Sorta.

Kudos to those Fortune 100 companies who dare to be different (noted by an asterisk in the list below) and push the rest of us to think harder about what a website should be.

1. Wal-Mart
2. Exxon Mobile
3. Chevron
4. General Motors
5. ConocoPhillips
6. General Electric*
7. Ford*
8. Citigroup
9. Bank of America
10. AT&T
11. Berkshire Hathaway
12. JP Morgan Chase
13. AIG
14. Hewlett-Packard
15. IBM
16. Valero Energy
17. Verizon
18. McKesson
19. Cardinal Health
20. Goldman Sachs*
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Home Depot*
23. Procter & Gamble
24. CVS Caremark
25. United Health Group
26. Kroger
27. Boeing
28. AmerisourceBergen
29. Costco
30. Merrill Lynch
31. Target
32. State Farm*
33. WellPoint
34. Dell
35. Johnson & Johnson
36. Marathon Oil
37. Lehman Brothers &mdash Bankrupt, 2008
38. Wachovia
39. United Technologies
40. Walgreens
41. Wells Fargo
42. Dow Chemical
43. MetLife
44. Microsoft
45. Sears Holdings
46. UPS
47. Pfizer*
48. Lowe’s*
49. Time Warner
50. Caterpillar
51. Medco Health Solutions
52. ADM
53. Fannie Mae
54. Freddie Mac
55. Safeway
56. Sunoco
57. Lockheed Martin
58. Sprint*
59. PepsiCo
60. Intel
61. Altria Group
62. Supervalu
63. Kraft Foods*
64. Allstate
65. Motorola
66. Best Buy
67. Walt Disney*
68. FedEx
69. Ingram Micro
70. Sysco
71. Cisco Systems
72. Johnson Controls*
73. Honeywell International
74. Prudential Financial*
75. American Express
76. Northrop Grumman
77. Hess
78. GMAC
79. Comcast
80. Alcoa
81. DuPont
82. New York Life Insurance
83. Coca Cola
84. News Corporation
85. Aetna
86. TIAA-CREF
87. General Dynamics
88. Tyson Foods
89. HCA
90. Enterprise GP Holdings
91. Macy’s
92. Delphi
93. Travelers
94. Liberty Mutual
95. Hartford Financial Services
96. Abbott Labs
97. Washington Mutual
98. Humana
99. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
100. 3M

Notice anything missing? We made this list in late 2008. It takes time to rework a list of this length in HTML, and we only dust it off on rare occasions. Someday we’ll get around to doing that, but until then, please note that Apple (by far our favorite Fortune 100 site) is now #56 on the 2010 Fortune 100 list after only reappearing the prior year.

So, what do you think? Why are the websites of so many of these companies so embarrassingly bad? *ahem* General Dynamics.

Here’s a fact: email is a formidable marketing vehicle. It has not been squashed by spam legislation, it hasn’t been made obsolete by blog posts or tweets or text messages. Even the explosion of mobile and social channels hasn’t wreaked the havoc on email touted by some. Email is, however, fighting for its rightful place in today’s ever-changing online marketplace. This means that marketers who leverage email must do so more thoughtfully than ever before. Although the overall spend on email marketing pales in comparison to other media channels, the returns achieved consistently outperform these same media. To keep that trend going, it’s imperative we build strategies that prevent us from simply blasting out bland content because it’s fast and cheap.

Our approach should evolve over time and address the changing climate of the channel as well as the needs of our unique audiences. We engage in email marketing because it works. Period. Here are some tips to get even better results from your own campaigns:

Target.
Whether targeting current clients or prospects, there are many unique segments within these groups. Take common demographics for example. You should know which age groups purchase which products. You should know which regions you’ve penetrated with which products. You should know which gender responds best to which incentives. In these cases, knowledge is power. Using this intelligence, you should be able to target different segments of your subscribers with unique campaigns that call attention to what is most relevant to them — be it regionalized content, special coupons or overall design.

At OneCommand, for example, our entire email marketing strategy is rooted in recognizing the uniqueness of each of our clients. Since the majority of our customers are in the automotive retail market, we pay close attention to things like dealership franchise, location, the DMS and CRM they use, and even the sales and service volume of the store. These details help us deliver content that is specific and relevant — whether that involves sharing local or regional news and events content, or offering tips on how our solutions work with others the client already has in place.

Test.
Take the time to measure the variables that make your campaign more, or less, effective. Play with the subject line, the sending email address, the reply to address, links offered, the actual email content itself, more images and less copy vs. fewer images and more news articles, etc. Then, measure the differences to identify which is more effective. The best email marketing solutions will let you do this in real-time with A/B split testing features. Such a system will enable the delivery of essentially two different versions of your email based on the previously mentioned variables to a percentage of the total recipient list. Then, it will let you specify a time frame for the test, monitor the performance of each version, decide the more effective of the two and deliver the remainder of the emails accordingly.

In my opinion, Campaign Monitor* offers one of the best email solutions out there. I’m especially enamored with their testing features. In fact, I’ve developed a bit of an addiction. I perform A/B split testing at least once a week with different versions of the weekly news, tips and tricks we deliver to our current customers. Doing so has helped us to deliver more intelligently and has also opened up a bit of healthy competition amongst members of our marketing team. Doesn’t seem like placing bets on whether “A” will smoke “B” or vice versa would be all that fun, but I dare you to try it. Just this past week I closed my door and quietly did a victory dance to celebrate when a message delivered from me as the sender beat out the one coming from our CEO. What can I say? It’s the little things.

Measure.
The spectrum of open, click, bounce and unsubscribe rates is wide. Knowing where your campaigns stand on each of these fronts is critically important, but what long-term value does this information provide? Think about a monthly newsletter campaign. From your standard report, you may learn that 33% of your recipients opened the email, but how does this compare to the rate you measured last month or last year? You should be using these measurements to better understand your progress over time. Your email marketing tools should allow you to select campaigns to compare — helping to give you a better view of your rates and their improvement from, say, one month to the next. Armed with that information, you’ll then be ready to drill down into analyzing what made the difference such as time and day of send, subject, etc.

Measuring also helps you to predict trends. For example, this time last year, when the auto industry was facing its worst year in recent history, we lost a good deal of our customer base due to store closings, budget cuts and consolidation. Because I look at our subscriber list performance over time on a regular basis, I could see the writing on the wall. Our subscriber count was on its way to a big dip. To stem the loss, we introduced a weekly publication that offered best practice insights that were not necessarily linked to the use of OneCommand solutions. Instead, our new publication offered helpful bite-size treats in the form of general best practices and trends sprinkled with a little peer commentary. Though we did certainly see a decrease across our lists, the new subscribers we signed, and those we were able to retain with the new pub into, helped offset the losses.

Listen.
Give your subscribers a voice. Trust me, they have one and they will use it when prompted. Care about and respond to what they have to say, especially in terms of their subscription preferences. If you’ve not already established a way to pass control to the subscriber to manage their subscription—from the email address they provide you to the selection of campaigns or content types they wish to receive—you’re missing a critical piece of the email marketing puzzle. Recipients are far more likely to open, read and respond to a campaign that they’ve expressed interest in receiving. They appreciate being able to control what they receive instead of having only the age-old “subscribe or unsubscribe” options. Many email marketing engines will include the setup of a preference center for your subscribers that feeds directly back to your subscription lists — take advantage!

The idea of preference management is baked into OneCommand solutions, but it wasn’t something that we’d spent much time on in terms of our own marketing strategy. Until now. At OneCommand, we send a lot of email. We send weekly publications, monthly newsletters, system notifications, account management outreach, feature announcements, new staff introductions… the list goes on. We needed a solution that helped us manage the fact that not everyone wants everything. The preference center feature built into Campaign Monitor fits this bill perfectly.

Viva la...!
In summary, as marketers we have to take the time to really understand how this channel is most effective for our specific goals and objectives, and most importantly for our subscribers. I challenge that email marketing has become so second nature for most of us that we rarely give the measurements or the opportunities for improvement the attention they deserve. Change that today. Take stock of your efforts and your measure of success. Once you’ve done that and you feel good about your overall progress and go-forward strategy, think about mobile and social and how those exponentially growing channels can help your email make an even bigger splash.

*Disclosure: Spoke is a proud user of Campaign Monitor. Many of our clients use it with exuberant glee daily.

Follow up: We recently stumbled upon this piece on the Litmus blog. We found the numbers interesting and slightly alarming. Still, we know first-hand that you can improve your campaign success rate by following the suggestions in Lindsay’s post above and others. You might even consider using the Litmus toolset for testing your campaigns.

By the way, we’re not endorsing Litmus. Not because we don’t like it, but because we have’t tried it... yet.

Social Media Rock Stars. Digital Media Evangelists. Social Engagement Gurus. No matter what self-assigned fancy title is applied, this role can be simplified down to two words: conversation starter. If I’m doing my job right, this very blog post should spurn its own conversation in the form of comments below.

At the dawn of the internet, millions were made on the ability to create a website. A thorough knowledge of HTML was akin to being an early investor in Google. Today, the superheroes of the web are individuals with the ability to… get this… talk to people.

An entire field of work sprouted up around a little blue bird and a scrawny millionaire. And many practitioners of the craft have a single, unifying battle cry: “You’re doing it wrong.” What they’re really saying is, “You’re doing it wrong. I know how to do it right. Let’s get down to brass tacks. Send a P.O. now!”

The business cards in my pocket read “Social Media Strategist.” Yes, I’ve ridden on the wings of a little blue bird and developed a violently allergic reaction to whales. I’m a proponent of social engagement. I’m also a very big critic of the craft.

This advantageous case of multiple personality disorder makes me stand back and assess my own strategies and beliefs. “You’re doing it wrong” is an arrogant mantra for elitists. Let’s try, “There are aspects of your social engagement strategy which could use some improvement. Let’s take a look at three of them.” Yeah, it doesn’t have the same ring. I’ll work on that.

One: Social Engagement Doesn’t Have a URL
Social engagement is an attitude. It doesn’t reside on Facebook, Twitter, or any other platform. It can exist there, but not as a standalone entity. In its purest form, it’s simply part of an organization’s culture. The company that we social media types all love to reference is Zappos. By now, I’m sure most of you have heard the “I Heart Zappos” story. It’s become the stuff of legends.

The tale that we all adore and have taken creative liberties with over the years is the Zaz LaMarr story. In short, Zaz ordered a pair of shoes from Zappos. She requested a return and meant to send them back, but her mother passed away in the interim. At the risk of making my own creative enhancements to the story, I’ll let Zaz tell the rest:

“In May we had ordered several pairs of shoes from Zappos for my mom. She’d lost a lot of weight, and her old shoes were all too big. She had a whole new wardrobe of clothes in pretty colors that fit, so I wanted her to have some pretty shoes that fit, too, when I took her up to Oregon to stay where her sister is. Out of seven pairs, only two fit. Not bad considering she’d never been this thin, so I was winging it, and the return shipping is free. The rest were here waiting to be returned. Because of various circumstances – lost label, my mom being hospitalized and me being away, the shoes were never sent back. There’s a time limit on the return of 15 days. Remember this. When you do a return to them, they pay the shipping, but you have to get the shoes to UPS yourself. Remember this, also.

Yesterday, when I came home from town, a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white lilies and roses and carnations. Big and lush and fragrant. I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears. I’m a sucker for kindness, and if that isn’t one of the nicest things I’ve ever had happen to me, I don’t know what is.”

I can’t think of a better definition of social engagement than that story. There was a personal connection between a brand and a customer; a connection that transformed that customer into a brand advocate for life. Now, here’s the kicker: What social network was used to reach that customer? Zappos is so well-known for their outstanding service and dedication to customer satisfaction, and the story above is so frequently associated with social media, that we forget that no social networks were involved.

Here’s something you might not know about Zappos: All new employees are required to go through a four week customer loyalty program. Two of those weeks are spent in a call center, working directly with their customers. At the end of the four week training period, new employees are offered $2,000 to quit—to walk away from the job, no strings attached. They want to ensure that their employees are there for the love of the job, not just the money. The success that Zappos has achieved in the social space is a reflection of their culture.

If Twitter and Facebook went the way of the dinosaur tomorrow, that level of engagement would persist. How many companies can say that? An effective social presence is not dependent upon any one platform or combination of platforms. It’s an extension of an organization’s culture, online and off.

Two: Viewing “Community” Realistically
Quite possibly the most overused word since the dawn of social media marketing, “community” has become an ambiguous term used to describe various groups of people. As a point of reference, let’s look at the definition of the word:

A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.

That sounds an awful lot like another word that gets thrown around often: demographic. Before this section gets written off as cynicism, let me point out that online social communities are a wonderful thing, even those built around a brand. Some organizations value their customers’ opinions, love to address issues head-on, and do a fantastic job of rewarding loyalty to the brand.

The danger of “community” comes from blurring the lines between a real community and your organization’s Facebook fan page. When was the last time a member of your company’s online community invited you to a neighborhood cookout? To their son’s bar mitzvah?

If Moneybags McGillicutty’s House of Widgets was given an absolute guarantee, beyond a reasonable doubt, that none of their Facebook fans (or “Likers” now, I guess) would ever buy one of their products again, how much longer would that community be actively managed?

Pretending that your presence in the social space isn’t a method to raise brand awareness and, ultimately, increase sales is not transparency; it’s delusional thinking. Going back to Zappos, they publicly share their revenue successes and repeat buyer statistics. Their social community understands that the company would very much like for them to buy shoes from Zappos.

Consumers are intelligent enough to know that their favorite brands on Facebook want them to purchase their products. Real transparency is rooted in honesty. I’m certainly not advocating the use of social networks solely as a broadcast advertising medium. Just accept and respect the fact that people know why you’re there.

Three: Grand Openings vs. Soft Openings
Recently, Lee Odden from the Online Marketing Blog reached out to 40 thought leaders in the industry to get their thoughts on Social Media Strategy Before Tactics. A wide range of opinions were offered and the piece spurred an offline discussion between me and Head Spoker, Gene Powell. Initially, I fought tooth and nail for the merits of strategy leading tactics. But my history in retail management bubbled to the surface and quickly swayed my opinion into Gene’s corner.

Retailers love grand openings. They make huge events out of them. There’s face painting for the kids, pseudo-celebrities signing autographs, outrageous deals, and frequent giveaways. They throw their doors open and welcome the community to come see what they have to offer. Many companies approach their arrival in the social space the same way. They invest thousands of dollars on Facebook fan page tabs, launch traditional advertising campaigns to promote their new presence, and print the URL’s on anything that doesn’t move. If we build it, they will come. Have you ever stopped by a new store a couple days before their grand opening? You might just find that they’re open. Experienced retailers understand the importance of a “soft opening.” They quietly open shop to a much smaller crowd. Sometimes it’s in the form of a “friends and family” event. Sometimes they invite other local businesses to visit first. And still others just open the doors and see what happens. The soft opening is a way to determine just how ready their staff is to accommodate business, what customers think of the atmosphere, and what last minute tweaks need to be made before the gala event to come. Any business new to the social space could learn from the soft opening method. Allowing strategy to lead tactics is fine if you’re 100% confident that the strategy will be effective. But is that ever a guarantee?

What’s wrong with setting up a minimalist Twitter profile or Facebook fan page to observe how your community will interact? More importantly, how will you respond? This “soft opening” approach might just reveal some surprises before thousands of dollars are spent on strategy. These types of discussions are often boiled down to, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Is a massive strategy developed to attract thousands of fans and followers? Or is the community built on a grassroots campaign and the strategy developed around what was learned during that process? It’s not the most exciting option, but more businesses (and the gurus they hire) could benefit from following the latter approach. There’s always time for a grand opening later.

Four: There is no four.
Not long ago, a friend of mine posted a picture of his grandfather’s automotive repair shop from the 1940’s. His business was successful and he was respected within his community. The children in the neighborhood also knew that if their bicycles were broken, he would fix them. And he did it for free. Why? It was the right thing to do.

That same logic speaks volumes about a company in the digital era. The difference is that word travels exponentially faster and farther today than it did in the 1940’s. Understanding that social engagement is platform-agnostic, that your communities are your customers, and that there’s nothing wrong with gradually entering this space can have a positive long-term impact on the perception of your brand. And maybe, from time to time, forget about ROI for a moment and do things just because they’re the right thing to do.

This begs the question: How far back do you support? This all depends on your audience. If 20% of your traffic is coming from IE5.5, then it would be wise to go back that far (yikes, that would be a nightmare). It ultimately depends on your target audience and your known traffic stats. Sites targeting Mac users have life a smidgeon easier since IE6 is not as much of a threat to their equilibrium (unless they are web devs). Even in this instance however, one must be sensitive to the many people who are still stuck using IE6 at their day jobs and pining away reading about Mac stuff.

A recent example...

In one of our recent builds, H. D. Smith, we decided to make use of a couple of different “new” tricks of the trade: HTML5 and CSS3. There is a bit of geekiness in just wanting to get our hands dirty in the latest trends and familiarize ourselves with them, but even more importantly, we wanted our code to be lean and easy to maintain.

Note: We’re not going to cover HTML5 or CSS3 in depth in this post. Check out the footnotes for some great resources.

Lighter & Simpler

Although rounded corners and other fancy stuff that is demanded by clients gives designers some added job security, it would behoove all of us to discover how much easier CSS3 makes maintaining/editing two of the biggest drags on our time: Creating content boxes that have both rounded corners and drop shadows. With CSS, you no longer have to use nested divs (as much); crazy hacked together CSS, and other hair-raising tactics. Now with the magic of CSS3 much of that goes away... *poof*. If your clients don’t care that IE6,7 & 8 are a little more square, you’re golden. So after you’ve put together some nicely rounded tabs across the top of the page in your