The emBlog

Think you can't put video in your HTML emails? Guess again!

2009-09-28T20:59:00.003-05:00

Looking to increase your click-through rate by 200% to 300%? Try putting videos in your emails.

Goodmail Systems has launched its CertifiedVideo™ technology. According to the company, your video runs the second a subscriber opens its email message. By being deemed a "qualified sender," you are able to place audio and video in a message, which alleviates the pain of having to link to a website where the video will play.

The technology

The company uses its CertifiedEmail™ technology. This technology, along with your CertifiedVideo™ supposedly will keep ISPs happy and they will allow the video to play. Right now, the service works only with web-based email systems, so those looking to utilize it in Microsoft Outlook will have to wait.

Goodmail says that the the delivery fee will be at least $10 per thousand emails. This revenue will be shared with ISPs.

For more information, read up on the service on Goodmail System's website.

Does anyone ever really forward-to-a-friend?

2009-09-15T10:53:00.003-05:00

If you know anything about email marketing best practices, one of the key practices is to give your subscribers the option to pass along your email in hopes of gaining another subscriber to add to your lists. It is the marketers hope that this will lengthen their lists as well as establish a new relationship that hopefully, turns this prospective customer into a buying customer. This new relationship will help your company's bottom line, contribute to your brand, and open the door for more customers.

....or will it?

We weigh in on our website.

The truth about using images in your email campaigns

2009-05-20T10:57:00.002-05:00

Ahhhhhhh......back from a long hiatus.........

When asked if it's suitable to place images in email campaigns, there's really no cut and dry answer, as I've been on both sides of this coin. If you look at heads, you have a really great image that has been developed by a superb art team that specializes in making images look they're best—and believe me they do. Then, flip the coin over, and you see text with maybe a small image and copy.

Which one would you choose?

Clearly, it depends on your objective. If you're looking to make “pretty,” then by all means, stick a big image in your email campaigns. Forget about those looking at it on their Blackberry because all they'll see is a jumbled mess. I hear your disagreements loud and clear already—you're saying “what if I use alt tags?” Sure, that's fine. You can use alt tags which will show if the image doesn't, and oftentimes, this is enough to get the point across. Not using alt tags is definitely a death warrant; if your subscribers have images turned off, they will only see a box with a red “x” in it. I know that's not what you want, is it?

Most popular email clients have images turned off by default these days. Gone are the days when you make the choice—they make it for you. This is sometimes true even if you've added this sender to your address book. Spam is alive and well these days, and your email clients are looking out for your best interest.

Still interested in using one big image in your campaign?

My suggestion is to use a small image in your HTML email to give it that ol' marketing flair. Then use a table to insert the copy with your call to action included. I recommend putting that copy “above the fold” and putting the image on the side, preferably on the right. That way, by the time the image downloads, you've read the copy anyway.

Need a traffic boost on your retail site? Have a party!!

2009-03-05T12:05:00.003-06:00

Who doesn't like a party? New faces, meeting new people...and most of all the opportunity to drink. Or in this case--shop.

Virtual parties are all the rave these days. Having a party online allows you to send invitations to your Grandmother in Connecticut..or your best friend in New York. The beauty of the event? Everyone and anyone can attend!

So, this begs the question...If you can have a party for yourself, why not go a step further and have one for your business? If you are trying to move merchandise, why not familiarize yourself with your online audience and inform them that you'll be having a party. Offer the merchandise at discounted rates for those who bring friends, and those who do more than just "browse." How do you launch the ultimate online party? Read on!

Should your company have a website or just settle for a blog?

2009-02-02T20:49:00.002-06:00

Companies have only recently begun using blogs to promote their thought leadership and experiences within their industry. Researchers say, however, that many companies have a long way to go in their quest to reach the blogosphere. Many companies have argued that blogs are not worth the maintenance and that the information that they provide could easily be found on their website. Other companies say that blogs are the ideal way to communicate ideas that otherwise would get lost in the land of landing pages!

Blogs should be an addition to a website rather than a replacement. Blogs tends to focus on one aspect of a company’s services and/or products, but a website will undoubtedly cover many. A website’s URL can easily be etched in the mind, whereas a blog tends to have a long URL that would probably only be able to be found if you are on the website itself.

Moreover, a website provides a robust array of ways to promote your content that is located throughout the site using Flash, interactivity (forms and applications), video, and audio. With a blog, many companies are limited to the content they can add to a blog to promote the site’s content.

My Thoughts on Email Marketing

2009-01-12T22:49:00.000-06:00

Email marketing is a touchy subject. Most marketers tend to use it as a technique rather than use it as a method. For example, in my experiences, email marketing is used to deploy a message to one audience rather than breaking the list apart, segmenting it, and sending relevant targeted messages at the right time. The most effective email marketing is when you integrate campaign planning, list hygiene, creative development/design, testing, and then deployment. In an ideal world, marketers would not take the actions of the consumers lightly, and would design the email so customers are instantly compelled to act.

Heavy testing is important to find out what works in an email and what does not work. Subject line testing has been found to be the easiest form of testing because customers’ reaction can be gauged quickly as a result of an email you’ve sent them. I’ve researched subject lines in depth and found that the most effective ones are those that inspire you to act immediately. Usually they start with “Action Required.” I have seen larger open rates when this subject line is used along with a branded name in the “From” line.

With A/B split testing, a little more of the creative process goes into play. In my testing, I’ve designed emails and placed the call to action in two different places. I have heavily relied upon MarketingSherpa’s heat-mapping study to decide where the content should go. True to form, when I’ve placed the call the action to the immediate left, I see that customers immediately click on the action. I’ve concluded that this is mainly because it is “above the fold.”

I’ve encountered reporting on both sides—I’ve had to develop a system manually, and I’ve had the opportunity to view metrics in real time using an email service application. With the manual process, a lot of development comes into play. I’ve developed a tracking process using WebTrends, where I added tracking codes on the end of URLs to determine what works best. I talk about this in two articles on my website:

How to develop an email marketing report using WebTrends: http://www.marketingmechanisms.com/MMinAction/Training_Materials/campaign_tracking_using_WebTrends.php

How to track electronic communications: http://www.marketingmechanisms.com/MMinAction/Thought_Leadership/how_to_track_ecomms.htm

Initially, this method did not work because I discovered that some publications had no call to action—they were merely good to see open rates. Once I discovered this, I designed HTML emails to always contain some sort of call to action. I did this by creating a landing page and seeing if customers/clients would go to the site—and they did.

Tracking your online media efforts

2009-01-06T11:22:00.000-06:00

Banner ads are an excellent way to determine if your affiliate marketing efforts are paying off. In my opinion, the ideal way to track banner ads is to gather the number of metrics to the site before the banner ad is launched. First, the issue of content on the landing page from the banner ad should be discussed thoroughly. It should definitely answer the “so what?” question by giving the visitor the information they need at the right time. This landing page should also focus on cross-selling—finding out what other related information you can provide that could be relevant to the visitor. This will definitely keep the visitor engaged and motive them to peruse the site. The content on this page should be A/B split tested to see what engages customers the most. Google provides an excellent website optimizer to gauge what will keep customers clicking!

Second, it would be helpful to benchmark here. By gathering statistics (either from on-hand or online), you have a target goal in mind and should be able to monitor whether the tests are going successfully or if the tests are failing.

Once the ad debuts, gather the tracking to the landing page and track the bounce rate to see if the landing page was engaging enough to motivate the visitor to peruse the site further. If the landing page has a high bounce rate, then it is a good idea to review the content and really determine if the content is valuable. If the landing page has a low bounce rate, it is still a good idea to view the reports and see what links were clicked on the most. This helps the marketer know exactly what content to push out more.

HTML is evil? I think not!

2008-12-27T11:24:00.003-06:00

I recently came across an article by George Dillon, who argues that HTML emails are evil. While some of the points of the article are valid, I think saying that using HTML emails in your marketing strategies is not a good idea is far from the truth. Let's take a look at some of the reasons why he says HTML emails don't work, and then we'll talk about why they do.

HTML email wastes bandwidth: Dillon says that "most HTML messages are at least twice as big as plain text only, and they can be many time larger."

Marketing Mechanisms: If the HTML email is designed using best practices, the size will be relatively small. Emails usually become bigger when the images have not been optimized, and the coding isn't clean. Remember, there is a big difference between HTML for emails and HTML for websites.

HTML e-mail renders slowly: According to Dillon, "Some mail apps (e.g. Outlook) can slow down considerably when rendering HTML. The need for an HTML parser has also led to code-bloat in email apps generally."

Marketing Mechanisms:Outlook and other popular email clients are now structured to accomomodate even the most cumbersome HTML emails. Again, when the code is clean, Outlook and others pick it up quickly sans the images and forms.

HTML e-mail is not always reader-friendly: Dillon says that "HTML allows the sender to use unreadably small or non-standard fonts, clashing colours, badly formatted images and sometimes there is no quick or easy way for the reader to adjust the appearance to THEIR choice."

Marketing Mechanisms::This is another best practices issue. The average font used in an HTML is Arial with a font size of 8 or 10. This is the ideal size, as it compares with any other email that is being sent. In addition, when using an email service provider, users have the option of selecting how they want their emails sent to them--either text or HTML. This way, the sender gets the message and is able to read it.

Dillon can say that HTML emails are evil, but we have a 1.2 billion dollar industry that says otherwise. Every conceivable company has sent out an HTML email...or two. There are some hang-ups to HTML emails, like the automatic image-blocking feature or the ever-popular want to add Javascript and Flash. These aren't necessarily deal-breakers, though. When coded and designed correctly, a HTML email can effectively relay your message and bring in the customers that you seek.

Microsites...The Sequel

2008-12-15T13:42:00.003-06:00

Microsites are a breeze! I just developed a template layout for a microsite that I created in ExactTarget. The important thing to remember is that although this is truly a website in function, it still needs some remnants of email marketing best practices. When designing the email, I adhered to the best practice of 550-650 pixels. Because of the content included in this email, I opted for the 650 pixels, which basically made the images look better. Then, I developed a template for the landing pages. The page layout will be similar to the emails, such it should be when following a good e-marketing strategy--your emails and website should look virtually alike in scope. Wondering how the layout looks? Take a peek on my website.

2008-12-06T17:29:00.003-06:00

Using microsites in your email marketing campaigns

Microsites are an excellent tool to use when you're ready to do an extensive email marketing campaign. The most obvious reason is that you don't have to rely on your IT department to create items that you could generally create yourself. ExactTarget has this service as an add-on to its popular email service application. You simply buy a package, create your landing pages, and link everything. You can even create meta keywords and descriptions--just like any live web page. Not only that, but you have your own tracking mechanisms so you don't interfere with your website's analytics tool. Consider using this the next time you implement a campaign that requires the use of forms, landing pages, and results.