Is it a knockout or a points decision?
Last year Mark Zuckerberg spoke out against email marketing claiming that in the future, email will be replaced by message-based services such as Facebook. While it’s true that we now have more choice when it comes to our preferred method of communication, this doesn’t mean that email no longer has a place. In fact, research has shown that the use of email in our marketing and CRM activities has grown significantly over the past few years. And let’s not forget that in order to sign up to Facebook you still need an email address.
According to a report produced by Royal Pingdom, Internet 2011 in numbers, there were more than 2.2bn email users in 2011 and 3.4bn email accounts, this figure growing by 500m. According to Radicati, this number is expected to grow to 4.1bn by the end of 2015.
There is always a tendency…
An interesting compilation for email marketers working in B2C, B2B, Event, Charity or Ecommerce marketing
All email marketers like to know how their open and click rates compare, although it's really the conversion rates and value generated per email that's important (and more difficult to measure).
Here's a great piece of new research from email service provider Adestra that dissects engagement with email across sectors that I thought was worth summarising here. I'd recommend downloading a copy of the full report if you work in email marketing, lots of "food for thought".
Which subject line length works best?
The report starts by looking at engagement with the email based on length. The research, based on nearly a billion emails shows that short or long tend to work best.
Less than…
How to cope with unexpected opportunities and problems
I'm part-way through "The Black Swan", where the author explores the "impact of the highly improbable".
There are lots of uplifting messages about our ignorance, wilful self-delusion and inability to make any meaningful predictions about the future.
Anyway, it got me thinking about the related topics of complexity, the unexpected and the unpredictable in email campaigns.
The main problem with dealing with the unexpected (apart from the obvious one*) is the issue of timing. When something goes wrong that needs corrective action, then that action typically needs to be taken fast.
Equally, the quicker you react to an unexpected opportunity, the better you can exploit it.
This need for fast action often conflicts with the reality of campaign planning and execution in email marketing, which can take days, weeks, even months, depending on your organizational setup and…
4 methods plus examples of integrating email and social media marketing
Integrating your email and social media initiatives can boost email revenue by as much as 400 percent according to industry studies, and the latest research continues to show that email and social can work together for the benefit of both. So how do you effectively link email and social together?
Here are a few statistics that show the benefits from integrating email and social media marketing.
Evangelists spend 13% more than the average customer and refer business equal to 45% of the money they spend
On average a Facebook fan spends $71.84 more than a non-fan
Of Facebook users who “like” at least one brand, 17% say they are more likely to buy after “liking.”
The percentage of active social media users across ALL age groups is growing year on year
So if social evangelists spend more than your average customer and then help refer business…
10 mistakes to prevent using an Email pre-flight checklist
In my 10 years plus in email marketing I have been involved in sending hundreds of e-mailings and reviewing just as many in my consulting and training courses. Does everybody make mistakes? Yes. Can you make less if you check and double check? Yes.
It is good practice to always have a checklist "to hand" when sending an email campaign. I'm guessing you have one, at least an informal one? If you don't have one or want to see how complete your checklist is, try my helpful PDF with a 51 point email marketing checklist.
To give you a flavour, let me give you some real life examples of impactful email marketing mistakes we avoided because we did a last minute check. Here are 10 of most worst email marketing mistakes we prevented just at the last moment...
Very embarrassing spelling errors (don’t ask).
Picture of…
London 2012 template shows Enewsletters don't have to be boring
While this email template didn't entertain me as much as Danny Boyle's opening ceremony I thought I'd share it as an example of "state-of-the-art" email marketing.
It shows all these features well:
Dynamic content insertion for relevant events/images for days based on location
Multi-column design style
Accessibility and mobile support through text version
Simple social media integration
It also ticks many of the boxes in a previous post giving other Enewsletter examples and a 24 point creative checklist.
Maybe something to show your agency when you're next briefing them - it shows a style that could work for both B2C and B2B email templates.
I'm not sure who's behind it, but I was discussing it with Tim Watson and he though from eDialog. Not sure how. Tim?…
Enewsletters are still the main online direct to customer communications tool, so it pays to invest time and thought in a decent template.
Over the past few years of running email marketing training courses I have reviewed hundreds of enewsletter templates and often see the same basic errors. Individually they often aren't important, but if several good practice features are missed, they can definitely adversely affect the experience or response rates.
Three best practice enewsletter template examples
Good practice will naturally vary according to sector. The two main enewsletter styles are B2C retail-style for transactional sites featuring products and information-led for business-to-business, relationship development and publishing. We will look at and example from each.
1 B2C transactional newsletter example
2 B2B informational newsletter example
3 Professional services/membership enewsletter
Added this since I wrote…
Subject lines most popular, but landing pages and targeting most effective
Here's some interesting new research for Email marketers from the MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report:
The reason for the popularity of subject line testing is obvious, that's easier! The research shows that it's worth finding/making the time to become more sophisticated in targeting and tweaking landing pages, that's harder.
…
Basic tactics for building trust in your brand: Part 2
Part 1 of this article outlined the role of familiarity, transparency and accountability in building trust in and through your email program.
It also mentioned another set of appropriate "trust" tactics: demonstrating quality and consistency.
Well, yeah....you mean keep subscribers happy with worthwhile content or top deals on a regular basis? You might have heard that advice before.
Actually I don't mean (just) that.
Quality here refers to more than just "valuable content and/or offers". It also covers the quality of the whole email experience, which doesn't just depend on the actual nature of that content or offer, but also on its presentation and context. Here are four examples...
1. Email design functionality
We can argue long into the night about what makes an aesthetically pleasing email. But equally important is ensuring your email retains its functionality and clarity of communication at all times. Specifically:
How does…
Ideas for boosting your email subscribers
Wouldn't it be great if every visitor to your website purchased from you? That's clearly a dream world.
There are many reasons website visitors don't buy; not yet ready to purchase, researching product choices, planning to buy in the future, unsure whether to trust you, currently comparing products, comparing suppliers, need to confer with other family members before buying, getting an idea of budget for a future purchase and so on.
The next best thing to getting a purchase is getting an email address with opt-in permission, a lead.
Being given the privilege to keep the conversation going through email is your chance to tilt the odds in your favour of them coming back to you and purchasing in the future. However, getting an email address is easier said than done.
I recently completed a benchmark study 'Leaping over the subscribe hurdle'. This study researched the top 100 UK…
