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Study: Reaching the Inbox and Rendering Solutions

May 30, 2007

We just completed a study with ReturnPath on Reaching the Inbox and Rendering Solutions and how to design so as not to encounter these issue pre-campaign.

http://www.eroi.com/eroi-email-marketing-q207-reaching-the-inbox.htmll

eROI uses this data primarily to educate, consult and design. We like to help the troubled mailers become good ones and enjoy the increased response that comes from improved deliverability. Of course, if education fails, they can segregate their IPs so top-notch marketers don't suffer because of other mailers misdeeds. (Which is why eROI has so many IPs and spend so much time monitoring, balancing and segmenting mailers on volume, reputation, list hygiene, vertical industry (say banking), and even by brand.)

eROI also uses Sender Score Campaign Preview to help their clients with content assessments. Content is another area where many ESPs typically have little control, so having a mechanism to help clients pinpoint where they need to make changes is crucial. But eROI is a hybrid ESP with full service and self service clients, agencies and other partners; due to this they can head off or test for issues prior to a campaign drop that they are creating, or test on behalf of a self serve client that requests it. Read more about how eROI uses the Sender Score suite to help its clients.

If you are struggling with deliverability issues, talk to eROI about how they address these problems. They help you assess your content? They segregate high reputation mailers from low reputation ones to protect their deliverability. You can't expect your ESP to solve the problems that you are causing in your program, but you can expect eROI to help you diagnose and solve your problems so that you can increase your email success. Why else would we have so many great long term clients and even more each month selecting us as a partner.

http://www.eroi.com/eroi-email-marketing-q207-reaching-the-inbox.html

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 7:31 AM | Permalink

Conan O'Brien Captures Life at Intel

May 24, 2007

A former Intel employee and current friend of mine sent me this hilarious and accurate video on Intel life. Four years of my life after college was spent near Pole J9 at Jones Farm campus AND Pole N3 at Ronler Acres. Great company, but brutally drab and hopeless interior space planning.

Comments (2) | Posted by ryan at 7:18 AM | Permalink

MediaPost: Do you think Different?

May 23, 2007

This article by Cory Treffiletti was completely relevant to yesterday's blog post on the aQuantive purchase by Microsoft. The article is also inspiring to really drive unique innovation that disrupts the competition and absolutely delights customers.

Do You 'Think Different'?
By Cory Treffiletti

Back in the late '90s, Apple launched an elegant campaign which asked the audience to "Think Different." This omnipresent campaign was beautiful in its simplicity and represents one of my favorite ad campaigns of all time purely for the message that it sent -- that ingenuity and creativity are what is rewarded in life.

Concurrently, in the late '90s we witnessed the rapid expansion of the Internet to become an everyday tool for the average consumer; along with this growth came a requirement for companies and brands to also "Think Different."

Brands were tasked to come up with new ways of reaching their audience in this entirely new medium. They tested new strategies and they piled dollars on top of dollars to wield the strength of the banner bandwagon as they developed additional new ways for spreading their brand-messages to the consumer. The bandwagon created a bubble and the bubble eventually burst, but those who were passionate and were personally invested in the medium continued to evolve and develop new strategies for harnessing the power of the digital populace. All the while, these people were, consciously or not, attempting to "Think Different."

Read the full article on MediaPost and post a comment on their blog >>

Comments (0) | Posted by ryan at 7:15 AM | Permalink

What Microsoft / aQuantive deal means to eROI

May 22, 2007

Last Friday, Microsoft agreed to purchase online ad firm aQuantive for $6 billion which is an 85% premium over its stock price. As an entrepreneur and founder of a company (eROI) that has a similar business model to aQuantive, I'm floored (and highly encouraged) that Microsoft paid so much money for this interactive agency that has some of its own software tools as well.

[Huge Disclaimer: I'm not looking to get investment or sell my company for decades - this blog post is simply out of observation].

OK, let's look at the metrics of aQuantive and see what kind of multiples Microsoft paid for them. Based on annualizing Q1'07 revenue, aQuantive will do roughly $600 million in revenue this year, so Microsoft paid a 10x multiplier of revenue. Additionally, Microsoft paid a nearly 50x multiplier on EBITDA.

The fascinating thing from my entrepreneurial training is that one of the powerful companies in the world, Microsoft, finds value in an online creative agency - far more value than 1x revenue multiplier that most agencies are used to getting.

OR, the other scenario would say that Microsoft discounted the agency revenue / EBITDA (roughly 60% for aQuantive) and paid an astronomical price for the Atlas and DrivePM software pieces of the aQuantive business.

Despite the high price, Microsoft needs desperate help to compete with Google in the online ad software (and agency) world. This deal will only be successful if Microsoft lets aQuantive retain most of its entrepreneurial culture instead of assimilating it into the Microsoft machine.

Comments (0) | Posted by ryan at 6:44 AM | Permalink

Pageflakes - Great RSS Reader and new Friend

May 19, 2007

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it's taken me this long to use an RSS Reader, and now I've fallen in love with Pageflakes. My fellow eROI blogger, Dylan Boyd - author of TheEmailWars, gives me a hard time about my slow adoption, but I never carved out the time to get an RSS Reader setup.

Here's what I like about Pageflakes:

• Drag and drop functionality of placing your favorite feeds on your 3-column page.
  
• Complete control of your page - minimizing or maximizing the different feeds so you can fit a ton of RSS Feeds on your page
  
• Ease of use so I can see the sheer power of subscribing to all this amazing free content through RSS

It truly is sad that I've been speaking about RSS at tradeshows and marketing events for the past 2 years and it is only now with a killer RSS Reader and tool like Pageflakes that I get it.

Now, I'm a convert. I will always have my RSS Reader as an open tab in Firefox or IE. I pledge allegience to great RSS Readers...

Comments (1) | Posted by ryan at 6:12 AM | Permalink

Study: How Marketers Design, Code and Test Email

May 15, 2007

In the coming wave of eROI studies to be released over the forthcoming weeks here is one we just completed hot off the presses for you.

Over the last quarter, we took a look at how marketers are designing, coding and testing email. Email deliverability and rendering has been a hot topic for a long time, but how important is it to marketers. There is a vast difference between what they say and what they do.

In addition, we took a look at open and click statistics of those that fun all their email campaigns in house vs. those that use the services of an agency. The basics: eMarketing agencies drive nearly 50% more traffic to your site and increases brand awareness. This 8-page Q2’07 email study is chock full of valuable information, graphs, statistics, and charts to inform you on how to improve your email marketing strategies, design, and coding. As a bonus, you’ll also get an additional PDF of our brand new release of the Email Design Best Practices Guide. Learn how to code for Outlook 2007 and other email environments.

We encourage you to learn more about eROI, email marketing and this study, by visiting our Free Guides download.

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:09 AM | Permalink

eROI Launches New UGC Video Site

May 9, 2007

Well this site moved in at the speed of light and brought us into a new tech platform from KickApps in NYC. These guys let us use the back end of their system to build out a custom User Generated Content/Social Video site for Widmer Brewing. The video and design from Sasquatch Advertising who is their agency of record. (We just got to chop it up, style the design elements and mess with endless code that we had never seen) It was a fun project to work on and a good learning curve for a new project which rolled in last Thursday from HBO/Cinemax for a new series show that starts June 1st. (Yeah that gives about 3 weeks to knock it out of the park) Can't tell you much more than that now, but it is going to be saucy and use social video and user generated content. (And has to do with Las Vegas, beautiful people and steamy plotlines.)

I would love for you to take a look at the LemonYourWidmer site as the videos we loaded it with to start it off sure are a lot of fun. AND believe it or not 100% legitimate. After you see the golf chip shot (which took only 10 takes) you will know what I am talking about. If you have an idea of how to Lemon your Widmer, shoot it and load it up.

And of course it uses emailROI to power the front page Send to a Friend functions with a custom HMTL email template.

If you think of eROI as just an email ESP, you are missing the other 40% of our business: campaign sites, blogs, DM PIN campaigns, corporate sites, Web 2.0 application builds and advergames.

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:12 AM | Permalink

A different kind of email: Nike

May 7, 2007

I purposely waited 3 weeks to write about a story that is so "old news" now. I'm lying - I got lazy and delayed this particular blog post until now to start writing it. The story: Nike's powerful response to the Imus "nappy-headed hos" comment. I'm sure you've read dozens of stories and perspectives on this, but here is the inside scoop to the following full-page ad that ran in the print section of the Sunday New York Times, the Rutgers newspaper, and then re-purposed for email with the subject line "A Different Kind of Email":

"Thank you, ignorance.
Thank you for starting the conversation.
Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutger's team story. And for making us wonder what other great stories we've missed.
Thank you for reminding us to think before we speak.
Thank you for showing us how strong and poised 18 and 20-year-old women can be.
Thank you for reminding us that another basketball tournament goes on in March.
Thank you for showing us that sport includes more than the time spent on the court.
Thank you for unintentionally moving women's sport forward.
And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have a long way to go.
Next season starts 11.16.07"

This print ad was published within a few days of the Imus / Rutgers controversy. I'm absolutely blown away by how quickly a 10,000+ person company can move: Nike is truly inspiring. While Nike is a true power-house marketer, much of the credit deservedly goes to their agency, Weiden+Kennedy who pushed hard on Nike's old guard to get this year's most relevant and inspirational ad approved and published within days. Do you ever see their competitors like Adidas move this quickly. I don't think so. Come to think of it, there aren't many big companies that take a stand and act on it quickly. My hat is off to Nike. Other marketers should re-invent their processes so they can just do it. Or better yet, "Git 'er done!"

Comments (0) | Posted by ryan at 10:51 AM | Permalink

Mind and Body at eROI

Just like keeping your lists in good shape, we have brought in Yoga every Friday AM to the eROI team to keep mind and body in top notch condition. Ryan was great in arranging this for the team so that we could end each week not behind a keyboard, but in the downward dog bringing the flow of blood to our minds.

Account Execs, Designers, Support and Management took part in the first weekly class.

With the amount of work and stress our team takes on each week, it is a wonderful practice to invest in the team itself. Who knew that our wood floors would be good for things besides break dancing competitions.

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:19 AM | Permalink