An Email Minute Blog

As an expert in generational marketing, Kenneth Gronbach knows that electronic communication is the quickest way to a Millennial’s heart. But it wasn’t until he stopped his car at his mailbox one day that he realized something else about today’s young people.

When he got back in the car, his two teenage daughters excitedly asked if there was anything for them. In fact, they had each received direct-mail offers from their favorite clothing store, and they proceeded to beg Gronbach to take them shopping so they could use their new coupons.

“Even though kids live in a digital-online-wireless world of iPods, laptops, mobile phones, text messages and downloadable media, his daughters’ enthusiasm for the low-tech approach of direct mail is not unusual,” write the editors of MarketingProfs’ “Get to the Point” newsletter.

Gronbach, who recently published a book on “how to profit from the coming demographic storm,” has concluded that Millennials watch little broadcast television, don’t read newspapers and rarely listen to broadcast radio.

“But put some compelling coupons in a snail-mail offer and watch what happens,” he says.

The U.S. Postal Service agrees, reporting that 87 percent of Millennials bring in the mail the day it’s delivered and 82 percent sort through it immediately; 73 percent have used coupons received in the mail; 70 percent are more likely to read credit card offers received in the mail as compared to email.

The USPS concedes that direct mail works best when combined with online tools, so be sure to design a special landing page that ties into your mailing. Or direct recipients to your student bloggers. Or create a social network and let your printed piece be their invitation to join.

Says the Postal Service: “Research proves mail and Internet communications generate the best results working as a media team.”

To read more about Gronbach’s views of the Millennial generation, visit:
www.marketingprofs.com/news/marketing-inspiration/index.asp?nlid=454&cd=dmo121&adref=NmiM378

It seems that people can’t get enough online video, which is why more and more websites are relying on video content to sell products and tell stories.

“The advantages of video are clear,” writes Internet marketer Mark Bonfigli. “It’s a way to differentiate your website from competitors…and it addresses the large percentage of consumers who are visually oriented and will almost always choose to watch a video rather than read.”

Using video to market your school, its programs and people is becoming a necessity, but Bonfigli warns against rushing into production without following some common-sense rules:

- Keep videos short. “In general, they should range anywhere from one to three minutes. Any longer and visitor attention may start to wane.”

- Keep them simple. “Make sure your footage is not busy; that is, you’re not trying to show too much. Keep the camera focused on one or two points of visual interest, and make sure that whoever is in the frame is speaking directly, clearly and slowly to the camera.”

- Include a call to action. “Every video on the website should include a call to action or in some way encourage the visitor to contact the company, whether it’s ‘click on the link below’ or ‘call this number now’ or ‘check out the offer below.’”

Bonfigli recommends placing a welcome video from your president or other spokesperson right on the homepage. “The video should tell visitors what they can expect to find on the website, and why they should stay and look around. It should be short, to the point and upbeat in nature. The goal is to make visitors feel comfortable and to establish a personal connection.”

For more of Bonfigli’s video do’s and don’ts, visit:
www.imediaconnection.com/content/19905.asp

The human mind is a sucker for simplicity, and that craving is never more apparent than when we sift through our email inbox, say agency execs Gary Levitt and Rob Lubow. “The eye embraces that which can be easily digested. Less is more,” they wrote in a recent MarketingProfs article.

“The modern email inbox is a perpetual promotion machine of colors, styles and sales pitches all fighting to be seen,” they add. “In an attempt to break from the herd, many email marketers ironically adopt a mentality of more clutter, more content, more, more, more. This misguided pursuit of increased visibility merely leads to increased invisibility.”

The authors cite a growing body of marketing research that suggests we all prefer simplicity and focus in our email messages.

“Unless you’re emailing something of personal relevance or urgency, you have only three and a half seconds to be interesting. All those hours designing a big, bloated email reminiscent of an advanced Web page, only to be tagged as junk. Ouch.”

Levitt and Lubow recommend asking yourself three questions:

- What is your favorite kind of email? “If you’re like most people, your favorite emails are those few lines of text sent by a friend or someone you were hoping to hear from — text solely aimed at you.”

- How much time should you spend reading mass emails? “Probably none. Think about it. The mass marketer’s not your friend. You can tell by the polished visuals that he’s working overtime to manipulate you. In this lies a vital tip for marketers: Be a friend. Keep it simple. Keep it nice.”

- What else is happening on the page? “There’s only one way to stand out from all the busy email messages: look less like an ad. Think simple. Once simplicity is embraced, you’re free to converse plainly with your clients — easily and often.”

To read the full article, click below (you may have to sign up for free access):
www.marketingprofs.com/8/simplicity-email-nature-levitt-lubow.asp

Note: Effective online communication will be a theme throughout upcoming workshops in Boston and Chicago:
www.targetx.com/workshop/

An online social network may be more than just a communications tool, more than a way to bring together people with similar interests. It could play a powerful role in influencing how people behave.

That’s the implication of two research projects — one finding that obesity appears to spread from one person to another through social networks, “almost like a virus or a fad,” and the other determining that a person’s decision to quit smoking is strongly affected by whether other people in their social network quit.

“Taken together, these studies and others are fueling a growing recognition that many behaviors are swayed by social networks in ways that we have not fully understood,” writes Rob Stein in a recent Washington Post article.

The researchers focused on traditional social networks. One of the most surprising findings is that people were not only influenced by those closest to them — such as spouses and friends. “It could be your brother’s spouse’s co-worker or a friend of a friend of a friend,” explained one of the investigators. “The point is, your behavior depends on people you don’t even know.”

“These studies force us to rethink our mental model of how we behave,” says Columbia University sociologist Duncan Watts. “Public policy treats people as if they are sort of atomized individuals.”

We also treat prospective students as atomized individuals, when in fact they are just as susceptible to flock mentality as their elders — probably more so. And for today’s Millennials, online social networks may be just as influential as the conventional ones.

So if you are hosting your own social network for recruitment purposes, make sure you have current students taking part — along with incoming students who are truly committed. It appears that their choice to attend your school could influence the behavior of those who are still undecided. It’s human nature.

To read the Washington Post article, visit:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/25/AR2008052501779_pf.html

Sometimes we get so hung up on hard numbers and so infatuated with analytics that we overlook the value of human response. Take our websites, for example.

While tools like Google Analytics and WebTrends can help determine the effectiveness of your site, page visits and click-throughs tell only part of the story, says Adrienne Bartlett.

“Anecdotal feedback can help fill in the blanks,” she wrote in one of her weekly XpertTips to customers and followers of TargetX. “Here are a few opportunities you may be missing.”

- Provide a link right on the page for visitors to comment and/or make content requests.

- Ask visiting prospective students and families to give you feedback on their online registration process. Did you give them sufficient information to help them plan their visit?

- Invite a handful of prospective students to act as an informal focus group. Give them a series of questions and see how long it takes them to find the answers on your site.

- During the admissions interview, be sure to ask prospects if they’ve visited your website and ask for their reaction. If they haven’t, take the opportunity to show them pages specific to their interests.

- Have admissions counselors ask about your website when they speak with students and families at college fairs.

- Consider using your website during admissions information sessions. It’s a great way to invite suggestions while showing visitors where to get more information in the future.

- Provide incentives for people willing to provide web feedback: waive application fees, give a discount at the bookstore, give away a free tee-shirt, etc.

“One final thought,” wrote Bartlett. “Be sure to have your staff take notes on what they’re hearing. Report this data with other analytics you’re tracking and you’ll have a great picture of what’s working for your site.

Note: Bartlett will offer tips for delivering a more engaging online experience at upcoming workshops in Boston and Chicago. For more information, visit:
www.targetx.com/workshop/

To see other XpertTips, click below:
blogs.targetx.com/targetx/xperttips/

The preview pane — a window that shows the top couple inches of an email — is growing in popularity. That means it’s more likely that more people are skipping your email messages unless they immediately see a reason to read on.

Some email experts see the preview pane supplanting the subject line as the primary driver of recipient behavior. “More specifically,” writes Loren McDonald of Silverpop, “it is the content inside the preview pane that motivates the recipient to open the full message or to scroll further and take action without even opening the message.”

Research from MarketingSherpa estimates that 70% of consumers use a preview pane if their email system allows it — and an increasing number of systems are doing just that. The percentage is even higher for users at work.

Here are some suggestions for designing your email with the preview pane in mind:

- Put your emphasis on the upper left corner of the email. Don’t lead with a big fancy image, but instead use a simple letterhead logo or HTML text.

- Try to place reader benefits in your first few lines of copy.

- Include a headline above the body of your email.

- Make sure your first couple of lines give a preview of what follows.

- Maybe the simplest advice of all is: Hurry up and tell your readers what’s in it for them.

To read MarketinSherpa’s Email Design 101 (available for free until June 11), click:
www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30627

When Tony Soprano strangled a former associate during his daughter’s visit to Colby College, it became more than just a celebrated episode in the famed HBO series. “Nine years later, parents still joke about that show,” writes Steven Winn of the San Francisco Chronicle, “debating whether it was an admissions director, another parent or their own kid they longed to throttle on a multicampus trip.”

Ah, the campus visit. What was once a bonding experience for families focused on a couple finalists in the joyful college search has become a grinding cross-country marathon for many well-meaning parents and their unsure students.

“Once a leisurely and largely optional choice for college applicants, the college tour has become an established institution and mini-industry,” writes Winn, arts and culture critic for the Chronicle. “Lots of people think the college visitation phenomenon has become a costly, time-consuming practice that may well yield minimal if not counterproductive results,” he adds.

Those people would be incorrect, says Jeff Kallay, who has built a reputation as the nation’s top authority on the campus visit. The in-person experience is still the strongest determining factor in where a student chooses to attend, says Kallay, who has taken more than 200 campus tours over the past couple years.

“With more and more families visiting, touring, attending open houses, you have to take advantage of their presence to create an experience,” says Kallay. “And the key is to craft an experience that is engaging, memorable and authentic to your institution.”

Campus tours and open houses can no longer be passive encounters for students, says Kallay, who serves as “Experience Evangelist” at TargetX. “Everything today is about interaction, engaging people, giving them a chance to create their own stories, memories and experiences. And it all has to reflect the unique tone of the institution so that the right students — your best-fit students — feel like they belong.”

Note: Jeff Kallay will lead a session on “rendering authenticity” at a student-recruiting workshop being offered in three cities. For more information, visit:
www.targetx.com/workshop

To read Steven Winn’s article on the college visit, click below:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/23/LVQN10P2ID.DTL

You won’t find it in your TV listings, but one of the most successful channels over the past year has been the Carnegie Mellon University Channel on YouTube.

The research institution decided in 2007 to launch a campaign that would, among other things, communicate the message that CMU does cutting-edge work and has fun doing it.

“Prospective students are cynical about typical hard-sell marketing,” says CMU’s Marilyn Kail in a recent case study by online publisher MarketingProfs. “They trust their peers. They appreciate entertainment. That is why social media marketing works so well.”

So Kail and her colleagues agreed to plan and execute an ongoing social media campaign. They decided to highlight the university’s professors, alumni, students and programs by launching a series of online videos. They would also encourage contributions from students — what they call Student Vids.

CMU established a channel on YouTube and also made the videos available on its website and its newly created Facebook page. With all that the university has to show — from robots to buggy races — the campaign was already doing well when a 47-year-old computer science professor named Randy Pausch delivered a “last lecture” — an increasingly popular vehicle for teachers to offer life lessons as if it were the last time they would address their students.

In Dr. Pausch’s case, the lecture took on a more literal and profound significance. He is dying from pancreatic cancer.

You may be one of the millions who has clicked to the lecture, sat in front of your screen for 1 hour and 16 minutes, alternately laughing and crying as Dr. Pausch offers what he calls a “message in a bottle” for his three young children.

Carnegie Mellon’s decision to use video as a way to promote the extraordinary quality of its people has been highly successful and cost-efficient. It has also given the world an inspiring gift.

To see Randy Pausch’s “last lecture” (and the CMU Channel), visit:
www.youtube.com/carnegiemellonu

To read the case study (you may have to sign up for a free trial), click:
www.marketingprofs.com/casestudy/88

The earth may be shifting under your feet again — 140 characters at a time.

Just as you begin to grasp social networking, along comes Twitter, a form of connected communication that restricts users to 140 characters. (Exactly the length of that sentence.)

Dismissed early on as a way for mostly self-absorbed youth to report on every mundane action and thought, it has emerged as a powerful communication tool. Many media experts, for example, marvel that Twitter users learned about the recent earthquake in China before news outlets began reporting it. Moreover, the micro-blogging tool allowed victims and observers of the quake to continually offer on-the-spot updates.

Marketing executive Max Kalehoff is a devoted user of Twitter, which he sees as an important means of one-to-one and one-to-group communications.

“Twitter’s a great platform to cultivate trusted members in a customized community — to solicit feedback and spark interaction on real questions and issues.”

Sounds like a great tool for staying in touch with college-bound teens and for building that all-important sense of community. Prospective students can click a “follow” button to get your updates, or “tweets.” You can then converse, bulletin-board-style, posting new tweets via cell phone, IM services or a box on Twitter’s site.

You can share your observations on the admissions process, offer answers to commonly-asked questions, post deadline reminders and updates, announce events, report news, maybe even share some gossip — all to a group that has chosen to follow your every word.

“These posts,” says Kalehoff, “are published quickly and, usually, publicly. While there are risks and obligations with that, there are also huge benefits and opportunities associated with being spontaneous and visible. It’s part of being in the conversation and managing your digital reputation.”

To read Max Kalehoff’s article on “Why Twitter Matters,” click below:
blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1296

To learn more about social media and other interactive tools, attend a special one-day workshop:
www.targetx.com/workshop/

Al DiGuido is the godfather of email marketing and has been a force in communications technology for decades. So it is significant that the recent “epiphany” he experienced during a 20-hour flight to India had nothing to do with e-communications. It was about family — and customers.

More specifically, it was the realization that most of us have to change our attitude. “See your customers as family members, as individuals you want to have close relationships with,” he writes. “See electronic communications as the way in which you stay in touch, ask them questions, understand what’s going on in their world, comprehend their struggles, figure out how you can help them.”

All too often we blame technology for failures to convert prospects and retain customers. “But technology isn’t the problem,” DiGuido says. “You are the problem. Your attitude toward your customers and how you communicate with them.”

One of the keys to better communication is to learn as much about your prospective students as possible. Then, says DiGuido, you need to treat them as unique individuals. “Your family members don’t want to see themselves as a segment or target. They want communications that are personalized, relevant and meaningful to them as individuals.”

So do today’s prospective students and parents, and the technology is available to satisfy them. “Your failure to address their needs separates them from your company and puts them on a mission to find another home to call their own, says DiGuido”

“The bad news is you are the problem,” he concludes. “The good news is that you can solve your problem by taking the appropriate actions.”

To read DiGuido’s challenge to marketers, visit:
www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3629328