Need Email Solutions? Think Physics

Teenaged me avoided physics in school. It sounded hard, so I took geology and astronomy instead. That’s too bad because grown-up me has enjoyed learning about physics principles, especially how they apply to email marketing.

Take friction, for example. When you learn about physics, you learn friction slows motion. Just as your slick socks will slide across the kitchen floor more easily than your rubber-soled shoes, friction can impede motion in email marketing too. So if you’re looking for email solutions to improve your email marketing ROI, let’s start with friction. Or should I say let’s start with eliminating friction?

Friction happens in email whenever you impede the forward motion of your prospect. Consider these steps along the way from inbox to landing page to buy. At each and every point, you want to make things easy and seamless, removing any possible friction like…

• The From address: If they don’t recognize it, friction.
• The subject line: If it doesn’t intrigue, friction.
• Content: If it’s not relevant, friction.
• Design: Like content, if it’s not relevant, friction.
• Images: An email full of images that renders as a bunch of empty boxes–friction!
• Call to action: If it’s buried or unclear, friction.
• Landing page: If it lacks a clear transition from email, friction.
• Form: If it asks for too much information, friction.

Know your physics for email solutions. Stop the friction from email to landing page to buy.

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!

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 Ranks On Yet Another List!

Email services provider ClickMail Marketing, offering the nation’s largest selection of email service providers (ESPs), has made yet another list! As recognition for our rapid growth over recent years, we’ve been ranked as being one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States. In September of this year, Inc. Magazine announced that ClickMail made its estimable annual list of 5,000 fastest growing companies, joining ranks with other notable companies like Intuit, Microsoft, Timberland, Patagonia, and Oracle. Our most recent recognition comes from the San Francisco Business Times as ClickMail Marketing achieved a high ranking on their list of the 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies in the Bay Area.

The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal has also ranked ClickMail Marketing as one of the top 50 fastest growing private companies in Silicon Valley, and CilckMail has achieved the additional honor of being recognized as one of America’s 13 Fastest Growing Email Marketing Companies.

Email solutions provider ClickMail’s rapid growth is reflected on the following 2011 business lists:

• The Inc. 5000 List of the fastest-growing companies in America.
• The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s Top 50 Fastest Growing Private Companies in Silicon Valley
• The San Francisco Business Times’ ‘Fast 100′ list of the 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies in the Bay Area

Serving clients as an email marketing vendor and email marketing consultants, ClickMail Marketing has achieved its rapid growth organically, with a unique position in the market place as a vendor-neutral email solutions provider. 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.

5 Holiday Best Practices for Increased Email Deliverability

‘Tis the season… for email marketing campaigns to ramp up! Which means increased promotions, increased email volume, and, unfortunately, increased subscriber fatigue. How do you ensure that your emails stay on your email subscribers’ “Nice” list, keeping your email deliverability rates high, and don’t migrate onto the “Naughty” list – resulting in unsubscribes or worse? Here are five simple but powerful holiday-themed email marketing best practices to keep in mind:

1) Fulfill email frequency wishes: This is the most important thing you can do as an email marketer to honor and respect your subscribers’ wishes. And yet it’s one of the most flagrantly abused by many email marketers, especially around the holiday season. If your subscriber requested once/weekly emails from your business, store, or organization, just because ’tis the shopping season, does not also equate to ’tis the time to flood email inboxes. At this time of year, email subscribers are already inundated with more than the normal volume of catalogs, circulars, newsletters, and donation requests in both direct mail and email. The last thing you want to do is annoy your email subscribers with too many emails, especially if they specifically requested the frequency with which they want to hear from you. Honor their wishes and your email deliverability will benefit.

2) Surprise your subscribers: Holiday shoppers are looking for great deals and special savings at this time of year: it’s your opportunity to think of fun and creative ways to offer it to them. Another boring 10% off promotion won’t cut it… this yawn of a sales email results in a “delete” without a second thought! But today I just had an interesting offer hit my inbox that taps into the joy of unwrapping presents because everyone likes a surprise: “unwrap your secret offer to save over 50%!” The code is valid only upon checkout, but I’m already guaranteed a 50% savings, making the offer highly attractive. The added surprise of an additional discount of who knows how much more off just makes it irresistible.

3) Spread holiday cheer: Take this special time of year to be fun, whimsical, and make your subscribers smile. A crowded email inbox means there’s less patience on your subscribers’ part for clicking through and reading. Are your subject lines informative while also inspiring positive feelings or a nostalgic memory? Think of ways to make your email marketing campaign stand out from the rest, and you’ll increase your email deliverability and, ultimately, your email ROI this holiday season.

4) Make a list and check it twice: Email deliverability relies upon sender reputation. Check yours now and take note of where you can improve. Can you improve your email content relevance? Have you segmented your list for increased specificity?  Are you developing targeted email campaigns for different subscriber populations?

5) Inspire with merry and bright designs: Make sure your designs are eye-catching, clean, and fun. Do your emails render well on mobile and tablet, as well as desktop clients? Are they holiday-themed but are any pictures or image files streamlined for quick loading? Keep it simple and be sure to test your designs for effective rendering. What do your emails look like in the preview pane? Always keep in mind your subscribers’ behavior path and design to lead them all the way through to conversion: Preview, Open, Scan/Read, Engage, Convert.

Keeping these five holiday-themed email marketing best practices in mind this season will ensure you’ll sail through the holidays with high email deliverability rates and increased conversions!

ClickMail named one of America’s 13 Fastest Growing Email Marketing Companies

After reaching #2,109 on the esteemed Inc. Magazine’s list of 5,000 fastest growing companies, ClickMail Marketing has been further honored as one of the top 13 fastest growing email marketing companies in America, as noted by EmailExpert.org.

As Shar VanBoskirk, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, Inc., wrote in a April 2011 report entitled The Future Of Interactive Marketing: “Interactive marketing has come a long way in a short time… and now represents 15% of all advertising spend…” it’s no surprise to find a number of marketing automation companies and ESP’s climbing the Inc. 5000 list.

ClickMail strives to stay abreast of the rapidly changing world of email marketing and brings the latest in new services and email technology to our clients. From building an online tool for selecting a new ESP to acquiring the Bay Area’s Strategic Design Group, ClickMail has been creating new tools and offering new services that help our clients keep pace in the ever-evolving email marketing industry.

With over a dozen ESP systems in our portfolio, we offer the nation’s largest selection of ESPs while staying vendor neutral and flexible so we can recommend the right one for specific client needs. In addition, ClickMail always offers flexible contract terms on all ESPs so our clients can be assured they have the right system in place. From increasing email deliverability to achieving maximum ROI with your email marketing program campaigns, let ClickMail Marketing help you with all of your email marketing needs! Contact us today!

Email Marketing is Like Dating: Woo 'Em and Keep 'Em Interested

As an email marketer, sometimes it can feel like you’re talking to yourself. Right? You craft interesting, relevant, compelling messages, and send them out to the universe, and unless you’re actively engaged in monitoring the results (and you should be) you are probably already onto the next email marketing campaign, considering the best approach, how to win new subscribers and entice your current subscribers to follow through to convert.

Are your subscribers into you? Or not? Sometimes it’s hard to tell (just like in dating).

And also just like in dating, what you want from your email marketing campaign is very much what you want from a successful dating experience. As an email marketer, you’re equivalent to a beau, courting a new and attractive prospect. And for a successful courtship, as with a successful email marketing campaign, the rules are simple. No stalking. Stop endlessly talking about yourself. Start flirting (or wooing). Start listening.

It’s not all about you: The art of wooing

Contrary to what you might think, your email marketing messages shouldn’t always be about whatever product you’re selling, the information you’re pushing, or the deals you’re delivering. A successful email marketing campaign is actually about your subscribers. How is this possible, you ask? I have a product, my subscribers want to learn/read about/buy it so why do I need to care about why? Well, as we’ve told you before, listening to your subscribers’ preferences is key to keeping your subscribers opening, reading, clicking through, and converting. And only through list segmentation can you ensure that your messages are specific and relevant to your subscribers’ individual needs. After all, if you’re dating multiple people, you wouldn’t discuss the finer points of cuts of steak with a vegetarian, would you? And just as in dating, it’s hard to get a handle on what interests your prospect unless you listen to what he or she has to say.

Variety is the Spice of Life: Keeping them interested

Now that you’ve got their interest, congratulations! You’ve captured their attention and you have a new subscriber. But now comes the hard(er) part: how are you going to keep the love alive?

All too often in both email marketing and personal relationships, people get bored, and people are taken for granted. In order to keep the spark alive from your subscribers, you need to make sure to never take them for granted. Giving you their email address is the equivalent of handing out your actual phone number to the cute guy at the bar who said he’d call tomorrow. So make sure to follow through on what you said you’d do. The guy that said he’d call but never does is a jerk. And you don’t want to be that jerk in the email marketing world. If they signed up for weekly emails, make sure they get weekly emails (not bi-weekly, thrice-weekly, or monthly emails)! Just as in personal relationships, trust is the basis of any good relationship.

And to keep your subscribers interested, you can’t always be preaching the same one-note message. People get tired of hearing the same thing, and before long, they start to perceive the same old message as nagging, and it’s just one slippery step away from tuning you out and clicking that “unsubscribe” button. Your email marketing mix should definitely contain a variety of messaging. Just as you wouldn’t always take your date to the same restaurant and movie, consider the ways in which you’re varying your offerings. Are you occasionally providing useful information? Interesting and related stories? Is the content fresh? Are your messages fun, interesting, specific, and clear? Do you occasionally offer the opportunity to provide feedback?

Listening and interactive communication is vital to long-lasting relationships, in the “real world” of dating and marriage but also in the email marketing world of marketers and subscribers too. Continually monitoring, analyzing, and responding to your subscribers’ needs and preferences will create loyal customers who stick with you (in good times and bad)!

Email Service Providers vs. In-House Email Solutions?

As a value-added reseller of Email Service Providers and email-related services, we at ClickMail Marketing often think about what percentage of email marketers turn to advanced solutions providers to deliver their campaigns, and which firms continue to deliver their email marketing campaigns via in-house tools. A recent MarketingSherpa chart outlines these statistics, following a recent survey of more than 1,000 organizations.

After taking a glance at the chart, I have to say, we weren’t surprised. With the increasingly complex tactical requirements of email marketing, it shouldn’t be surprising that twice as many organizations use an advanced, versus a basic, Web-based solution to fulfill their ever changing and complex email marketing needs. Of the total organizations surveyed, about one-third of these use a full-service outsourced ESP. And B2C channel organizations as well as large organizations are much more likely to use an ESP. This makes sense because in both cases, there is undoubtedly greater scope and complexity of email initiatives, which requires the assistance of outsourced ESPs.

As subscribers become increasingly sophisticated, and the interactivity needs between marketing channels grow, it’s not surprising that there is a greater demand for comprehensive services and email marketing solutions. The evolution of the ESP from a simple emailing platform to a full-fledged, feature-rich offering is only natural given the changing landscape of marketing today. The increasing demand from organizations for these features is a clear validation for increasingly sophisticated tools, such as drip and triggered email streams and the integration of web analytics.

In order to stay on top of your game and ahead of the curve, consider employing the use of an ESP to help you with your email marketing program if you aren’t already doing so. And with over a dozen ESP systems in our portfolio, ClickMail (contact info) offers the nation’s largest selection of ESPs while staying vendor neutral. With a “try before you buy” policy, you’ll be sure to find the right system for your needs. We also provide continuing support and an array of services including email marketing expertise in areas from customization to strategy; integration to email deliverability and optimization. We live for this stuff! ClickMail will help you manage your online reputation and accurately measure your delivery rates, to achieve maximum ROI. We’re also there to give you email marketing expertise, allowing you to keep your campaigns cutting-edge while continuing to improve your overall email marketing strategy. Contact Clickmail today!

Even in today’s world, where preview panes are a factor in just about every email client and on every device, there are too many examples of email preview pane best practices being ignored. Too many email marketers seem to ignore the significance of image blocking, especially on the preview pane.  And that simple little factor can destroy an entire email campaign even if the message is relevant, highly engaging, well-crafted, and full of beautiful and interesting text and images. How? In one version with the images on versus one version with the images blocked, the following glitches resulted:

• The newsletter name disappeared.
• The headline disappeared.
• The navigation bar disappeared.
• The photo disappeared.

And after all of this content disappeared from the preview pane, what you’re left with is a frustratingly boring or blocked preview pane that does nothing to get the recipient to open and engage with the email. And to adhere to all the email best practices that get you into the inbox, but to ignore the next step to get that email opened and acted upon is a huge waste of effort.

The majority of readers are now using both the preview pane and the default blocked-images functions to decide whether to open emails and block unwanted downloads. In fact, more than half of email readers rarely or never download images within their preview pane, and an increasing number of email subscribers will simply delete the message due to insufficient information displayed in the preview pane, due to blocked images, advertisements or poor design.

So what does all of this mean to you? Think of the preview pane as a teaser area used to grab the readers’ attention and compel them to further action: the preview pane will determine whether the reader will open the email, scroll or click through to stories or just delete without further review. When designing your email marketing campaigns, ensure that your email messages are making the most of the valuable preview pane: just the top left 2-4 inches, the only area visible in both horizontal and vertical panes.

Lastly, blocked images affect the tracking of open rates, which affects your overall email performance rates . By placing more emphasis on how your emails render in preview panes, you will be able to up your click-through and conversion rates.