Archive for 'Email Marketing Tutorial'

Hey guys,

We are offering a free ebook about Email Marketing now, which explains the concepts and best practices of Email Marketing.

Book Name: eMail Your Way to Success - The Principles of Email Marketing

Download it at: http://www.comm100.com/emailmarketing/emailmarketingtips.aspx.

Thanks.

Right marketing strategies and their proper implement are essential for the growth of any business. That’s why a considerable number of online marketers are looking for some really smart and effective ways to market their different products and services on the www. Email Marketing has emerged as one of the most effective online marketing strategies that help businesses reach their target customers in an affordable and convenient way.  The benefits of Email Marketing are numerous and now things have become quite easier with Email Marketing software that allows marketers to easily perform and monitor all the aspects of email marketing. Almost every online business owner knows the importance and renowned benefits of email marketing. However, if you are new to online business and looking for some effective ways to promote you stuff online; you must keep numerous benefits of email marketing in mind.

Here are some benefits of email marketing that make it a lot better marketing strategy than the other marketing strategies currently in practice these days.

1) Easy Access to Target Customers

With email marketing it becomes easy for you to easily access your target customers and let them know about your different products and services or any other development within your company. In fact, email marketing is a very different type of marketing technique compared to the other marketing techniques widely being used these days. The nicest thing about email marketing is that you can easily send all the details and information to your visitors in their emails and if they are interested in your offers, they will definitely contact you to know more and they can even make a purchase from you.

2) Cost-Effective Solution

Another nice thing about email marketing is its low cost. It’s a lot cheaper marketing option than the other available options. You can reach to thousands of your potential customers through email. There’s no other marketing option which lets you contact so many customers at a time. Email marketing software can make it simple and easy for you to launch an email marketing campaign and track all the records of it. These days you will find a wide range of email software available out there and you can easily find one that is quite according to your needs and budget. Different email marketing software offer different features and functions and mostly their prices depend on the available features and functions. You need to pick email marketing software that is according to your requirements.

3) Scalability

Scalability is another nice thing about email marketing. Email marketing and the progress you get through your campaign can be easily scaled. You can make things even more scalable with effective email marketing software.

Apart from these, there are also many other benefits of email marketing that you can get through the passage of time.

P.S. Comm100 offers a completely free yet powerful email marketing solution, which can help you easily manage your email marketing campaigns. Try it out at: http://www.comm100.com/emailmarketingnewsletter/

Get Personal!
When is the right time (and the wrong time) to personalize your email sends?

In This Article…

If you’re actively emailing but aren’t sure if it will improve your campaign to include personalized user information such as a name or a user name, Comm100 explains in this article the pros and cons of both and the best times to use personalization in emails for the best results.

To Personalize or Not to Personalize

These days, almost all third party Email Marketing platforms offer the option to personalize your email sends by including your client’s user name or name. Is this a good idea and can it improve your Email Marketing results? The answer, of course, is both yes and no.

The Basic Conversion Fact

Numerous studies have revealed that the more personalized you can make your email, the better it will convert. The simplest version of this would be to include your client’s user name or name in the intro to the email. The most complex version of this would be to send multiple versions of your email with different offers and products displayed to users based on their on-site behaviors and purchasing patterns.

Let’s assume that, for most of us, we will be operating on the “simple” end of this spectrum. Studies from multiple sources have revealed the following:

Using a name or user name in a subject line will improve open rates as users typically assume that this email has come from a trusted source.

Using a name or user name within the content of the email itself improves conversion rates and has the added benefit of creating brand loyalty with the user.

So, it would seem as though it would be an easy decision to include a personalized element in your email sends, right? Unfortunately it’s not that simple.

The Issue of Privacy

Unfortunately, the issue of user’s concerns about privacy and the use of their information can throw a wrench in your belief that personalization is the best move for your email product. Selecting a bad context to use a piece of personal information in can result in the abandonment of users from not only your email list but also your brand. Here are some important elements to keep in mind when deciding whether to incorporate any form of personalization in your email campaigns.

Would your users want other people to know that they use your product? There are any number of industries out there where clients and users might not be comfortable with others knowing that they use the product or service. This can range from anything as salacious as gambling or adult sites to something as essentially harmless as dating sites, medical information sites and financial advice sites. While, in theory, an email that uses personalization will only be seen by the person it was intended for, it can have the unfortunate side effect of creating uncertainty about the safety of their identity with a user. If you have reason to believe that any significant portion of your user base would be concerned with the security of their identity, veer away from personalizing your email services.

Test…then test again! Are you tired of hearing this phrase yet? But it’s true. If you’re willing to take the hit that your test may result in some people leaving your list, run two separate a/b tests. The first test should use a name or user name within the email, and one that test should use that information in the subject line. If there’s any question, you’ll certainly know after that test if your users like personalization. Just remember, pay attention to all four key metrics when you do this: open rate, click-through rate, conversion AND unsub rate. It’s one of the few tests where you may see a variation in unsubs that matters!

NEVER use a last name! The one thing that we can tell you for sure is that you should never use a client or user’s last name as a personalization field. By just about every study ever done that is one step over the line of what people are comfortable seeing being used in a piece of marketing collateral. No last names! We would recommend not even using last initials!

Name or User Name?

One of the larger questions of using personalization in an email is whether to use a client’s actual first name or their user name. Once again, there are arguments for each option.

First Name: Using a user’s first name as your personalization element has the advantage of making the email, well, more personal! It takes the user out of being a nameless face or possibly randomized user name and into the area of having a relationship with you or your company. However, the downside is that it’s less anonymous than using a user name, so clients who are uncomfortable about user privacy will have a more negative reaction to it. The other downside is that a first name is actually a more readily available piece of information to a spammer. Spammers regularly buy lists of emails and registered users from list brokers and include the first name field, and a first name is actually a relatively easy piece of information to phish for spammers who scour the internet stealing user information from insecure forums and registration sites, so it can, in some cases, have the opposite impact of creating company trust. However, at base, it’s true that nothing makes a person feel more like they’re in a personal relationship than the use of their name!

User Name: Using a user name counteracts some of the issues that you’ll encounter with using a client’s first names. For starters, it’s a more anonymous piece of information, so clients or users may not experience the same concerns about privacy. Secondly, a user name isn’t a field commonly used or even obtainable by spammers, so you’ll overcome what may be an initial reaction by users to seeing a potentially spam-like message. However, the downside is fairly obvious, which is that a user name is not as friendly or personal as a first name.

Whether you use first name or user name, be careful about where you put that information in the email! Because personalization is designed to improve your metrics, if you’re not including it in the first two inches of the email, you’ve probably negated its positive impact already!

Personalization is an important tool in optimizing your email campaigns, but it needs to be approached with caution and a specific plan. Be sure to monitor your email performance closely once implementing it! And be prepared to test several different versions of it as well!

The first step to getting started with Email Marketing, whether you’re just getting started or ready to start implementing personalization, is to select a quality email sending partner. Comm100, who provided you with this complimentary summary, offers a completely free, hosted email and Newsletter solution. It’s both a great long-term and short-term solution to getting your email marketing off of the ground to just about any type of customer or client email list! Check it out at: http://www.comm100.com/emailmarketing/

Email Marketing Video

Smartphones and Email!
How many people read their marketing emails on their phone, and why is that important to you?

In This Article…

If you’ve got an active email list that you’re sending to, be aware that many of them will be reading their email on smartphones. Comm100 explains in this article how to create an email that will be as effective on a mobile phone as on a large computer monitor.

The Smartphone Phenomenon

Walk into any coffee shop, library, bus stop, gym … honestly walk just about anywhere and you’ll see the masses browsing the web and checking their email on the newest generation of cell phones. Smartphones, as they’re called, are defined as mobile phones that operate with advanced capabilities and operating systems, similar to that of PC functionality. These phones have internet browsers and capabilities, and, increasingly people are completing their internet surfing and email reading on these phones.

Why is this important to my email campaign?

The primary reason that the proliferation of smartphones is important to your email campaign is that your marketing email design needs to take into account how it will display on a smartphone. This makes email design even more restrictive than it used to be. We’ll detail the elements of email design that you need to keep in mind at the end of this article, after we familiarize you with the lay of the land when it comes to smartphones.

Types of Smartphones

By the time that you read this article, the information about the most common types of smartphones will probably already be out of date! However, at this moment, the smartphone market looks something like this (according to a 2009 study by Canalys):

Symbian: 47%

RIM (ie Blackberry): 21%

Apple iPhone: 15%

Microsoft Phone: 9%

Android: 5%

All Others: 3%

If you email a great deal, it would be worth your time to find somebody in the office with each of these phones to see how your email displays on their various screens and resolutions. It’s becoming as important as checking your email in various email providers.

How many people use smartphones?

According to a recent comscore study, you can expect up to 20% of your email list to be reading their email on a smartphone, and, if the demographic that you market to involves business professionals, that number will skew even higher. It’s a growing demographic, and one that you’ll need to cater to if you want to optimize your Email Marketing platform.

How does this impact my Email Marketing?

The primary way that the emergence of smartphones will impact your Email Marketing campaign will be to make your design team even more frustrated! We’ve already discussed how design teams can become frustrated with the html limitations and low graphics counts required in good email design. Imagine how your designers are going to respond to you when you tell that that, ideally, you need your email template to still resolve on a three inch by two inch screen. It should be readable on that size screen, and it can’t be dependent on graphics in case they don’t load!

The good news is that you’ll have a better chance of having your email read by users checking their email on a smartphone! Some studies have indicated that users checking email on a smartphone do it more during leisure time or “down time” than those who check on a laptop. For example, they check while waiting for public transportation or for a meeting to start. So unlike trying to stand out in an inbox that people are trying to clear, you stand of chance of being opened just to that the user has something to read.

So, the keys to remember are that you should keep in mind that a portion of your users will view your email on a three inch by two inch screen. Then you can hope that you’re on the lucky end of an increased open rate!

Should I segment out my smartphone users and send them a different email template?

There’s been some discussion of the possibility of beginning to ask users when they join your email list if they regularly view their email on a smartphone. This would be similar to asking users if they prefer to receive their email in html or plain text, and the end result would be to send those users a different email template that was designed to resolve better on a small screen.

We’d recommend against this. Firstly, it’s probably a segment of your list that doesn’t justify the extra resources and list management to create an entirely different list for them. Secondly, even your most avid smartphone users won’t always view email on their smartphone. So if you’re sending an email that’s designed for a small screen and then the user views it on a normal laptop or desktop, you’ve just sent a highly non-optimized email.

Rather than try to treat regular smartphone users separately, just practice good clean design and be sure your email doesn’t explode into a mess when viewed on a smartphone screen!

Being aware that your users will view your email on a smartphone is becoming more and more important, and your email program will certainly suffer performance issues if you don’t accommodate it. However, it’s still a growing segment of your list, and your main focus should continue to be on laptop and desktop users.

The first step to getting started with email marketing, whether you’re just getting started or ready to move up to advanced steps like optimizing for a smartphone, is to select a quality email sending partner. Comm100, who provided you with this complimentary summary, offers a completely free, hosted email and Newsletter solution. It’s both a great long-term and short-term solution to getting your email marketing off of the ground to just about any type of customer or client email list!

Check it out at: http://www.comm100.com/emailmarketing/

Email Marketing Video

The Email Content Quandary
Direct Response Email vs. Informational Email: Which is What You Need?

In This Article…

If you’re considering implementing an Email Marketing program, of if you’ve already started emailing but aren’t sure if your content is the right type of content, this article explores whether an informational Newsletter or a direct response sales email will be better for your overall email needs.

Finding the Right Content Balance

Often, in developing your email program, the following question will arise: “Will my customers be offended and stop reading my emails if every email is just a hard sell?” Shortly after that question arises, the next logical question comes to mind. “But if I send only informational content in an email, will my users then follow through to purchase anything or will they just read the email and then delete it?”

Finding the balance between providing users with content that will make them feel that your Email Marketing is valuable and generating direct sales and ROI from your email campaign can be a challenge. Succeeding at accomplishing the best balance will most likely requires testing on your part. However, there are some basic concepts that you can walk through while developing your email program that will help.

What exactly did your users sign up for? What do your users want?

The first question that you need to ask yourself is this: “What exactly did you promise your users when they signed up for your Newsletter?” Does your newsletter sign-up box promise users a weekly tip? Does it promise informational articles? Do users sign-up because you’ve assured them that there are exclusive monthly discounts to members of the email list? The most basic rule of thumb is that your email recipients need to receive exactly what it is that you promised them. So if you’ve incentivized people into signing up for your email list by promising them quarterly white papers or ebooks, then that needs to be what you send if you want to keep your list loyal.

The second half to this question, however, is the more important one. What is it, exactly, that your users want to receive in their emails? And how do you determine this?

There are two ways to figure out what your users really want to receive. The first, creating multiple email list options, is detailed below. The second, however, is to do some simple a/b testing. In this instance, you’ll need to change your email acquisition page (whether that’s a separate landing page or a module on your main website) to present a different value proposition for your email product at different times. The easiest way to do this is to change it out at the beginning of a week. So, for example:

- During the first week, when people sign up for your email list, they see the message “Join our email list for weekly tips on becoming a happier person.”

- During the second week, when people sign up for your email list, they see the message “Join our email list for exclusive monthly product discounts.”

At the end of each week, divide the number of impressions that the pages with the email capture form received by the number of sign-ups to the email list in order to get your conversion percentage. The one that performed better is the one that your clients want to receive!

Create Multiple Email Formats to Get the Best of Everybody

An even better option than trying to limit your email list to just one format that appeals to only one segment of your audience is to create different email lists for your users to join. Typically, this would include an informational newsletter, a discount or special offer email and a generic update email list. However, depending on your product or business, there are many other options as well. You may have enough users to create email options that are specific to brands, geographies, and types of news or other segments.

The benefit of offering multiple email lists for your users to choose from is that you’ll always be sure that your users are receiving exactly what they wanted. The downside, however, is that you’ll be producing more email products and your list will be harder to manage, track and determine ROI on. The scope of your resources and the importance of Email Marketing in your marketing mix should be the driver on this decision making.

Also, remember that even if you offer multiple email lists to your clients, CAN-SPAM requires that you offer users the option of opting out of all emails instead of just one list!

What if my users want informational emails? Can my email program be profitable then?

One of the more common issues we’ve encountered in the email marketing world is the dilemma of what happens when you’re users don’t actively want to be marketed to but instead want to receive informational emails. While discounts, sales and exclusive merchandise tend to be the primary reasons that people will join an email list, you will find the situation where people honestly prefer information based emails. In this case, we’d suggest that you keep in mind two factors when evaluating the value of your email program.

Retention Value: In an earlier article, we discussed customer life cycle and how email can be used to extend the time a customer is in a relationship with your brand. While a direct return on an email is important, there’s also value in the fact that your email keeps your brand and product name in the mind of your users even when they’re not ready to make a subsequent purchase from you. Because your email program develops a relationship with your clients, when they are ready to make a purchase again, you’ll be the first option in their mind. Be sure to factor the retention value of your email when evaluating its role in your marketing mix.

Contextual Selling: Also, let it not be thought that it is impossible to generate sales out of an information email. It’s just that doing that means that you need to take the time and effort to create very compelling content. Contextually mentioning products and linking to those products from your email, when done well, can actually yield better results than a direct sales piece in some instances. The key is to relate the product to the information in such a way that users really see how the product is useful to them and then act on that information. Contextual marketing is an entire lesson on its own. However, don’t underestimate the value that can come from it!

Is it really terrible to send a direct response email to a list that’s opted-in to a newsletter or informational email?

The short answer is that it’s not terrible at all! Often your users will appreciate your periodic discount or sales email and respond favorably (and profitably) to it. The key is to limit how many times you send these types of emails and to make sure that the offers that you include in them will truly be perceived as valuable by your clients or users. If you’re sending direct solicitation offers as frequently as informational newsletters, then that’s too often! But sending a special offer monthly will most likely be appreciated by your users.

There’s no hard and fast answer to what type of emails your clients want to receive. You’ll need to experiment, listen to your customers and pay attention to what gets the best responses when you send it out. However, most companies will find that walking the line between useful content and compelling offers will yield the best results.

The first step to getting started with email marketing, whether you’re about to send a content-based newsletter or are going straight for direct response sales pices, is to select a quality email sending partner. Comm100, who provided you with this complimentary summary, offers a completely free, hosted email and newsletter solution. It’s both a great long-term and short-term solution to getting your email marketing off of the ground to just about any type of customer or client email list! Check it out at: http://www.comm100.com/emailmarketing/

Email Marketing Video