Part 1

Ever wonder what a good email campaign actually looks like?  I blog about various aspects of email marketing and on how to build newsletters and campaigns on a regular basis, but this isn’t something I’ve actually pointed out.

iMedia Connection published this article by Dylan Boyd in which he looks at winning email marketing campaigns by seven well-known brands.  I think it’s a good look at how the basic email marketing principles we preach are put into action.  Of course, it’s alsouseful to get ideas on how to implement these strategies in your own campaigns.  (In fact there were so many valuable points made that I’m splitting this post in two – catch part 2 on Monday!)

The first brand whose campaign he comments on is National Geographic, stating that their attention to subscriber preferences in terms of personalized information and what kind of emails they’d prefer to receive, as well as how much effort they go to ensure that there are multiple ways in which to opt-in to their emails.

These are good strategies (I have in fact written quite a few articles lately on the benefit of personalizing campaigns and gathering subscriber data) and can be easily applied to your own campaigns.  Make sure that you place visible subscription forms on all channels available to you – like your website, blog and newsletter.  Don’t just ask subscribers to sign up, use the opportunity to get to know them.  You can customize your sign-up and subscription forms to collect subscriber data relevant to your business, for instance age, location, product preferences, etc.

Another interesting brand email campaign is Timberland’s.  Boyd attributes this to a number of factors, like consistency, a font that’s easy on the eye and easy navigation.  All valid points, but what particularly intrigued me was his mention of their “clear block copy”.  It’s a valid point to highlight – a clear, simple structure carries a lot of impact and looks like less effort to read.  It’s basic, but effective.
Have a look at your standard email newsletter template and assess whether it meets this criteria.  Why not play around with our Drag-and-drop editor (beta version)?  All the templates are designed according to a block theory, so the layouts, no matter how you wish to edit it, remains in a clear structure.

A very important point noted about Timberland’s campaign is the following:

“It appears to me that Timberland is taking the click data and helping focus the offers into a very relevant stream. Whether it is gender, style, frequency, or size, I always feel like it has me taken care of.”

Again, it’s all about engagement and personalization.  Now I’ve recently focused quite strongly on these points, telling you how you can apply them through TriggerMail and segmentation – but how do you track this data and measure your subscriber’s preferences?...

I’ll leave you with that thought!  The answer to that very important question will be posted here on Monday – along with some more tips on how to apply some of the winning strategies of bigger brands to your own campaigns using GraphicMail tools and features.

You signed up for our advanced email marketing services because you want to be ahead of the pack, with an email marketing campaign that achieves outstanding results and email newsletters that’ll knock the socks off ‘em.
But designing is harder than it looks - at least, it used to be…

In an effort to simplify the process of creating a html email newsletters, we’ve released a brand new drag-and-drop editor!  It’s been live in a few test accounts for a few weeks, but today we launched it internationally on all our English GraphicMail sites.

The new drag-and-drop editor is targeted specifically at those clients who do not have HTML knowledge or aren’t familiar with design tools.  This wizard editor will make your life a whole lot easier.  Simply choose one of the drag-and-drop templates which have all been designed in neat blocks, and edit each block as you like.  You can insert images, move it around, or keep it simple.

You’ll find it in your account under Neswsletters > Create– play around with it and let us know what you think!