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what every e-newsletter needs

Posted by simon ashwin On Tuesday 18 Dec 07

Electronic newsletters have taken the place of their conventional paper cousins. With the change in delivery mechanism comes the demand for change in format and content, too.

A newsletter sent over the Internet needs links to other sites that the audience may find useful, allowing readers to transition to additional information with a click of the mouse. The audience of an electronic newsletter, published either embedded or attached to an email attachment or microsite link, is already online. Take advantage of that immediacy when marketing new initiatives and promotions.

A newsletter also needs to include keywords. This marketing tool should employ similar search engine optimization techniques as your website. Tags, phrases, and words that have proven to help in search engine ranking should used liberally, especially on the version that you link to your parent site.

And from a legal perspective, a newsletter needs a disclaimer. The Internet is a global audience. An electronic newsletter's distribution cannot be curtailed. If an offer is intended only for a local or regional organization, say so. When linking to other sites or to material that is not original to your company, make sure that is clearly stated as well.

And, finally, a newsletter needs a sell-by date. The concept and allure of a newsletter’s content is that it is topical. Readers expect to find information that is fresh, direct and upcoming.

A newsletter should respond with substance that feeds this expectation and build anticipation for the next...

increasing click-thru rates in email marketing

Posted by simon ashwin On Monday 15 Oct 07

A key component of any email marketing strategy involves the creation of an email template that is specifically branded and designed to support the marketing objectives of the campaign. Some possible email marketing objectives include building brand awareness, promotion or a specific call-to-action. However, there has never been a clear answer or in-depth research as to whether a button or link is the better call-to-action.

A recent article Button Vs. Links: Which Is The Call-to-Action Hero? interpreted several different online surveys and queried top online retailers in an attempt to draw conclusions between the use of buttons or links in an email. Although on initial analysis the article surveys and research seems to value links, in the end buttons used as a form of primary call-to-action gained far greater success in click-throughs in email marketing campaigns.

The article further stated that email campaigns that used buttons as the primary call-to-action; coupled with the user of links as secondary call-to-action resulted in higher click-through rates.

In addition, two key things were noted in the design of a button call-to-action, that is make sure the text on the button is HTML, this ensures that when certain email clients automatically block background images the call-to-action text is still readily visible. Secondly, never put more than two button call-to-actions within an email template design as the last thing you want to do is overwhelm and confuse the user away from your primary call-to-action.

email deliverability

Posted by simon ashwin On Friday 03 Aug 07

Email marketing: email deliverability is the term used by eMarketers for describing all the issues involved with getting your email delivered to the intended recipient. Essentially, anything that affects your outgoing email:

1) Reaches the inbox
2) Is actually seen by the recipient, describes the scope of email marketing email deliverability.

Email deliverability: therefore encompasses not only the creative, structural and strategic format of the email itself, but also the technical mechanism(s) in place for ensuring it reaches the destination after you hit the send button.

Basically, and this may sting, no matter how good your creative and copywriting skills are - the dominant factors governing emails actually getting into inboxes are technical. Why? The war on SPAM.

Any bulk mailer is subject to far greater scrutiny, whether you’re selling Viagra, or BMW motorcars. In fact, recent Jupiter Research estimates that anywhere from 10% to 40% of all bulk email sent never even reaches the destination.

So how can this happen?

To put this in context, it’s a bit like creating a really fantastic direct mail campaign. You take your 10,000 Envelopes to the Post Office, pay the Post Office for stamps and then once you leave, the post master looks at your 10,000 Envelopes and decides it’s too many to send out all at once. So the post master sends through 5,000, but sets fire to the other 5,000.

That’s pretty much what technical filters do to your email marketing campaigns. Nobody can...

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