How would you know that your email is open?

The effect of 'preview panes' on email reporting figures

One of the misteries of the current email marketing - that a client asked me about recently - is how come the opening rates are falling when almost everybody uses a 'preview pane' functionality in their email clients? And, as we know, a preview pane showing of an email automatically counts as an 'opening'. So, why are the opening rates not uniformly sky-high (e.g. 80-90%)?

A very simple (and good) question, with a complex answer.

I've asked around, but managed to collect only bullet-points, not a cohesive answer. Some of the bullet-points were:

• images (used for tracking the opening) are turned off by default
• the tracking image could be blocked by an email client
• it is sometimes possible to delete the email before it actually pulls the images from a server
• some people do not open nor delete emails until later on, when they use a bulk deletion functionality
• users using a 'text-only' functionality
• email broadcast platform is not 'smart' enough to recognise that the image pulled from a server is actually opening of an email

Web 2.0 code of conduct - the case is growing stronger

Why do we need to regulate how people behave online and what is "blogosphere" saying about humankind

A very important article appeared in the last Saturday's Guardian: a text on the rude, dangerous and vile face of the 'blogosphere' and the need for some rules of behaviour.

It seems that people, when posting things anonimously, are more likely to show their 'true' face and nature than when clearly identified (however fickle that anonymity actually is on the web). This has lead to the situation that a huge amount of blog postings out there are not of a kind that could be repeated in the polite society. Even worse, some are downright life threatening, as some of the bloggers have discovered to their horror.

It seems that Stanley Milgram was right: give people anonymity and/or excuse that they are working under instructions of an 'authority' and they will commit offences against their fellow human beings without thinking twice.

The whole affair is also another powerful case for Nicholas Carr's blog on the amorality of Web 2.0 and how it's success or failure will depend on how we use it and create it, and not on the 'tool' itself.

In that sense, whatever we have in blogs today (and however rude and intolerrant that is) it is ultimately about us. Blogoshpere is a mirror and so far the reflection of our species in it is not a flattering one.

Let's see what Tim O'Reilly's and Jimmy Wales's initiative will bring on. I support the idea, but am not sure how many bloggers will heed their advice.

Will digital agencies start bying DM agencies? - it's happening...

so much about predictions: today's issue of Marketing Direct's Power 100 did mention that 20:20 agency (run by Peter Riley, whose blogs you can read on the same pages here) is finalising the takeover of DM shop Keevil Barton Kershaw - the first kind of transaction for the industry.

Way to go to guys, there will be more of that in the years (months?) to come.

More on usability...

Some additional thoughts and quirky facts

How about setting up a Usability Commission at the United Nations or the W3C? And they start knocking up standards?

Also, did you know that baguette was one of the first usability-aimed foods? It was developed specifically to enable the Napolen's soldiers fighting in Russia to stick the loaf in a special trouser pocket, so they can still march on and have more space in their rucksacks for warm clothes.

Similar with the Cornish pastry: the thick 'rim' was used to hold it with dirty fingers and eat up the filled centre, then throw the rim away. Or a carrot: the orange variety that we know is originally developed by the Dutch for patriotic reasons.

So, usability is already around us, we just need to back to our roots and start simplifying the tremendously complex world around us. Or we will breal down. 

Usability as the basic human right

Why good usability should be guaranteed

Everything is getting more complicated and the solution is not in sight yet. Philips has recently created a 'simplicity department' and put it in the centre of it's business and marketing strategy. Smart move, but remains to be seen if it's going to work.

We are surrounded by a swarm of unusable devices, mostly because companies have various political and financial reasons not to do a proper usability research. And any amount of good marketing won't help here.

And the things are getting worse: the multimedia world has brought new devices, with new oprational and usability standards and conventions and they are often quite different. There is no a single usability standard yet.

Maybe it is time for us to create it, in the same way that we have standards in designing and producing cars: length, height, wheel diameters etc. Maybe a set of standards on search result pages, how interactive menus work or a set of internationally recognised icons for the most frequently used functionalities? I don't know.

I just know that I'm fed up with reading more manuals. 

Will digital agencies start bying DM agencies?

It seems that the answer is "yes", judging by the number of my colleagues who are throwing the idea at me. It makes sense: several trends are working towards it.

First, everyone is now gathering around the same integration point: digital + other disciplines (whatever they are).

It works both ways: ATL and BTL agencies needing to prove digital credentials and digital agencies needing to prove their branding and DM expertise.

More and more of digital agencies are exercising strategic (and even creative) lead on integrated, multi-agency projects.

Finally, digital agencies are getting bigger as well, which means more acquisition muscle.

I'm waiting for the first big example, probably a big digital independent buying a smaller DM outfit. Don't say you haven't been warned.