You’ve seen the first two new home pages and here, last but not least, we have the third!

This one took a bit more tweaking…  It’s targeted specifically at those agencies or individuals out there who want to fast track their business to the next level of success – by reselling or re-branding the GraphicMail product.  It’s worked for many of our clients and after consistent feedback from clients who are passionate about the GraphicMail system, we thought there might be more of you out there who would like to boost your revenue using the system as your own.  Just sign up with us, take the GraphicMail software and give it your mini make-over, dressing it up any way you like!

Branding GraphicMail as your own allows you to provide your clients with all the value-added services we give you (and you’ll have access to our GraphicMail support, just in case you ever feel you might be in over your head).  We’ve been offering this service for ages, but decided to shout it out on this new home page.  Still featuring the design improvements of our first two looks, this third little number gives you links to all the information you need on how to become a reseller, from tutorials and signing up to case studies showing you how it’s worked for others. 

Like we said in our first home page blog, it is time to put the targeted communication theories we preach into practice on our new home pages.  We’d like to hear your thoughts, so let us know which one of our three new looks work best for you!

We’ve been flaunting the first of our three new home pages for about two weeks now and gave you some time to get used to our new look.  Now (after much anticipation) it’s time to, as promised, reveal the next two outfits in our newly re-modeled look, home pages 2 and 3:

We think of this one as ‘Home – Start Today’ and, as you can probably guess, the aim is to give you a GraphicMail quick start. 

Now we know you may be an old hand at this email marketing thing, but think of all the poor, unfortunate souls out there who aren’t.  We feel it is our duty to reach out to them and include them in this exciting, speedy, efficient and effective marketing world of ours!  And what better way to pick up new relationships than with a bit of flirting…
Designed to flaunt, the top banner features links to articles that will provide you with reasons to incorporate email marketing and teach you how get started.  Of course our free trial and tour of GraphicMail are still there and probably even more in your face! 

We didn’t let all the design improvements we made pass you by on this one either:  You can still find the same features as on our classic new home page, such as the clear Member login, horizontal navigation, the improved search function and the links to our social networking sites.  It’s just as easy and efficient, but is aimed at all the email marketing newbies out there, giving them quick access to all the information they need to get them started. 

What do you think?  Post your comments.

1 -Set up your addresses

Set up your address book: If you would like to personalize the emails you send to subscribers, and store extra information about each subscriber, then you need to set up an address book.  Personalization is useful and a more targeted approach as it allows you to address your mailers directly to the recipient, for example, “Dear Sue”.  If you would like to capture more than just a recipient’s name, then you can use your subscription form to do this.

Your Address Book can be associated with more than one mailing list.

Once your address book is set up, you can edit your address book, delete contacts or even add single and multiple new contacts to your address book.

Note:
In Advanced mode you can have multiple datasets, one of which is your Address Book. In Advanced mode, you could have the dataset called 'Address book', and another dataset called 'Balances due' that way you can personalize an email from two different datasets…

If you don't want to personalize your newsletter and only want to collect email addresses:

Create a mailing list

Upload your email addresses from Csv, xls, xlsx, txt (with or without additional data),  import directly from online email accounts or manually type input email addresses by copying, pasting and typing.

2 - Set up your subscription form

We give you the code for a sub form that you can add to your site, blog etc.  First, choose your own design or use our default design. Select the image you want to use as the logo, pick a background color, choose text attributes, choose the style of your links in your sub form (for instance, subscribe, unsubscribe and forward to friend links)

3 - Create your newsletter
Give your newsletter a name, select a folder to store your newsletter in, upload templates from our templates library and then select it from the drop down menu on the “create newsletter” page.  Click on next and begin editing the newsletter template we have provided you with, you can change content, links and add your own images by simply using the editing tools at the top of the page.

If you don't want to use one of our templates, you can insert your text directly from Word to our editor, or insert your own HTML template into the code view of the editor.

If you want to insert images to your newsletter - into your blank newsletter or replacing the images in the templates, use our Advanced mode. To do that, you must first upload the images you want to use to the images folder.
In Advanced mode, you can also import a Word document with images. Don’t forget that if you do this, you need to upload images from your Word document separately. Images can be uploaded individually or in a Zip file.  Remember, if you are uploading images, the maximum file size is 200kb.

4 - Send yourself a test email

Best you send a test email to a variety of email browsers to see how it looks. Also, check the spam score button to make sure your subject line, content and images are legit.

5 - Edit your newsletter

If you still need to edit a few things, simply click on Edit Newsletter in the menu, choose the folder and the newsletter you want to edit. Make your corrections, save and get ready for sending.

6 - Send your Newsletter

Choose your mailing list, add a from address, from name, and subject line.

Choose your newsletter from the folder and choose NL name. Double check all data. Once you hit the send button, you can still make emergency editions to the newsletter content, links or images while the newsletter is in the send queue, but this is not ideal.

7 - Check your send results - Reports and Statistics

In the reports overview, you get amount of emails sent, delivered, opened, clicked, fwd and unsubscribe data.
If you want more detailed info, click on the + sign which opens a newsletter report. In here, you'll get exact metrics, such as the reasons why emails were not delivered, or all the email addresses of those who clicked on a link in your mail. You can export these reports as pdf.

Now try out Advanced Mode!

• Set up TriggerMails (autoresponders like anniversary dates, follow up trigger emails to subscribers who click on a certain link in your email etc)
• Segment your subscribers for targeted communications and marketing
• Advanced reporting - check out reports per send, mailing list, recipient
• Upload and manage images and files
• And much more!

The question

You don't see much media buzz around email marketing. Instead, people prefer to talk about even newer technologies, like Facebook, Twitter and social media.
Such is the lack of attention, you might be forgiven for thinking email has fallen into disuse as a marketing tool. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Email marketing's reliability as a way to build sales and customer relationships means it's simply become part of the online furniture: there's nothing much to debate.

The facts

If you're unsure how email marketing can help a business in a dynamic online world, here some facts and stats proving its value:

• The USA's Direct Marketing Association conducts an annual review of the ROI (Return on Investment) delivered by all forms of direct marketing. Email marketing is a consistent chart topper. For 2009, they predict an ROI for email of US$43.52. That's over $43 returned for each dollar invested in email marketing.
• Email marketing costs are famously low compared to most alternatives. A shop.org survey in 2008, for example, discovered that retailers incurred a typical cost per order of US$6.85 using email, almost the lowest of any form of online marketing.

This performance explains why marketers regularly mention email marketing when asked about their favourite tactics. In fact, even search marketing specialists surveyed by MarketingSherpa gave "email marketing to a house list" the most votes when asked about their strongest tactic.

Indeed, investment in email marketing is growing, even while marketing budgets in general are being cut.

For example, BtoB Magazine's "2009 Marketing Priorities and Plans" survey found that over two-thirds of marketers were planning to spend more on email marketing in 2009.

The results

So why is email marketing successful?

• People respond to email. They buy advertised products, register for events, download information, view website articles etc., all as a result of an email they received.
• When email delivers valuable content to subscribers, it helps build customer relationships, trust and loyalty. In particular, it keeps your organization top of mind for when people are ready to buy.
• Email marketing technology allows you to send targeted email, customized to the needs and characteristics of your subscribers. And you get a lot of useful statistics back after each email goes out. For example, you can see which (and how many) people clicked on each link in an email, revealing subscriber interests which can be addressed in future emails.
• Email can also help all your other sales and marketing efforts, for example you could alert people about an event in your store or even warn them about a catalogue in the post.

Of course, this kind of success doesn't happen automatically. A successful email marketing endeavour depends on building a list of people who have asked to hear from you, compelling and valuable emails, and the technical infrastructure to ensure your emails get sent out and delivered reliably.

Get these basics right, and you will reap the rewards.

GraphicMail supports database integration, segmentation, autoresponders and various other tricks and techniques that improve targeted communications. Advanced methods generate on-the-fly emails customized down to an individual recipient basis.

And every email campaign you send out generates a heap of actionable data you can use to refine your approach and messages.

Most of us don’t promote our businesses online for fun or because we don’t have anything better to do with our time, but because we want to increase sales online. Right? But how best do you generate sales online?

A Forbes study says marketers of all sizes should start with search. Forty-eight percent of marketers said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the best method for generating conversions online. The next-most-effective conversion tactic for smaller marketers was e-mail and email newsletters!

Businesses engage in email marketing because it works. And works well. Mark Brownlow, an expert in email marketing and leader in researching online marketing trends gives us the numbers...

• According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generated an ROI of $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009. The expected figure for 2010 is $42.08. As such, it outperforms all the other direct marketing channels examined, such as print catalogs (reference).
• The Ad Effectiveness Survey commissioned by Forbes Media in Feb/March 2009 revealed that email and e-newsletter marketing are considered the second-most effective tool for generating conversions, just behind SEO (reference).
• A summer 2009 survey of Irish marketers found 79% rating email marketing as important or very important to their marketing strategy (reference).
• Shop.org's State of Retailing Online 2009 survey of retailers found that "E-mail is the most mentioned successful tactic overall" (reference).
• In Datran Media's 2009 Annual Marketing & Media Survey, 80.4% of industry executives said the email channel performed strongly for their company. This was the top result (reference).
• A December 2008 survey of hundreds of marketers by MarketingSherpa saw pay-per-click search ads rank top for ROI, followed by email marketing to house lists in second place (reference).
• A February/March 2008 retailer survey by shop.org revealed that email marketing has the second lowest cost per order (CPO) of any online marketing tactic. The CPO of $6.85 compares favorably with, for example, paid search's CPO of $19.33 (reference).

The money is following the results...

• A December 2009 survey of 300 email marketers by Silverpop found that their companies were feeling the effects of recession, but "four out of 10 marketers reported that their email budgets in 2010 would increase, and nearly half (47 percent) said their budgets would stay the same" (see press release).
• A November 2009 survey of B2B marketers found that email marketing was likely to see more spending increase than any other form of online marketing bar website development (report).
• A Q2 2009 survey of over 5,000 senior US executives revealed that email marketing was the channel most likely to see an increase in marketing budget (see press report).
• 46% of North American small businesses surveyed in 2009 by Hurwitz & Associates use email marketing, with another 36% planning to do so in the coming year (press release).
• Seven out of ten UK marketers surveyed by the DMA in 2009 expected expenditure on email marketing to increase over the next 12 months (press release).
• In August, 2009, Veronis Suhler Stevenson's annual Communications Industry Forecast suggested total spend for email will grow from $11.9 billion in 2008 to $27.8 billion by 2013 (see press report).
• An April 2009 survey of senior marketing executives by the European Interactive Advertising Association revealed that 46% of respondents plan to invest more in email (report).
• In Datran Media's 2009 Annual Marketing & Media Survey, 58.5% of industry executives said they planned to increase investment in email. Only 5.7% planned to decrease it (reference).
• Internet Retailer's April 2009 email marketing survey found that 51.6% planned to increase spending on email during the recession, and only 4.7% planned to decrease it (reference).
• Shop.org's State of Retailing Online 2009 survey of retailers found that 88% of them list "e-mail as a high priority for the year" (reference).
• A 2009 survey of US B2B marketers by MarketingProfs and Forrester Research found that 39% planned to increase email budgets, while 11% planned a decrease (reference).
• The CMO Council's Marketing Outlook '09 Report reviewed the plans and opinions of 650 marketers. Email marketing was the top target area for investment in 2009 (press release).
• A survey of B2B marketers in November, 2008 noted that 68.3% intended increasing spending on email marketing in 2009 (reference).
• The DMA estimate spending on email marketing (in the USA) will increase from $600 million in 2008 to $700 million in 2009 (reference).
• A 2008 survey by Forrester Research revealed that 95% of surveyed marketers use email marketing, with another 4% planning to do so by year end (see reference).
• In a 2008 survey of 200 corporate markters, 74% said they would increase spending on email campaings over the next three years (article).

Source: www.email-marketing-reports.com

A wise word

Just like a garden only bears fruit if managed properly, so it is with email marketing. We know it can work, but you have to get the basics right. The basics of building a list of people who want to hear from you, crafting a message, and ensuring the emails get through to those on that list.” – Mark Brownlow

Make sure to get the latest email marketing tips and trends that GraphicMail shares on Twitter and Facebook.