‘Email Marketing’ Articles

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Today, consumers are using mobile devices more than ever. Since you’ve been reading most people have done something on their mobile device, either sent a text message, surfed the Internet, or checked their email. With such a large and captive audience, a big question arises; is your business addressing the needs of your mobile customers? There are many simple things you can do

to make your emails more mobile-friendly, that is, make it look better on your recipient’s mobile devices. Here are a few rules to consider when creating your emails, if you have recipients who might be reading emails on their mobile devices.

1. Don’t Make them Download the Rest of Message – Your message might get truncated if it is too big. A large file size may cause your recipient to be prompted to “download the rest of the message”. Consumers are wary of downloading messages and frankly its just a hassle, so avoid large emails or you are running the risk of them not seeing your entire message or worse, deleting it.

2. Don’t Make them Scroll – You will want to avoid having your recipient do a lot of scrolling. Attention spans are limited, especially when dealing with mobile devices. Make sure your key takeaways don’t get buried at the bottom of your message.

3. Let them Know Who You Are – Make sure you include your logo at the top of email so you’re recognized immediately. If you are a trusted brand your logo will give your message a better chance of being read. At the very least, even if the customers only glaces at your message, with your logo and name at the top, you’ll have been exposed.

4. Click To View in a Browser – You’ll want to have a link for them to click to view your message in a browser, however you might think about putting it somewhere other than at the very top of your email. Many mobile devices display the beginning of the email in the inbox so your recipients can decide if they want to click to the entire email or not. Including the link text, to view in a browser, might take up some valuable, attention grabbing, space.

5. Make Your Email Lose Weight! – Smaller devices, smaller screens, the next step to making email suitable for phones? Smaller emails. Make your emails 500-600 pixels wide.  The Admail.net Advantage Template labeled “White-Paper” is preset to 500 pixels already.

6. Let Them Call You – Include a click-to-call link if possible. The easier you make it for your recipient to contact you, the better.

7. Text Version is a Must – Make sure you have a text version of your emails in the event that your mobile recipients can only get text. Make sure you keep it short. Since emails usually have line breaks at about 60 characters and mobile devices 20 characters, you’ll want to cut back on some of your copy and direct them for more information to your website.

You want to reach all of your customers and checking email on mobile devices is only become more predominate, so follow some basic mobile guidelines and your email marketing campaign will be accessible to all of your clients, no matter how they check their inbox.

Admail’s Accu Trak delivers key information to help you determine what is or isn’t working in your campaigns. Recently I attended the Marketing Sherpa Annual Conference, during one session the presenter said: While vast amounts of information and tracking that information are available, sometimes you have to ask yourself “Do I really need it?”. Clients many times want to track every minute detail to the moment of yes, Analytic Paralysis. Just because you can think of it does not always mean you can use it. Sometimes it really boils down to having a better understanding of what is in front of you.

A prime example of this is, another seminar I recently attended with an “E-mail Marketing expert” told the audience that email marketing was getting tougher because one; Open Rates where falling and two; excess junk in recipients inboxes.

Let’s cover open rates first. The fact open rates are falling isn’t that email marketing is not working it is that the technology has changed. In 2005 Microsoft began blocking Images by default and other email software makers have since followed suit. Many of you I am sure have noticed the Load Images buttons on your email browser or, the “Problems viewing this page click here” link in email header’s.

Opens historically have been tracked by an embedded 1×1 pixel image in HTML emails. What this meant was, once an email was touched upon in a preview window or opened briefly by the recipient – a message was sent back to the sender that the email had been “Opened or Viewed” – but not necessarily read. Therefore as users migrated to the new email client software opens appeared to be  dropping. Which isn’t all bad! What it does mean is that you are now seeing a truer picture, of who is actually reading your emails. Many times people view this as a delivery issue or their email program has become ineffective which isn’t the case!

Before you throw the baby out with the bath water take a look at your click through these are true readers and they moved from the body of your email to your web site for more information.

If you really want to drill down on your ROI either use the Click Through email address to match back on your transactions or upgrade to the Admail.net Custom Fields to pass a campaign Source Code to your shopping cart, you can even tie it into your Google Analytics. But, don’t forget to ask yourself do I really need it or what am I going to do with the number once I have it. Order more widgets?

Information overload can bog you down – if sales are off over analyzing it won’t fix the problem – but a fresh approach can. I have been involved in target marketing for close to thirty years and one thing is for certain what Works – Works! I repeatedly see people and businesses get myriad in statistics that some Guru recommended.  For decades Mutual Funds and Wall Street Analysts have used the disclaimer “Past performance is not a guarantee of future results”. Don’t become a victim of Analytic Paralysis!

The second point, “excessive junk mail” you have a perfect leg up with Admail.net our robust delivery system provides you the perfect options. Send your email during the day or early evening if you are marketing to consumers. If you are working across different time zones use the Interest Groups to break out your members by time zones or use Target Filters to break up your list member by State. For tips and information visit our FAQ section on Email and Spam Blockers.

A Feed Back Loop (FBL) is a direct data feed that is sent to an email sender when the recipient presses the “Junk” or “Spam” button. The benefit is that the email sender can clean their subscriber data, allowing them to maintain their reputation with Internet Service Providers.

What triggers (flags) cause ISPs to block your email? Sometimes it’s a dirty list containing non-deliverable addresses. Other times it’s the ratio of spam complaints from that domain, which can include false positives.

Here are the grades for ISP’s where legitimate messages were flagged and determined to be false positives: Yahoo! gets an A, Hotmail B, AOL C, and Gmail scores the lowest with a D.

Some techniques to avoid false positives are:

• Don’t use words, terms, or phrases in the subject line or message that trigger spam filters
• Understand domain-specific user interfaces to request address book entry. Here are some examples.
• Manage list hygiene to ensure messages are not sent to unknown domains. (Admail.net’s system catches these and purges from your list member file)

As always–be aware of your list.

I waited with anticipation for the DM News 2007 Essential Guide to E-Mail Marketing and they did not disappoint. The guide is packed with advice from industry experts and you’ll find many articles on effective practices for reaching the consumer’s inbox–beginning with building your list, relevancy of your message, targeting consumers, your creative, higher conversion rates, and much more. All this and in time for the holiday email campaigns! You can download the guide as a PDF file right here.

Do you utilize Admail.net’s sign-up form? If not, you’re losing a great opportunity! Our sign-up form will automatically add list members to your database, while gathering pertinent information about your list members’ wants, needs and preferences.

How do you create a sign-up form that you can put on your website? Visit Sign-up Form under List Builder. This page will present you with a few things to consider before you add the sign-up form to your site.

The List Member Profile allows you to define the information you need about your list members. Check the Display box and that field shows up on your sign-up form. Check the Required box and your sign-up form will force the list member to complete that field.

Interest Groups give every list member the opportunity to select their own interests. Any Interest Group that is not flagged as ‘hidden’ will show up on your sign-up form.

Sidenote: Use profile information and interests in subsequent mailings and you’ll get better campaign results. Personalized information is great for list segmentation and targeted mailings. Targeted mailings don’t cost any more to send than a blast; a little preparation and you’re guaranteed better response rates and you’ll reduce recipient burnout.

If you have an Advantage plan or have purchased the Custom Sign-up Form feature, you can make your sign-up form look like your website. Be sure to preview your sign-up form before you go live.

Lastly, add the form to your website. Do this by following the link to “Add Sign-Up Form to Your Site” and answering a few questions. Copy the code into your site and you’re on your way to using a valuable tool to help build your business.

What happens after a new user signs up can set the tone for good customer relations. Since your key communications will be sent to your list members exclusively through email, it is very important to create a good initial experience. To help with this, Admail.net has an automated Welcome email. Visit List Builder, Sign-Up Form and scroll down to “Set up your Welcome email.”

It’s good business sense to acknowledge when someone signs up by sending a welcome email. It confirms your presence by telling the customer “Yes, we’re out here and we appreciate your interest in our company, product or service.” It is simple to set up automated emails that say, “Thanks for signing up; we look forward to sending you great stuff”. Then, send something of value immediately, like your latest newsletter or your current promotional offer.

When you send a welcome message you have another opportunity to ask the recipient to add you to their address book or contact list. When recipients add you to their approved senders list it increases your in-box deliverability rates. Here’s a good example of a welcome message:

Subject: Sign-up Confirmation

Thank you for your interest. To ensure future delivery of this email please add us to your address book.

*Windows users right click on the From address, then select “Add to Address Book.”

*Mac users hold down the control key, click on the From address, then select “Open in Address Book.”

*Yahoo users click on the “Add” icon

*Hotmail users click on “Save Address”

Thanks again,

Using Admail.net’s sign-up form, along with an email welcome message, is an effective marketing technique you can implement with very little effort. Over time, it will drive significant repeat traffic and create substantial sales potential.

Benefits of using Admail.net’s Sign-up Form

• Automatically adds each person who signed up to your list member data base.
• Better campaign results and list hygiene. We check every email address for all the things that can make for an invalid email address.
• Gather pertinent information about your list members’ wants, needs and preferences.
• Send segmented and targeted campaigns using the information you gather. How effective is sending the same email to everyone?
• Mirror the look and feel of your web site. You can customize Admail.net’s sign-up form to look like your website.
• Guarantee continued delivery to your list members. At the bottom of the sign-up survey form we ask your members to add you to their safe senders list, along with instructions.

Benefits of Using a Welcome Email

• Build good customer relations
• Thank the list member for their interest
• Opportunity to remind your list member to add you to their address book or approved contact list

How to instruct your list members to add your Admail.net sending address to their known sender list.

Want more info to ensure delivery to your members’ inbox?