Using good design to ensure you look professional is akin to using darts and tucks on a suit jacket for a good fit around your content. You wouldn’t show up to an important meeting with rags hanging from your shoulders. Likewise, make sure any materials that represent you are also an extension of that same level of quality.

Tip 1: Using single word spaces between sentences.

In the words of Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, 1992:

In the nineteenth century, which was a dark and inflationary age in typography and type design, many compositors were encouraged to stuff extra space between sentences. Generations of twentieth-century typists were then taught to do the same, by hitting the spacebar twice after every period. Your typing as well as your typesetting will benefit from unlearning this quaint Victorian habit. As a general rule, no more than a single space is required after a period, a colon or any other mark of punctuation. Larger spaces (e.g., en spaces) are themselves punctuation.”

“The rule is usually altered, however, when setting classical Latin or Greek, romanized Sankrit, phonetics or other kinds of text in which sentences begin with lowercase letters. In the absence of a capital, a full en space (M/2) between sentences will generally be welcome.”

• That’s enough energy to power 2.4 million homes.
• Each spam has a footprint of .3 grams of CO2.
• The 62 trillion spams sent annually roughly equal driving around the planet 1.6 million times.

What’s more, spam filtering can reduce that figure by 75% which is the equivalent of eliminating 2.3 million cars.

The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report was commissioned by McAffee and you can download the paper here.

What does this mean for emarketers?

One more reason not to spam.

While seemingly easy, eliminating outgoing spam can actually be a challenge to implement. How do you know if your company is guilty of spamming? What is the definition of spam? And if you follow the letter of the law (US CAN-SPAM Act), why isn’t that enough? And even if you’re doing everything right, you’ve still got folks on your back wondering why you don’t just buy email lists from anyone on the Internet.

Let’s take these one at a time:

• How do you know if your company is spamming? There are several clues you can look for:
  1. Do your email reports show large numbers of spam reporting?
  2. Are your email campaigns getting increasingly blocked by more and more servers?
  3. Did you buy an email list of people your company doesn’t know or have a relationship with?
  4. Do you just have a bad feeling in your gut?

• What is the correct definition of spam? This is easy and yet somehow complex too:
  1. Spam is defined by the recipient, NOT the sender or the sender’s government. If the recipient thinks your email is spam, guess what? It is.
  2. Even so, many governments are attempting to define spam as well. And each government has their own variation on laws governing ‘unsolicited email’. The US law is one of the most lenient, allowing anyone to send email to anyone else so long as certain rules are followed. Those rules include showing a postal address and allowing a valid opt out option, among others. Read the US CAN-SPAM Act for more details, but realize that if your email list includes folks in, say, Australia, your rules are going to be much more strict.
  3. The third party to define spam are the corporations that make spam blocking software for ISPs. These folks have a tough job, creating spam-blocking parameters for use in any country. That’s one reason why they tend to be the most strict when it comes to determining what emails are spam. Their software looks for key features of emails that serve as triggers and get that email blocked at the ISP level. AND they’re always updating their parameters. For instance, it’s common knowledge now that including a lot of all caps or the word ‘FREE’ in your subject line will likely get you blocked. There are also more persnickety triggers like copious amounts of specific colors or images that are ‘too’ large. And of course, a plethora of coding triggers that we won’t go into here.

• Why isn’t it enough to just follow the US CAN-SPAM Act?
  1. Easy, the United States government doesn’t make the spam blocking software that is used by ISPs around the world and the government is not reading your email to determine if it is spam. SO, the government really doesn’t have a roll to play in whether or not your email gets through and gets read. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t follow the laws of the country where your email recipients reside, US or not. Definitely follow the laws or you could be sued. Just realize that following the laws does not guarantee that your email will be successful.
  2. AND remember, the US CAN-SPAM Act is not transferable to other countries. Many countries now have their own laws and if you’re emailing to other countries, it’s your company’s responsibility to abide by these laws.

• What to do about those folks breathing down your neck to get you to buy the biggest email list you can, hoping for that traditional 1% direct marketing return? This is tougher because these folks may be your boss, or your boss’s boss. They may not give a hoot about getting email permission from people on your list or following the laws of the country in which your recipients reside. This is your opportunity to shine by educating them before they force the company to make a big mistake. Get your ducks in a row and discuss the following:
  1. Review everything we’ve discussed above, and in as much depth as the bosses can handle. Most bosses just want the bottom line, so be prepared to state what that is and support it with facts when they protest.
  2. Remind them that despite what THEY think, if the recipient thinks their email is spam, it not only IS spam but that perception directly affects the value of their brand, which is likely reflected on the books.
  3. Remind them that building brand trust and loyalty are hard and being perceived as a spammer will undermine these activities.
  4. And one more thing, let’s go back to what started this discussion: the environment. If your company has a green plan, spamming negatively affects any efforts you make to lessen the carbon footprint and communicate any green initiatives in place. Creating a corporate Anti-Spam Policy can and should also be a segment of your Green Policy. This is also good for your brand.

The obvious lesson here is simple: be a good company and treat your customers with respect. Don’t abuse them, give them what they want, and IF they want you to email coupons to them monthly, do it. If they want you to update them on product upgrades via email, do it. If they don’t, respect their wishes.

Of course, if you’re the authentic manufacturer of a certain little blue pill, I wish you luck. You may never be able to use email marketing due to the spammers that came first.

—Julia

I just finished reading a hilarious post at SocialMediaBlogster.com and it got me thinking, what the devil is an expert?

I think we have to be careful applying the term expert. We must remember that there is always going to be more knowledge to gain, ways to grow, change to embrace.

So, can any one ever really be an expert?

Aren’t we risking inflated egos and stagnation when we refer to ourselves as experts?

Should you trust someone who calls themselves an expert?

I don’t know about you but I want to continue learning and that means being a student of change. So please don’t call me an expert. Just call me an explorer.

—Julia

That ‘other’ big competitor (whom shall remain nameless) cannot offer this. They also don’t have the ability to test your emails in various email applications and show you screen shots of each. Of course, we do both.

(click this image to view a sample report)

This latest report mitigates one of the primary frustrations of designing email campaigns: consistency across email applications. You’ll be able to see exactly which email clients to test for your campaigns. You’ll know if Lotus Notes really matters to the folks on your subscriber list and whether or not you need to have us spend more time finessing your emails for those audiences. You’ll know exactly how many people used their iPhone to read your email. And not only that, the report splits the results by version too. So you can see whether or not you really need to worry about Outlook 2007 or 2003.

Until now, this was all guesswork. Many folks assumed that B2C subscribers used Hotmail/Gmail/Yahoo while B2B used Outlook/Notes. You don’t have to assume anymore. Just reviewing your online report allows your emails to be designed and programmed to your specific audience. No extra time spent on email applications that aren’t actually used.

Yes, this can save design and development time for your email projects. Feel free to contact me for a free demo or if you’re a client, just log on and view your new reports.

Have a great weekend!

Julia

A while back we created The Spice Outfit® brand of spice blends for CCC Brands of Chicago. Tom, CCC Brands president, approached us with an idea for a series of specialty blends under a Chicago Mob-related theme. He’d already been doing some serious research on the subject and had his target markets and sales channels all mapped out.

The resulting product packaging won an American Package Design Award and is garnering attention in no less than 9 different countries, blog after blog. The Dieline and Lovely Package likely being the most popular. Packaging Digest Magazine has also covered the story of The Spice Outfit.

Additionally, we developed the online catalog for The Spice Outfit Internet sales.

This project was honestly one of the most fun we’ve worked on since starting MondoVox in 2000.

Cheers!

Julia