How many times have you lost sleep over open rates and click-through rates?  As an e-mail marketer, you probably take these two metrics to gauge just how effective your marketing efforts are.  Open rates and click-through rates are good measures because you could easily increase these using some best practices.  If you have an e-mail service like Mail Dog, you can also gain insights on just how your e-mails are working.  With the reports you get from Mail Dog, you do not only get to know the numbers, but you also get help on how to improve these numbers.

In 2011, MarketingProfs.com reported that open rates for all e-mails fell 9 percentage points to 17% in 2010.  But taking a look at the different industries tracked by the report, it showed that those with the highest open rates at more than 20% are pharmaceutical, insurance, government and financial.  Three industries that fell flat, registering only open rates of less than 10% are entertainment, retail and technology.

So while we have an accepted average of what a good open rate is, that can change depending on a lot of factors, including the industry your company belongs to.  This means that a published average might not be applicable to your e-mail efforts because of the following factors that change what a good open rate is for you.

Factors Which Can Affect Your Open Rates

• The size of your address list.
  Bigger lists are known to have lower open rates.
• The people in your list.
  If your recipients are typically busy people, then you should not be worried about lower than average open rates.
• What you are sending.
  Newsletters typically have higher open rates than marketing and sales messages.
• Images turned off by default.
  Open rates are measured by tracking how many times a particular image in your e-mail was accessed.  If the recipient turns off image loading on their e-mail clients by default, there is no way to know that unless they click on something in your e-mail.When looking for a benchmark for your open rates, try to look for an average that is relevant for your company.  For example, if you are sending out marketing messages for a clothing line, take a look at the averages for the fashion industry.

Best Practices To Increase Open Rates

• Downsize your list.
  Break down large lists into smaller ones so that you could further fine-tune your e-mail message and make sure that a larger percentage of your list is targeted and interested in what you have to offer.
• Use a sender and subject line that works.
  These are the only two elements that push a recipient to read your mail, so make sure that you get a feel of what works for your lists.  At the beginning, do some A/B testing on different subject lines and sender names to get to know what would drive more people to open your e-mail. 

  Header Tips
  a. Do not use marketing@yourcompany.com as the sender name.  Instead use a real employee’s name, such as Christine Mullaly.  Better yet, set your list so that it looks like the e-mail came from the CEO or a known company representative.
  b. Avoid using “free,” “reminder,” “help,” and “discount” in the subject line.  Instead of saying Free Information on ABC Product, why not make it more interesting such as 4 Facts About ABC That You Can’t Live Without.
  c. Provide the local area in your subjects, i.e. Try this great restaurant in New York City.
  d. Do not reuse subject lines.
  e. Short, simple and direct to the point subjects are the best.

• Avoid setting off spam filters.
  Spam filters look for common phrases and words in your e-mail to determine whether it should be sent to the inbox or the spam folder.  Do not use all capital letters and having too many exclamation points anywhere.  Also, choose any one of Mail Dog’s e-mail templates to make sure that you do not use sloppy HTML, which would trigger spam filters.With Mail Dog’s reports, you can actually know which of your e-mails are opened and by who.Take into consideration if a lot of people from the same mailing service do not open your e-mail.  For example, if you notice that in your list of 1,000 people, nobody with a yahoo.com or gmail.com e-mail account opened your e-mails.  This might mean that your emails are being marked as spam, if they are delivered at all.
  
• Do not think that it’s a waste to remove an e-mail address.
  Mail Dog’s reports tells you what e-mail addresses are not working for you: those that don’t get delivered, and those that do not consistently open your e-mail.  You might want to remove these from your list, or try to engage them more by sending them a different type of e-mail that would tell you what they are interested in.

 Click-through rates for all e-mails, according to a MarketingProfs.com article,  averaged at 3%.  With the lower number of open rates, it is not unusual to have a click-through rate that is in the single digits.

A higher click-through rate is indicative that you have a good e-mail marketing campaign.  So if you have a lower CTR, do not fret, you may need to do some changes that could improve it.

Best Practices to Increase CTR

You could apply the best practices for improving open rates to your CTR, but in addition to that, you should:

• Optimize your e-mail for mobile devices
  Your e-mail should be a teaser of what you sell.  If you have a low CTR, you might be giving away too much in your e-mail that there is really no reason to click on any links to find out more.  Either that or your e-mail is boring them. Another way to optimize your e-mail is to make sure that it displays well both on desktop computers and mobile phones.
• Tailor your newsletters by your users click-actions
  Mail Dog’s reports tell you what links are being clicked and by whom.  This should give you an idea on what type of links are working.  Is it a graphical call to action button?  Is it the link placed prominently on the page before scrolling down or the one at the bottom of the e-mail?  You can take your cue from this insight and do more of what works for your recipients.
• Add plenty of links
  Make it easier for your recipients to find a link in the screen that they are viewing and you are sure to increase your CTR.  Some recipients might not even bother to scroll all the way down or up your e-mail to find a link to click.
• Check out your open rates and compare it to your CTR
  Another insight you could gain from Mail Dog’s report is whether you need a better copywriter for your e-mail content.  If you have good open rates but have a dismal CTR, then there must be something wrong with your content.  If this is the case, you might want to write e-mail copy that packs a punch, or you might want to make sure that your call-to-action is strong.  You might also want to create a sense of immediacy or urgency for your readers by offering a discount on a limited time basis.

A Quick Guide:

Average open, click-through and click-to-open rates that you can reference:

Apples or oranges? Mayo or Miracle Whip? Salad or hamburger? Life is full of decisions, which in most cases, get made in an instant without second thought. But, as marketers, our decisions greatly impact open rates, conversions, sales, company branding and reputation. So, which will it be … green logo or red logo? Two-column or single-column email newsletter? Everything matters.

Our own personal feelings or intuition can only take us so far. Just because you prefer the red logo doesn’t always mean your subscribers will react the same way. So, why not ask them? By creating an A/B split test you can learn firsthand how your subscribers will react to your test subject.

A/B testing is simply a test wherein you divide your list into two groups modifying the content for each group to figure out which marketing variables give you better response.

With two versions of a marketing element (A and B), the goal is to find a way to quantify and define success for each. For example, you have two email layouts and you would like to find out which one is better at getting people to sign up to your newsletter.  You send one layout to half the people on your email list, and the other layout to the remaining half on your list.  Then see how many sign ups you get from each.  You then ultimately select the version that works better.

In the end, this saves you a lot of time and money when doing e-mail campaigns because it tells you what works and what does not.  It allows you to fine tune your email format, call-to-action buttons and whatever elements you want to test.  More than that, it increases both your conversion rates and return-on-investment.

But how do you do this?  Here are 10 tips on how to start your own A/B testing campaign:

1. One at a time, please.

When you are starting out, it is easy to identify a lot of variables to test thinking that if you test them all at the same time you could save costs.  But this could only lead to confusion on which element really works for each group.  For example, did you get more signups in Group A because the layout was better, or was it because of the bright design of the call-to-action button?  Test only one variable at a time to be sure.

This is also important if you are going to test email campaigns that lead to the same landing page.  You would not know what caused the higher conversion rates if you conduct more than one test at a time.

2. Test the minor revisions.

Some marketers think that they should only conduct A/B testing when they do a complete revamp of their website or create a wholly different layout.  But in email marketing, the slightest changes you make to the layout, or font, or colors could affect your conversion rates in a big way.

3. Check out other data too.

To do A/B testing, you should identify a single measure of success.  For example, one call-to-action button took more people to your landing page, but the other one gathered more sales from the few people that it took to your landing page.  Which one weighs more to you?

In this case, you might realize that the first button might not be better as it may have given your recipients wrong impressions about your products that led them to click on it, and when they got to your landing page, they found that it is not exactly what they are looking for.

4. Split your email list randomly.

The original version of your email format, call-to-action button or landing page would be your control group, while the newer one will become your treatment group.

You should be sending one version to half of your email list and the other version to the second half.  Ideally, these two halves should be more or less equal such as how long these recipients have been in the list, demographics such as gender, age and income, and other characteristics.

Admittedly, going through all these is going to take a lot of time.  The good news is that you can just randomly assign recipients to either half and still get valid results.

5. Test both groups simultaneously.

Timing affects your conversion rates. The day and time you sent it, or which month of the year you sent it, would affect whether your recipients would open it or not.

If you do not test both of your groups simultaneously, you would never know if the success of one was due to the call-to-action button, or the different time of day they received it.

6. Just how much better is better?

Let’s say that your control group has 75 signups, while your treatment group has 77 signups.  Is the treatment group necessarily better than the control group?

Be sure that you brush up on your statistics and check out the statistical significance of the difference in the two groups.  Aim for a high statistical significance: 97% – 99% is typical.  Again, the Internet comes to the rescue of the numerically challenged marketer: there are online tools that can help you test the significance of your results such as this one: http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ab-split-significance-calculator.

7. Remember your branding.

If you have been using the same format for your emails, then you might want to check whether the changes you want to implement would shock or distract your recipients.  This is especially true for your website.  If you have a strong and regular following for your website, you might want to test it out on new visitors.  This is because the variations might not sit well with your branding and these might not even be implemented in the end.

8. Do not preempt the results with what you expect.

You might be surprised to find out that the winner of the A/B testing you have is the dark horse. For example, you might think that the new call-to-action button is ugly and not easy on the eyes.  But you may be surprised to find out that it results to more conversions.  Not preempting makes you more open to implementing the changes.

9. Set an appropriate time frame for your A/B testing.

You should take a look at your past email campaigns to see just how long an A/B testing should last.  Ending your testing too early might mean that you miss out on the signups that occur after that date, while making it drag on a day or two too long would mean that you are serving your email recipients a format that is not converting too well and you lose out on these conversions.

10. Make it consistent.

You might be testing a call-to-action button on your e-mail that also appears on your landing page and in other places on your website.  Make sure that this call-to-action is consistent across all places where your recipients can see it, so that your results will be conclusive.

Most marketers will tell you that A/B testing is difficult to do when you are starting out, and you are bound to make mistakes.  But with these tips, you are sure to avoid making the usual mistakes that most marketers commit.

Unless you’ve boycotted the internet for the last few months (horror!), it would be very difficult not to hear about Pinterest. Almost every tech, marketing and social media blog site is talking about it. Your friends on Facebook are sharing their pins with you. Or who knows, you might already have even signed up for it, your laundry is a thing of the past as you spend hours in the inevitable labyrinth of discovery.

The interesting news (other than some fabulous home improvement ideas) is that Pinterest has a lot of potential to help you market your business, products and services better. Traffic-wise, it had more than 11.7 million visitors in January 2012 making it one of the fastest growing websites of all time.

Pinterest has been credited to refer more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined. At one point, Time Inc. reported that their Real Simple Magazine’s website got more referral traffic from Pinterest than from Facebook.

So how should you use Pinterest to jump-start your business? Here are six tips to get you started:

1. Scooping out the audience

Before going to Pinterest to boost your business marketing, the first question you need to ask is whether your target market is on it. A recent Mashable infographic actually showed some very helpful statistics to give you an insight on that:

• A user spends an average of 15.8 minutes on the site. That’s quite a lot since Facebook gets only 12 minutes while Twitter gets 3.3 minutes of its users’ time on average.
• Around 28% of users have an annual household income of more than $100,000.
• Around half of Pinterest users have kids.
• Close to 7 out of every 10 users on Pinterest are women.
• A bulk of users on Pinterest is under the 25 to 44 years old age range.
• Pinterest refers more traffic than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined.

So if you are targeting crafty moms, for example, there is a very high chance they are indeed on the site.

2. But, is it for me?

Not all businesses would prosper on Pinterest. On top of having a target market that matches the profile of a Pinterest user, you should make sure that your business fits what Pinterest is all about.

Do you have products that are highly visual in nature? Sure, cakes, crafts and fashion items are a great fit on Pinterest. However, you might have a hard time coming up with content for your writing services or lending company. But part of this exercise is thinking how you can visually represent your brand, product and services in a visually compelling way.

3. Pinterest best practices

Once you have decided that Pinterest is something that could help your business, then sign up for an account. Fill out all the fields in your profile. Plus check out this bucket list of best practices on Pinterest:

Pin. This is the video or image that you own and would like to share with everyone. Make use of high quality photos and videos. Pinterest is a highly visual site and your pins would be competing with dozens of others in the same page, so make sure it stands out.

Repins. This is the Pinterest equivalent to a retweet. Your goal should include pinning content that others would repin so that you get more exposure for your content. Also return the favor by also repinning content from anyone that matches your brand.

Boards. Remember that Pinterest is based on people’s interests: weddings, home improvement, food, and others. Taken together, a series of pictures you have should revolve around the same themes and make up a board.

Add a funky description to every pin. This is a great way to engage your customers while also saying something more about your image. You could also use descriptions to add your keywords, hash tags and even a link back to your site.

Make it easier for people to pin your content. If you have a website or a blog where you put up pictures of your products, you might want to put up a Pin It button on your sites to make it easier for people to share it on their Pinterest accounts.

Learn from the experts. Pinterest is a relatively new site, so most of its users are still exploring it. But do check out what other brands and users are doing and what is succeeding on Pinterest.

4. Maximize pins by minimal selling

Social media is all about engagement, not selling. On Pinterest, resist the urge to sell your products and service. Be creative and original with your pins and your followers will love you for not having just another online catalog.

Nordstrom, which has more than 11,000 followers, takes time to create themes around their products. Most of their boards are theme-based. They recently came out with prom inspirations and spring trends that featured some of their products.

Remember that, sometimes, you could also indirectly market your products on Pinterest. A travel agency will want to feature its best destinations, recommended hotels and things to do at a certain place. A clothing store could feature fashion pieces that help you achieve a certain look.

Here’s the deal: If you come up with themes for your own products, you may want to use a competitor’s image if they fit your theme. This will give your followers a little bit of variety and will tone down the selling aspect of your boards.

5. Keep the brand alive

Create a consistent look for your boards and pins. Look for ways to translate your brand values into pictures. This is a great way to strengthen your branding.

For instance, use photos of your customers having fun with your products if you want to project a “fun” image. Gap pulls this off with their Everybody in Gap board, which featured different fashion bloggers being fashionable in Gap clothing.

Either that or keep your target market in mind. Create boards that your target market could relate to. For example, DIY Crafts for Busy Moms, or New York Vacation on a Budget.

6. Create a following

Getting your followers on Pinterest to contribute can help you become more popular with them, other users, and can gain you a lot of followers. By putting up boards and asking people to contribute to that board, you are engaging your community more fully. Be sure, however, to monitor the contributions so that the board stays relevant and appropriate.

Despite all the conflicting buzz and your crazy calendar, your efforts at email marketing and your social media campaigns can (easily mix). Don’t worry…it’s more a case of working smarter instead of just harder and longer! You’re not just saving time by killing two birds with one stone (sorry little birds), but you can actually make each process more effective by combining them together. 1 + 1 equals a LOT more than 3 in this case. Essentially, you are taking what is good in one area and combining it with what’s good in another. Here are eight killer tips on how to tie your social media efforts and your email marketing campaigns together, making each stronger (sing it Kelly Clarkson!):

1. Always share on social media

The “Forward to a Friend” link is now viewed with suspicion.  Chances are, if your recipient does not have much of an experience with you or your business, he or she will not give you a colleague’s email address.  You lose out because you may have really good content on that newsletter, but it stops right there in your recipient’s inbox.

Instead, allow your recipients to share your content to their Facebook friends, or have them tweet their followers about it by clicking on a single button. Consider other networks like LinkedIn if you have more of a B2B audience.

» DOG TIP: Mail Dog’s Social Media Share Tools allows subscribers to share your email with THEIR social network with just a click of a button. Learn more online 

2. Highlight the conversation

A good way to illustrate this is if you are marketing an event.  Create a hashtag or a separate Twitter account for your particular event and include these in your email.  This allows you to engage them outside of the email that you sent.

Similarly, your conference speakers might prove to be your biggest brand ambassadors yet.  Ask your resource speakers if you could include their Twitter handles in your email.  It’s a win-win situation as they gain more followers from you, while you get more credibility and authority from them.

3. Publish email articles to your blog

Re-purpose your email content and extend the life of your newsletter articles, while making sure that more people would be able to benefit from your content. Your blog content is an important archive for branding, centralization, plus you get more exposure to potential followers, readers, shares and fans.

4. Using social media to expand your email recipients list

Facebook and Twitter allow you to engage your customers on a deeper level than anywhere else.  You can win their trust with great content, shares from other sources, and re-tweets.  In time, they will see you as a trusted source of information in your industry or business.  So when you ask them to subscribe to your newsletter, it would be highly likely that they will.

How? Encourage them to give you their contact details and email addresses by offering an incentive such as free merchandise, a whitepaper, a contest entry while also having them subscribe to your newsletter.

» DOG TIP: Integrate your Mail Dog Optin Form into Facebook with 5 easy steps.
Learn more online

5. Cast your net on Facebook, follow it up with an email

Social media is a good way for you to go beyond your email lists.  A blog post that you put up on your Facebook page can get shared by your fans or re-tweeted by your followers on Twitter, making it easier for other people to discover you.

Once you get a new like or follower, engage them and get their e-mail address or have them subscribe to your newsletter.  After they do so, always send them a thank you note, which will serve as your icebreaker for further emails from your business.

6. Customer service should end with an email

Twitter has been touted as a great avenue for disgruntled customers to vent their frustrations with the companies they deal with.  It is also a great way to actually get help when you need it.  If you were fortunate enough to catch a complaining customer, reply to that person immediately on Twitter, say that you have sent them an email with further instructions on how to contact you so that you could help.  Be sure to get their email addresses so that you could keep in touch with them outside of Twitter.

7. Own your multimedia content

If you mail a catalog to your customers, consider hosting the pictures up on Pinterest or Flickr, while putting up your videos on YouTube.  This way your pictures and videos are easily seen by other people who may not even know you or your business.

When creating emails, put up a short text or a small thumbnail that describes your video or photo and invite them to visit your social media page.  For example, include a small selection of your best photos and give them the link to your Flickr album or Pinterest board.

8. Craft your email’s content from your blog

If you run a daily blog and a monthly email newsletter, you might want to use your most popular blog posts and send them to your newsletter subscribers!

1. [Insert Catchy Subject Title Here]

   Think of the dozens of emails that come through your email box every day. Some emails are from friends, some from co-workers, some from your Aunt Joanne who forwards every (single) funny email, and then there are some from companies trying to market their products to you. Permission email marketing is based on the fact you are marketing to an existing client base, to people who already are interested in your company/product, which means you already have a bit of an “in”. Now, you just have to get them to read your email and take the bait (aka buy something, click a link, share your email, fulfill your marketing objective).

   So jingle the keys in front of the baby and grab their attention! Write a subject line that speaks to them immediately and doesn’t meekly imply what might be waiting for them, you know, if they would just kindly, pretty please, click on the email and read, whenever they get a chance, thanks-so-much. Be BOLD! Be a solution to a problem! Be on their side! What can you do for them, rather than what do you want them to do for you?

2. Show some cleavage!

   Not literally… although, the page views would certainly go up! But think about making the design of your email a little more attractive, even if it’s just mostly text with html markup. If it’s mostly text, make sure you don’t have six huge blocks of text that give the reader the feeling they’re going to need a nap midway through. Introduce your thought, explain quickly how your product can help them and why they need it, and then tell them how they can get it – or where they can read more information about it. Bing, bang, boom! (Also, try not to use, “Bing, bang, boom,” in your emails.)

   If you do use images in your email, try to follow basic design principles, and have an image that makes sense with the subject header. Just because you’re smart, doesn’t mean you can’t be beautiful.

3. Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?

   You already have their attention with a great opening line and an aesthetically pleasing look to your email. Now, try not to fumble the ball away by having a boring opening line. Writers call their novel’s opening line ”the hook.” You don’t have to be as engaging as “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” or “Call me Ishmael,” but you can certainly write something intriguing that prompts them to read further.

   A good closing line doesn’t hurt either. “Your friends wanted to forward you this email, but they haven’t received it yet. Send it along to them!”

4. Use words for your words and numbers for your numbers!

   There are a couple tricks to getting people interested in reading your email once they open it. The first tip is to list things out in bullet points, allowing the reader to scan quickly if they need to, so they can get the gist of your email when they are short on time.

   But to get them to open the email, consider this subject header tip. Write out numbers as numbers, which makes it light and quick to read when a person scans through their emails.

   • Improving Your Bottom Line 5 Different Ways
   • 7 Tips To Beautify Your Living Room
   • Be More Efficient In 9 Easy Steps

    

   Side note: Remember that odd numbers are your friends. List things in threes, fives, sevens and nines. Throughout the universe, odd numbers make for better design. Even in comedy or storytelling, they use, “The Rule of Three.” Ever hear of the Four Little Pigs?

5. People want to “not fail” more than they want to succeed

   People hate rejection or failure, and ironically, that’s what you’ll be trying to avoid by pointing out their possible failures. Readers will be much more inclined to read your emails if they think they’ll be avoiding calamity, rather than hearing good news. It’s human nature – watch the local evening news! Word your subject headers accordingly, like saying, “Top 5 Reasons Your Electric Bill is Too High,” rather than “Top 5 Ways To Save Money On Electric.”

6. Strong language is a MUST!

   Have a strong voice and speak clearly as to how you have something they want/need. Don’t use jargon or words they might not understand. (Like “jargon!”) And don’t be afraid to use emotion in the tone of your writing.

   You’ll also want to pique their curiosity by showing them something everyone else doesn’t know. “The Secret to Better Gas Mileage” or “7 Things You Don’t Know About Saving Money.”

   Another thing to get them enticed is to point out ways they can save time, “The Easiest Route to Doubling Your Client List.”

7. But, my mom says I’m special!

   Show your prospects that they’re special and that you know what they want. Make it personal by using their names or even just the city they live in. Remember, they already gave you information when they opted in to your mail program, so using their name or location isn’t off-putting.

   And let them know you have a solution for something that everyone else doesn’t know, “One of the biggest problems in your industry is XXX and here’s how we can help you solve it.”

On one hand, New Year’s resolutions are just plain silly. On the other, who are we to fight the almost genetic need to organize your sock drawer and counter-tops before digging in to the year ahead? What we can tell you though, is that having goals and a strategy to achieve marketing greatness is key…I mean you can’t reflect on what you’ve achieved unless you have a solid handle on where you were and where you want to go. So let’s have a look at some common resolutions that might resonate with you and trigger your own marketing make-over.

Resolution #1: Lose Weight

No, we’re not talking about love handles – rather outdated and excess content that’s weighing down your email newsletters. Emails today are leaner and meaner than their counterparts from years past. Marketers tend to fluff boilerplate into their newsletters (like “about us” content, un-compelling navigational links, footer call-to-actions). Not that these things are bad, but when’s the last time you really looked at your email as a whole? Take some time to read over the content again, review your past highest performing clickthroughs and trim out the fatty content.

Resolution #2: Exercise Weekly

No, we’re not talking about treadmills – rather moving to more frequent communications. Instead of sticking to the typical once-a-month mailing, try out a new tactic and increase the mailing frequency to once a week. While imperative to keep these relevant and interesting, with the right content and target mailing, it might be just what you need to beef up your marketing campaigns this year.

Resolution #3: Stop Addictive Habits

Drats – whether it’s smoking or spamming – cease all activities that are dangerous to your health and well-being! Using non-permission tactics to increase your subscriber base is bad for your brand. After the initial rush of power has ended, you’ll soon see the effects like blacklisting, negative posts on social sites and just plain bad karma. All of these will eat away at your deliverability and online reputation. Kick the habit now and resolve to grow your list the ‘ole fashion way with permission based opt-in practices. It’s easier and faster than you think.

Resolution #4: Spend Quality Time with Loved Ones

Nope, we are not suggesting you start to fall for your subscribers, but take the time to look at things from their perspective. Whether it’s hanging out in social portals, examining all the messaging and touch points within your communication cycles, even thanking them for their business, digging into your support desk – it makes a difference. Your subscribers will thank you. So don’t be afraid to get a bit personal, try a “Note from the CEO” or write a few articles in first person. It’s a great way to bridge the gap between customer and company, cultivating an ongoing relationship, instead of just “buy me,” “buy me” all the time.

Resolution #5: Learn Something New

Just when you think you’ve got it nailed, there’s some new-fangled gizmo on the web. If you stand any chance in succeeding in the real world, let alone the email marketing world, you have to be continually learning new tactics on how to reach your subscribers. Don’t fight it, just do it.  Try a few new tactics in your next newsletter like integrating video, using social media share tools or using image personalization for improved segmentation.

Resolution #6: Eat Better

You are indeed, what you eat. In email-speak, we’re talking list health. If you are not filling your email list with new healthy subscribers it’s going to get old, run-down and stale. Start by making sure you have a working optin form on your website to gather new subscribers. If you already have one, then revisit the form, make sure it actually still works and is collecting the data you need. Make sure you have one on every page, and at every touch point you have with subscribers…social networks, order forms, popular landing pages what have you. Fuel your business for months to come.

Resolution #7: Get Organized

List makers rejoice! The new year is the perfect time to organize your marketing campaigns and get off to a fresh start. Spend some time brainstorming new marketing objectives and organize an action plan moving forward. Examine your mailings, creative, content, reports, frequency, social media tactics, online video and more. Set quarterly goals and make it rain!

Resolution #8: Save Money

Email marketing still has the best return on investment (ROI) on the planet. But it can’t give you that return unless you’re diligent about keeping up your schedule and keeping your list healthy. Take control of your list, clean out bad emails and leverage retries and global bounce logs to determine deliverability. Getting busy? Don’t neglect your campaigns, rather invest in CMS services to have folks lend a hand to make it happen for you. Not sending should never be the solution. You can’t generate traffic, sales, conversion, response, community, incremental dollars and excitement if you aren’t communicating.

Resolution #9: Stress Less

Don’t tense up…the number one stressor for email marketers appears to be hitting the “send” button on an email campaign. With the proper preventative measures, you can achieve a sense of zen when sending your campaigns rather than fear and trepidation. First, always and we mean always, send a test or multiple tests of your email. We might send half a dozen to various parties (easily). Encourage multiple proofers ensuring they always double check the links. This will prevent mistakes, making the scheduling process the easiest step you’ll take. Namaste.

Resolution #10: Fall in Love

Yes, it’s time for you to fall in love again…with your job, your industry, your team, heck, even your email marketing service. Just like a relationship, things can grow stagnant after a while. Take time to reflect, rejoice, reposition, revise, renew yourself and your professional relationships. From our side, we can promise that 2012 will be a year of transformation here at Mail Dog. Whether you simply take advantage of new tools and wizards or reconnect with us here on a personal level, we look forward to working with you and helping you achieve your own marketing superstar status.

But, horror of horrors…what if it’s (gasp) ugly? Confucious wrote, “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” This a marketer’s “worst” nightmare, or should be frankly after all your labors.

Since all email readers (the actual inbox) were designed by a wide variety of companies they all have specific ways they choose to render your HTML email message. Which means your email might have a very different look in Outlook 2003 than it does in Gmail or Yahoo or Mac Mail.

But all is not lost! There are steps you can take to ensure your email message is a beauty queen and renders as consistently as possible. Your email might never look 100% consistent in all the various readers, but you can get it as close as possible to perfect.

101 BEGINNER’S DESIGN GUIDE

If you know nothing about HTML code and/or use a template-based system to code your messages, the following tips are for you!

Stick to the Basics

Emails are fundamentally different in design and layout than your website design and print newsletter design. While you should try to keep the branding consistent between the two, you need to free yourself from the need to match completely. Think more simply and SWAT-like. Start your email with a nice logo or masthead, follow up with your text and finish with a footer and contact information.

Use a Template

Leave the coding guesswork to the experts. Using a pre-coded template to base your email newsletter off of can ensure the building blocks of a properly coded email are in place. Mail Dog has over 150+ templates you can use which have been tested in all the major email readers to ensure consistent rendering.

Use Alt Tags for ALL Images

Majority of email readers turn off images by default. An Alt Tag is a bit of text that will be displayed when your image is not seen. Use the Alt Tag to describe your image and prompt users to click to download and view that image.

Stick to 600 pixels wide

Many people will never fully open your email message; rather they choose to view the message inside their preview pane. On average, a preview pane is around 600 pixels wide, which is why it is important to design your message (and image content) to stay at that controlled width. Anything larger could force users to scroll left to right to read all your content.

Use Text Links

Your primary call-to-action should not be displayed with a pretty graphic. It should be text-based, tricked out with fonts and colors. It’s impossible to promote clickthroughs if your readers can’t see the “click here” link. Keep it simple and use pedantic text for users to understand what you want them to do…like “click here”.

JavaScript/Video/Form Code = Junk Email

You cannot, unfortunately, include any type of fancy coding into an email message, this includes javascript, flash, form code, object embed code. Adding this code to an email message will greatly increase the chance of getting sent directly into the junk folder. Instead host your videos, forms, active elements online and add text links from the email for readers to access.

Let Users Go with Grace

Not only is it the law, but it’s just good email marketing ethic to have an unsubscribe link at the footer of your email messages. And once users go, let them be. While some readers might unintentionally unsubscribe, most times readers just can’t handle all the email in their inbox. Hiding the unsubscribe link or continually following up off-line might win back a few readers, but will also frustrate the majority of your audience.

Always Include Plain Text

Unfortunately, not all mobile devices can render HTML messages and many mobile users prefer to view emails in plain text. While you don’t get all the fancy formatting like including images, clickable hyperlinks and HTML font options, you are still able to get your message read by users.

Send Tests

This is so important – probably the most important step here. So important in fact, we expanded on the main ways to run and test campaigns. See below…

DIY HTML CODERS

For the more techy lot that want complete control and program their own HTML messages the following tips are for you! Newbies, skip ahead to testing tips.

Stick with Tables

That’s right, design like it’s 1999. For proper rendering all emails must be designed using tables. Minimal CSS styling can be used, but proceed with caution. Many email readers will not render CSS properly.

Do NOT Set Widths or Heights to Images

If images are off by default (and most will be), their width and height dimensions will stay intact and be displayed by white blank space.

Use Inline Styles

Most email readers will strip out CSS styles, so while it’s not as much fun and takes more time, you will achieve more consistent results by using inline styles. Elements like font type and size can be used within the tag, but individual styles should be placed on the td’s.

Don’t Rely on Background Colors

Email clients only take the code within the body tags, and will strip out the body tags. So the only way to achieve a background color is to create a 100% width table with a color applied to “fake” the background effect.

Steer Clear of Background Images

Background images are stripped out of some email readers. For the most consistent rendering, just stick to solid colors rather than images for the backgrounds for your text. If you want to use funky gradients and images, design them to the side where text does not need to be coded on top.

Encode All Characters

When viewing emails in various email clients, there is no guarantee of the charset every website is using, so encoding characters ensures that all characters are displayed as they should.

TESTING

Test, Test, Test and Test again…

Pay Attention to the Small Details

These newsletters are a reflection on your company and brand. Bad grammar, misspelled words and broken links speak volumes about the professionalism of your company. Likewise a poorly designed HTML message can look elementary and cheap.

Test in Web Browsers

Yes, it’s not only the email inbox you have to be concerned about but also which web browser your client is using to access that email reader. Try and test your message in as many web browsers as possible. At the very least get the major ones: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

Test in Email Readers

Testing your message in the various email readers will help you determine where your problem areas are… if any. Don’t rely on your corporate Outlook or Lotus Notes to be the main testing platform. Instead get a few free accounts and see how that looks. Start with Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and Mac Mail.

Need More?

Want some more specifics and design how-to’s? Check out Emailology.
Tired of all the email rendering issues? Fight back with the Email Standards Project.

The musical comedy has become a pop-culture phenomenon boasting a hugely loyal fan phase, millions of downloads, gold albums, 19 Emmy nominations and just plain fun for fans of all ages.

On one hand, it’s pretty formulaic…it offers many of the standard vehicles used in popular sitcoms in history. There’s the underdog, the villain you love to hate, the biting humor, good old-fashioned song and dance and a cast of characters that you want to grow old with. On the other hand, the show manages to transcend cliché by surprising you with the creativity and almost celebration of these archetypes, by meeting them head on, with fervor.

So what can today’s online marketer learn from Glee? Tons. In fact, you might even find it excellent “marketing research” and that it inspires your professional development. Finntastic!

Gleespiration 1 – The underdog can succeed

Whether you’re a big company or small company, you have a marketing team or you’re a one-man-show, don’t let the big dogs dictate what’s possible. Stay positive and focused on your brass ring. You can make it work and you can succeed. After all, “Regionals” is not the be-all or end-all. Consistency, dedication and sticking with the winning formula are key. Need help focusing? Brush up on the formula and create your campaign checklist each month in …

21 Email, Social and Online Video Marketing Tips to Live By >>

Gleespiration 2 – Leverage the power of the people

Sure getting more customers is great, but creating advocates of your brand and product will move the sales meter and generate bigger and longer-lasting results. Fire up your social network, create an environment where you can create your own fan club. People want to belong to a club where they can fit in. Need some tips on how to integrate your social media channels with your email campaigns?

Quick Tips on Using Social Media to Boost Email Stats >>

Gleespiration 3 – Your reputation precedes you

Let’s face it, bad news (even rumors) travels fast and the same reason that social networking can work in your favor, can also mean that you need to zealously protect your reputation from spam reports, bad customer service, poor product quality and more. Sue-isms make for a fun night, but you want to make sure your communication channels and front-line staff all reflect a positive and professional brand.

See tips on keeping a clean house >>

Gleespiration 4 – Humor goes pretty darn far

Every industry is rife with situations that merit a good chuckle. One can argue that it’s not love, but laughter is what makes the world turn. Every brand, regardless of how “straight” your industry is, can approach leveraging humor in a relevant and engaging fashion. Be memorable (yet tasteful) and give your readers something worth sinking their teeth into, or passing on, or sharing at the water cooler. Now more than ever, your target audience is bombarded with messaging. Marketers need to shake up their own routine and remember how to make their messages Gleepic!

Bad News for Boring Marketers >>

Gleespiration 5 – Reinforce your message with multi-media

Regardless of your personal talent, anyone who’s a Gleek is not afraid to belt out the anthems. While catchy and inspiring, they are critical reinforcing the theme or life lesson being conveyed. Visually the performances are mesmerizing and foot to the theme. You can’t help but learn. Stimulate your own target audience with video, audio and visual graphics to drive home your creative, promotional and educational messages. Need some guidance?

Common Online Video Mistakes >>

Never Ever SPAM

You must obtain verbal, written or digital permission from the people you email. Otherwise you will be sending SPAM which can result in black-listing and email blocking.

77% of internet users say their privacy is invaded when receiving unsolicited email

>> learn what happens every time a marketer buys an email list

Define Your Strategy

First things first -think through and plot out your email communications strategy. A clear strategy will guide all of your creative, marketing and planning efforts and result in a successful permission-based email program.

Email is the number one reason people turn on their computers

>> read 5 gold star email design tips

Make Opt-In Easy

Display Opt-In forms prominently on your site. Have sign-up cards readily available throughout your store. Ask for permission when talking to customers and prospects. Make sure you’re clear about what they will be receiving: newsletters, updates, special offers, etc.

50% of consumers say they would be more likely to purchase online from opt-in email campaigns

>> read 29 list growing tactics you must know

Segment Your Lists

Rather than sending the same email campaign to everybody on your list, break up your list into segments based on interest and other qualifying factors and then send targeted campaigns to each of the segments.

There are about 1.1 billion email users worldwide. That makes about one in every six persons on the earth use email

>> Mail Dog’s Super List tool is perfect for list segmentation

Don’t Overdo It

Sending too much email to your lists will result in a high rate of unsubscribes. Establish an appropriate frequency and stick to it: newsletters every 3 to 4 weeks; coupons or special offers every 1 to 2 weeks; critical updates as needed.

Email marketing consultants consider an open rate of about 20% and a click-through rate of 4% to 5% to be a highly effective email campaign

>> read increase email frequency without upsetting your list

Identify The Sender

Make sure that the “name” and “reply to” fields in the header of your email is immediately recognizable to the recipient. Remember to use a functioning “reply to” address that will be checked regularly.

50% of consumers who open and read email marketing messages also are likely to purchase other items on impulse

>> Mail Dog’s campaign management gives you complete control of your email campaigns

Keep Subject Line Brief

Make it compelling and use as few words as possible (about 35 characters). The subject line is the single most influencing factor in getting your email opened and read.

There are more than 227 million business email users in the United States

>> read how to make your subject lines count

Send HTML & Text

HTML email generates much higher response rates than plain text but a small percentage of email browsers can’t view it. Prepare a text version and send it in a MIME format (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) which facilitates the automatic delivery of the appropriate format.

80% of email marketers use HTML as their primary email format

>> Mail Dog’s message creation tools automatically send out plain text emails

Keep The Message Brief

Less is more when it comes to composing your messages. Features should consist of one or two short paragraphs max. If you’re linking to content on your site, think of your message as a compelling preview designed solely to trigger the click-through to your website or landing pages that contain more info.

More than half (51.2%) read the first few sentences and then decide whether or not to continue

>> use Mail Dog’s Landing Page Publishing tools to host additional web pages

Get Social

Social media is the bees knees! Adding links in your email to send readers back to your social network (whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) allows yet another contact point between you and the customer. People want to know who a company really is, not just see some slick advertisements.

Social media is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. 80% of U.S. is engaged in social media networks.

>> download Join the Social Media Conversation (pdf)

Encourage Sharing

Even if your company personally does not engage in social networks, I guarantee your customers are actively engaged and searching the web for what’s new and cool. Add social media share tools (including send to a friend links and Facebook Like buttons) into your email newsletters is the number one way to spread your message. Allow your readers to share your email on their network and watch your exposure exponentially explode.

Roughly 80% of marketers say that social sharing “extends the reach of email content to new markets” (81%) and “increases brand reputation and awareness” (78%).

>> use Mail Dog’s Social Media Integration Tools to connect with audiences like never before

Offer An Incentive

If you’re presenting your recipients with a call-to-action use an incentive to heighten response. Free gifts, discounts, special offers and relevant information are all used very effectively.

Free shipping is the No. 1 offer that customers look for and will respond to in an email, per online marketing firm

>> read how to turn your customers into advocates

Use Strong Link Copy

Using and tracking links help you segment your lists, profile your recipients and measure the overall performance of your campaign. It’s essential that your link copy is a strong call-to-action, while still avoiding “spammy” text.

Two thirds of US companies claim that sales increased as a result of using email marketing

>> learn how to test call-to-action links in 5 email test ideas (to gloom)

Show Your Story

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than video is the gold ticket Willy Wonka bar. Adding branded video players to your website to show off product demonstrations, testimonials, messages from CEO, will show a whole new side to your customers.

Video increases the buying decision by 72% because people prefer video 6 to 1 over a static website

>> read why YouTube stinks for business applications

Incorporate Video Into Email

Unfortunately embedding video into an email isn’t the best idea (majority of readers will strip out player code). The easiest way to incorporate video into your email is by including a screenshot of your video (that’s just an image) and a link to where the video is hosted online. The video can be hosted on your website (using Mail Dog Online Video tools), YouTube, Blogs, Facebook, etc.

Video E-mail messages generate 2-3 X higher click-thru rates compared to static E-mails.

>> see Mail Dog’s video marketing integration tools

“Spam-proof” Your Copy

Your message must travel through cyberspace encountering spam filters at both the ISP and personal inbox level in most cases. Don’t run the risk of your carefully crafted email getting “junked” by overlooking key words that trigger spam filters.

Once you review the list, you’ll never look at the word “free” the same way! Estimated number of non-spam email messages sent worldwide each day, 25 billion

>> Mail Dog’s Campaign Boosters preview your messages in 33+ emails readers prior to launch

Always Offer Unsubscribe

Always offer recipients a way to unsubscribe from your list. A short line in the footer section of your email is the generally accepted location and methodology. Make the unsubscribe process easy and once Unsubscribed never send email to that recipient again.

Email marketing is cheaper and generates bigger response rates than traditional direct marketing

>> read Mail Dog’s anti-spam policy

Schedule Carefully

When is your audience most likely to open and read your message? Usually mid-day delivery is better than mornings or evenings. Choosing the right day of the week is also important. Consider your campaign’s timing carefully.

Monday had the highest week-day open rate -35.7%.B2B recipients overwhelmingly prefer email on Monday and Tuesday

>> Mail Dog’s Auto-Pilot Responder campaigns make scheduling repeat messages a breeze

Test, Test, Test

Have you proofread the headers and email copy thoroughly? Have you checked all links to be sure they work properly? Have you sent yourself a test message and previewed it in AOL, internet mail, Outlook and other common email browsers?

64.7% of online merchants are conducting more email campaigns than a year ago

>> learn the ropes in insider email shortcuts

Be Prepared

Before you schedule the delivery of your campaign make sure that all internal resources are prepared to handle immediate response, the majority of which will occur within 48 hours of delivery. Notify employees and all related departments about the campaign.

Jupiter Research reports that spending on email marketing will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 24%, rising to $6.1 billion in 2008

>> make sure your email looks its best by reading the truth about images in your email

Monitor Frequently

Make sure that you have ample tools immediately available to you for monitoring and studying response statistics. Track opens, bounces, unsubscribes and click-throughs. Studying statistics frequently in real time will reveal many important trends and characteristics of your recipients.

83% choose email marketing as the most important advertising media they planned to use in 2007

>> Mail Dog’s real-time Reports give you up to the second data on your email campaigns

Refine and Improve

The key learnings of each campaign will help you improve future campaigns. Keep on experimenting and tweaking your subject lines, messages, offers, links and schedules until you achieve a solid “control” that performs up to your expectations.

73% said they’d made an online purchase as a result of receiving an email offer

>> learn more ways to improve with the quintessential list of online marketing gizmos you must know

Mail Dog’s Marketing Bytes is a serialized cartoon that pokes a little fun at our industry and highlights best practices for today’s marketer. Let’s face it…navigating the in’s and out’s of online marketing today can be perplexing!

Here at Mail Dog, the only thing closer to our hearts than helping our clients grow their business through the use of permission email marketing and online video is our love of puppies! Anyone who has called in for custom support can hear our talkative pups yelping in the office.

When we learn the puppies of the world might be in danger due to the careless practices of some less than permission based lists and sketchy marketing practices, we had to take action. We are proud to announce, we’ve joined forces with The eMail Guide and their Email Marketers Association for Puppy Protection.

See what happens when a marketer buys an email list in Help Save the Puppies! (Don’t Buy Email Lists) blog post.