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Is there actually anybody out there who is unfamiliar with email marketing? If you are still questioning the benefits of email marketing in today’s constantly-changing online environment it is time to WAKE UP!
The bottom line – Email Marketing works! Businesses employ email marketing because it works well.
Why does Email Marketing work?
It allows targeting!
It is data driven!
It drives direct sales!
It builds relationships, loyalty and trust!
Consider the following — email marketing services offer database integration, as well as segmentation and additional techniques for improving the targeting of your outgoing messages. Every email campaign you send out generates actionable data you can use to refine your approach and messages. Email promotions generate sales, inquiries, registrations, and much more. Email newsletters and other email announcements build awareness, contribute to branding, and strengthen relationships.
Email Marketing will continue to progress in 2012. It will meet and exceed the expectations of business marketers and consumers alike.
Why? Here are just some of predictions the experts are discussing:
Email is perfect for following upwith interested prospects. It is fast, inexpensive, and can be personal. Marketers are becoming savvier and they understand how to use this technology the right way. Email autoresponders will be the best choice for follow-up. The marketing automation technology that has emerged during the last few years allows autoresponders to adapt the message based on the recipient’s behavior (whether they open, click, do not click, purchase, etc.). In 2012, this technology will become even more significant in the mainstream. This allows email to be more relevant for the recipient, making it more effective for the sender.
Email will become more social. Facebook has begun the crossover of email and social with the release of their messaging platform. During 2012, you will see the lines between these two mediums blurred even further. At a simple level, email will allow for social connections and social platforms will include messaging platforms (like Facebook) that are basically email with a different wrapper. You also will see marketing automation systems integrate with social platforms in order to allow autoresponders to adapt based on cues from social interactions.
Email will become more mobile. According to a report released by Experian Marketing Services this year, 52 percent of consumers access email via their smartphones. Readers will demand that email is legible on their mobile devices. There also may be a convergence of MMS (multimedia text messaging) and email in some circles. Another technology that could evolve into the email space is QR codes. In fact, Experian Marketing Services also says that search queries containing “QR” have increased 214 percent since the beginning of 2011. So you will be able to opt-in to email communications by simply scanning a QR code.
The outlook for Email Marketing in 2012 is grand, as long as marketers use it wisely. Great opportunity and reward awaits those who remain ahead of the email marketing curve.
*Did You Know– You should not use Flash for email videos. Email filters strip out anything with a script (i.e. Flash) which could be a virus or malware. GIF files (Graphics Interchange Format) do not run afoul of email filters like most video file formats would and are known for their fast download times and easier integration with server technology.
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Did You Know?
Bottom line – Email Marketing Works
December 15th, 2011How to Succeed in Email Marketing this Holiday Season
November 19th, 2011There is a cornucopia of internet information available about the upcoming holidays and the marketing efforts companies will execute to try and win a piece of the pie. Below are some interesting morsels to digest as you prepare for the final weeks of 2011.
There have already been a few twists on the traditional Black Friday and Cyber Monday tactics in the market this year. Many retailers have offered Black Friday deals months in advance. The in-store shopping experience is also breaking the mold this year. Stores are opening at midnight or wrapping up turkey dinners early and opening their doors Thanksgiving evening and staying open overnight.
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You should sign up for competitors’ email programs. It is important to see how they are messaging their Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers in advance of the big day. Closely monitor their emails throughout the sales period to see if their promotions are becoming more aggressive. Here is a valid suggestion – when reviewing the email marketing blasts of competitors try to open and not click, click and not purchase, and even purchase from the emails to see if the mailing frequency or promotions change.
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Know where to get your results. You should monitor your results on the day you send. Do a trial run for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday mailing to make sure you understand the immediate trends for your mailings.
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Make sure your team understands the importance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday to your business. Discuss the expectations for availability over the Thanksgiving weekend and rest of holiday season.
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Make sure you have a back-up plan. Select additional products and price points you can offer and prepare your ecommerce platform with secondary coupon codes or discounts. This could save you hours.
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Valuable time and revenue can be lost if you need to make creative revisions during peak hours. Marketers can make quick adjustments to segments and deploy a mailing, but making creative changes can take hours to turnaround. You do not want to find yourself in a creative bottleneck, so prepare email creative alternatives in advance.
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Have a re-mailing strategy included in your plan. Customers will have a significant spike in the amount of email in their inbox so make sure you have a calculated approach to your re-mailing. This will help decrease abuse complaints and unsubscribes which in turn could help avoid some blocking issues. One method is to build segments based on engagement.
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Sending a creative variation, changes in your call-to-action, etc. is great for subscribers who have shown they are engaged but did not see anything in the email that made them interested enough to click through.
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Target your clickers who have not purchased –this is your most engaged subscriber. They were not only interested enough to open your email but also clicked. Something happened before checkout that made them abandon the purchase. This audience will be the one to go after. Make sure you use a subject line and creative that drives to purchase. In addition to featuring your promotion, reference customer service information, your return policy, and shipping options and deadlines.
‘Tis the season to Become Visible so you need to contact the professionals at Emercury TODAY, to assist you with all your email marketing holiday requirements. Always be prepared but also accept your strategies will change.
*Did You Know – it is best to choose a company that sends out mass email. Many email providers will not send out more than a dozen email messages at a time, and many email providers will block email messages that have been sent out to a large number of other recipients. Companies that send out mass email can bypass these restrictions, allowing an email blast to reach thousands of people at a time.
How to Succeed in Email Marketing
July 20th, 2011Consumers look at who the sender is and what the subject is before deciding whether or not to open an email message.
In other words, you need to become a trusted sender, so you can email market successfully.
Here are some rules to succeed with Email Marketing:
Give them what they want– Before you start sending emails to your database remember how or why someone opted-in to your email list. Did you promise them something? If you have not yet delivered on your promise you should do that before trying to sell them anything. Provide information along with the promotions you are offering. Send some emails which only contain information. This can assist you in increasing consumer confidence and more importantly, consumer loyalty.
Design your Email Format so it is Simple and Concise — Consumers read their emails EVERYWHERE – on their computers, phones, even televisions. You must keep this in mind when developing your email. You want your emails to be clean and easy to read. HTML emails look great but many people do not read their emails in a format that will retain the formatting. Though you can still use this format you want to make sure the email will be easy to read and follow if they do not receive it in an HTML format. Keep your emails short and remember most people scan a message. Highlight the most important aspects of your email and remember less is more.
Provide an Opt-Out Option– Give your database the option to opt-out. People will appreciate when you do not hold their email address captive. If you do, you will lose their confidence and loyalty.
Now that we have reviewed some rules, let us discuss the next steps you need to climb to move forward with your email marketing efforts:
Devote time each week– Observe a webinar about subscriptions; consumers who have unsubscribed; bounces; statistics – i.e. opens and clicks; and utilizing social media.
Decide your frequency — We suggest sending at least one message monthly or multiple newsletters if you promote more than one service. You also should send promotional messages offering a discount.
Isn’t it time to include a sign-up form on your website — You need to collect new subscribers.
Grab their attention — Design a new template for your email marketing campaigns.
Develop relevant content in your messages — Continue sending your materials, announcements, or promotions with consistent frequency. When your list grows, you will notice increased traffic which should produce increased sales.
Add a line similar to the following to the top of your emails –
Don’t Forget to ADD yourcompanyname@here TO YOUR ADDRESS BOOK to guarantee future deliveries to your inbox.
*Did You Know– Spammers can purchase lists legally and illegally. When you sign up for a website or a service make sure you read the privacy policy carefully to find out what the site plans to do with your email address.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are Approaching
November 12th, 2010A record number of online retailers sent promotional email on Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year. However, research shows three new trends:
1. The emergence of Cyber Sunday– In an effort to get a jump on Cyber Monday, when inboxes are extremely crowded, a growing number of retailers began sending their campaigns on November 29th last year – Cyber Sunday — particularly after 5 p.m. EST.
Interestingly, the Sunday before Cyber Monday saw an increase in email, as 45% of retailers sent at least one promotional email last year versus 36% the previous year. That made last November 29th the biggest Sunday ever for retail email marketing.
2. Growing comfort with the term “Cyber Monday.” While the percentage of retailers sending email on Cyber Monday crept up only slightly, the number of retail emails referring to Cyber Monday by name increased 54 percent last year compared to the previous. Retailers are becoming more comfortable with the term and confident consumers recognize the term, thanks to media coverage.
3. More of a buildup to Black Friday. In addition to the large increase in the number of retailers sending promotional emails on the actual Black Friday, retailers promoted Black Friday in their emails more vigorously and much earlier. During the four weeks leading up to November 27th last year, the number of retail emails referencing Black Friday rose 96 percent last year compared to 2008.
The volume of email marketing messages sent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday hit an all-time high last year. However, according to email vendors, message deliverability was an issue for marketers.
According to the Retail Email Blog, which is run by Smith-Harmon, 71% of major online retailers sent at least one promotional email on Cyber Monday, up 1% from the previous year. On Black Friday, 69% of major online retailers sent at least one promo message, which was up from 59% in 2008.
The large volume of email challenged deliverability. Almost one in four email marketing messages were not delivered to recipients’ inboxes on Cyber Monday, meaning that 76% of retail emails made it to the inbox.
Deliverability was at its lowest on Cyber Monday from 8 to 9 am and noon to 1 pm, when the largest volumes of mail were slowing down ISPs.
Another factor in the drop in delivery rate comes from mailing to inactive names, or recipients who have not opened an email in more than six months.
ComScore reported that consumers spent $887 million online on November 30th (Cyber Monday last year), up 5% from 2008′s Cyber Monday and matching the heaviest online spending day on record.
So, consumers are readying themselves for the biggest online shopping day of the year and gaining insight into the latest and greatest deals being offered online.
Here were some 2009 trends of the busiest online shopping day of the year:
1. More retailers were offering exclusive deals last Cyber Monday than in years past. According to research, 87.1 percent of retailers had a special promotion for Cyber Monday.
2. Mobile Commerce was predicted to have a major impact on Cyber Monday sales due to the increasing popularity of the smart phones. Mobile Commerce likely influenced consumer decisions since it gave users the ability to comparison shop, place orders, and guaranteed in-store pick-up.
3. Exclusive online discounts were deeper than years past. Retailers such as offered as much as 50 percent off select merchandise.
4. Retailers were offering free shipping as an incentive for customer to buy online.
The 2010 Holiday Season is upon us and there is an abundance of predictions based on activity, from previous years. Here are some for 2010:
1. Social and rich-media campaigns will not get much traction after mid-November.
2. Discount codes will become more prominent in pre-header messages and subject lines.
3. “Share with your network” functionality will be used more strategically.
4. Designing mobile-friendly email is more important than ever.
5. At least 50% of retailers will send an email on Thanksgiving Day and at least 70% will on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Signup for Emercury today and begin benefitting from email marketing today. Refer a retail business before Black Friday and earn double the referral fee.
*Did You Know – Sales tracking firms (who represent 500 major retailers) reported that online sales were up 14% above Cyber Monday 2008.
What Is SMTP and How Can I Use It?
October 15th, 2010What is SMTP?
It is short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – a protocol for sending email messages between servers. Most email systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an email client using either POP or IMAP. In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server. This is why you need to specify the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your email application.
It is the easiest and fastest way to get email from one place to another. Once you transmit your mail to the SMTP server, it will be sending it out. If some failures occur, it will be trying again and again. Since the real SMTP server is constantly connected to the Internet, it can try resending its failures at any time. As a result, you do not have to worry about failed recipients. If you send direct, you will have to resend to the temporarily failed recipients several times to make sure all the addresses are covered.
What does this mean as far as my email is concerned?
Let us look at the way this all works. Email is composed and read in an email client. This is the part of the process that is most familiar to you. If you want to read mail you click Check Mail, New Mail, or something similar and new messages show up in your Inbox. To send mail you click Compose or Write and the client gives you a compose window where you write your message. When you are done you click Send and the message gets sent.
The “Client” part of the term email client refers to the fact that this software requires the help of a Server to do its job. The client takes care of making the mail useful to you but the servers are the ones that actually move the mail around. Think of the client as your desk (or wherever you store and compose paper based mail) and the servers as the postal service.
First, your client must locate a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol server to send mail through. This will generally be provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the host for the domain the email address belongs to. The client knows how to find this server because the server’s name or IP address was entered in the client’s configuration for the sending address.
Passing the message to the SMTP server is roughly equivalent to walking a letter down to the corner post box and dropping it in. As far as you are concerned it is sent. Similarly, after passing the message to the sending SMTP server, your email client will say something like “Message sent successfully” because at that point its job is done.
One major difference between the mailing a letter and sending an email message is that an email message can have multiple recipients. If you want to send many copies of a letter using snail mail you have to make many copies and address a lot of envelopes. With email you just use one envelope with a lot of addresses.
After the SMTP server accepts the message from your client it works its way through all of the recipients (everyone with a “To:” or a “Cc:” or a “Bcc:”) and tries to deliver the message to each one. This is where the Domain Naming System (DNS) and specifically Mail Exchanger (MX) Records come in. The sending SMTP server has to consult the DNS MX records for each recipient’s domain to find out where to send the message. This is similar to your local post office sorting your letters for delivery to your local post office.
Nearly all SMTP relay servers on the Internet restrict access to their own users. In most cases, SMTP relay servers allow access based on the IP address of the email client. On the other hand, some SMTP relay servers require authentication with a user name and password. No matter how authentication is done, it is easy to use an SMTP relay server as long as permission has been granted.
Did You Know? Many Internet service providers use DNSBLs (DNS-based Blocking Lists) to disallow mail from open relays. Once a mail server is detected or reported that allows third parties to send mail through them, they will be added to one or more such lists, and other email servers using those lists will reject any mail coming from those sites. The relay need not actually be used for sending SPAM to be blacklisted.
100 Percent Inbox Delivery – Fact or Fiction?
September 22nd, 2010A check list for 100% inbox delivery
Even though a 100% inbox delivery on an email campaign is 100% fictional due mainly to temporary errors and soft bounces, it is possible to secure your email delivery through a few steps.
Here is a checklist, of requirements, which should help you to reach near 100% email deliverability:
1 – Do you have enough dedicated IPs?
Your ID when broadcasting newsletters is usually based on the couple IP/Domain.
Some ISPs and webmails limit either the number of hourly or daily number of emails to be received from an IP. You therefore need to have sufficient IPs according to the volume of emails sent to these ISPs.
Sharing your IPs with other senders might get you into troubles should the other senders send poor campaigns.
It is also necessary to build your own sender reputation always using the same IPs and slowly getting the ISPs’ confidence.
2 – Are your Domain Key/DKIM and SPF correctly configured?
Yahoo! and Hotmail use the Domain Key (or recently DKIM) and SPF to identify sender domains. Having an accurately set ID will help you build up a solid reputation.
3 – Is your reverse DNS working correctly?
Most of the email receiving servers query the reverse DNS to see who is sending, so you need to make sure your reverse DNS is correctly set before email blasting.
4 – Are your email headers correctly set?
There’s a few things to know when email blasting, Gmail for example asks for “precedence=bulk” to be stated in the email header.
5 – Do you use double optin in your newsletter subscription process?
Double optin is the only way to make sure of two things:
a) the user wants to register for your newsletter
b) the real owner of the email went through the proper process of subscribing.
6 – Do you have a simple and efficient unsubscribe process?
With the SPAM complaint button easily accessible, in every email, you need to have a simple unsubscribe process.
The more complicated the unsubscribe process is, the more likely the user will click on the SPAM complaint button.
For the same exact reason you want to take every unsubscribe request into account ASAP, any email received after the user having unsubscribe is a potential complaint to the ISP.
7 – Do you correctly identify complainers and remove them systematically from upcoming email blasts?
Several ISPs provide email senders with feedback loops. These feedback loops are useful to measure the perception users have of your newsletter and of course to stop sending to complainers.
8 – Do you sometimes check for inactive profiles and remove them from your list?
An email that has not reacted (opened) on any email sent to him/her for a long time should probably be removed from your list; it is likely you will never get any benefit from sending to this person. You probably pay a fee to send emails to this user, and you also take the risk of this email being a SPAM trap.
9 – Do you avoid SPAM words, special characters and ALL CAPS in your subject lines?
Part of the email filtering is made on the email content itself. You therefore need to check your email subject line for common SPAM words. It is preferable to avoid special characters such as $, £, % or accents and avoid using too many capital letters.
10 – Is the Image/Text ratio correct in your email?
One of the most common technique Spammers use to bypass content based email filters is to use images instead of plain text. Having only images in the email you blast can make the ISPs suspicious and sometimes lead to false positives – (i.e. legitimate emails being blocked by filters).
11 – Is your HTML code orderly?
One important thing when sending an email to users is to have a clean HTML code. The first reason being all webmails, browsers, and email readers might deal with your bad HTML in different ways, and therefore your email might be displayed incorrectly on several of them.
The second reason is the SPAM filters are likely to block poorly coded emails.
12 – Do you monitor your marketing pressure on your subscribers?
When people subscribe to your newsletter it is recommended you tell them how often you will send emails to them, even if the time of year is special (sales periods, holidays, etc.) you need to make sure you do not over communicate with your subscribers. If you do not you might see an increase in your unsubscribe and complaint rates.
Did you Know? In general, a delivery rate of 80% or more is considered satisfactory; 90% is very good. You will never achieve a 100% delivery rate, as there will always be a few soft bounces (full email boxes) and hard bounces (invalid email addresses) on your list. Keep in mind that this figure does not factor in the emails that are automatically sent to the recipient’s junk folder.
Emercury Provides High Quality Bulk Email Delivery Services
August 26th, 2010Increase in market share helps organizations to grow. The only way to attract more and more customers to buy your products and services is through promotion. Today’s competitive environment makes it essential to have email marketing services for bulk email delivery,to the masses. This will help you to make your product popular among your potential customers.
Communication is important
Your quality products and services will fetch you nothing till they are sold. To sell them you need to inform your prospective customers about them. No one does this task better than our professionals at Emercury.Net. We understand how important it is to communicate the right message at the right time, to the right person. Our professionals are best at bulk email delivery and other email marketing services. We provide services to all types of businesses. So, if you want to establish your brand name in global markets, you can rely on us for your needs.
Customer is the king
If you already have a large customer base and aspire to increase it even further, Emercury.Net is the right place for you. We are experts in bulk email delivery services and have efficient professionals who can handle any number of emails. A constant watch on customer feedback is essential to maintaining good customer relations. Our professionals are skilled enough to manage all your existing customers and convert your potential customers.
Affordable and high quality services
We provide high quality services at the most competitive prices in the market. Apart from normal bulk email delivery services such as software development, tracking mails, and list management, our professionals are ready with many other innovative ideas to create a difference. For instance, we have come up with a new aspect called an email calendar to make a new addition to our existing bulk email marketing services package. So, if you are looking for service providers who aspire to exceed your expectations, Emercury.Net is the best choice for you.
Bulk email marketing is sure to make your business touch great heights. So, do not waste time and get ready to increase your customer base with us.
How do you improve your email marketing campaigns?
August 19th, 2010| How do you improve your email marketing campaigns?
Let us first discuss why most email campaigns fail. Indistinct offers– The benefits of your offer are not clearly stated to the recipient due to a poorly developed offer or improper formatting of the email. These will appear more like announcements, rather than an email providing something of interest to customers. The recipients will promptly delete such messages. Feeble offers– This is ordinary. The vendor believes their email campaign is solid; their company recognizable; and they do not need a quality offer to achieve results. This is incorrect. Advertisers do not understand what their customers want– You need to know your customers are always asking: “What’s In It for me?” Does your campaign support what your customers actually want? Do you express this to them clearly? Do not settle for awful email marketing campaign results!
There is a great deal to learn about email marketing, so begin today. A survey showed that business-to-business (B2B) email campaigns have greater open rates than business-to-consumer (B2C) campaigns. Sometimes the user who receives the text format of your email is not counted in the open rate calculation. This is because as a rule only HTML mails can be tracked down. It is important to note that sometimes the ‘from’ field is unclear. People tend to delete vague mails. A simple email marketingcampaign can produce significant results quickly. Once you have mastered the basics of targeted email campaigns, it is time to integrate a few advanced techniques to improve email marketing. You must refine your email campaigns based on results. The popularity of content is not the only type of data you can learn from. As we have discussed in the past, look for patterns in the times and days you send your emails. Divide your email list into groups based on a common factor. For example, you could segment your list based on age, gender, or past buying behavior. Do not be afraid to test your groups to see what produces the best results; i.e. send your groups different subject lines to determine which is more popular and which garner the most results. Determining the purpose of your email marketing tells you what kind of email messaging you should be sending. Email marketing activity is also subject to constant changes in advice, approach, and technology. Given this subjectivity, your campaign can easily lose its direction, its intended purpose lost, thus rendering your time and investment as ineffective. Many email marketing campaigns send out the wrong type of message. Once you decide your email campaign goal, and the elements needed for your message, determine the format your email messages should follow. Here are some email formats which businesses have found successful. However, be sure the positives outweigh the negatives, as far as the structure you are employing. Email newslettersThe email newsletter involves a little more commitment than an immediate action-driven email message. It needs to be more informative and useful to your readers than a direct marketing email. Email newsletters need to be sent with regular frequency to be effective, and that is where the challenge begins for many companies. The best advice for any businesses sending email newsletters is to start out slowly. A monthly or even bimonthly email newsletter would not be considered an over-aggressive frequency. Newsletters are not a direct marketing tool. In other words, you risk a high unsubscribe rate if you promised to send email newsletters to customers and started sending email ads instead. AnnouncementsNon-profit organizations should be using email to announce almost anything new about their mission. Service-based organizations usually find the announcement format easier to compose. This approach usually requires a little creativity, but it continually keeps your message and services in the minds of your clients. Printable email couponsIf you sell clothing, books, or even gift memberships, email coupons can be helpful. They are typically issued either as an online coupon code, which can be used on a website ordering form, or they can be in the form of a printable coupon. Printable coupons can be simple PDF files or they can be web-based, HTML documents composed using minimal design features, for easy printing. Common elements of a printable coupon include your organization’s logo, specifics of your offer, your phone number, street address, the URL address to your website, and an expiration date. SurveysAnother format of email campaign is the customer survey, using email to invite supporters to participate in a short survey about their recent experience with your business. Define your purposeDefine the goals of your email campaigns ahead of time, and develop appropriate email messages that will best help you succeed. *Did You Know– 71% of the top 360 U.S. companies (as ranked by D&B) offer an email opt-in on their website. |
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