The Lyris GEMS of 2004

by Shannon Coulter

Despite CAN-SPAM and other tribulations that tested the mettle of email in 2004, the vast majority of legitimate marketers kept the faith and continued to advance medium in highly original… sometimes even ingenious ways.

Our list of Lyris GEMS (GEMS stands for “Greatest Email Marketing Strategies”) honors the best and most innovative email marketing tactics we saw in 2004.

Some of the strategies come from regular publications, others from ongoing campaigns, and still others were just a one-time message. Yet all the strategies listed here display one thing in common: respect for the recipient… for the real-world needs, concerns, and interests of the people on the receiving end of the message.

Congratulations to all those mentioned here!

1. New Media Communications

A neighborly approach to a presidential email campaign reveals the power of personality

Regardless of your political leanings, it's a good idea to keep an eye on New Media Communications—the high-tech marketing firm that George W. Bush hired to handle the online component of his reelection campaign. While Democratic emails emphasized fundraising, New Media played up the one-to-one nature of email by sending personable, letter-like messages from a variety of well-known figures such as Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. With an ever-changing line-up of eye-catching “From” lines, this strategy offered recipients the sense that they were receiving messages from D.C. insiders, resulting in high open and response rates across the board. Closer to the election date, New Media used the address information they’d collected to send email messages with customized maps to the recipient’s polling place—encouraging higher turnout among those who might not have otherwise known where to vote.

Website: New Media Communications

2. Friendster

Bona fide one-to-one relevance drives traffic to an updated site

Back in December, the folks at Friendster wanted to send an email that would promote some of the recent enhancements they’d made to their web site, but instead of dispatching a boring ol’ press release, they sent a customized graphic email report detailing exactly what the recipient’s friends had been up to lately on the site--how many photos, testimonials and other enticing tidbits they had added to their profile since the recipient’s last visit. An excellent use of personalization to achieve a marketing purpose, the Brady Bunch-style email gave the recipient a sense that he had been missing all the fun online schmoozing, making clickthrough virtually impossible to resist.

Website: Friendster

3. JetBlue Airways

Highly customer-centric emails show respect for the passenger’s time

While it’s long been S.O.P. for airlines to send purchase confirmations and itineraries via email, JetBlue goes the extra mile by including a dynamically generated bar code that travelers can use to check themselves in at airport kiosks. The visual cue of a bar code conveys an immediate sense of control to the traveler, resulting in a higher rate of self-service check-ins at the airport, and reduced operational costs for the airline. Another excellent JetBlue strategy consists of an automatic apology email, sent to all customers arriving or departing on late flights, complete with a discount code good for $25 off their next ticket. Customers feel valued, and JetBlue enjoys the repeat business encouraged by the discount.

Website: Jet Blue Airways

4. Arsenal Football Club

A powerfully simple email tactic energizes an international fan base

Proving that simple ideas are often the best, London’s Arsenal Football Club (a.k.a. soccer team) was the first to figure out that its fans would absolutely love receiving emails from the team’s manager, Arsene Wegner. Arsenal’s “Manager’s Email” is published immediately after every game, and features Wegner’s “instant reactions” and views on how the team played, including analysis of individual players’ performances and thoughts on how to improve next time. Because the publication delivers information that’s of real value and interest to the team’s rabid fans, the field is wide open for Arsenal’s marketers to include a few well-placed promotions here and there in the messages.

Website: Arsenal Football Club

5. Overstock.com

Frequency settings prevent email fatigue on a high volume list

While overstocking may end up benefiting the consumer, over-mailing almost never does. Recipients looking to unsubscribe from Overstock.com’s frequent promotional messages are taken to a profile page where they’re given the choice to receive messages less often. While it would certainly be better to offer this option to subscribers during the sign-up process, it’s a definite step in the right direction, as well as a sign of the way email marketing is changing from a “blast” mentality to a more targeted and tactful model.

Website: Overstock.com

Contact us at editor@lyris.com to share your ideas. We may include it in the next issue of Making Mail Work!

Shannon Coulter is a Marketing Manager at Lyris Technologies.