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Conquering My Email Addiction over the Holidays
December 31, 2006
"Back away from the laptop," the voice inside my head pleaded with my irrational 'addicted to email' self. It was a snowy, clear morning in Central Oregon and I had at least a 1/2 hour before my kids or the rest of my family woke up. It was prime email-checking time. But this time, I fought the urge. I was on vacation and I needed to unplug after a hectic, insanely busy December at work.
An amazing thing happened. I succeeded in NOT checking my email. Here's how I did it:
1) I kept my laptop closed. An open laptop screen is like the gateway drug to email addiction. Keep it closed. Period.
2) I found a distraction, otherwise known as a healthy activity. A brisk walk accross the meadow with my dog, a lovable but goofy yellow lab.
3) I found another distraction - finishing up a great entrepreneurial book called "Small Giants" by Bo Burlingham.
4) Have an awesome plan for the day - went skiing at Mt. Bachelor with a friend. We happened to have a bluebird day with 11 inches of dry powder.
5) Stretch, relax, find a hot tub and submerge for an hour, then eat well with friends and family that night.
6) Check email the next morning - don't kid yourself into thinking that you can avoid email forever - this just causes more anxiety of returning to an overwhelming and urgent stack of emails in your inbox.
Email addiction is reaching epidemic levels in America today. Learn more about this issue by Downloading the In-Depth Email Addiction Survey Results here >>
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| Posted by ryan at 10:47 AM | Permalink
eROI: Not Taking Ourselves Too Seriously
December 22, 2006
If you haven't had a chance to watch our holiday video, you are missing out on a few good laughs. It's home-grown, hand made, and poor video production, but the content is original and it's always fun to watch a group of people that really enjoy one another and have a good time.Check out the eROI Holiday Video >>
Comments (1)
| Posted by ryan at 11:08 AM | Permalink
We've Changed Our RSS Feeds
December 15, 2006
Just wanted to throw out the news that we have changed out RSS feed address. For those of you that subscribe by RSS, make note to update your feed for us to:
http://feeds.eroi.com/LoveEmailHateEmailViralEmailMarketingInbox
And for our other blog:theemailwars.com
http://feeds.eroi.com/TheEmailWars
And for the ReturnOnSubscriber.com
http://feeds.eroi.com/ReturnOnSubscriber
IF you have no clue how to use RSS, then you can subscribe on the right hand side for weekly email recaps using our new RSS to EmailROI platform. That's right, you will be using RSS and have no clue how or why, but it powers the emailROI plaform for you automatically. It's magic like how Santa gets his big can down that skinny little chimney.
Thanks for continuing to read the rants.
Comments (0)
| Posted by dylan at 1:27 PM | Permalink
eROI 2007 Online Marketing Prediction #1 of 10
December 10, 2006
1. Thoughtful, cause-related marketing is the biggest winner in 2007. Pay attention. If you do this right, you will put your company on the map AND make the world a better place. This may just be the best business advice you get all year. Ask your co-worker, your department, your entire company what single non-profit they want to support and throw a lot of energy behind it. Better yet, co-create a new program or new event with an existing, reputable non-profit and you’ll see that your employees, customers, and prospects, as well as your kids and your spouse will help you take this cause, and indirectly your company to the next level.
The best example of this is a brand we used to take for granted, Dove. Dove launched “The Campaign for Real Beauty” and let the fact be known that the company no longer simply sells soap. Dove is now so much more than a set of commodity products. Dove sells real beauty; natural beauty; non-superficial beauty. The Campaign for Real Beauty website features a one-minute film that shows the transformation of an average-looking woman into a strikingly gorgeous supermodel. Only by seeing this process can we truly comprehend the illusion that the media has portrayed of these fabricated dream girls. The beauty of this site is that it doesn't end with just awareness of the problem. It launches immediately into an actionable item for eight to 12-year-old girls to sign up for Dove's real beauty workshops. These workshops teach girls about the importance of identifying beauty within themselves in the pre-teen years before the peer pressure to be like the mythical supermodel drives them to anorexia or bulimia.
A couple of years ago, eROI began its own partnership with Portland-based non-profit, Friends of the Children, by co-creating an event called Friends Art Fair. In just 2 years, the event has raised $55k and has garnered 2.5 million media impressions thru email marketing channels, print media, and media sponsor KPTV Fox 12 News. However, we have yet to do a campaign around a cause that is relevant to the e-marketing world. Make sure you sign up for our newsletter to be the first to find out about our cause-related campaign in mid-2007.
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| Posted by ryan at 5:14 PM | Permalink
eROI 2007 Online Marketing Prediction #2 of 10
December 8, 2006
2. Email mantra: list segmentation + relevant content = improved results. eROI published an email study earlier this year showing a direct correlation between smaller, more relevant lists and higher open and click through rates. Instead of sending all emails to a Main List of all of their contacts, marketers are starting to segment their lists into product categories, service categories, press lists, webinar lists, etc. Marketers who fail to take the extra hour or two to do this list segmentation every 3-6 months will see continued email list fatigue and a resulting drop in performance. Emailers will learn that content needs to focus less on selling a product and talking at recipients, and more on talking with recipients. Updating email content and starting a conversation will be more important than ever as people move toward seeing their inboxes as sacred places that they don’t want violated by one-way advertising messages.
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| Posted by ryan at 5:12 PM | Permalink
eROI 2007 Online Marketing Prediction #3 of 10
December 6, 2006
3. Greater integration of Video into all websites. Yesterday, I visited the homepage of CRM juggernaut, Salesforce.com, and was immediately struck by how quickly the video flash piece engaged me. Video is not just for TV and YouTube anymore. The ShaveEverywhere site proved that the use of video within viral sites is hugely engaging and effective in converting sales. We will see more large, medium, and small businesses integrate video into their primary and campaign websites in 2007. One trend we will likely see will be an increase in the use of “Webisodes”, where 3-5 minute daily or weekly video clips will entice users to come back to sites for more all-web programming.
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| Posted by ryan at 5:11 PM | Permalink
eROI 2007 Online Marketing Prediction #4 of 10
December 4, 2006
4. Democrat majority in Congress swings the tide of online marketing. Marketers will push the envelope far more aggressively in 2007 now that the fear of death by Republican firing squad has been reduced. Moral depravity will run rampant in advertising and the largely Democratic online marketers will revel in the end-result of their twisted creative brains.
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| Posted by ryan at 5:10 PM | Permalink
eROI 2007 Online Marketing Prediction #5 of 10
December 2, 2006
5. Most successful companies will become media companies. Microsoft became a media company when it began its blogging program a couple years ago. The lawyers lost and marketers won – revealing the inside scoop at Microsoft was virtually the only thing that has healed the company’s battered reputation. More and more companies are starting their own blogs, helping them to become more relevant and newsworthy to a greater audience within their niche. Blogging has essentially forced companies to step into their customers’ shoes and provide them with more industry knowledge and news, rather than simply ramming products down their throats.
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| Posted by ryan at 5:08 PM | Permalink
Are your offers valuable to customers
December 1, 2006
We are running a survey just in time for the holiday season. We will be releasing the results next week as long. This survey is only about 10-15 questions long and will provide some very valuable insight to you and other readers.
Take 2 minutes (literally) to take our survey
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| Posted by Jeff at 8:58 AM | Permalink
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