Weekly Interactive Roundup - Subject Lines, Appends, Web 3.0 & Email Marketer of the Week Award

Welcome back to the BrightWave Blog - Let's dive in with some more hype regarding Web 2.0 - wait, the New York Times wants to get in on the next phase of annoyingly titled Internet bubble sounding phases - Web 3.0 -The Semantic Web

Customer Service is the New Marketing
Not what you expect from a VC blog, but Union Square Ventures has a nice post.

E-Mail Append: Digging Deep to Drive E-Mail Revenue - one thing to note on this insightful article from Jeanniey Mullen, a co-founder of the Email Experience Council, is that the title doesn't embrace the EEC's official spelling of email - not e-mail. Go figure.

Speaking of the EEC, you can vote on which subject line would drive the highest open and donation rates? For more information on Ryan Andrew Kaiser Memorial Foundation, please visit http://www.rakmf.org/

Vote for your favorite subject line for the RAKMF holiday email?

1) Non-Profit Solutions for U.S. Children & Their Families

2) Please Read & Support RAKMF – Children's Lives Depend on It

3) Be a real Santa. Help RAKMF this Holiday

Vote here - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=276342891637
(Disclosure - one of the over 300 entries was submitted by me and chosen as a finalist but I won't list which one is mine here in order to be fair and balanced)

Bad Email is Bad Business

Reporting, customer service key for e-mail clients: British DMA

Top 10 Tips on Sprucing Up Your Email Content - As Told by Don Corleone

Ten Spammers Create 80 Percent Of Spam

Non Profit email marketer alert - An overview can be found here
New Study Shows Nonprofits Raised 40% More Money Online in 2005; E-Mail List Growth High, But E-Mail Turnover Rates High Also

IAB: Internet Ad Revenue Hits $4.2 Bil. in 3Q

Email Marketer of the Week Award - Kimpton Hotels. Finally, an example of a forward thinking email program. Remember, what works for you doesnt mean it will work for your recipients. The boutique hotel group is using something unique and compelling for its email subscribers rather than recycleing the same content or offers that website users can find. In other words, there is actual value to being a subscriber. A rare find these days.

Interactive News to Use - Week of Nov. 6, 2007

A busy week as usual in the online world. Some powerful email ROI number leads us off....

Email ROI Blows Away Other Channels

The DMA stated that the ROI for email marketing is $57.25 for every dollar spent.

-The ROI of all non-email online marketing is $22.52, less than half of email's total.

-Email marketing in the US alone will account for approximately 71,000 jobs this year, growing at 8-10% annually historically and projected into the future as well.

There is a wealth of info in this report and article about it, too much for a blog post, so be sure to check it out.

Viral email retail study

RetailEmail.Blogspot breaks down viral email and releases Send to a Friend Benchmark Study

Highlights include:

-Only 44% of retailers using send to a friend (STAF) in their emails.

-Only 51% of send-to-a-friend emails contain a privacy statement of some sort at the top of the forwarded email.

-Only one retailer, J. Jill, offered the recipients of forwards an incentive to sign up for the newsletter themselves.

Spam: It's Academic

By way of Email Marketing Reports, an interesting called"Consumers’ Attitudes toward Unsolicited Commercial E-mail and Postal Direct Mail Marketing Methods: Intrusiveness, Perceived Loss of Control, and Irritation" . It is by 2 university professors.

CAN SPAM Fines

As reported in DM News , Yesmail has been ordered to pay upwards of $50,000 for failing to honour unsubscribe requests via reply email.

This raises the stakes even more with both email vendors and on the client side. This also shows the FTC is going after anyone who violates CAN-SPAM. Not just the bulk and obvious spammers.

Bet on Interactive - Podcast

A podcast on MGM Mirage's approach to interactive marketing. This features Shawn Rorick, director, MGM Mirage, who used to work for me at Cox Interactive. Nice work Shawn!

The Top 10 Lies of Web 2.0

Beware the hype and fear the bubble of all that is Web 2.0.

Feedback, comments and content for consideration are welcome.