Breaking Through The Clutter of Email Marketing

Throughout the day, I am flooded with tons of advertising emails, the majority of which I do not even care to open. What makes some marketing emails worth my time, while others find their way into my spam folder?

Lucky Brand

I am a bit of a shopaholic, so I get countless emails from stores I have purchased from over the years. However, Lucky's latest email really peaked my interest.

Lucky has done this to me before: in order to get a discount, one must open the email and discover what discount they were awarded. Playing to my competitive nature, I felt the need to open to email and discover my prize!

Eurostar

I am absolutely obsessed with traveling. After studying abroad in London, I receive countless emails from across the pond that are virtually pointless for me. However, with the knowledge that this email would not benefit me in any way, I still had to open Eurostar's email to me.

Not only did I love the cheeky subject line, but in a few words they were able to capitalize on the romanticized nature of both of these cities. I read this email as I attempted to validate a trip to Europe (which, sadly, I could not on a college budget).

Tatty Devine

Tatty Devine is a jewelry brand based in London that I was in love with while abroad; so much so that my gifts for all of my friends were personalized Tatty Devine necklaces!

Something I love about this brand is how fun they are. Although a free gift is always tempting, the fact that they wrote "Freee" is completely on brand for them. It put a smile on my face as I was scrolling through my emails, which is the best way to create a strong brand relationship.

Native Advertising: The Good, The Bad, and the Pointless

I personally am a big fan of native advertising. When I'm bored and fooling around online, I tend to end up scrolling through Buzzfeed lists looking for a laugh. I have seen a variety of really well-executed native advertising strategies on this site, as well as some that could use some help.

The Good: 10 Cocktail and Snack Pairings You Wish You Had Thought of First by Stoli

Buzzfeed is my go-to site for a few topics: cats, puns, and ridiculously unhealthy food. It makes sense for a brand to capitalize on this because they already have a captive audience.

So imagine my excitement when the first image I saw upon opening the list was this: 

Stoli, understanding Buzzfeed's audience, created an entire article focused on pairing their cocktails with insanely indulgent foods that BF readers love. Not only did I get my daily dose of #foodporn, but I learned of the diversity in Stoli's brand line!

The Bad: Will Ferrell Will Do Anything To Get You To Vote by Obama for America

Really, Obama's marketing team? I know you're trying to reach a younger demographic, but Buzzfeed is NOT associated with journalistic integrity. You can do better than this.

The Pointless: 10 How-To's for the Perfect Pin-Up Style by Guess

I'm a total nerd for vintage style. Therefore, when I saw this article by Guess, I was super excited to see their advice to achieve the pin-up look. However, Guess completely wasted an opportunity to advertise via Buzzfeed.

Guess gives some good (well, mediocre) advice on this style, yet they completely miss the opportunity to show how Guess' clothing and accessories are on-trend. If Guess had shown some of their own clothing, I may be more inspired to go and purchase something from Guess.

Flying High: Amazon's Drone Delivery System

After a hyped-up 60-Minutes interview with Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Twitter has been abuzz with news of the new Drone delivery system. And with good reason: this innovation may change the face of online commerce forever.

The drones will deliver small packages to users within 30 minutes. This development, which may be completed in 4-5 years, will make ordering from Amazon more convenient than ever.

What does this mean for marketers? First of all, advertising space on Amazon will be more coveted than ever; more users will be drawn to use the site because the drone system will make shopping online just as desirable as shopping in-person. Many people will spend more than a half hour to get to a shopping location, and in that same amount of time a person can now stay at home and receive their item.

Also, sites other than Amazon will need to step up their marketing game. Many items are purchasable through Amazon, which could render smaller companies' sites unprofitable. To compete with Amazon, brands will need to draw upon other product benefits as no other web company can rival Amazon's convenience.

It's All About the Crop: Pictures in Web Advertising

Native advertising is one of the newest trends in digital marketing. By creating content that subtly (or sometimes, not so subtly) advertises a brand, marketers are able to advertise their product while entertaining the consumer. However, updates on social media pages are complicating this process.

Ad Age shared a study on how some brands are missing opportunities on social media because of their inability to appropriately crop pictures for a given medium.

Poorly-executed Twitter image:

Samsung missed the mark on this one because you can clearly see there is copy above the image, but it was not cropped appropriately for Twitter. This picture becomes another image lost in the shuffle of Twitter.

Well-executed Twitter image:

car2go Denver nailed this image because the user can clearly see the benefit of clicking the link. The copy is clear, concise, and enticing.

I enjoyed this article because I never considered the implications of a poor crop job in Twitter marketing. It's amazing how the tiniest edit can change the success of an online campaign.

Wikipedia Content: Moral or Not?

The principles of Wikinomics asserts that openness, which allows individuals to create content, is evident in the Web 2.0 model. Collaboration on the web has led to a variety of sites, including social media pages and Wikipedia. However, when can this user-created content be considered dishonest?

This issue is discussed in a Digiday article: PR managers are editing Wikipedia pages to show their brands in the best light. However, this form of astroturfing can be an unrealistic representation of an organization, which can be viewed as immoral.

There are two sides to this argument: on the one hand, one of the primary responsibilities of PR managers is to portray their brands positively. Sites such as Wikipedia are conducive to user-generated content, so why not create content that portrays a company in a positive light?

However, there is an inherent sense of responsibility with this content- readers generally believe the content written to be true, so it is expected that those who create content are being honest.

After this discovery, the Wikimedia Foundation has promised to try to stop these actions from occurring. However, this daunting task sounds near impossible- with an ever-growing number of articles on Wikipedia, it is difficult to fathom that the foundation can separate the honest information from the dishonest.

Hopefully, now that this information is more public, the foundation can make strides towards revealing true information.