Because there are so many email clients, including web-based ones like Gmail and Yahoo!, it is essential that email marketers ensure their messages display properly in all the various email clients.

Look at these examples from Groupon.com.  This company (Think: Group + Coupon) specializes in emailing you a deeply discounted local deal of the day, and their business is HOT.  But viewing it from the preview pane, it doesn’t look so hot.

We see three major improvements (In order of importance) that could be made here:

1. Alignment. The alignment is all messed up. It’s obvious to us that someone created this email template without any regard to the various email clients in which it will be read. We’ve included two samples below – the first for the Mail client in Mac, and the second from Gmail through a Chrome browser. These were the first two options that tried it in, and they both look terrible. We’ve examined the code for the email and it’s cliear they need help in coding for email because it’s different than coding for the web. Just because it looks good in one browser, does NOT mean that it’s going to come through all the various email clients unscathed. You have to test it and tweak it to get it right.

2. Missing Alt-Tags. What are those question marks about?  I don’t know, and I’m too lazy to display the images, so I’m over it and deleting the message.  After all, if my attention span is the same as most people who open emails – it takes me 8 seconds to click something on average.* And unless your email message and preview pane kicks ass, it’s going to be the delete button. Adding alt-tags for each image will help insure that your message is coming across even if your user doesn’t download images.

3. Top Line Message Missing. As we mentioned, you have a very limited amount of time to get your readers attention. Why then would you not have the very first line of your email describe your offer? Notice how the very top line of this Groupon email says “Your Daily Seattle Groupon | View this message in a browser | Unsubscribe”. This is a completely missed opportunity. Some email clients, like Gmail, show the first line of your email in the “preview” pane, before the user opens the message. Is “Your Daily Seattle Groupon” the most important thing they could say? Uh, duh, since the From address says Groupon – I already know it’s a Groupon. Why would you use such valuable real estate to repeat yourself? And if you’re trying to “create intrigue” how about something like – “Get a Head to Toe Fix from Blix.” Sure, it’s a little more work to change your template every day, and to think up something creative – but don’t your clients deserve it Groupon?

Groupon viewed in Gmail through Chrome browser.

Groupon viewed through Mac Mail email client.

The daily discounts offered by Groupon are undoubtedly good bargains, but is business so good that they’re too cool to be concerned with aesthetic details? Do companies like Apple care about asthetics? Maybe for Groupon, it’s “good enough,” but that’s a dangerous marketing mentality. What about your company’s image?  Can you afford to overlook the details? Utilizing Groupon’s advertising is an investment for their clients. They pay for Groupon to create messages, so those messages had better look damn good down to the smallest detail in our opinion. If I was a Groupon client and my promotion looked all discombobulated, I’d be pretty upset–I don’t want to pay and settle for “good enough” because good enough never is.

Solution
Email Broadcast understands that an email campaign’s vitality rests on presentation of relevant content. Therefore, we hand-code each message in HTML to W3C standards and TEST IT against a battery of multiple email clients, so we know it’s going to look amazing no matter what web service or email client is used to view it. We also use ALT TAGS to make our messages “disabled-image friendly”, so just because our reader may not see the image, they still receive the central message of the content – which is key to getting them to the next step – downloading images. And of course, we always create great “Top Line Messages” and often personalize them.

True story:  CEO of Email Broadcast, Ken Mahar, loves a great deal – but when he got the email above from Groupon last month, he cringed.  So he emailed them back, a simple heads-up, pointing out how their preview pane looked with a suggestion that they take a look at it.  It’s been over a month now and he has yet to receive a reply.

So Groupon, here’s a little Email Broadcast “coupon” of our own, just for you:

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100% Off One Hand-Coded Template So You Can Get It Right

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* Lyris Webinar: *Turn your Email Marketing Up A Notch – 5 Ways to Improve Performance Now” 6/2010

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1. Email Marketing Tips: #5 Test, Test, Test

We did it again! Click here to see last years video for a full explanation, but in Seattle we hate the Yankees and especially Alex Rodriguez. So for the past two years when the Yankees have come to town, we’ve shown our disrespect by throwing money at him (and the Mariners fans). Watch the video, and don’t believe when the papers say that “fake dollar bills” were used. These were the real thing….

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Ken Mahar, CEO of Email Broadcast has a problem. After consulting others for the obvious fix he finally calls over the “expert” who quickly solves the problem. Sometimes it makes sense to have an Expert like Email Broadcast help you with your email marketing. What may appear to be a simple endeavor can easily get complicated and having an expert on hand to assist can pay big dividends and avoid frustration. This spoof was hatched by the creative team at Email Broadcast and nailed in the first take!

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So how could this happen? A couple of insights:

Technology is making it so cheap to interrupt someone that even the holy can be tempted by the lure of immediate results such that even an organization that should be absolutely opposed to this kind of technology not only embraced it, but were boasting of their efforts on Twitter. That is until the entire marketing community overwhelmed them with a major spanking in public. Now the “convo” that they wanted to keep rolling has taken a life of it’s own and is undoubtedly something WOMMA would do anything to stop. Right now they are reaching for their “disaster recover” binders and Googling “Tylenol.”

This leads to another insight – playing with fire can get you burned. By participating in social media there is an inherent contract that you are no longer in control of your message. It’s a very powerful tool with very sharp edges that cuts both ways. A quick search of @WOMMA on twitter shows an overwhelmingly negative response to their tactics. This should be a warning to anyone that they need to be squeaky clean in this era of instant news cycles where everyone is a publisher. And when Seth Godin takes the time to call you and tell “You’re doing it wrong” you shut the F up and listen.

Another problem is that regulators are asleep at the switch. I don’t expect government to be everywhere in our lives, but this is a prime example of the FCC being woefully out of date with technology. If you don’t need a brain to use ROBO calling, perhaps you should at least have to get a license or answer some questions like “Have you been drinking today?” We made fun of the lack of prosecution of spammers (it’s pathetic) last summer during a stunt that we videotaped.

You might be thinking this point that perhaps it was a highly considered ploy to drive PR – but I guarantee you that is not the case no matter how they will try to spin it. At best they were moronic, at worst they were desperate. You may create some PR for yourselves, but when it diametrically opposes your message – your going to be a punch line on the Tonight Show. Your name recognition will certainly go up – but be careful what you wish for. Ask Steve Bartman if that is a good thing after he ruined the Cubs 2003 world series run. In a mindless grab of selfishness, because it was easy, he derailed his favorite team’s hopes for victory. He and the organization may never be the same, and I’m afraid this may be the case here.

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1. Government Turning a Blind Eye to the High Cost of SPAM?

Republicans Vow to Repeal Obama Bedtime

In a stunning blow to President Obama, the Republican Party unanimously opposed the new bedtime hours recently given to Sasha and Malia by the President and the First Lady. “It’s irresponsible and unfathomable” commented John Boehner (he requests that you pronounce it “Bay-ner,” by the way). “We’re outraged that the President would not consult and then summarily kowtow to the congressional minority.”

When asked what bedtime he and his party recommended, the congressman said, “We oppose all bedtimes suggested by the President and the First Lady and recommend an incremental approach. We also reject the government takeover of bedtimes.” RNC Chairman Michael Steele was finally reached outside Voyeur, a Los Angeles club where topless dancers can be seen mimicking sex and bondage acts, and he observed, “I’ve seen firsthand what can happen when bedtimes are not respected.” …read more

Tiger Woods Thanks Jesse James

Email Broadcast is reporting that an intercepted text message from Tiger Woods to Jesse James read: “Dude, THANK YOU! Got 2 tix for you at Masters will call. Let’s get drinks after.” …read more

Toyota Selects – Then Fires – New Ad Firm

Beleaguered by its public image regarding quality, especially pertaining to sticking accelerators, Toyota reached out to PR Firm Chiat/Day to solve its problems. Only after the announcement did Toyota executives realize that the same ad house had created the Energizer bunny campaign, leading them to summarily dismiss the firm as “Not a good strategic fit at this time.”

Woman’s Life Work Worth $500 Reward

A woman who had been robbed on several prior occasions left her life’s work on her computer, without a backup, and that computer has been stolen. Her losses consist of over 40 musicals written over 20 years, including the current production, “The Princess and the Iso Peanut.” There is a $500 reward for the return of her computer. Observant neighbors saw one potential suspect strip off his clothes and baseball cap in a nearby yard and saw another man jump a fence while an accomplice waited at the car with the trunk open. …read more

Paddleboarder Dates Whale

In what can only be described as bizarre behavior, a woman recuperating from a broken foot decided to paddle across 40 miles of open ocean, during which time she had a long encounter with a Minke whale. The whale was seen blowing kisses at Nelson. …read more

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Today he saw me in line behind some “new” customers who were still making up their mind. He pointed his finger down with eyebrows raised visually asking me if I want my usual to eat in or to go. I pointed down and he called out my order to the kitchen while the ladies in line never even noticed that I had virtually skipped the line. When I get my order (with brown rice not white) he also remembers to serve it to me on a plate, and not in a styrofoam container since I mentioned my preference before.

He is also a study of efficiency wasting zero movement making change at lightning speed, calling out orders to the kitchen, calling out finished orders “Your Taco Salad is ready” and this is the amazing part – he makes eye contact with every single person while smiling and genuinely wishing each customer a nice day. This small family business might not come to a screeching halt if it weren’t for the Linchpin on this business – but it’s volume would probably be cut in half. The lunch rush is probably 75% of their sales and no matter how many people are inside this tiny deli – your order is taken within seconds of you entering the door. Ordinary performance wouldn’t cut it and sales would be lost due to line balking if it weren’t for him. It’s quite amazing to see and is truly remarkable. His attitude isn’t “how fast do I need to go to meet demand and not lose customers”, but rather “how fast can I possibly go while still being very polite.”

Lessons:
What improvements could you make to your business that could create the same “amazing service.” Could you do it WAY faster than the industry standard like our client Mor Furniture that incredibly offers SAME DAY delivery when you buy before 7:30 pm? Could you come to someone’s house to perform a beauty treatment for the same price like our client MOD Beauty Squad? Could you somehow over deliver on your ordinary promises? Make a list of the aspects of the service or product that you deliver for your customer and ask if you could make any of these extraordinary and remarkable somehow.

Here’s an ordinary deli business – one of hundreds in the city that has one remarkable quality – amazingly efficient service. It’s held together by a good team, but with an exceptional front man. Another question – who is the Linchpin in your business? Are you? Do you want to become one? The first person to reply to this email will win Seth Godin’s new book “Linchpin – Are You Indespensible”

If you are not yet an avid reader of Seth Godin you should be. You can sign up for his newsletter or RSS feed here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Congratulations to Trey Smith who won December’s email reply and was sent a book.

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So when we came across this video, posted on email-marketing-reports.com’s blog, we laughed our asses off and couldn’t resist re-posting it here.

Email-marketing-reports.com explains the premise:

“Newsletter expert Michael Katz is fond of describing B2B email newsletters as the electronic equivalent of having a coffee with a customer.

Which got me thinking…what if emails could walk and talk? Here’s one vision of the message typically communicated by a corporate email newsletter. Enjoy.”

We love this video because not only is it hilarious, but it also hits on so many points of generic email newsletters. Most newsletters you get in your inbox are all — and ONLY — about the company sending it, even if that information is dull and irrelevant to you. They do no work to scout out what might be going on in your world that you’d want to hear about.

Second is something we always stress to our clients — consistency. Stay in touch with your subscribers on a regular basis and form a good, communicative relationship with your clients.

Whether our clients are writing their content, or we’re helping them put it together, we emphasize including things like local events in their area and always getting out a message once a month.

People aren’t always going to want to buy a car or a house or even a bottle of shampoo. But in the meantime, you can say hi and recommend an upcoming local festival or some favorite Valentine’s restaurants. They’ll be excited about the relevant information, and will remember that it came from you.

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So, here’s what you can learn from Salesforce.com:

1. The first mistake is that they send email from a “No-Reply” address. This is a fundamental mistake and email marketing 101. The whole idea of email marketing is to engage your customer. If you cant accept replies to your outbound messages then you shouldn’t be sending them. Some companies make this mistake because they get a raft of replies that have nothing to do with the email sent – and the company therefore considers it a waste of their time. But what’s really happening is that customers are reaching out hoping to find a human being to help solve their problem. I’m not sure anything is more important to a company’s future than helping their customers solve problems, yet it is deemed an annoyance and that customers “should go through the right channels.” In these cases little regard is given that the customers may have already tried that approach and failed. Bottom line is that if you can’t respond to your customer’s replies – you shouldn’t be using email regardless of how big you are.

2. They do not have an opt-out link on their “customer” emails. This is in violation of the CAN-SPAM act, and subjects them to an $11,000 fine per email that they send out. Apparently someone at Salesforce.com has made the decision that since these are “Customers” (or apparently FORMER customers in my case) that they should have no choice than to receive these emails. This is another mistake at creating a one-way communication channel with customers. Ultimately, your customers should have the choice whether or not they want to hear from you. That includes you Microsoft!

3. Since they can’t even take someone off their lists when asked – multiple times, it’s highly doubtful that Salesfore.com is segmenting their audience for targeted emails. The message I received today was to alert me to the upcoming changes that are taking place on their platform and how that will affect me. Well, if they did any kind of segmentation at all they would see that I have had ZERO activity with their platform in the last 9 months, so making me aware of their changes is a waste of both of our times. What they could have done (had I not already asked to unsubscribe!) is send me some kind of message that says “Hey Ken, we’ve noticed that you have not logged into the platform in over 9 months. We want you to know about some helpful videos that we created in helping customer like yourself get started.” That kind of message is targeted and might be relevant assuming I HADN’T ALREADY CANCELED MY ACCOUNT.

4. Another common problem with companies like Salesfore.com that integrate their CRM with an email platform is that any silo of your business (marketing, sales, customer support, etc) can easily broadcast an email to contacts in the database. This can lead to anything from mildly annoying your contacts with too many emails, to complete disaster like sending directly conflicting information or overlapping offers. Large companies need to have an email marketing individual leading a thoughtful campaign with highly relevant email messages instead of the free for all that can exist when everyone has access. I suspect that this is the case with me and Salesforce.com – they can’t figure out where else my information exists to keep people from emailing me and don’t have central control. Or they apparently can’t figure out how to completely delete my record permanently in their own heralded platform.

5. By the way, if you are curious on why we abandoned Salesforce.com it was because of the complexity of the application and it’s steep learning curve. After signing up, and watching my 4th video tutorial and completing my 4th skills test, it was still difficult to figure out the basics of entering a lead and setting a reminder task. And as a former corporate sales champion I have had my share of experience with CRMs. If you are considering Salesforce but don’t need a lot of the advanced tools check out Highrise at 37Signals.com For us it’s the right amount of information, takes about 15 minutes to master, and has all the tools that we need.

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing Tips: #2 Personalize
2. Email Marketing Tips: #4 Relevance is Key

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Watch this video and then ask yourself how we can make the mundane parts of your business more fun? How can we use FUN to modify people’s behavior and deliver the unexpected? How can we use fun to be remarkable?

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Please comment below on what your business is and some ideas that you came up with – even if they are crazy.

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Here’s one of ours: We ask for a birth date in our demo and we’ve just come up with a daring and hilarious email to send people on their birthday. You’ll probably agree that it’s very unexpected if you get it.

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It’s incredibly unfortunate that there are no enforced standards for email clients like Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and Outlook as far as formatting. Email is already kind of “stuck in the stone age” coding-wise. Since email doesn’t recognize css (cascading style sheets — the “rules” for how a website looks), businesses using email marketing have to use basic HTML to construct their message.

And even within this HTML, some email clients will pick up or ignore elements differently than others. Take Gmail for example. Gmail doesn’t recognize background colors, and 9 times out of 10 text will come through a smaller size than you intended it.

And don’t even get me started on Outlook 2007. Although a lot of people use this to look at email, it is by far the worst as far as standardized email formatting. Something about Outlook 2007 using Microsoft Word to run the HTML through causes many email templates to look like they went through a meat grinder.

The only way to make sure your email is going out to every one of your subscribers exactly the way you intend it to is to test, test, test. By far, this is one of the most important tips we can give you. In fact, if you only follow one of our ten email marketing tips, it should be this one.

Your system to be set up to test messages through multiple clients, so that you know what your message looks like in all of them. How does your newsletter look for those using AOL, Mac.com or Mozilla Thunderbird? Don’t know? Maybe it’s time to switch over to a system that can provide you that information, as well as info for Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Outlook. You wouldn’t believe how different each of these can look with exactly the same HTML coding.

Testing also gives you the chance to read over your email newsletters multiple times to check for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Send it to yourself a few times, as well as at least one other person in the office. A fresh pair of eyes can recognize a lot.

Save yourself the embarrassment of a mangled message or poor grammar — test, test, test! And give yourself the time to do so. It’s not worth trading time for quality, is it?

Want to know our secret strategy? We have checklists for everything that we fill out as we test. Everything has to be marked off before we send our messages. We think it’s the best strategy for getting it right, all of the time.

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2. Email Marketing Tips: #1 Get Permission
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