Are you still wondering what to put in your subject lines?  Have you read the tips, but you’re still not sure you’re if you’re doing it right?

Every email marketer is aware of the impact subject lines can have on your open rates.  Obviously there are a few things that factor into whether or not a subscriber decides to open your email (e.g. what your customer relationship is like, whether they recognized the From name, your history of sending relevant content), yet there’s something to be said for a subject line that piques interest. 

I’ve always recommended testing your subject lines (or your newsletters) before sending to optimize your results – using our A/B split testing tool can test lengths, alternative phrasing, or positioning of words (beginning or end of the subject line).  These are all ways to test the structure of your subject line though; how about the content?  Like your newsletter content, the content of your subject line needs to be relevant to the recipient if you expect them to open.

One way of generating good content is, of course, to look at what kind of content has a history of garnering high open rates and, when possible, try to create something in a similar vein.  The risk, of course, is that subscribers will become bored at some point.

So why not look at what they find interesting on your website?

Google analytics is a free Google tool that gives you access to statistics on your website traffic – how many people visited, how they found your website, which pages were viewed the most, etc.  Most online marketers make use of this, or a similar, analytics tool. 

Having a look at your site analytics gives you an overview of what content on your site people find most interesting.  Take this into account when composing your subject lines.  The top ten most viewed pages generally reflect what topics might be of interest to your readers. 
Many people probably find your site through search engines.  Google analytics will also reflect which keywords they used in their search that led them to your site.  The phrases these potential clients use are also a clear indication of what particular service, information or product it was that attracted them to your site.  Including some of these keywords in your subject lines could similarly draw recipients’ attention to your newsletter.  We’re so used to using industry specific phrases that we often assume outsiders use the same language to describe our products or services, but looking at search keywords will show you exactly how it is that they are describing your service – these words are familiar to them and recognition could draw higher open rates.

You can also review your company blog.  Which posts received the most reader comments?  Were they interested in getting more information on the topic?  Did the post generate a discussion among your blog followers?  Take a look at that blog title and surmise what it is that drew readers’ attention – it just might work for your newsletter too.

Often marketers just prefer sticking to what works (or what they think works) for them – or they simply find testing to be too time consuming.   More often though, I think they simply don’t know what alternatives to test.  The above content recommendations could help you expand your subject line repertoire – one of these options might just work really for your business.

Remember that you can also integrate your GraphicMail account with Google Analytics to track how much traffic your email campaigns generate for your website.

Online marketers are blessed with a range of effective marketing tools:  Email marketing, blogs and the most recent, social media marketing.

It’s no surprise, in a digital world, that integrating these various tools has become a wildly spread, ever-more popular, trendy and effective.  It makes sense really.

Much has been said about the efficiency of email marketing – and as a GraphicMail blog reader you’re clearly aware of the value email carries as one of the longest top-performing direct marketing channels.  Email marketing has been proven to be a particularly effective direct communication channel. It builds and maintains relationships with existing customers.
Blogs provide an informative and conversational channel where you can further build on this customer relationship and even lure new potential clients who stumble across your blog – especially if you give them relevant, hip content and commentary.
Social media marketing has proven to be a great interactive channel between marketers and their audience.  In fact, it moves from being an “audience” to a virally growing community – and therefore a great way to extend your audience.

Now I don’t know about you, but merging together channels that build and maintain consumer relations with channels that grow consumer markets – well, that sounds like a good idea to me.  That’s why GraphicMail has slowly been adding tools and features to make it easier for you to converge your online marketing channels.  We want to assist you and your business to be prepared for this next wave of online expansion.

Last year we enabled you to place social widgets in your email footer so your subscribers can share your newsletters through their social network accounts.  Basically, you can add little Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, Stumble Upon, delicious and Google Share icons to the footer of your email.  Should your subscribers have an account with any of these social networks they can click on the widget of that network to share your newsletter with their social contacts on that network.  They can also share on more than one network.  Say for instance I have a Facebook page and a Twitter account and I know that many of my friends or followers work for companies that might be interested in your newsletter on Human Resources – I simply click on the Facebook and Twitter widgets to share a link to your newsletter with all my contacts in the form of a Facebook post and a tweet.

Earlier this year we also enabled a reporting tool to complement your social widget action!  It allows you to track who shared your newsletter and through which network they shared it – as with all our reports and stats you can drill down to individual subscribers to see exactly who it was that performed these actions.  (I’m finding it very useful in our own email campaigns.)  Identifying individual subscribers gives you insights into what information they particularly like, making it easier to target them accordingly through segmentation or targeted emails.

Our most recent social integration feature is Social Share.  This handy tool allows you to share your newsletters with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter.  (It was initially only enabled for Twitter, but extended it to Facebook just last week – give it a try!)  Other than the social widgets, which allow subscribers to share your email on their social networks, this one enables you to do so yourself.  It’s an excellent way to extend your email reach at no extra cost to your business.

This trend of integrating social and email marketing is growing at a fast pace.  We’re still exploring all the options and I think you’ll find our integration tools will become more and more advanced as we go along.  It’s going to be interesting to see where this is all headed…


Want to see these tools in action? Watch the video!

Remember when I told you all about how important it is to integrate your email marketing with social media?  (If you don’t you can read it here – there’s also a cool video!)

And then we made live our Social Share feature – a tool that allowed you to automatically publish a link to your newsletter on Twitter.  Remember that?

I asked you to watch this space for when this feature was extended to include more social networks. 

Any of this ringing a bell?

Well – we’ve done it!  It’s live!  You can now extend your email reach to include your Facebook friends and fans.

It’s simple.  Just like with the Twitter social share, you simply select which newsletter it is you want to share on Facebook, and a link to the newsletter will be posted on your wall along with a brief description of the newsletter.  It’s perfect for enticing more friends to sign up for your newsletter, or simply to share the information in your newsletter with them.

Log into your account and try it out!

When all’s said and done what a business needs to stay afloat is sales.  Be it selling your pitch, your service or your product, you need people to buy into it.

A common problem most businesses encounter in the sales process is finding a way to convert their sales leads.  Your marketing efforts generate awareness and, eventually, leads, but while for some this is enough many potential clients might require a bit more convincing.  So whose job is it to nurture the lead?  Sales or marketing?  And do you really have the time and resources to devote to these slow sales?

Jep Castelein calls it follow up failure:  That moment where the sales team have an overwhelming number of leads to follow up on, many of which are bad quality leads, and don’t know which ones to focus on, i.e. which leads are more likely to be converted to a sale.  So:  You need a way to avoid follow up failure, to maintain steady and convincing communication with your leads until they’re ready to move on to the next stage of the buying cycle.  You know where this is going don’t you?

With regular email newsletters you establish and grow your brand’s visibility and develop customer relationships – the kind of relationships that might just, today or tomorrow or next year, convert that lead into a sale.  A well-strategized campaign, one that sends relevant emails to segmented lists and ensures further relevancy by setting up automated emails, can cover this gap in the sales/marketing process.

Not only that, but email marketing can give your sales team a better idea of who they should target, and how.  Email can be tracked and monitored, giving you more information on which articles or products in your newsletter appealed to a particular subscriber and which links interested them enough to click on.  These valuable insights can be used to target subscribers accordingly with information that’s relevant to them.  You can also compare campaigns to see which one performed best, giving you a good indication of what kind of information or products appeal to your subscribers.

I think your most effective tool in nurturing these leads, however, is to set up TriggerMails to individually target a subscribers actions and interests.  Say, for instance, a reader clicks on a link to acquire more information on a particular product.  You can send a follow up email immediately, giving them some extra links and information, and perhaps the contact details of a member of your sales team should they want to speak to someone directly.  You can even set a further follow up email to be sent a week later.  Basically, it offers you the opportunity to speak to that potential client and format the email to target them according to what phase of the buying cycle they’re in.

An email marketing campaign gives you an opportunity to nurture sales leads.  Just remember that both existing and potential clients respond more positively to content that’s relevant to them.  Make sure that you bear in mind each subscriber’s past purchase history (if any), look into their click-throughs to see what interests them and approach them accordingly.  It’s all about staying one step ahead.

We’ll soon be making it even easier to add subscription forms to your website!

Not only can you embed your form or link to it from your site, you now also have the option of adding a lightbox subscription form!

Here’s how it will look in your account:

Nifty, hey?  We thought so!

We’re working on making it simpler to navigate your GraphicMail account. The new design will include an easy-to-use dashboard – it’s all about making your email marketing even easier.

And because I’m really excited about this, I thought I’d give you a sneaky preview:

Keep an eye out for these changes – they’ll be made live in your account soon!

You’re doing email marketing for a reason.  Whether your chief objective is building consumer relationships, building brand recognition, generating online traffic or converting sales; you have a goal you’d like your email campaign to achieve.

That’s why I think the call to action is one of the most important aspects of your campaign.

The call to action (CTA) is where you tell your subscribers what it is you’d like them to do.  (It’s where you answer one of your subscribers’ most important questions.)  If you’re successful, they’ll respond.  An effective call to action is one that persuades not only subscribers who are already interested, but also those who are unconvinced.

Question is:  How do you make the most of this important marketing tactic?

Your subscribers won’t respond to a call to action they don’t see. 

Bear in mind the medium you’re working with.  Email users are often busy and simply glance at the preview pane deciding whether or not to read the email.  Those who don’t use a preview pane might just open the email and not actually scroll down to read the full content.
Make sure your CTA is situated above the fold, that way it will be visible to all – whether in a preview pane or immediately upon opening your email.  Recipients respond to calls to action that are immediately visible; it allows them to simply skim and click, without having to bother with all the rest.

It’s also a good idea to repeat the CTA several times below the fold.  Some readers might need a bit more convincing than others.  By placing the call above the fold you’ve ensured that everyone sees it, but some will want more information before responding to your call.  By repeating the call strategically throughout your email you have a better chance of those who choose to read a little more… and a little more… before making a decision.  Be sure to keep the wording consistent (to avoid confusion) and try not to have more than one CTA in an email.  Overloading your readers with requests will simply annoy them.

When placing and repeating your CTA think about the way your readers’ eyes flow over the email.  Make sure that your design and layout draws their eyes toward these calls.  Easy ways to do that is to make sure that the call to action is spaced well, without other distracting elements crowding it.  Leave some space around it.  Formatting, like bold text, an image or a button will also make it stand out.  When considering formatting also think about sizing and how well the CTA will stand out against other elements in your email.

You have few words – make them count.

Your CTA needs to make a maximum impact with the minimum words, so choose them carefully.  Make sure that your wording is clear and specific, leaving the reader with no doubt or confusion about what it is you want them to do.  Throw in some power words – strong impacting words that motivate the reader.

It’s also important, as with all business communication, that your CTA carries the voice of your brand.  Your emails probably have a specific tone, so ideally your call will maintain that same tone – it’s the one you’re subscribers are familiar with and so they’re more likely to respond to it.

At the end of the day your call to action will depend on your campaign and objectives.  As always, the key is to consider the person on the other end.  How would you respond to this request if it showed up in your inbox?  And when in doubt, test!

Why do you do email marketing?

To create more awareness about my brand, build brand recognition, develop customer relationships and generate online traffic to my website.  All, of course, with the hope of generating sales.

I’m sure you’re aware that online marketing is ideal for boosting your online revenue – that’s why I encourage monitoring your reports and stats, looking at click-through rates, and integrating your email marketing with Google Analytics.  By doing all of this you can assess whether you’re seeing a return on your email marketing.

But one of the greatest benefits of email marketing, building brand recognition and creating customer relationships, should also be boosting your in-store sales.  Unfortunately, there’s no concrete way of monitoring this; we can’t provide you with a report on that!

Emarketer recently published the results of a global research study to measure whether or not marketing emails impact on in-store sales.  According to this study 57% of email recipients reported that they would be more likely to make an in-store purchase if they’d received a marketing email about that particular product. 

Just goes to show what those consumer relationships can achieve.

Spammer.  Urban dictionary has a number of definitions, among others “A moron who sends out E-mails, filling up your inbox so you can't find any real E-mail” and “Quite possibly one of the lowest forms of life around” – and I, in keeping with the tone of this blog, omitted the more explicit terms used.

As with anything the bigger email marketing grows, the more it is abused.  Spammers continue to find new ways of abusing this effective marketing tool to serve their own interests.  And the more this happens, the more I find people asking how they can guard their own reputation against being labeled with the S-word.

The email

There are certain things in an email that automatically sends warning signals to spam filters.

The best possible advice for your emails is to keep them short and simple.  As soon as you, for example, make excessive use of CAPITAL LETTERS AND PUNCTUATION TO PROMOTE YOUR SALE!!!!!!!!, well, that would not be keeping it simple, would it? Similarly, graphic-heavy emails also wave red flags at spam detectors, things like block background colors or very image-heavy emails.  The general rule of thumb is to keep images below 60% of your content – you text should be relevant enough to get your message across without the need for excessive graphics.
Speaking of text, bear in mind that certain words (like “free” or “bonus”) will also be picked up on by spam filters.  That’s not to say you can’t use them, but if they pop up in the subject line of every email you send, questions might be asked.

If you’re concerned about the content of your email or just want to double check, it’s always a good idea to run a spam checker over your email before sending.  You would’ve noticed this in your account under Sending>Send to a mailing list.  There is a “Check spam score” button – it takes under three minutes to perform this automatic check and the results will tell you whether or not your email is at risk of being labeled as spam.

Your subscribers

Double opt-in has become a pretty standard email marketing practice.  (That’s where your subscribers not on have to click on a subscribe link to sign up, but you also send them a follow-up email where in they have to click on a link to confirm their subscription.)  It may seem unnecessary, but it is in fact illegal to send your emails to people if you can’t prove that they’ve opted in to your mailings.  You also have to very clear about what it is they’re signing up for.  Make sure that, if for some reason you’re partnering with someone and sending to their contacts as well, that you know how they obtained their email addresses.  This does NOT mean that you can buy a mailing list from someone!!!

Get your subscribers to indicate, via surveys or through their profile information, how frequently they want to receive communications from your and what kind of information (like product information, promotions or industry news) they’d be interested in.  Be sure to follow up by checking if and how they then engage in your mailings. 

That way you can gauge their interest and engagement in your campaigns.  Why?  Because happy subscribers won’t make a spam complaints against you.

Managing your mailing list

Managing your mailing list is incredibly important, especially given the above mentioned changes in the way ISPs (Internet Service Providers) monitor your mailings.  If you have subscribers who have, for years, been ignoring or deleting your emails, there’s no point in keeping them on your mailing list.  The same goes for those who have unsubscribed, or worse, launched a spam complaint against you.  Delete and block unsubscribes as soon as possible and make these changes on a regular basis.  You should also be updating your contacts regularly to avoid bounced emails – ISPs pick up on it when you keep sending to email addresses that no longer exist.
Remember that any employees who have access to your email marketing account should be briefed on these practices.  That way you avoid mishaps with any future sends.

The big shots – ISPs (Internet Service Providers)

At the end of the day, it’s the ISP who decides whether or not to let the email through – they’re the ones who set in place spam filters and shape your reputation.  Maintaining email marketing best practices keeps you in good standing with ISPs. 
At GraphicMail we aim to maintain good relationships with all the major ISPs, making it easier for you to stay in their good books.

Authentication also factors heavily into your deliverability; be sure to implement methods like SenderID or DKIM.  You can learn more about these authentication methods here.

A new development that also seems to be catching on among ISPs is implementing a system by which they measure engagement metrics.  That means that, for you to maintain your good reputation, you’ll have to have an active campaign and a healthy list – your relationship with your subscribers will have to be such that they actually open or click through on your emails, engaging with your emails.  All those little extras – personalization, testing your emails to see what works best for your subscribers, segmenting your lists, sending TriggerMails and, above all, ensuring that your content is relevant – will become increasingly important in generating engagement and ensuring delivery.  Of course, it all works to your advantage as it means greater returns on your email campaigns.

NB: Do you feel like you’ve received unsolicited or spam emails from a client who uses GraphicMail for their email campaigns? You can assist us in combating spam by visiting our anti spam centre and posting your complaint.