Last month I participated in the 2007 Email Marketing Summit provided by the good people at Marketing Sherpa. This conference is held once a year with the objective of rounding up experts and solution providers for the email marketing world.With that said, lets get down to what was interesting about the conference... the edge. Yes, the famous cutting edge of our industry and how the near future can benefit your email marketing efforts.So, here's a peek into what will be the upcoming trends in email marketing for sales and communications:
Eye Tracking
Provider: Eye Tools (http://www.eyetools.com/)
What is it? A system to determine what parts of your email message visuals are attracting the eyes of the recipient.
The color red signifies the highest level of viewing.
- What's cool about it? The neat thing about this for us marketers is that it gives us an idea as to what part of our messages creative is drawing attention and what parts are being ignored.
- What's not cool about it? Once the results are in, you may need to rethink the creative completely and retest. This may delay the campaign and it can get pricey.
- How does it work? A demographically similar focus group is selected to view your message. Built-in monitor cameras that track eye ball movements and interpret that data into a heat map layout, which is superimposed unto your email message.
- Will Loop use this? Depending on the campaign objectives, it can prove to be helpful.
Guaranteed Deliverability
Note: The issue with email delivery is getting more and more popular since emails are getting harder to deliver to the recipients' inbox. This is due to the myriad of SPAM filters settings and technologies.
Provider: Goodmail Systems (http://www.goodmailsystems.com/)
Messages get the blue ribbonicon on the subject line.
- What is it? A certification that tells ISPs that the incoming email is from a legitimate source.
- What's cool about it? The thought that every single one of your emails will reach the recipients inbox perfectly.
- What's not cool about it? There is a per message fee, sort of like a postage stamp per message.
- How does it work? Each mail is stamped with a token that lets the ISP know that the email sender has been verified by Goodmail.
- Will Loop use this? Unless the client asks for it specifically, probably not. Most ISPs are moving into a "reputation based" model for allowing email through. This means that legitimate, trusted and certified senders, like Loop, will get their emails to their recipient's inbox with no additional fees.
Online Video 
Provider: It depends on the level of quality you want. Videos can be made with a webcam, a video camera, video production company or through us at Loop.
What is it? It's the direction the web is taking in terms of how we can receive and view information.
- What's cool about it? It's a more enriching and sensory way to receive information and expand brand attributes. Also, ease of distribution... think YouTube and RSS.
- What's not cool about it? Higher production time and investment involved in creating a high quality message. The time it takes to present the information is longer. Reading is still faster than watching a video.
- How does it work? Record video and audio with a digital camera and upload video file to YouTube.
- Will Loop use this? You betcha! We think it can provide our clients overall online marketing communications efforts with a new channel that can be profitable as well as enriching for the brand. See example of "How to Make A Video"...
I have described the tools above so you can start thinking about how they may add value to your existing marketing communications efforts and determine if they can be a good fit for your objectives and your target audience.
As always, we are here to help. If you are interested in starting or improving on your eNewsletter program contact us.
Marcos J. Menendez
President
Loop Consulting Group, LLC
posted by Loop Consulting Group at 5/01/2007 02:58:00 PM
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