[caption id="attachment_31999" align="alignright" width="270"] Image via shutterstock.com[/caption] There are a lot of supposed monarchies when it comes to email marketing. Depending on the conversation, content rules one day, the user holds the crown on the next, and data picks up responsibilities on weekends. With that many claims to the throne, you’d think messaging would be easier! In reality, they’re multiple facets of the same challenge: aligning content to balance sender and subscriber needs. So, how should we think about constructing messages that a subscriber finds intere [...]

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As a Creative Director, my workday often revolves around crafting and optimizing email communications for big brands. So, I’m always intrigued when new technologies come along that allow me to put another tool in my kit. One of the most exciting developments to come along recently has been the use of video in email. Not the spoofed playback buttons overlaid on a static image, or even animated gifs that simulate video, but honest-to-goodness sound and motion video played directly in a recipient’s inbox. Why is this development so exciting? Well, email is a very brief and fleeting medi [...]

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Open and click-through rates are common metrics used to evaluate the success of email campaigns. But we all know that for retailers, revenue is what really matters. Like every other department in an organization, as the new year begins (or when your fiscal year ends) marketers are requesting and competing for budget. As you prepare, use the following email revenue metrics to help prove your case. Campaign Revenue How much money did you generate on your e-commerce site from a particular email send? Knowing this requires that your emails are appropriately tagged for your online analytics t [...]

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The concept of responsive email has entered into the industry consciousness, though the actual deployment is still far from common. Still, enough senders are experimenting with the technique, and we’re beginning to see patterns in layouts and organization. Any examination of responsive layout patterns must first point to the work of Luke Wroblewski. Wroblewski has written a wonderful series of posts on responsive layout patterns on the Web, which informs many ideas and images (the column drop, layout shifter and associated images port very directly from his web observations). His work is [...]

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More than just a social hub to share images, Pinterest has become a lifestyle brand itself. Exuding a feeling of simple, clean, nearly dreamy -- dare I say aspirational -- moments of pleasure, it's actually influencing a new aesthetic style. In fact, one of the common complaints is how spellbinding the Pinterest experience becomes as users spend hours upon hours exploring content and seeking out new curators of style, inspiration and taste. Adopted primarily by women and at an astounding pace (at this rate there’ll soon be more people with Pinterest accounts than toothbrushes), it’s an [...]

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Next year looks to be a strong one for email marketing according to a StrongMail survey of more than a thousand marketers released today. The survey found that marketers plan to deploy more budget to email, social and mobile next year -- which makes sense given a second study by ReturnPath found mobile open share has increased 300 percent globally since 2010. StrongMail found that 89 percent of those surveyed plan to increase or maintain the same level of marketing spend in 2013, with 56% intending to grow their email marketing budget, 52% investing more in social media, 43% planning to [...]

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That moment before you click send on an email to millions of subscribers can really make you sweat, no matter how many times you’ve done it before. Once you hit send, it’s gone to the inbox, and the last thing you want to hear is “did that email go to everyone?” Confirming an email is accurate before it deploys is more than just proofreading and having a second set of eyes; it’s strictly following a well-defined process to ensure that you’re delivering a message that reflects well on your organization. On a rare occasion, mistakes will happen, but you need to constantly work [...]

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Presentation is everything, they say. And this is especially true on the Internet, when your prospective customers can't physically handle your products or talk to you in person. What your readers see in the email you send (its layout and design) significantly impacts how they react to it; namely, whether or not they respond in a way you'd want them to. So, when you really want them to react in a particular way (like taking a survey or buying your new product), your call-to-action should be designed and placed carefully. Why "The Fold" Can Help You Do This "The fold" is the bottom of y [...]

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A few months back, I wrote a post outlining four responsive emails and the tactics they applied to content. I've received significant feedback on that post, so I’m diving back in to show some more responsive emails from my inbox. There’s a range of ideas here, from beginner to advanced tricks. It’s important that we all be looking at examples of what’s happening in the space. There are few best practices established, and fewer quick fixes. The phrase “mobile optimization” is being tossed around a lot, but the idea is new enough that I don’t think we quite know what it means ye [...]

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'Tis the season when the volume of email sends begins to soar. From Black Friday previews to last minute gift reminders, retailers are upping the ante on the number of messages being sent. This makes the inbox a crowded place to be. But that’s not news. What makes this retail holiday season special? This year over 30% of those messages will likely be read on some type of mobile device. So how do you ensure your message will stand out in the mobile inbox? Even if you haven’t been able to transition your emails into a responsive template or you’re waiting to roll out that new mobil [...]

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I recently read an article about advances in the technology associated with printed receipts, their benefit as a transactional record, and the relative limits of moving to a hand-held transactional device. What that piece missed, however, was the huge value to retailers of emailing a receipt to customers who have made an in-store purchase.  There are many benefits to this triggered email, which, up until now, has not been widely embraced during the in-store checkout experience. 1. Acquisition If a customer chooses to receive their receipt via an email, your brand gains the opportunity to [...]

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You already know how email marketing improves your sales by keeping you in front of your customers. But, if you're still only using email blasts to your whole list, you're missing out on an opportunity. You can increase your sales even more by taking time to target your audience with a technique called segmenting. Segmenting breaks your list into special groups of customers who you can email separately with hyper-relevant content. Some businesses have seen huge spikes in sales by targeting their customers this way. Here are three ways you can target your existing customers for a richer e [...]

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Many times after I’ve spoken on mobile search or mobile marketing, I’m approached by someone in B2B who is wondering if mobile search is just a B2C phenomenon, or if it’s something that B2B organizations can benefit from as well. My answer, always, is: yes, mobile search and mobile marketing are just as relevant to B2B marketers, if not more so. This is not intuitive, as mobile search is associated more with a need-it-now or local mindset, as Jon Miller explained a few years ago on Search Engine Land. However, when you consider the evidence, you might agree that mobile search a [...]

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You have email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Gentlemint, Spotify, Tumblr... literally dozens of networks to market on. You can reach an audience through any combination of the above. As an email marketer, you know that the most valuable connections happen in private email inboxes. But activity on social networks, where fans can share with friends who share with contacts, is more visible. Where To Market? Choose a social network or two to be present on (consider where your target demographic hangs out to help you choose). You'll only be able to share bits and snippets, [...]

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What's the most popular email client out there? The iPhone, which stats says now is used by more people than Outlook. That goes along with a trend of more email now being opened on mobile devices than in desktop clients, though the use of webmail could be happening in both places. The stats are from Litmus, an email testing and analytics company that examined one billion "opens" of emails sent by its customers in June, then compiled the findings into this infographic: You can get the infographic yourself here: Email Client Market Share: New Stats. As you can see, more email is now op [...]

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Dynamic email, also known as data-driven email, has been around for a long time, but planning this type of complex messaging is still a daunting task to many designers and marketers. It’s not so different from the usual design challenge, though: we have a set of assets, rules and restrictions to which the visual design must adhere, and addressing this challenge is mostly about adopting the right process and mindset. To help overcome those initial hurdles, let’s walk through the basic steps to successfully designing a dynamic message: Inventory content and data Identify block an [...]

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When asked to identify their top five priorities for the year, social integration and improving analytics were highest on the minds of email marketers, with 37% of those surveyed choosing each goal. That's according to a new study conducted by the Relevancy Group and sponsored by Return Path. The survey was conducted in August 2012 by the Relevancy Group using an online panel of marketing executives with those with fewer than 10,000 customer records filtered out. Those surveyed were running both business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing efforts, across industries that included [...]

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You may not want to start counting the days until your in-laws arrive, but email marketers know that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner. After all, Christmas is just over three months away! Following are five keys to a successful holiday email strategy for you to focus on -- it'll distract you from the impending family invasion about to ensue. 1. Draft Your Schedule Increasing your frequency during holiday is a given. Many retailers will be sending every single day. Some retailers will be sending multiple times a day. Simply put, those who do not change their frequen [...]

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Reading email is one of the primary activities of smartphone owners. Indeed, several reports over the past year have indicated that more and more email interaction is happening on mobile devices. Adding to that narrative Knotice today released its latest Email Opens report covering the first half of 2012. Since 2010 the company has documented the rise of mobile email, which obviously corresponds to increasing smartphone penetration in the US. Source: Knotice (9/12) The report benchmarks everything to PC open rates and related email marketing data. The PC still dominates most email [...]

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I subscribe to an ever-revolving variety of email programs, looking at old, new, large and small email offerings, and the experience offered by each. A recent streak of unsubscribing highlighted a few trends in the design of preference centers. Preference centers revolve around a central idea: choice. This is the subscriber’s control center, the place where big decisions are made – the level of personal info they offer, the programs in which they participate, the kind of content they want, and whether they want to cut ties. The vast majority of brands are doing a capable job of offering [...]

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