6 Tips for Creating a 2015 Email Marketing Strategy

Have you determined all the priorities for your email marketing strategy in 2015? Now is the time to review the success of past marketing efforts and look for areas that need to be improved. Here we provide some tips for developing a strategic email road map, so you’ll be ready to hit the ground running when 2015 arrives.

Begin by Setting Goals

Set your marketing objectives for 2015 by first determining where you are today and where you want to be at the end of next year. Our email marketing software is a great tool for helping you see the impact improvements such as higher email open and click-through rates, list growth, and increased landing-page conversion rates can have on the success of your email marketing efforts. As you plan your digital marketing strategy for next year, you’ll find this financial-modeling calculator is a quick, easy, and free way to discover opportunities for increasing your email marketing return on investment (ROI).

Tips for Developing an Effective Email Marketing Strategy

Once you’ve established your email marketing goals for 2015, determining where you should focus your time and resources is the next step. Taking into account current industry trends, here are some prime tips for developing your email strategy for 2015:

• Make mobile a top priority. Considering the already large and rapidly growing number of people using mobile devices, a significant portion of your prospects and customers are likely using smartphones and tablets to read your emails. And if your emails aren’t mobile-friendly, you’re likely frustrating your mobile subscribers and at risk of losing their business. So to make sure your emails both look great and are easy to interact with – whether your subscribers are using desktops, laptops, or mobile devices to read your emails – use responsive design. This dynamic display technology automatically adjusts content and image sizes based on a user’s screen. Check out this previous NewsLever article for other key ways to help ensure your emails are mobile-friendly.
• Use automation to create email drip campaigns that nurture prospects and customers. With the availability of today’s automation tools, setting up email drip campaigns is an easy and highly efficient way to nurture prospects and customers, build customer relationships and loyalty, as well as drive sales. When done right, automatic drip email campaigns send the right offers and content at the right time to effectively convert prospects to leads … and leads to customers. If you’re not already using drip marketing, be sure to read our series of articles that cover the basics of email drip marketing, how to use drip email campaigns to drive conversions, and drip campaign best practices.
• Combine content marketing with strong lead-generation tactics. Each year, typical email lists experience attrition as high as 25% due to bounces, unsubscribes, and inactive users. That’s why it’s essential to counter attrition with a strong lead-generation program and a compelling content marketing strategy. Begin by using demographic data and market research collected on your current customers to create marketing personas, which show the character attributes of your company’s ideal customers. Then, based on these personas, craft content that can be used to effectively capture new leads (content provided in return for contact information), as well as nurture prospects through the sales funnel. For example, this content can include email newsletters, blog posts, videos, webinars, and white papers.
• Personalize and customize your content. In other words, use micro-targeting to 1) identify smaller segments of your subscriber list, and 2) use personalization and customization tactics to provide highly relevant marketing communications to each segment. As we pointed out in a previous article, personalization pays off – generating as much as six times higher transaction rates. So for a smarter, more effective spend on email marketing, email list segmentation combined with content that is both personalized and customized for the different segments should be a high priority in your email strategy.
• Integrate your website with email marketing efforts. If customers begin shopping at your website but abandon their shopping carts, do you have a triggered email campaign in place to reach out and reengage them? If not, you’re missing a huge opportunity to recover the sale. The shopping-cart recovery email is just one example of how you can integrate your website with email marketing to help drive conversions. You can also set up triggered emails based on website visits and browsing activity. For additional examples, check out this NewsLever article on triggered emails.
• Implement an email-optimization process. To drive great results from each of your email campaigns requires continuous improvement of all email elements, such as copy, design, calls to action, subject lines, headlines, landing pages, frequency, and time sent. So set up and analyze email optimization tests for each campaign to determine what works best for your target audience. And then be prepared to implement appropriate changes for future email campaigns to help increase the overall performance of your email marketing program.

Feeling overwhelmed with the task of creating your organization’s email road map for 2015? We can help. We’re a data-driven email marketing firm with a proven process for creating and implementing winning email campaign strategies.

Source: http://www.fulcrumtech.net/resources/create-email-marketing-strategy-2015/

Tags: email marketing, email blast, email marketing software, email marketing company, email marketing service, email marketing malaysia

SearchMetrics Released SEO Ranking Factors For 2014: Content Now Really King?

Every year, SearchMetrics releases the study but this is the largest study they’ve done, with almost 100 pages and by adding dozens of new factors like time of site, bounce rate, fresh links and others.

The key take away from here is that content may now be truly king. Marcus Tober from SearchMetrics said in the report that content is “no longer an addition to, but is the main focus of, SEO .”

Here is a breakdown of the study with some charts showing parts of the analysis. But you can download the full report over here.

Content

• There is a measurable correlation between the quality of content and rankings. This is demonstrated by, among others, the analysis of two new features based primarily on word co-occurrence analysis: Proof and Relevant Terms.
• The length of content continues to increase.
• A good internal linking structure is an important factor, and probably the most underrated SEO measure.

Onpage Technical SEO

• Onpage, the keyword remains an important part of the overall concept for SEO, often represented by a balanced presence in Title, Description, Body copy, H1, H2, etc. Needless to say, that keyword stuffing should still be avoided. However, there is a definite trend towards developing keywords to topics to generate holistic content.
• Site load speed is a veryRF Robot important performance factor.
• Good site architecture is the beginning and end of effective SEO.

Backlinks

• The quantity and especially the quality of backlinks remains important.
• The number of keyword backlinks continues to decrease, even if the correlation increases.
• Backlink features for Brands (Point 6 below) appear to work differently to the rest of the URLs in SERPs.

Social Signals

• There were minor changes to the previous year, with Social signals correlating slightly less with good rankings than last year.
• Average values rose slightly.

User Signals

• Both the click-through rate and the time-on-site are considerably higher in better ranking sites – this may appear obvious, but average values determined over many URLs can be used as a benchmark for your own optimization.
• The bounce rate is lower for top-ranking URLs.

Brand Factor

• There seem to be special consideration for big brands.
• The Brand Factor and its definition have been revised this year, to show the increasing complexity of its influence and quality.

Source : http://searchengineland.com/searchmetrics-released-seo-ranking-factors-2014-content-now-really-king-202756

Tags : seo, seo malaysia, seo company malaysia

Email Marketing: 8 Practical Lessons Learned From Our Newsletter Redesign

1. Inboxes are cluttered—your newsletter shouldn’t be.

In retrospect, our old email newsletter was cluttered. When thinking about our email redesign we opted for a more minimalistic approach, which included more whitespace, better typography and less color. Steven Bradley does a great job explaining the concept: “Minimalism aims for simplicity and objectivity. It wants to reduce works to the fundamental, the essential, the necessary, and to strip away the ornamental layers that might be placed on top.” Less is definitely more when it comes to email. Many businesses are guilty of trying to cram more than one marketing message into their email marketing campaigns, but focus drives metrics. Our minimal design approach ended up being easy on the eyes and beautiful across all devices.

2. Bring sexy back with thoughtful email design.

Our minimal email design focuses on key elements, all with the same underlying principle that less is more. We added blocks of neutral color to help break up the newsletter into sections that are easy to distinguish. And the color scheme makes our weekly newsletter, as a whole, look cohesive. When recipients open our emails we want them to think, “fresh and clean” instead of “overwhelmed and cluttered”. One of the most important things you can do (with any marketing communication) is to stay on brand … simple is in fact, sexy.


3. We’ve got mobile on our mind and so do your customers.

As Forbes contributor Katie Lee explains, “If a campaign doesn’t show up on mobile devices, it’s not going to perform very well.” We’re on-the-go, and so are you and your customers. Mobile is no longer a nicety, it’s a must-have. We’ve adopted the philosophy, moving forward, that everything we send should be mobile-friendly. “63 percent of Americans and 41 percent of Europeans would either close or delete an email that’s not optimized for mobile.” (Source: Forbes) These stats speak volumes.


4. Subject lines must be short and relevant.

Once we clearly defined our primary goal for sending email, we rethought our subject line. As a consumer, we’ve all seen wordy, misleading, and lengthy subject lines that made our heads hurt. So, we opted for a “simple” cut to the chase approach. An email marketing rule of thumb is that you should keep your subject line to 50 characters or less. (Source: MailChimp) Also, since our free Weekly Insider is delivered on a weekly basis we added a date to the subject line for easy cataloging and reference. Keep in mind, your subject line is highly dependent on my next lesson learned – content.

5. Create compelling and focused content.

“One of the biggest problems with email newsletters is that they are often cluttered and unfocused because they are supporting every aspect of your business.” Our email strategy will continue to evolve, but it starts with the notion that there are several different types of emails to share. From newsletters, to digests, dedicated emails, lead nurturing, sponsorship, transactional, welcome, advice/educational, testimonial, surveys and more – it’s important to decide which communications work best for your audience and deliver focused content, respectively. HubSpot, a great resource for marketers, goes into detail here.


6. We’ve got a lot of personality and it starts with a brand voice.

When I launched YFS Magazine in late 2009 it had a very specific brand voice (I think “Young, Fabulous and Self-Employed” spoke volumes). As we’ve evolved into a global platform for entrepreneurs, our reach expanded and our voice matured. In essence, it has remained true to its brand roots: making entrepreneurship accessible with an authoritative voice and selectively optimistic view of startups and small business culture. To share this personality with readers, we’ve added a publisher’s note to our newsletter, which I will pen for the foreseeable future. My goal is to highlight key trends and insights we’re seeing across the ecosystem and stay in touch. It’s a simple way to steer clear from boring and remain relevant. Also, we endeavored to write short, strong copy—because there is beauty in getting to the point, especially in email.


7. Remind people that you’re social.

In our freshly-minted newsletter we place a high priority on social. Not only did we link to our primary social networks, we also included social sharing buttons for every article to increase engagement. Did you know? “Options to share on social platforms generated a 115% better CTR (click-through-rate) than emails with no options to share the message.” (Source: Socialfresh) This in itself is reason enough to empower people to share what resonates. Social is still an incredibly viable and cost-effective way to grow your business. Email is no exception.


8. Metrics are in the overlooked details.

Pay close attention to the details. From design to deliverability, branding, social and more. The smallest details can go a long way. For example, we had never given much thought to email preheaders—until now. It’s the first thing you read after the subject line and it gives a quick summary of what your email is about. For example, “in Gmail, it is the first line of text that follows the subject line in the inbox view.” (Source: Email Design Review) Most importantly, it boosts the subject line and delves deeper into what your subject line doesn’t say. Also referred to as the “Johnson Box,” these 30 characters actually raise open rates and click through rates on mailings. Who knew?

Source : http://yfsmagazine.com/2014/11/20/email-marketing-8-practical-lessons-learned-from-our-newsletter-redesign/2/

Tags : email marketing, email marketing malaysia

8 Effective Email Marketing Strategies, Backed by Science

 

The cutthroat inbox of your standard consumer roils with marketing messages, competitive subject lines, and scores of attention-seeking emails. With over 144 billion emails sent each and every day, email marketing remains one of the elite channels for business communication. So how does the signal separate itself from the noise? To be sure, finding the key to a stand-out message is critical to your bottom line—whether that bottom line is cold, hard cash or community engagement or anything in between. What follows are eight inbox-tested email marketing strategies that successful senders have used to get their emails clicked.

1. Personalize your email without using the recipient’s name

No more “Dear [INSERT NAME HERE]”.

The practice of personalized email greetings is not nearly as effective as it may seem. In fact, research by Temple’s Fox School of Business suggests that this particular kind of personalization could be harmful.

Given the high level of cyber security concerns about phishing, identity theft, and credit card fraud, many consumers would be wary of emails, particularly those with personal greetings.

A significant element of email marketing is relationship. Does a recipient trust you? Does a recipient even know who you are? When an email jumps the gun by forcing familiarity too soon, the personalization comes across as skeevy. Intimacy is earned in real life, and it would appear to be the same way with email. Take this example from my inbox; no one has called me lowercase kevan l lee in years.

Faking familiarity with the subscriber turns many wary email readers off. But this isn’t to say that all forms of personalization are off-limits. In fact, a particular brand of personalization can pay off big time: Sending email that acknowledges a subscriber’s individuality (e.g., purchase history or demographic).

(The study) also found that product personalization, in which customers are directed to products that their past purchasing patterns suggest they will like, triggered positive responses in 98 percent of customers.

The takeaway here is that if you are to use personalization as an email marketing strategy, do so in a meaningful way. It takes little knowledge or relationship to place someone’s name in your greeting. It shows far greater care to send personalized email that is specific to a recipient’s needs and history. Again, an example from my inbox, this email from Rdio dispenses with the formalities and simply provides an update on music I actually listen to.

2. The long and short of subject lines

When it comes to deciding how to craft that perfect subject line, there appears to be really only one area to avoid: the subject line of 60 to 70 characters. Marketers refer to this as the “dead zone” of subject length. According to research by Adestra, which tracked over 900 million emails for its report, there is no increase in either open rate or clickthroughs at this 60-to-70 character length of subject line.

Conversely, subject lines 70 characters and up tested to be most beneficial to engage readers in clicking through to the content, and subject lines 49 characters and below tested well with open rate.

In fact, Adestra found that subject lines fewer than 10 characters long had an open rate of 58%.

Short subjects came in vogue with the success of President Barack Obama’s email fundraising. He saw incredible engagement with subjects like “Hey” and “Wow.”

So the question becomes: Do you want to boost clicks (response) or opens (awareness)? Go long for clickthroughs; keep it short for opens.

Either way, a helpful email marketing strategy is to squeeze out more words or cut back just a bit to avoid that 60 to 70 character dead zone.

3. 8:00 p.m. to midnight is the prime time to send your email

While many a quality email may be built during business hours, the ones with the best open rates aren’t being sent from 9 to 5. The top email marketing strategy is to send at night.

In their quarterly email report for 2012’s fourth quarter, Experian Marketing Services found that the time of day that received the best open rate was 8:00 p.m. to midnight. This block not only performed better for open rate (a respectable 22 percent) but also for clickthrough and sales.

The chart above shows that the 8:00 to midnight window is also the least used—a key factor in helping those late night emails outperform the rest. From Experian:

Optimal mailing time often depends upon your customers’ behaviors, inbox crowding, and the deployment times of other marketers.

Inbox crowding and the deployment times of other marketers go hand-in-hand; if your email goes out when few others do, it stands a greater chance of getting noticed (so quick, start sending between 8:00 and midnight before everyone else catches on).

Optimal mailing for your customers’ needs will be up to you. Test, test, and test some more to find out how your customer ticks and when he/she opens email.

4. The best content is free content: Give something away

Consumers love a free lunch—or a free template.

In a study on their singapore email list of 6,300 subscribers, Bluewire Media tested various types of content to see what led to the highest rates for opens and clicks. The winner was templates and tools, just the kind of freebies that email readers want.

Many a consumer will ask, “What’s in it for me?” When it comes to resources, Bluewire Media’s test results say that templates and tools outweigh ebooks, expert interviews, brain teasers, and even photo albums. You will want to test with your own list, but certainly use Bluewire’s research as a head start.

5. Mobile opens accounts for 47 percent of all email opens

Mobile opens accounted for 47 percent of all email opens in June, according to numbers provided by email marketing firm Litmus. If your email list singapore accounts for $100,000 in sales each month, could you afford to wave bye-bye to $44,000 just because your email looks funky on a mobile phone?

Design responsively to ensure that your email looks great no matter where it’s read. Here are some quick mobile design tips:

Convert your email to a one column template for an easy mobile fix.

• Bump up the font size for improved readability on smart phones.
• Follow the iOS guideline of buttons at least 44 pixels wide by 44 pixels tall.
• Make the call-to-action obvious and easy to tap. Above the fold is preferable.
• Consider ergonomics. Many users tap and scroll with their thumb, so keep important tappable elements in the middle of the screen.

6. Email marketing still reigns over Facebook and Twitter

Social media may be the young whippersnapper nipping at email’s heels, but the content king of the inbox still holds sway in social influence, according to a study by SocialTwist. Over an 18-month period, SocialTwist monitored 119 referral campaigns from leading brands and companies. The results showed a significant advantage to email’s ability to convert new customers compared to Facebook and Twitter.

Of the 300,000 referrals who became new customers, 50.8 percent were reached by email, compared to 26.8 percent for Twitter and 22 percent for Facebook.

Email marketing ruled supreme, by almost double.

7. Send email on the weekends

While not as overwhelming a winner as the 8:00 p.m. to midnight time of day, Saturday and Sunday did outperform their weekday counterparts in Experian’s study of day-of-week performance.

Again, the volume of email sent on the weekends is low, just like the volume for evening emails, which could help those messages stand out more. The margins for clickthrough, open, and sales rates were not substantial, but in email marketing, every little bit counts.

8. Re-engage an inactive group of subscribers

Your list is huge. Great! The only problem is that two-thirds of it may be inactive.

Research has found that the average inactivity for a list is 63 percent, meaning that once someone joins they are less likely to ever follow-up with your follow-up emails. Email marketing firm Listrak goes so far as to identify the first 90 days as the window for turning a sign-up into a devotee (and they lay out a plan for doing so).

What’s to become of that inactive 63 percent? Re-engagement campaigns are an excellent place to start.

Recently, a re-engagement campaign from Digg wound up in my inbox. The subject was catchy (“This Is Not An Email From 2006″), and the content helpfully explained what the email was all about.

As with everything that we call science, it’s all about doing experiments. Very likely, if you are doing your own experiments, you might actually have found different results. What are your best email marketing strategies and email marketing tips? Tell us in the comments below!

Source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/8-effective-email-strategies-backed-by-research

Tags: email marketing, email blast, email marketing software, email marketing company, email marketing service, email marketing singapore

Better Data and Personalization Are the Future of Email Marketing

Most brands have some kind of email marketing platform as part of their overall marketing strategy. But in recent years, consumers have grown weary of one-size-fits-all, spamlike promotional messages, and marketers who still take this approach will need to update their tactics to stay in their customers' inboxes.

Business News Daily spoke with marketing experts to discover what trends are shaping the future of the industry. Here are five ways email marketing will evolve in the coming years.

Real-time campaigns

Big Data has touched nearly every facet of business in recent years, enabling brands to create highly personalized and effective campaigns by analyzing detailed consumer data. Email marketers already utilize Big Data to segment their audiences based on past purchases and Web browsing history. But Jason Warnock, vice president of market intelligence and deliverability at email marketing software Yesmail, said that real-time email triggers will become increasingly common in the coming years.

"Email marketers are increasingly recognizing the value of triggered campaigns and sending personalized brand messages based on a customer's behavior," Warnock told Business News Daily.

Since many consumers check their various newsfeeds consistently throughout the day, a real-time marketing email based on a relevant local event or news story is very likely to be read because the event is top-of-mind.

"Data is becoming sophisticated enough to do this, so we can expect more personalization and automation in the future," Warnock said.

Contextual behavior predictions

Big Data is also helping email marketing evolve by telling marketers not only what types of content their recipients are most likely to consume, but when and where they'll actually open the message.

"The real cutting edge of email in today's world is context and behavior," said Len Shneyder, director of industry relations at messaging software provider Message Systems. "Knowing when a person is most likely to open their email because you've tracked previous opens, segmented those opens and applied geographical location data will make a world of difference."

More data in the email channel means more specificity and a highly personalized experience, Shneyder said. As in other forms of marketing, the most highly tailored email marketing efforts will be the ones that see the most engagement.

"Users will be able to tell a marketer the exact kinds of messages they want — push [notifications] versus SMS versus email versus social," Shneyder said. "Marketers will respond and adapt to the fact that consumers are driving the conversation and relationship."

Moving "up the funnel"

The sales process is often described as a funnel. The closer a consumer is to making a purchase, the lower down the funnel they are said to be. Dela Quist, CEO of email marketing agency Alchemy Worx, said that marketers currently tend to view email marketing at the bottom of the funnel, with a focus on conversion and optimizing the conversion, but this won't be the case going forward.

"Over the next few years, more companies will need to consider how they can make email equally as effective at the top of the funnel as a powerful branding tool," Quist said. "If a consumer decides not to open [an email], that doesn't mean it hasn't left an impression. We'll see more marketers figuring out how to account for those types of actions that come from using email as a branding tool. If marketers can learn to optimize email for both the top and bottom of the funnel, we'll see even more powerful and impactful campaigns."

Because so much of email marketing is automated now, companies can stop worrying about the technical aspect and zero in on crafting messages with great content. Understanding what subscribers want and delivering it to them in a creative and personal way are the keys to connecting subscribers with your brand, Quist said.

More sophisticated reporting

Thoroughly analyzing reports from your email service provider (ESP) is the most effective way to determine what's working and what isn't. Your reports can tell you everything from how many emails were opened to what links in the message were clicked. But it's what you do with those reports that will really matter most in the coming years.

"Reporting is the new key to maintaining high delivery rates," said Seamas Egan, manager of revenue operations at email marketing service provider Campaigner. "The new MO at Internet service providers is interaction rate. This means that if you use a tier 1 ESP, your emails will eventually end up in junk if they have low open and click-through rates. Use reporting to proactively monitor those rates and adjust messaging frequency and content accordingly to ensure you maintain high interaction rates."

Reading the reports is only the first step; you'll need to take action and adjust your strategy based on the numbers. E.J. McGowan, general manager of Campaigner, reminded marketers that an email "campaign" no longer means sending just a single email.

"Campaigns should consist of multiple steps, with different email content based on the actions of the reader," McGowan said. "If they didn't open your original message, try sending a different subject line. If they didn't interact, then try changing up the offers and calls to action. Marketers need to utilize the data available to connect with their readers effectively."

Email as a gateway

Years ago, email was a unique marketing channel that essentially existed in a silo. However, as more and more communication channels have opened up, email has taken a backseat to the growing number of ways to reach consumers. Marketers now need to approach email as their consumers do — as part of an omnichannel marketing strategy.

"Email is no longer a silo but a gateway to social media," said Chris Penn, vice president of marketing technology at public relations firm Shift Communications. "It's an alternate sale on your website and the only reliable future-proof marketing channel against constant change in social media."

Although Penn predicts that email will lose some of its traction to mobile digital channels, he said that email will remain the gold standard for reliably reaching consumers.

"It's the one outbound digital communication method that is vendor-agnostic," Penn said. "Facebook, Twitter, etc. are all privately held entities, not open Internet protocols, and that ensures that email will remain relevant for some time to come."

Source: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7315-future-of-email-marketing.html

Tags: email marketing, email blast, email marketing software, email marketing company, email marketing service, email marketing malaysia

Email Marketing Software – An automation to generate leads and ways to make it an effective marketing tool.

Email Marketing Software – An automation to generate leads and ways to make it an effective marketing tool.

Email marketing system or Email Direct Marketing (hereinafter known as EDM in this article)is a platform to send email to a collection of leads mainly to communicate or to advertise product to the intended group of people.

At some point, we will be asked of this question.

 What is a lead?

In the digital marketing, the term lead is often used by digital marketer as a prospect of sale. This is not a technical jargon but to someone initially exposing to online marketing his products / services this doesn’t sound right to him.Lead is not a chemical element in this article, chemist, sorry another day perhaps.

A lead is a piece of information or any personal detailsusually an email addressobtained through;

a)      Filling an e-form in a website;

b)      Subscribing to monthly email content or;

c)      A participant to your seminar or webinar (web conferencing).

Are the leads generated genuinely representing prospects which can be converted into sales? As digital marketers we are the fronting the line to provide various solutions to answer YES, but how?

EDM is one of the effective marketing tool today and still stand the test of thebooming Internet Technology era. One can assume it is known as a traditional marketing tool now due to uprising streams of social media marketing.

Research from Experian(http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2013/07/email-marketing-stats.html) shows that in every $1 invested in email marketing initiatives still yields roughly $44.25 return for marketers. Considering the huge percentage of yield it does show full confidence in EDM.
   

Although facts show how familiarity in EDM breeds confidence and comfort in this marketing tool, yet many are still unaware of how to effectively manage an email campaign let alone generate revenue. Let’s face it, the market is huge and there are millions of businesses still reluctant in trying EDM.

List below are 5 important steps (list is not exhaustive but comprehensive) on how to fully utilize EDM.


Segmentation -

In every EDM, there is a basic function to track the leads by filtering grey or white leads. Not everybody subscribing to your email content are interested in buying the product. Perhaps they just want the latest news feed or certain contents are informative for whatever reasons they think is relevant.

The first step to effective conversion lead into sale is segmenting the types of lead. Grey lead is what I term as indecisive prospect. They are unsure whether to switch brand but more likely to be informed of the latest information. White lead is a typical genuine prospect that will readily submit their feedback and subscribe to your weekly / monthly email content.

One way to be sure is to insert 2 different types of subscription link. A link to subscribe for daily / monthly newsfeed and another link to direct audience to your landing page (your website).

With the response we get, we can segment each group of leads and only send relevant information. Quality communication with your prospects and customers can get you closer to that group of people actually looking forward to your message.

 Personalize your email -

This has been said too often many times but seems a huge neglect.

Recipients will feel connected to the sender if email content has the person’s name acknowledged. It is a serious blunder telling them oh okay we are mass emailing so we can’t type your name.

Most EDM allows personalization and by using it you get to go long way by earning their trust.

 

 Designing your Email Content -

The question that every digital marketer ask is, what is the ultimate aim of you sending the email content?

Generally, selling or promoting a product is the top of the list, followed by brand awareness or promoting seminars. The central idea is communicating a message to the intended recipients. Relevant content is king. A few tips on the designing the email content.

Subject line– The subject line should be short but carry weight of what the content is about. It is an invitation for someone to open the email. Having said that, the subject line must be interesting yet not misleading and capital letters should be avoided outright so it doesn’t look ‘spammy’. So spend some time on creating a fantastic subject line. There is no one size fits all for a great subject line. What sounds amazing to one business doesn’t mean it can make it for a different business in different industry. Hence, creativity is the key.

Image–Something I read recently, the brain comprehends images 60,000 times faster than text. Words brief and to the point enough for communication.

Information details– Leaving contact detail and subscription linkto avoid your email content be deemed as spam by spamming filter and this leads us to point number 4.

Remember your landing page -

In digital marketing, CTA is our widely used word simply means ‘Call To Action’. Some emails ultimate aim is to just drive recipients to their website.

Your email content can be amazing but it must be resourceful by directing recipients to the landing page, which is your fantastic website.

Be creative in designing a landing page. Outsource if you do not have an in-house creative team. Landing page must be optimized for smartphones, tablets with user-friendly buttons. Traffic routed to landing page can be captured as a valuable data. Bottom line here is if your email content is mobile-friendly so should be your landing page.

Contact us for advice -

Finally, the safest bet to avoid the trappings in EDM is to contact us for more information. You don’t want your email newsletter to be junked by the internet service provider without knowing why.

Happy working ladies and gentlemen and have a great day.

Tags: email marketing, email marketing thailand, email blast, bulk email, email blast software, mass email marketing, email marketing solutions, bulk email software, email marketing services, email marketing company, sms marketing, sms blast

9 Email Marketing Best Practices for Lead Gen

1. Use Incentives to Increase Open Rates: When you include an incentive in your subject line, you can increase open rates by as much as 50%. “Free shipping when you spend $25 or more” and “Receive a free iPod with demo” are examples of good, incentive-focused subject lines.

2. Stick to Fewer Than 3 Typefaces: The less clutter you have in your email, the more conversions you’ll experience. Don’t junk up your email with more than 2, or at maximum, 3 typefaces.

3. Keep the Main Message and Call-to-Action Above the Fold: If your main call-to-action falls below the fold, then as many as 70% of recipients won’t see it. Also, any call-to-action should be repeated at least 3 times throughout the email.

4. Keep Your Email 500-650 Pixels Wide: If you go wider than 650 pixels, then you’re asking users to scroll horizontally to read your entire message. That’s a no-no.

5. Put Your Logo in the Upper Left-Hand Side of the Email: Eye tracking studies have found that people instinctively look for logos in the upper left-hand side of emails. Put your logo in the upper left-hand side to ensure it gets the most visibility.

6. Write Compelling Subject Lines: A good subject line should contain no more than 30 to 50 characters. It should also create a sense of urgency, and it should give readers some indication of what to expect once they open the email.

7. Use Auto-Responders for Opt-Ins: Be prepared for your readers to forget they opted in. Set up an auto-responder that reminds people they opted in to your email database. The auto-responder should be sent out 1 day, 5 days, and 10 days after the person registers. Each auto-responder email should include additional content or bonus material to reward the reader for opting in.

8. Closely Tie Emails to Landing Pages: Your landing page should match the email in terms of headline, copy, and content. The look and feel of your landing page should also match the email. And make sure you’re utilizing tracking tools to see which emails and landing pages performed the best.

9. Conduct a 5-Second Test: Send a copy of the email to a friend or business associate. Can they quickly tell what your call-to-action is? If so, you’re golden. If not, keep working.

Source : http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/23965/9-Email-Marketing-Best-Practices-to-Generate-More-Leads.aspx

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