Tips for Successful Email Campaigns During the Holidays and Year-Round

It’s that time of year again…when the stores sparkle with holiday lights, people start making a list (and checking it twice), and email inboxes become even more flooded with email marketing messages. As an email marketer, you’re probably wondering how to maximize your email marketing ROI during this busy time of year, and how to ensure your email marketing messages stand out from the rest.

In the latest issue of the ClickMail Marketer we summarize five easy-to-implement tips to ensure that your holiday email marketing campaign is, much like Santa’s sleigh, a flying success. And the beauty of these tips is that each one of these can (and should) become part of your email marketing toolbox the entire year round.

Even though spending is down a bit in the current economy, following typical annual trends, total holiday sales are estimated to pick up through December. Different this year is the increase in online purchasing: nearly half (46.7%) of the polled respondents said they will buy online, up from 43.9% last year. These internet shoppers will also spend about 22% more than in-store shoppers. In addition, the rise of mobile shopping is increasing dramatically in 2011. About half of those who own a smartphone said they will use their device to research and purchase holiday gifts and items.

As an email marketer, you can probably guess where we’re going with these numbers. The first tip on our list is Optimize your email marketing campaigns for mobile viewing! 2011 has seen a massive rise in smartphone and tablet use, and the numbers are only going to increase. This is the year of mobile email marketing and the time to capitalize on it is now. We also talk about the importance of Analyzing your subscribers’ behavior, Testing, and more.

If you’d like more details on these and other effective and easy-to-use email marketing best practices, check out the December issue of the ClickMail Marketer. And if you need more information about any of these tips, give ClickMail a call. Taking some time around the holidays to implement these email marketing best practices for a great start to your 2012 email marketing program. Find out how to get started in the December ClickMail Marketer.

ClickMail Marketing presenting at SEMA Show 2011 in Las Vegas

As an email marketing vendor that’s also vendor-neutral, all of us at ClickMail have gained significant knowledge of email marketing basics and email marketing best practices over the past 10 years. That’s why you’ll so often find one of our team members speaking at direct marketing and email marketing conferences, or even at large industry trade shows. And in Las Vegas this November, we’ll be speaking at one of the largest yet! The SEMA Show 2011 is a massive automotive trade show that attracts more than 100,000 industry experts from more than 100 countries. Our own Michael Kelly will be sharing his vast knowledge of email marketing with a presentation at this industry-only show.

As an email deliverability consultant and someone with years of hands-on experience in the world of email marketing, Michael will be delivering a presentation on email marketing essentials to auto industry leaders.

Everyone, including those in the fast-moving world of cars, needs to learn how to navigate the basics of email marketing best practices and proven strategies for effective email marketing. After all, email continues to be a powerful marketing tool with a high ROI, regardless of which industry you’re in.

In this engaging email marketing session, Michael will cover tips on how to increase response rates and click-through rates, the basics of email design and functionality, tactics to reduce unsubscribe requests, and strategies on how to measure email campaign effectiveness.

If you’d like to know more about any of these topics, give us a shout: we can help you develop a more effective email marketing strategy today!

“We are continue to build our reputation in the email marketing industry as the vendor-agnostic ESP alternative, helping clients to gain more ROI from their email marketing programs,” said ClickMail CEO Marco Marini. “This additional recognition by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal is a welcome validation of the effort we are putting forth and the need clients have for our type of end-to-end email marketing services. Without the clients, we wouldn’t have this explosive growth.”

ClickMail is growing rapidly by bringing the latest in new services and email technology to our clients, who are also benefiting by increased growth and success in their email marketing campaigns. From building an online tool for selecting a new ESP to acquiring the Bay Area’s Strategic Design Group, we have been creating new tools and offering new services that help our clients keep pace in the fast-moving email marketing industry. With over a dozen ESP systems in our portfolio, we offer the nation’s largest selection of ESPs so that we can ensure the best match is made for every client. We also pride ourselves on our excellent support team that works with our clients on fulfilling their specific email marketing needs, from increasing email deliverability to achieving maximum ROI.

Let ClickMail Marketing help you with all of your email marketing needs: contact us today!

What is the ESPinator?  Thank you for asking.  The ESPinator is an online system, used to choose the Email Service Provider that best suits the needs of a particular company.

Why did we build it?  Here at Clickmail Marketing, we’ve noticed the trend of most ESPs using the samed buzzwords, making similar claims, and generally dazzling the audience with MarketingSpeak.  It is neigh impossible for most people to separate the many ESP marketing promises from their functional realities.

By way of example, just about every ESP claims they can integrate everything seemlessly, but some do it much better than others.  One ESP may have built an elegant connector to a CRM system whereas another requires the use of a technical sledgehammer to make it ‘fit’.  For an email marketer to make a sound decision, a lengthy RFP process has been necessary.  No longer.

Clickmail used its in-depth knowledge of ESPs, stripped off the many layers of marketing lacquer, and judged each ESP on an apples-to-apples basis.  Over 200 questions and criteria were analyzed, weighed and rated.  The result is the ESPinator, a system designed to replace a long RFP process with an hour long questionnaire.

There are currently eight ESPs rated and loaded into the system: ExactTarget, BlueHornet, Acxiom, eDialogue, Responsys, Yesmail, WhatCounts, and Lyris; and we plan to add an additional 24 ESPs to the mix over the coming weeks.

Try it, you’ll like it.  Tell us what you think!

Kelly assists ClickMail Marketing’s customers with all aspects of their email marketing program. From account setup to strategic and tactical planning, from message deployment to performance analysis, Kelly is the first point of contact for his accounts and serves as the liaison between customers and their Email Service Provider (ESP). He works closely with the ClickMail Marketing sales, marketing, business development and technology departments to ensure his customers are running efficient and successful online marketing programs. He has experience with both B2B and B2C clients.

Before joining ClickMail, Kelly worked at email marketing powerhouses Lyris and Yesmail. He has a BA in Communications and also studied for a Master’s degree in Sports Administration.

Kelly has two daughters, ages 5 and 10, and is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan. He enjoys going to baseball and hockey games, playing softball and golf, BBQing, and watching the outstanding programming on HGTV and DIY.

You can see Kelly’s full profile on LinkedIn, or add ClickMail Marketing to your email marketing team, and you might just add Kelly too!