Category Archives: Email Marketing

Email Marketing

Longer Isn’t Necessarily Better For Your Email Campaigns

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As of lately, I’ve heard several customers call in and ask about the length of their email marketing campaign that they are putting together. They want to know if it is wise to pack their email full of information or if it’s better to be brief and to the point.

Our email marketing studies consistently show that recipients often prefer short emails that are direct and to the point. An email that seemingly scrolls forever can often be intimidating and may scare off your reader.

Plus, it’s important to realize that your recipient has limited time in their day to devote to your email marketing campaign and if your email is designed to exceed that time (because it’s so long!) then you run the risk of them stopping short and potentially missing some key messages. Whereas, if your email is very much focused on your key points and kept as short as possible, then chances are your recipients will read all the way to the bottom and nothing will get left out.

One tactic that is very helpful for email marketing campaigns that run the risk of being very long is to include a short ‘teaser’ type paragraph and then put a “Read More” or “Learn More” link at the bottom. When the reader clicks that link, you bring them to your website where they can read the full version of the article.

This is a great approach because those that want more information can easily click the link, whereas those who aren’t particularly interested in that article can easily skim over it and move onto the next article (as opposed to just giving up completely).

The length of your email marketing campaign is an important factor and if you haven’t asked yourself lately “Is my email too long?” you may want to stop and ask that because if the answer is “yes, then there are quick and easy remedies.

Company News, Email Marketing

Holiday Email Templates A Huge Success

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A couple of weeks ago we released a brand new template category within EliteEmail.com titled “Holiday”.

I was just reviewing some of the recent template usage metrics and these new templates (obviously fueled by the time of the season) have been a massive success.

It is interesting to see that businesses around the globe of all types, ranging from banks, consultants, restaurants, bands, artists, and more all chose to send out holiday eCards to their contacts. Furthermore, in most cases these messages carried no promotional message whatsoever, and simply wished “happy holidays” and ‘happy New Year”.

This is a wonderful example of how email marketing can help boost your brand image with your customer base, even if you aren’t actually measuring sales conversions as your key email marketing ROI metric for a certain campaign.

Email Marketing

Choosing a From Name For Email Marketing Campaigns

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A customer called yesterday and asked a very good question about the ‘from name’ they are going to use for their email marketing campaigns.

The ‘from name’ is what appears in your recipient’s inbox as the sender of the email.

Since, in many popular email programs, all someone can see is the name and subject prior to deciding whether or not to open the email, the name represents a very important piece of the puzzle. Often times the name alone can severely impact your open rate.

The key thing when selecting the ‘from name’ is to use something that your customers will recognize. This is by far the most important question you have to ask yourself. If all of your customers know your store as “Widgets R Us”, then it is very important that is the name they see. Even if your name is John Smith that doesn’t mean it is in your best interest to put that on your email marketing campaigns. If people are only going to recognize your company name (in this example “Widgets R Us”) then you should use that.

On the flip side of the coin, if people know your name personally, then don’t feel obligated to use your company name.

As always, the key is to put yourself in your recipient’s shoes and figure out which name they will recognize most.

If you’re really unsure and you’re banging your head against the keyboard trying to figure out what name will yield the best results, then you can do some A/B testing. Send out an email to half your contacts with one name (maybe your company name) and then the other half with a different name (maybe your personal name). See which one performs better and then that will answer your question on what to do for future email marketing campaigns.

Email Marketing, Online Marketing

Should You Promote a Product in Your Email Marketing “Happy Holiday” Campaigns?

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All week long customers have been calling in discussing their plans for sending out holiday email marketing campaigns next week and the week after. Tis’ definitely the season to harness the power of email marketing to spread your message!

One customer posed an interesting question to one of our support representatives. He asked whether it was appropriate to advertise one of his products alongside his holiday wishes. When you really think about it, this is an interesting question.

Does it diminish the thoughtfulness of your holiday eCard if it comes across as a promotional piece?
Do people see your holiday eCard as a promotional piece anyway and expect to see advertising?

Personally, I would keep my product promotion out of my holiday email marketing campaigns. I think there is an implicit brand promotion in your holiday eCard without explicitly highlighting a product. Your holiday email marketing campaigns are a time for you to tell your customers that you are thinking about them and to wish them a happy new year. Doing this scores serious brownie points for your brand and I think you lose out on that if you say “Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Click Here To Buy This Product”.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with putting a link back to your website (… I’d definitely encourage that!) You can even put a message saying you have many new products coming out in the upcoming year to get your customer’s excited.

If you try to do too much in one email, then you run the risk of accomplishing nothing. So, ask yourself, what is the real goal of your holiday email marketing campaigns and you should come up with the exact right answer for what tactic you should adopt.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing Campaigns For Thanksgiving

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Today we started getting calls and emails from customers asking when the best day is to send out their email marketing campaigns saying “Happy Thanksgiving” to their customers.

Obviously one of the benefits of email marketing is that your message can be timely, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should wait until the absolute last second to hit send.

There are primarily two schools of thoughts when it comes to email marketing strategy on this topic.

1. First Mover Advantage
While this actual term typically refers to a company gaining a competitive advantage by entering a market segment first (see Wikipedia on First-Mover Advantage), I like to use it on a more micro level as it applies in this case. If you want your customers to get their first “Happy Thanksgiving” email from you, then go ahead and send it early. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with launching your email marketing campaign before the actual holiday is upon us. If you think that waiting will make your customers say “Yet another email wishing me happy thanksgiving” then go ahead and send it early.

2. Timeliness Is Everything
My birthday is on June 5. But, if someone were to call me up on May 26 and say “Happy Birthday Rob!”, I’d probably think they’re crazy. I mean, nice gesture, but come on? That same sort of methodology applies to your email marketing campaigns around Thanksgiving. Just about everyone realizes that email is an instant technology (that’s one of the key benefits over traditional snail mail!). So, you may make your customers wonder why you jumped the gun on pressing send on your email so early.

In my opinion, no matter which option you choose for your email marketing strategy, the important thing is to realize that your customers will appreciate the gesture. So, in this case, there may be no wrong answer, just two variations of the right email marketing strategy.

Go ahead and adopt whatever you think will work best for your audience, but don’t spend too much time worrying about the exact timing. After all, while I thought the person who wished me happy birthday in May was a little bit nuts, I still appreciated the gesture (and, heck, it may be the only birthday wish I remember because I’m even writing about it now!).

Email Marketing, Online Marketing

Don’t Overlook Landing Pages for your Email Marketing Campaigns

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I just finished writing an article about driving sales with landing pages, which you can find in email marketing university.

But, I wanted to post that topic here as well because so often it is overlooked by marketers.

Just like search engine advertising produces better conversion rates, email marketing has the same reaction.

With so much clutter in the marketplace these days, it’s vital that you guide your customers down a very fine path. Don’t give a link to your homepage, if you know they’re interested in a specific product.

It’s amazing how many email campaigns I see where someone is selling widgets and it’s a featured item in their current newsletter. Below the sales blurb about the widget, there is a learn more link. Clicking that link should definitely absolutely positively be bringing me to a page about widgets. But, instead it brings me to their companies homepage where I am bombarded with a ton of other distractions and messages coming at me.

You know what… maybe this customer was willing to click ‘buy now’ or ‘add to cart’ if it was right their on their screen with some more product info. But, now you’ve dropped them into a maze and said “you work for it if you want to order this!”

Not really a good email marketing or general marketing strategy.

The quickest way to get your customer from point A to point B. That’s what you’ve got to be thinking about!