Remember the futuristic TV series Beyond 2000? We sauntered beyond 2000 and while we were all either looking out for flying cars or the world to end I don’t think we ever really stopped to consider how this technological boom was going to affect our business strategies – or how digital would come to feature in our marketing tactics.

No doubt about it – our new dynamic marketing environment posed a challenge we accepted.  We all have to sell.  Email marketing came in with a swoop.  A longstanding favorite among direct marketing channels it quickly became an important tool in most marketers’ arsenal.  But digital never rests and with drastic recent changes our online environment it’s time to reflect on how to make these latest developments work in favor of your email marketing strategy.

So what exactly are we looking out for?

A strong foundation
The days of people actually reading their emails are over.  It’s no longer a replacement for snail mail, but more a quick way to say “Hi!” and letting consumers know that you’re brand’s still around.  Its purpose, more and more, is to get top of mind in an over-crowded consumer mind. Ultimately, you want your email to send your existing or potential client to your website, where they’ll - fingers crossed - make a purchase, a booking or a donation – but in order to do that they’ll have to open and read first.  And that’s where we head back to basics:  Strong copy in your subject lines and the content of your email.  It remains the basis of communication!

Keeping up
Naturally changes in the email industry have a great effect on how you approach your email marketing – but I recently published this post on how to adapt to changes by major ISPs so I won’t go into that here.  Another emerging trend to keep an eye on is the approach to video in email as it will raise questions such as which ISPs are enabling it, how to go about inserting it and how to incorporate video into your email content.

The whole shebang
And then, of course, the infamous rise of social.  How many times have we cursed Facebook for unleashing the beast of social?  Yes, indeed, social and mobile are extending our marketing sphere even further - we’re now dealing with multiple communication channels that all need to be strategized appropriately.  If you’re smart about it, you’re finding ways to integrate all these different channels.  It should come as no surprise that GraphicMail offers a range of social and mobile tools that enable you to integrate them with your email marketing!  Watch this video for a glimpse of possible ways to integrate.

Can never get enough
As we’re pulled further into our online environment, we’re signing up to and receiving more and more emails!  Email volume is increasing continuously.  Make use of our automated segmentation tool to create sub-groups of your mailing list – then be sure to write content that’s relevant and valuable to your subscribers.  It’s the only way your email will take priority in a never-ending inbox!

Catch them if you can
By now, most of us also have more than one email address – your personal and your work email, and often an extra one or two thrown in for good measure.  These addresses are also often changing quite rapidly as we move jobs and finish off projects.  Amidst all these changes, it’s quite easy for you to lose a subscriber because you’re sending to an outdated email address.  Be sure to remind your subscribers to update their details regularly and manage your mailing lists effectively.  Much of GraphicMail’s list management tools are automated, making it easy to stay on top of your lists.

When everyone wants it their way…
The way in which online interaction has developed has given users steadily more control of what information they want to consume, in what format and regularly.  We’ve become acclimatized to having this kind of control and are increasingly selective in what we choose to consume.  Luckily, email marketing is permission based, which is appealing to both marketers and subscribers.  Allow your potential clients to manage what brand information they receive from you as easily as possible by allowing them to set up subscriber profiles and preferences.

Staying on track
More than ever, measuring and tracking your various marketing efforts are becoming increasingly important the more the marketing environment expands.  So, yes, you need to keep an eye on your email marketing reports and stats, but take not of your social share stats as well.  These will tell you where, how and by who your email newsletter was shared across social channels.  Also remember that it’s possible to track your bulk SMS sends. 
It is also possible to integrate your GraphicMail account with your Google Analytics – a truly excellent way of seeing how your campaign has affected your web traffic.

Consumers have come to expect automated marketing that caters to their individual needs, interests and specifications across a range of channels.  The good news is that email marketing is the perfect tool – you just need to optimize it accordingly.

Image courtesy of Francesco Marino.

This was shared with us on Twitter (for a clearer view, the original is available here from Brad Colbow):

I'm sure you all know the feeling!  A reminder that, even though people have subscribed to your email, it's never a good idea to over do it.  :)

A nice bit of weekend humour to leave you with! Please remember that tomorrow is a public holiday in South Africa and so our Cape Town office will be closed.  US support will be available as usual, but please be aware that there will be no back-up support - responses might take a little longer than usual.

We try to make email marketing as simple and easy-to-implement as possible, but even experienced designers sometimes struggle when it comes to designing email newsletters.  That’s because email is different to any other tool you use and so, has its own rules.

I know many of our clients choose to use one of our pre-made templates (and it does make your life that much easier), but some GraphicMailers simply have unique needs and so want to design their own templates.  So, here are some email design tips and best practices for all:

First things first

1)     Your gut instinct might be to send out the most impressive, flashy email on the block – but that might not be the best idea.  A clean, simple layout is not only easier on the recipient’s eye, but easier to code.  There will also be less of a chance that your email will be incompatible with certain internet browsers or email clients.
2)    Furthermore, some of your subscribers might be viewing your email in a very basic email client, or even on their mobile phone.  Insert a link to a web server at the top of your email, so that, if the email client does not support all your imagery, they’ll still be able to view it in all its glory.
3)    You’re probably aware that it’s illegal to send out marketing emails without offering the subscriber the option of opting out of your email.  Even though it may seem inconceivable that someone might choose to no longer receive emails from you, it does happen.  Make your unsubscribe link clearly visible – you’ll make it easier for recipients to unsubscribe and save yourself the trouble of having to remove them from your list manually.

The technicalities

1)     It’s time to whip out those tables.  While you can use some CSS styling in email design, all emails require their layouts to be designed in tables.   With the exception of the 100% width wrap table, it’s best not to nest any other tables – rather use the stacking system.  Your email will simply be much easier to control.  (Bear in mind that most email clients only read the code in the body tags, not the tags themselves, so if you want to create the effect of a background color you’ll have to use a 100% width table.)
2)    Contrary to what you might be doing for your websites, don’t create classes – email clients tend to strip them out.  Instead, use inline styles.
3)    Not all your subscribers have their images turned on by default; in fact, many of us block them.  Remember to give alt tags to all your images!  In the same vein, don’t set size specifications (width and height) for your images.  If your recipient is viewing the email with images turned off, they’ll only be faced with large white blocks – and you don’t want that.
4)    Keep in mind that most email users view their emails in a preview pane.  Keeping your email width under 600px is considered best practice, as this is the width smaller preview panes are set at.
5)    When designing emails you’re going to have to stick to HTML – all those fancy little JavaScript tricks, like pop-ups, trigger spam filters with ISPs and are more than likely to get your email spam trapped.
6)    Needless to say, all your subscribers will be viewing your email in different email clients.  As you can’t 100% guarantee what the character set they’ll be using will be, it’s best to make sure that all your characters are encoded.  It’s a bit of extra effort, but it does guarantee that all your recipients will view the text correctly – especially if you’re working with foreign languages.

See if it works

I cannot emphasize the importance of testing your emails enough!  How else will you know whether their rendering and displaying correctly?  There’s no “undo” after you hit send.
1)     Make use of Inbox Preview – it’s our new tool that allows you to see how your email renders in a range of different email clients.  Nifty.  If you choose to test manually, make sure that you not only have a range of email addresses at your disposal (like Gmail, Hotmail/Live, Yahoo! Mail and AOL mail) but also that you test it in a number of browsers – e.g. various versions of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome.
2)    The simplest and most effective way to test your newsletter is to conduct a test send.  You’ll be able to see how the email displays, whether you’ve left anything out and check to see if your links and anchor links work.
Not sure what to test for? Read this post.

So there you have it – a few tips to help you out!  If you have any other design related questions please drop us an email – info@graphicmail.com – and we’ll get a member of either our support or design team to help you out.  You can also read more design articles and tips here and here.

The problem that sales departments are often faced with:  too many leads to follow up on, and no idea which lead is more likely to generate a sale.  If you’re a dedicated follower, you’ve probably read this post I did a while ago on how implementing an email marketing campaign can help you generate sales leads.  I outlined why email marketing can help your marketing department build the trusting relationship needed to convert a potential sale.

Quite a few people wanted to know how exactly to go about setting up a nurturing email campaign.  So here it is - the steps you need to take to set up such a campaign:

Clickz.com recently announced findings that long-term leads (those are leads that take longer to make a buying decision or be converted to a sale) generally form up to 80% of potential sales.  Unfortunately, these are also the leads most likely to be ignored by your sales team.

The purpose of a lead nurturing email marketing campaign is to both introduce the subscriber to your product or service, while at the same time gathering information from them.  That way you ready the recipient for the sales push, but the information you gathered on the recipient also gives the sales team insight into where that person is in the buying cycle and what their specific needs are.  This means your sales team can contact potential clients at the time when they are most likely to make a purchase.

What do you consider to be a valuable lead?
First of all, you’ll need to decide what your ideal lead looks like, so you know what kind of lead you’re trying to create.   (This is probably something that should be discussed between your marketing and sales teams.)  What sales leads would you consider to be worth following up on? 

When answering this question, consider whether or not your potential client really needs your product or service, and, if so, how urgently they’d be looking to make a purchase.  How big a client are the likely to become, i.e. how much and how often will they spend?  Make sure you’re dealing with the correct person – if you’re pitching your ice cream to the five-year old, remember that the real person you should be pitching to is his mom.  If it’s a B2B sale, you don’t want to market your product to a junior, but rather to an authoritative decision maker in the company.

How does it work?
Think about past sales calls you’ve received, or pitches you’ve heard.  When these come out of the blue, we typically dismiss them.  Sometimes you’ll even find a few months later, when one of your friends have bought the product, that it is actually something that you want - but when you first received that call you had never heard of the product and so had absolutely no interest in it.

Your lead nurturing email campaign should slowly introduce potential customers to your product.  Remember, you don’t want to overwhelm them with an aggressive sales push; you simply want to slowly begin sending them emails containing short bits of valuable information, addressing their need and explaining how your product can offer a solution.

So, think about the questions your clients will want you to answer:  What’s in this for me? How will this product or service improve my life?  Do I really need it?  Can I afford it? Is this the best option, or will another company offer me a better deal?
Now set up your value-laden, informative email series and slowly supply them with answers to these questions.  (As I’ve mentioned in my previous article, TriggerMail could be ideal for this.)
Include useful elements, like discount coupons, links to articles or PDF downloads, or webinars – anything that might provide them with more information that could entice them to buy.

What now?
Once you’ve set up your nurturing campaign, you should see an increase in quality sales leads – which also means a higher sales conversion rate.  As with all your email campaigns, keep an eye on your reports and statistics (and, in this case, also follow up with your sales team) to track your progress.  If you run an effective lead nurturing campaign, and continually tweak it according to the trends you pick up among your subscribers, your campaign will eventually send through a constant flow of quality sales leads.

It takes the guesswork from your sales process – instead of being faced with masses of leads they know are unlikely to convert, your sales team will be able to hone in on those prospects that they know are ready buy.

We’ve made some improvements to our user interface (your GraphicMail dashboard)! 

Basically, we’ve tried to make it more user-friendly.  No to worry - the basic functionality of the application is still the same; changes were mostly made to the design and menu structure.  However, we’ve included a few helpful features! 

What’s changed?
One of these is our new Tips section that, when selected, displays tips on the particular section of your account that you are navigating at the time.

Another useful tool is our new Account dropdown. 

By clicking on the dropdown menu you’ll be able to see how many credits are left in your account and when they expire.  You’re even able to purchase more credits simply by clicking on the “Buy More” button.

Hope you enjoy these improvements!

Have any questions? Feedback? Email us at info@graphicmail.com

Earlier this week we welcomed GraphicMail Slovakia to the GraphicMail family!

Our Slovak team, GraphicMail’s 17th (!) global franchise, will also make GraphicMail available in a 10th language.  I asked Tomas Kurtha, our Slovakian partner, why they chose to partner with GraphicMail.  Not surprisingly, his answer was that he was impressed by our innovative, flexible team who adapt to the ever-changing online marketing environment and continuously improve on our product.

Here’s some of what he had to say:  “GraphicMail offers not only email marketing but it provides its combination with mobile and social media marketing. After considering of all these aspects, we were aware of it, that GraphicMail is a tool not only for sending newsletters, but a tool for complex marketing as a whole, and that´s the product we want to offer to our clients.”  (I was impressed with his English!)

We’re all wishing Tomas and his team the best of luck and can’t wait to celebrate the signing of their first clients!  A virtual celebration it will have to be…

Remember our Chinese partner? GraphicMail China was launched in December last year – word from Jason is that they’re growing at an immense rate!  We’re well impressed by all our global teams’ efforts!  If you know of anyone who might be interested in kicking of an Indian, Russian or Scandinavian franchise please email us at info@graphicmail.com

If you’re a daily email user, and yes, an email marketer, you’ve probably heard of Gmail’s new Priority Inbox feature.

This feature, which is still being tested in its beta phase but which is available to all Gmail users, will automatically divide your inbox into important emails – and everything else.  Of course, this has been met with mixed responses by email marketers!  I must admit, my first thoughts were doom and damnation for all email marketers alike, but after thinking about it a bit more and having had time to follow industry discussions on the topic, I’m beginning to see this as a very positive development.

Sure, two things are going to change decisively:  It will separate the email marketing wheat from the chuff and it will help email marketers focus on quality client leads and relationships.  So what do you do to make sure you get the better end of the deal with these changes?

1) The nature of email is personal and direct, that’s why it’s such an ideal tool for building customer relationships. A priority inbox will mean that for those customers who engage in a business-consumer relationship with your brand’s email marketing campaigns (by opening your emails and clicking on links) your email will rank higher in their inbox, building even more brand trust.
Hence your email marketing should be more focused on customer relationship management than ever before – ideal, really, considering the nature of email.

2) Generic messages simply won’t make the cut. At least, not in the long run.
More than ever, ensure that your content is relevant to the recipient.  Value-laden, personalized emails are the way forward (as they’ve always been, actually).  Use the tools at your disposal – test, segment your lists and set up autoresponders for your campaigns.

3) Your Gmail subscribers will need to be able to identify your emails very easily if you want them to keep opening.  That is, your brand or business name will have to feature strongly in either the From name, subject line or pre-header.  That way, if you’re already running a very successful campaign your subscribers will quickly be able to spot if your emails have been bumped down and mark you as an important sender.

4) You’re going to need more than once-off engagement from subscribers.  To prevent your email efforts from slipping into cyber netherworld you’ll need your recipients to interact and engage with your email newsletter continuously.
Make sure that your email has a very clear call to action, preferably one that encourages engagement, like clicking on a link, replying, or submitting a comment.  Of course, should you encourage your subscribers to reply, be sure to send from an active email address.  It might mean more work, but it is a good way to enhance your customer service and to obtain more client feedback.  Perhaps use the opportunity to refer them to the correct department or person to deal with their query.

Simply put, Gmail’s priority inbox does change the email marketing landscape, but the benefits of email marketing remain as solid as ever.  You’re just going have to be better at email marketing – and in return, you should see an even greater ROI.  Quality campaigns will be the ones to make it to the top of the inbox.

It’s competition time!

We’re running a new competition on Facebook:  It’s time to show off your hard work – by submitting your email newsletters for voting!

How to enter:

1.     Email one of your newsletters, or a screenshot of your newsletter (whether the most recent or just the one you think looks super impressive), to carmia@graphicmail.com. 
2.    We’ll upload a screenshot of your newsletter to an album on our Facebook page called “May the best newsletter win!”
3.    Get your mom, friends and colleagues to go to our fan page, view the album and vote for your newsletter, either by commenting on it or clicking on the “Like” button.

The newsletter with the most votes, wins!

What’s up for grabs?

First Prize – An iPod touch, a customized newsletter template created especially for your business by our design team and 5,000 free GraphicMail credits

Second Prize – A customized newsletter template created especially for your business by our design team and 5,000 free GraphicMail credits

Third Prize – 5,000 free GraphicMail credits

Sounds cool doesn’t it?  Wish I could enter… Submit your newsletter now.

Want to check out the competition? View the other entries by going to our Facebook page.

We introduce: the  Inbox Preview, BETA version

There so many different email programs out there (like Outlook 2007, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and so on) - do your campaigns render correctly in all of them?  And what about all the smartphones and the iPad? Well, you can setup lots of email accounts and servers to check your campaigns yourself, and get a bunch of smartphones too, or you can click a button in GraphciMail  and we'll do all the testing for you. We have just launched our Inbox Preview tool (beta version)!

Introductory Offer

Test it – we give you your first 3 tests free of charge!
Then decide what bundle is best for you – we offer them in 10, 25, 50 and 100. So if you want to preview 10 newsletters, buy a bundle of 10, if you want to preview 100, get a bundle of 100 – it all depends on how often you send and how many tests you want to run.

Get a bundle of

•    10 for   $10
•    25 for   $23.75 (5% discount)
•    50 for   $40 (10% discount)
•    100 for $ 80 (20% discount)

These rates are once off, i.e. you buy the amount of previews you need, and if you want to test more newsletters at a later stage, you simply buy an additional bundle of 10, 25, 50 or 100 from within your account. Believe me, this is the best investment you can make for your email marketing campaign.
You only get one chance to make a first impression with your clients – use Inbox Preview to make sure all of your subscribers get a looker of a newsletter.

How do I use Inbox Preview?

It couldn't be easier to do...

1)     Go to the inbox preview menu which is a sub item under “newsletters” in your GM acount
2)    Select the email you want to run the test on. (It will take a couple of minutes to run the test as GraphicMail sends emails and takes snapshots of the inboxes for you.) 
3)    Go and see the thumbnails of the various email clients. (To see it in greater detail, just click on a thumbnail.  You can then see if you need to make any changes.)
4)    Make the necessary changes and test again.

Remember this tool is to help you save time on testing your emails, but you're responsible for fixing them. We do offer troubleshooting services or we can build templates for you, but this is not included in subscription costs.

Any questions? Comments? Issues? Contact our support team at info@graphicmail.com or call 1-800-590-0028.