Focusing on Mobile Statistics show that in only a few years, more people will open email on mobile devices than desktop or laptop computers. According to most reports, 42% of email is currently read on a mobile device. Mobile email is the most important way that email is evolving and one of the main reasons why it is more relevant today than ever. One thing is abundantly clear, in... [Read more]
By: MailerMailer Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned designer, choosing an email color scheme can be tough. To begin, you’ll want to choose colors from your branding — specifically your logo and website. You’ll need about five to seven colors to use for your email color scheme. Colors are needed for the background, headings, sidebar, header, footer, text, and... [Read more]
By: ClickMail Recently a client asked us if “click-able” graphics and buttons should be avoided in his email marketing. This client worries that email click-through rates are harmed because important content in graphics are not visible. He asked if our other clients avoid images and make all buttons as text-in-tables. The big answer to his question is, of course, it depends. It... [Read more]
By: Trendline Interactive We have been pretty busy at Trendline these days. In addition to being super busy with our awesome clients, we have managed to sign up for some great email programs just to see how they handle things. As I watched the welcome emails and first few interactions with these companies, there was one disturbing trend that I started to see amongst companies who... [Read more]
By: Email Standards Project As most of you know, our motivation for starting the Email Standards Project two years ago came from the release of Outlook 2007. Specifically, because of Microsoft’s decision to avoid using a browser to render HTML emails in place of a word processor. This immediately took standards-based email design off the table, forcing designers to abandon web standards... [Read more]
By: Business 2 Community Last month we covered a bunch of tips that will transform your email marketing campaign into a thing of beauty like content planning, a killer subject line, and engaging body copy. So now let’s talk about a few few common pitfalls to avoid. This is like the What Not to Wear of email marketing, only we’re nicer than Stacy and Clinton, and we won’t make... [Read more]
Email Marketers can learn from Heat Map Analysis! The success of your email marketing campaign depends on putting the right information in front of your subscribers using the right format in order to solicit engagement. And while mainstream testing plays an essential role in determining what form that information should take, there’s another option you should consider, one that... [Read more]
By: Business 2 Community Design in email copy is one of the most understated, but highly appreciated aspects of email marketing. At a time when inboxes are cluttered, if you want your messages to get opened and read, they must stand out from the crowd. Here are some ideas to keep in mind to be the eye candy of the inbox. Personalization. Whether you require a name with your opt-in... [Read more]
By: ExactTarget We’ve all heard the real estate mantra: Location, Location, Location. If your store is not located in a prime spot, you can expect to fare worse than your competitor who is located on the busiest intersection in town. The same principle holds true in the digital realm. Like the location factor in physical real estate, it’s a must for marketers and merchandisers... [Read more]
By: Business 2 Community Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday are just days away, and the intense weeks of holiday shopping and spending still to come, makes email marketing a must. Our customer email data shows that email send volume increased by 10% from October to November, 2011 – not surprising, considering the major opportunity! So how can you make your... [Read more]
By: Magill Report With the holidays fast approaching, many email marketers are gearing up for the busiest time of year. Even though time and budget may be tight, email testing needs to be a part of your email marketing plans. Without testing, marketers can be leaving a great deal of money on the table. However, a poorly implemented testing program can actually be detrimental to your... [Read more]
By: Litmus There has been a steady increase in mobile opens — 123% in 18 months — and the majority of these opens are being made on iOS (80.34%) and Android (18.93%) devices. Even taking image blocking into account, it’s undeniable that opens on smartphones are rising rapidly. Our September 2012 email client market sharestats show that more emails are opened on an Apple... [Read more]
By: Pure360 …Episode II – Attack of the Clues Following on from ‘Episode I – The Email Menace’, is the second batch of HTML tips for writing cross-client compatible emails, helping you write better email HTML. 6. Don’t stack tables ‘Stacked tables’ is a term for when you have made a table of content, closed it and then opened a new table underneath for... [Read more]
By: Pure360 …Episode 1 – The Email Menace HTML for email is much like finding a time machine, hopping inside, pressing the big red button that says “DO NOT PRESS” and finding yourself back in the middle of the Oasis vs Blur Brit Rock years… *shudder*. The Internet as a whole has progressed, and the techniques for writing websites has really leapt forward in... [Read more]
By: ExactTarget As the Black Friday/Cyber Monday kickoff to the holiday season approaches, we’re happy to offer some tips to help seasonal senders hit the inbox. In Part 1 of this series, we took a look at the unique challenges facing seasonal senders. In today’s post and Part 3 (coming soon), we’ll offer guidelines for a successful sending season. Create a consistent sending... [Read more]
By: Business 2 Community As a graphic designer, converting your design from PSD to HTML, is necessary to the job you do. However, as basic as this task is, most people find it to be the most challenging one. There are many software that make this task easy for you but this conversion could make or break your entire hard work. Hence, you should take a lot of when choosing the right... [Read more]
By: VerticalResponse My team and I produce a lot of content for VerticalResponse. In doing so, I also edit a ton of copy. Sometimes after reading the same content for what seems like the millionth time, I have a “Eureka!” moment. In these moments, copy that I have read and re-read, or wrote and rewrote, takes on a new perspective, or I see it though a different filter and everything... [Read more]
By: Litmus The infamous question — why don’t all email clients render emails the same? To answer this complicated question, we’re going to split it up into sections — the mail server, the preprocessor and the rendering engine —which all play a role in how the email is rendered. THE MAIL SERVER Each email client has to get the email somehow and while this step typically doesn’t... [Read more]
By: Return Path Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in the DMA’s Post-Conference Email Marketing Certification course. My session was on email testing and one sections of the training focused on the steps necessary for setting up of culture of testing in an organization. While there are many things that need to be done to ensure your email testing program is set up... [Read more]
By: Net Tuts Even for experience designers, building email newsletters isn’t easy. You receive a lovely looking design, and you crack on with the development. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work as it should in every email clients. Styles don’t display, images aren’t visible, etc. This is where these twenty best practices come in handy. 1: Keep the Design Simple Emails are... [Read more]
