In the aftermath of Black Friday and with Christmas just a couple days away, most businesses are operating on full-throttle holiday adrenaline. Promotional emails and advertising messages flood customer inboxes, but if businesses could step inside the mind of the reader as they’re faced with all these emails, what would they find?

During the week of Black Friday (and also, incidentally, Thanksgiving) I received nearly 70 promotional messages from dozens of retailers between my two email accounts. One of those retailers sent me six messages during that week—seven, if you count the email I received on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Of those 70 emails, only two acknowledged the holiday that supposedly enjoyed the limelight that week. Call me sentimental, but I enjoyed being wished a Happy Thanksgiving, even by a company with whom I rarely shop.

What’s the point? It’s that customers like to be appreciated and treated as people. Not every email you send has to say thanks, and there is definitely a time for promotional emails that advertise special sales events. But there’s also a time and place for letting your customers know you appreciate them—and not just after they’ve made a purchase. Here are some tips for crafting a thank you message that will keep you on your customers’ nice list this holiday season.

• Personalize

Include the customer’s name and other relevant info such as the last product they purchased. Use eConnect Email’s custom fields/ mail merge features to further personalize email for every customer you contact.

• Invite Feedback

Ask your customers how their purchases worked for them and whether they have any comments about the service they received. Make it easy for them to reply and communicate your desire to hear from them.

• Be Timely

If you’re thanking a customer for his or her purchase, make sure they receive your email within 24-48 hours of the transaction. You can use eConnect Email’s personalized autoresponder/ email trigger capabilities to make sure emails arrive in a timely fashion.

• Include freebies or special discounts

If you really want people to know you appreciate them, give them a little something extra. An additional 10% discount or a free gift with purchase can go a long way toward cementing your relationship with your customers.

Whether you’re responding to a purchase or just checking in with a subscriber you haven’t heard from in a while, a thank you email can boost your company image significantly in the eyes of your customers. Use the personalization and list management tools available from eConnect Email to design a thank you note that will fill your readers with holiday cheer.

The team at eConnect Email would like to wish you a wonderful Holiday Season and best wishes for a prosperous 2011!  We have put together some tips and tricks to making your email marketing a success in the new year.  As always we welcome your feedback and if you have any questions about our software, we are hear to help.

Have a merry little email and a happy new marketing campaign…

For This Month’s Tips & Tricks – CLICK HERE

Your email campaign’s delivery rate refers to the number of emails sent that reach their destination.  For most email service providers (ESP’s), this rate hovers between 80% and 90%.  eConnect Email’s delivery rate averages 95%-98%, well above the norm, kudos to our delivery team!  Don’t be deceived by that statistic though.  Just because we successfully deliver your email campaigns doesn’t necessary mean viewers actually see them.  If you’re not careful, your company’s emails could be misdirected to the spam/ junk folder, out of sight of your subscriber.  Here are a few tips to help ensure your email successfully reaches the inbox:

• Use Double Opt-ins

Double opt-ins require a subscriber to click a link you send them through email after they have registered on your site in order to begin receiving messages from you. This way, you know that the correct email address was entered and that the person legitimately wants to receive emails from you. You can use eConnect Email’s list management tools to ensure that only the people who want to receive your messages make it onto your list.

• Be Smart About Subject Lines

Spam filters watch for certain characteristics in subject lines. While it’s impossible to know exactly what the filters are looking for, you can bet that subjects in all caps or those with lots of exclamation points are more likely to be flagged as spam than a clear, concise subject line. Strive to communicate your message in as few words as possible and without using gimmicks to grab the reader’s attention.

• Avoid Spammer Behavior

Purchasing an email list is one of the top ways to get your sender address blocked by spam filters. These lists often consist of outdated addresses that will earn a high bounce rate, making a filter more likely to blacklist your sending IP’s (just know using purchased lists is never a good idea, trust us on this one).

• Avoid Spammer Content

Using spammy phrases such as “free,” “sale,” or “buy now” sends up red flags for the spam filter. You should also avoid using a single image as the body of your email with no headers, text versions, or alt tags.  A good rule of thumb for email newsletters is to incorporate one or two well-placed images alongside informative text within the body of each email you send. eConnect Email can help you custom design a template for your emails that will make sure as many of your subscribers as possible get to view your message.

By putting some thought into your email creation and taking advantage of the expert assistance available from eConnect Email, you can ensure a successful email campaign with not only high delivery rates, but also a higher percentage of messages that make it to the email inbox!

The most wonderful time of year is upon us! This goes for business as well…so let your client/customers know how much you appreciate them with an email. As things get hectic it’s best to map out a well planned campaign for the next couple of months and keep your brand in people’s minds as they dream of sugar plums and candy canes 😉

Happy emailing, and have a safe and warm Thanksgiving!

For This Month’s Tips & Tricks – CLICK HERE

As the average person’s email habits have evolved over time, the goals and strategies of email marketing have had to evolve as well. People no longer open and read every email they receive and they often maintain two or more accounts to help them filter out promotional messages from personal ones. In order to continue reaching their target audience via email, savvy email marketers must keep up with rapidly changing strategies while maintaining tried and true best practices that win reader loyalty.

• Respect Your Subscribers

Considering the irritation and even anger with which most people view spam, it’s puzzling why so many companies still attempt to send unsolicited emails. If a subscriber asks to be removed from your list, remove him and don’t send additional messages. eConnect Email’s list management options allow you to stay on top of reader preferences and build trust by respecting privacy.

• Target Your Audience

You can build a list of subscribers who are tuned in to your messages by being up front about your email intentions and then by asking them to forward messages to their friends or share it via facebook, twitter, etc. If you provide compelling information, you’ll be able to organically build your subscriber list as newsletters and articles get passed along. eConnect Email offers a social sharing option that allows readers to pass messages along, while also allowing you to track user activity.

• Craft a Compelling Subject Line

Before a subscriber ever clicks through your email, he’ll make a decision about whether your message is worth his/ her time based on your subject line. Avoid clichés and over-the-top claims that readers will ignore. Instead, focus on building well-crafted, concise subject lines that entice the reader to find out more.  For additional tips on how to write a killer email subject line visit the link provided.

• Balance Education and Promotion

One newsletter I received included a statement at the very top that instructed the reader to ignore the ads, explaining they were just there to pay the bills. You know what? I did ignore them. I never bought anything from the company and when I changed email addresses, I didn’t bother to re-subscribe. The company undermined their goal of selling a product by apologizing for the ads in the hopes that subscribers would continue to read. The lesson? Don’t overwhelm readers with ads, but don’t let them off the hook by foregoing a call to action altogether. eConnect Email can help you craft dynamic content for your emails in order to achieve results for your email marketing campaign.

Keep it Interesting

With so much competition in the inbox these days it’s even that much more important to compose great content with catchy subject lines and impressive graphics.  This process is made easier with professional email marketing companies like eConnect Email.  Just remember to have fun and deliver campaigns that you would like to receive because most likely your subscribers will have similar tastes and interests as you.  As always, if you have questions along the way we are here to help!

Sales are down. Money is tight. You need to increase your bottom line. But you don’t have the money to launch a full fledge marketing campaign. In the past, you would’ve had only a few options: buckle down and spend the money, launch a mediocre campaign, or simply go without and pray for the best.

In today’s market, technology has changed the playing field. Businesses now have an inexpensive and extremely effective solution–email marketing. To launch a successful email marketing campaign, consider the following tips first.

Get Subscribers

To actually start your campaign, you’ll first need subscribers (people who want to hear from you).  An easy way to start building your subscriber base is to reach out to the people you already interact with professionally and personally and ask if you can add them to your contact list. Be ready to give them reasons for subscribing though. No one wants more junk mail. Also, don’t think you’ve arrived once you have an email list. Getting subscribers is easy. Keeping them, however, is the key and getting them to engage is the golden egg.

Make it Professional

Consider your design. Remember, your subscribers have no obligation to read your email. If they click on your email and find it cluttered, ugly, or disorganized, they likely will delete it without reading. Setup an account with an email marketing company (like eConnect Email ). We can provide our users with a library of professionally designed email templates that can be customized to fit your existing branding.

Say Something

Make sure your newsletters actually say something. Your customers don’t want another pointless piece of mail.  In addition to alerting them about your specials and promotions, keep them informed about your industry.  Set yourself up as an industry expert your subscribers can trust. Once you build a rapport with your audience, they’ll want to be in the know.

Respond to Criticism

Finally, be willing to respond to criticism. Criticism can come directly or indirectly. Direct criticism may come as a customer responding to your newsletter with things he or she disliked. Take their comments seriously but don’t overreact. Indirect criticism could come by monitoring how many people are viewing or possibly unsubscribing from your contact list. This is where we can help. Our software keeps track of the number of times an email is opened and by whom.  If overall readership starts dropping, it’s time to start making some adjustments to keep your subscribers engaged.

Of course, these tips only skim the surface.  Be willing to make changes and adapt to the ever-changing market place.  If you have questions or need help getting started we’re happy to give you a helping hand.

Getting subscribers to open your emails can sometimes be a challenge, especially when they are subscribed to numerous email lists. This month’s newsletter will help you rise above the inbox competition and move subscribers to open and read your emails.

For This Month’s Tips & Tricks – CLICK HERE

The more seasoned email marketers already know most of these tips, but we all need some recap every now and then to remind us of the best practices in email marketing, so that we can improve our email marketing practices for better reputation and delivery. In this post, we list down 10 most recommended tips that you should know.

1. Make your unsubscribe link obvious
   Decide on a suitable and yet prominent area in your campaign email where you can insert your unsubscribe link.  This makes it obvious to your subscribers that you already provide them a way to tell you to stop sending them your emails, which should discourage them to use the “spam” button in their email clients.  Some marketers have recommended placing the link at the top or in the footer of the email.  It’s entirely up to you, but be sure to always include one.  If you are using an ESP, like eConnect Email, you will always be reminded to include your unsubscribe link before you can send your campaigns.
2. Give your subscribers a way to update their subscription preferences
   Set up a subscriber preference center so that your subscribers can manage their subscription preferences.  A preference center can help you to retain subscribers who have changed their email addresses by giving them a convenient way to update you without needing to resubscribe to your lists again.  Check out more on why you need a preference center.
3. Encourage your subscribers to add you to their address books
   Tell your subscribers explicitly to add your email address to their address books. Write something like “Don’t miss your newsletter.  Add our email address (friends@abccompany.com) to your address book or safe list”.  Many web mail providers use this as a basis to determine that if the recipient has your email address in their address book, then your email should less likely be spam.  Some clients will even load the images in your campaign emails automatically.
4. Use the same email address to build reputation
   Always use the same From email address for your campaign emails and refrain from using different email addresses for different mailing lists or campaigns.  By using the same email address, not only will it be easier for your subscribers to associate the campaign emails with your company, you will also be able to build a better reputation with the ISP’s and your subscribers, which in turns means better deliverability for your email campaigns.
5. Sign your emails for domain authentication
   Get your domain properly set up with domain authentication schemes like DKIM, DomainKeys and SenderID, and sign your campaign emails to bolster the authenticity of your emails.  Most ESPs today provide some ways for you to set this up easily.  If you are already on board with eConnect Email, but have yet to set up domain authentication for yourself, you should do it today!
6. Avoid “spammy”content
   Be very mindful about the language and visual formatting of your content. Avoid using “spammy” words or phrases, large fonts, sparse text and low quality images, all of which are quite the hallmarks of today’s spam emails.
7. Make sure your campaign emails can be viewed correctly
   If you are sending HTML campaign emails, be sure to also set up the text part of the email properly so that subscribers who are not able to view the HTML version in their email software will still be able to read the content of your email.  The text part does not have to be an exact text-only replica of your HTML message; you can have a simple message to direct them to an online version of your campaign email, which they can view in their web browsers.
8. Avoid list fatigue
   Do not flood your subscribers with too many emails.  Marketers recommend that you send at most one email per week.  If email marketing is one of the major sources of income for your business, make sure you plan and time your launches or new updates properly.  If you are working in large corporation, make sure the different departments who are responsible for sending emails are aware of the sending frequency of one another.  Without proper planning, your subscribers may feel overwhelmed and may end up unsubscribing themselves or reporting your emails as spam.
9. Respect your subscribers
   Make sure your subscribers get what they signed up for.  Unless you have made it explicitly clear to them, you should never send them emails containing information that they never asked for. Let’s say you own a business selling coffee beans and tea leaves and you maintain a mailing list for each of these two products.  If a subscriber only signed up for coffee bean information, respect that, and only send newsletters that are related to coffee beans to that subscriber.  Then, invite the subscriber to also sign up for the tea leaves mailing list.  This way, you can let your subscribers know about your other products, but not without asking for their permission first.
10. Check and test, check and test
    Check your campaign thoroughly and send yourself a few test messages before sending out your campaigns.  Nothing is more embarrassing than grabbing the attention of your subscriber, only to direct them to a “Page Not Found” error page when they click on your links.

That’s it!  Always keep these 10 tips in mind when running your email campaigns.  Have you got your own suggestions that you wish to share too?  Go ahead and fire away in the comments.

What do email marketing and romance have in common?  Plenty, in our opinion.  For one, reaching out to a customer or prospect online is a lot like being on a first date, where you’re not sure if there will be a second.  Except, if you’re running an email campaign, you could possibly be on your last date every single time, because, let’s be honest, it’s not that hard to click on “unsubscribe.”

So here’s what we’re suggesting today – take a few minutes to get out of your marketing mindset.  Instead, imagine how you might engage someone on a date, and you might come away with some new insights on how to keep subscribers committed (i.e. subscribed) to your email newsletters.  Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

Don’t Hog The Conversation: Think of your newsletter as a conversation starter, where you introduce a topic and let readers jump in with their contributions wherever possible.  Focus on drumming up interest, rather than comprehensive coverage.  Here’s why, say if you’re running an advice or How-To column and attempting to cover all bases, readers may feel they have nothing left to add apart from “Great article!” or “Really helpful tips!”, and you’ll lose the opportunity to introduce interactivity to your content and gain new perspectives from your readers.  A good way of making sure you’re not saying too much is by setting a word count limit and sticking to it.

Feed That Ego: You can’t go wrong by making someone feel special, and there are many ways to do this.  Take contests, for example.  In a typical e-newsletter contest (or online contest, for that matter), readers are made to answer an idiot-proof question about a company’s product or service, and winners are selected at random.  Although a list of winners is usually published in the following issue, it’s unlikely to generate much excitement (unless you’re giving away a whopper of a prize) or give anyone a sense of achievement.  Now, think about those contests that require readers to work a little, e.g. submit the best caption/story/picture to win!  If you want to make a star out of your reader, this is the way to go – let your readers shine by showing off their wit, ingenuity and creativity, and they’ll love you for it and keep coming back for more.

Grow A Personality: There are good newsletters and there are bad newsletters, but even worse than the bad newsletter is the newsletter that no-one remembers.  And to be remembered, you need personality.  There are two ways to decide on your newsletter’s “personality”.  If you know your target audience well (and every marketer should), think of a few keywords that would describe their personality (e.g. “prim and proper” or “zany and fun-loving”) and write and design your newsletters accordingly.  The second way is to play up your strengths, i.e. if you’re not bursting with wisecracks, don’t try to turn your newsletter into a stand-up comedy routine.  Instead, focus on what you’re great at, whether it’s your experience and industry knowledge (“wise and authoritative”) or your knack for breaking down tricky information and mind-boggling concepts into bite-size pieces (“clever and insightful”).

Be Original: Don’t mail out a newsletter that looks just like the rest of the competition.  At every step of the way – from deciding on a theme to planning articles and designing – ask yourself how you can do something in a way that is entirely yours.  A good place to find inspiration is Marketing Sherpa’s list of Email Marketing Award Winners.  One of their ’07 winners won hearts with their inventive feature headlines, such as “Does Your Web Site Taste Like Chicken?”  Others offered designs that readers couldn’t resist.  And you’re not limited to text and graphics – you can find creative ways to incorporate media (we’ve got a few video ideas right here).

Reach Out: Companies don’t reach out to people – people do.  And blogs are a surprisingly effective way of revealing your company’s human side.  If you decide to run a blog, you can have it work hand-in-hand with your newsletter, by featuring extended versions of your newsletter articles that readers can leave comments on.  Keep the tone casual and steer clear of the negative (e.g. customer horror stories), unless you’re positive you can pull it off by, say, being terribly funny.

Have Fun (Or At Least Try): When was the last time you had fun with your newsletter?  If you can’t remember, it’s likely your readers aren’t having a ball of a time either.  It’s important to challenge yourself when you create a newsletter, so you don’t run into a content dead end.  If you look hard enough, you’ll find there’s always a way to do something differently.  For example, if you feel certain articles in your newsletter archives were good but failed to generate reader interest or participation, you can think of how they might be repackaged for a fresh run.  This can include changing the headline, summarizing and re-organizing the article, or simply applying a more eye-catching design or adding media.

And here’s our final tip: put your readers first.  Use our A/B split test function. Find out what subject lines turn them on and off, when they’re more likely to open their mails, and more.  If this doesn’t win them over, we don’t know what will.

You can be anything you want to be online, and your company is just waiting to tap on the endless possibilities.  But first, read our etiquette guide to make sure you’re not in danger of letting your dark side take over:

Monster Marketer #1: The Invader
Think about the people you’d love to keep at arm’s length: the strangers at parties who stand way too close and are way too generous with their hugs and kisses, the dreaded acquaintance who crashes social gatherings and invites himself to hang out at your apartment, or the colleague who reads over your shoulder and steals your stationery.  Here’s what they have in common: they don’t ask for permission.  Ever.  The same rules apply online, and not asking your recipients if they would like to hear from you counts as very bad manners indeed.  Even if you know your recipients in some capacity (and that includes your best friends, by the way), don’t assume they’d appreciate emails from your company – always ask first.  It may not be apparent, but it costs money and takes time to download your emails (and to chuck or report them as spam if necessary), so it pays to be considerate.

Monster Marketer #2: The Show-Off
Why compose an email newsletter in plain text when there’s HTML mail, and why write an obvious subject line when you can pen a headline that’s mysterious, witty, or just plain clever?  Be careful that showing off doesn’t result in your company being showed up.  Not all email applications are able to display elaborately designed emails, so relax on your images and HTML coding, and not all readers will understand what you’re trying to say, if you don’t say it in the clearest possible way.

Monster Marketer #3: The Narcissist
We all know the type: they’re only interested in talking to you as long as the spotlight’s on them.  Although, if truth be told, we all enjoy a bit of attention from time to time.  Which is why the last thing anyone needs is to read about your company’s milestones and awards and exciting new hires, when in fact they’re really wondering, “So what’s in it for me?”  Answer that question for readers right away, and you’ll keep them coming back for more.

Monster Marketer #4: The Chatterbox
Sending an email to your readers is a lot like holding a one-way conversation, and you know what happens during a one-way conversation – the other party tunes out, and fast.  So make your emails as interactive as possible, by inviting your readers to vote in polls, post their views online or send in their feedback.  Also bear in mind that the less you say, the more readers are likely to remember what you’ve said.

Monster Marketer #5: The Loudmouth
If you’re not planning to shout at your customers and scare them off, steer clear of putting words in all caps and exclamation marks.  But if you need to emphasize a word, there is a mature, tasteful way to do it – by using italics.  Exclamation marks can be used sparingly, but we wouldn’t recommend more than one or two per mailer.

Monster Marketer #6: The Slacker
Most people have a good idea of what constitutes professional behavior in the real world: they show up to meetings on time, try to be fairly well groomed, and refrain from chewing gum.  But give them a chance to make an impression online and all hell breaks loose – their emails are riddled with spelling and grammar errors, missing text, broken links, misaligned images… you get the picture. Clean up your emails just as you would clean up before meeting a customer; if not, your offline efforts would’ve gone to waste.