INTRODUCTION: As the interactive industry continues to evolve at break-neck speed, developing a marketing strategy based on what you assume to be true about your customers simply won’t work. It’s time to uncover the truth and discover what’s really happening in the world of social media. In Social Mythbusting, data from previous research reports is revisited in order to deny, debunk, and deliver the answers marketers need to build a strategy based on the truth—not just commonly-held assumptions.

We asked each of these guys to casually introduce themselves with a few sentences and to provide a link to a site they regularly go to for inspiration. Here are their responses:

Tyler Holmes – Training & Support Coordinator
My wife and I are newly arrived to Portland via Southern California and are enjoying walking to work, never worrying about traffic, and breathing clean air. I’m an avid cyclist so Portland is perfect and I’m trying to find a group ride on the West side of the river. We love to cook, talk unsnobbishly about beer and wine, and combine those loves with friends and get-togethers.  Our dinner inspirations often come from foodgawker.com

Christopher Stewart – Sr. Account Executive
I come to eROI with over seven years of agency experience. Mostly working in consumer products, I have worked with brands that include Nike, Intel, Suburu, Cessna, IBM, LinkedIn, among others. In my free time, I am an avid runner, burger critic and lover of coffee. I am a trend and tech junkie, so I spend a lot of time on mashable.com.

Addison Van Hatcher– Account Coordinator
My name is Addison, I grew up here in Portland, Oregon.  I’m a sports fanatic, and enjoy all outdoor activities, when the weather is nice…  I’m a big time Oregon State football fan (Go Beavs!), and a tailgating expert.  For inspiration and entertainment I regularly go to www.gizmodo.com.

Aldo Mollinedo – Designer
I’m originally from South America, and moved to NYC right after High School. I’ve spent the last seven years in the NW, between Portland and Seattle. I love arts, music, politics, as well as running and swimming. My inspiration comes from just about anything I see on a daily basis, online or in real life. There are several design blogs I enjoy visiting for inspiration – here are some of them: thebestdesigns.com, good.is/category/art-and-design, smashingmagazine.com, fuelyourcreativity.com.

Interested in meeting the rest of our team? Feel free to come by the agency anytime!  [VIEW US ON A MAP]

And if that’s out of your way, just keep an eye out for the new “WHO” page on eROI.com coming later this month.

Creating an email will be done in the Content section of your account. The folders in the left window correspond to the different content areas you can build to put together your email. They will hold any information you create or upload. More folders can be added and labeled to organize your content by right clicking and selecting “new folder”

• My Emails: Where your completed emails are stored
• My Templates: Where your email templates are stored
• Portfolio: Where you can house any uploaded images, documents, etc.
• My Contents: Where you can store frequently used blocks of content

The first step to creating an email is actually creating a template.

(If we have built you a custom template you can skip this step, if not, go ahead and click on the “My templates” link in the left hand windowpane.)

1. Click create at the top left hand corner of your center window. The only required portion of this is the name. You will want to name your template something that you will remember later because you will be choosing this template to base your content around.
2. The default location for your new template is the “my templates” folder but you can change that later if you would like to keep your account more organized.
3. The “template source” is where you choose to either use the ExactTarget editor or upload your own HTML. We are going to cover using the editor so leave that option checked.
4. Click save and you will taken to the “header editor” section

The only content you will be defining in your template is your header and the actual layout of your content boxes you would like for your email.

1. Click on “create header” to start a header area from scratch(you can use the “retrieve header” option if you have previously stored a content area under the “my contents” folder).
2. You will have several options for a layout including uploading your own HTML. Choosing a layout with an image will allow you to either choose from assets you have previously uploaded into the portfolio, pull in an image from the web, or upload from your computer.
3. You also have the option to size your image, though this can be done later in the editor as well.
4. Once you have inserted your image you will have the option to place a border around your header, choose a border color, a background color, font,padding, etc.
5. All of this and more can also be edited in the next screen. This is where you will be entering your text if you chose a layout that included a text option. Feel free to play around with the immense amount of content styling options available to you including dynamic content, hyperlinks, and other standard features you would find in any word processing software.
6. Once you are happy with the look of your header you can click save. This will show you what your email structure is going to look like.
7. You again have the option to add a border around the entire email and set colors.
8. The final thing you are going to want to look at before you save your template is the layout. There are seven different options. Choose the one that fits your purpose remembering that you will not be able to add content areas later but you don’t have to use all of the areas available to you within your template. Unused content areas will not appear in your final email. Clicking save will move your template to the folder you specified earlier.

You are now all set to start creating the content of your email.

1. Click on the “My Emails” folder in the left window pane and then “create.”
2. Choose the “build new email from existing template” option and click next.
3. Choose your template from the drop down, name your email so you can find it later and also give it a subject line. You can pull in dynamic content here and all of this can be edited later on before you send as well.
4. Click on save and you will be taken to the editor where you can begin to create your content.

Each content area has the same editing options as the header from the template creator.. You can preview your work in HTML as well as the text format using the tabs at the top right hand corner. When you are satisfied with the look of your email you can send it directly from this editor or wait for a later time. The changes you make within this editor are automatically saved as you work so you can come back to your work in progress at any time. Just browse for the email you created within the “My Emails” folder.

ExactTarget is a very powerful platform with which you can create your campaigns. We will be covering these features in later articles and would be glad to also set up training with you and your staff with our support team if you would like a more in depth look at ways to increase your deliverability, ROI, or improve subscriber interaction.

Let us know how we can help you by contacting us at Support@eroi.com

Solution/Strategy: This project began with a significant Brand Exploration. From there we developed a new logo and brand guidelines that were used to create a complete brand package including business cards, letterhead, powerpoint template, and tradeshow booth design. Additionally, using the information gathered during the brand exploration and the new brand guidelines, we speced and designed a new KeyLogic website, mobile site and a newsletter template.

INTRODUCTION: If you want to engage with subscribers, you must meet them where they’re at, no matter what channel it’s through – and there’s nothing like a good ‘ole checklist to keep you on track. In each of these checkists, find five actionable tips you can follow today to improve each aspect of your interactive program. This guide focuses on Email, SMS, Social, Landing Pages and Multi-Channel Marketing.

PORTLAND, Ore. – May 4, 2011 – eROI, Inc. (www.eroi.com), a digital agency focusing on mobile, social and email integration with offices in Portland, Ore. and New York, is excited to announce the addition of three digital leaders to their marketing team. Tamara Crawford is eROI’s new creative director, Heather Dougherty has joined the team as digital strategist and Gerry Blakney will serve as the agency’s art director.

Crawford brings a broad range of experience, insight and passion for developing creative programs that thrive and create connections in today’s demanding and noisy mediascape. She was most recently creative director at The New Group, a Portland, Ore.-based digital agency, leading digital branding, creative and community development for top brands like Nike, QVC and the GRAMMYs. Prior to that role, she was creative director at OLSON and VP creative director at Publicis and Digitas, where she led integrated campaigns for companies including Capital One, Target, Microsoft, Charles Schwab and Sephora. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Crawford’s human-factors-based education influences her belief that creative solutions should be emotive, inspired and practical.

“I am thrilled to be joining such a vibrant, smart and enthusiastic team focused on creating exceptional creative digital solutions for clients,” said Crawford.

Also joining the eROI team is digital strategist Heather Dougherty. Dougherty is a spirited interactive professional who has delivered high-quality marketing solutions in the digital space since 1999 for clients such as Subway Restaurants, NW Natural and Milgard Windows & Doors. A business-minded and strategic thinker, Dougherty skillfully merges client and audience goals with marketing best practices to develop effective and dynamic digital marketing solutions.

Art director Gerry Blakney has worked in the creative arena for more than ten years. Throughout his career, he has primarily served as a lead creative in all areas of design, including production, development and direction. Most recently, Blakney worked independently as owner of Haf Tohn Design, servicing clients such as HP and Charles Shwab.

“These three individuals bring extensive digital experience to eROI clients and we are thrilled to have them as key members of our team,” said eROI founder and CEO, Ryan Buchanan. “Our clients and the company will most certainly benefit from their in-depth digital marketing knowledge, creativity and strategic thinking.”

About eROI, Inc.
eROI, Inc. is a digital marketing agency. We create online marketing campaigns that integrate email, mobile, social, and websites. Somewhere at the intersection of creativity and logic, we help business of all types to build, maintain and learn from relationships with their audiences through the campaigns we create. Recent clients include Adaptu, Charter School Capital, Columbia Sportswear, DecalGirl, Ivar’s, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, and Sears. To learn more, visit us at www.eROI.com.

“Six months ago, 25 strong-willed SAO Board members locked ourselves in a room for a day to get aligned on our vision of the software community in this great state.  Yes, it took an entire day and a lot of debate to come up with one sentence. But, it’s an important one:

“Our vision is to make the software industry the catalyst for Oregon’s economic renaissance and a mecca for innovation.”

There is ONE phrase that really stands out here and is rarely ever used in a vision statement and that is “economic renaissance.”  What does this mean?

The first part of renaissance means that we’ve been through the dark ages or dark times of the past couple years of the downturn where there have been times where it’s sucked.  We’ve had to work seemingly endless 60-80 hour weeks without any immediate payoff. I don’t see anyone in this room that fit the Portlandia profile of “where young people go to retire.”

The second part of renaissance is the good part – it means innovation AND creativity.  It means job creation AND company growth.  It means leveraging what we as Oregonian tech and business leaders do so well – collaborate, mentor, and improve ourselves and our businesses through the mentality that rising tide float all boats. Like Charlie Sheen, we all want to WIN, but we want to win together as a vibrant business community.

How are we doing this? We are forming value networks through partnering with the PDC and City of Portland to support mentoring programs like PDX11 and Portland100. We have monthly Leadership Exchanges for CEOs, CFOs, and Technology Leaders. We have Fireside Chats that connect and feature public and private industry leaders like the CEOs of PGE, PacificCorp, and NW Natural who spoke about the importance of technology innovation in their own companies.  And lastly, we are educating our future leaders at a K-12 level through our non-profit Techstart, and we are driving tangible career development opportunities through SAO Programs and workshops.

I’m going to share some simple advice from one of my mentors:
Keep working hard and get involved in the software community.

The Renaissance is happening.  In fact, we’re making it happen here in this room, in this city, and in the state of Oregon.  Thank you.”

With our recent decision to focus our services primarily on online marketing campaigns that integrate email, mobile, social and websites, we also made the decision to expand our 3rd-party software toolbox.  We still offer and support emailROI, but because we want to offer the best in campaign strategy and creative services, we knew that we needed an advanced software tool to support advanced ideas. ExactTarget is the industry leader in email, mobile, and social messaging software and this partnership provides us limitless opportunity to help our clients execute and track advanced campaigns that extend to channels beyond email.

We are excited to be able to share some of ExactTargets fantastic resources with you, and plan to do so on a regular basis. To get started, here’s one of our favorites from their “Subscribers, Fans and Followers” series. Enjoy!

FREE GUIDE – THE COLLABORATIVE FUTURE

Despite common assumptions that email, Facebook, and Twitter are in direct competition with one another, consumers communicate freely across these channels, never isolating one from the other. Shouldn’t you do the same? We’ll turn common assumptions about channel competition on their head so you can develop a tightly integrated strategy that combines—not isolates—the powerful strengths of email, Facebook, and Twitter.

Inside this report, you’ll learn:

X The Email, Facebook and Twitter x-factors
X The distinction between SUBSCRIBER from FAN from FOLLOWER
X 12 ways to integrate these channels for increased ROI

Solution/Strategy: The strategy was simple: create a number of different user paths to the signup page. Make entry very simple but for legitimacy sake – keep the look and feel of the entry point landing page similar to the Ariat website.

Results: Within the first hour (which was between 5-6pm on a Friday night), there were 500+ entries into the contest. Ariat is very happy with the results, as over 50% of those signing up are new subscribers.