• by February 3, 2009

Seth Godin's book "Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?"tackles the challenges presented by "New Marketing." He defines New Marketing as having its basis in "a combination of more than a dozen trends, each of which is changing the way ideas are perceived and spread." (page 5). Godin argues that the hasty adoption of newfangled marketing tools by unprepared brands could go as badly as adding whipped cream and hot fudge to a bowl of meatballs -- yuck!

Godin encourages the use of New Marketing tools but cautions that adjustments to traditional thinking are necessary before just piling them on. With technologies constantly making new tools available to email marketers, it's important to situate those tools within your brand with careful thought. Godin lists fourteen trends that have changed marketing and writes, "your challenge is to ride the trends, to ride them in an organization that's designed to run with the New Marketing" (page 46).

Let's look at a few of these trends and consider what you can do to fit them into your brand's email program:

Trend 1: Direct communication and commerce between producers and consumers

Godin points out something that we've all been learning over the past years: "The fact cannot be denied: Your people (customers, employees, prospects, readers, whatever) want to be heard. They demand to be heard." (page 55). He reminds us of what subscribers are trying to tell email marketers: "I don't care about you. Not really. I care about me. If your message has something to do with my life, then perhaps I'll notice, but in general, don't expect much." (page 69).

This brings us to something we all talk about all the time in email marketing: relevance! Brands are achieving relevance in more and more innovative ways, and here are some "classic" approaches:

• Preference Centers: Brands like Old Navy are increasingly using preference centers to gather information about the types and frequency of email that their subscribers would like to receive. Opening communication and allowing subscribers control over their inboxes keeps subscribers happier, lowers spam complaints, and lets you put the right messages in front of interested eyes.

• Personalized Messaging: One of the best examples we've seen of a brand initiating relevant communication with its most loyal subscribers is this personalized message that an individual Nordstrom employee sent out before a sale. This mail singled out the shopper and demanded attention by offering attention.

• Triggered Messaging: Smith-Harmon designer Amy Evenson recently purchased a MacBook Pro and received a well-timed email from Apple, offering video demonstrations about her fancy new equipment and cross-promoting accessories and service plans. Triggered messages reach subscribers when they are most engaged with your brand and most likely to continue engaging.

• Timely Messaging: After Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, InStyle.com and Barneys New York sent opportunistic messages discussing the fabulous clothes of the ceremony's leading ladies, taking advantage of the event still on everyone's mind. Sometimes marketing that exploits current events can seem tasteless (remember that Restoration Hardware bailout email?) but they feel fun and relevant when selected carefully.

Trend 9: Direct communication and commerce between consumers and consumers

Indicating eBay as a forerunner, Godin discusses the growing role of technology that links customers to one another.  He writes, "As social networks become more powerful, consumers will gravitate toward each other, not just informing each other about their experiences but banding together into unions that will pressure organizations for more of what consumers want." (page 133).

In keeping with Godin's main message, it's important to remember that simply adding buttons that enable subscribers to share their emails will not increase engagement, stir up conversations or grow your list. The content of your email must first be relevant and exciting enough that subscribers actually want to show it to their friends.

Here are some of the ways that you can respond to the New Marketing trend of consumer-to-consumer connections:

• Customer Reviews: Several brands now highlight customer reviews in their messaging, including Sephora and REI. This appeals to the growing tendency of customers to seek credibility in one another -- and also makes the emails feel more like a dialogue within a community.

• Forward to a Friend ("FTAF"): Including FTAF links in email can boost pass-along rates and allow you to better estimate how many of your messages are being shared beyond your list. Fred Flare includes a colorful and relatively prominent FTAF link, along with an invitation for subscribers to visit its blog.

• Share With Your Network ("SWYN"): SWYN links are growing in popularity, encouraging subscribers to interact with brands via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other popular social networking sites. Free People was an early adapter, asking to become MySpace friends with its subscribers back in February of 2008. Many brands, like Gymboree, now include SWYN links as a standard part of their messages. Judging the value of these links returns to the question of whether or not your email is something that subscribers are itching to share with friends. Take a look at this Retail Email Blog Twitter discussion about the promise (or lack thereof) of SWYN.

Trend 12: The shift from "how many" to "who"

Godin points out that while the goal of marketing was once to "interrupt" as many people as possible in hopes that sheer mass would reach the right eyes, New Marketing has rendered this technique tired and outdated. Godin writes, "This focus on mass is understandable if you assume that all consumers are pretty much the same or if you can't tell them apart. The thing is, they aren't, and you can." (page 160). He argues that mass marketing is no longer achievable, nor desirable. Instead, focusing on the interests and behaviors of unique subscribers will allow you to say the right things to the right people.

This concept is valuable in email marketing because it cautions against using dubious means to grow your list, as well as against oversending. Keeping your subscriber base engaged by ensuring that they want your messages lowers your spam complaints and raises the chances that you can "activate the interested and turn them into campaigners for your remarkable products" (page 162). The 2007 Lyris HS article, "How to Grow Your Opt-In List: The Ultimate Guide," discusses the best ways to gain and keep additional subscribers in today's New Marketing world.

Here are some examples of things that work (or don't) in keeping your priorities on who rather than how many:

• Unsubscribe Links: Not only are these required for CAN-SPAM compliance, but they give uninterested subscribers such an easy out that the rest of your list is likely to contain only folks who sometimes click through. Make sure your unsubscribe link is findable and perhaps even consider popping it up top, as lululemon does.

• Alternative Options to Unsubscribing: When subscribers do decide that they want out, it's a good idea to give them some alternatives to quitting your email program cold turkey. Gardeners Supply Company kept at least one more subscriber on its list by offering the option to send its mail to a different address. Giving subscribers the option to decrease the number of emails they receive without unsubscribing is also wise.

• Address-Sharing Among Affiliates: The different approaches taken by competitors Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle Outfitters demonstrate the two sides of the who/how many dilemma when expanding the email lists of brand affiliates. While Abercombie & Fitch automatically signed up subscribers to receive emails from its new brand, Reuhl, American Eagle emailed its subscribers to offer them the choice to subscribe to the affiliates' messages. While the AE execution might not be flawless, its approach is less likely to disgruntle subscribers, while still taking advantage of the chance to grow the lists of its affiliates.

Check out Godin's "Meatball Sunday"to see his full list of New Marketing Trends and to reconsider the optimal ways to incorporate those trends into your email marketing campaigns.