If you have a website, you are most likely collecting the email addresses of site visitors on your home page and your other web pages, right?

For those among you who don’t have a web site, there are other smart ways to collect email addresses at every possible point of customer contact:

1. Have people sign a (paper) guest book
2. Ask for an email address whenever you offer customer service or support calls
3. Gather email addresses through invoices, brochures, customer surveys and feedback forms
4. Put a “leave your card here” box in your booth at trade fairs and events.

And here’s our bonus tip: put a “join our mailing list” call-to-action in the email signature of your regular correspondence. Just ask the recipient to simply reply to your email with “sign me up” as a subject line.

Developing a cost-effective email list poses a challenge for all email marketers. Because email addresses change at a rate of 30 percent or more on most lists, marketers must be imaginative in their approach to expand their list.

Here are some often overlooked offline ways to build your list:
1. Use Direct Mail and Catalogs – Encourage email subscriptions on all print ads.
2. Direct Employees to Include Messages and Links in Email Signature Lines – Add “Subscribe to the Company X Email Newsletter” to employee email signatures.
3. Direct Call Center and Sales Employees to Obtain Permission and Capture Email Addresses Over the Phone
– Instruct call center and sales staff to ask customers and prospects if they’d like to receive newsletters or promotional email.
4. Send Post Cards to Customers Encouraging Them to Subscribe to Email – If you have postal contact information for customers but not email addresses, send a post card with opt-in sign-up offer and URL.
5. Hand Out Sign-Up Forms at Public Speaking Engagements and Seminars – Promote your newsletter in presentations and handouts.
6. Include Opt-in Line on Credit Card Receipts – Not an obvious method, but may be quite effective.
7. Add Opt-in Message to Warranty and Product Registration Cards.
8. Add Sign-Up Message to Invoices.
9. Display Opt-in Forms at the Cash Register – An approach used by restaurants and retailers to advertise weekday discounts, catering services etc.
10. Include Opt-in Forms in Product Shipping Boxes – Advertise email promotions on packing slips and direct mail cards with links to your site. Many retailers and catalogers also include promotional offers from non-competing companies.

Van den Wijngaert wint volledig nieuwe IT omgeving, website en verfraaiing van kantoor.

De firma uit Keerbergen is de winnaar geworden van de campagne Ultimate KMO Makeover 2008. Ultimate KMO Makeover is een actie die op getouw werd gezet door Microsoft en partners zoals EmailGarage om te peilen naar de stabiliteit en het gebruik van de IT omgeving bij kleine en middelgrote ondernemingen in België en Luxemburg. Van den Wijngaert is een firma die ondernemers begeleidt op het vlak van accountancy, fiscaliteit, bedrijfsadvies, successieplanning & starterservice

Ultimate KMO Makeover is een campagne die werd opgestart in September 2007. In een periode van 10 maanden werd bij KMO’s gepeild naar de betrouwbaarheid en het gebruik van hun IT-omgeving. In drie enquêtes werden bedrijfsleiders bevraagd over de produktiviteitsverhoging dank zij ICT, de mate van bedrijfsautomatisering en het gebruik van servers.

Na een spannende race werd uiteindelijk de firma Van de Wijngaert uit Keerbergen de winnaar. 
Zaakvoerder Luc Van den Wijngaert is bijzonder tevreden met de overwinning: “Talrijke vrije beroepen, waaronder dus ook de accountants – belastingconsulenten, gaan tot op heden gebukt onder een loodzware papierberg waar noch wij noch de klant en zeker niet het milieu mee gebaat zijn.  De voorbije jaren steunde ons kantoor organisaties als WWF en Greenpeace louter financieel.  Dankzij deze overwinning hopen we ons kantoor degelijk te kunnen digitaliseren en op die manier eindelijk zelf eens de handen uit de milieuvriendelijke mouwen te kunnen steken!”  

De firma wint zoals aangekondigd een volledige ‘makeover’ van hun kantoor; Het gaat met name om: 

- 2 bedrijfservers en tot 30 PCs aangeboden door HP   

- EmailGarage & LUON bieden voor 12.000 € aan e-marketingconsulting en -diensten aan. 

- een volledig bedrijfssoftwareplatform voor de servers en PCs. Daarenboven krijgt de winnaar ook nog  begeleiding van een consultant voor de implementatie van de IT. Een pakket dat wordt aangeboden door Microsoft.

- Belgacom/Proximus geeft de winnaar de vrije keuze uit de catalogus van businessproducten t.w.v.  15.000 €.
-ING geeft een Mastercard met 5.000 € cadeau en een volledig financiëel assessment.

- Ook het uiterlijk van de winnende onderneming wordt onder handen genomen met kleurenadvies en herschildering door Levis, nieuw bureaumeubilair van Buro Market en nespresso-machines en koffiepads van Nespresso.
- Xylos en Plataan, opleidingenspartners van Microsoft, geven opleidingsdagen aan de winnaar rond producten als Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, SharePoint en Dynamics.

- A joint survey amongst Belgian internet users and businesses carried out by
EmailGarage and iVOX confirms email marketing as a mature marketing
communications medium.
- 90% of internauts subscribe to at least one electronic newsletter, 75% of them
subscribe to 3 - 4 newsletters.
- Personalization and ‘identification with’ customers prove to be key to successful
email marketing

Personal relevance or saving money

67.7% of respondents subscribe to email newsletters because they are relevant to their
hobbies. Saving money is also important to many: 56% subscribe to newsletters that deliver
exclusive savings. 49.5% will also subscribe to the electronic newsletters that offer information
about limited-time offers.

Companies can clearly be a lot more commercial, in their approach to email marketing, for
example offer more deals and discounts. Commercial approach helps overcome two biggest
problems that businesses say they face when it comes to email marketing: acquiring new email
addresses and making sure their current subscribers remain on the list.

Of course, everything that’s relevant to the consumers’ daily life is also reflected in the
contents of the emails that they find most interesting. So, the most interesting topics for the
consumers are (in the order of decreasing interest) as follows:

1. Supermarkets
2. Real estate
3. Airline tickets, hotel & accommodation
4. Computers
5. Healthcare & beauty

Email marketing helps build the consumer-brand relationship through dialogue

Nearly 50% of Belgian internet users have subscribed to the newsletters of the brands they
love. And they are prepared to give - not only to get. 76,4% will share their personal
information to receive more appropriate promotions and information.

Also worth mentioning that although all of the survey participants are online-literate, over 30%
of them have subscribed to electronic newsletters off-line: at an event, in a shop, or at a fair.
So, it is important to keep the communication channels open across all media.

Respect your readers: talk to them in their language. Literally.

The study clearly demonstrates that it is crucial to address newsletter readers in their own
language - literally, not only figuratively. Says Steven Deketelaere, Managing Director iVOX:
“One of the things that irritate Belgian internet users the most is email in English. 2 out of 3
Belgians will not read a commercial message if it is in English. You speak to the Flemish in
Dutch, and to the Walloons in French. English as a compromise is not acceptable.”

Businesses are clearly well aware of this: 83% of businesses customize their emails in at
least some fashion. These companies also reap the benefits from personalization: their results
are consistently stronger than those of the 17% of the companies that do not customize their
email marketing communications.

Says Luc Robijns, General Manager EmailGarage: “There are many possibilities and
opportunities for companies to optimize the dialogue with their customers. By paying more
attention to the language the reader speaks, by keeping in mind the relationship - is it a
prospect or an actual customer, a one-off or a regular customer and so on - and by taking into
account the customers’ preferences and behavior. The research clearly showed that there is
still a lot of space for improvement in this area.”

Methodology of the consumer survey (iVOX)

- Sample: N = 1045
- Fieldwork: late April 2008
- Method: CAWI (Computer-Aided Web Interviewing), online research panel iVOX
- Population: Belgian internet users (all profiles: low-heavy, newbies & experts), 18-70

Methodology of the business survey (EmailGarage)

- Sample: N = 281
- Fieldwork: late April/early May 2008
- Method: CAWI
- Population: Belgian businesses (all profiles: small-large; heavy and light users of email
marketing; B2B, B2C and non-profit)

Online advertising in Europe grows 38% in one year.  Europe 27 should finish between 11 and 12 Billion € in 2007 closing the gap with US market (tipped at some 13-14 Billion €). IAB Europe/PWC early findings show average growth rate year on year.

The preliminary findings of the European AdEx survey (conducted by IAB Europe), the definitive guide to the size and value of the European online industry, shows that the growth of online advertising in Europe continues unabated. IAB members are seeing more companies move their advertising online, including sectors that have until now tended to stay loyal to traditional media, such as fast moving consumer goods. As online continues to grab a larger share of advertising budgets year on year, some forms of traditional media are seeing their share eroded.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe) has released on the 28th May 2008 the initial findings of its annual advertising expenditure survey for the year ending December 2007. Whilst some analysts are predicting that advertising on traditional media may be impacted by an economic slowdown, online advertising continues to grow apace, experiencing an average growth rate of 38% year-on-year across the three largest European advertising markets – the UK, Germany and France. The data has been compiled by IAB Europe based on information provided by the regional IAB offices around Europe and then analyzed and processed by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The top line results for the UK, Germany and France show that:
These markets were valued at €5.6 billion euros in 2007, up from €4.08 billion in the previous year (for search and display only)
The German market experienced the highest growth rate from 2006 at 41%
Search advertising continues to account for the lion’s share of spend, at 63.5% compared to 36.5% for display

The report also shows that whilst the top three markets are by far the largest in value, their growth rates are slower compared to some of the other member countries. Spain and Italy have experienced particularly strong growth rates at over 50%.

source: IAB Belgium

Whitepapers, cases or e-books make a terrific strategy to increase your brand awareness. What’s more: they create an excellent opportunity to communicate about your company’s strengths. Providing this info not only offers added value to the recipient,  it ‘s also an efficient way to collect or update their contact data.

However, don’t offer your valuable content just for the sake of it.  Create a win-win situation: only provide valuable content if there’s something in it for you too.

By mentioning the link to the content in a confirmation mail, you’ll gather qualified email addresses. It will also give your subscribers a better interaction with your brand and product. Need more details on your contacts? Try using a profile form to ask for more information, or to update existing databases.

Conclusion: It’s OK to give away valuable content. But feel free to ask for something in return. In every client relationship, two-way engagement is what works best for all parties.

Luc Robijns, en direct du salon Online 2008 à Paris

Internet prend une place de plus en plus importante dans le travail quotidien des professionnels. En conséquence, les annonceurs français du B to B renforcent remarquablement leurs investissements sur ce média. En moyenne, 10 % de leur budget publicitaire a été dépensé en ligne (e-pub, campagnes d’e-mailing, liens sponsorisés…), soit deux fois plus qu’il y a deux ans indique la dernière étude Benchmark Group. Et pour plus d’un tiers des sociétés (surtout dans les services), le niveau des investissements se situe sensiblement au dessus de cette moyenne.

Les campagnes d’e-mailing, l’achat de liens sponsorisés et la publicité en ligne sont pratiquement généralisés parmi les grandes marques B to B investissant sur Internet. C’est la publicité en ligne qui représente le premier poste de dépenses avec un peu plus du tiers des budgets e-marketing B to B. Pour 9 entreprises sur 10, les campagnes d’e-pub servent d’abord à générer des contacts commerciaux. Mais ce levier sert aussi de plus en plus à renforcer la notoriété de la marque.

La répartition moyenne des budgets e-marketing en 2007

Achats de mots-clés = 26%
Achat d’espaces publicitaires = 35%
E-mailing = 26%
Autre: Optimisation de référencement naturel, affiliation… = 13%

(Source : Benchmark Group)

Pour 2008, cette tendance va se poursuivre avec près de la moitié des entreprises qui prévoient d’augmenter leur budget e-marketing de plus de 20 %.

Benoit - Live from Paris online Expo -

La conférence de cet après-midi était un grand succès! Le débat a duré presque 2 heures et la salle était entièrement comble (plus de 200 places assises) avec une bonne quarantaine de personnes qui se tenaient debout dans le fond de la salle, sans compter celles assises sur les bords des rangées. On peut dire que ce fut la conférence qui a attiré le plus de public aujourd’hui.

C’était d’autant plus intéressant que nous étions 3 conférenciers. Il y avait d’une part un représentant d’une société qui fournit un service de production de contenu pour emails, mais aussi un conférencier qui développe et distribue des bases de données.

Ajoutez à cela ma propre intervention qui mettait en avant les spécificités techniques de la plate forme de routage EmailGarage ainsi que ses qualités de segmentation avancée. Cette complémentarité entre intervenants nous a vraiment donné une conférence très riche, tant dans les présentations que dans l’interactivité créée par le public présent.

Nous avons eu l’occasion de répondre à des questions très intéressantes.

L’une d’entre elles a particulièrement retenu mon attention : “Comment garantir une bonne déliverabilité des emails envoyés?”

Développer une campagne marketing qui attire votre public cible est une chose, assurer la déliverabilité dans leur mailbox en est une autre…

Est-ce que votre email atteint la boite mail de votre public cible ou est-il filtré en tant que SPAM? Nous vous garantissons de vous fournir tous les moyens pour que votre déliverabilité soit optimale! Cela passe par l’utilisation d’un SPAM check (c’est un outil qui diagnostique votre email avant l’envoi et vous expose les risques que votre courrier présente en matière de SPAM). Il vérifie le contenu et le design de votre email pour éviter les spams et black lists.

Vous voulez en savoir plus? Cliquez ici…

Ce fut une journée très fructueuse, pleine de rencontres très intéressantes.

Nous avons hâte de reprendre les contacts dès demain. Si vous cherchez le stand EmailGarage, nous sommes dans le hall 5, à l’emplacement 5C3!

Nous serons ravis de vous y accueillir!!

A très vite!

Benoit

In spite of any rumors to the contrary, email marketing is alive and growing. However, both promotional emails and email newsletters face a number of challenges in terms of deliverability, open rates and conversion rates.

One essential element to the success of every email or newsletter is the quality of the subject line. Unfortunately, writers appear to spend a great deal of time working on the body of an email or newsletter, and give very little attention to the subject line itself.

This is curious, because unless you write a great subject line, nobody is ever going to open your email or newsletter.

The Power of Name Recognition

Name recognition is the most powerful element in your subject line.

If you were to sign up today for an EmailGarage newsletter, the best way to catch your attention in your inbox tomorrow would be to include the word “EmailGarage” in the subject line. You will immediately think something along the lines of, “Sure, I signed up to hear from these guys. I’ll open this one.”

So while you only have about 40 characters or so to use in your subject line, find a way to include the name of your site, your newsletter or your editor in the subject line… whichever you feel will create the strongest name recognition.

Avoid Spam Traps and Filters

We all know a few things about avoiding spam traps and filters.

Don’t use too much capitalization in your subject line. Don’t use words like Free, Offer, Money et cetera. Don’t use exclamation marks. However, it isn’t enough simply to avoid the obvious words.

Your email will have to successfully pass through a number of filters at different points. All these filters together may use a combined list of literally hundreds of different words which they consider “spammy.”

So before you send any email or newsletter, run it through a spam checker (like the one included in EmailGarage). The spam checker will alert you to problems not only in your subject line but also within the body of the message.

Beware the Human Spam Trap

We all receive an unwelcome amount of spam. And the subject lines are often loud, aggressive and promotional.

The more of these spam subject lines people read, the more finely tuned their own sensitivity to spammy language becomes. In other words, the final spam filter is the recipient of your email.

Be careful not to sound like spam in your subject line. Avoid that kind of language– Free, Offer, Money, exclamation marks, misspelled words, ALL CAPS and the like. Instead, go for recognition and then quietly describe the contents in a relevant, direct manner that shows how useful and helpful your email or newsletter is.

We know. This is often tough to do in 40 characters. But therein lies the challenge.

Test, Test and Test Again

It doesn’t matter how many times you test subject lines. You will never be able to reliably identify the winner without testing every time. Here’s how to do it.

Forty eight hours before each send, test three or four different subject lines against a small portion of the list.  So if you have a list of a 10,000 names, take out three groups of 100 names each and send each a separate test subject line. (Don’t stress about the final validity of the test. What we are looking for here are strong indicators, not a statistically significant set of research data for publication.)

Twenty four hours later, look at the report on open rates and conversion rates, if appropriate.
You will constantly be surprised by what you see. Often you’ll find your favorite subject line bombing, and the one you hated delivering double the open rate. Once you have your winning subject line, use it for the major send a few hours later.

Test three or four options for every promotional email or newsletter you send.
If that sounds like a lot of work, do the math. Let’s say that each time you test, the best-performing subject line does eight percent better than the worst. And that’s a very conservative figure. Now count up the number of times you send promotional emails and newsletters each year. Finally, do the math on revenues.

Increasing open and/or conversion rates by eight percent with every send can have a huge impact on your ROI after 12 months.

Add Value with Every Email

This brings us back to name recognition.

If you deliver useful, relevant and timely content with each email and newsletter you send, your subscribers will start to watch for your name in their inbox.

If you deliver low quality content, then they will start to ignore you when they see your name.
Ultimately, the best thing you can do for your subject line is to always deliver outstanding content, and always include your site, newsletter or editor’s name in the subject line itself.

Which brings us to one final point.
Do the same with your “From:” line. Use it for name recognition.
As an example, here is what a subscriber will see when receiving one of our newsletters:
From: EmailGarage Weekly Tip
Subject: Write good, clear and relevant copy

In conclusion: go for name recognition, avoid spam filters, always test, and deliver great content.

Jelle Quirynen, insights on the Relationship Marketing Congress in Belgium.

Last week EmailGarage was present at the Relationship Marketing Congress organised by Stichting Marketing.
It was a very busy day, presenting two EmailGarage sessions, participating in the Marketing Café, and visiting other speakers and discussions.

We presented our MarketingSherpa Email Summit ‘08 Revisited for the second time in Belgium at the beginning of the day.
In the afternoon we offered the attendees a temporary overview of our Email marketing Survey 2008, in combination with a general email marketing suvey conducted by iVOX. As a visitor of this presentation I could clearly discover enthousiasm and positive noise on the results in the audience. Email remains a hot item in future interactive marketing!

Later on this month we will provide you with the final results of our survey.

Stichting Marketing also organised a Marketing Café on online media and new trends that could be visited by the congress’ participants during the day. The concept was based on an informal discussion session in a bar (including a fresh beer or soda, to inspire people’s minds:-)) with intensive interaction managed by different online media experts who answered all questions and gave as much advice as possible. Topics were social networks, blogging, search marketing, personal reputation management, etc. I really liked this way of communicating with the audience! A small group of interactors created a very active discussion with a cross-fire of questions, based on visitors specific branches, interests and target groups.

Next to all this I also visited some other presentations at the congress.
De Post, the Belgian post mail handler offered the results of research work on the complementarity of direct mail and email. I will write another blogpost about the evolution of email and print later this week. Definitely useful feedback and a confirmation that email is following the right road!

Other presenters talked about biotic customer relationship management, customer driven strategies, optimising customer experience, and a lot more. Interesting insights, I am curious about the evolutions on these topics!

The Relationship Marketing Congress finished of with ‘lessons in love’. A presentation from Frans Reichardt, director Holy Cow! Direct Communications.
A great presention, brought with charisma and passion, containing one specific message: always be ready for your customer. Know what they want, and be there whenever they need you!

Jelle Quirynen