Turn GrayMail into ‘Make my Day’ Mail Two months ago, Hotmail announced the addition of new email controls that will give users greater ability to regulate the influx of marketing messages they receive. The new features will address the problem of “graymail,” the messages a user did at one time subscribe to but which now no longer engage his attention. Newsletters, Groupon-style... [Read more]
Why do people sign up to receive emails from you? Because they will get something in return. It might be information via a newsletter, or advance notices of events. Most likely it’s special pricing and offers. In most cases for most businesses, offering exclusive discounts and promotions to email subscribers is an effective way to encourage those subscriptions. And sometimes that discount is all... [Read more]
On Sept. 14th 2010 we had the pleasure of welcoming email marketing metrics Jedi Luke Glasner of Glasner Consulting to eMail Radio. It was a fantastic show which has gotten raves from those lucky enough to catch it live! If you missed it, you can check the podcast out here! We asked Luke about his five favourite metrics and he’s obliged with this post. There are many metrics worth tracking in... [Read more]
If you’ve got customers that have never left you for another competitor, good for you! But I don’t believe you. It happens to the very best of businesses. Business should always be focused on getting new customers, but winning back customers from days gone by could be very beneficial (and cheap!) for your business. The first thing you need to do is assess your customer’s behavior.... [Read more]
Landing Page Headlines and Calls-to-Action: 10 Great Tips from @mktgexperiments Dr. Flint McGlaughlin and his good buddies at Marketing Experiments by MECLABS recently held a rockin’ web clinic on optimizing the areas of your website that have a significant impact on conversions. In Minor Changes, Major Lifts, these esteemed gurus of research share vital information about the two most critical... [Read more]
Social Sharing Can Cause Exponential List Growth “Shares well with others.” Remember that phrase from your early school days? The concept may well be elementary, but the practice also applies to good marketing behavior. If you’re designing your emails to include social share icons and links, consider the following. Your company’s social network may include Facebook, Twitter,... [Read more]
Before you test, track! It’s easy for an email marketer to develop and embark upon a comprehensive test plan before they even have a baseline—especially across their segments. For example, when it comes to testing subject lines, most email marketers simply do an A/B split across their entire database and use the open rate to determine the winner. The findings, if any, may or may not be applied... [Read more]
Email Newsletter Image blocking: Why It Sucks and How to Rise Above It A staggering 2 out of 3 email users have images turned off in their inbox by default (MarketingSherpa 2010). This makes image blocking a serious issue for email marketers. Particularly when you consider all the time, effort and money that goes into designing a beautiful, compelling email. Take this email design, for example. It’s... [Read more]
Email Marketing: Just What the Doctor Ordered Over the past ten years I have worked with a myriad of healthcare providers, as well as individual family doctors, helping them with their email marketing. Like most email marketing, we always suggest strongly to segment and offer content based on the individual recipients’ wants and needs. When these rules are followed, along with personalization,... [Read more]
Contests remain one of the best ways to grab your customers’ attention and to encourage them to sign up for your email newsletter. But it’s also true that a poorly run contest can leave a sour taste in the customer’s mouth, resulting in lost opportunities. So how do you create an email contest that will build your subscriber list and create happy customers at the same time? Plan Your Contest... [Read more]
In the run up to the Oscars, lunch-time conversations in the ividence office featured our own Academy Award predictions. It occurred to me that there’s a lot that email marketing can learn from the movies. Hollywood has long worked to master the art of setting theatergoers’ expectations before a movie’s release. Following the same strategy can help email marketers to set expectations before... [Read more]
Learn what is Pinterst and how does it apply to email marketing. Much to everyone’s surprise, at the turn of 2012 the runaway-hit social networking site wasn’t Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. It was in fact Pinterest, the latest social media craze that seems to have captured everyone’s attention. Pinterest is essentially a graphic social bookmarking network. It has quickly shot into the top 10... [Read more]
How to improve the body copy of an email marketing message by Kenny Van Beeck The email body is certainly the most important element of your email campaign. It is this space that will determine the final effectives of your campaign. The email body is all about relevance – bringing the right message to the right person at the right moment and in the right tone of voice. Remember the 5-30 rule.... [Read more]
Speaking with new and current publisher clients at ividence, one of the most common concerns we hear is, “How will this affect how subscribers view my company?” This is a great question, and we love to hear it! We wanted to give this topic some attention on our blog, Hitting the Target. Publishers who ask this understand both the value of email marketing and the importance of respecting subscribers.... [Read more]
The figures in the latest Australia Email Marketing Metrics Report showed that average email open rates for the first half of 2011 are 22.47%. While metrics reports are good indicators and provide benchmarks, it is important that your benchmarks are based on the performance of your own email campaigns. If your email open rates are on the decline, then it’s a sign you are losing the attention of... [Read more]
One of the first steps in purchasing a new software system is buyer education. When it comes to marketing software, there is some confusion between email marketing and marketing automation software. Many buyers see the two as synonymous, but in reality, the systems are very different, with a varied feature set designed for different types of buyers. First, let’s just break down the features: From... [Read more]
Over the holiday season, I used my mobile phone more often than usual for a variety of tasks: checking email and Facebook, shopping online, browsing the internet. Being stuck in a car for 10 hours and away from your office for over a week necessitates some creativity when it comes to staying connected. Because I was stuck using my mobile device almost exclusively for these tasks, I became more aware... [Read more]
10 Sure-Fire Ways to Optimize Your Email Marketing for Lead Generation by Sarah Goliger @sarahbethgo
Email marketing is a critical component of a strong lead generation strategy, and lies at the very core of lead nurturing. But with all the messages that are inevitably piling up in your leads’ inboxes, how can you make yours stand out from the crowd? Here are 10 ways you can increase the likelihood that your prospects and leads will open, read, and take action from your emails. 1. Better segment... [Read more]
Are you looking to increase your opt-in email subscribers list? After hearing so many positive comments about lightboxes or pop-ups we decided that we would test one. We chose PopUp Domination since it came highly recommended to us. It has great features and supports most mailing list services – including AWeber, iContact, GetResponse, MailChimp, and Constant Contact. We plugged ours into ExactTarget. This... [Read more]
