Using Triggered Messages to Advance Effectiveness and Efficiency David Daniels | March 26, 2012 | 0 Comments inShare31 A retailer case study on triggered messaging. The production process of sending an email marketing message out is predictable, typically following the same process each time a mailing is put together. The benefit of triggered messaging is that the marketer can build a program once, tie that offer or message to specific customer behaviors, and let the automation take over. I recently spoke at All About Email Live where ESP Listrak and footwear retailer The PSNE Group presented the benefits of implementing triggered messages. The PSNE Group implemented a welcome series of emails to both improve inbox placement and engagement and accelerate the sales cycle. Abandon cart messages. With some testing and tinkering, these programs can add immediate bottom line value to your program. Until next time, David
5 Ways to Sell Your Email Program to the C-Suite Simms Jenkins | February 9, 2012 | 0 Comments inShare24 You must pitch your email marketing program properly to win support from senior management. I'm having a lot of interesting conversations with clients and prospective ones excited about being on the verge of something big. However, digital marketers often feel they won't be able to make "the leap" - and not because of execution, customer adoption, or anything related to their core brand and its strategic benefits. Here are some practical ways to get buy-in from the C-suite: 1. 2. Change this with inviting all of marketing (or in a smaller company, the entire team) to listen to what the email program has achieved and where it is going. 3. 4. 5. Project that "our email program will contribute $2 million more in revenue (or whatever business metric you can estimate) by leveraging new tactics that correlate to changing consumer habits." Remember, you often can't improve on many fronts if your program doesn't get broader visibility.
6 Steps to Effective Email Testing Mike Hotz | February 8, 2012 | 0 Comments inShare97 Establishing a test regimen is the key to unlocking higher open, click, and conversion rates. Email marketers list testing as one of their top priorities year after year. However, most do no testing at all. Testing is not a short-term silver bullet that will solve all your problems. Marketers who test effectively to achieve significantly higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates are disciplined to run A/B split tests in every email campaign and committed to making changes in their program that make a difference. In this column, I will explore six steps to effectively test your email marketing campaigns. Step 1: Ask a Question What are you hoping to achieve? A series of small steps can be easy to test and analyze. Have more people open my messages.Have more people click through to the engine.Reengage with historically inactive people.Have people click on a specific area, topic, or action.Drive more conversions.
10 Simply Awesome Examples of Email Marketing If you're reading this, you probably have an email address (or two, or three ...). In fact, you've probably been sending and receiving emails for years, and you've definitely received some questionable deliveries in your inbox. Whether they were unexpected, uninformative, or had a subject line tHaT wAs fOrmAtTeD liKe tHiS, we bet you didn't hesitate to direct them towards the trash, right? While email has managed to stand the test of time, many marketers have failed to update their strategies since its inception. So to ensure you're sending modern emails that warrant some of your recipients' precious time and attention, we've compiled a list of effective email examples to inspire your next campaign. And for help creating effective email marketing campaigns of your own, download our free guide here. 1) PayPal There are a couple things we love about this email example from PayPal. 2) ModCloth Great companies are always evolving, and your customers expect to experience change. 3) Tory Burch
Why List Segmentation Matters in Email Marketing By now, most marketers understand the importance of email to their overall marketing strategy and recognize that it's not dying in the wake of other emerging marketing tactics like social media. But while most marketers realize that email is here to stay, unfortunately, that doesn't exactly mean certain email marketing best practices have caught on. Segmentation is one such best practices. Segmenting your communications can improve your email marketing campaigns by leaps and bounds (read on -- we have the data to prove it!). Luckily, marketers are at least starting to realize the importance of segmentation in their email communications. So if you aren't slicing and dicing your email database into various segments and tailoring the content in your emails to those individual groups of contacts, we think you could use some convincing. Your Buyers Aren't All the Same Think about it. If you haven't already, determine who your various segments of target customers are. See Frantic Fred?
9 Ways to Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing Are you wondering how to add social media to your email communications? Email and social media marketing go together like Batman and Robin. They both can be effective on their own; however, when combined, their (super) powers can save the city and exceed your marketing goals. Is Email Dead? In this article I’ll show you how to combine email marketing with your social media efforts. In a recent StrongMail survey, “More than two-thirds of business leaders (68%) say they plan to integrate social media with their email marketing efforts in 2012″ (as reported by MarketingProfs on December 12, 2011). As a guy who lives, breathes, eats and sometimes dreams email marketing, I was thrilled to see email getting some mainstream love. You may be thinking, “Hey, isn’t email dead?” Think again. This blog post and infographic on the value of email by SmarterTools will quickly dispel the “email is dead” myth. Need one more proof point that email is not dead? Why Does Integration Matter? #4: Provide Incentive
Sales - Four Tips for Generating Leads With Email "Email is still the most effective marketing technique," writes Bill Rice at the Better Closer blog. "It's easy to automate and highly efficient at bringing in qualified new leads." But a successful email program doesn't just happen. You must convince prospects to open your message, read it, and take action. To hit each of those goals, Rice has advice like this: Start with an appealing subject line. Get right to the point. Add value to your pitch. Include a single, clear call to action. → end article previewRead the Full Article Membership is required to access this how-to marketing article ... don't worry though, it's FREE!
25 Things Email Marketers Must Avoid in 2012 Simms Jenkins | January 26, 2012 | 2 Comments With the first few weeks in 2012 in the history book, some of us may have already fallen back into bad habits or the email hamster routine that allows for little else other than tactical management of the next email campaign (and there is always, the next email campaign). Others may have big strategic initiatives and a laundry list of plans to evaluate for 2012. Getting them done is hard. Ignoring them is easy. My recommendation: Have a list for big picture initiatives and blocking-and-tackling measures. Little to no exposure to the C-suite. What is on your list in 2012 and do you have any tips and practices that worked in 2011 that ensured a more successful program? Simms Jenkins is CEO of BrightWave Marketing , North America's leading email marketing focused digital agency. Additionally, Jenkins is the creator of EmailStatCenter.com and SocialStatCenter.com, the leading authorities on email and social media metrics.
13 Things to Check Before Hitting 'Send' on Your Next Marketing Email Raise your hand if you've ever sent out a marketing email , only to realize after clicking 'send' that your email's main call-to-action contained a broken link. What a waste, right? And talk about embarrassment ... Now how many of you did I actually get to raise your hand? Yes, silly mistakes happen -- more easily than you might think. To avoid email marketing embarrassment -- and the poor results that accompany it -- print out this checklist, pin it to your cubicle, and consult it every time you're reviewing an email test send. 13 Things to Look Out for in Your Email Test Sends 1) Broken Links The mishap we mentioned in our intro scenario is probably one of marketers' biggest nightmares, especially when lead generation is the goal of an email send. 2) Forgotten Links A close second to the dreaded broken link is the forgotten one. 3) Broken Social Media Sharing Buttons While we're talking about social media buttons, let's discuss how easy it is to break those little buggers.
9 Ways to Dramatically Reduce Email Unsubscribe Rates Email marketers have to accept a certain amount of expected email list depreciation every year, but when that list dwindles down more and more due to unsubscribes, it's time to press 'pause.' Unsubscribes are, in very technical terms, a huge bummer. Sure, a certain amount of self-scrubbing is good for every email list , but you can't help but wonder if there's something you could have done differently to save some of those subscribers. Well, it turns out there might be some things you can do to reduce the amount of email unsubscribes you experience. 1.) ( Tip: If you've implemented a lead nurturing program, you can continue to collect information about your subscribers based on their on- and off-site behaviors that will allow you to learn more and more about them, and then deliver more personalized emails that align with their stage in the buying cycle.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) 8.) 9.)
4 Email Marketing Tips: 72-day study reveals what you can learn from presidential campaigns In today’s blog post, I provide four examples of how not to run your email marketing, based on U.S. presidential campaigns. I will also provide four tips for the campaigns on how to improve their efforts, which I think many marketers can learn from as well. I tried to keep this blog post as politically neutral as possible, which turned out to be easier than I thought when I started since most of the efforts were pretty poor. The 72-day study of presidential campaign email marketing I enjoy David Meerman Scott’s use of U.S. presidential campaigns as marketing case studies in his blog posts. I consider the need for candidates to win over my vote for president of the United States to be a complex sale, and I correlate it with the long sales cycles of B2B organizations. Subscriber Registration High-performing list-building pages tend to answer key questions a potential subscriber may have about the email list. Opt-in Confirmation Ron Paul was the only candidate to use a double opt-in strategy.
Feast Your Eyes on These 9 Examples of Beautiful Email Marketing When you're an email marketer, your to-do list often looks like this: Generate opt-in leads, segment your lists, set up lead nurturing workflows, draft clear and concise email copy, check your emails for deliverability, optimize for plain text and HTML, and so on. Geez ... isn't there any fun in email marketing anymore? Thankfully, there are plenty of email marketing geeks out there (ourselves included) that do think all of that's kind of fun. But these less glamorous aspects of email marketing -- though critical to your campaign's success -- don't paint the entire picture of what amazing email marketing really is. Download our free ebook here to learn how to design emails that people actually click. There are brands out there that have also figured out how to create emails that are pretty darn beautiful. If you're looking to dabble in something a little more adventurous for your next email marketing campaign, check out the examples below for inspiration. Email Newsletter Design Examples
27 Ways to Slice & Dice Your Email List for Better Segmentation We've already made the case for list segmentation in email marketing, and we sure hope you've bought in. Still in need of a little refresher on the merits of email list segmentation? How about the fact that, according to eMarketer, 39% of email marketers that practice list segmentation see better open rates; 28% see lower opt-out and unsubscribe rates; and 24% see better email deliverability, increased sales leads, and greater revenue. You know your ol' pal revenue -- he's the whole reason you're doing email marketing in the first place, right? Alright, now that you're undoubtedly on board with list segmentation, you're probably asking yourself how you should slice and dice your own list. Well, the bad news is that it totally depends on the nature of your business and the goals associated with your email marketing and lead nurturing -- so I can't give you a one-size-fits-all answer. The whole point of segmentation is providing more relevant content to your email recipients. 1) Geography