Email Marketing Secrets from The Motley Fool

Okay, you’ve got me: I can’t give away all of The Fool’s email marketing secrets, but I will be presenting one of our strongest email marketing campaigns later this month at DMA’s 2009 Annual Conference in sunny San Diego.

I’ll be on a panel with Donna Wells from Mint.com and Jared Dent from Turner Sports where we’ll be sharing some of our most successful email marketing campaigns and competing for the title of “Ultimate Email Marketer.”

Next week, I’ll post The Fool’s strongest email campaign on this blog so you can get an early peek — please check back then!

If you’re coming to the conference, please join us for the session on Oct 21, at 10 am. For more information about the conference and our session, please click here.

Guaranteed Social Media Success for CNBC

At The Motley Fool, we (the marketing team) watch CNBC constantly. When we moved to our new office last summer, we switched over to their “HD+” channel. It was a little disappointing — I was excited to watch Cramer in all his hi-def glory, but quickly realized their HD feed is actually pathetic standard def with an info sidebar on the right side (see pic).

As you can see, the sidebar is filled with current quotes and historical data — all important information for people following the market. However, if you think about it, it’s a complete waste of space.

The thing is: all the data that is shown on the right hand side of the screen is repetitive. Currency info and indices information is all available on the top of the CNBC screen on a rotating basis. Also, the historical info is something that can be easily found through Google or Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, or even the iPhone stocks app. In my opinion, it really doesn’t add much value for the amount of space it takes up on the screen.

In a world where information equals profits, CNBC could easily use this space to track what the community is talking about at any given point. They could pull in StockTwits about the companies that are being discussed at that given moment, monitor the #CNBC discussion thread on Twitter or start a Facebook page where (similar to CNN’s coverage of Michael Jackson’s memorial concert or the Inauguration) people could comment in real-time about the market or CNBC’s coverage, or even pull in YouTube videos that viewers create to comment on the day’s events (and put the audio on the SAP channel).

If news organizations are looking for ways to stay relevant, a simple mantra comes to mind: “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Old-school news coverage is quickly being eclipsed by real-time community reporting. With this simple change in its sidebar, CNBC could take a major step toward joining the “new world” while providing more complete and interesting coverage for its viewers. Seems like a much better call then what they have now.

Leveraging the Power of Communities

A few years ago, I got into an argument with someone about the importance of choosing news sources wisely. He’s from the school of thought that says news should be delivered with context and analysis from an expert or a reporter quoting expert sources. Of course, he knows not to believe everything he reads, but he wants to get the story from the experts.

This makes sense to a lot of people — you do have to be careful about where you get your information from these days, but the ironic thing is that because we’ve learned to be careful, we’ve become smarter in our consumption of information. We’re now able to provide the context of a story, confirm the facts, and decide for ourselves what this means to us as individuals without it having to be told to us through a news reporter.

The coolest thing is that this new found ability can help us live our lives smarter as a community. We can now seek out information from multiple sources, evaluate it for ourselves, and find a more accurate or more informative answer than if we had gone to a single source.

Almost everything in our lives can be improved by leveraging the power of (usually online) community knowledge. Here are a couple places that you can start leveraging the power of community intelligence right away:

Community-powered Investing

• CAPS: Shameless plug for The Motley Fool here, but our CAPS service can really become a valuable resource to add to your investment research. Users make a call on how they think a company’s stock will perform in relation to the S&P 500 Based on that data, each stock is given a star rating that you can use to grade your next investment idea. We’ve seen some pretty amazing results when we simply let The Fool’s community rate stocks — it turns out that a greater number of votes on where a stock is heading will provide a more accurate result.
• StockTwits: For those of you who understand the value of information (and getting it immediately after a story breaks),  you have to check out StockTwits. Simply put, this is just people using Twitter to share information about specific stocks. The tweet can be a news rumor, a recent trade that was completed, or any other thoughts they have on that stock. StockTwits makes it easy for you to monitor the flow of information for important stocks to you, but you can simply search Twitter using “$” in front of the ticker symbol to see the raw flow of tweets. Do a search for “$appl” and see the ridiculous amounts of tweets that almost brought down Twitter today as a result of Apple’s iPod announcement and Steve Jobs’s return.

Community-powered Shopping

• Online Reviews: There are just so many sites for you to find great information on the product or service you want to purchase. Check out CNET for electronics reviews, Edmunds.com for car reviews, Yelp for restaurant reviews… the list could really go on and on. You’ll find that when individual users post their thoughts on a particular product, they often will have a more insightful review than a professional reviewer. Multiply that level of detail by the hundreds of reviews you’re likely to find on any number of products, and you’ll be in review heaven.
• Community Coupons: Sites like GroupOn use collective buying power to get deals from local businesses for members. This means they promise a certain number of buyers for a particular deal and if that number of promised buyers is reached, then the group as a whole will get that killer price or offer. If there aren’t enough purchasers, then no one gets that great deal.
• Let the Community Find the Best Deal: People love to search for the best deals online, and sites like Slickdeals give them a place to post a deal they found so that everyone can use it.  There are also sites like RetailMeNot that let you search for coupon codes for online vendors and provide feedback on the success rate of those codes (some expire quickly…). I find now that I don’t purchase anything online without first searching these sites.

Community-powered News

Like I mentioned earlier, old-school news organizations are on their way out the door. You want to find out the most-current information as soon as it happens? Check out Twitscoop or simply watch Twitter’s own trending topics to find out what people are talking about right now. These tools will also give you a better sense of what the real story is. For example, when the story of Michael Jackson’s collapse and subsequent death broke, it first broke on Twitter. People were reporting their own observations from his house and from the hospital. By monitoring Twitter, I found out he died more than three hours before CNN reported it on air. Of course, this story could have gone the other way — stories that break on Twitter can turn out to be simply rumors or hoaxes, but as you use this news source more, you’ll find that it becomes quite easy to figure out which stories are true and which are false.

4 Social Media Ideas to Improve the Fed’s Image

Last year, President Obama’s campaign changed the way political campaigns will be run in the future. He leveraged the power of social media to create a huge online following with many different smaller online networks where supporters could gather in support of a specific cause, a culture, or gender, all the time supporting the candidate. This was a huge social media marketing win. The President continues to use social media to go around the press and communicate directly with the public, specifically in his weekly YouTube videos and White House blog posts.

On the other end of the spectrum, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke hasn’t been the most widely-loved member of Obama’s  administration lately, and the Fed itself isn’t exactly winning popularity contests left and right. The Fed and its chairman are obviously suffering from an image problem — one that could be improved by connecting directly with the public and creating lines of communication back to the Fed. In honor of Bernanke’s recent renomination by the President, I thought I’d provide some social media ideas he could use to improve his and The Fed’s image:

1. Use social media to announce rate change decisions: Everyone’s affected by the Fed’s discount rate. Why not make it as accessible as possible? In this new environment where news organizations are becoming more insignifcant by the day, take the story directly to the masses: Tweet it, create an RSS feed, or even a desktop widget that people can subscribe to.
2. Start a weekly YouTube video release: Obama knew that people wanted to be heard. Start a weekly address like the President and invite people to respond with their own videos
3. Live-blog Fed meeting minutes: Doesn’t it seem antiquated that the Fed waits until weeks after their meeting to publish their minutes?
4. Start a site that lets citizens post their results after applying for credit: If the Fed is taking significant steps to make sure there’s credit readily available, why not hear the results of these efforts directly from the people that are supposed to benefit from them?

Customer Service Fail: Redskins*

*I mean, are you surprised? Can anyone tell me that they’ve ever had a good customer service experience at any point during their relationship with the Skins?

Anyway, here’s what I wanted to tell you. Check out my new seat at FedEx Field:

Sect 205

This is awesome, especially when you consider that this is where I used to sit:

Sect 443

Let me tell you, this upgrade wasn’t easy. My brother and I tried for years to move down to the lower bowl. Each time we tried, we were met with the usual answer that everyone hears when they have a request for the Redskins Ticket Office: “No.”

Due to the economy (and let’s face it: the Skins’ stellar performance), seats opened up down in the lower bowl. The ticket office called my uncle (who’s been a ticket holder for… 50 years?) and offered him the additional seats. He knew we wanted to move, so he offered them to us. We’re of course paying for these seats, so we wanted to have them in our name. Nope. Can’t be done. Check out the Skins’ ticket transfer policy:

The Redskins season ticket policy allows the transfer of season tickets to immediate family members only (parent, spouse, child, or sibling). Season tickets cannot be transferred between businesses, from a business to an individual, or between non-family members. In order to transfer a season ticket account, please contact the Redskins Ticket Office and request an account transfer form or download the transfer form now. Provide the requested materials (which may include a copy of a death certificate, in the event the account holder of record is deceased) and proof of relationship (birth certificate, marriage license, adoption papers) between the existing account holder of record and the new account holder. The Redskins reserve the right to deny a transfer at their sole discretion. All transfers (if granted) are subject to a non refundable $100.00 per seat transfer fee and remain subject to all other Redskins’ ticket terms, conditions and policies, including but not limited to the following: Redskins tickets constitute revocable licenses and future renewals of Redskins tickets are at the sole discretion of the Redskins.

So, despite the fact that my brother and I are footing the bill for these tickets, and even though we’re Skins season ticket holders already, my uncle wasn’t able to transfer these tickets to us. They’re still in his name and they will continue to be in his name for years to come.

Hey Dan Snyder, I love the Skins. I love them so much, I’m willing to spend a high percentage of my disposable income on a football game. These new tickets cost much more than my old seats (2x) and I even bought two sets of season tickets (the Skins wouldn’t let us drop our old seats this season). But seriously, why do you have to make it so hard to be a fan of the team? You guys were atrocious last night on the field and you don’t care for the customers that pay a big portion of your operating expenses.

I’ll just throw this out there… I haven’t had anything but great customer service from Uncle Ted and his Caps. I love being a Caps season ticket holder.

New Digs

So… waddaya think? New design, new blogging system (WordPress > Blogger)… I’m happy.

I do wish that I was able to use scripts on WordPress, but can’t figure it out. I guess that’s for another day.

Meanwhile:

• Ugh, not another year of the same: [Wapo]
• I didn’t believe it could do it, but $BAC is on a significant upward trend. I’m only about 20% down in that position now. Maybe mini lawsuits and forgetting about fiduciary responsibility to shareholders actually helps banks? [Google Finance]
• One more football note: All I’ll say is… I’m just happy he isn’t coming to Washington. [ESPN]

I Want to Excite Customers Like This

In case you haven’t heard yet, Coke has launched a new soda dispenser that allows customers to choose from 140 different flavors (yes, that’s right, 140… I didn’t even know there were 140 flavors in existence) including Peach Sprite or Orange Coke.

First off, for everyone who used to go into a convenience store and create a suicide drink, you know how much this rocks.

Second, I could launch into a tirade about how this will improve Coke’s ability to deliver more choices to its customers, attract new customers, reduce costs, etc, but let’s face it…

Isn’t this what it’s all about (wait until 24 seconds in)?

Email Stuff

First off, I agree with Chad White over at The Retail Email Blog on his post about Ralph Lauren’s recent mailing. I don’t remember who said it (I thought it was Caples, but couldn’t find it in his book), but we’ve always said around the office that in photos, the subjects should be facing into the copy. Chad: I agree and if you can convince someone to make a bet with you on a test (obviously not for Ralph Lauren), your money’s safe. Not that I think we’ve tested it recently…

Photos from the blog:

versus

I’m working on some ideas for upcoming design tests and I think I may try this test to confirm my hypothesis. Anyone care to place a bet on which wins?

Mashable: Twitter Updates Officially Become Tweets

Should I be ashamed to admit that I never realized Twitter didn’t invent or even use the term “tweet?”

Link to Mashable

Manhattan Airport in Central Park?

Really???

http://manhattanairport.org/