Email Marketing Best Practices

With the kind of fierce competition that is being experienced on the online market, every website owner has been forced to find more effective ways of keeping their clients hooked to their sites. However, this is not an easy task that can be accomplished in one or two days. You have to be more aggressive and innovative. One of the best ways that you can keep your potential clients hooked to your website is through email marketing. These kinds of emails include things like the newsletters, updates, chats and more. The main idea behind the use of these emails is to send promotional messages to your subscribers. Therefore, you have to make sure that these emails are attractive, informative, and persuading. However, because of the numerous online businesses using these marketing strategies, people tend to ignore them. Therefore, you have to ensure that your email is different from others so that your subscribers can feel the urge to read it. It is for these reasons that these article seeks to provide you with a couple of email marketing best practices that you should always follow.

Follow Email Marketing Best Practices

If you can put these email marketing best practices into use, you will soon realize the difference that they can make. The first and most important email marketing practice that can attract a really large amount of subscribers is to include some incentives in your emails. These are things like coupons, codes, discounts, tickets, and more. Most consumers want to know that you care about them and are willing to return their favor. You can promise them a couple of benefits that are likely to get when they subscribe to your website. It is obvious that a client will be compelled to open your email message once you include such incentives. Remember also to include the incentives on the subject line where the subscriber can easily notice them. It will also pay off to increase your open rate by about 50%. You can also promise them benefits such as free shipping when they spend a certain amount of money on their shopping.

Another important factor to consider when applying these email marketing best practices is to keep the message simple. When you are creating your email messages make sure that they are between 500 to 600 pixels wide. Remember, that your subscribers are too busy to spend more than one minute of their time struggling to figure out what your email is all about. It can be so displeasing for your subscribers to keep scrolling sideways to read the email message because the message is too wide. In such a situation chances are that they will get bored before they read the entire message. It is therefore important for you to keep the message simple, brief and interesting.

Let the subscriber enjoy reading it for more than once. That way you can be assured that your business will acquire the largest number of subscribers within a very short time. With this and other email marketing best practices, you will be able to remain on top of your competitors all the time. The other good thing about these email marketing best practices is that they are cost effective. You do not have to spend your money developing expensive advertisements for your business. An email is more than enough.

Email Guidelines

Granted, the social media hit the World like a Big Bang. Anyone who is anyone is now a chronic blogger, and anyone who is not in it looks like a dead man walking. This may very well be, but one thing stands out. For you to be able to open a social media site and integrate yourself into the frenzy, the minimum basic requirement is an email address. From Face book, to Twitter, to Google plus, Email, is what they all have in common.

The social media frenzy caught up with Yahoo, and they soon came up with yahoo messenger. Despite all this, Emails still remain one of the most effective communication tools thus far. What is interesting is the fact that email marketing generated more than any other marketing channel. So in terms of marketing, it’s still bigger than the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Email designing has a lot of sides to it, but its all comes down to simplicity, and regular product testing, the email being the eventual end product. It is doable, challenging, yes, but doable nonetheless. When designing an email, there are, certain email guidelines to consider.

Email Guidelines — Where to start

The key here is to capture attention. Do not let it wonder. Create something that does just that. This implies that you mainly invest in content as opposed to an influx of pictures that leave no space for the actual content. Yes, images are just as important, so put an equal mixture of beauty and content to balance it all out. The general email guidelines here are to have 1:4 ratio in terms of images to text content.

This means that the text content in your email should be more than the pictures, four times more. It is also important to steer clear of words such as ”buy now”-this is referred to as Spam content and it doesn’t do your email any favors. Try and mix it up a little, use other appropriate words to showcase your product.

It is all advisable to put small size photos. This email guidelines is meant to reduce the overall size of your email. This seeks to decrease the bulk and make it into a favorable weight. You’re ultimately trying to engrave your brand in your subscriber’s subconscious. The key here is to avoid too much variations. Identify a template and run with it. Using it frequently will get you an edge and ultimately a seat at the table.

It is not a popular practice, but it is advisable. It is important to maintain your corporate colors. This puts a feeling of your product being a professional brand.

Check service provider email guidelines options. How does your email look in the list of different inboxes? How does, for example, yahoo compare to Hotmail? This one of the more important aspects of email design. On some level, this may also apply to cell phone applications.

Lastly, try push in some fun, a bit of humor. Your email should not be stiff. Divert from the norm, try change things around, every so often, see how it works out.

This video is part 1 of a 3 part series on creating email templates the easy way, using Photoshop and Dreamweaver. In part 1 I’ll show you how to slice a design in Photoshop, export into HTML and edit the HTML in Dreamweaver.

To stay updated on next week’s screencast, please sub­scribe by either using E-Mail, RSS Feed or follow us on Twitter.

Best Time to Send Emails

For a business to run successfully online, designing an effective marketing campaign is very important. This is the only way to reach out to target prospects and to ensure a specific marketing message is delivered within the right time for it to be effective. There are different marketing strategies that one can employ online including the use of social media. Email marketing is also a powerful marketing strategy that has been used for many years. It has proven very productive because you can easily reach out to target prospects across different parts of the globe without straining financially. However, the question that you must always ask yourself is what the best time to send emails is.
Timing is a very important aspect when it comes to email marketing campaign. The main aim of designing a marketing campaign is custom made to ensure target prospects are aware of the kind of products and services that a business has in store for them. Therefore, a message should be delivered within the right time for it to be productive. It is for this reason that a business person must find out the best time of the day to send emails to his or her target prospects and trade profitably.

Best time to send emails is between 9 am to 10 am

Research shows that the best time to send emails is between 9 am to 10 am. This is attributed to the fact that many people at this time spend more time online to check on their mails before getting started at work. It is the beginning of the day and people are receptive to offers from their friends, business partners and other subjects. This means that if there is a marketing message on their mails, they will be able to access it. Therefore, this is the best time to send your marketing mails and newsletters. During this time you can rest assured that it will reach a target prospect and get positive response.

Additionally, late afternoon is the best time to send emails, especially large volume mails. Many people at this time of the day are relaxed and take a break after a busy morning. Research shows that click rates during late afternoon hours increase although it doesn’t beat 9 to 10 am click rates. Therefore, make the most of your morning hours to send email marketing messages to target prospects so as to benefit from your marketing campaign.

In addition to make the most of your time, it is essential to be aware of schedules of your target prospects. Understand your target prospects by carrying out a research so as to know the time that most of your prospects check their mails. This will enable you to design an effective email marketing message that a target prospect can access and comprehend within the specified period of time. Your research will always provide the best time to send emails depending on the percentage revealed in your research. If a large percentage of target prospects check their mails in the morning, then it is best for you to make the most out of it so as deliver effective marketing emails.

Email Best Practices For Email Delivery

Email best practices are very important. This is because in the current world of information and technological advancement, emails have become a very important means of communication. This is because they enable people to send files with ease and faster. However, sometimes you may not know if your email was sent or not.

Sometime an email may be flagged as a Spam yet the sender may not know this. This is because they do not get a response after sending their email. This is when you may realize the benefits of email best practices. It is important to know that delivery of an email is determined by its reputation. Thus, it is not the content, which determines whether your email is delivered, or not. As such, the most important of email best practices is ensuring that you meet what your reader wants. Sending irrelevant information will have your email flagged as a Spam. This is very important if you want to have the delivery rate of your email improved.

Other email best practices include:

Be precise and concise:

Avoid attaching large files on your email. This is because many readers get bored by large files. Instead of doing this, just give detailed information about yourself, your CV or give the reader a directive of where they can get your portfolio.

Avoid nagging the reader with follow-ups:

Some people assume that just because the person they sent email to has not responded they did not receive their email. They respond to this by sending them a full email again. This should not be the case. Instead, send them a short notice wanting to find out if they received your first email. This is the best way to avoid nagging them.

Be easy to identify:

You should always ensure that your client identifies you with ease. You can achieve this by using similar name and email address. Using a different name every time you send an email will end up making your readers unable to identify you. This is one of the most important email best practices.

Be clear:

You should ensure that you are clear and direct in your message. Do not leave the audience to struggle trying to find out what you are telling them. This is because you will bore them and they will not read your message. In addition, make sure your identity is clear. This is because many audiences will not spend much of their time trying to find out who is the sender of an email. Therefore, making your identity clear is one of the email best practices.

It is important to know that emails are a very important form of primary communication. Therefore, when the recipient does not read your email, it simply means you have failed in your primary communication goal. It plays a very important role in various campaigns by companies and organisations. Therefore, ensuring that you observe email best practices is very important if you want to succeed in your campaign.

Email Marketing

There are various forms of marketing. You find different people use various ways of marketing depending on their type of product or even services. There is website marketing, which is used by many businesses for promotional purposes as well as marketing purposes. Website marketing is where you post the product on your web page. For the product to be known, customers have to log onto your website so that they can find the product. Therefore, website market is a little bit tricky where the customers come to you, rather than you going to them. For this kind of marketing, the customers have to be aware of the website so that they can log on. It is not necessarily a bad way of marketing, but there are other easier ways to do your marketing. Ways that are more direct to the customer and faster. Email marketing is one easier and faster way to do your marketing. Email marketing is the use of email in marketing the products, just as the name suggests.

Email marketing refers to any email that you send to a customer, public venue or even a potential customer generally. In email marketing, an email can be sent for various purposes. You can send a direct promotional email to try to get more customers to buy your product. The email can also be meant to persuade a customer to buy again. Some emails are meant to create a good rapport between the supplier and the customer as well. This is very important because it encourages the customer where they feel appreciated and wanted. You can also place some marketing advertisements in emails that are sent by other individuals. For you to place an advertisement in somebody else’s email, you must have a permit from that particular person. You just do not decide you can place messages in other people’s emails. There are procedures that must be followed to the letter.

Types Of Email Marketing

There are three types of email marketing that are used in this particular kind of marketing. Email marketing has proven to be very successful for those who have adopted the same.

1. Direct email

Direct email refers to an email sent for promotional purposes. It is a promotional message that is sent in the form of an email. It can also be an announcement for a certain special offer. A direct email is usually sent to the customers that you have addresses. Sometimes you can also rent addresses from other companies such that you send the message to them as well.

2. Retention emails

This is the other type of email marketing where the emails are referred to as newsletters. Unlike the promotional emails that are often meant to persuade a customer to buy something or sign up for a particular thing. Retention emails are newsletters that comprise of advertisements, which aim at creating a long lasting impact on the readers. It normally provides the readers with value, very informative and they should also be entertaining. Generally, retention emails are beneficial to the readers.

3. Advertisements in peoples email marketing campaigns

This is where you advertise in other peoples emails. You actually pay them so that they can put your advertisement in their emails. There are emails that are created for this purpose and so it is easy to find them.

Email Signatures — Tips for Creating Outstanding Templates

An email signature is a block text that is attached at the end of an email that you will send to a client or a friend. They are mainly used to allow people to know you better and also learn how they can contact you easily. Thus they entail your name, email address, business contact details and even website URL. You can also use it to sign off an email message with a closing funny quote or any other message.

Email signatures are very easy and simple to do but some people experience some problems when it comes to creating the one; the end result is always very poor and unappealing. Therefore, if you want your signature tor represent your good reputation and personality there are certain tips that you should put into consideration and you will be able to create a tasteful email signature that will definitely please and attract the recipients. These tips include the following.

Email Signature Check-list

Be precise and concise

First and foremost, you should make sure that your signature is as short as possible, as you just want the receiver to know more about you and how he or she can easily reach you. Thus, you should not make it too long as it will long boring and unprofessional. You should also make sure that you include your name, your company and position and most importantly, you should make sure that you include how an interested person can get in touch with you. However, avoid unnecessary details like URL of personal website, random quotes, home address or your whole CV and other achievements.

Check the rules

When you are framing your email signatures, you should ensure that you get as concise as you would like to be but you should follow the rules. Depending on the state you are writing from, there are rules that you should follow when putting your items in your email signature. For instance there are states that require one to include company number, address of registration and VAT number if any. Hence, if you if ignore these rules, you may even get fined.

Images and the logos

When you are working on your email signatures, you should also ensure that you work on the logos and the image of your company. When you decide to include an image, you should make sure that you take care and pay much attention. You should make them small in size and also in dimension hence they should fit with the rest of signature. The best method to make use of is to host the image on a server and use the URL to insert the logo on the signature.

Show your personality

You should not be afraid to show your personality. You should truly feel free to make you email signatures stand out in the market; hence, you should avoid anything that will make them look boring. You can employ creative ideas or even your personal feelings. For instance, you can use greeting or add a cheeky key. Hence, the key to successful and interesting email signatures is to balance personal data and contact details and you will enjoy the benefits.

Learn How To Choose Email Templates

There are many designs of email templates available for use today. As such, you may find choosing the best email template that suits your audience difficult. Make sure that the template you choose plays a role in helping you convey your main message. For instance, if you want a template for a kid’s blog, there is no need to choose a template that has political figures. Thus, you will have to consider several factors before choosing your email templates.

Factors to consider when choosing an email template

l . The duration when the template will work for you

Email templates in most cases work for long. This is because they are a foundation for all email newsletters. Therefore, it is important to choose a template that you can use consistently. It is also important to ensure that you choose a template that you can augment with time. Not something that you have to keep changing every now and then.

2.  Usability

You need to consider how people read their mails today. People are reading their emails through coffee shops, laptops, desktops, Smartphones, tablets, among others. With all these options, it is important to ensure that the email template that you choose is compatible in terms of looking good in all of these platforms. It is advisable to choose different email templates and try them with some of these devices before settling on one.

3.  Media

Email marketing has become very common today due to its ability to suit different media. When choosing email templates for your marketing campaign, go for the ones which will enable you to show the audience different aspects of your business or company. This should be a template, which will let you add videos and photos.

4.  Consistency

Regardless of the template you choose, make sure that it is consistent with your website. Finding email templates, which look like websites is not easy. However, make sure that you go for something that is close to the appearance of your website. This is very important because the more a newsletter of a company appears like a website, the more a business appears professional.

5.  Options

It is true that email templates should last long and remain consistent. However, they should allow the user to change a few features here and there. As such, the template should allow the user the option of adding photos and artwork. The template should enable you add photos of an occasion held at your company or business. This will allow the audience time to pose and enjoy a view of these photos before they continue reading.

Choosing email templates is a challenging task to many people. This is because the task requires one to put themselves in the shoes of the reader. Consider what can be appealing to them and what they would like to see. Once you capture the attention of your reader and know what appeals to them you will be able to choose the right email template. Having the right email templates has helped many companies accomplish their email marketing campaigns successfully.

Download Email Templates Below

Here are the best professional email template examples to purchase from ThemeForest for as low as $10!. Every template has been thoroughly tested in the most popular email clients like Outlook 2010, Gmail, Lotus Notes, Apple Mail, the iPhone, and more.

1. Pattisserié Newsletter

An e-mail template for cafés, restaurants, etc.

2. Photographer Newsletter Template

You are a Photographer and you are looking for a clean and efficient way to show your latests projects to your subscribers? This newsletter is ideal for the task, but you can also use it for any kind of business or service, your email marketing campaigns, event invitation or periodical news.

3. i-Elegant Newsletter

–Elegant is clean, multi usage, and elegant newsletter solution.

4. Product Offers

Product Offers Newsletter is an elegant, customizable, clean and ready to use 4 newsletter templates in blue, white, red and blue gray look.

5. Platnum Email Template

Platnum is a modern and stylish newsletter template, suited for any business that wants a solid newsletter.

6. Versatile Email Template

Versatile Newsletter 1 is a collection of 7 versatile html email templates.

7. Airmail

Airmail is a professionally built and designed custom HTML email template!

8. Rich Typography Template

RichType is a bold, clean, and ultra customizable email template. It’s perfect for a wide variety of uses, from corporate newsletters to product advertisers.

9. iNewsletter

iNewsletter email template for web development / software companies that want to give their clients an update on their new products and latest news.

10. Modern Business

Modern Business 4 is a professional HTML email newsletter template. If you need a vibrant, strong and clean looking solution for your email campaigns to promote your latest product or service, this is the solution for you.

To stay updated on the latest email templates, please sub­scribe by either using E-Mail, RSS Feed or follow us on Twitter.

Email Signature Templates

A signature reflects your personality, provides details / information about the sender, sets the tone for the conversation. Granted there are very few people who actually pay attention to their signature but did your know that this tiny bit of your correspondence can affect the tone of address? Below are reasons why e-mail signature templates are to be treated with more than a cursory glance and how to go about saluting them.

Email signature templates like business letterheads are to be treated with the seriousness they deserve. This is because they spell seriousness and inject some officiousness to the venture that you are proposing. An e mail signature template such as beautifulemails@hotmail.com might be shunted aside as spam mail; compared this with beautifulemails@hotmail.com. The latter has an official ring to it and may alert the recipient that the guy on the other end may be the engineering guy who wants to get in touch with the client.

The main purpose of email signature templates is to let people know who they are dealing with and consequently how to get in touch with them. A respectable e-mail signature template should include the following: Your name, the company that is being presented, the post of the official in the conversation, all of which should ideally be captured in about 2 or 3 lines with a maximum of 72 characters on each line.

Keep in mind that in some states there are some legal ground rules that essentially capture what an email signature template should contain. This includes the address of the company, the registration no. of that company, and the VAT no if any. Excluding this information could result in legal penalties.

Email signature templates have a certain degree of etiquette that is attached to them, these may include the following ground rules: Do not under any circumstances include random quotes at the bottom. Personal details, your skill sets, images and logos are to be excluded from the e mail signatures. Random quotes may leave a bad taste in the mouth of those who you are trying to address, as for personal details they are just that personal– keep them that way, and as far as images and logos are concerned. They have the effect of increasing the file size and spell a lack of seriousness in as far as the business world is concerned.

If it is possible steer away from HTML formatting that may have diverse issues in so far as dealing with different e-mail clients. Although HTML formatting is supposed to support different e mail clients, the problems that may arise from this formatting have to do with issues of the formatting nature, therefore ensure that text looks good in plain text, use black standard size fonts whilst avoiding the multi colored options, and check to ensure that it wraps around texts correctly.

After all the above rules, remember that that proper email signature templates are a balance between maintaining personal details and contact details.

To stay updated on future template releases, please sub­scribe by either using E-Mail, RSS Feed or follow us on Twitter.

Download Email Signature Template

Newsletters are the most effective way to attract visitors to your product or website, you must have a well-designed newsletter to attract your subscribers. In this post I have compiled a series of well designed beautiful email template designs.

Hybrid Fitness

Marketspace

Studio Mail

Sprowt

Schaffer’s

Give Blood

Mintfest

Alma

Harley Davidson

Hard Craft

To stay updated on next week’s email designs, please sub­scribe by either using E-Mail, RSS Feed or follow us on Twitter.