Welcome to 2013, put down the mince pies and park the “champers” as we show you a few of our favourites this week, to get you pumped for the new year. We hope you’ve had a good relax over Christmas and enjoyed some New Year celebrations. We’re in high spirits and are feeling inspired as we trawl through our InboxVision – Email Intelligence Gallery.

View the full email details here Company Name: Nissan Subject Line: Save 10% on books and gifts until Wednesday

We wanted to show you this sparkling email from Nissan, as we predict we’ll be seeing an increased and more innovative use of animated gifs and cinemagraphs to captivate readers over the next few years, as 4G and apps similar to becomes more available.Saving valuable email space and having scope to show off products better with 360 views or simple slideshow like transitions. Click the email and head to: “Show html” to see this email come to life.Although, be mindful of a few things when using animated gifs into email…- Some browsers may only show the first frame, so make sure your main content is at the start rather than fading it in, or you’ll end up with a disappointing blank space. - Have fun and don’t over do it. Be aware some gifs can be annoying. Enough said, e.g. blinking text will just give your reader a headache - Spare a thought for mobile with slower connections. Test how quickly your email loads on mobile… will the user get bored of waiting?

Highly Commended
View the full email details here Company Name: ASOS Subject Line: There’s still time! Get a half price outfit in the sale in time for Christmas	View the full email details here Company Name: Euro Tunnel Subject Line: Book your half term getaway today!
Asos is doing it right and they have done for some time now as they changed their style to a more html optimised version in mid 2011. These emails have been working to a good solid template with all of the text is optimised for html rather than being images (which we love). Well done Asos!	The subject line is fantastically snappy and the email itself is well timed to get their readers thinking about travelling for school’s spring half term.Getting in at the right time as many of us go back to work after Christmas and we inevitably dream of our next holiday.

What do you think these emails? Tweet us on Twitter or send us a comment on Facebook!

Were you less than happy with some of your returns on your email campaigns last year? Could it be sloppy copy? An over indulgent visual designer without real email experience? or a sloth-like email designer that has missed some crucial links? Maybe you need some Email marketing intelligence… but for now we’ve reposted this inforgraphic to make 2013 your year.

We hope you’ve having a wonderful Christmas season. We’re back again with another instalment of inspiring emails from our InboxVision – Email Intelligence Gallery for another email of the month article.

View the full email details here Company Name: Waterstones Subject Line: Save 10% on books and gifts until Wednesday

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Highly Commended
View the full email details here Company Name: Fannie May Subject Line: Ends Today – 30% OFF SITEWIDE	View the full email details here Company Name: MailAway Subject Line: Wishing you…
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What do you think these emails? Tweet us on Twitter or send us a comment on Facebook!

Some optimisation tips for “Fannie May’s” email Coming soon.

We would like to take a moment to express our thanks to all our blog subscribers and wish you all the happiest of holiday seasons and a beautiful New Year. May all your campaigns render with perfection and receive a healthy number of clicks and conversions!

Have your campaigns been in good health? In the spirit of Christmas and the new year we reflect on changes and improvements we’ll make in our lives and work. The questions is; will you be making any new years email marketing promises this year?

Have you crammed too much into your emails or been keen to cut the fat by optimising subject lines and body copy?

Here’s a infographic to encourage you shape up, excercise good practise and stay in good email health:

Great News! InboxVision has reached another milestone as our database grows to 2.5 million emails. Since the 4th of July, our database has grown by approximately 700,000 emails!

Develop winning subject lines

Draw creative inspiration for your digital campaigns

Share your findings to your colleagues with lightboxes

Monitor your competitors daily to gain competitive insight

Justify your email marketing budget to your clients or your company’s management

Whether you’ve been good this year; getting all your emails nicely scheduled or are dashing towards a deadline as the holidays are fast approaching you should take a look at these top articles…

We realise some of you might be pressed for time as your manager or boss has a sudden bright idea for a last minute email design but these articles are really worth a look and not just for the holidays. And for those of you who are grinning for your timely efforts, have a peek anyway for those final “Top of the Inbox” tweaks.

Improve your relationships with those you are marketing to, understand the life cycle of emails during this Christmas and take some inspiration for the January sales. So it’s seasons greetings from us and we hope you enjoy this post!

Article 1: ‘5 Holiday Email Marketing Tips‘,  by Carolyn Nye

Article 2: ‘Is Your Email Marketing Holiday Ready?‘,  by Amanda Day

Article 3: ‘Haven’t Emailed Your Subscribers Recently? 5 Steps To Fix The Relationship‘,  by Crystal Gouldey

Article 4: ‘Don’t be self-absorbed: Forcus on the customer‘,  by Sarah Zibanejadrad

Article 5: ‘7 Email Marketing Tips to Boost Holiday Sales‘,  by Vangie Beal

Article 6: ‘The Holiday Email Marketing Life Cycle‘,  by Scott Hardigree

✫✫  Your new years resolution: MAKE TIME FOR MOBILE  ✫✫

As email designers and marketers we always strive to hold the attention of our subscribers. But are we presenting ourselves to our full potential? The following inforgraphic has some great considerations on how to design from your email from start to finish and be excellently received…

It’s been a pretty good month for email design so we thought we’d showcase some of our favourite findings from our database. We reviewed a fantastic incentive email from Corbis a few weeks ago and we loved it so much we’ve named it email of the month!

 

Find out “What we Loved” in Corbis’ design

View the full email details here Company Name: Corbis Subject Line: Get your reward from Corbis

 

Highly Commended
View the full email details here Company Name: Kidrobot Subject Line: Promo Code: KRCYBERMON12. Early’bot gets the worm.	View the full email details here Company Name: Asos Subject Line: Get up to 25% off the freshest ASOS products now
An Interesting sales idea, we love the limited offer countdown, forcing shoppers to act now. This has seemed to be a popular sales technique this year. Could this be something to include for your January sales coming soon?	Great potential for mobiles! Dividing content into 300px wide columns should work fantastically on smart phones, utilising the full screen to display rich images. We would also recommend removing “Get up to” in the subject line to keep it short and sweet!
View the full email details here Company Name: Men’s Wearhouse Subject Line: IN-STORE ONLY: Shop our Exclusive BOGO Pre-Sale	View the full email details here Company Name: BMW Subject Line: The new BMW 3 Series – Request your brochure or test drive one today
The line “BOGO” threw us a little bit, but it got us reading! A clever piece of copy we think! Like most of the other designs, this email is unfortunately very image heavy. We would have tried to use as much editable text as possible.	BMW always have a knack of adding energy to the their images. We like the clear calls to action, but would recommend they’d be positioned higher up the email and so should the heading for easier reading when images are off.
View the full email details here Company Name:Baby Star Subject Line: One Day Sale! 60% Off All Baby Accessories	View the full email details here Company Name: Apple Inc. Subject Line: Friday is the one-day Apple shopping event.
Another example of the popularised sales tactic of ultra limited time offers. We liked the layout for this and although it hasn’t yet we can see great potential for this to be optimised for html. We also liked the top loaded links and the image used, as we find faces tend to grab peoples attention.	It’s no secret Apples sleek designs have seeped into their email design too. We loved the subtle Christmas theme by tying the headphones into a bow. The simple design shows off their products beautifully and has a good use of links at the top of the email and simple social links at the bottom.

What do you think these emails? Tweet us on Twitter or send us a comment on Facebook!

Having trouble getting clicks and opens? Or looking to improve engagement? Here’s a great, detailed infographic to make sure you’re keeping readers and ISP’s happy.