Email marketing services are taking the place of direct mailers. Instead of spending your time and money on creating print marketing campaigns that end up in dusty mailboxes, you can now combine your social network marketing efforts with effective email campaigns. With email marketing, you can instantly see who is opening your emails, which links they're clicking on and how many of your subscribers are forwarding your emails to their friends.
Email marketing services even offer social networking buttons such as Like and Tweet so your messages are even easier to share with others. In addition to this, you can also see how many email addresses bounced your emails and how many people unsubscribed from your emails. Through these reports, you can quickly identify which marketing tools are working for you and what you can do to improve your reach. An additional way you can do this is by sending surveys through these services to your customers that can help you hone in on the products and approach that best meets their needs and interests.
Once you switch to email marketing, you'll wonder how you ever made do with direct mailers through the post. Email marketing makes connecting with your customers easier and more effective. On this site, you can read comprehensive reviews for products such as MailGrail.
Email Marketing Services: What to Look For
Creating an email campaign can be as simple as adding names to a database, customizing an easy-to-use template and looking at how effective your emails are via simple pie charts and bar graphs. We looked for services that offer intuitive tools that will help you quickly upload your list of contacts. We also looked for products that give you the flexibility to adjust the designs on your email marketing messages so that they reflect your company's image.
In addition to up-to-date designs, we also searched for products that are easy to learn and use so you can spend your time with your customers instead of online chat with tech support. Below are the criteria we used to rank email marketing services.
Features
Paper, ink, labels and postage. The hassle of direct mailers will quickly fade into the recesses of your memory as soon as you begin to use an email marketing service. In mere minutes, you can upload images, type your text, manipulate how your text displays, add links and a social media share bar, and more. An effective email marketing service offers professional features you will need to create customer surveys, newsletters and other event emails. In addition to this, many email marketing services offer the flexibility to work either in a design format or directly with HTML. With most products, you can even choose whether you want to create an email message from scratch or choose from a large list of creative templates.
With a direct mailer, you can physically hold the copy in your hand before you send it out to your customers. However, if there is a mistake, it's back to the printers. Email marketing services enable you to preview your email on your computer screen or as a printed copy from your office printer. Now, some email marketing services even have a preview of many of the most common displays so you can anticipate how your customers will see your marketing pieces. These handy features allow you to quickly adjust text, images or links in your email to make them accurate and attractive.
Creating the Email Campaign
Creating an email marketing campaign should be easy, regardless of your skill level or experience. Many email marketing services include a wizard to walk you through the creation of your email, newsletter or survey. You can test the effectiveness of the message's wording and images to ensure that email providers won't mark it as spam and that your subscribers won't find it in their junk mailboxes. Some email marketing services also link to popular social networking sites to maximize the reach of your email campaign.
Detailed Campaign Reporting
Email marketing services provide reports, graphs and statistics that show you how your email campaign is doing. You can see how many customers open your emails and even which links they click on. You can see how many people unsubscribe and how many forward your emails on to others. These reports also let you know how many emails bounced, or didn't reach their intended destination, and how many are still unopened. Some email services work with Google Analytics to give you even more data to contribute to a successful campaign. Most email marketing services help you maintain your list of contacts by automatically deleting email addresses that bounce.
Easy to Use
It's important that you choose an email marketing service that is easy to use. Whether or not you know the ins and outs of email campaigns, HTML coding or how to use monitoring reports and statistics, the service you choose should provide the tools and explanations necessary to help you easily create an effective campaign.
Help / Support
A top-notch email marketing service should provide help options to get you started, including a user manual, a wizard to walk you through the creation and monitoring of your email campaign, FAQs, a blog, tutorials and articles that explain how to create effective campaigns. Support should include the ability to contact the company by email, phone or live chat.
Email Marketing services are an excellent way for your business to professionally communicate with your email subscribers and customers. Regular newsletters and advertising email campaigns allow you to grow your business effectively, and surveys give you valuable feedback.
Best practices in email marketing demand communications that go beyond advertising, respect the customer, and speak in a familiar one-on-one style. Email is "the most personal advertising medium in history, if your email isn't personal, it's broken."
In response to the impersonal abuses of spam, email marketing became personal by necessity following the 2003 adoption of the CAN-SPAM Act. The act essentially defined spam as marketing messages sent without permission and set penalties not only for spammers, but also for companies whose products were advertised in the spam.
Smart marketers, recognizing that people's aversion to spam destroyed the customer loyalty they worked so hard to build, had already begun to address the problem with best practices that focused on permission. Today, what's best is often defined by the size of your company and the industry you're in. But a few core practices hold for everyone.
1. Get Permission
"Email is one of the most powerful and yet one of the most dangerous mediums of communications we have, Virtually everyone uses it and in business-to-business marketing everyone you want to reach has access to email. It's also very inexpensive and it can easily be built into existing marketing systems. But of all media, it is the one where it's most critical that you have explicit permission."
Without permission you not only risk losing customer goodwill and inviting CAN-SPAM penalties, you could end up blacklisted by ISPs that refuse all mail coming from your domain if spamming complaints have been lodged against you.
Permission is not difficult to get. Offer something of value–a coupon or promise of special discounts, a whitepaper or informational newsletter–in exchange for the customer agreeing to receive your messages and, often, to provide valuable personal information and preferences. Sign-up can be done on a Web site or on paper forms distributed at trade shows and conventions or by traditional mail, resellers, and affiliated organizations in a business network.
2. Build a Targeted Mailing List
"The very best way to get permission is to have your best customers and your biggest fans ask their friends to sign up".
That is how we built a mailing list that now numbers 35,000 for his newsletter, "Messages That Matter." "We simply began by following up with people we met at trade shows or on sales calls and asked them, 'Would you like to get a tip from us every few weeks about how to do your proposals better?' We made it clear that people shouldn't be getting this if they didn't want to."
A Subscribe link in email so new readers have a means of signing up when their friends forward it to them. Mailing lists "just grew organically, because people would pass it around. We created an entire network of people who were getting these messages. It's very effective and it's enabled us to strengthen our position as thought leaders or recognized experts in the field."
3. Work with a Clean, Targeted Database
You should work with the cleanest permission-based list you can find that is targeted to your industry and your offering. Many companies have this information in CRM, SFA, and contact management databases. But there are places to prospect if you don't.
"A good place to look is with traditional, established data merchants for your industry." In the insurance industry, for instance, we allow members to send broadcast emails to its database of some 50,000 targeted subscribers and members have the opportunity of selecting subsets of addresses categorized by insurance type such as commercial, health, life, and auto.
Coregistration services Web sites can help. Coregistration simply means you offer your e-magazine and email promotions through a registration form that appears on multiple sites. You should, however, do some research to ensure they will reach your targeted demographic and the lists are maintained.
"Too many companies, large and small, are under the illusion that they have the email addresses of their clients," "If you actually go in and audit their client databases, you'll find they're lucky to have 20 to 25 percent–and what they do have is often out of date."
4. Adopt a Strategy of Persistence
It takes time to build customer relationships. "They used to say it takes something like 7.3 impacts to make an impression with an ad, and that was long before the Internet. I believe today it's approaching 20 imprints before it makes an impression," "So if you aren't touching your clients in some way at least once a month, chances are they're going to find somebody else to do business with."
Successful email marketing, "starts with a foundation and uses the email to drip the story, to have it gradually unfold." That foundation requires an entrance strategy to greet new prospects and set up expectations for the relationship.
"After the customer has registered for future emails, downloaded your whitepaper, or entered your sweepstakes, there often is nothing to enhance that relationship. Companies need to think about what should happen next.".
Research shows the first three emails are the most critical. There should be an introductory message in which customers accept an invitation and give permission for future communications, followed by a second that sets up customers' expectations by explaining future benefits (discounts, coupons, or high-value informational newsletters). The third should begin to deliver on their expectations by sending the promised newsletter, whitepaper, or discount offering.
5. Tell a Story
In All Marketers Are Liars, the importance of storytelling as a successful marketing strategy. Email offers the opportunity to tell the story in continuous installments.
"Email marketers don't have a prayer to tell a story, unless they tell it in advance, in another medium, before they get permission. Otherwise, it quickly becomes spam. The best email marketing starts with a foundation, like Amazon, and uses the email to drip the story, to have it gradually unfold."
Too much email marketing, is one-off offers written as if recipients "like to run home at the end of the day and turn on Home Shopping Network so they can be targeted 24×7 by commercials."
A well-crafted newsletter should be more than just a summary of your resume or company history. For instance, each issue of some Messages That Matter offers a free tip or strategy on how to make business proposals sing. "We focus on providing specific content, messages of a page or so about the kinds of things we're good at."
6. Let Readers Drive Design
As there's no such thing as guaranteed delivery in the email business, design is especially important. Because filters often block logos, graphics, and Flash animation, they can determine whether or not a customer or prospect even sees your message. "Filters are getting extremely thorough in what they're filtering out, If you're not careful, those filters can filter out legitimate email."
We recommend using flat text with hyperlinks to your Web site. "It's text so it'll go through, You can put all of the graphics in the world on your Web site and once they click through to your Web site you're better able to capture their identity and their information for future follow up."
Many companies offer both plain and rich text email editions, giving customers the option of registering for the html edition on their Web sites. In those editions, design becomes especially important. But we have found that email requires something different than traditional creative marketing design: Its studies have shown that users are most likely to respond to images and copy to the left of an image.
We have seen increases up to 75 percent in response rates by moving the call to action button up next to an image instead of below the image, or by literally changing a link to a button so it stands out more prominently in the text.
We also found that the use of industry-, company-, and brand-specific words and phrases enhances the response. For instance, the word advice generates a high response for companies considered to be the thought leaders of their industry, but companies with consumer products, such as Apple with its iPod, will generate a better response using words like new or sleek.
7. Have an Exit Strategy
People who gave you their email address did so because they wanted to hear from you. But that can change and often does.
If they stop responding, chances are it's for one of two reasons: either they're not interested in your content anymore or they're no longer getting your emails.
In either case we recommend that you define a set number of non-response messages after which you stop sending them emails. It sends a negative brand message and it doesn't do anything to help reestablish your relationship with them.
That number differs by industry. Travel companies, for instance, cannot predict when their customers will be traveling and looking for discounts on rooms and airfares, so their horizon is much longer–as long as several years.
On the other hand, a high-tech B2B company is probably only going to want specific information on wireless security when it's addressing the problem internally. After the problem is solved, continued mailings about wireless security are likely to irritate. Devising a successful exit strategy is much like determining a successful formula for content: Know your industry.
8. Best Practices–Know what you want
The key to maintaining a set of successful best practices is to know what you want from them and be prepared to rewrite them as your business needs change. Starting with a good awareness of what you want your best practices to achieve. "Identify what you will use them for, the goal of your communications, and how you'll define the success of your campaign".
The most important element in any kind of successful email marketing is understanding and defining what your realistic strategy should be.
Build Your Email Reputation
Understanding developments in the enterprise/corporate environment can be enormously helpful in pursuit of best-in-class email delivery rates.
The latest trend in corporate filtering is reputation-based technologies that authenticate the sender using a variety of techniques that whitelist the IP addresses sending the mail.
This suggests a set of best practices, in addition to honored standards such as getting permission, to help assure deliverability. Some of these include the following:
- Test your campaigns to ensure they'll pass traditional antispam techniques such as content filtering.
- Send a consistent volume of mail from stable IP addresses. Sudden increases in message volume from a single address, particularly if it's new or unfamiliar, can trigger a block.
- Contact the companies at the domains you email most often and ask that they whitelist your IP address. It could open doors elsewhere. Being on multiple corporate whitelists is sometimes used as a factor in enterprise/corporate solution reputation algorithms.
- Test your campaigns with content filters and monitor emerging corporate solutions to better understand how they determine reputation scores.
- Authenticate your email and implement sender verification technologies to enhance your reputation and help assure deliverability.
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Hello to all businesses who use Email Marketing as a tool to connect to your customers
My name is Kirk Rogers, I am an engineer and technical consultant with over 20 years of experience, and the owner of MailGrail Inc. I have recently developed an on-line email marketing service called MailGrail (http://www.mailgrail.com). It's a project I've personally developed over the past few years and am proud to announce it is finally open for business.
To help promote this new business, I am proposing is a NO COST LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP to ALL BUSINESSES who currently send email campaigns, in return for your feedback and reputation. There's absolutely NO COST, and as a bonus I will also extend my personal assistance with any/all aspects of creating/sending/managing your campaigns. This offer will be open for the first few dozen businesses who apply.
If you're currently using an email marketing service to promote your own business, REGISTER NOW for an account and we will send instructions on how to get started. If you have any question, please contact us by adding a comment to this blog, or call at any time at the number provided below. You can also use our CONTACT US form to send a personal message.
I am very excited about this new project and hope to win your business, I'm certain it will satisfy your email marketing needs as well as save you a lifetime of recurring costs.
Kirk Rogers
Owner, MailGrail Inc
1 (866) 909-6245
Email marketing
Email Marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fund raising messages to an audience. Eevery email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business, sending email messages with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, adding advertisements to email messages sent by other companies to their customers, and sending email messages over the Internet. Researchers estimate that United States firms alone spent US $600 million on email marketing last year.
Comparison to traditional mail
There are both advantages and disadvantages to using email marketing in comparison to traditional advertising mail.
Advantages
Email marketing is popular with companies for several reasons. 1) An exact return on investment can be tracked and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic. 2) Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them. 3) Over half of Internet users check or send email on a typical day. 4) Email is popular with digital marketers, rising an estimated 20% over the course of several years.
Disadvantages
A report issued by the email services company Return Path, as of mid-2010 email deliverability is still an issue for legitimate marketers. According to the report, legitimate email servers averaged a delivery rate of fifty percent; twenty percent of the messages were rejected, and eight percent were filtered.
Companies considering the use of an email marketing program must make sure that their program does not violate spam laws such as the United States Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN_SPAM) the European Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, or their Internet service provider’s acceptable use policy.
Opt-in email advertising
Opt-in email advertising, or permission marketing, is a method of advertising via email whereby the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. This method is one of several developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of email marketing.
Opt-in email marketing may evolve into a technology that uses a handshake protocol between the sender and receiver. This system is intended to eventually result in a high degree of satisfaction between consumers and marketers. If opt-in email advertising is used, the material that is emailed to consumers will be anticipated. It is assumed that the consumer wants to receive it, which makes it unlike unsolicited advertisements sent to the consumer. Ideally, opt-in email advertisements will be more personal and relevant to the consumer than untargeted advertisements.
A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to an advertising firm’s customers. Such newsletters inform customers of upcoming events or promotions, or new products. In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive the newsletter.
Legal requirements
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 authorizes a US $16,000 penalty per violation for spamming each individual recipient. Therefore, many commercial email marketers within the United States utilize a service or special software to ensure compliance with the Act. A variety of older systems exist that do not ensure compliance with the Act. To comply with the Act’s regulation of commercial email, services typically require users to authenticate their return address and include a valid physical address, provide a one-click unsubscribe feature, and prohibit importing lists of purchased addresses that may not have given valid permission.
In addition to satisfying legal requirements, email service providers (ESPs) began to help customers establish and manage their own email marketing campaigns. The service providers supply email templates and general best practices, as well as methods for handling subscriptions and cancellations automatically. Some ESPs will provide insight/assistance with deliverability issues for major email providers. They also provide statistics pertaining to the number of messages received and opened, and whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages.
The CAN-SPAM Act was updated with some new regulations including a no fee provision for opting out, further definition of “sender”, post office or private mail boxes count as a “valid physical postal address” and definition of “person”. These new provisions went into effect on July 7, 2008.
Five Signs You Need Professional Email Marketing Help
One of the great things about modern email marketing is that there is a lot you can do with self service programs. We know this because our self service email marketing solutions are our most popular offering – and we consistently hear from clients how self service has worked well for them.
But self service is not always the best choice for everyone. For those who need to get more from their email marketing results, who do not have the staff to dedicate to email marketing or need to improve their results drastically, full service email marketing service can help. Here are six signs that you are ready to take the next step and call in the professionals.
Your Open Rates are Low and Have not Budged
Open rates are the first sign of trouble with email marketing results. If your open rates are low, your audience isn’t recognizing your company and isn’t taking the time to read your emails. This may be due to the timing of your messages, the frequency of your messages or the subject line. Getting a professional perspective on your open rates can give you valuable tips and tricks to use to improve this important metric.
You Need a Template That Speaks to Your List Members
Templates are totally customizable which may be a problem if you have no design experience. Your audience will see your newsletter or message before they read it which means that a badly designed template can have them deleting your email before they get to the heart of your message. Your template ties directly into your branding statement, so getting help on this important factor can make a difference in your email marketing success.
You Want Special Delivery Rules or List Segmentation
Many businesses function perfectly fine with just one opt in form and one list – but this is not the case for everyone. If you have multiple types of subscribers and want to make sure to approach them in different ways, you may need professional email marketing help. An email marketing consultant or full service program can assist you with creating the special delivery rules that will ensure your messages are reaching the right members of your list.
You Want to Refine Your Approach and Make Changes Based on Analytics
Email marketing programs offer a wide variety of analytics that can help you understand exactly what is happening with your list. But that does not mean that it’s simple to make changes based on analytics. Getting professional assistance with understanding your analytics and which steps to take in order to improve your analytics can be a significant factor in whether or not your email marketing campaigns are successful.
You Have a Special Campaign that Needs to Succeed
If you have been successful with autoresponder messages and regular newsletters up until this point, you may still want to get professional email marketing help with a special campaign or significant event. For example, if you have a seasonal special that needs as much exposure as possible or have a new product that you want to showcase, professional email marketing assistance can help you make the most of these events.
