Regret is a Choice #leadercast

I was reading #Leadercast tweets on Friday and came across this one. Ever since then, "regret" has been rolling around in my head, waiting for me to tease it out.

So right, @TrinaKLee - I tell my daughter boredom is her choice and fail to realize regrets are of my own making/inaction. #leadercast
— James Lamb / tvjames (@tvjames) May 9, 2014

There was suddenly a flash of recognition. That's what I love about events like these - where you can get away from the typical every day and be forced to think differently. And so I've been thinking about regret. What it is, and what it isn't.

Regret is a choice.

I can be sad about things that have happened. Lament, despair, mourn. But regret is different. Regret is active, present tense. Regret is self-incrimination for a failure to act or for a failed act. I regret that I... I regret that I never... I wish I hadn't... If only I had had the courage to...

Armed with this knowledge, we can set about to right that which we regret. We may find ourselves in circumstances of our own making - whether years in the making, or ones that will take years to clean up. But they are ours.

If we can choose to regret, we can choose to change.

etsy.com

I'm choosing to change. I've lived too long feeling bad about circumstances that I wrongly felt were outside my control. They are in my control, I was just using excuses. The man was keeping me down, but I was the man.

Enough of that. Time to live without regrets.

#EEC13: Personalization: You Can Do This (A Work-Related Post)

The latest in my very-delayed updates from #EEC13. At this rate I'll be posting one of the last updates *from* #EEC14.

Presenters:

• Phil Davis (Twitter, LinkedIn)
  CEO, Rapleaf
• Erik Severinghaus (Twitter, LinkedIn)
  CEO, SimpleRelevance
• John Kavaliauskas (LinkedIn)
  Senior Manager, Email & Data-Driven Marketing, TBC Corp
• Amanda Stewart (LinkedIn)
  Senior Manager, Marketing, Entertainment Benefits Group

This panel was presented by RapLeaf (a poorly named data aggregator) and SimpleRelevance.

RapLeaf's (www.rapleaf.com) selling point is real-time data across a number of demographic points for 80% of U.S. email addresses. Load up a file (or use their API) and get back additional data points for the email address and become a more informed marketer.

SimpleRelevance (www.simplerelevance.com) makes e-commerce relevancy predictions by using publicly available data for an email address combined with the exhibited behaviors of email addresses that show similar traits, again, all with the information people share publicly online.

Why Relevancy?

We have a responsibility to uphold the brand promise we made when they opted-in.

"Groupon was fun at first, but now it's all mani-pedi- it's not fun because it's not relevant." Or, to put it another way… You see this happen at a Superbowl Party: Guy goes up to Phil's wife and asks "Who are you hoping will win?" She says "I don't know who's playing and I don't really care all that much, I'm just here to enjoy the party." Guy starts talking teams and stats and after a few minutes, she's glancing over at Phil imploring him to help her opt-out of the conversation. Don't be like Guy.

Big Data or Big Headache?

Segment = assumption. Personalization is better. Don't confuse noise and signals.

Big data = non-structured unfiltered data like a twitter comment "I just test drove a Volvo" and translating that into "in market for car / values safety / has money / might be female"

Is that good enough? Can you use that to provide relevancy?

Forget "Big Data" and think "Small Data"

#EEC13 @VerizonWireless (A Work-Related Post)

Note: I attended the Email Evolution conference in early February but have been so swamped since my return that I've had trouble getting back to my notes and turning them into useful information to share with my organization and the world.

John Edwards (LinkedIn)
Director, Digital CRM,
Verizon Wireless

Wacarra Yeomans (LinkedIn)
Director, Creative Services, Responsys

Presentation Slides (PDF)

Mobile First

In general, people give each email:

• 3-5 second skim - desktop
• 1-2 second skim - mobile

So... what does "optimize for mobile" really mean? 

Take someone with a gmail account using an iPhone:

1. Native email client
2. Gmail client
3. gmail.com on safari
4. gmail.com on chrome
   ...etc... (now add yahoo, hotmail/outlook.com, aol, corporate email, etc., etc., etc.)

Slow Kills

Slow load times will reduce customer activity for up to 5 months (Google). Are you chasing away customers with a bad mobile experience?

So... now what?

#EEC13 @VirginAmerica (A Work-Related Post)

Note: I attended the Email Evolution conference in early February but have been so swamped since my return that I've had trouble getting back to my notes and turning them into useful information to share with my organization and the world.  It seems like I've gotten things a little more under control at work so hopefully these will start to trickle out with a little more regularity.

Virgin America
Luanne Calvert, VP Marketing, Virgin America (LinkedIn)
(no powerpoint available)

Q: How do you become a millionaire?

A: Start out as a billionaire and start an airline.

Virgin America was able to start with a blank slate and they worked to take what people like on the ground (design, aesthetics, comfort, entertainment) and brought it to life in the sky.

Now... how to bring the experience from the sky back to the ground to those who haven't experienced Virgin America?

Virgin America has strong identity and branding. They KNOW who they are and they stay on brand. By being so confident on who they are, they've become an aspirational brand - you believe yourself to be cooler for having had the experience of flying with them. So it becomes very easy for them to then to turn around and ask you to share with others because it feels like bragging.

What They've Learned from their Email Campaigns

#EEC13 Email Statistics (A Work-Related Post)

Here's a bunch of tweets from #EEC13 with email statistics I thought were worth saving.



Susan Tull ‏@Ohsusantull
@delaquist argues that not all clicks are equal and mobile clicks drive less $ #emailchat #eec13



Matthew Kelley ‏@matthew_kelley
More frequent email sending increases engagement and revenue per subscriber AND self-cleans your list in the process. @delaquist #eec13



tinktaylor ‏@tinktaylor
#eec13 Open & click rates drop but revenue per subscriber increases with frequency. Open Reach is a no brainer not a debate @DelaQuist



Dwight Sholes ‏@dsholes
With increased email frequency, every metric goes down except one: revenue per subscriber. @DelaQuist #EEC13.



Chris Frasier ‏@steelhull
On average, a smartphone user checks their phone 150 times a day. #eec13



Manny Ju ‏@mannyju
@VirginAmerica DECREASED email frequency and was still very effective. Who woulda thunk? #eec13



Erika Westphal ‏@EmailErika
20% of people leave their mobile phone at home? #EEC13



Ryan Phelan ‏@ryanpphelan
80% of all blog traffic comes from a first time visitor @swerdtoyourmom @chrisbaggott #eec13



Len Shneyder ‏@LenShneyder
#eec13 email is most measurable followed by seo and then display advertising.



Len Shneyder ‏@LenShneyder
#eec13 #emailmarketing ROI is bananas according to Luanne Calvert of @VirginAmerica besides leveraging the brand it's highly measurable.



Kevin Rehberg ‏@KevinRehberg
As offer rates increase past 25%, open rates actually decrease by as much as 15% #EEC13



Mitch Lapides ‏@MitchLapides
@ryanphelan says you should be getting 30% of your revenue from trigger emails #EEC13



Erika Westphal ‏@EmailErika
There are about 16-18 types of transactional email. 20% can be used for promotional such as NLP info. Put exclusions at the bottom. #EEC13



Mitch Lapides ‏@MitchLapides
@ryanphelan notes transactional emails average 60% + open rate and can be large revenue source #EEC13



Kate Blom ‏@kateblom
#eec13 80% of all web content is user generated



John Caldwell ‏@jacaldwell
outlook users clicking at about 1/3 rate of mobile, outlook users tend to be older & business says @davehendricks #eec13



HighRoad Solution ‏@HighRoadsol
Stat from #eec13 session,61% of mobile email opens revert to desktop due to negative post click experiences. Only 10% of tablet users revert



Manny Ju ‏@mannyju
27pct opens on iOS devices for target audience of 50-60yr old women.- Lisa Papageras >Wow! Who woulda thunk? #MobileEmail is here! #eec13



Manny Ju ‏@mannyju
#mobilemarketing spend $4.1B in 2012. Up 180pct. -Jonathan Margulies. #eec13



Manny Ju ‏@mannyju
93pct retail sales still offline. -Winterberry Grp >Huge oppty for #email and #mobilemarketing strategies to drive in-store sales #eec13



Len Shneyder ‏@LenShneyder
2.7 Zeta bytes will be used by #marketers this year! That's a number with 21 zeroes. #bigdata #epic #email #eec13 via @StephanieSAM



Mitch Lapides ‏@MitchLapides
Best subject line from Obama campaign led to $2.7 mill. vs worst one that would have delivered only $400k-value of testing #eec13



BlueHornet ‏@bluehornetemail
Email marketing will drive nearly a quarter of buyers back again #EEC13



Erika Westphal ‏@EmailErika
LTV initiatives - increase click 12 to 23%. Multiply results for single donor gifts. Adopt a subscriber acquisition program. #EEC13



Kate Blom ‏@kateblom
70% of consumers delete an email if it doesn't look good on their mobile device. #eec13



Leah Averre ‏@Averrela
Pay attention to your email marketing, A third of customers will stop engaging with your brand if they had a bad email experience #eec13



stephenguerra ‏@stephenguerra
@emailrocks 74% women and 62% men with Android phones use the Gmail client rather then their phone's native client. #eec13



Leah Averre ‏@Averrela
Average email complaint rate is .17%. So if you're above that revisit how you're setting customer expectations #eec13



Ryan Phelan ‏@ryanpphelan
200B emails are sent every day #eec13

#EEC12: Discover (A Work-Related Post)

#7 in a series

How Advanced Segmentation Can Improve Targeting and Metrics
Jeff Teitelbaum, e-Business, Discover
Jared Chase, Client Services Lead, e-Dialog

• Engagement Pyramid (relevancy and specificity)
• * One single customer
• * Segmentation and modeling (Web Analytics, CRM)
• * Demographics
• * General/mass population
• 
  
• "We are not order takers, we provide insight.".....

#EEC12 Kansas Speedway (A Work-Related Post)

#6 in a series

Customer Connections: Using Social & Customer Data to Improve Email Relevancy
Stephanie Miller, VP, Digital Messaging Solutions, Aprimo
Julie Brown, Consumer Marketing Manager, Kansas Speedway

• Your customer is learning about in a lot of new ways, a lot of them you don't control or pay for
• Their research will lead them to you eventually
  .....
• (1) Customers don't want more email, they want relevant email
• (2) Communicate on the customer's timeline and urgency
• (3) Where do we go from here? (checklist)
  .....
  

#EEC12: Email Marketing Trends for 2012 (A Work-Related Post)

#5 in a series.  In this one, observations and recommendations are interspersed instead of all being at the end like they are in the other ones.


Email Marketing Trends for 2012
Shar Van Boskirk, VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Ryan Phelan, VP Strategic Services, BlueHornet

Presentation Included Video from a Recent Man on the Street Survey.  Some funny results, some painful.

• "Why do you sign-up for emails?"
• - 95% to receive discounts
• - 57% to receive product updates
• - 56% because they love the brand
  .....
• You need a signup on Facebook - these are people who love your brand
  

#EEC12: Analytics and Response (A Work-Related Post)

#4 in a series

Using the Right Metrics for the Right Job
Luke Glasner, Principal, Glasner Consulting
Adam Holden-Bache, CEO, Mass Transmit
Ryan Hofmann, Sr. Consultant, Responsys
Dela Quist, CEO, Alchemy Worx

• EEC S.A.M.E. (Support Adoption of Metrics for Email) Project
• Accepted (instead of "Delivered") - any email not rejected (same metric, better name)
• Render (instead of "Open") - number of times HTML was displayed (with images on)
• Inbox Placement Rate
• Total Confirmed Opens = Render + Counts from Clicks (to capture any text or image-off opens)
  ..... 
• Need to map the lifecycle of your customer, with regards to email
• Subscribers are most engaged in the first 90-days
• "Emotionally Unengaged" = unresponsive
  

#EEC12: Haute Look (A Work-Related Post)

#3 in a series

Increase Profitability Within Your Inactive Customers
Erik Kirby, CEO and Founder, Connection Engine
Harvey Osher, Director of Member Engagement, Haute Look
Spencer Kollas, Director of Delivery Services, Strongmail

• Haute Look (purchased by Nordstroms) - flash sale - emails delivered between 7:50-8 am PST drives 60% of all traffic
  .....
• For most marketers, 50% of a subscriber file is inactive/disengaged
• Problems with not mailing: loss of revenue, loss of contact potential
• Problems with mailing: deliverability; customer satisfaction, marketing waste
  

#EEC12: REI (A Work-Related Post)

#2 in a series

REI's Journey to a Data-Driven Experience
John Reynolds, Manager, Marketing Analytics, REI
Jennifer Alexander, VP/General Manager, Epsilon

• Stop siloing based on medium (direct vs email vs socila)
• Shifting from "episodic" (ad hoc) to "always on" (trigger)
• Episodic/Ad Hoc = Marketer Focus
• Always On/Trigger = Donor Focus
• Retargeting display based on abandoned cart
  .....
• Everyone needs to start collecting data in a more customer-centric model
• Work hard to standarize data, goals and which analytics should be used/captured/acted upon
• Data: Plan and Forecast Sales, Calculate Lifetime Value, Understand Behavior and Trends (becoming very important)
• Leads into Merchandizing and Pagination and Catalog / Planning future product development
  

#EEC12 Gilt (A Work-Related Post)

These are my notes captured from the Email Evolution conference held in February 2012.  I'm capturing them here in case they might be useful to you.  I highly recommend this annual conference as a great way to sharpen your email marketing skills.  I'll post my notes from additional sessions as I have time.  (This was the first 3 pages, I have 18 pages of notes total.  At the end, I'll try to pull out the common topics/themes/trends and aggregate my recommended action items.)

EEC12 - 2/23 Keynote
Jessica Harley, VP of Customer Marketing

• 1/3 of customers login monthly
• 65% of "noir" customers purchase at least once monthly
• flash/competitive sales: most of their sales/revenue is generated at noon each day (when sales/email lauch)
• 20% each month are *NEW* customer
• Technology all developed in-house
• Rapid growth led to fragmented experience (especially look & feel and email design) - considerable effort done to realign
• In the four years since Gilt launched: Facebook "like", Foursquare, iPad, iPhone (almost), Google+, Pinterest
• 87% of email users check personal email each day
• Even for the group that say they've created a special "spam/retail" email address - 60% of them check daily
  ......
  

#EEC12: In Other Words... (A Work-Related Post)

I'll be posting my notes from #EEC soon (first there's the matter of packing and flying and stuff). But in the meantime, here's a lot of great tweets from the event. It was a great conference and there was a lot of good stuff. Interesting to see the themes change from year-to-year as the challenge to become more strategic and more sophisticated becomes clearer. Click "Join the Conversation" below to get to the rest of them.