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Optimise Your Registration Forms and Increase Conversion Rates

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Whatever you want people to register for – an email marketing newsletter; a white paper or an online forum – the registration form can persuade or dissuade the site visitor from fulfilling the desired action depending on how well it is optimised. Sometimes a form can put users off simply because it asks too many questions; at other times it can be a more complicated, subtle reason.

Luckily, help is at hand for finding the causes behind low conversion rates. We’ve summarised all the best practices around registration form optimisation we could think of to create this exhaustive task list:

• Keep them short and sweet – visitors are going to need a lot of trust in you before they hand over all their personal details, not to mention time to spare; limit questions to the basic ‘name, email and address’ routine and save the specifics for later

• Make registration for content voluntary – This may sound counter-intuitive but non-compulsory registration gives prospects risk-free access to your thought-leading knowledge, making it easier to impress them in the first instance and get them to sign up for updates later once trust is established

• Add secondary offers – MarketingSherpa cite an example where a company offered free trials of its software while knowing some visitors wouldn’t be allowed to download them because of firewall restrictions. To compensate, they offered an informative white paper as well, a move that boosted conversion rates by 9%

• Get rid of ‘Reset Field’ buttons – they add little to the user experience and are more likely to prove an inconvenience, erasing fields of information when people click the wrong button accidentally

• Optimise the copy – give prospects a compelling reason to sign up for your email newsletter. What’s in it for them: thought-leading knowledge on how to increase sales? Communicate these benefits clearly and make them prominent

• Situate the form in a prominent position – this means both on the page itself and within the greater site-structure. It’s no good having the form buried away on a deep-linked page or in the bottom-left hand corner where no-one can see it. Where are you most likely to attract ‘passing trade’? Analyse your web traffic for the answer

• Manage typos and misspellings – some registration forms can automatically correct the most common slips of the finger e.g. hotmial.com, yahoo.con etc. provided the right programming is in place. Consult with your IT department or web master

• Pre-fill information fields – a time saving technique useful for re-engaging old subscribers, send recipients personalised URLs (or PURLs for short) with relevant data e.g. name and address already entered in the fields. This makes return visitors feel both remembered and valued

Combined, these best practice tips will result in an increased conversion rate on your registration forms, enabling you to expand the reach of your email marketing campaigns (or whatever programmes you want to promote) quickly. Implement them today and you'll start to see the results unfold tomorrow.

Get Creative & Improve Email Click-Through Rates

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Your email marketing will experience diminishing returns if you use the same format for writing promotional emails as you do business correspondence. Your list will become fatigued as more subscribers opt-out of your campaigns through a lack of engagement. Not surprising really; if they don’t see any interest in your email marketing for them, why should they continue having it clutter up their inboxes?

The success of your offers and promotions can be heightened when you market them creatively. Trouble is, not everyone feels they have the necessary spark to make email marketing truly creative, so they fall back on the same ‘letter writing’ format. That’s why we’ve stepped in with these tips: to help your email campaigns shout, sing and leap off the page at subscribers and increase overall engagement, click-through and conversion levels.

• Create intrigue in your subject lines: reflective questions are good, but can you do more? A promotional email from a musical instrument retailer for instance, could start: “Become a Guitar Legend: 10% off Fender Stratocasters” instead of “10% off Fender Stratocasters – One Week Only”. The first is benefit-led and keys into the aspirational desires of musicians, but the principle can be applied to any situation. Find out what makes your subscribers tick

• Use a persona: write as yourself or invent a character(s) to head up your email marketing as it allows you to be more personal, individual and therefore more creative. Use it express your own opinions or use it as an extension of the brand’s philosophy – but most importantly, be human. Generic emails from a faceless marketing department don’t resonate with subscribers as much as the personal touch does

• Write your emails for the eye: images in the background and foreground, short videos and all other graphical elements can help increase engagement and even drive click-through when used as hyperlinks to landing pages. Two tips: first when using models in your images, position them so they’re looking at key calls to action and landing pages as it increases responsiveness in subscribers; secondly, remember to write a plain text version as well as HTML, since some subscribers will have images turned off

So get out of the ‘business letter’ writing habit and start flexing your creative muscles to write emails that attract, impress and persuade with their creative flair, without you having to become the next Picasso.

Generic Emails Equal Generic Performance

Posted by Gareth Cutter

From now on we’d like to impose a ban on the word ‘generic’ – because when it comes to email marketing, there should be nothing generic about your campaigns; messages can be targeted to recipients and made relevant even when sent en masse. If you want to increase your click-through and conversion rates, you have to put a little effort in.

Mail merging contact list data with your email marketing programme is the first and most basic step you can take towards banishing ‘generic’ from your vocabulary, and something your email marketing provider can do for you. Addressing each and every one of your subscribers by first name within the body and subject line of an email will help you in the long run as response rates typically improve with this basic personalisation step.

The next step after this is to begin sending ‘event’ emails based on a subscribers’ life-cycle. For instance, if you are a retailer you should plan special promotions and discounts to be sent in time for customers’ birthdays. According to “e-marketing guru”, Dave Chaffey, birthday emails enjoy on average:

• 70.5% open rates
• 4.3% conversion rates (of emails delivered)
• 6.0% conversion rates (of emails opened)
• 3.3% increase in average transaction value

There are more opportunities for B2C retailers to send event emails than B2B companies, but only just. In general, where B2C retailers look for events that relate to individuals directly (birthdays, anniversaries, length of time on the mailing list etc), B2B retailers should look to the business environment for events that resound on a larger scale. For instance, an accountancy practice might respond to a new piece of tax legislation by sending an alert email to its subscriber base for instance whilst up-selling its book-keeping services.

Your subscribers don’t exist in a bubble, and neither should your campaigns. Remove all traces of ‘generic’ from your email marketing programme and start treating your subscribers to relevant, event-triggered communications.

Grow Your Email Marketing List: Ingenious Ideas for Data Capture

Posted by Gareth Cutter

A strong email marketing campaign thrives on high-quality data, which is why we always recommend including data capture elements on your web site. Even if it doesn’t have transactional capabilities, your site can still generate potential sales leads and help profile who’s interested in your company.

Getting people to hand over their email address can be tricky though; a subscription to an email newsletter isn't always incentive enough to create sign-ups – especially in the B2C market where things are more commoditised and tied into brand experience. You can lay out the benefits of signing-up as much as you like but to some people the thought of joining a mailing list will still feel a little dry

There are plenty of opportunities for data capture however. Step outside the web site for a moment and look at what your business offers to its customers; see how you can involve them in an experience where handing over their email address feels less like signing their inbox’s freedom away and more like a minor formality.

One sports retailer has nailed this approach on the head with its flagship store, where visitors can test their core skills in speed, strength and balance in an state of the art activity centre. By registering their details at the store and logging in to the web site, visitors can compare their performance to friends and famous sports personalities on the database.

All kinds of useful data can be collected with this strategy: whether it’s the visitor’s first time in the store or if they’re a regular customer; whether their interest is in running or football etc. By providing an opt-in or opt-out tick box on the registration form, the retailer can grow their email list organically - a tactic that generally provide bigger returns on investment than third party list rentals (we estimate the retailer will be getting hundreds of sign-ups a week through this tactic at the very least).

Maybe it’s time you gave your data capture technique a brush-down and started thinking about creating an experience for your prospects and existing customers. People won’t sign up to your email marketing for nothing; give them an incentive that taps into their desire for an experience and see your email marketing list grow.

Email Marketing to Customers With More (or Less) Money

Posted by Gareth Cutter

"In a down economy, it is a wise strategy to find potential customers who actually have money." – from, What Do The Rich Look Like Online?

As business statements go, this is hardly a revelation: after all, customer with money = customer likelier to spend money. But although the recession has hit many people hard in the pockets, that doesn’t mean buying decisions stop altogether: they change.

Now consumers are more concerned about value. Do they get their money’s worth? This is a message your email marketing should be communicating.

If you want to generate more sales from your existing market, you have to remind them about the benefits of using your goods or services. This is in addition to any sales promotions or offers you might have, because a promotion or offer doesn’t change the innate feeling about your product or service. If a cash-poor consumer thinks they want, rather than need your solution, they will view it as a luxury and wait for a less ‘rainy’ day.

If you decide however, that you want to attract some of the more affluent consumers online, what's the best way to attract them? ‘Luxury’ isn't necessarily it. In the words of Seth Godin, "Luxury Goods are needlessly expensive...the price is not related to performance. The price is related to scarcity, brand and storytelling".

Instead, you should keep focusing on value (don’t forget the new 50% income tax rate introduced in the most recent Budget) and market as a premium good or service. We're not just splitting hairs; the distinction between premium and luxury is clear: "Premium goods ... are expensive variants of commodity goods. Pay more, get more" (thanks again to Seth).

If you want to embark on a change in position, reflect it in a more expensive design, or perhaps pay more mention of its premium features – but this must always remain secondary to the main point of the message: what benefit consumers will get from buying a premium good or service. And of course, what better value marketing channel to transmit this message than email? Just remember, HTML finery does not a premium email make: message comes first.

Email Etiquette 101: BCC & Contact Privacy

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The way your business chooses to communicate with people can be a sensitive issue, and the consequences of getting it wrong can be as bad as:

• Damaged reputation
• Lost contact confidence
• Forfeit of potential sales

This isn't limited to email marketing campaigns. Checking your email communications in general is worth more than the ten or so minutes it will cost you. Observing basic etiquette helps you stop treading on the toes of those who ultimately determine your business’ survival.

Respecting contacts’ privacy is a prime cornerstone of email best practice. Web users certainly don’t want to receive junk or have their address circulated around the Internet in a game of pass the parcel. Therefore, if you are sending an email marketing campaign using an in-house solution, ensure that you have put all the addresses in the BCC field.

"This is pretty elementary stuff. Nobody gets that wrong anymore, surely?"

Not true. Today we received an email from a magazine that made such a mistake, revealing a list of around one hundred email addresses all nicely formatted and ready for harvesting into someone’s email spam programme.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a huge breach of confidence, and we dare say it won’t have a lasting effect on people’s trust. But if the worst were to happen and an email address was stolen and hacked, the size of the breach would be irrelevant to the damaged party. Would they be so willing to give out an email address again? Don’t think so.

So just as a quick re-cap, here is the difference between CC: and BCC: for anyone who would like a reminder:

CC: short for ‘Carbon Copy’, the CC field is used to send duplicates of your original email to multiple addresses when separated by commas. These addresses are visible to all recipients of the email (given that you can now send emails to multiple recipients using the To field in most email desktop applications and service providers, the CC is more of a way of showing recipients who’s ‘in the loop’ on the message).

BCC: short for ‘Blind Carbon Copy’, the BCC field is like the CC field except recipients’ addresses are concealed from everyone else. As far as they’re concerned, no one else has received the email.

To avoid making basic blunders in your email communications, exercise caution about where you are copying and pasting content and addresses into messages. After all, you don’t want the wrong information to go out with your name attached to it. Breach users’ privacy and you will lose their custom.

Why Multi-Channel Consumers Are Best For Your Business

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Consumers who interact with businesses using multiple channels tend to spend more on average than those who interact via a single channel. It’s not surprising when you think about: after all, there are more opportunities for you to build trust, cross-sell and up-sell, and more chances for a consumer to make your company an indispensible part of their life, accessible from any location through any media – if the incentive is there.

But what are the potential disadvantages of such a multi-channel approach? The biggest risk is that by firing on all cylinders on all channels, you could speed up the process of subscriber fatigue. Interaction etiquette on social media as much the same as email marketing: intrude on subscribers with untargeted, uninformative content too often and you’ll soon be blocked.

There is, however, a strategy for effective multi-channel relationships with subscribers. Defining the role that each channel will play (e.g. which will be used to actively sell, which ones will not) reduces the risk of subscriber churn. It might sound counter-intuitive but limiting your sales promotion online might actually increase online revenue, for the reasons highlighted above.

We recommend using email as a channel for sending account information and marketing promotions and social media channels for online customer service and brand experience. Although usage of email is dwarfed in relation to social media, it still holds an essential place in people’s online lives - it's needed to create e-commerce accounts and receive sales invoices / receipts - and as its role changes from social to professional, it will become more suited to sending marketing messages and account information.

If subscribers are receiving your email marketing campaigns, tell them about your social media presence too, and vice versa. Advertise the benefits subscribers will experience by signing up for multiple channels (loyalty discounts, efficient customer service, interaction with social communities etc). And don’t forget integration between online and offline channels either: direct mail and telesales can still drive revenue, especially when following up email campaigns where subscribers have already demonstrated an active interest in a promotion or offer.

Multi-channel subscribers tend to feel more engaged and more loyal to a company so it is essential you consider how this applies to your business. However, don’t feel compelled to open new channels simply for the sake of it. Do it because they are going to add value to the customer experience and you can commit to it. With so many opportunities to interact with existing customers and prospects, it should be easy to come up with a multi-channel strategy that fits your business, improves customer engagement and increases sales revenue.

In Search of Email Marketing: Lead Generation Tactics

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Advertising spend forecasts don’t really make for great reading at the moment: a global decline of 6.9% is predicted for 2009, with any recovery unlikely to happen before 2010. But the one channel fighting against the current is online advertising, expected to increase further in the US and Europe throughout the year.

An area of particular growth online is search marketing (targeting paid and unpaid links in search engines for designated key phrases), which combined with email marketing can generate more sales leads and help build mailing lists.

Because of the recession, more people are spending time at home surfing the Internet, either for leisure or for browsing competitive prices before making a purchase. By creating suitable landing pages for both paid and unpaid search engine links - with incentivised data capture fields placed in prominent positions - it will be possible to send email marketing campaigns over a sustained period of time.

As the economy begins to recover, more people will be in a position to spend, and if you’ve been marketing to them consistently, you’ll be at the fore of their minds.

Emphasise the potential value a person might experience from receiving email notifications from you (would you like to treat them with special offers, rich-media content, advance notifications, hints and tips? etc) That way, you can capture the interest of both idle browsers and leads who are likely to buy sooner rather than later.

If you are targeting multiple key phrases, every landing page (and every data capture and email campaign) you create should be tailored accordingly. Tap into the interest that will have brought the browser to your site in the first place and present them with a real benefit of signing-up. The rewards will be there for both you, your customers and the economy.

How Unsubscribers Could Save Your Campaigns

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Once you’ve had a contact on your email marketing list for more than a few months, it can be tough letting them go – after all, you’ve spent time and money building your list; losing a subscriber feels like a wasted effort. But sometimes, the best way to keep subscribers engaged is to let them unsubscribe.

Contrary to popular belief, having a prominent unsubscribe option could drastically improve the success of your email marketing campaigns through:

• Establishing trust in you as a sender and the quality of your messaging i.e. ‘this sender isn’t forcing their messages on me’
• Providing an opportunity to redefine the relationship you have with a subscriber i.e. message frequency, interests, offers etc, so they don’t unsubscribe altogether
• Minimising the risk of being black-listed for spam by email service providers, creating deliverability problems

Although the short-term effect of lost subscribers seems negative, the long-term positives are increased subscriber retention, higher delivery rates and higher resulting conversion rates.

Consider the alternatives: if a subscriber can’t opt-out of your email campaign easily, they will make a spam complaint instead. Too many spam complaints equal a dead end for your email marketing campaign's deliverability as it finds itself on a black list.

Remember, unsubscribe requests aren’t a rejection of your company or brand altogether; they're a sign there’s room for improvement in your email marketing campaigns. Before the subscriber leaves, ask them:

• Would they prefer to change the terms of their subscription (monthly vs. weekly, subject specific content etc)?
• If they insist on leaving, is there any optional feedback they’d like to leave about the campaign to help improve it?
• Would they prefer to follow your blog / Facebook profile / Twitter account instead?

You could easily turn unsubscribe requests into opportunities for positive action simply through following the approach outlined above. Don’t try to hide the unsubscribe option; wear it on your sleeve as a badge of best practice and confidence.

Postage Increases Cut Into Direct Mail Budgets

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The steady decline of postage volumes has led to the second increase in postage stamp prices in just 12 months. As of yesterday (6 April), first and second class stamps were increased by 3 pence each to 39p and 30p respectively - which could lead to a further increase in email marketing levels.

Although the increase might not sound like much, the financial implications on businesses are potentially massive with an average cost rise of 4.3% (although business mail and franking service customers will see smaller increases in price).

Businesses that currently use direct mail to communicate with potential and existing customers and want to maintain their current contact frequency face two options: to accept the price increases and try reclaiming the costs through higher prices of their own, or to consider using cheaper online marketing channels, including email marketing to generate more sales.

Email marketing delivers seven times the return on investment of print catalogues, according to figures quoted by MarketingProfs, so it would be easy for businesses to recoup their losses by transferring from traditional direct mail to digital alternatives. Since direct mail volumes are expected to fall by 5-7% in the coming year, it's possible we'll see another increase in prices in the not too distant future. Businesses who use direct mail should start planning accordingly.

Reality Bites: The Recession's Influence on Marketing Messages

Posted by Gareth Cutter

If there is one good thing to have come out of the recession, it's the fact marketers have had to re-evaluate how they communicate with their subscribers. Although this reflex action isn't exactly deserving of a pat on the back, or always implemented in the best way, it does at least show the ability of some marketers to adapt quickly.

The email marketing intelligence company, Intelemail Inc. has published some interesting data on how trends in campaign messaging have changed over the past year. Between early 2008 and 2009, value-centric words such as 'free', 'shipping' and 'save' became more frequent in email subject lines in favour of product-centric words like 'new'. But what's more interesting is it took consumer spending to grind to a halt before marketers realised what matters to recipients isn't the features of the product; it's how they expect to benefit from buying.

That's not to suggest swapping one set of words for another would have averted a global economic crisis (we know email marketing is influential, but not that much) - but it might have at least generated more income for businesses when consumers were in a position to spend.

The not-so-good thing to have come out of the recession is the desperation amongst marketers to generate sales by sending more email marketing messages per week. Since January, the number of marketers sending two or more rose by 9% to a total of 64%. And 17% are now sending four messages a week, an increase of 5% since Jan '08.

Perhaps these companies do genuinely produce enough content to merit four marketing emails a week - but we think it's unlikely. The risk of trying to cram a sale down recipients' throats with overly frequent messaging means they are more likely to decide 'enough is enough' and unsubscribe from your list, making the task of generating sales that much more difficult.

We hope when the recession starts to abate, marketers stick with the benefit-led mode of descriptive copy, continuing to appeal to consumers' interests but amend the frequency of their messaging to an appropriate level. Turning this awareness of consumer benefits into targeted messaging sent on a regular (as opposed to overly frequent) basis is the surest way to get consumers spending and help the economy to mend.

How Fresh Is Your Email Marketing Data?

Posted by Gareth Cutter

A recent Marketing Sherpa article got us thinking: 'nothing ever stands still in the world of email marketing'. You might have had contacts on your email list for anything from few days to a few years now: will they still want the same things from your email marketing campaigns as when they first signed up?

For instance, a contact that first signed up for your discount offers may now want to receive your weekly newsletter because they're more interested in your brand; or a prospect that was only browsing before might now have the budget to start considering pitches from different businesses. If you aren't aware of these changes, and don't give subscribers an opportunity to inform you, your campaigns are likely to irritate rather than interest. How can you avoid this?

You could either let the contacts tell you about their changes in circumstance (provided there's an easy way for them to do so) - or you could get the ball rolling and ask them first.

Updating your contact's unique data regularly is as effective at improving campaign success as cleaning your list of old and incorrect email addresses. It means the information is fresh and allows you to send more targeted and relevant campaigns. An added bonus is it provides an additional touch to contacts, reminding them of your interest whilst giving them an opportunity to improve the value of your messages.

Surveys, webinar Q&A sessions, preference centres - there are many ways of attracting responses from your contact list. To illustrate, data specialists, Vericept found that webinar attendees often gave information about their budget and business goals when questioned directly after the session using an online survey. This provided valuable data for the sales team to qualify their next sales calls. Incentivising surveys and putting the benefits to subscribers first is the best way to ensure a strong response.

So when was the last time you got in touch with your contacts to ask them how they were? If the answer is 'I don't remember', drop them a short email to find out. It doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming (in fact, the shorter the better), just enough to get the best out of future email marketing campaigns. After all, it's not just polite to express an interest in your contacts - it can be profitable too.

DIY Email Marketing - 5 Things You Must Do

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Like any other channel you choose to build from scratch, a 'do-it-yourself' approach to email marketing is liable to backfire if you don't make the proper checks before hand, as a recent privacy blunder (from a data security specialist of all things) has proven.

In this particular instance, an over-eager and careless member of staff on the business development team sent an email to nearly 300 people who were assessing the firm's security application - by pasting all their email addresses into the 'To:' field, inadvertently revealing all the other prospect's email addresses.

This massive breach of trust and confidence could end up costing the firm a significant amount of money, but it is one of several errors that are incredibly easy to avoid simply through knowing where to look. If you are thinking of trying email marketing for yourself but are adamant about going it alone - please, please, please make sure you do all of the following:

1. Always send a test email - HTML emails format differently in different email clients; sending a test email the multiple accounts will help you spot unattractive errors and give you a chance to correct them. Also, seeing the email in a fresh context (the inbox) will help you to spot typos and inconsistencies you may have missed during the compositional stage
2. Link to a web-version of the email - a handy way of solving email client formatting issues and driving people directly to your website; if not all subscribers can see your email marketing in all its HTML glory, the effort is wasted
3. Check that all the links work - this includes the 'unsubscribe' and 'forward to a friend' features; the value (and in the case of unsubscribers, legality) of your emails depend on this. Broken links lose customers
4. Never use the To: or CC: fields - unless you want to advertise to subscribers just who else is on the mailing list, though it's unlikely the subscribers will be keen. Make sure addresses go in the BCC: field to ensure privacy
5. Check your personal details - when the email arrives in your inbox, does it say who it's actually from, or is it just a generic info@company x address? Put a friendly face on and go with a name and email address they will come to associate with your solution

In short: treat email marketing as seriously as you would any other marketing channel. Just because it's fast and cost-effective, doesn't mean it's disposable; a breach of trust in your email marketing is a very serious issue and one that could cost you much in the long run. Observe the following rules however, and your DIY email marketing will become a trusted, business generating channel without any problems.

More Than 4 out of 5 Directors Support Email Marketing

Posted by Gareth Cutter

A poll of 1,000 finance directors across the UK has discovered that more than four out of five support an increased investment in marketing platforms, including email marketing, despite the recession.

According to the report, done in partnership by customer insight firm, KDB and data solutions provider, WPP Lightspeed Research, 98% of business directors in the business services sector back the move to increase marketing investment in 2009.

Matt Booth, chief analyst at KDB, commented that it ties in to an understanding of "the historic importance of marketing through a recession".

Email marketing's strong return on investment (ROI) and accountability makes it a favourite for increased investment during the recession as finance directors look for increased accountability in all business outgoings. In email marketing, managers are able to track directly which prospects turn into paying customers because of a campaign, making it easier for them to calculate the ROI and justify the expense to directors.

The report comes as an antidote to common perceptions about directors being opposed to investing in marketing during recessions; provided that marketers are able to present them with a plan on how they intend to generate incoming business, they will find their directors more willing to lend their support, and their finances.

Optimise Email Marketing Content To Increase Your Sales

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Our new white paper on improving email campaign success, 'Optimise Email Content for Increased Sales in Five Easy Steps' is now available for you to download in our white papers section.

In this paper, we address five key aspects of your email marketing content, showing you how to:

• Make your messaging key into prospects' desires
• Turn weak 'calls to action' into sale generators
• Help formatting fit restrictive email preview panes
• Create consistently engaging emails that subscribers take action on

By following this white paper's advice, we think you will see a marked improvement in the quality of your messaging and a more enthusiastic response from your contact list. What's more - the steps only take ten minutes to read.

And whilst you're in our white papers section, why not read the rest of our white papers? They're all free and contain valuable, practical information for those who'd like to learn more about email marketing.

If you have any suggestions or topics you would like covered in future white papers, please contact us and we will do our best to write on your chosen email marketing topic in the coming months.

Email Marketing Has to Be More Engaging Than Ever

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Merkle's recent View from the Inbox 2009 study has revealed that 59% spend at least 20 minutes every week with permission-based email marketing. But how many emails have to compete for subscribers' attention within those 20 minutes?

The answer may be as many as ten now, according to information from the same study. This represents a marginal increase, as the number of emails allowed within the 'Inner Circle' has held steady at 9 for the past six years.

This threshold is unlikely to go up again any time soon - but we expect the volume of emails vying for a place in those 'top ten' to increase sharply as the cost and ROI-benefits of email marketing become more apparent during the recession. This means grabbing and holding consumers' attention with engaging emails is going to become even more of a top priority for email marketers.

The secret to subscriber engagement is content, so ask yourself: how content-rich are your email marketing campaigns? We've written about the Pareto principle in the past (an 80:20 ratio of informative content to promotional materials) but think it is worth bringing to marketers' attention again because it embodies the kind of approach consumers appreciate.

Observing the Pareto principle doesn't mean you have to be writing essay-length emails - far from it, subscribers don't have time to pick through dense copy - instead, you should be linking to interesting content on your site: informative articles, blog posts, questionnaires, photo galleries, anything that you think will be of interest to subscribers.

Doing this will allow them to pick and choose what to read at their own discretion. Provided that the content is of high-quality and relevance, this will increase subscriber engagement and drive more traffic to your website where visitors will be primed to make a purchase, should you keep them engaged.

Is It Time To Give Up On Your Prospects?

Posted by Gareth Cutter

When is it ever right to give up on a prospect? If you've been sending consistent email marketing campaigns to them for over several months with no response then maybe the best thing would be to cut your losses. Your email allowance could make room for more qualified leads that are likelier to make a purchase; these unresponsive accounts are ultimately dead-weight to your campaigns.

But before you delete their address from your list, consider for a moment: the fact that these contacts initially showed an interest in your campaigns but aren't responding anymore might not have anything to do with your email marketing campaign strategy; it could be they're just not in a position to buy at the moment.

Before wading into your list with a finger on the 'delete' key, it's worth segmenting your list and putting these unresponsive addresses to one side. Your aim is to establish whether interest in your products / services is still there and what the likelihood is of that interest converting into a sale in future.

Compose a simple text-based email appealing to your subscribers for information. You can be as creative or direct about your intentions as you like. To get subscribers to open the email, emphasise the benefits to them in the subject line e.g. 'We Want to Improve our Services to You.' Include a tick box or something similar asking prospects where they are roughly on the sales ladder e.g. 'I'm interested but don't want to buy at the moment', or 'I'd like some more product information first' as this will help you sort the potential customers from those with no intention of ever buying.

The email should be non-committal and low-risk to the subscriber - that way, if they don't respond within a reasonable amount of time, it's fair to say that their interest has waned and it's time to move on. Now you can delete that address from your email marketing list with a clean conscience; no need to stay awake at night wondering whether you threw away a big opportunity. And on the other side of the coin, you might have prompted some of those other 'silent subscribers' into conversations that will convert into sales; all through having the patience to ask the right questions in the right way.

Don't be rash with your contact list - qualified, opt-in contacts aren't the easiest to attract, so never write-off a lead until you're sure it's gone.

Update: DMA Email Marketing Benchmarking Report

Posted by Gareth Cutter

More useful information for marketing managers has been published by the DMA, following on from the figures reported in our last blog post about email marketing strategies in Q2 2008.

It appears that most marketing managers are gearing their strategies towards retention as a way of strengthening cash-flow during the recession economy; all in all, 82% of marketing campaigns sent between April and June 2008 were focused on keeping existing customers, a percentage increase of 8% on Q1 of the same year.

In-house email lists are traditionally regarded as the strongest and most profitable to businesses because the contacts have almost always been qualified with an 'opt-in' agreement. Recipients of retention campaigns are also more likely to be receptive to messages because trust and familiarity has been built over consecutive campaigns, meaning an increased likelihood of buying.

The average frequency of mails sent to contacts per email service provider (ESP) per month has also increased to an average of 5.44 email, presumably as a means of stimulating increased spending and stronger loyalty.

We advise that those who do increase the frequency of their mails to also increase their messages' relevancy and targeting. To justifiy the increase, subscribers will expect the new mails to be at least equal, if not superior to the ones that came before in these areas. It is also advisable to give recipients the opportunity to opt-out of more frequent campaigns in exchange for less frequent volumes to avoid any unsubscribes.

Put these measures in place and retention campaigns might be the very glue that holds your customer base together in 2009. If you would like to measure your own performance against the benchmark study and pick up some extra ideas on how to plan your campaigns, you can purchase and download the full DMA National Email Benchmarking Report by following this link.

Right Place, Right Time: Email Marketing Best For Your Message

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Recent figures have shown email marketing is still the overall preferred channel as chosen by consumers for receiving communications from businesses. The findings come on the back of a recent study by G2 Data Dynamics, the customer insight specialists, which went on to detail:

• 57% of consumers chose email marketing as their preferred business communication channel
• More specifically, 54% of women and 60% of men singled it out as their first choice, showing a slight difference between audiences

These findings put email marketing above post, telecommunications and social media in terms of popularity, and as the saying goes, 'the customer is always right'; marketers who haven't already considered using email marketing as a communication and marketing channel should do so now. For those who are, here's some extra advice on how to help widen this 'window of opportunity' for maximum sales turnover.

The variance between email marketing's popularity with men and women might be slight, but it does illustrate the point that not all audiences preferences are the same. Email marketers should be using email surveys to find out when their subscribers are most likely to read business emails. Scheduling your campaigns inappropriately could result in users only finding them later at the bottom of the inbox, buried under more recent messages that arrived after yours. By the time they have read through them all, interest and receptivity to your message might be diminished.

You have to try and find out when your message is most likely to delivery at a key inbox-browsing part of the day. Web-usage habits will always vary but they can identify times when the majority of your market checks its email. For instance, those working in a B2B sector tend to distribute their campaigns just prior to lunch: this is so they arrive just before office workers sit down at their desks to eat and catch up on their mail. Those in the B2C sector may decide to send email campaigns outside of work hours instead when recreational internet-use is highest and consumers have more time to browse personal email accounts.

Strictly speaking, there is no 'right' or 'wrong' time to send an email but there are times that are likelier to get a higher response rate. Your particular industry might have very specific times and dates when email messaging would be most appropriate, so it's essential you learn them. Put together a short preference form asking when users tend to check their emails, or include it in a larger market survey and analyse the results - soon you will have valuable data with which to increase the customer engagement and sales conversions of your email marketing campaigns, just from asking a few questions.

eMailCampaigner Supports The Big Issue in the North

Posted by Gareth Cutter

As part of Doctor Net's Corporate Social Responsibility programme for 2009, eMailCampaigner will be teaming up with The Big Issue in the North to provide a years' worth of free email marketing support.

The Big Issue in the North will use this support to help promote its Big Deal initiative, which is open to businesses that would like to subscribe and advertise with the magazine, and to support the England Team in the Homeless Football World Cup, which takes place in Italy this coming September.

The Big Issue in the North was one of almost 35 charities and social enterprises to apply to Doctor Net's corporate social responsibility programme, first announced in January. Doctor Net and eMailCampaigner will be announcing three more partners on a quarterly basis as the year progresses. Check back here for updates.

To read the story in full, please visit Doctor Net's press release page by clicking the link below:

'Manchester Marketing Firm Knows How to Handle The Big Issue'

eMailCampaigner Attends TFM&A 2009

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Doctor Net will once again be exhibiting eMailCampaigner at this years' Technology For Marketing & Advertising show at Earls Court, London alongside its additional on-line marketing services, which are now all available in one fully-integrated ecommerce platform.

The new platform has been designed to simplify the marketing and sales process by eliminating the need for multiple technology vendors. This gives you more time to focus on your creative, segmentation, targeting and customer care efforts. The platform includes email marketing, ecommerce, customer relationship management (CRM), pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimisation (SEO).

If you are planning on attending, we invite you to come and speak to us about transforming your business' sales in 2009. We will be stationed on Stand F22. To register for your free visitor pass, please visit the TFM&A 2009 website here.

Our managing director, Chris Maule had the following to say about the upcoming event:

"We are very excited about this years' Technology For Marketing & Advertising show, which is a highlight in every marketers' calendar. Last year we met several companies and subsequently have helped them to transform their on-line sales and marketing. We expect to repeat that experience again and invite anyone who is curious about how fully-integrated ecommerce can dramatically increase their on-line sales to come and speak to us at the show."

Chris Maule's team of marketing and technology consultants will be happy to answer any questions you might have, so come and meet the experts to find out how you can increase your sales figures in 2009. We look forward to seeing you there.

'Trust Us' - How to Use Email Marketing to Increase Sales

Posted by Gareth Cutter

People will only buy from you if they feel they can trust you. Unfortunately, some people are harder to convince than others. But one of email marketing's chief advantages as a marketing channel is how it can be used to build trust up gradually via targeted campaigns and offers that increase progressively in value.

For the majority of subscribers, this approach is enough: once they've been caught by your attention grabbing subject-line, and invested themselves in your messaging and special offers, the sale will come much easier. But what about those that are still unwilling to make a purchase because of reservations? Some consumers and clients are going to be extra-cautious about their spending until the economy is back on the mend so you need to prove you've got a rock-solid proposition.

Established businesses should draw on the trust-building quality of testimonials and customer reviews by including them at the footer of their email marketing campaigns, just below the call to action. Make sure that they are relevant to what you're advertising, are properly credited to the author (in-line with your privacy policy) and are not just generic endorsements of your business as these tend to carry less value that more specific testimonials. If the email includes a link to a landing page, put the reviews on there too so the prospect is continually reminded of your trustworthiness.

For businesses that use ecommerce, one of the biggest obstacles to a sale is internet users' mistrust of on-line shopping and fear of identity theft. Recent figures published by Cybersource suggest that 40% of UK shoppers prefer not the purchase online for this reason. If your website supports any of the various identity protections schemes (MasterCards' Secure Code or Verified by Visa) and is endorsed with the secure padlock icon, consider including these graphics at the foot of your email marketing campaign with a short description of your security policies. Alternatively, you could link to the security policy posted on your website to get the traffic flowing in.

In addition to this, remember the front that your email marketing presents. A trustworthy website will observe best practices when it comes to collecting contact addresses, sending appropriate volumes of mail and giving recipients the chance to change their subscription options and / or unsubscribe. Every email you send represents your company: informative, attractively formatted email marketing campaigns will go a long way towards convincing prospects that your business merits their trust and their custom.

Email Marketing - Survival of the Quickest?

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Less than two days to go before Valentine's Day and if you were hoping to get an email marketing campaign out in time for consumers to take advantage of, time is running out fast - that is unless you're planning a an 'Anti-Valentine's' campaign!

We've already published some suggestions on how to take advantage of email marketing for Valentine's Day, even if your business isn't in a particularly 'romantic' industry. But for those of you who have missed the boat this time, it's worth us recapping briefly on the importance of planning and timing in email marketing.

A marketers' job is, amongst other things, to be one step-ahead of their market when it comes to anticipating buying decisions. Planning early is a must in order to spot emergent trends, and thinking about a campaign weeks in advance will allow you to test and refine your messaging until it's as targeted as it can possibly be.

Email marketers have the unique advantage over those who use traditional channels in that they're able to get their messages out faster and target them to recipients more specifically - so the consumers who want to know about your '20% Valentine's Discount' do so - and before anyone else.

Set up a monthly marketing plan and update it weekly. That way you're aware of every upcoming opportunity and never miss a deadline. Consistency and opportunity combined bring more sales than either can when used on its own.

Forrester Predicts 10% Increase in Digital Marketing Spend

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The migration of marketing budgets to on-line channels is set to continue according to a recent report from Forrester Research. The report predicted that digital marketing spend will increase by 10% over the coming twelve months, providing a contrast to the uniformly cloudy economic forecasts. An increased uptake of on-line marketing channels such as email marketing, ecommerce and social media is to be expected as large and growing businesses seek new ways of interacting with their customer base.

The news comes hot on the heels of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's 'Digital Britain - Interim Report', which is laying the groundwork for the UK-wide installation of 2MB speed broadband in every home by 2012. It is also yet another sign that email marketing will soon play an integral role in future marketing efforts since it is to most targeted and measurable of lead-generation channels for on-line marketers.

Further evidence of digital marketing's health is news that it is one of the few advertising sectors to see an increase in employment levels. Advertising is traditionally hard hit by economic downturns so it's cheering news to see faith is being invested in this area.

We will keep you posted on any further developments. In fact, expect us to be updating more regularly as the world of email marketing just seems to be getting busier!

Valentine's Day Email Marketing Tips

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Are you after some Valentine's Day email marketing tips? Our most recent article, Email Marketing - Romance Your Contact List This Valentine's Day is now available to view on EzineArticle's website. Just follow the link above to be taken straight to it.

Why worry about marketing on Valentine's Day? Well, as the article states:

'Valentine's Day isn't just a time for the dating agencies, confectioners and card manufacturers to profit - it's also the perfect time for you to use email marketing to start new business relationships and re-ignite existing ones.'

So save yourself from scrambling for ways to engage your customers and take advantage of the upcoming holiday. Our article has suggestions that are appropriate for any business, whether in a B2B or B2C marketplace. It also provides plenty of general best practice advice too. Content like this doesn't come for free very often - but we like to give a little something back every now and again, so read it today!

Check, Check and Triple-Check Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Posted by Gareth Cutter

With more and more marketing campaign mistakes being made embarrassingly public on the web, it's time for marketers to begin addressing accuracy and errors in their email marketing campaigns more seriously.

The simple fact is most of these errors can be avoided with a few simple checks but time isn't always left to make them. In most scenarios, the scheduled deadline is approaching fast and rather than send an email late out late, marketers send it assuming that everything is OK.

Although consistent email frequency is important - it keeps subscribers happy and helps you stay at the fore of their minds - the damage an unprofessional email can have on your reputation dwarves it by comparison.

Common errors include:

• Misspellings and poor grammar in the subject line or body of the email
• Broken or misdirecting links
• Poor image rendering / formatting across internet service providers (ISP)
• Duplicate emails or emails sent to the wrong mailing list

Some of these oversights are worse than others but they all contribute to the erosion of consumer confidence and respect, especially when they are relatively simple problems to fix. Here are some tips to ensure none of your campaigns end up as examples of 'How Not to Do It':

• Plan with plenty of time ahead and allow for delays in writing the copy and formatting the HTML so you have time to read it through later on
• Use an automated spell-checker to pick up obvious misspellings and get your colleagues to check the email for contextual spelling errors (your vs you're, too vs to)
• Check all graphics display properly by putting your email through a rendering program, or set up test accounts with different ISP to see how they look in the inbox
• Make sure details in the subject line, alt-texts, pre-headers, copy and links are all the same - it can be easy to miss inconsistencies when using email templates

And if all else fails, have an 'apology email' template ready to send out immediately in the case of making a serious mistake. This will show consumers that you are paying them the attention they deserve and are willing to own up to errors - after all, you're only human. An email apology might even endear you to them.

Of course, prevention is always better than cure - so put the measures outlined above in place and chances are you'll never have to 'fess up' to making a simple mistake to your subscribers again.

Business Owners - Don't 'Slash and Burn' in the Recession

Posted by Gareth Cutter

It's official: figures released by the Government over the weekend confirm the UK economy is in recession - but another document released recently by Xtreme Information's Insight division is urging business owners not to act rashly in these tough times.

Business owners tend to make cuts in the advertising and marketing departments first when trying to cut costs because it's the quickest way of reducing spend. This tactic may have its advantages in the short-term but business owners must consider their long-term goals as well.

Figures from the report, 'Communicating in a Downturn: Recessionary Marcoms Tactics & Strategies' show that companies that act counter-intuitively and market their products/services aggressively during recessions are more likely to survive than those that don't. Brand awareness is likely to erode faster if marketing efforts flag, leaving the market and consumers' attentions wide-open for more adventurous and aggressive competitors to take advantage of.

Email marketing is a popular choice for businesses in need of reaching a targeted audience on a smaller budget, so is likely to increase in popularity during the recession. However, email marketing's advantages go far beyond it's low costs: the return on investment (ROI) is strong enough to rival the most elaborate print and television marketing campaigns. Email marketing's low cost shouldn't be used as an excuse to reduce the marketing budget either: the more you invest in it, the more it will return.

For those interested in ordering a copy of the report from Xtreme Information, please follow this link: Communicating in a Downturn: Recessionary Marcoms Tactics & Strategies. This interactive report gives examples of tactics for marketing in a recession both past and present and is of use to marketers in any field.

Key Dates in Your Email Marketing Calendar

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Christmas Day and New Year's Day are well and truly behind us now - but there's another important date coming up for email marketing: Valentine's Day. Love it or loathe it, the next national holiday is approaching and some enterprising marketers have gotten the jump on it already and started mentioning it in their marketing message copy, as shown by the latest report from the Retail Email Index.

If you're selling in a seasonal market place that traditionally sees a rise in sales around Valentine's Day, our advice is: start planning ahead. What content will be going into your emails and do you intend on increasing the frequency of emails you send out as the date approaches? If you haven't got an email marketing program already, seriously consider it, because it's a cost-effective way of getting in touch with interested customers directly and pointing them in the direction of your sales team and ecommerce site.

Although December 2008 and the Christmas run-up are a distant memory, there's still things that we can learn from them: Cyber Monday has now been established as another key date in the email marketing calendar for international retailers. This date falls on the Monday directly after 'Black Friday', the ceremonial kick-off of the Christmas shopping season in America. Cyber Monday 2008 saw online sales total $846m (£598,970,000) an increase of 15% on 2007. Shoppers have taken up these online sales with enthusiasm, as evidenced by the 15% increase but the increase in retailers sending out email marketing promotions on this day wasn't quite so large - only up 2% to 70% overall.

There's still room for more businesses to take advantage of this spike in consumer spending - so if last year is anything to go by, 2009 should a further incremental increase in retailers seeking to increase Cyber Monday spending by cutting prices on this now firmly established tradition.

Greater Moves Towards Email Marketing in 2009

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Welcome back to the eMailCampaigner blog. We're feeling refreshed after the Christmas break and ready to further refine our email marketing services for 2009.

Looking towards the year ahead, we can expect to see a greater migration towards digital advertising methods - including email marketing - as marketers come under more pressure to make the most of their budgets in a tough economic climate. The reasons are that many consumers are spending their free time on-line and have email accounts they check regularly already; secondly, digital advertising methods have greater levels of measurement and accountability than traditional marketing methods, which aren't always easy to test and measure in controlled circumstances.

As a result of this move towards the digital realm, market research firm eMarketer have set their predicted 2009 digital ad spend figures at £3.58 billion. These figures reflect both the current state of the economy and the findings of a recent quarterly survey from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IABUK), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Center (WARC)

Here at eMailCampaigner, we also believe that in order to look forward, you have to look behind you as well. Cast your minds back and you may remember that in 2008 the DMA quoted one of the most impressive statistics about email marketing we've ever come across: a maximum return on investment (ROI) of almost £50 for every pound spent. This is why we're confident email marketing channels will continue to thrive in 2010 and beyond: after all this time, there has yet to be another marketing channel to emerge with a comparable ROI to email marketing.

Of course, you have to have a good team of people behind the computers in order to make those impressive ROIs, so our technical team is going to be working hand in hand with the marketing department to fuse advertising savvy with technical know-how. We'll keep you updated with how the teams are getting on - and we might even give you a sneak peek into the work going on behind the scenes.

6 out of 10 Organisations to Increase Email Marketing Spend in 2009

Posted by Gareth Cutter

E-consultancy have followed up 2007's Customer Engagement Report with a 2008 edition published last week. Containing the results of a survey of over 1,000 organisations, it brings us up to date with the most recent trends in on-line marketing and provides a unique insight into the marketing attitudes of companies today.

The most telling figures are that although social media networks, blogs and other Web 2.0 features are expected to be utilised more heavily in 2009, with a reported 41% expected to increase expenditure, they still lag behind email marketing. Over 60% of organisations said that this would be their channel of choice for promoting their businesses in 2009 and will see a definite increase in expenditure.

This comes off the back of a widespread increase in attempts to improve on-line customer engagement. Over three quarters of those surveyed commented that they're finding it increasingly important to tailor messages to recipients and that the returns of doing so were 'improved customer loyalty' and 'increased revenue'.

We can surmise from this report that email marketing is still the most trusted media for broadcasting marketing messages directly on account of its strong return on investment (ROI): marketers can broadcast messages and track who follows them. Social media, although becoming more popular, is a less defined process and is still being treated with some hesitance on account of it's comparatively uncertain ROI.

It will be interesting to see how big a role social media has to play in 2009 - but based on this study, we can reasonably predict that 2009 will be another successful year for email marketing.

New Landing Page Check-list Available from EEC

Posted by Gareth Cutter

For those of you who've had trouble creating conversion-driving landing pages in the past, the Email Experience Council (EEC) has come to the rescue with an informative and educational 'Landing Page' check-list

The landing page is the most critical stage in email marketing: it's where the attentive audience of prospects collects, eager to read you pitch how the product / service you offer will satisfy all their needs and solve all their problems.

As the check-list makes clear, there is nothing intrinsically challenging about creating an attractive, motivational landing page: it's simply a matter of following established best practices. You can have a sneak-peek at some of this content on the Exec's blog where co-chairs Lisa Harmon and Megan Walsh have laid it out clearly in bullet-points. Of particular interest are the sections on writing sign-up forms and other CTAs (Calls-to-Action) where the importance of pitching a strong CTA not once but at every opportune moment is driven home.

Depending on your existing approach to landing pages, the advice that's given here might sound like a big overhaul, but by remembering one basic point about the landing page, you should see a considerable improvement in the number of conversions it generates.

Remind the prospect repeatedly what they stand to gain from using your product and/or service. Write it in benefit-led, customer focused copy. It's all a case of knowing why a prospect would open the email and click-through to the landing page in the first place. For instance, if you offer a courier service, it's because you provide a client with confidence in their package's safe and timely delivery, or if you sell furniture, it's because your settees are the most comfortable, ideal to stretch out on and relax after a stress-filled day.

Remember: if you lose prospects at this stage, all the hard work you've put into targeting the email addresses, writing catchy subject lines and informative, curiosity-piquing emails will be undone. On the other hand, if you can demonstrate a consistent awareness of the customer's needs, from the subject line right to the landing page, you'll see a definite increase in the amount of traffic coming your way.

Surge in Email Marketing in Christmas Run-Up

Posted by Gareth Cutter

With approximately 8 weeks to go before Christmas Day, retailers are busy preparing their email advertising and sales strategies to go on the offensive. Since recent figures show that the non-food retail sector's value is down £2 billion on 2007, businesses will be competing even harder for consumers' Christmas budgets.

A marketer's first impulse might be to fire out one marketing message after another, advertising last minute promotions and discounts in an attempt to stimulate more sales. However, they risk forgetting to target their messages appropriately or even apply a consistent schedule to how often they send them out.

This presents the wrong image: consumers put the most confidence in businesses that keep a level-head during tough times. If you're intending on doubling the number of messages you're sending out to consumers, it's essential that they're the right messages, advertising the right offers, sent at the right times. Over-saturating mailing list inboxes with untargeted messages could lead people to opt-out, or worse make Spam complaints to their ISP against you - all the more reason to take some time to segment your mailing list now, before the real Christmas rush hits.

Consumers want to know when they can get a bargain naturally, and even more so at Christmas, but it has to be about something they might feasibly have bought in the first place. A calm and collected approach to email advertising will help you target the right people, outperform your competitors and result in a more relaxed and profitable Christmas for your business.

Give Email Campaigns Some 'Credit'

Posted by Gareth Cutter

It comes as little surprise that the financial sector is trimming its expenditure, what with all the recent news of nationalisations and bail-outs. This pessimistic outlook is reflected in the most recent research from Neilson Media, showing that credit card providers have cut their direct-mail spend significantly: by as much as 83% in some cases.

Remember all those plastic credit card promotions Capital One were sending out earlier this year? In a remarkable 'about face', they've become one of the biggest direct-mail spendthrifts in the sector. Expenditure was down from £36.9m to £6.3m in the year to June.

Overall, the financial sector was down 3.5% on year-on-year figures. While this isn't quite as dramatic a drop as the one seen last year (6.2%), it's still large enough to raise a few eyebrows over the cost-effectiveness of traditional marketing methods. Perhaps it's time to move for the financial industry to move on - or catch up, as the case may be?

The cost per send of an email is already known to be much lower than that of a direct mail campaign, so email marketing is an ideal way of promoting consumer spending whilst staying within budget (and increased consumer spending will help stimulate the economy). The benefits enjoyed by eMailCampaigner clients will translate to anyone who wants to reduce their marketing spend and enjoy a higher return on investment - a little good news for those dismayed by the financial forecast.

Spend on Email Marketing Continues to Grow

Posted by Gareth Cutter

According to a recent report on E-consultancy's website, email marketing spend will grow by 24% over the rest of the year. This will take spend to a total value of £274 million, making email campaigns one of the fastest growing areas in marketing: impressive given the current state of the economy.

We predicted in January that this would be a good year for eMailCampaigner. The figures in this report come as further evidence that email advertising is a fertile base for improving sales.

When John Coyne, our business development manager read the article, he had this to say:

"I think businesses are starting to understand the strong benefits associated with targeted email campaigns. They are cost effective, fast and the ability to track your marketing campaigns in real time allow for a quicker sales process."

Sage-like words from John: he's had over seven years' experience working in marketing and developing business so he's in a good position to comment. If you'd like to pick his brains further on the subject, you can talk to him simply by emailing: john@doc-net.com or telephoning: 0845 521 0444

Longer Subject Lines Make a BIG Difference

Posted by Gareth Cutter

It's one of Life's great questions: is bigger better?

We're referring to the length of your subject lines of course. The DMA have published findings in their July Newsletter that contrary to popular belief, longer subject lines optimise click to open rates.

Shorter subject lines of up to 50 characters might get people reading your message but proportionally, fewer take the communication any further than those that click on longer subject lines. There is an inverse relationship between opens and both 'click' and 'click to open' rates, and even a 'dead zone' between 60 to 70 characters (6-10 words) where neither open rates nor click to open rates are optimised.

We're of the opinion that it's not the size of your subject line but what you do with it that counts. If you can load as much information into as fewer words as possible, do it: readers will be able to quickly assess the suitability of your message and not be put off by a lengthy subject line that looks suspiciously like spam.

But the best way to find out what subject line works for you is to send out a test email to a small segment of your list beforehand. See what percentage of recipients actually click to open your email. Use the findings to adjust your subject line accordingly. But don't duplicate the message for your test audience - no one wants to receive the same message twice!

Information-Rich Emails Get Results

Posted by Gareth Cutter

This month at eMailCampaigner we've been thinking about the Pareto principle: a versatile 80/20 ratio that can be applied to many things in life - including email marketing content.

'Content as King' has been a popular topic in the marketing world of late - good content to be precise. We know that you can try to dazzle your audience with a fancily designed email but all those bells and whistles could leave them feeling dissatisfied if there isn't the content to back it up.

This is why we try to follow the Pareto principle: 80% information-rich content, 20% marketing content. This ratio is especially important if you're writing in the business to business market: experienced business people will see straight through your compaign if it's nothing but boast copy.

When we write our email campaigns, we talk about the problems people might be facing and the benefits they'll experience by using our products first. Save the company's vital statistics until the end – people won't care unless they know what you're going to do for them.

New Modular Template Editing System Goes On-Line

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Last month we mentioned the upcoming launch of a new easy-to-use modular system. Well, we are pleased to announce that the upgrade is now available account-wide to all our clients.

eMailCampaigner: Modular Templates is a new user-friendly template editing system. In addition to the traditional WYSIWYG format, we now offer modules that you can integrate, remove and adjust without any specialist knowledge of HTML. This will make your campaigns easier to assemble, more pleasing to look at and improve their overall deliverability.

You can pass the benefits on to your audience in the form of readable, informative and attractive emails, helping you to stand out from the rest of the competition.

If you would like to see a free online demonstration of the new modules, contact John Coyne via email: john@doc-net.com or telephone: 0845 521 0444

New Year's Resolutions for eMailCampaigner

Posted by Gareth Cutter

First things first, a Happy New Year to everyone! We hope you've enjoyed the Christmas Holidays and set yourself some realistic New Year's Resolutions. Ours at eMailCampaigner is to help our clients go from success to success, launching and maintaining email campaigns that keep their sales rolling in.

We predict that 2008 will be a good year for email marketing. More people are beginning to realise they can save time and money using email to distribute their message. But don't expect us to rest on our laurels – we'll be working hard to make sure everyone gets a great return on their investment.

What's your New Year's Resolution? Is it to improve your business' sales, halve the marketing budget and find better ways of analysing your campaign's effectiveness?

Then why not give John Coyne, our business development manager a call on 0845 521 0444 and start the year off on a high note? You can discuss with him the ways of fitting email marketing to suit your needs and start enjoying the benefits for the rest of the year.

New Site Launched

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The new eMailCampaigner site was launched today! The content will build over the next few weeks and we're planning to turn the site into one of the leading resources for email marketing on the web. Watch this space!