do “pitchy” emails

RuudHein no, haven’t used. When I will it will be newsletter/list based; content w. sales

mjkeliher When I think “e-mail marketing,” I think “opt-out.” As in, you better give me an easy way to opt out and a load of reasons not to

GraemeThickins don’t use it personally..I’m an independent consultant who gets business by personal referral..but some of my clients (tech startups) use it

josephrueter Conversation is the preferred stance in most anything. Any medium executed in a way that helps conversation is a GO!

bigboxcar First thing I think: Difficult. It’s hard to accomplish a dynamite email marketing campaign. Especially for publishers. 2nd thing: Cheap.

Via Facebook I also heard from John Bonfield who said ‘I do EMM, so I may not be representative … anyway, here ya go: “Designed for a Preview Pane”‘

Now, after listening to Jeffrey K. Rohrs, VP of Marketing for ExactTarget give his presentation to MIMA members and reading through the tweets I received, my gut reaction to email marketing has gained some depth, intrigue, and appreciation. The thoughts of spam still linger when I think of email marketing, but they are not as strong. I’ve come out this with these bullet points to remember…

• Precision Marketing & Customization – use data & behavioral info to message when it is of greatest relevance to them.
• Email Marketing has a great ROI
• Get Creative in building your lists and monetizing them
• The pool of folks with email is much larger than that of social media, don’t lose sight of that
• People have the control, treat them well
• Learn and know your customers

Thanks to Jeffrey K. Rohrs for the great presentation and to all of those that tweeted in reply! You can follow Jeffrey Rohrs on Twitter. If you want to follow any of the people above on Twitter they are of quality tweetitude! If you want to follow me on Twitter you can catch me at @dohman. You can also find the archived video feed of the presentation at MIMA’s UstreamTv channel. And last, if you would like to share your first thoughts of email marketing, or help clue me in on something more, I would love to read them, leave a reply!

Would you open this e-newsletter?

E-Newsletter 1.12.09

It’s from an organization I know and trust, but really, how boring is this?

E-Newsletter 1.09.09
E-Newsletter 12.11.08
E-Newsletter 12.04.08
E-Newsletter 11.20.08
E-Newsletter 11.12.08

My inbox is full of these — unopened. Suppose I had opened one, and found something I wanted to refer to later. The chronological labeling doesn’t help me in the least.

Other similar examples:

AIGA Minnesota Distiller January 2009
AIGA Minnesota Distiller December 2008
AIGA Minnesota Distiller November 2008
AIGA Minnesota Distiller October 2008

These AIGA e-newsletters are gorgeous and full of interesting content. Why are they hiding behind such a dreary door? In my inbox, the “From” line is also AIGIA Minnesota, so I really don’t need the branding repeated in the subject line.

Entice me with real content! C’mon, you only have about 50-60 characters in an email subject line. Don’t waste them on your name (I can read it in the “From” line), the month (which I already know), and the year (which I also know).

Here’s another set, with a slightly different style:

AIGA Communique Vol 8 Issue 10
AIGA Communique Vol 8 Issue 9
AIGA Communique Vol 8 Issue 8
AIGA Communique Vol 8 Issue 7

Quick fix: Put AIGA Communique in the “From” line, save the Vol 8 Issue 9 information for the masthead, and give me a delicious taste of what’s inside with a subject line like this:

Design leaders see stronger design economy coming

This is what Chad White calls a one-interest trigger subject line. Use it if your story is compelling. Or use multiple interest triggers, as in this example:

Design for Democracy, Winterhouse Writing Awards, AIGA Fellows

Here are some other unopened e-newsletters languishing in my inbox. Would you be willing to click?

Your January/February issue of I.D. Magazine is here.
Reminder – Your January/February issue of I.D. Magazine is here.
Your November/December issue of I.D. Magazine is here.
Reminder – Your November/December issue of I.D. Magazine is here.

I’m getting the “Reminder” email because I didn’t open the first email. Maybe it had something to do with the subject line?

Here’s yet another set:

Gwyn, Your January Issue of Interface Has Arrived!
Gwyn, Your January Issue of Gate-Way Has Arrived!
Gwyn, Your December Issue of Interface Has Arrived!
Gwyn, Your December Issue of Gate-Way Has Arrived!

I appreciate the personalization (although my name is Gwyneth), and I do rather like the breathless, we’re-so-proud-to-present-this-to-you enthusiasm. But really it’s better left to a personal message: Our New Baby Has Arrived!

And, please, let’s watch that Title Case. Because Everything In The Subject Line Isn’t Really That Important!

I don’t know about you, but my inbox is full of intriguing, urgent messages that grab my attention far faster than a ho-hum label and a date. A few examples:

From the ubiquitous Jared M. Spool:

UIE Tips: Failure is Not an Option — It’s a Requirement
UIE Tips: Four Essential Skills for Information Architects
UIE Tips: How to Innovate Right Now

From MarketingProfs Today:

5 Tips For Developing a Corporate Blogging Policy

What Not To Do on Facebook, How to Create a Successful Video Blog, Nurturing the Right Leads

How Obama Did It, How a Good Bistro is Like a Good Web Business

The MarketingProfs emails are really pushing the character-count limit. But they can because they’re interesting, intriguing, informative.

Here are some subject lines from Larsen inSights, the email newsletter I edit. Do these capture your attention? Our open rates say “yes.”

Color: 5 trends important to your business
Presentations: 8 Mistakes Everyone Makes
Brand identity: When should you refresh?

Finally, here’s an email subject line I couldn’t resist:

Email Insider: Subject-Line Absolutes: Are There Any?

Did you click? You should. It’s a great article.

P.S. See you at the upcoming MIMA event: Inbox Insanity: The Future of Email Marketing. Perhaps Jeff Rohrs will share the boring, the bewildering, and the best from his inbox.