In business, shortcuts are often shorthand for “bad idea.”

Let’s consider our cross-channel marketing for a moment, for example. If you’re marketing to your customers via email, direct mail, Facebook/LinkedIn, Twitter and blogging, you might be tempted to copy and paste information from one place to another to save time. And why not, right? Who’s to say the Facebook fan is also an email subscriber?

Well, they might be, but that’s not really the point.

The point is, you’re more engaging when your communications are fresh and appropriate to the channel you’re using. If I get the same content from you via email as I do via Facebook, chances are I’ll stop paying attention to one or the other. And what’s appropriate in an email format is not usually appropriate in a Facebook format. An email will be a little longer and have a little more staying power. An email can sit in an inbox for a few days before a customer chooses to interact with it, even. A Facebook post will be much shorter and will have a lifespan of as little as 15 minutes.

Writing once, reusing everywhere is probably tempting because it reduces workload. But if it also reduces interest, is it really worth the time savings?

Be engaging, not repetitive. Be careful of the copy/paste.

Five Signs It’s Time for a New ESP

Business relationships differ from personal ones in a very big way: Sometimes it’s just time to move on.

Case in point: Your marriage might be for life and your kids are around for good, but your ESP could be a temporary relationship. As much as you might like your ESP, as long as you’ve been doing business with them, there still might come a time when staying with the ESP you know so well could mean a lower email marketing ROI.

If you’ve been with the same email service provider for more than a year, consider these five signs that it’s time for a new ESP:

1. Your in-house email list has grown.

With over 100 ESPs to choose from, you’re going to find that capabilities differ among them. This includes scaling to meet your needs as your volume of email grows.

2. Your email deliverability has shrunk.

As strange as it sounds, the email deliverability rate you’ll get with one ESP is not the same as you’ll get with another. As an email marketing agency, we test different ESPs with the same list and we get markedly varied results. When even half a percentage point in improvement means more email ROI, having the highest possible email delivery rate is imperative. It could be your ESP isn’t keeping up with your needs, and that’s affecting your bottom line.

3. You’re ready to automate.

Triggered, event-based email marketing is the way to achieve the most targeted, relevant messages possible. If you’re ready to go that route and your ESP isn’t, it’s time to move on…not get left behind.

4. You’re ready to integrate.

Web analytics, CRM systems, social media, SMS…there are so many sources of customer insight and possible contact points that all need to be working in tandem for maximum results. Email marketing best practices alone will only get you so far. Integrating with other marketing channels is imperative. If your ESP is limited in integration capabilities, it might be time to shop for a new one.

5. You need some strategy.

In today’s economy especially, marketing budgets can be tight and staffs small. If you’re resources are enough to get the job done but not enough to add a strategic element to your email marketing program, you might need an ESP with consulting services available.

If you’re thinking maybe it’s time to move on to a new ESP, here are three ways to jumpstart your search:

• Plug your requirements into the online ESP selection tool, the ESPinator
• Download the 2011 guide to choosing a new ESP
• Head to booth #39 at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit in Las Vegas this week to visit with email marketing agency ClickMail

Whether you do one, two or all three, you’ll be well on the way to moving on to the right ESP for your newly evolved needs.

What Happens in Vegas…Will Stick With You in a Very Good Way!

This is one time when what happens in Vegas need not stay in Vegas: MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit 2012. This time, we hope what happens in Vegas sticks with you in a very good way.

Taking place February 7^th through 10^th, the summit promises to be overflowing with email marketing expertise, experience and education…all designed to head back to your office with you, to be implemented in the coming months as you improve your email marketing program…and your email marketing ROI.

And if MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit 2012 doesn’t already promise enough new knowledge to tempt you, consider these three reasons, from ClickMail, your email marketing agency:

1. Get One-on-One Coaching!

Three of the email marketing industry’s best and brightest—ClickMail’s own Cameron Kane, Michael Kelly and Grant Johnson—will be on hand offering coaching and one-on-one consultation. That’s right. During this Las Vegas event, the real show stoppers will be the 12 different topics you can choose from when you want an expert’s undivided attention and advice. (Get the details and sign up for your private session.)

2. Get a Discount!

Register with our special email marketing agency promotion code, and you’ll save $700! To get your discount, enter priority code 185-ST-1003 at check out when you register for the Email Summit.

3. Get Connected!

Most important of all during this email event is meeting up with the folks from our email marketing agency. Be sure to stop by booth #39 during the Email Summit. While at the booth, plug your email marketing needs into our ESPinator to see which ESP gets recommended for you…and to be entered to win free prizes.

What’s not to love about three days in Vegas, especially when it all goes home with you?

Email: The Foundation of all Online Marketing

Although we’re an email marketing agency, we’ll be glad to see this month—and all of the 2012 predictions that came with it—come to an end. We must stay on top of the changes in the email marketing industry and the predictions help us to do so, but we are ready to get down to the business of email marketing ROI once again.

Why? Because one constant remains throughout all those predictions: Email is the foundation upon which your online marketing program is built, no matter if you’re switching from an ESP to marketing automation provider or putting extra resources into your social media campaigns. Email is the enabler to it all.

And that’s something we can all bank on by keeping our focus where our focus should be: constantly optimizing our email marketing best practices and programs, and further integrating our email with our web analytics and social media marketing.

Email is the starting point, the foundation, the enabler and even the glue. It’s also the preferred medium of your customers. According to ExactTarget, “56% of US Internet users interact with brands only via marketing emails, compared to 1.3% who interact only via Twitter and 0.7% by Facebook.” [ExactTarget, "Subscribers, Fans, and Followers: The Social Profile" (2010), emphasis added]

Emails not going away, and it needs your attention to make sure it’s doing all it can for you. The other stuff might be shiny and new but without the solidity of a well-functioning, optimized email marketing program, your other online and social media marketing efforts will fall short.

You’re already taking action to keep your email optimized: You’re reading this blog! For other resources that will educate you and strengthen your email marketing foundation, subscribe to our email marketing newsletter and definitely be sure to visit our booth at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit 2012 next week.

Or just reach out to this friendly email marketing agency for some one-on-one email marketing consultation. We’ll help you lay that foundation brick by brick.

Email Marketing Best Practices: Pull the Trigger and Stop the Sends

Not only was Trigger the name of Roy Roger’s trusty steed, a horse with a lot of tricks up his sleeve. It’s a key word for email marketers in 2012 as well…and it might be a trick you want to keep up your sleeve for improving ROI in the year ahead.

We all know about overcrowded inboxes, email-weary consumers, and overzealous marketing that sends emails far too often. The answer is to send fewer emails by using triggered emails instead.

Does that sound counter intuitive? Probably. But then our emphasis on building quality in-house email lists over quantity lists does too, yet it’s email marketing best practices to do so.

In reality, sending less by triggering more might not mean fewer emails sent. But it will mean more targeted emails because each one sent will be triggered by the consumer based on an action or an event. In comparison, plain old sending can look like old fashioned batch-and-blast because those messages are going out to a group based on the marketer’s needs or schedule, not the user’s actions.

By their very nature, event-based emails are extremely targeted and relevant. Whether the email is sent as a confirmation of a purchase, a welcome after a subscribe, a reminder about a renewal or a follow-up after abandoning a shopping cart, these email messages speak directly to the recipient in a way a general “send” can not.

If the relevancy argument doesn’t sway you, consider the potential ROI. These kinds of targeted triggered emails have a higher open rate which usually translates to higher ROI: The more emails opened, the more potential for action on the part of the recipient.

Your sends will never cease. Emails such as newsletters or promotions still have their place in your email marketing program. But cutting back on the big batches and focusing resources on the triggered type will definitely benefit your email marketing bottom line…and your customers too.

Three Easy Ways to Prevent Being Flagged as Spam

Consumers are in a hurry and think nothing of flagging your legitimate email as spam, hurting your sending reputation despite your adherence to email marketing best practices. What’s an email marketer to do?

Everything in your power to minimize the use of that Spam button, that’s what!

The latest ClickMail Marketer has three easy tips for making spam reports fewer in number and keeping your email delivery rate high as can be:

1) Manage expectations from the start

2) Get through the first three hurdles

3) Make the Unsubscribe easy to find and do

Learn more about each, how it protects you, and how to implement it by giving the newsletter a quick read.

As an email marketing agency, we predict the Spam button will remain a threat to legitimate email marketers, and maybe even become more of a threat as inboxes get ever more cluttered. Follow these three tips, and protect yourself and your sending reputation by diminishing the use of the Spam button.

Read our latest email marketing newsletter here.

When a Dirty In-House Email List Costs the ISPs Money, It’s Time to Clean Up!

If your in-house email list hasn’t had a good scrubbing lately, it’s time to clean house. A clean list has always ranked high among email marketing best practices, but now even more so as ISPs crack down on email marketers who waste their time…and their money.

As an email marketing agency focused on numbers and deliverability, we understand that it’s hard to see the size of your list shrink when bad or dormant email addresses get removed. It’s worth it though. Remember, your goal is a quality list, not a quantity one. You’re far better off with 5,000 names that respond to your content than 15,000 that don’t.

Scrubbing your in-house email list might mean fewer names, but it also means higher ROI from your email marketing because you’re marketing to a more responsive audience. In addition, you’re improving your email delivery rate by improving your sending reputation. And you’re pleasing the ISPs, who are the ultimate gatekeepers between you and your prospects.

ISPs still see emailing to bad and inactive addresses as sloppy and careless on the part of the marketer, and they will be more likely to flag your emails as spam if you continue to do so. But now we’re seeing the major ISPs thinking of these unnecessary emails as an expense too. If you’re already annoying an ISP because you’re carelessly sending to people who haven’t responded to your emails in over a year—showing an obvious lack of interest in your content—imagine how annoyed they’ll be when they think of those wasted emails as costing them money to boot?

The answer was and still is good list hygiene. Start with email marketing best practices that require an opt-in. Use a Preference Center to give subscribers control. Then keep your list squeaky clean with regular scrubbings.

Your list will be clean, your subscribers responsive and the ISPs pleased. What more could you ask for?

Get tips for scrubbing your in-house email list.

Email Marketing in 2012: A Few (More) Predictions for the Upcoming Year

One thing about being an email marketing agency: One must always have a finger on the pulse of and an eye on the blogs of the industry! Email is blessed with so many knowledgeable, insightful people who can look at the big picture and help guide our everyday strategic and tactical decisions. ClickZ is a wonderful resource for this kind of insight. In particular, ClickZ’s latest blog by David Daniels has some predictions for you for 2012, a few of which intrigued us enough to expand upon here.

We like David’s statement about behavioral segmentation. As an email marketing agency, we’ve been pushing segmentation as an email marketing best practice for years. Why? Relevance. Segmenting means targeting. Targeting means relevance. Relevance means increased email delivery rates and higher conversion rates. As David describes it, behavioral segmentation is even more useful because it is based not only on demographics, but on a customer’s past behavior, making it a predictor of future behavior too:

“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior and the marketer’s ability to digitally understand customer’s desires and actions begins with segmenting audiences based on click-based engagement.”

As this becomes a standard email marketing best practice in 2012, it will also become a competitive advantage. Make sure behavioral segmentation is something your email marketing team is at least considering in the very near future.

David is also the bearer of good news, predicting businesses will pay a little less attention to the glitz and glamour of social media marketing campaigns and get back to measuring concrete results: “the focus will rightly turn to the return on investment of those social efforts.” David expects the kinds of reporting and analytical features we’ve come to expect from email marketing solutions will be adapted to measure results across channels. That kind of insight will only improve our tactics and techniques as email marketers, resulting in deeper knowledge about the effectiveness and inter-relatedness of each marketing channel and—ultimately—a higher ROI.

David also predicts security, breaches, and legislation will increase in 2012, a scary thought and something to consider as you plan out your year. He is also optimistic, saying marketers will understand the penalty of emailing to dormant addresses, a topic near and dear to our email marketing hearts because emailing to dormant addresses can have a negative impact on your email delivery rate. (Get tips on scrubbing your in-house email list for improved email deliverability.)

Let’s close with where David starts his post, about the longevity of email. As we keep saying, email is still alive and well and David concurs. So let’s just make that a given. Email will continue to offer the best ROI, to be the glue that holds other marketing channels together, and to be the foundation upon which countless marketing campaigns will be built…through 2012 and beyond. Long live email!

Three Common Email Marketing Challenges and How to Tackle Them

In our last blog post we wrote about the upcoming can’t-miss Email Marketing Summit 2012 from Marketing Sherpa. If you attended last year’s summit, you know how valuable it is, and this year’s is shaping up to be the best yet.  One of the most important insights from last year’s summit was a roundup of the most common email marketing challenges to plague email marketers, and how to handle them. These are just a few of the challenges that were discussed, and the solutions that came out in the email marketing summit last year:

1. How do you increase engagement if you have a limited list?

Even though you may have a small email list, there are a number of ways in which email marketers can increase engagement, and ultimately, ROI. For example, you could start by expanding your company’s web presence and visibility. One great way to do this is by guest blogging for online industry publications. By getting your name out there as an expert in your industry, you’ll attract more followers and grow your list while increasing conversation and engagement. Also consider integrating social media into your email marketing program: a strong social media program will not only help grow your reach, but also show your followers that you are posting great updates (and thus encourage them to sign up for an email newsletter). Finally, consider offering incentives to your email subscribers to share your offers with others, which could be another way to integrate sharing, engagement, and social networking.

2. How can effective results be achieved through an email marketing program without being repetitive?

As we always say at ClickMail Marketing, the best way to address this challenge is to be consistently creating excellent, specific, and relevant content. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time; you simply need to get creative about repurposing your key messages in ways that draw prospects in and keeps current customers engaged. If you’re feeling stale or need inspiration, you can always develop creative content and new ideas based on customer surveys, industry trends and other insights. Be open to feedback and take suggestions from your audience. Often, your customers ask the same questions your prospects are silently wondering.
3. How are maximum results attained through optimal frequency and timing of email marketing messages?

If you’re struggling with this question, don’t worry: you’re not alone. Most email marketers wonder about the best timing and frequency to send out email marketing messages, and we’ve written about this question recently ourselves. Even though HubSpot’s social media scientist, Dan Zarrella, discovered that Tuesday at 11am is one of the worst possible times to send out email campaigns, this day and time may not apply to your audience and their behavior patterns. The best way to find out the most optimal frequency and timing for YOUR specific email campaigns is to engage in testing, another email marketing best practice we regularly espouse. In order to determine your ideal email frequency, the best thing to measure is your total open and click rates under different email frequency conditions. Consider running an A/B split test with different email frequencies and comparing the results.

For even more takeaways from the 2011 Email Marketing Summit, see Marketing Sherpa’s roundup!

What are some of the email marketing challenges you’ve encountered as an email marketer? Share them with us and we’ll try to address them in future blog posts!

Register Today for Marketing Sherpa's Email Marketing Summit 2012

If you’re starting to plan your schedule for 2012, make sure to block out February 7-10 for Marketing Sherpa’s Email Marketing Summit 2012 in Las Vegas! This is the world’s largest vendor-neutral, research-based email marketing event so you definitely don’t want to miss it. And save $700 on the registration fee, as a ClickMail Marketing blog reader (details below)!

Marketing Sherpa writes: “This year’s Summit is shaping up to be the best yet as we have a full slate of sessions aimed at overcoming your top email challenges with actionable training, grounded in rigorous research and science.”

In this four-day summit you can plan on expanding your email knowledge and expertise dramatically, learning new ways to analyze your current email strategy and leaving with a workbook full of “next steps” for lasting email success in this rapidly changing world. Whether you identify yourself as an “email marketing newbie” or “advanced email marketing guru” you’ll find sessions designed to help you get ahead – and stay ahead – of your competition.

Learn from best-in-class professionals on the evolving and expanding role of email marketing including creativity, personalization, segmentation, social media integration, testing and pristine list management. Here are just a few of the many reasons you should attend:

1. Interactive, How-To Training Sessions on email and social media integration, mobile, list growth tactics, relevancy, mobile, deliverability and measurement.
2. Multiple Case Studies, war stories and lessons learned, presented by your email peers and mentors (past speakers include marketers from Oracle, Siemens, Cisco Systems,among many others).
3. Latest 2012 MarketingSherpa Email Research and benchmark Data on spending, tactics, conversion rates, budgets and more.
4. Interactive Panel Discussions with subject matter experts on optimizing your email program, increasing ROI, create relevant contagious content and more.
5. Extended Face-to-Face Networking opportunities with seasoned professionals, trainers and peers over meals, breaks and receptions.
6. Proven Email Strategies, campaigns and tactics you can immediately apply to get more done with fewer people, less time and more limited budgets.
7. Interaction with Colleagues sharing successful campaigns and tactics to inspire and hone your marketing skills.
8. Become an Email Certified Professional by taking a pre-Summit workshop taught by email experts who provide a proven methodology with step-by-step tactics on how to maximize your email results.

This year’s Summit also features case studies, training and panels from companies who have found success through new strategies and refining existing programs.

If you’re ready to make 2012 THE year for your best email marketing ROI ever, you have to attend the Email Summit 2012. And ClickMail Marketing makes it even easier for you to attend: to save $700 on the registration simply enter this priority code: 185-ST-1003 at check out. We’ll see you there!