I have been a Fleming’s email subscriber for some time. I diligently open each email looking for the next delicious deal. Recently I received an email from Fleming’s with the subject line “Email Communications from Fleming’s.” This immediately raised my suspicions. When I opened the email I instantly recognized it as an email append message. I was being automatically opted-in to receive emails from Fleming’s even though I was already an active subscriber. Oops…

This screen shot shows the append email, and past emails I have received. As you can see, I regularly receive their emails.

So, how did this happen?

My guess is that Flemings ran a data append and acquired my email address from some third-party database, but neglected to exclude already subscribed email addresses from their final list. They not only confused existing subscribers with an opt-in message but probably also paid someone for this service. Double ouch!

An email data append typically works like this:

• Offline customer data (name, address etc.) is compared to a database looking for an email address match.
• This list of newly appended customers should be compared against your past opt-outs and current subscribers prior to sending the email. If this precaution is not taken, the sender risks abuse complaints from customers who have already subscribed or unsubscribed in the past.
• Once an email address is matched to an offline customer, an email is sent reminding them of their past relationship with you and asking to opt-in to the email program. This newly acquired subscriber must be given the option to opt-out in the append email.

Thinking back to Flemings’ email, one positive takeaway was that the email append creative they used was really sharp. They explained why I was receiving the email, provided ample ways to opt-out, and also told me more about who they are and what they offer their customers.

You see, ordering tickets should be a straightforward process. You place your order, you receive confirmation of that order, and then you receive delivery confirmations or redemption instructions. But in the case of certain events such as the Jackson Memorial and the World Cup, there is one small difference in that ticketing lotteries are used to determine who receives tickets.

In theory, email is the perfect medium to execute a ticketing lottery. Once the drawing is complete, winning contestants can be reached instantly and privately with news of their purchase. Compared to past World Cups which have relied on postal mail and phone systems, email has provided a much more cost-effective and immediate medium for communicating with customers.

Unfortunately, FIFA really dropped the ball on their first attempt at online ticketing using email.

Let’s start with the subject line of my order confirmation: 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ – Ticketing Update. It’s worth noting that nothing about that subject line indicates whether or not the recipient won or lost the ticketing lottery. To make matters worse, FIFA used this same exact subject line seven times when messaging me over the course of the ticketing process. So it’s a realistic concern that many customers may have overlooked this email in the shuffle of all the other Ticketing Update emails they received over time.

Then there’s the simple matter of the email itself, which is a bit confusing. For a very important confirmation email, this message treats the actual confirmation portion of the message as an afterthought. For some reason, the vital information — namely, that the user has won the lottery — is buried beneath five lines of text. Next, there’s the issue of the awkward phrasing that FIFA is “delighted to inform you that the Tickets shown below… have now been reserved by the FWCTC for your exclusive benefit.”

In my experience, simpler is better. A quick “Congratulations” or “You’ve Won” would have certainly conveyed all of this information in a much more concise manner. Perhaps to deal with issues of internationalization (a major concern for a global event of this magnitude), FIFA could have added a photo of a celebrating soccer fan somewhere in there so that even someone who speaks little or no English could understand what had taken place. Alas, none of these simple tricks were used in the confirmation process.

If you stop and think about it, it’s a logical statement – that’s how the email loads and is presented to the user. Therefore, what you want the user to see first should be placed at the top of the email to grab their attention and inspire interaction. This sacred area of your email template is called the “above-the-fold” area and can make or break a design.

Since you only have, on average, 400-450 pixels of vertical space, this area doesn’t give you much room to toy with the images and copy needed to truly feature your content. Factor in some additional space for a logo, main navigation bar and perhaps a refer-a-friend link, and your header section is starting to resemble a layer cake rather than an email that’s designed to attract the user.

With so much going on at the top, it’s easy to get caught up in the technical aspects of the “template” rather than the creative, eye-catching promise of the “design.” To help gain some critical distance and assess the challenges properly, let’s review some examples of above-the-fold sections. Each sample below has been vertically measured at 420 pixels which is a good average number of what the user will see before they have to scroll:

Lego does an excellent job at building an efficient and good looking above-the-fold area. Not only is most of the main featured section displayed in the preview pane, but a smaller sub-feature section makes it in there as well. Utilizing a clean design with minimal copy and navigation, Lego’s template works harder than most at getting the user to interact from the start.

The header template from Under Armour is very aggressive in providing the user with multiple call outs about their free shipping offer.

There’s also a short sentence at the top describing the promotion along with a call-to-action. While not very eye-catching to desktop users, those on mobile devices will appreciate this line of copy since it loads quickly, and can be used to give a brief summary of the rest of the email. One small critique Under Armout could test is editing down and condensing the header content to give the main feature section more space. Since most of the content above the main feature doesn’t change, condensing this area will help the template remain “visually fresh” with a different look for each campaign.

Oakley’s monochromatic mailing takes header optimization for mobile devices a step further.

Their email header has a headline for the email, a link to the hosted page, and HTML navigation including a Forward-to-Friend link all within a section seemingly devoted to mobile devices. While this content quickly renders and is easily accessible by mobile users, it pushes the rest of the content down, forcing those viewing on desktop machines to scroll to uncover the rest of the feature section.

Pay attention to the above-the-fold section, and your users will appreciate it. Whether your header area is geared towards mobile users, desktop users, or a mixture of both, it’s important to test out what’s working, and throw away what’s not. Good luck and happy designing!

Our recommended width for emails that only need to be displayed onscreen is 650-700 pixels. By adhering to this guideline, marketers ensure that their full creative is presented to the user without being cut off by smaller monitors, elaborate email menu systems, or ad banner rails.

In cases such as order confirmations, ticket print-outs, or something the user needs to take with them for an in-store promotion, the email should be no wider than 600 pixels. This allows the email to fit within standard printer margins and minimizes issues at the point of customer contact (POS, ticket scanners, etc.).

Of course, not all marketers follow this rule. Take this example from Lucky Brand; weighing in at over 800 pixels wide, their creative has a good chance of sliding off the right side of the user’s screen. I would recommend trimming the width to conform to the 650-700 pixel rule to be safer moving forward.

As a general rule I would advise all email marketers to do a quick creative width test before preparing their emails for deployment.

Now compare that experience to how the Staples Center , AEG, and Michael Jackson’s family recently tackled the huge task of distributing Michael Jackson Memorial tickets. The Staples Center, AEG and the Jackson family created an easy-to-follow, seemingly error-free, and clear process in the Michael Jackson Memorial ticket giveaway. They did everything right! Hopefully this model will set a new standard in large online giveaways.

The memorial, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7th, was a gigantic media event. If there had been even the slightest error during the drawing process, the resulting feedback would have been 100,000,000 times worse than any chicken sit-in. In the first 90 minutes of the lottery registration Web servers counted a half-billion hits. That is equivalent of 12,000 ticket hopefuls a second! Seven hours into the lottery’s announcement, more than half a million people had registered via email, vying for free tickets. When the dust settled and the lottery site closed, over 1.6 million email addresses registered for 8,750 tickets. The odds of winning tickets were long – just one of every 182 entries were chosen. This resulted in a very few extremely ecstatic winners and a whole lot of disappointed losers. It would have been catastrophic if there was a glitch in this system. (Luckily, there was not.)

Here is the process that the Staples Center, AEG, and Jackson Family created to run their efficient and effective online ticket giveaway.  Watch and learn!

Step 1:  Create a clear website and registration process

The Staples Center website  made it clear where interested visitors needed to go to register for tickets. The one-step form was also simple and clear. All that was required was an Email Address, First Name, Last Name, Zip Code and Date of Birth.

The event information, including when the registration ended, who was eligible, the rules, and how to get more information, were all available and clear.

Step 2: Notify winners and losers

Both the winners and losers were notified via email if they did or did not win tickets. Here is the losers’ email. (I, unfortunately, did not receive a winning email

The winners’ email instructed those lucky few on how to contact Ticketmaster to claim their tickets. Winners were also provided with a secret code and instructions to appear at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday (the day before the memorial event) to claim their tickets. These winners needed a picture ID and were given a wristband to demarcate themselves and prevent them from reselling tickets. It was seemingly impossible to resell or scalp tickets with this policy in place.

Each winner received two tickets, bringing the number awarded in the lottery to 17,500.  Just 11,000 of those are for seats inside the Staples Center, while the other 6,500 are for viewing the memorial telecast across the street at the Nokia Theater.

Key takeaways from this promotion:

• Make a clear start and end date for any promotion.
• Allow only one entry per email address when applicable.
• Be sure to notify winners and losers promptly and accurately.
• Map out the promotion process from start to finish looking for any potential errors, mistakes, or missteps.
• Always anticipate that the promotion will reach the entire world. A single email or tweet can go a long way. Be prepared to deal with increased web traffic, email traffic, questions, and responses.