Strategic Email Marketing

Email is easy...marketing isn't

2008-07-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

Most people can chat comfortably with another person without giving it a second thought. But place that person in front of an audience of a dozen or more and we are talking of a very different dynamic. In fact, we’re talking of group dynamics. This is why public speaking ranks as the number one social phobia in North America! It’s similar with email. We all do it, but as soon as you use email

Good Newsletters Aren't Brochures

2008-06-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

Most email 'newsletters' I see aren't newsletters at all, but thinly disguised vehicles of self-promotion. The so-called articles refer to company products and services and read like brochures. It's funny, we all read newspapers and magazines and, as readers, readily appreciate the difference between a good article with solid, useful information, and an ad. But put pen in hand, and most

Enhance Your Transactional Messages

2008-06-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

One of the missed opportunities in email marketing is not leveraging transactional messages. E-bills, order confirmations and shipping notices are opportune times to embed/cross sell promotional copy. A Strongmail survey reports that including “house ads” (promotional messaging) in e-marketing transactional communications will broaden your reach. Many transactional e-communications with

How to create a PDA version of your email

2008-06-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

As more of our customers view our emails on their PDA, we need to begin adding a link to a Wireless version on all of the emails that we send out. We looked at the most commonly used Blackberries which were the Curve, 8800, 8700 and 7290. We found that no line should exceed 43 characters which works out to be about 7-8 words.

How to boost your email opt-ins from registration pages

2008-06-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

In some recent optimization tests for one of our clients, Inbox boosted registration rates by 13%. How? With the simple addition of a confirmation page. Most registration pages for things like events and subscriptions have a checkbox and a Submit button. A surprising number of people hit Submit but fail to check the box. When this happens, you've lost them for good. By simply adding a

Analytics coming to the fore

2008-02-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

A recent survey by Alterian (article on BtoBonline) reports that 2/3rds of the marketing professionals surveyed indicated that analytics and database resources will be the biggest investment this year in support of online marketing. This is driven from the need to increase the effectiveness of their online marketing. As generating a response becomes more difficult, utilizing data to provide

Watch those WWWs!

2008-02-02T11:36:00.001-08:00

It's come to this. The latest spammy word to avoid in your emails is any Web link spelled fully with the 'www' prefix, as in www.inboxmarketer.com. The prefix now gets flagged in spam filters. All spam filters are rules-based algorithms, and the rules are based on monitoring trends in spam itself. It seems that more of these messages contain the offending 'www'. There are several easy fixes

Underinvested in Email

2008-01-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Marketing Association's latest study of direct response vehicles charts some interesting growth. Telemarketing still dominates, representing the biggest spend area in 2007 at $4.4 billion. Direct mail - the supposed workhorse of the industry - is a distant second at $1.6 billion. And look look who's hot on their heels - the Internet (Web and Email) at $1.4 billion. The biggest

'No time to test' is no excuse

2008-01-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

A Jupiter 2006 report indicates that only 40% of email marketers incorporate email testing on a regular basis. Some industry experts speculate that the lack of testing is due to emails’ low perceived cost but we believe it’s more a resource issue. The average email marketing department is small (1-2 people) and few emarketers make the time. Testing can be simple…examine your email program and

Increase your ROI with Google Analytics

2008-01-17T06:10:00.000-08:00

Are you doing everything you can to make a sale easy for your clients? Imagine having the ability to track your email completely while identifying problems quickly in time to make changes if needed. Interested? Meet Google Analytics, your new web analyst. What is Google Analytics? Google Analytics might be the greatest tool you can get your hands on. Not only is it a free service but it

Subject Lines to make you smile

2008-01-16T10:43:00.000-08:00

Imagine an email campaign that has breakthrough opens, an unbelievably high click thru percentage and more conversations then you know what to do with. Now that you're smiling, take a moment to delve into the world of subject lines... Before you think about subject lines, it's a good idea to... Take a moment and look over your marketing statistics. Who is your audience? What are their likes/

Ogilvy on Email Marketing: 5 Signs you have your next BIG idea.

2008-01-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

"No Idea is big unless it will work for 30 years.." - David Ogilvy In a world where we get frustrated if our lattes take more than 2.5 minutes from buy to try, a thought like this is refreshing, even if it was proclaimed over twenty years ago. The late David Ogilvy, known by some as the "Father of Advertising", knew what he was talking about. I mean, he was the one with a roster a mile high that

4.5 Fixes for your Registration Page

2007-12-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

The time has come -- you are one second away from beginning your acquisition and growing your list by the hundreds maybe even THOUSANDS. We know you're excited, but have you taken the right steps to ensure your client will be willing to share information? If you just paled at the thought, maybe it's time to take a better look at your registration page to ensure you've done your best to optimize

Want to Engage your Clients? Ask Them How!

2007-11-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

Trying to engage your customers through email? Have you been "Revved!" lately? Harry Paul & Ross Reck, Ph.D create a new business model that incorporates a three-step process to maximizing performance in the workplace through what they like to call "the business of caring." This book follows a struggling manager who is at the risk of losing her job unless she can find a way to engage her staff...

Email Marketers Club

2007-11-05T07:55:00.000-08:00

Tamara Gielen, Blogger & eBay Belgium Marketing Manager, has created a network for those in the Email Marketing industry. The Email Marketers Club is a Ning community that brings together blog posts, groups, and forums of close to a hundred members of the email marketing community. Tamara Gielen writes, "Let's make this a vibrant community of email marketers across the globe where we can mingle,