Every choice is a compromise, isn’t it? By taking one path, your forsaking another. Go to the opera on Friday; you necessarily forego that dinner party at your boss’ house. Elect to vacation on the beach and you neglect your simultaneous desire to ski. Choose a nice Malbec, you lose a bourbon manhattan.

We face the same choice / compromise with email. With finite resources to devote to email, we have to choose between crafting irresistible messages, or devoting more time to analytics and optimization.

But what if there were ways to cut back on the time you spend composing messages, without eroding their appeal or brand impact? I think it can be done. Here’s are six ways to spend less time writing emails, so you can put more time into improving results:

1. Use a design template. Is there anything that you put in your message almost every time, that you could put instead into a template once and have it appear every time? Maybe it’s as simple as a header image and a signature file. But if you build a more intricate template that links to your social channels or includes additional branding or product promotion, there is less work for the copy to do. Consider separate templates for each campaign that will include a number of messages – including event promotions, webinar announcements, and new product introductions.

2. Use a copy template. Is there a way to organize your Newsletter so that each one contains items within the same headings? You’ll save a lot of time composing if you know which buckets you have to fill. And what about that intro copy that shows up at the top? Is it really topical, or do you struggle every week or month trying to find a lead-in to the real meat of your newsletter? Consider shortening that intro copy so that it’s the same every time, such as “Thanks for taking a look at our monthly newsletter. Here’s a snapshot of what is happening this month. For a more complete picture, visit our web site at http://www…”

3. Recycle. Didn’t you send an email promoting this same conference last year? And isn’t this your 11th Annual Member Satisfaction Survey? Chances are, you’ve written something to promote this very topic previously. Go find it and re-read it. Do you recall it word-for-word? Probably not, and you wrote it. Your audience won’t remember it either. And even if they do, it may sound vaguely familiar to them, almost like a deja vu. It doesn’t make the copy any less effective. No more new for new’s sake.

4. Write email like email, not a marcomm department deliverable. Take a look in your outbox. How many personal emails did you write and send last week? See, you’re really good at writing emails, and fast too. I’m sure some of them are too capitalization and grammar-challenged for your official communications, but the conversational tone you use in your personal emails allows you to write them with far less word-by-word deliberation. Furthermore, they’re easier and more pleasant to read. Somewhere there is a middle-ground between “artfully craft” and “bang out”. Find it.

5. Write less. I’ve argued before that brevity is the soul of ROI.

6. Don’t pontificate when you can point. Much email communication is designed convey the same information that is also up on your website. Instead of writing copy about the copy, simply excerpt it or – even better – write a brief abstract and link to the website. Not only will this take less time, it will put more links into your emails, giving you more click-through data to decipher afterwards.

Try these out and enjoy the gift of time. Use it to set up some A-B testing, dig more deeply into some analytics, or perform some list segmentation or hygiene. Your time devoted will be the same, but your emails will start to behave like you’ve just doubled the size of your email staff.

Tunneling Out from an Email Emergency
by Mike May
published on 2.9.10 in MediaPost’s Email Insider

I love the snow. It doesn’t come down all the time and whenever it does, I meet it with anticipation and delight. Once in a while it’s a bit of an interruption, but that’s easily forgiven since it’s so darn entertaining once it’s got my attention. Like this snow coming down now – I knew it was coming, and was even wishing for a good snowy winter a few months ago. This is exactly what I wanted.

Um, but this is now a lot of snow. Yeah it’s still pretty and fun and everything, but I can’t see my mailbox anymore. Or my minivan, for that matter. Did the lights just flicker? What do they mean, “roads won’t be plowed for at least 72 hours”? I have to walk how far in 28” of snow to get to the grocery store? Do we have another shovel? No another another shovel. I already broke that one. Stupid snow. If I never see it again I’ll still hold a grudge. Unsubscribe, snow.

Here at headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, we’re tunneling out from the Blizzard of 2010, a paralyzing storm which dumped about 2.5 feet of snow across the Mid-Atlantic region. Schools, businesses, government offices, roads, even convenience stores are all closed, and probably will be for another couple of days. It’s a full-scale emergency, whose only redeeming quality is the email marketing metaphor it affords.

We’re all going to face email emergencies of our own. Getting through them, and winning back subscribers afterwards, will be part of our jobs in 2010. Is your emergency response plan ready?

1. Know when to declare a state of emergency. 2.5 feet of snow makes the decision easy. But what metrics are you watching for signs of trouble? Track your unsubscribe rate against your open rate to measure engagement, annoyance and malaise. Keep a monthly count of what percentage of your subscribers haven’t clicked on a message in the past three months. Measure new subscribers against attrition to see the rate by which your list is growing or shrinking. Incorporate deliverability and open rate into your emergency watchdog metrics as well, depending on your business objectives and email strategy. The key is to see the storm coming before you’re buried and immobile.

2. Pace yourself – digging out is a big job. If your driveway is 50’ long, a furious effort beginning at the garage door won’t be sustainable, and will leave the job unfinished. Keep this in mind as you build a winback strategy. You won’t get everybody all at once, or with the same message or offer. If subscribers are less responsive to email, better to move them to other channels (social, SMS, even direct mail or fax) where they’ll at least remain connected to the organization. Take the long view of your relationship with subscribers. Over time, you can lure them back to email if that’s your preferred channel from a trackable ROI perspective.

3. Don’t use the biggest shovel you can wield. Sure, moving snow 2 cubic feet at a time can make the job go faster, but it’s also more likely to result in an injury. If you’re using promotions as part of a winback strategy, deeper discounts will certainly move the needle. But beware the slippery slope of conditioning your subscribers to expect and wait for deep price drops. An offer that loses money as part of a long-term profit strategy is acceptable. But customers who lose you money with each order aren’t worth keeping.

4. Be prepared in advance. The only way to make it through any emergency is to know it’s coming and to have a plan. Take some time now to put together a winback or other emergency communications management program so that when the time comes (and it will) you can remain confident and proactive.

We’re excited to be partnering with UBER to get you around Real Magnet User Group Conference events in style! We’ve been so impressed with the service, we’ve teamed up to provide attendees who are new to Uber with $20 off their first black car ride. Just sign up and apply the promo code REALMAGNET before your first trip to receive the discount.

WHAT IS UBER? For those of you not yet in the know, Uber is a mobile app that allows you to request a sleek, professionally driven black car or SUV on demand. You can track the arrival of your ride on your iPhone or Android, payment is cashless, and you’ll even receive a text message when your driver arrives curbside.

HOW DO I GET IT? Simply download Uber on your iPhone or Android (or sign up at Uber.com to request via m.uber.com or text message), and enter promo code REALMAGNET for $20 off your first ride. If you have any questions at all, just email the Uber DC team at supportdc@uber.com.

The SIPA 2013 Conference, June 5-7, in Washington, D.C., will have two Pre-Conference Workshops this year, a Data Bootcamp led by Megan St. John of InfoCommerce, and SEO Basics & Beyond: Keyword Research & Campaign Management, led by Don Nicholas and Norann Oleson of Mequoda. (Early-bird pricing ends in less than one week!)

As a sort of primer for that latter workshop, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, recently listed his top five SEO mistakes that “webmasters” make—in a video. Webmasters seems to be one of Google’s favorite words—the url for their site to help you with data, tools and diagnostic is www.google.com/webmasters. Cutts admits that what he gives is not “super advanced”—it’s actually pretty basic—but it is good to hear it from Google itself. And something may just reinforce an important notion for you.

1. “Make it crawlable,” he said. Actually took me a while to figure out that last word; it’s not one I hear a lot. If you haven’t checked your website pages recently to make sure people can reach them easily, you should. Surf around, Cutts says, and make sure it’s all searchable.

2. Include the right words on the page. “Think about what the user is going to type and include those words,” Cutts says. “You don’t want to just say Mount Everest elevation; you want to say, how high is Mount Everest because people are going to type how high is Mount Everest? And not just including the right words on the page; if you’re a restaurant, you should include the menu. Put it in plain text, not just a pdf, or make sure it is extractable somehow.”

3. “Think about not link-building, that limits you to a certain mindset,” Cutts warns. “Think about compelling content and marketing. As soon as you think my job is to build links for search engines, you’re really cutting off a lot of avenues, things like talking to newspaper reporters, for example. First make something compelling, a reason why they really want to use your website. Then think about the broader area of marketing; that can include billboards, paying for advertising; but it can also include clever guerilla marketing, reaching out to people in the community. So I wouldn’t put too much of a tunnel vision focus on just links. I would think, what can I do to market my website, get more well-known, within my community or more broadly, without only thinking about search engines?

4. Think about the title and description of your really important pages. “We’ve said, make sure you have the right words on the page; but you really should pay attention to your home page,” Cutts reminds us. “What is the title there? If you bookmark it, are you going to have users able to later find exactly what it was? Or is it going to say untitled? Is it going to say something people won’t even be able to find later? Likewise, your description can sometimes determine what shows up in your snippet. And that determines whether people will be enticed into clicking. You can run different tests, experiment with different copy. It might not be worth it for every single page on your site; I know that might be a lot of work. But for the high-traffic sites, you want to not just create a great experience, but you want to make something people will actually click on when they see it in the search results. Something that lets them know you’ll have the answer they’re looking for. Something that makes them understand this is a good resource.”

5. People make the mistake of not using Google’s webmaster resources, Cutts says.“Google provides free webmaster tools at www.Google.com/webmasters. We provide a blog you can read, lots of webmaster videos, ton of information out there. Explore that space.”

And if you haven’t yet already, sign up now for SIPA 2013 and the SEO workshop.In Don Nicholas, you will be learning from the best. There will also be a roundtable session on search engine marketing and many other sessions that talk about SEO.

Your Email Pantry: Does the Sauce Need Moroccan Coriander, or Just Salt?
by Mike May
published on 1.15.10 in MediaPost’s Email Insider

We watch a lot of Food Network in my house. We have several shelves in the dining room crammed with cookbooks, folders overflowing with Food and Wine magazine clippings, and the better part of a full screen on the iPhone dense with recipe and grocery shopping apps. My wife and I, we cook.

But my wife does more than just cook. She is a Cook. Her palette is far more refined; she has a deeper inventory of experiences, techniques and knowledge to draw on. Her human pantry is fuller than mine. This allows her to be more creative. I sauté onions; she sweats them. I grill; she sears. I steam broccoli; she blanches and shocks bok choi. I throw in the towel; she cleans her knife on it and keeps going.

We were working up a sauce recently. She lifted a spoonful to her mouth, sipped it in, and then chewed the liquid thoughtfully, almost as if she were tasting a complex wine. “What does this need?” she asked as she offered me a spoonful. I tasted and found the sauce vaguely lacking. But absent her pantry, I could only offer feebly, “Um, it needs to be… better. (Pause.) Salt?”

But I know more about open rates than she does.

And that is the analogy within the anecdote, and this column. All of us send emails. Many of us even consider ourselves Email Marketers. And a few are the Bobby Flays of the email world, eager and equipped for a throwdown with any challenge the industry poses. We have different inventories of skills based on our experience, our backgrounds and, more often than not, how many non-email responsibilities are vying for our time.

Your email performance and metrics, however, don’t care. If email is 10% of your job or 110%, you still have to answer the same question every time you take a look at your tracking reports: “What does this need?” And the answer is the same as the one I mumbled: “It needs to be… better.”

Sometimes improvement is easy and accessible, like salt is to a cook. Tweak a subject line; re-send soft bounces; add some pre-header text. All these are within reach, and whether you’re tasting or testing the results come to you quickly.

On occasion, however, the answer requires a fresh infusion of creativity, or experience, or resources. What to do then?

Many of the articles and best practices and case studies available in the trades and at conferences are aimed at the professional Email Marketers. Maybe that’s not you right now, so a lot of what you read and hear seems out of reach. I know that can create a perplexing combination of frustration and motivation. Our Food and Wine magazine subscription is in my wife’s name, not mine. I’ve never braised or poached or blanched anything in my life, and if I have seared I assure you it was entirely by accident.  I’m stymied by many of the recipes for true “Cooks” I read. Still, I want to create meals that nobody unsubscribes from. Where do I start? Where do you start? How does the sender of emails complete the apprenticeship and become an Email Marketer?

There are dozens of ways to get there, but they all start from the same point – an earnest desire to achieve mastery, and to endure the sacrifices it requires. It’s early in the year, and as good a time as any to take stock. How much does mastery mean to you? What sacrifices are you willing to endure – working one hour later one night each week? Delegating a responsibility to dig deeper into email? Tweak the budget to free up some resources to attend another conference or workshop? If you have desire that isn’t supported by circumstances, now is the time to change one or the other. (Circumstances are a lot easier to change, believe me.)

Once you have the desire and reset your course, all it takes is a little time. Or in the case of our sauce, thyme. What a difference a pinch made.

It sounds simple enough: when recipients click an unsubscribe link, they should be removed from your list. Heck, any email system worth its mettle can do that automatically. The reality is — unfortunately — that it’s not nearly that simple. Should an unsubscriber be removed from the list the message was sent from only? All lists? Some lists? How do (or should) your unsubscribe and suppression programs relate? Is the data being managed properly so that unsubscribers stay unsubscribed? What about data from your subscription management page?

Unsubscribe management can be complex and is critical, so a periodic review of your process to ensure it’s working the way you think it is make eminent sense. And now is as good a time as ever. Unfortunately, some of you may be surprised by what you find.

Your unsubscribe policy should be founded on this key concept: honoring the intent of the unsubscriber. When the recipient is unsubscribed, was it his/her intention to be unsubscribe dto the list the message was sent from only? To other lists like it? To all of your communications? Be realistic in this assessment because getting it wrong will cause other problems (e.g. irritated customers and SPAM complaints).

Here are some other guide posts for your review:

Understand what happens to unsubscribers when they unsubscribe. Are they unsubscribed to the list they unsubscribed from? All lists? Certain lists? Are they suppressed?

Do an analysis to ensure that what you think is happening really is happening. Now that you know how it’s supposed to work, make sure it does so by analyzing the data.

Review how the unsubscribe data is managed.If you’re capturing unsubscribed data in one place (e.g. your email broadcast platform or website) and transferring it into another (e.g. CRM, AMS) review the integrity and efficiency of those processes. Any breakdown means recipients who previously unsubscribed may still be receiving your messages.

If you don’t have a subscription management page, you should. Empower your recipients to select which communications to receive, or not to receive, by creating a subscription/preference management page. Ideally this  page is automatically synced with your CRM and email platforms, which is another huge benefit!

Don’t delay in undertaking this critical review.

As the Manager of Product Marketing, you will be responsible for the internal and external communications (requiring extensive writing) of Real Magnet’s products and services.  You also will play a pivotal role in the communications surrounding a re-positioning of the Company based on upcoming major product releases.  Attention to detail and an eye for quality, along with the ability to understand and translate technical capabilities into benefits are crucial.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop product messaging that positions the Company as a bona fide player in the hyper-competitive email, social, and marketing automation services sector.
• Build awareness programs that promote the Company’s new positioning and products.
• Plan the launch of new releases, features, and products and upselling campaigns that focus on exposing existing features and functionality to existing customers.
• Communicate the value proposition of products to the sales and support teams and develop the materials that support the selling and customer education process, including the development of user documentation.
• Ownership of Company’s blog and website as well as playing a leading role in developing and distribution of Thought Leadership pieces.
• Support retention of existing clients through communication and events
• Collaborate with all levels of staff in corporate, sales, support, operations, and development.
• Development and refining of sales presentations and collateral from concept development to publication – primarily responsibilities include writing marketing copy and working with internal design teams to facilitate the development of images and diagrams to communicate complex technical concepts in a business-friendly manner.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of software product  marketing experience
• Excellent writing and communications skills
• Strong technical knowledge and experience with SaaS-based software platforms, ideally related to online marketing
• Strong analytical orientation–must crave data, and be able to articulate the business impact
• Excellent people and management skills to interact with staff, colleagues and cross-functional teams, and third parties.
• High energy level, sense of urgency, responsive, confident, thorough, not afraid to make decisions
• Strong work ethic, resourceful, creative and innovative
• Results oriented team player who leads by example, holds self accountable for performance, takes ownership, champions efforts with enthusiasm and conviction
• Strong problem solver with a common-sense and practical solutions approach.

Real Magnet is a growing player in a market that is expected to double by 2015.  More than 1,000 organizations are using its solutions to communicate with customers and prospects.  Its working environment is fast-paced, results-oriented with a strong team-oriented approach.  Compensation is based on experience and skill levels.  Other benefits include paid healthcare and vacation, 401(k), and more.

Apply at jobs3@realmagnet.com.

We are in search of a diligent, team-oriented designer/front end engineer to join its growing team. The candidate will work within a diverse team of professionals responsible for the design, development, modification, implementation, maintenance, and support of innovative products.

Responsibilities include:

• Design, develop, and maintain complex software for a technology company
• Provide leadership in UX design for new and existing products
• Collaborate with software engineers on delivering outstanding solutions

Required skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field
• 5+ years of product development experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Deep understanding of DOM, XML, and JSON
• Extensive knowledge of jQuery
• Proven experience implementing AJAX/REST-driven user interfaces
• Proven ability to create cross-browser rich web applications
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Desired skills:

• Experience building complex applications using Java Script
• ASP.NET and ColdFusion knowledge is a plus, not required

Our environment:

• Agile, dynamic, and fast paced environment
• Very talented team
• Working on several projects at a time
• Mostly new product development
• See results of your work go live quickly and be used by a lot of people

Real Magnet is a growing player in a market that is expected to double by 2015.  More than 1,000 organizations are using its solutions to communicate with customers and prospects.  Its working environment is fast-paced, results-oriented with a strong team-oriented approach.  Compensation is based on experience and skill levels.  Other benefits include paid healthcare and vacation, 401(k), and more.

Apply at jobs3@realmagnet.com.