Make it Sell

Step 5
Well that is the whole point isn't it? Even your relationship building emails should have an element of sell to them. This doesn't mean you should bombard your loyal customers with gimmicks and free steak knives. It means you should never be afraid to ask them to do business with you again, and you should do so confidently.

Here are some ways you can increase the "sell" in your emails:

From Line
The first thing most people look at when checking their email is the "From" column. If they don’t know you, there’s a good chance the next button they click will be the delete button. There are three options that work:

1 The name of a person they know and trust (Account manager, sales rep etc)
2 A group they belong to ("XYZ Rewards Club", "ABC Frequent Flyers" etc)
3 A company they trust ("DEF Accountants", "ROI Investments" etc)

Once you have chosen which approach you will take, you should stick to it so your recipients can recognise your emails, and so you have a better chance of avoiding Spam filters.

Make it Personal

Step 4
Bulk email can look like junk mail, or it can look like a personal message from you to your customer. It depends on how you use it.

Here’s how you can personalise your email campaigns:

1. Greet them by name: "Hello John,"
2. Tailor offers to the needs of different customer groups
3. Ask for feedback
   

Personalising your emails is simple with our system. It may seem like a small thing, but greeting your customers by name, and sending them information that shows you understand their needs will make a big difference to the ongoing success of your campaigns.

Make it Relevant

Step 3
The most important part of getting email marketing right is to get the right information to the right people.
Ask yourself this question each time you plan a new campaign: "Would I be happy to receive this email".

Making your campaigns relevant is important for two reasons:

1. It will increase your response rate
2. It will increase the life-span of your email list by reducing your unsubscribers
   

Some things to consider when planning your campaigns:

• What’s in it for the customer (benefit, offer, information)
• Is this useful for every customer, or specific customers?
• What’s new?
• Has this approach worked in the past?
• How can I gather feedback about this campaign?

Make it Useful and Usable

Step 2
Stay focussed on your customers when creating your campaigns because email is easy and cheap to use. Many businesses fall into the trap of sending any old junk and expecting it to work. Remember, while email is very convenient, it is also very heavily used, and very easy to dispose of.

Some things to consider:

1. Provide content that is relevant and valuable to your customers
2. Use short paragraphs and lots of sub-headings
3. Include links to all relevant sections of your website for more information
4. Be specific, offer real solutions not generalisations
5. Proof Read: there is no quicker way to damage your credibility than with typos and misinformations
6. Test that all web links work and go to the correct page (broken links are embarrassing and highly unprofessional)
   

Our system allows you to add any content you want and in any way you want. This makes it even more important that you think about your customers and what they want when you are planning your campaigns.

Cutting through the clutter of email is a challenging task, and one that can only be achieved by sending high quality, relevant, and valuable emails to your distribution list. In short, you have to make your contacts want to respond to your current email, and want to receive your next one.  Here are some steps to ensure your emails are as effective as possible:

Make it Look Good

Step 1
The design of your email template has a significant impact on the way in which your campaign is perceived, and the rate at which your audience will click through to your website. Some key factors to consider in your template design:

1. Use high quality images and graphics
2. Create a strong brand image with your email templates and stick to it
3. Don’t overload it with too much content or too many graphics
4. Remember that only a small part of the email is viewable in the Preview Pane of many people’s email browser - use this space for branding and to get your main message across
   

While our system is designed to make and create your email template quick and easy to do it yourself, you should consider having a professional designer create your initial design for you. Quality graphic design is a specialised skill, and the perception created by professionally designed templates is worth the small investment.

If you want to build a list of potential customers, you generally have to be a little bit more strategic, and be prepared to invest a little money to "buy" your list. As a rule, people will only be willing to give you access to their inbox if there is something in it for them.

Many options for collecting new contacts exist from running small in store promotions to large scale advertising where entrants go onto your potential customers list.

As an example, a resort might run a promotional campaign in a newspaper, offering the chance to go into the draw for 3 nights accommodation simply by going to their website and signing up for their Accommodation Specials Newsletter.

New and existing customers are the easiest source of email addresses for your database. You should never let a customer leave your place of business without at least asking for their email address. Depending on the nature of your business, this can either be done at the point of sale, or through in store promotions.

For some businesses, the best way to build your list is to go out and ask for email addresses one at a time.

This is particularly true for business-to-business (B2B) markets. Your emphasis here is on getting permission to send information through via email.

This can be done over the phone (either by yourself, sales staff, a professional telemarketer, or in person).

You are using email as a marketing medium because you want to increase your sales using a low cost, instant communication tool. Unfortunately, so too do a lot of other businesses. Your next challenge is getting through the clutter so that your emails are read by your intended audience.

The single best way to be read is for your customers to want and expect to receive your communications. Different customers will find varying levels of value in your communications and it's up to you to determine what that value is. The following sections will help you identify the best content strategy for delivering the most value to your customers.

Some of the most successful email content includes:

• Information relevant to their needs
• Special offers and discounts
• Information about product developments and new services
• Industry news
• Information specific to your area of expertise
• Case studies and examples of work you've done with other clients

Email marketing will work best for your business if you can offer something to your customers which has value to them, but does not hurt your profitability.

Some examples of value include:

• Relevant information
• % Discount
• Free gift
• Free trial period
• Buy 2 get 1 free (or other variation)
• Increased/bonus rewards points
• Flexible payment terms (eg 90 days no repayments interest free)
• Free/discount refills
• Free/discount upgrade
• Free/discount audit or needs analysis
• Free reports or advice

1. Don't use images for important content such as headlines, links, or call-to-action
   If you do, make sure there is a link to view the html version online. Chances are images may be turned off making the key elements of your email useless.
   
   
2. Use alt text for your images
   Include alt tags with your images and make it say something compelling about the subject matter like "see this motorcycle in action". 
   
   
3. Use image widths & heights
   This way you design is not thrown off too bad if blank placeholders are used in place of your images.
   
   
4. Optimize your images
   Make sure your image file sizes are as small as you can get without losing their visual integrity.  Large images should be cut up into smaller, more downloadable sizes. No one wants to wait 10 seconds to see your 1000kb jpeg.
   
   
5. Background Images
   Avoid using them. Many email clients do not display them anyway.  If you do use them make sure you can read your email without them being displayed. Make sure the table they are being displayed in has a background color added as well.

1. Keep email width under 650 pixels
   You need to design for the preview pane and it doesn't get much wider than that.
   
   
2. Design above the fold
   Make sure your key elements are at the top (logo, call-to-action, navigation, primary subject matter, etc.) and by top we mean, the first 300 pixels.
   
   
3. Keep it short 
   Don't overload your email with content. Use it as a tool to drive recipients to your website or landing page. Most people prefer to read large amounts of text in a web browser as opposed to their inbox. Give them a taste and a "Read more here..." link.
   
   
4. Keep it simple 
   Don't try and design a complex html masterpiece and expect everyone to see it the same way you do. The more difficult your email is to code, the more difficult it will be to see across the many email clients.
   
   
5. Test it before sending to "ALL" 
   Need we say more???

As we are starting to get into the the spirit of giving with Christmas fast approaching, we thought we would share a few points that we think might help you with your holiday email campaigns.

Tip 1: Make it easy to forward. Whether it's to pass on an invitation or drop a subtle gift hint, make sure your subscribers have an easy option to move your information along.

Tip 2: Make sure your holiday related information as at the top. Have you heard about the phrase "above the fold". This is your email gold mine.  Turn the top of your email into a crowd puller.  Don't waste this valuable real estate on an image that might not even be displayed.

Tip 3: Get personal. People can have pretty full inboxes in general. When the holiday season hits, they get even fuller. So take a moment and find ways to get a little more intimate with your readers. They may be a little more receptive to click on emails tailored for them.

Tip 4: Balance the images. People seem to receive more emails with one large image in the holidays than any other months. While we understand big display images are tempting, be careful. Find a nice balance of images and text, and be sure to make the most of your alt tags.

Tip 5: Give some thanks. Let your readers know that they  are important to your company. Whether it be a small discount, some free information or even a separate campaign, don't miss the opportunity to let your subscribers know what they have done to help you out over the past year.

So we hope the holiday season is a succesful one for you.  Hope you can latch onto a few ideas that will take your communication efforts to a new level.  As a wise man once said - HO, HO, HO.

Outlook 2007 has been out now for almost 2 years and the issues around this have not changed.  They have just become magnified as more people upgrade and convert to Outlook 2007.  We thought this might be a good opportunity to revisit the issues surrounding Outlook 2007.

Firstly we want to make something clear that the sky is not falling in with the changes to Outlook 2007.  Are they annoying for email marketers?  Yes they are, but if you are following good email design practices then you will be having less problems than others.

So what has happened?  Instead of taking advantage of Internet Explorer 7 to display html emails in Outlook 2007 Microsoft have used the very limited support for HTML and CSS that is built into Word 2007 to display HTML email messages.  So previously in Outlook 2003 you would use IE to display your html emails, but in Outlook 2007 receivers view using Microsoft word.  So effectively two people in one office could view your emails in two different formats.

Below are some of the limitations imposed by Word 2007:

• No support for background images (HTML or CSS)
• No support for forms
• No support for Flash, or other plugins
• No support for CSS floats
• No support for replacing bullets with images in unordered lists
• No support for CSS positioning
• No support for animated GIFs

In short, unless your HTML emails are very, very simple, you're going to run into problems with Outlook 2007, and in most cases the only solution to those problems will be to reduce the complexity of your HTML email design to accommodate Outlook's limited feature set.

With the release of Outlook 2007, Microsoft is effectively adding an entirely new rendering engine to the mix-one that designers producing HTML email will not be able to ignore.