Characterize your Email Campaigns!

The protagonist in email marketing is of course, The Email!

Focus has to be on messaging, visual appeal and relevancy. They are essential characteristics of a good looking email. The objective of an email campaign is to first capture attention, and then convey the message.

The Perfect HTML Email Prototype

Here are few pointers to ensure your HTML email newsletter is perfect 

1. Who is the email from? 

Ensure your name or your company’s name is evident in the ‘From’ address tab in order to clearly state your identity to your recipient 

2. Whom are you sending to?

The ‘To’address tab should contain the name of the recipient and not just the email id, as this will personalize your message.

3. Make your subject line crisp

Recipients need to know what the mail is about before reading it. The subject line should be direct and not too ‘spammy’, however it should instill interest.

4. What if the recipient cannot view the message?

Provide a link to enable recipients to view the newsletter / message in a separate browser, in case the message is not view able in the email.

5. Always give the choice to opt-out

Provide a one-click option to unsubscribe from receiving mails. By allowing recipients to choose whether they wish to receive messages or not indicates your respect to their privacy and preferences.

6. Show that you care

Ensure you add a link to your Privacy Policies to provide recipients with information about you intend to protect their privacy and utilize their details.

7. Display your credibility

Providing a complete physical address and contact details of your company will add credibility to your email

The Perfect Plain-Text Email Prototype

It may be plain but it has to be pretty too! Don’t make your plain text mail an afterthought. A helpful tip is to use ‘plain text editors’ like Notepad for Windows and TextWrangler for Mac. 

1. The ’60 Character’ Visual Ruler - A good way to keep your message aligned is by adding a “visual ruler”. Most email applications wrap your sentence after around 60 characters. Therefore a trick that you could use is to type a letter 60 times and use that as a reference for a margin.

2. Divide to Capture Attention – Making a plain text email attractive is a challenge. Creating dividers by using ‘visual markers’ or bullet points helps divert attention to important parts of the email. 

3. The ’60 Character’ Hard Return – As email applications usually wrap the message after every 60 characters, typing in a hard return after every 60 characters ensures the formatting stays in place to the maximum extent possible.

4. Type the Complete URL – you cannot rely on email applications to automatically add a clickable link to the URL you add. Ensure the complete link is typed to enable readers to copy and view the website.

Now that these prototypes give you an idea of how to create that perfect email, get a power-packed database to give due credit to the message!

Personalize with Personality, Send Emails to Readers than Inboxes!

With email marketers, the focus invariably is on successful email campaign execution. It is all about how many mails reach the inbox, open rates, click through rates and conversion rates. 

Addressing the recipient by his / her first or last name is surely not enough a practice to count as personalization. We all know this is automated. What can be done to make your email message personalized and at the same time get your message across? Some helpful tips are:

Address on a first name basis – Yes, addressing recipients by their name is the first step in capturing attention. Mails without personalized greeting tend to get discarded and forgotten faster.

Make it crisp – Don’t stop with personalized greetings. People receive more than hundred mails every day; nobody has the time to read long messages. Keep it to the point. State your message, your objective of mailing and purpose concisely. Beating around the bush is only going to lose the attention of the reader.

Personalize with personality – Do not underestimate readers. They can identify mails designed for mass mailing and they instinctively send such message into trash. Your message should have personality that creates a connection with two people, the reader and your company. Nobody likes to receive messages written by ‘bots’.

If recipients get a feeling that there are being sent “form letters” written from a template, they will be disinterested in reading with future correspondence.

While personalization through email messages is one way of executing successful campaigns, the other key factor is in utilizing opt-in email databases. Get to know how it works for you, and let us know as well!

Email Marketing Is Still Alive and Kicking!

Email marketing has been around for ages and it now shares space with social media and digital ads to influence customers. Irrespective of new marketing channels, hard stats published by two authoritative organizations CMO Council and Direct Marketing Association (DMA), reinstate why email marketing is still alive and kicking!

In May 2012, email marketing was rated as “the most successful digital marketing tactic” by marketers worldwide.

In June 2012, for house lists there was a 2.6% improvement in average open rates and 1.1% increase in clickthrough rates (CTR) of U.S. emails as compared to 2010. House lists is defined by DMA as a list of emails from present and past customers from a company’s in-house database. For prospect lists, there was a more than double increase in percentage in click through rates.

What’s the reason behind such a robust channel?

With the introduction of new implementation tactics such as data segmentation and marketing automation, targeted, personalized and relevant communication is possible therefore increasing engagement rates. 

The ‘elephant in the room’ however seems to be the fact that increase in engagement rates need not necessarily translate to higher sales. The slight decline in conversion rates says it all.

The reason behind this is observed to be other channels grabbing conversion share. Customers who converted through email earlier are now finding new ways to connect such as through social media, search or retargeted display ads. 

No matter what new marketing channels emerge, email marketing will be the preferred medium. Not because it is the easiest, because it works.

And don't forget the 'R' word. Make it Relevant. Keep your ROI rocking!

Target your ideal customer profile with personalized marketing campaigns. But first get organized and sales ready with a segmented database. Ask us how!

5 Actionable Tips for a Better Email Template

Emails are not just about writing and sending. As a marketer you need to watch what you are presenting your readers. The way you present your emails can determine success of your campaigns. Here are a few best practices related to using a proper template for sending emails:

 

 

5 Basic Elements of Email Marketing

Present day, email is one of the most imposing channels of marketing. It is a well-known fact that successful marketers have erected their business on email marketing by implementing certain values. While so much effort is put in creating and launching an email campaign, most people tend to ignore some basic but significant elements of email marketing. Let us discuss some of those essentials.

1. Evade spamming at any cost

By following the CAN-SPAM code of procedure and by sending mails only to targeted recipients who have agreed to receive them, you can avoid your emails being considered as spam. You can get opt-in email lists from a reputed service provider.

2. Personalize your emails

The response rates from recipients increase drastically when you address by their names. A study on customer behavior says a reader tends to respond positively while seeing their names on the mails, making them feel important. A group mailing software can help you do this easily.         

3. Introduce yourself

Most of the time, in a hurry to sell your service or product, you forget to let them who about your company. It is always advisable to introduce yourself in a few words before you actually pitch for your purpose.

4. Send a welcome email

Acknowledging a subscription request from a reader is very important by sending out an email to welcome them. This can show that their interest is of great value and it gives us a good opportunity to tell them about us.

 5. Process opt-out requests

Do not forget to include a choice to refuse to receive mails from you. If they chose to unsubscribe, respect their wish and take their email addresses out of the list. Send an acknowledgement letter to them that their opt-out request id processed. Data management software, which can also be hired from a service provider, can automatically keep out the email addresses of those who opted out. 

Personalize Your Email Campaigns

Stand out with personalized email Campaigns

In a crowded in-box it pays to be different - to stand out of the crowd. The most effective strategy to stand out in your customer’s in-box is by personalizing your email. But most marketers limit to first-name personalization.

While first-name personalizing is a fine place to start, it's important to go beyond this aspect of personalizing emails.  So, based on the common personalization used by B2B organization, we’ve put together other ideas to personalize your email campaigns.

Splash up your email template

• Add relevant images, graphics, or use familiar brand colors
• Create a custom designs, background images
• Create a template that match with your business

Segmentation

• Divide your lists into homogeneous groups and create different messaging
• Try other fields like, location, company name, loyalty program name to personalize emails 
• Segment by customers preferred channels (Emails, IM, Mobile, Phone, Social Media)

Right Message, Right Person, Right Time

Beyond these strategies, you can use a little clever thinking to personalize your email communication.