Archive: November 2011
Optimized email signup forms look smart, and act even smarter
Six tips to make your opt-in form do more
We see lots of consternation over list growth, and we get it. Inbound marketing is a two-way street with a single point of access — permission to engage. That’s why you’ve optimized your website six ways to Sunday and deployed a small army of pay per click (PCC) ads to bring traffic, right?
Visitors are primed for engagement when they hit your site, and your email signup form has mere seconds to snap up that attention; in short, your signup form is the nexus of your conversion funnel. So make sure you’re optimizing it to attract the right leads.
Here are six tips to optimize your form for new subscribers:
- Generate curb appeal. Your signup form needs to draw the viewer’s eye. Lead site visitors to your form by placing it in a high-traffic area where it doesn’t have to compete with other centers of attention. Making sure your signup form is seen is job #1, and it never hurts to stack the deck. Gilt Taste has a very welcoming homepage, with not one but two places to subscribe above the fold.
- Build trust. Of course, you wouldn’t sell someone’s email address or share it with another company. We know you’re better than that, but potential subscribers may not. Tell them in no uncertain terms that you’ll respect and maintain their privacy.
- Lead with the benefits and explain what’s in store for subscribers. An email address is a precious commodity so make this an appealing transaction. While you can and should employ your brand’s signature wit and wisdom, your pitch is about what’s in it for subscribers. Do your emails make people smarter than the boy next door? Will joining your list score a table at Sunday brunch? Giving people an idea of the email goods you’ll deliver (and when) will head buyer’s remorse off at the pass. Creative firm Rule29‘s newsletter signup form does this very well.
- Be quick on the uptake by limiting your form to three or four fields. We marketers and our precious databases are insatiable when it comes to numbers. Be aware that for every required field, there’s a 20% decline in signups. Put the email field front and center, and unless you require additional information to survive on a desert island, don’t ask for much more before subscribers click submit.
- Encourage self-segmenting. Enabling your audience to choose from a menu of available groups during the opt-in process is a great way to show you care about their preferences, and it’ll sustain their interest over time. If your content strategy has more than one track and your sending schedule’s hopping, let people decide for themselves what they’d like to read and when. To learn more about newsletter menus, see this Ask Emma article.
- Ask politely to learn more about subscribers. It’s quite possible to collect email addresses and demographic data without turning people off. Consider sending a survey with your welcome trigger to give new signups an easy way to tell you their likes and dislikes. If you’re hooked up to Emma’s API through a custom web form, why not create a multi-tiered signup process to keep the opt-ins *and* the data flowing? You’ll want to put the email field on the first page, next to the benefits and submit button. After people click submit, you’re free to direct them anywhere to share their birthday, favorite ice cream flavor and what-not. Lastly, be sure to thank subscribers for what they’ve shared. Read more about thank you pages here.
Gilt Taste's signup is pretty irresistible .
Rule29's signup has perfect pitch.
No sizzle, no signup, no sale
Inbound leads are personal now. It all begins with an email address and, if you’re lucky, a name. An optimized website deserves an equally optimized signup form. So take that signup form off the blocks, test until you find what works best for your audience and watch the people meter wave them in.
+++++
If you like this post, take a look at these:
- Molly highlights an opt-in form that leaves an impression
- Megan shares five ways to jazz up your signup form
- How to add an email signup form to your Facebook page
Stepping out of the inbox
Give your email campaigns a second life with social media
Here’s an interesting question: When you set out to create your company’s newest mailing, do you think of it as an email or as a campaign? Of course, your audience will see it as an email among others in their inbox. But you’re not just creating an email — you’re creating a message that’s worth sharing. And that message (or series of messages) can go beyond the inbox. If you think of it as a coordinated effort or campaign, you’ll realize it’s worth spreading through other channels, too.
Take a closer look at your social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. I’ll bet you’ve got more combined followers than you realize. Do all of them know how to receive your email updates? Have they heard about your latest campaign?
It’s easy to expand your email’s reach beyond the inbox by enabling Emma’s Social Sharing feature, which allows subscribers to share your email with their social networks, and it’s about to be easier for you to post your email to your social networks, with the release of our new Social Posting tool this winter. With a few clicks, you’ll be able to send a mailing to your subscribers and simultaneously post it to Facebook and Twitter. It’s an easy step that makes a big difference. In anticipation, let’s take a look at a few companies who’ve made an art out of extending the reach of their email campaigns via their social channels:
GOOP
GOOP shares a link to their emails on Facebook, generating lots of fan dialogue.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle-oriented email newsletter, GOOP, won’t turn you into an Academy Award-winning actor/singer/cookbook author, but it might make you feel like you’re having a weekly teatime chat with one. GOOP carries on lively conversations with its audience via its Facebook page, and when the latest issue hits the inbox, you can count on a timely post with a concise, appealing teaser.
GeekChic Daily
GeekChicDaily plays hard to get with a Facebook teaser.
Like GOOP, geek culture email newsletter GeekChicDaily thrives on email engagement. But GeekChicDaily takes an interesting approach to extending its email newsletter’s online lifespan through social media: It tells, but doesn’t show. Take a look at this Facebook post. If you’re hooked by the promise of news from the Jim Henson Company (and really, what self-respecting geek wouldn’t be?), then you’ll have to sign up to get the word.
Brite Revolution
Brite Revolution manages to work the sizzle & the steak into one tweet.
If you monitor your emails’ response activity over time, you’ve probably noticed a trend: an early spike in activity (usually in the hours immediately after the send-off), followed by a steady decline in new activity over the course of the first 24 hours. However, as the folks at Brite Revolution know, last Friday’s email content will still be fresh on Tuesday for those who didn’t receive it in their inbox. They’ve packed a lot into this tweet: In addition to linking to both their newsletter and their signup form, they’ve set the expectation for how often they email — and communicated a clear benefit for joining. Not bad for 131 characters!
As email and social media become increasingly intertwined, it’s important to remember that they evolved to answer different but complementary needs. As you join the conversation with your followers on social networks, remember that your email campaigns are a unique opportunity to share sophisticated, content-rich updates. And Facebook and Twitter’s link-friendly environments mean that email updates may prove remarkably well-suited for your social media audience.
+++++
See what we’ve got in the works this winter at Emma. It’s a Featurepalooza!
Keeping it real(tor)
How real estate agents are using email marketing in a tough economy
If there’s one thing realtors are good at, it’s staying positive in the face of unexpected challenges. They greet screwy inspections, needy clients and delayed closings with a smile and a can-do attitude. The past few years have presented plenty of opportunities to push agents to get creative, especially in marketing their own services.
With restrictive lending regulations, higher foreclosure rates and fewer Americans making the jump into home ownership, an agent’s precious advertising dollars need to make a lasting impact. Savvy realtors are developing cost-effective email strategies — turning these challenges into new opportunities.
Are you a real estate agent and not sure where to start? Check out examples from three realtors who sold me right away …
Keeps clients in-the-know.
Cindy Kelly | A monthly newsletter
The monthly newsletter is a real estate staple, as important as freshly baked cookies at your Open House. Your newsletter should be branded, relevant and, most importantly, packed with helpful information. I love this example from Cindy Kelly in Bellevue, WA. Cindy continues to service her clients after the sale by offering them information on home care. Each article provides information about preventive maintenance, and Cindy provides a referral to a local expert. In doing so, she’s also reminding them that she is a housing professional. Going the extra mile no doubt earns Cindy the recommendation of her clients.
+ See a recent newsletter
+ Follow @Cindylive on Twitter
+ Visit Cindy’sblog
Call out multiple listings in one email.
Stephanie Lawrence | Current listings feature
Your monthly email is a great place to share your current listings, link each to your website and track which recipients show interest (via click-throughs). That’s exactly what Stephanie Lawrence of Zeitlin & Co. is doing. Each listing gets an image and a short blurb that links back to her blog and the embedded MLS information. With one click, a buyer can get more information or even schedule a showing. The best part is every click is tracked so Stephanie can keep up with her subscribers. For example, let’s say there’s a price reduction on a home. Stephanie can log into her Emma account, see who clicked to view that home, then email a follow-up with the new pricing info to those folks only. The buyer is excited to receive the news, Stephanie closes the deal, and the home seller is wowed by the quick sale. (That’s the plan, anyway.) Win, win and win.
+ See a recent newsletter
+ Follow @agentsteph on Twitter
+ Visit Stephanie’s website
Hit the highlights of one property.
Angela Barnshaw | Specific property details
As a real estate professional you come into contact with lots of other agents, home inspectors and lenders. Ask them to join your email list and you’ll not only build a strong, permissions-based list, you’ll also create professional relationships that will return more sales. Angela Barnshaw (aka Agent 06) does a splendid job of creating an email specific to each property and sending the campaign to her industry contacts. Each email provides all the information an agent needs to match the home to a potential buyer, and recipients can share the information with their social networks. It’s a powerful marketing tool to add to her arsenal.
+ See a recent campaign
+ Follow @GetAgent06 on Twitter
+ Visit the Agent 06 website
+++++
Want more examples? Take a look at the slideshow below.
Click to view the slideshow.
New to Emma? Get 2 months free when you join today.
Email click-throughs aren’t as elusive as you may think
Small changes in your campaigns can increase your click-through rates
Getting clicks on your newsletter is one of the elusive goals that requires a combination of the right information at the right time to the right recipient. No sweat, right? Well, it makes sense that the percentage of people who click is usually in the single digits. According to the Email Stat Center, the average click-through rate is 5.9%. You aren’t going to be able to meet everyone’s needs in the right stage of the purchase cycle. However, there are a few things that you can do to encourage those on the fence to go ahead and learn more.
Right off the bat, you need to know that you have very little time to engage the person who has just opened your email. Think about that person for a moment; she has just deleted 12 other emails, she’s drinking her morning coffee and she is checking her day’s schedule. Or maybe your recipient is wrapping up before lunch (because at least one time zone always seems to be at lunch). He is seeing your email amongst social media notifications, YouTube videos from his sister, and all he can think about is that club sandwich in his future.
All that is to say, after you spend the time perfecting the content of your email, consider that you only have two seconds to capture the attention of your subscribers. That means that you must share what you’re offering in a clear, swift and appealing manner.
Here’s a good test: Hand your email to a colleague who has not helped design or write it in any way, preferably one who’s unfamiliar with your campaign. To be generous, give him 5 or 6 seconds with it. At the end of that time, he should be able to answer the following questions:
- What are you offering me?
- How can I get it?
You don’t have to be offering a coupon for this test to be relevant. If you are offering your expertise on choosing a wine to pair with dinner, that’s valuable. It just has to be clear.
The “How do I get it?” question is where you really figure out if your message is effective and actionable. Here are some tips (and some of our favorite click-related articles) for optimizing your emails.
- Make it easy to find. Your “click area” should be immediately obvious. Is it a different color? Does it have a giant arrow pointing to it? Is the model in your image looking toward the button? (That has been shown to increase clicks.) It should be very obvious, and you should use visual design techniques to grab the attention of readers. Try different shapes, colors and sizes of your buttons. Experiment with different areas of the page, too. Put the button above most of your copy and see if more people convert.
- Make it easy to click. Again, an immediately apparent button is going to help. (For mobile readers, make sure that your button is at least 44 by 44 pixels and preferably a few lines away from another button to avoid mis-clicks.)
- Make it convincing. The text matters, and slight variations can really make a difference. “Learn More” and “Buy Now” may bring you to the same landing page, but they will appeal to people on different ends of the buying spectrum.
- Limit your subscribers’ choices. Giving too many places to click may overwhelm or confuse your readers. Remember, you only have 2 seconds!
- Use some psychology. Did you know that we lose far more joy by missing out on something than we gain by actually getting it? Consider this as you design your messages.
The small changes go a long way, so give one or two a try and report back — we’d love to know which strategies work best for you.
This is part four in our holiday series where we answer email marketing questions provided by our customers. To see part one, click here. Visit part two here and part three here.
+++++
Not yet an Emma customer? Join now — your first two months are free.
Does the arrangement of your email’s content matter?
Simple steps for more compelling emails
This isn’t really news, but it’s worth stating: Come holiday time, anyone with an email address is bombarded with marketing messages from retail, nonprofits and services. As an email marketer, it’s extra important that the emails you create and send are arranged in such a way that they grab hold of the recipient’s attention and hang on to it.
Sure, the style of your emails is key, but consider also how you package and display the information you’re wanting to convey. It’s the holiday season after all, and the presentation of the gift is half the fun, right?
- Determine the main point of your message and create a call to action. Think about the emails you currently subscribe to and what it is about them that keeps you reading. Something special stands out about them, right? Similarly, your email should tell a memorable story. And make sure to include a call to action that’ll pop. If you’re a local boutique, entice customers with a special holiday sale. If you’re a nonprofit putting the word out about an upcoming fundraiser, give your recipients a way to donate online. Adding buttons to your campaign to *go shopping* or *donate now* is a simple and stylish way to present a call to action. Take a look at the seasonal buttons recently put together by the Emma design team for inspiration.
- Maintain a healthy balance. We recommend an even ratio of text and images. A text-heavy campaign may be overwhelming to the reader, and an image-heavy campaign can affect the delivery of your campaign. Some servers look for that balance between text and images before deciding to accept the message and deliver it to the recipient’s inbox.
- Place the important content “above the fold” — but encourage scrolling too. Many recipients see their emails in a preview pane first so they’re catching the top of your message before anything else. Include important info at the top to catch recipients’ interest, but don’t stop there. Encourage scrolling by including teasers, a table of contents or animation. StyleCampaign recently shared a few tips, like incorporating vertical lines or arrows to guide the reader down the page, and Cody wrote a post here on the Emma blog about adding animated gifs to email campaigns.
- Make your campaign mobile-friendly. Most mobile devices now operate on touch, rather than the scroll and click of a keypad button. Fonts come across small, and it’s easy to fumble your thumbs when moving around the email and clicking links. Avoid stacking links at the top of the email, and use a larger font size for the intro line. And while more folks are using smart phones, it’s still a good idea to pay attention to the plaintext version of your campaign. Older smart phone and Blackberry users might not have the ability to load images, so make sure that plaintext version is user-friendly, too.
- Have a backup plan if images don’t load. Not all users will have their email settings configured to display images by default. If you send an email campaign with several images or perhaps your message is just one big image, your readers are going to end up opening a blank email. As backup, you can add alternative text to the images you upload into your Emma campaign. Alt text guarantees that something will display when the campaign is opened, even if the images don’t. What text should you use, you ask? If the image you’re loading has text on it, you may want to use that as your alt text descriptor. Or you can create your own description of an image.
Beyond these tips, have a little fun with your campaign! Try alternating images from left to right or pick a layout with a sidebar so you can incorporate images down the side with corresponding stories alongside them. Just remember to consider your own habits when reading marketing messages, and apply that self-awareness to your own emails. The rest will fall into place.
This is part three in our holiday series where we answer email marketing questions provided by our customers. To see part one, click here. And visit part two here.
+++++
Send a stylish holiday greeting this season. Order a holiday design from Emma’s design team.
Talking with Tom follow-up
How portable data means better audience relationships
As a follow-up to my interview with Tom Martin about what’s next in tech, I want to create a little food for thought about how marketers can make the most of these evolving technologies. These advances influence the way brands can communicate with their audience in new and exciting ways.
In my interview, I focused on the evolution of how data moves more freely across the internet than ever before. Because folks who build web applications — like Emma, Salesforce, FreshBooks and more — have embraced the idea of open APIs (the way applications transmit and receive data), the challenge of getting member data out of one system, imported into another, then keeping everything in sync has shifted from something terribly difficult and time consuming to something potentially very easy, not deeply technical and mostly automatic. We’re entering an age where we can create a more customized web, built to our own specs for the way we want to look at our data.
So that’s basically what’s happening “under the hood” of web-based applications everywhere, but what does that mean for marketers? At its core it means that we can get excited about a parallel evolution happening in modern marketing, where the customer is empowered to interact with a brand in multiple ways, often on multiple channels, and extract value from the relationship in a way that fits their lifestyle, availability and medium of choice. And while that may sound like a daunting task for marketers to execute, it’s probably easier that you might think.
These three tips will help you strengthen your audience relationships by embracing a more customer-driven marketing plan:
- Focus on your members as much as your content. It’s easy to focus on what we want to say and how/when we want to present that information. But remember that you’re speaking to a bunch of individual people who are all at slightly different stages in their relationship with your brand. Investing some time creating smart groupings of members will make it easier for you to learn what content resonates, at what frequency, and it will give you deeper insight on how to make their experience better and to make your message stick.
- Have a clear strategy for each communication channel. The content-to-audience balance also extends to different communication channels. Social media provides a great opportunity to interact with members on an individual level and can also be your best bet for communicating timely information. Think about how you can engage or share socially in a way that provides complimentary value to what you’re sending to members‘ inboxes. Remember, the trick is to be social, not simply do social.
- Reward engagement to build evangelism. There is no better way to build evangelism and that all-important word-of-mouth recommendation than to personally acknowledge your most engaged members. The investment you make in learning, understanding and reaching out to your most loyal members in special ways will pay off in spades. In most cases, a simple thank you email or @mention on Twitter will make the recipient feel valued and even more likely to talk about that great experience with others.
At the end of the day, all of this new technology simply gives us more opportunity to understand our audience better and communicate in a more personalized way. Open APIs and portable data can break down barriers that have traditionally held member data hostage, and as marketers, investing the time to understand what this new holistic picture is telling us is the real opportunity.
+++++
What’s new at Emma? Take a look at the features coming soon to your account.
It’s Emma’s Featurepalooza!
Take a peek at the new features coming soon to your Emma account
If you’ve been reading here and over on Emma Tech, you know we’ve been hard at work to make Emma simpler, speedier and better for our customers. We’ve shared info about our new platform and changes to come, and today, we’re delighted to give you a closer look at the features and enhancements you’ll find in your account over the next few months.
We’ve got all the details — including sneak peek videos — on our Official Featurepalooza Page, so check it out and let us know if you’d like to be the first in line to try the features.
Google+ pages for business
Why it matters, or not ...
The launch of Google+ this summer was difficult to miss. It was a long-anticipated release and subject to all kinds of speculation about how it would change the landscape of social networks. Would it threaten Facebook’s dominance for personal networking? Would it replace Twitter as the de facto link sharing tool for millions? Would Google finally get social right or simply launch another mediocre product, destined for the scrap heap? While we’re a long way from knowing all of the answers, the last few months have given us a chance to get our hands dirty and start to understand how Google+ fits into the larger social picture.
With the latest news that Google+ has opened its doors for brand pages, marketers have a whole new set of questions to tackle. Is Google+ worth the time and resource investment? Can brands use Google+ to interact with customers in a new way?
To be sure, there are some considerations for integrating Google+ that don’t exist for Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. I’ve picked out a few pros and cons that will hopefully help frame up the unique space that Google+ is trying to carve for its social product.
The good
More customizable page setup
Google realizes that there are all types of businesses and organizations out there that want to communicate and share with their audience, sometimes in unique ways. Google gives you the opportunity to categorize your page in the setup process, with each designation having some unique benefit. The categories are:
- Local business or place
- Product or brand
- Company, institution or organization
- Arts, entertainment or sports
- Other
This is especially helpful for local businesses, for instance, who want to tie in their Google Places account, which displays helpful info like maps, hours of operation, phone numbers, etc.
Better search results
Google has integrated brand pages into its search algorithm with something they call “Direct Connect.” Now, adding a “+” to a standard Google search will take you directly to that brand page, skipping the whole search results stuff. For example, try it by typing “+Anderson Cooper 360” into a Google search bar. You’ll see that it jumps straight to Anderson’s +Page. Again, this is a great benefit to local businesses who often struggle to make it to the first page of standard Google searches. And speaking of that first page, Google’s algorithm will now count how many of your followers have clicked the +1 button (Google’s version of liking) as a way to boost your overall page ranking. It’s leveling the playing field for brands, while adding a way for Google to improve the user experience for their main search product. After all, most users are more interesting in finding than searching,right?
More targeted sharing
As we try to get better at tailoring messages and content to the right people at the right time, the need to segment and understand your audience is more important than ever. That idea is baked into the Google+ platform in a fundamental way with its Circles feature. When it comes to sharing content, page managers will have a much easier time sharing links and content to one, some or all of their members with just a few clicks and some smart grouping of members into circles. Google+ also opens doors to easier direct engagement with hangouts — think of it as group Skyping. The combination of circles and hangouts means that a page can share and interact with only specific groups of followers really easily and all on one platform. Pretty powerful stuff for businesses who don’t have a full staff of marketing and customer service folks at the ready.
The not-so-good
No support for multiple users
At this time, pages can only have one manager who is allowed to own or post to the official page account. This will make it hard for social media or customer service teams to collaborate or divide up work among team members.
No contests, sweepstakes, offers or coupons
Perhaps the biggest difference between Facebook and Google+ will be the nature of the interaction between brand and follower. According to Nielsen, the number one reason folks “like” a brand on Facebook is to receive special discounts or offers. This will be fundamentally different on Google+, and depending on your strategy, could be a dealbreaker for you.
No vanity urls
I expect this feature will come shortly, but as of now it will be a tad cumbersome to tell folks how to navigate to your page. Vanity urls aren’t in play yet, so instead of something easy like plus.google.com/Emma, urls look more like plus.google.com/106168900754103197479/ – not the easiest thing to remember.
At the end of the day, we need to craft a mix of content and communication that meets our customers, fans and followers where they are, and one that delivers consistent value, regardless of delivery channel or network. I don’t think Google+ will be a natural fit for everyone, but I do think it offers some interesting and unique value to a great many businesses. If you’re time-strapped, a small team or a predominantly local business, Google+ may be a perfect fit for you, with benefits that extend beyond the direct engagement you create on your page. As with any new technology or tool, taking an inventory of your own strategy, your audience and how you engage is always a great starting point for determining where you should spend your time and energy. Who knows, a few weeks from now Google+ may be your new one stop social shop. Have a look for yourself, and come back to tell us about your experience.
+++++
Just opened an Emma account? Download our Getting Started Guide.
A new platform for Emma
Emma’s getting upgraded with a faster, more feature-rich platform and a handy API for your developers to use
We’ve been talking about it for a while, and we’re now beginning to roll out our new API — and the new Emma platform to support it.
More about the API
We’ve discussed the new API a bit previously, but to catch you up to speed, an API is an interface that a developer can use to get other programs talking with Emma. That means you can do things like add audience members and groups, pull response data, search your audience and edit member fields all from outside of Emma. If you follow our tech blog, you’ve heard Alex talking about our Salesforce integration, which relies heavily on this new API. Needless to say, this opens up many exciting avenues for both you as a customer and for Emma overall.
More about the new platform
Even if you’re not a developer, Emma’s new platform is going to offer some nice upgrades for everyone, with many more on the way. When your account is migrated to the new platform, you’ll immediately see improvements like:
- International character support
- Multiple test groups
- Faster send times
- Overall improved performance
And in the coming months, you’ll also see some new features being released on this new platform, including automated split testing, signup and survey notifications and social features for campaigns built into your account. All of these features take advantage of our new platform, and many more will follow. Exciting, right? Here’s a sneak peek so you can get a better idea of what’s to come.
What’s happening behind the scenes
To allow you to take advantage of the new system, we’ll be migrating all of our customers to this new Emma platform. That’s a major undertaking that entails moving all of your data from one system to another, one that has an entirely new structure to make these improvements possible. The new system will allow us to scale in a fast and stable fashion, and that means a more reliable and flexible Emma for everyone. This should be a seamless process for you, as each individual account can be moved in a matter of minutes, and downtime per account should be a fraction of that. Additionally, we’ll be doing these moves at non-peak hours to ensure we don’t cause any problems for customers. The entire process of moving all accounts will take some time, so we appreciate your patience as we make the big switch for everyone.
Want to be first in line?
We’ll be rolling out the new platform to all accounts over the next few weeks. As a side note, you’ll only see any new features we release if you’re on the new platform, so if you’d like your account to be upgraded sooner rather than later, let us know here.
If you’re a developer and would like to stay updated with the latest API news, let us know here.
+++++
New to Emma? Get acquainted.
Open rates, simplified
Practical advice for boosting your email opens, just in time for the holidays
If I had a nickel for every time I was asked, “How can I improve my open rate?” I’d probably have all my holiday shopping done by now (okay, that’s wishful thinking). But it’s a question on all of our minds as we put valuable time and resources toward creating and sending email campaigns. And while many variables play into the open rate of an email (time of day, time of year, even the weather), I’ve got some practical tips for boosting opens you can apply to your own email strategy today.
A 40% open rate? Not too shabby.
Brand your from name, from email address and your subject line
These are the first things that folks see when they receive your emails, so your “from name” and email address should be instantly recognizable and branded. Unless you’re Mark Zuckerburg, it might make sense for you to send emails from a more brand-specific email address like, info@yourcompany.com with your company’s name listed as the “from name.” Not sure if changing your sending details will help or hurt your brand? This Mark Brownlow article will walk you through a little self-analysis.
Next, let’s talk subject lines. Here’s a simple subject line axiom: They should be concise and feature your most important or most interesting information. Don’t forget to add your brand voice and personality in there, either. Oh, and by all means, steer clear of the ever-so-boring “December Newsletter,” and be sure to check out Molly’s post on holiday subject lines that work.
Segment your audience and send relevant information to the right people.
The art of segmenting and sending targeted messages will determine the fate of your open rate. While the old “batch and blast” approach may work for some companies, segmenting is key to getting the most out of your email marketing. Here are two ways to try segmenting.
1. By demographic data
- Location. If you’re collecting postal code during signup, you can find members who are closest to your brick and mortar location. Send these folks a campaign that highlights an in-store event or promotion.
- Age. If you’re collecting the birthdays for your new audience members, you can easily segment them by age and target a specific age range with your new product.
- Gender. If you have separate product lines for men and women, have new subscribers choose their gender on your signup form. Send targeted messages by dividing those guys and gals into separate groups.
- Customer status. The types of messages you send prospects should be different from those you send to established customers. Track where audience members are in the customer lifecycle as a custom member field so you can send prospects more promotional messages and send existing customers a feedback survey or event invitation.
2. By response information
Divide your subscribers along activity lines. Audience activity is a good representation of how engaged your subscribers are, and you can treat your most engaged subscribers a bit differently. Since engagement is monitored in the response section through opens and clicks, you can create segments based on those numbers.
The benefit of response-based segmenting is that you can connect with your more engaged groups more regularly, or with special VIP offers. It also highlights which audience members are less engaged, and you can decide whether it’s time to drop them from your regular mailings or attempt a re-engagement campaign to get them back in your good graces.
Keep in mind that each year up to one-third of email addresses become inactive or turn over due to job changes and deleted email accounts. Emfluence Insights has some handy tips for reconnecting with subscribers who hard bounce, but try not to take it too personally if audience members don’t re-engage. You’re better off reserving your marketing efforts for those who already care about who you are and what you’re doing. Check out Mary’s series on engagement for more advice.
Want to share your own secret to great open rates? Comment here and let us know your success story.
This is part two in our holiday series where we answer email marketing questions provided by our customers. To see part one, click here.
+++++
Request a holiday design from Emma’s design team before December 12th to avoid the rush.
Emma is a member of the Email Sender & Provider Coalition and the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group.
Copyright © 2003 - 2012 Emma. All rights reserved.