Bronto Blog

Eventful Inbox: Loyalty, Launches, an Apology + Everything Else

Jim Davidson — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Sorry... I dozed off for a moment... The inbox has been a bit of a snooze-fest lately. Few brands have been pushing creative or promotional boundaries during the past month. This month, rather than recycling examples like "20% Off + Free Shipping," I will highlight campaigns that were targeted to collect additional information from subscribers, apologize for mistakes and get subscribers to sign up (or pay) for loyalty programs.

What Does Google Glass Mean For Email Marketers?

Anna Pfeiffer — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

If you haven’t heard of Google Glass, check out the “What It Does” page on the Google website. To summarize, Glass is a pair of, well... glasses. But without lenses. And with a small screen in the upper corner.

The screen projects in front of you, layered with transparency over what you’re seeing around you. Although the screen itself is tiny, the projected image is scaled so that it looks like a 25 inch screen from 8 feet away. It’s pretty hard to describe what it looks like when you’re wearing them but the great folks over at Mashable have put together a gallery of Glass POV pictures, like the example below:

Auto Opt-In Subscribers: An Email Deliverability Debate

Chris Kolbenschlag — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Last week I purchased some cycling clothing from an online retailer and all was well until I started to receive marketing emails from them. While I did make a purchase, I did not sign up for marketing newsletters. It was also not clear that by making a purchase I would receive messages. Is it okay to send messages to individuals who didn't explicitly opt-in? Let's take a look at this scenario and how it can affect deliverability.

Some might say that since I entered into a business relationship by making a purchase, adding my information to their list is a logical next step. But did they explicitly ask my permission? No. Did they tell me I would be added to their list? No. Right off the bat, we're starting the relationship with some issues. Let's debate both sides of this story:

Optimize Your Email Sign-Up to Grow Your List Organically

Caroline Smith Riddle — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Bronto's Director of Marketing Services, Kristen Gregory, recently sat down to address "Ways to Optimize Your Email Sign-Up to Organically Grow Your List" in this short video. Listen as Kristen talks about four powerful tips that have been proven to help grow list size.

Acquire Subscribers, Expand Marketing Reach & Drive Revenue through Refer-a-Friend

Emily Keye — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Why should you implement a refer-a-friend campaign?

An established refer-a-friend program will enable your business to expand its marketing reach, grow your contact list and, ideally, generate more revenue. Done correctly, a refer-a-friend program can do all of this while maintaining a permission-based email marketing approach.

Keep in mind that the quality of your list plays the BIGGEST part in the success of your email marketing program! Let's be very clear: just because someone gives you the email address of their friend does not mean you have permission to email them whenever you want, as often as you like. You must have permission from the friend himself! If you have any concerns about deliverability from a refer-a-friend program, be sure to check out Chris Kolbenschlag's post Refer-a-Friend: Protect Your Deliverability.

Refer-a-Friend campaigns can also fall under the “Lifecycle Marketing” umbrella. It may make sense to include an automated refer-a-friend campaign in your post-purchase series and send X days after a new customer makes a purchase. I’ve even seen refer-a-friend campaigns included in a welcome series. Automation at the appropriate time could be very beneficial and testing will need to be performed in order to find the best time for sending.

There are several “parts” to a refer-a-friend campaign:

Remailing: How Often Should I Send?

Kestrel Lemen — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

At Bronto we've seen clients have great success with remailing, so much so that this regargeting tactic has been compared to "printing money." Recently Bronto Marketing Strategist Kellie Boggs wrote a blog post on remailing that outlines some great tips.

7 Tips for Browsing Behavior Trigger Messages

Fawn Young — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Abandon cart emails are great, they are triggered once someone has already started the buying process, placed something in their cart, then left your site . What if you could get ahead of that behavior and send messages triggered on where they browsed on your site? Guess what...you can!

I haven’t seen these messages a ton, but I have seen them here and there and my guess is we’ll start seeing them more and more going forward as marketers try to think of new ways to drive revenue.

Before you start any campaign of this sort you will need to be sure that the contact has previously opted in to receive promotional messages from you. Assuming that has taken place, I’ve come up with a list of 7 things you will want to keep in mind as you are creating this type of triggered message.

April Eventful Inbox: Summer Emails Start Sizzling

Jim Davidson — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Spring promotions have peaked and summer is burning up the inbox! There aren't many major holidays to hang your promotional hat on until Memorial Day so how are marketers going to keep the inbox interesting and subscribers buying? Let's look at a few seasonal trends from late March through mid-April.

A VIP Program of One: Rewarding Customers & Driving Revenue

Greg Zakowicz — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Two customers are standing next to each other (stop me if you’ve heard this one). Let’s say you have $20 in services/products and you can anonymously give it to one of them. Which person would you give it to? Umm, the person to the left!? Now imagine the person standing to the left has never bought anything from you, and the person to the right has bought from you 4 times in the past 6 months. Now who would you secretly give the money to?

As you all know this is the basic premise of a VIP program; treat your best customers like they are your best customers. But let’s face it, VIP programs can be difficult to create and manage. Just because they can be difficult to manage doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to target your best customers differently. Let’s talk about one easy way to start doing this. We can do this together, but first you’ll need a few things:

Know Your Customer! 4 Methods to Drive Revenue Based on Purchase History

Anna Pfeiffer — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Keeping a customer can be just as much of a challenge as gaining one, if not more! Take advantage of what you know about your customers by using past purchase history to create targeted, extremely relevant messages. Providing the right information at the right time is essential. Tapping into invaluable order data is the first step. But where do you start in terms of determining content and messaging? Take a look at these four strategies for some great post-purchase inspiration.