Dominos do a great job when it comes to the design of their emails.  They're all nice and neat and are consistent with their site.  They use great photography that does exactly what it's meant to - make you hungry.

They do an even better job of timing.

I love (and hate) the fact that they make me eat pizza every other weekend because of my Friday afternoon pizza alert.  Take this example reminding me that it's cheaper on a Tuesday.

Subject: It's Cheaper Tuesday Order Online Now

But it's not all juicy toppings and tasty, tasty cheese... I think there's a few things that could definitely be done a little better.

Lets start with the Order Online CTA.   Having it hidden down in the bottom corner seems a little, well,  hidden (and inconsistent with their website).

Also, let's not forget that apart from the T&C's, it's all images - and not an ALT tag in sight!

In any case, it's a nice example of good timing.

And i hate you for it ;-)

Preferred Seating is a great site designed to offer a wide range of concert and other event related tickets.  They do a great job of creating simple email layouts with singular objectives and carefully targeting these to the appropriate customer segment.

This current example is a little different from their normal alerts in that it includes a good example of how to use video in an email - a question we get asked more and more often.

Now we all know that streaming video via an embedded player, or even (heaven forbid) attaching a video to an email are both big no-no's due to a mail client's inability to execute the related code and file size etc.

So the workaround is to give the recipient the illusion of an embedded video and then shoot them off to the full version on a hosted page.

Preferred Seating have done this quite well by having a paused YouTube video screenshot as the hook.  Even the most novice internet user is going to quickly figure out that either of the two 'play' arrows are going to set things in motion.  By making the whole image clickable, that's exactly what they'll get - in a web browser.

Another alternative to this would be a few seconds worth of animated gif.  File sizes would be obviously larger but you'd be more likely to grab some attention*.

Which would work for you?  Why not try some tests with either method?

*You'd also need to do a bit of code tweaking so drop us a line for this and some more tips

My Sony has always sent good looking emails. I really like their nice clean lines and effective use of imagery.

I very rarely fail to open these emails as even the subject lines are nice and effective, this one being:

Win tickets to see the Qantas Socceroos in action


How could you not open it after being teased like that?

They also do a good job of helping you navigate what would normally be regarded a lot of copy for an email.

They do this in a few ways: firstly by having the buttons underneath the banner linking directly to the article, and secondly by having a well written (if not slightly lengthy) introduction paragraph and thirdly, by including some 'back to top' links at the end of each article.

Nice work!

Comments, suggestions? Feel free to discuss below.

I really like the new graysonline.com site and how they've re-worked the UI to be far more user friendly and informative.  It's really clean and easy to navigate.

But what have they done with their emails?  Being a long time user of the site, I was used to the old alert style email full of content completely relevant to my interests.

Now I get two or three a day and they're rarely anything I"m interested in.  Case in point is today's example that leads with a Boating related subject line and lead article:

20 metre Sublease on Rivergate Marina Berth

Not only are Grays making the the assumption that I own a boat (I wish), but also that I'm interested in a mooring it in a state 700km (450miles) from where I live!

Suffice to say that my preference centre settings don't have any option to view any Marine related products.

I guess the scattergun approach still works but I'm wondering how much more effective a little segmentation would be? I remember my old daily email alerts had me spending way more than I should but I've not bought a single item in the last year or so.  Wonder if that's the case for anyone else?

Got any other examples you'd like to discuss?

When it comes to email marketing, is customer attention a valuable resource that should be managed with care? Or is it more like a commodity that can be used as needed?

With email marketing, it’s generally easier to send broad-based communication to an entire list than it is to segment, customise and target. The relatively low cost of email negates any savings in terms of reduced volumes. Why spend time slicing up your list when the direct cost saving may only be a few hundred dollars?

For DM, the high cost of print and distribution ensures that you need to get your segmentation and targeting to an economically optimum number that will generate the response you need.

However, we are seeing that over time, lists grow tired. Customers start to switch off after a succession of emails fails to spark their interest. This is measured through declining open rates over time. Unsubscribe rates are low but steady, which indicates that most customers are not opting out. They are not being as receptive as they were to begin with.

Does it pay to invest in getting this right?
What’s the return on investment for keeping a customer’s interest?
What’s the opportunity cost when they switch off?
When it comes to email marketing, is it quantity or quality that we are seeking?

We'd like to hear your thoughts.

A Crystal Ball on the Marketing and Communications business

Well done to the iMedia team (DMG) for putting on a successful event with the Brand Summit 2009. Two nights and two days at Cypress Lakes in the Hunter valley made for 48 hours well spent.


The schedule included an impressive line-up of speakers including:
- Dr Jeffrey Cole on “How everything is blowing apart” and “Why Everything is coming together”
- Peter Williams from Deloitte on innovation, collaboration and porous product development
- Don Peppers on how marketers can take lessons on social networking from bees
- Rohit Bargava busting myths and providing practical guidelines for social media marketing
- Simon Cheng on building an online community that helped fight the fallout from Swine Flu
- Karen Ganschow on how Telstra is using a Twitter team to manage positive and negative chatter
- Mehrdad Baghai looking at the various structural models that drive collective action
- Matt Whittington from Optus on the ‘now’ of mobile content and marketing

Returnity was proud to have been badge sponsor for the event. We liked the presentation, we liked the people and we loved the opportunity to be part of a fantastic production.

Returnity is proud to have been involved in the Sports Charity Ball, a gala night held in support of the McGrath Foundation.

Promoted and produced by Association and Communication Events, featuring speeches from many leading sports personalities it was a memorable and successful evening that raised more than $30,000 through auctions and ticket sales.

Tony Davis, Client Services Director (right) and Gregory Fournier, Senior Business Development Manager (left) attended the event.

Details at http://www.acevents.com.au/charityball/

More pics at http://www.politeinpublic.com.au/event/1110/sports-charity-ball

Recent system updates mean that we have added several new IP addresses for delivery of emails by Returnity. This includes IPs used for bulk email distribution, test emails and system notifications.

We strongly recommend that your organisation ‘white list’ these IPs to ensure that you are able to receive test emails and system notifications during campaign production, as well as seeded emails delivered to your business email boxes.

New IP addresses:
210.10.117.128/28
210.8.238.25/32
210.9.197.73/32