We’ve all seen the use of QR codes become more and more prevalent as a marketing tool for companies, but could QR codes be used as a source of entertainment?  I’ll get there in a moment, but let me first set the stage.  Aside from my new gig as a marketing consultant with HMG Creative (I call it a gig because to me it’s fun), I also have the unique title of “Board Game Inventor”.  A couple years ago, a random event sparked an idea for a new party game that I coined, Spontuneous.  Check it out when you have a moment, but let me get back to my story.

I recently attended the World Toy Fair in New York City, where I rented a booth to promoteSpontuneous.  In doing so, I used QR codes as a marketing tool in a couple different ways.  The first was a large sign where toy store buyers could scan the code to download a press kit I had created with all the pertinent information they would need to place an order.  Several buyers scanned it, but a larger portion still preferred an old-fashioned hard copy; fortunately I was prepared.  The second use was a code on my business cards.  It directed the user to a YouTube video of the game being played with narration throughout and a call to action in the end.  Of the two, the video code was by far the most widely scanned.  Although effective, my strategy had room for improvement.

Now what really caught my eye had nothing to do with my own use of QR codes, but rather that of a couple other booths around me.  One belonged to Jacked Up Card Games, where certain playing cards within the deck had a QR code, that when scanned, would change the rules of the game.  The other booth belonged to 4 Clowns Game & Toy Company.  It was the first year presenting at Toy Fair for these clowns, but there’s no joking when comes to the amount of attention they received for their new game.  It’s calledCodigo Cube.

Codigo Cube is a larger-than-normal sized die with a unique QR code on each of the 6 sides.  Players roll the die and scan the facing code, which returns a trivia question.  If answered correctly, the player rolls again and attempts a new question.  If answered incorrectly, the Codigo Cube is passed to the next player.  The first to answer a question from all 6 categories wins!

The beauty of this idea, which they’ve patented, is that the bank of trivia questions can continually be updated with new questions and categories.  Another cool feature is that players can be given different handicaps depending on their knowledge, so kids and adults can play together despite different abilities.

What a novel way to use QR codes!  It’s a great game that the whole family can play anytime, anywhere and it will never grow old.  Keep an eye out for this one because over the 4 days I displayed across from 4 Clowns, it was not uncommon to see company executives from Toys R Us, Hasbro and the likes intently listening to their presentation of the Cudigo Cube.

So in looking for more effective ways to utilize QR codes as a marketing tool, I think the moral of the story would be:  Make it fun.  In addition to providing information; look for creative ways to engage the end-user.  After all, who doesn’t like to have a good time?

The phrase was, “content is king.” Content was key for search engine optimization and played a huge role to position your company as an industry resource. Then came social and the need for pushing consistent communication and creative tactics emerged through micro-sites and social media popularity exploding, driving brands to compete with the thought-leaders or become obsolete in the marketplace.

Now, with the internet becoming increasingly personalized in our multi-polarized world, content marketing is more important than ever. Budgets are increasing to develop deeper, thought-provoking messaging and strategy (evolving from, “Look at us” and “Wow, our product and services are fantastic,” to a storytelling technique that taps into the customer experience).

So what exactly is content marketing? Entrepreneur Magazine’s concise definition is: “The creation and publication of original content — including blog posts, case studies, white papers, videos and photos — for the purpose of generating leads, enhancing a brand’s visibility, and putting the company’s subject matter expertise on display.”

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Plenty has been said about how to keep email marketing messages out of the spam trap, how to keep subscribers from clicking the spam button, and how to stay relevant. But underneath all this practical advice is a deeper question: What constitutes spam in the first place? Most people define spam as any marketing message they don’t want. Retailers on the other hand, operate under a much narrower definition. Let’s take a look at what constitutes spam both technically and practically, and how you can avoid earning the spam designation.

Sender Perspective

As a sender, your definition of spam differs dramatically from that of the recipient. While there will be some gray areas, most spam falls into these three categories:

• CAN-SPAM act violations—The CAN-SPAM Act sets forth guidelines for email marketing messages which include accurate from lines, unsubscribe mechanisms, opt-out compliance, and accurate headers. Messages that violate these guidelines are spam in the most technical sense of the word.
• Unsolicited marketing messages—While not technically spam according to the CAN-SPAM Act, unsolicited messages (purchased email lists) are considered to be spam by most recipients and senders, rendering the usefulness of such lists virtually zilch.
• Third-party affiliate messages—You may have a check box on your email sign-up page that gives permission for third-party affiliates to send messages to that subscriber. But if the box is automatically checked or the recipient doesn’t remember signing up for such emails, these messages will also be considered spam.

Subscriber Perspective

It’s much harder to provide a concrete definition of spam from the subscriber’s perspective. Basically, if a subscriber doesn’t want a particular marketing message to appear in his inbox, he’s likely to hit the spam button and send all future messages from that sender to the spam folder. Spam, in the eyes of the subscriber, is any marketing message he doesn’t currently want, even if he initially signed up to receive your emails.

It’s All About Relevance

Because subscribers take such a broad view of spam, it’s up to email marketers to gain a subscriber’s trust so he’ll keep reading their messages. The most effective way to do this is to make your messages relevant. If a subscriber knows that your content will provide something that benefits him—information, discounts, or special offers—he will look forward to receiving your messages rather than deleting them or designating them as spam.

At eConnect Email, we have years of experience helping our clients stay out of spam traps. Use our subscriber list management tools, segmentation options, and design templates to create email messages that will keep your subscribers wanting more.

You cannot ignore Pinterest if you try. Everywhere you look is a headline about the exponential growth and popularity of the social-sharing website, how to get invited to be a Pinterest user, and what to do after you are officially a “Pinner.”

I admit my first encounters with Pinterest were not positive ones. My brother’s self-indulged fiancée spent hours on the site “pinning” wedding rings, dresses and boot socks. Yes, boot socks. All during the last meeting of the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M on Thanksgiving. Let’s just say this doesn’t bode well in a UT alumni household.  But, with time (and a newly registered account), my eyes were soon opened to the endless visual candy that the site provided, and I was not alone.

The social network exploded late last year beginning in August when Time Magazine deemed Pinterest one of the, “50 Best Websites of 2011.” Since then, Pinterest’s unique visitors increased over 329% by December and garnered more traffic than Google +, You Tube and Linked In combined. The site clearly proved itself worthy of the attention and marketers took notice of the phenomenon.

Why should you and your company care about this virtual bulletin board? Because your customers and consumers care and are actively sharing information on the site. Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting;” a.k.a an intimate window into users’ lives, desires and purchase decisions. To a communicator it is a gold mine of customer insight and a focus group served on a silver platter.

While you can experiment and create your own rules when you launch your company on Pinterest, there are some basic guidelines to follow and others to avoid:

Pinterest Do’s:

Be Engaging
Like all social networking, you must engage users through relevant content and provide valuable information your target demographic cares about. Also, follow users who have similar interests and re-pin images of users that are relevant to your brand.  One idea is to have a board reserved solely for user generated content. This is one more way for users to engage directly with your company and shows them that you care about their participation and feedback. Most importantly: Listen – a key component to know how to engage.

Be Consistent
Promote a lifestyle that your audience enjoys and strives to maintain.  You must use the site as an extension of your brand, messaging and stay on-point with your company personality and that of your customers. Don’t stray from what people already love about your company, enhance it!

Be Fun
This is, after all, a social bulletin board and a positive environment. Be light-hearted and inspire users and also your employees to participate. Have a contest, crowd-source for ideas or give users some inside scoop to your event, office or next big product.

Pinterest Don’ts:

Don’t Over Self-Promote
Users will quickly tune out if your sole purpose is to push product and direct to a shopping cart. Visual catalogs are great, but not if that is the only content you provide. While Pinterest should absolutely be used to direct traffic to your site, don’t overwhelm people or push them away by only talking about your products.

Don’t Limit Yourself
Pinterst content isn’t just limited to images; you can post videos as well. And hashtags aren’t just for Twitter anymore, you can use them on Pinterest to categorize posts and also help boost search results. And don’t forget to add a “Pin Button” to your site. Make it easy for users to connect and share content.

Don’t Forget to Watch for Innovative Ideas and Best Practices
The best way we learn in advertising, PR and marketing is from each other. When in doubt, shop the world for ideas and adapt to make them your own. Take notes of what has succeeded for you, for other companies and also what has failed. There is no right or wrong with Pinterest and there is no cookie-cutter plan that works for everyone. So read articles, search Pinterest for yourself and get inspired. Need a jump-start? Here is a great list of the top 100 companies on Pinterst (http://goo.gl/LxrvT), my favorite of the bunch, Chobani.

Happy Pinning, Y’all.

So your company has a Facebook fan page. Maybe you’ve got a couple hundred likes, and you want to take it to the next level. You added a “Like us on Facebook” link to your eConnect email campaigns, expecting your Facebook fan club to explode like Justin Bieber’s.

It’s been a week since you hit “send” on your email campaign, and you’re getting a fraction of the results you wanted.

What happened? Perhaps your Facebook page doesn’t have the value it should have in order to attract attention on Facebook. Read on for some tips to generate excitement for your company’s Facebook page.

Your Facebook Page Needs Purpose

There’s more to having a Facebook fan page than just having a spot on the social network. Many businesses start a Facebook fan page, but have no clear direction for it. If you’re going to market your Facebook page through email marketing, then customers need to know your Facebook page has something to offer.

Facebook is an invaluable way for customers and the business to interact. Even complaints, when handled publicly with tact and grace, can make your business look good when handled on the Facebook page.

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If you were given the opportunity to try two things at the same time to see which one would give you the most benefits for the least work, would you take the opportunity? Of course you’d do it!

Think about this. What if whenever you walked up to a girl, you could try a couple different pick-up lines at the same time (and without the girl knowing), to see which line would get her attention? You’d exploit your unfair advantage, I’m sure.

Split testing = An unfair corner on the market

Think about your email campaigns. Whenever you work to compose and send one, you’re pretty much taking a guess each time, hoping that all the hours and effort you put into shaping the most grabbing subject line, the perfect offer, the best body copy and the most motivational call-to-action will make them open it and react. And then, that amazing promotional graphic you creatively designed. You hope your subscribers will not be able to resist that!

Here’s an idea! Why not take the chance element out of it and be certain next time?

When you split test your email campaigns, all you do is copy the original email, change any part (one or multiple), schedule the split test delivery and then sit back and watch the magic happen! Split testing offers a fast way to optimize email marketing campaigns. If you use split testing, you’ll be able to try out a couple versions of your message on a few subscribers, see which one performs better, and then use the better message for the rest of the subscribers.

For your next campaign, you can use the superior message as a foundation. You can then keep testing more elements, improving your email campaigns with each test. What’s the best thing about this? It’s amazingly easy! In fact, it’s so easy I don’t know why you don’t split test EVERY campaign! And think about it: Could you even try to do split testing with a newspaper ad or print campaign?

An easy example

Let’s imagine I’m a restaurant sending out an offer to my clientele to come in and eat on slow Wednesday evenings. Usually your resources (ad agency, in-house, etc.) are pretty much guessing at what offer is going to motivate customers to come into the restaurant. And you pay them for the guessing. The offer seems great. There’s a big enough, bold enough call-to-action. Hey, let’s try it. You press the send button. While you obtain okay open rates, you don’t think you did quite as well as you could have.

Using split testing, you are able to experiment with some variations such as:

* Sender/Envelope Info
* Subject lines
* Calls-to-action
* Images
* Body Copy
* Testimonials
* Personalization
* Message layout/design
* And more…

And with those options guess what you can do? You can get these results:

* Increase Open rates
* Increase Requests for more information
* Increase Click-thrus
* Increase Visits
* Increase Calls
* Increase your knowledge of what works and what doesn’t

Could be that a two-for-one offer isn’t as effective as free apps. How could you have known?

Do you have enough to think about now? Are you willing to give it a try for the next email campaign you send? If you’re an eConnect Email customer, we’re always here to help you! Contact your account manager for a few ideas and help you get started with split testing.

Good luck!

You see them everywhere: on business entrances, restaurant menus, movie posters, brochures, direct mail pieces, the list goes on. Although we have heavily utilized these quick response barcodes for over two years in the marketing and tech world, as an industry we have yet to perfect the use of QR Codes (and in many instances failed miserably at understanding their effective placement).

At first these barcodes were new and different and marketers jumped at the chance to use QR codes in efforts to be “ahead of the curve” or a “leader in the industry.”  They started popping up and you hear clients ask, “Can we put a QR Code on that?” Sure. Of course, everyone’s using them. While their presence was noticed, often times, strategy was not.

QR Codes can be a very powerful tool to engage, educate and track customers, raise awareness of a product or business or grow your social media following. When used in a practical way, it can be the perfect accessory to a marketing or advertising piece. But when creativity lacks common sense, all kinds of complications arise.

Some recent, notable mishaps include Red Bull and other companies placing call-to-action QR codes on ads located in the subway, underground. Needless to say, potential customers had little to no cell service to scan these bar codes. Campaign efforts, completely ineffective. Other unpractical uses include taxi cabs, articles of clothing or any other moving object. It is very difficult to scan a vehicle moving at 40 mph.  One of the worst publicized offenses was Esquire Magazine placing a QR code on one of their covers in 2011, the problem? It was where the mailing label is printed.

How can you avoid becoming one of these blunder stories? Don’t fail your creativity, client or better judgment by thoughtlessly placing a barcode on a marketing piece simply because it was requested. Most importantly, think through the realistic application of a QR code: What is the purpose? Is there a strong (and clear) call-to-action? Does the QR code provide an incentive of value to the audience? Is it scannable and accessible? (This includes testing your barcodes before use, yes, a simple but also forgotten step).

QR codes, like any strategy or campaign that lacks thorough planning, will also lack results. Rule of thumb: Use your common sense when using QR codes.

Have a creative, inspiring use or a humorous mishap to share? Comment!

Two months ago, Hotmail announced the addition of new email controls that will give users greater ability to regulate the influx of marketing messages they receive. The new features will address the problem of “graymail,” the messages a user did at one time subscribe to but which now no longer engage his attention.  Newsletters, Groupon-style ads, and online clubs can all fall under the category of graymail if the subscriber deletes or marks them as spam without opening.

How Hotmail users will control graymail

The primary change to Hotmail’s handling of graymail is that newsletters will be automatically marked as such by the email service. This designation will enable Hotmail users to perform tasks such as:

• Scheduled Sweeps—Designate an expiration date for mail from specified senders, with automatic deletions when the message expires. This action also allows Hotmail users to sweep newsletters directly to a subfolder or to delete them altogether

• Inbox Unsubscribes—Unsubscribe from a mailing list directly from Hotmail’s inbox. Hotmail will handle the unsubscribe process for you, or simply block the email

• Instant Actions—Delete, flag, mark read, or sweep messages to a subfolder simply by hovering over the message in your inbox

What this means for marketers

While news of Hotmail’s new graymail controls may cause initial panic for email marketers, the truth is that the success of your email marketing campaign will continue to depend on the same thing it always has: value for the subscriber. Your customers wanted your email once; by making each email communication relevant to your subscribers, you can continue to keep them engaged with the marketing emails you send.

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The scissors are on the table. The  hand is in his pocket. The weather was nice.

I’m bored already.

If you’re prepping an email campaign, then you already know that if you don’t have an interesting subject line, you’re dead in the water. There’s more to email campaigns than “Laptops Are On Sale.”

Strong active verbs help make your subject lines taut and exciting. If you’re cold emailing a sales lead, or following up with an existing customer hoping for follow-through sales, strong action verbs are absolutely essential.

What is an action verb?

An action verb is simply that: a verb that denotes an action. The opposite of an action verb is a passive verb, a verb that doesn’t denote an action. Jump is an active verb. Punch. Explode. Grab. Run. Scream. Smile. Active verbs do something.

Am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been. Those are passive verbs. They don’t do anything. They just sit there. You have a five to ten word subject line to get your readers’ interest, and passive verbs won’t get the job done.

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Over the holiday season, I used my mobile phone more often than usual for a variety of tasks: checking email and Facebook, shopping online, browsing the internet. Being stuck in a car for 10 hours and away from your office for over a week necessitates some creativity when it comes to staying connected. Because I was stuck using my mobile device almost exclusively for these tasks, I became more aware of the frustrations associated with email messages and websites not designed with the mobile user in mind. And while this subject has been discussed before, I think it’s worth revisiting, especially as we enter a new year and begin planning new email marketing campaigns. So, without further ado, here’s my list of the top five ways to keep your mobile users happy.

Big Buttons

Fingers are much less precise than mouse pointers. Make it easier for your mobile subscribers to open and click by making buttons fat finger friendly.

Space Between Clickable Elements

Another problem that arises when you’re using a finger instead of a mouse is clickable elements placed too close together, resulting in mis-clicks. By adding additional white space between clickable elements, you can reduce the likelihood that users will find themselves waiting for the wrong page to load.

Important Information Visible Without Scrolling or Enlarging

When you have dozens of emails to catch up on, it’s important that you are able to grasp the main idea quickly. Test your email messages on a mobile device to ensure that font sizes are readable and that the user doesn’t have to scroll either vertically or horizontally to see your main message and call to action.

Single Columns

HTML is much less flexible than CSS when it comes to re-ordering columns and content blocks. Make it easy on yourself and on your subscribers by sticking to a single column that will display appropriately on a mobile screen.

Hide Unnecessary Content

It’s great to include social sharing buttons, links to your social media pages, and other secondary content in your email messages. But on a mobile device, all that extra content makes it more difficult for your subscribers to get the main message. Make mobile emails easier to scan and read by hiding images, text, and other content that isn’t strictly necessary.

As you’re designing new email campaigns for 2012, eConnect Email offers flexible design options, image management, templates, and inbox previews to help ensure that each message displays exactly as intended. By catering to the unique needs of mobile users, you can ensure that an increasingly mobile audience will continue to read and interact with your messages.