E-mail marketing Archives

Responsive email newsletters

Optimizing Your Email for Mobile Devices With the Media Query
Wide emails often require horizontal scrolling, especially when there’s a large image. This case study by Campaign Monitor explains how emails can be optimized for mobile devices using media queries and offers a couple of useful techniques and snippets to be used right away.

Responsive Design for Email, the Largest Mobile Audience
Another interesting case study that shows how the development team behind Beanstalk applied screen-size-specific media queries to target styles, and what design decisions were made to make the mobile email experience better.

Media Queries in HTML Emails
This article covers using media queries to target specific mobile email clients.

Guide to CSS Support in Email
Designing an HTML email that renders consistently across major email clients can be time-consuming. Support for even simple CSS varies considerably between clients, and even different versions of the same client. Campaign Monitor has put together a guide to save you the time and frustration of figuring it out for yourself. With 24 different email clients tested, it covers all of the popular applications across desktop, Web and mobile email.

by martin

5 steps to determine optimal e-mail frequency

E-mail marketing

5 steps to determine optimal e-mail frequency

You know there’s a delicate balance between infrequent email communications and bombarding your email recipients with messages to the point that they opt out. Maybe you’re interested in ramping up your email marketing in 2012 but don’t want to see all your hard lead generation work go to waste by increasing your sending frequency. How do you know what email sending frequency is the right frequency for your subscriber list?

If you guessed “test,” you’re right on the money! While we’ve performed tests and released research on email sending frequency, every brand’s email marketing campaign objectives and subscriber lists are unique and thus require fine-tuned testing to determine appropriate sending frequency.

So how do you get started with an email send frequency test? Many people have been nervous about performing this test for fear of ruining their lead generation efforts, but it really is quite simple. Let’s break down the steps you can take to perform this test so you can start understanding how often you should communicate with your email subscribers.

Step 1 – Establish Your Hypotheses

Take yourself back to high school science class, and channel your favorite lab partner. It’s important to determine what specific results you expect to see from these tests so you can identify success.

For example, you might hypothesize that increasing your email send frequency from once a week to three times a week will increase your click-through rate by 35%, or perhaps it will increase the number of “wheat bread” leads that move to the prospecting stage as a result of your nurturing by 15%. Or perhaps you have an unnervingly high opt-out rate, and you think decreasing your email send rate from daily to every other day will also decrease your number of unsubscribes. You can (and should!) create more than one hypothesis to make the most out of these tests, and be extremely specific with the terms of your hypothesis.

Step 2 – Choose a List Segment

Think of this as your sample size. Since your email list is already segmented (right?), select one segment that you will test, and ensure it is sizable enough to provide meaningful data. Make sure the list segment you select also aligns with the hypotheses you are testing. For example, if you are testing for an increased offer click-through rate targeted toward prospects, it isn’t wise to test on a customer list segment. Instead, you might decide to choose a sample (a sample, not the entire list) from your blog subscriber list that is not only sizable enough to provide meaningful data, but is also used to receiving emails with offers from you.

Step 3 – Establish Baseline Metrics

Now that you know what you want to test and on whom, you can establish your current performance metrics for that sample. This step is crucial, because you need something against which to measure the results of your test. Note the email marketing metrics you’ll need in order to determine success in your test such as your open rate, deliverability rate, unsubscribe rate, and click-through rate for that particular sample.

And don’t be afraid to expand your scope beyond traditional email marketing metrics to website performance metrics. For example, if you were to use the hypothesis of increasing an offer’s click-through rate, you would also be interested to know how many of the email recipients not only clicked through the email offer, but also completed the form required to obtain their offer.

Step 4 – Create and Schedule Your Test Emails

Create a handful of test emails to rotate through the list sample, following your regular email marketing best practices. Now is not the time to experiment with creative new subject lines, test a new sender in the “from” field, or create a new email template. These types of content changes can skew your results, and should be reserved for a separate set of tests.

Once you’ve created the emails, schedule them for the sending frequency you outlined in your hypothesis. For tests that exceed a week in duration, be sure to select the same days and times so as not to add another variable to the equation, as time of day and day of week has been known to skew results. Again, this is an important test to perform, but reserve it for another time.

Step 5 – Measure and Analyze Results

Measure your results against the hypotheses you established in the beginning and the baseline results you recorded. You should monitor results frequently throughout the experiment, too, so you can respond to any dramatic swings that may crop up because of your change in emailing frequency.

Are the results you’re seeing positive? Do they confirm the hypotheses you’ve outlined? Do they allow you to increase your email send even more to see positive gains to your bottom line without sacrificing things like the size or quality of your list? Or is a decrease in sending what’s in order? Now that you have a new baseline for success, iterate off of it by beginning a new email test, whether for frequency, template design, subject line, message copy, offer content, or any other host of items you can test to make your email marketing more effective.

by martin

How to integrate Search Engine and Email Marketing

E-mail marketing, SEO

In the world of inbound marketing, integrating tactics provides marketers with incredible leverage. However, integration can often be challenging because individual marketing tactics sometime exist in silos with little collaboration. This is especially true with an unlikely power couple, search engine optimization and email marketing.

Search engine optimization is likely a strong source of traffic and leads for you already. And email marketing is most companies’ primary inbound lead generation channel. While both tactics rock on their own, they experience some exciting amplification when combined. Let’s look at a few ways we can combine search and email for even more leads!

Here are 7 Ways to Integrate Search Engine and Email Marketing

1. Distribute Link Building Content Through Email – Yes, email is mainly about lead generation. But don’t be short-sighted in your lead generation efforts. Search engine traffic can provide a steady flow of quality leads over time. For many companies, email marketing is their largest channel for marketing reach.

Emailing lead generation-based offers is definitely a great idea, but by also distributing content like infographics or awesome blog posts occasionally via email, you can improve the reach and, subsequently, the inbound links and authority of the pages where that content resides. In the future, you could then replace the content on that page with an awesome lead generation offer to take advantage of all of the search engine traffic the page is getting.

2. Optimize for the Best Lead Generation Topics – Look at your email data. Which offers and topics have the best open and click-through rates? If you have been doing email marketing for a while, then you probably have great historical data related to your lead generation efforts. Use this data to help you prioritize your search engine optimization efforts. Then optimize for the top-performing keywords and offers from your email campaigns.

3. Test Offer Conversion Prior to an Email Send – You don’t have to email an offer to your list the second it’s completed. Instead, you can use traffic from search engines, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and your blog to take a look at the conversion rate of the landing page and the offer. Use this data to make tweaks and improvements to the content or its landing page before sending it out to your entire list.

4. Use PPC to Boost Email Click-Through Rate (CTR) – In the crowded world of inbound marketing, your prospects usually need to be exposed to your ideas several times before they will convert. When planning your next big email send for lead generation, plan a PPC campaign that starts the day before and lasts a few days after the email send to help provide additional support for the email and its offer. The awareness built through these PPC ads can help increase click-through rates for your emails.

5. Search Engine Optimize Landing Pages – Don’t hide your landing pages! Landing pages are key to your inbound marketing success. Make sure that, beyond sending them out in marketing emails, you take the time to optimize the content of your landing pages for search engines. This means killer page titles, a great URL structure, and relevant copy optimized with keywords on the page itself.

6. Focus on Email Sharing for Link Building – Part of building links for search engine optimization is getting your content in front of as many people as possible. Simply sending out content to build links just isn’t enough. Instead, add social sharing links to the content you are promoting in your email. Include a quick message that also encourages folks to forward the email to their peers.

7. Use PPC to Test Email Subject Lines – Subject lines are a huge part of email marketing success. Instead of simply guessing which subject line you think will work best, use PPC to collect data on subject line options. Create five subject lines. Run a different PPC ad for each subject line. After you’ve accumulated enough data, determine which subject line had the highest click-through rate, and use it for your email send.

by martin

Science of the e-mail signature

Communication, Digital marketing, E-mail marketing, Social media

Email signatures are so easy to do well, that it’s really a shame how often they’re done poorly. Many people want their signature to reflect their personality, provide pertinent information and more, but they can easily go overboard. Why are email signatures important? They may be boring and the last item on your list of things to get right, but they affect the tone of every email you write.

Email signatures contain alternative contact details, pertinent job titles and company names, which help the recipient get in touch when emails are not responded to. Sometimes, they give the recipient an idea of who wrote the email in case it has been a while since they have been in touch. They are also professional: like a letterhead, they show that you run a business (in some countries, you’re required to do so). Here are some tips on how to create a tasteful signature that works.

Be Concise

First and foremost, the sender’s header (the “From” field) should have a name, and you should use a company email address if you can. If someone sees stevies747@hotmail.com, they’ll suspect it’s spam. If the sender’s header reads, “Steve Stevenson – Mister Stevenson Design Company” <steve@misterstevenson.com>, they’ll know it’s a professional email from Steve, their trusted designer.

Start by making your website a link. Many email clients convert email addresses and websites into links automatically, but not always. When you’re creating the HTML for an email, make sure the link will appear by adding writing it in HTML. And instead of linking text like “My website,” type out the URL, which will be useful for those who want to copy and paste the address.

An email signature shouldn’t double the email’s length, so make it as short as possible (three lines is usually enough). Don’t get into your life story here. The purpose of a signature is to let them see who you are and how to get in touch with you.

Make Sure to Include…

Your name,
Your company and position,
How to get in touch with you.

No need to include 10 different ways to get in touch with you. As in website design, less is more; and then they’ll know which way you prefer to be contacted. Go to two or three lines, with a maximum of 72 character per line (many email applications have a maximum width of 80 characters, so limit the length to avoid unsightly wrapping). An optional fourth line could be your company address, but use caution if you work from home.

-- Steve Stevenson, Web Designer

www.misterstevenson.com | steve@misterstevenson.com

Short and Concise, but Check the Rules

In some European countries, laws dictate what items you must put in your email signature if you are a registered company. For example, UK law requires private and public limited companies to include the following:

Company number,
Address of registration,
VAT number, if there is one.

You can be fined for not including this information on all electronic correspondence and on your website and stationary. Many freelancers and small businesses have ignored these rules since their inception, risking a fine. For more information on UK rules, go here. Do some research to find out what rules apply in your country.

-- Steve Stevenson, Web Designer

www.misterstevenson.com | steve@misterstevenson.com

55 Main Street, London, UK, EC2A 1RE

Company number: 12345678

Don’t Include…

Personal Twitter, IM or Skype details;
Your home phone number or address (unless you want to be called by international clients early in the morning);
The URL of your personal website;
Random quotes at the bottom;
Your entire skill set, CV and lifetime achievements in point form.

Random quotes are fun for friends, but you risk offending business associates with whom you don’t have a personal relationship. Unless you want clients contacting you while you’re watching Lost, don’t share your home details far and wide. Also, don’t share your personal contact information with your corporate partners. They certainly won’t be interested in it, and you may not want them to know certain details about you. However, mentioning your corporate Twitter account or alternative means of contact in your signature might be useful, in case your correspondent is not able to get in touch with you by regular email.

	Steve Stevenson, Web Designer web: www.misterstevenson.com blog: blogspot.celebritiesneedhelp.com email: steve@misterstevenson.com
	home: 613.555.2654 home (wife): 613.555.3369 work: 613.555.9876 cell: 613.555.123455 Drury Lane Apartment 22 Ottawa, Ontario Canada twitter: @stevie_liverpool_fan skype: stevie_the_man messenger: stevie_mrstevenson I specialize in: Web design Graphic design Logo design Front-end development UI design “Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.” -Amelia Aerheart

Don’t do this.

Images And Logos

Let’s get this out of the way now: your entire signature shouldn’t be an image. Sure, it will look exactly how you want, but it is completely impractical. Not only does an image increase the email’s file size, but it will likely be blocked before being opened. And how does someone copy information from an image?

: This signature is too big at 20 KB and impossible to copy.

Any images should be used with care and attention. If you do use one, make it small in both dimensions and size, and make it fit in aesthetically with the rest of the signature. 50 x 50 pixels should be plenty big for any logo. If you want to be taken seriously as a business person, do not make it an animated picture, dancing dog or shooting rainbow!

Most email clients store images as attachments or block them by default. So, if you present your signature as an image, your correspondents will have a hard time guessing when you’ve sent a genuine attachment.

The best way to include an image is to host it on a server somewhere and then use the absolute URL to insert the logo. For example, upload the logo to http://www.example.com/uploads/logo.gif. And then, in your email signature’s HTML, insert the image like so:

`1`	`<img` `src="http://www.example.com/uploads/logo.gif"` `width="300"` `height="250"` `alt="example's logo"` `/>`

Don’t Be A Fancy Pants

Use vCards With Caution

While vCards are a great, convenient way to share contact information, in emails they add bytes and appear as attachments. It is often said that you shouldn’t use a vCard for your email signature, because as helpful as it might be the first time you correspond with someone, receiving it every time after that gets annoying. Besides, the average email user won’t know what it is. Look at the example below. Would an average user know what that is?

---
Steve Stevenson, Web Designer
www.misterstevenson.com | steve@misterstevenson.com

width="162" height="52" />

If you do want to provide a vCard, just include a link to a remote copy.

What About Confidentiality Clauses?

If your emails include confidential information, you may need to include a non-disclosure agreement to prevent information leaks. However, good practice is never to send sensitive information as plain text in emails because the information could be extracted by third parties or forwarded by recipients to other people. Thus, including a non-disclosure agreement doesn’t make much sense if you do not send sensitive information anyway.

Keep in mind, too, that the longer a confidentiality clause is, the more unlikely someone will actually read it. Again, check your country’s privacy laws. Some big companies require a disclosure with every email, but if you’re at a small company or are a freelancer and don’t really require it, then don’t put it in. The length of such clauses can be annoying, especially in short emails.

--- Warm Regards & Stay Creative! Aidan Huang (Editor) ------------------------------------------- Onextrapixel Showcasing Web Treats Without Hitch web . http://www.onextrapixel.com twi . http://twitter.com/onextrapixel ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this email. Please notify the sender immediately by email if you have received this email by mistake and delete this email from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and then delete it immediately. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Company.

The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.

Company may regularly and randomly monitor outgoing and incoming emails (including the content of them) and other telecommunications on its email and telecommunications systems. By replying to this email you give your consent to such monitoring.

*****

Save resources: think before you print.

Don’t Be Afraid to Show Some Personality

Although your email signature should be concise and memorable, it doesn’t have to be boring. Feel free to make your email signature stand out by polishing it with your creative design ideas or your personal touch. Using a warm greeting, adding a cheeky key as Dan Rubin does or encouraging people to “stalk” you as Paddy Donnelly does, all show personality behind simple text.

The key to a simple, memorable and beautiful email signature lies in balancing personal data and your contact details. In fact, some designers have quite original email signatures; most of the time, simple ASCII is enough.

--
h: http://danielrubin.org
w: http://sidebarcreative.com
b: http://superfluousbanter.org

m: +1 234 567 8901
i: superfluouschat

k: h = home, w = work, b = blog, m = mobile, i = aim, k = key

Paddy

--

The Site: http://iampaddy.com
Stalk Me: http://twitter.com/paddydonnelly

--

With optimism,
Dmitry Belitsky
http://belitsky.info

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/// Matthias Kretschmann     ///   krema@xxxxxxxx.xx            ///
/// freelance designer &     ///   www.kremalicious.com         ///
/// photographer             ///   www.matthiaskretschmann.com  ///
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/// media studies / communication science & art history         ///
/// MLU Halle-Wittenberg                                        ///
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

--
With greetings from Freiburg, Germany,
Vitaly Friedman (editor-in-chief)
-------------------------------------------------

HTML?

If you can, stay away from HTML formatting. Every Web designer knows the pain of HTML newsletters, and while HTML is supported for email signatures, you’ll likely have problems with images and divider lines in different email clients. Some nice ASCII formatting may work in some cases.

Of course, if you’re really keen to use HTML, keep it simple:

Make sure it still looks good in plain text.
Use black and standard-sized fonts, and stay away from big, tiny and rainbow-colored fonts.
Don’t use CSS. Inline HTML formatting is universally accepted.
Use common Web fonts.
Including a logo? Make sure the signature looks nice even when the logo doesn’t load or is blocked.
Check how it looks when forwarded. Do all the lines wrap correctly?
You may want to load your company image as your gravatar from Gravatar.com as Joost de Valk does.
Feel free to experiemnt with your e-mail signature: Jan Diblík uses a signature with dynamicaly changed promo image.

by martin

Guaranteed ways to annoy your Email recipients

E-mail marketing

Without a doubt, email marketing can be a powerful lever in your inbound marketing mix. It can help you nurture prospects, connect with existing customers, distribute your content, and yes, generates tons of coveted leads for your business.

But that said, email can be tricky, and there is a fine line between sending contacts in your database emails they want to open and enjoy reading, and ticking them off. And the price of ticking them off? An email database that atrophies at a much higher rate. As you create your email marketing strategy and the specific emails that it includes, use this checklist to avoid rubbing your email recipients the wrong way.

12 Sure-Fire Ways to Tick Off Your Email Database

1. Violating CAN-SPAM Laws: Are you still emailing people who have already opted out of your database? Perhaps you’re just not making it possible for people to opt out in the first place. Do these things, and you’ll not only make your email recipients angry, but you’re also likely to get into some legal trouble. First and foremost, make sure you understand and adhere to CAN-SPAM legislation.

2. Failing to Include Your Company Logo or Visual Brand Recognition: Make it so your recipients can immediately tell who your email is from when they open it. Not including a company logo or some visually identifiable image that they automatically associate with your brand might cause them to believe it’s spam and prevent them from even reading your email in the first place.

3. Not Optimizing the Alt Text of Your Images: If your email client doesn’t display images by default, well…things can get pretty ugly. Be sure to edit the alt text of each image you include with descriptive keywords (not the default file name like img_3058), or you’ll come off as sloppy and unprofessional to your email recipients.

4. Having Nothing to Offer: You shouldn’t be emailing your database just for the sake of emailing them. People open email because they want to get something from it. Make sure you’re including an offer of some sort — whether it’s premium content, a discount/coupon, or some other special opportunity just for them.

5. Providing No Value: To piggyback off of number 4, you also need to make sure that whatever you’re offering in your email is valuable to your audience. Be sure you’re optimizing your emails to include your top offers. Emailing just any old thing is a guaranteed way to entice your email recipients to opt out.

6. Including Too Many Offers: Furthermore, including multiple calls-to-action for different offers in your email is the perfect way to confuse your recipients and encourage them to click ‘delete.’ As a best practice, stick with just one offer per email. You can include more than one call-to-action in your email, but make sure they are all promoting the same offer.

7. Not Segmenting Your List: Most likely, your email database doesn’t include a one-size-fits-all group of contacts. And likely, your products and services cater to different types of personas. Treat your email database that way. Segment your list into various groups, and send those groups personalized emails that target their specific wants and needs. Sending email messages that are broadly targeted, not relevant, and mostly impersonal is a great way to whittle your list down to nothing.

8. Making Emails Too Lengthy, Difficult to Read, and Not Easily Scannable: Chances are, your email isn’t the only one sitting in your recipients’ inboxes. Likely, your readers will only give your email a few moments to capture their attention, so make sure it’s brief, to the point, easy to scan, and has clear, concise language that makes it simple to read and understand quickly. Create an eye path with bold fonts, links, and bullet points to help readers skim; use colorful language; and communicate the offer with simple text, not fancy jargon.

9. Omitting Social Media Sharing Buttons/Links: If you’ve gotten the reader past the hurdle of reading the email and valuing its contents, don’t make it difficult for them to share it! If a recipient has to copy/paste links within your email to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you’re doing it wrong. Include social media sharing links and buttons in every email you send to make it easy for your contacts to spread your messages if they want to, which will (BONUS) also expand your email’s reach!

10. Sending Emails When Everyone Else Sends Them: It doesn’t matter if your contact loves receiving and reading your emails. If that person’s inbox is flooded with emails from vendors all at the same time, they’ll likely bulk delete them just to purge their inbox of all that annoying “spam.” When sending emails, consider times when your competitors email and try counter-competitive timing so your email reaches recipients’ inboxes at time when they’re under less water.

11. Sending Emails Too Frequently (or Infrequently): Don’t spam your list! While our own data shows that businesses might not be emailing enough, don’t cross the line between being top-of-mind and annoying. Furthermore, understand the habits of your target audience. Every business and industry is different. Some audiences might be more receptive to more frequent messages, while others might tap out at a certain number in a given time period. Test your frequency to determine the optimal number of times to email your database in a given time. And be sure you’re segmenting!

12. Continuing to Email Inactive List Members: Every email database has inactive members. These are people who religiously delete the emails you send (or worse — mark them as spam) but are too lazy to opt out of your list. Continuing to email inactive members is annoying to those members, and it can also mess with your emails’ deliverability to other recipients who actually want to receive and read your email content. Take a deep breath, and just remove those contacts on your list who haven’t interacted with your email marketing in the last 120 days.

by martin

Reasons why e-mail (marketing) is still important

E-mail marketing

Social media is more than a buzzword. It’s now a lifestyle decision for a lot of companies. Many individuals and organizations have abandoned a traditional Web presence (which used to mean a website and email address) in favor of a Facebook page coupled with a Twitter account.

So, where does this leave email? Has the @ symbol lost its meaning as an address, and instead become the signifier of a Twitter name? I think that we need to radically reconsider our approach to email in this changing landscape and understand that it can be a powerful tool when leveraged correctly.

Changing Habits

While I disagree with the assertion that “social is killing email,” evidence shows that email use among the younger generation is declining: a 59% decline among US teens between December 2009 and 2010, according to comScore. In the same study, only the over-55s had increased their use of email. This is especially significant if it represents a long-term shift away from email and towards social media and SMS as preferred methods of communication.

Losing Faith In Email

Email has been around forever (it predates the Web), so it’s not surprising that, for some, it has lost its lustre. For one, it’s not exciting enough; other social media platforms have come with fanfare. Twitter has hosted world headlines, and Facebook has been the driving force behind many campaigns. In 2009, a Facebook Group even succeeded in getting Rage Against the Machine’s single “Killing in the Name” to the UK’s “Christmas number one” spot ahead of the X Factor single.

This level of drama appeals to business types who like their social media “sexy,” and for this reason Twitter and Facebook push all the right buttons around the boardroom table. By comparison, an email marketing campaign may seem tired and old fashioned.

Email4 in Email Is (Still) Important And Here Is Why

Email in a social media landscape.

For another reason, it lacks tangible value. Valuations of Internet companies (and particularly social media giants) have skyrocketed. In May of this year, LinkedIn was valued at $10 billion (roughly 41 times its 2010 net revenue). Facebook is still a private company, but rumors of a public offering in 2012 include a valuation that could reach $100 billion. While many in the industry see this as a portent of a second dot-com bubble, for a lot of businesses it is simply a compelling reason to invest in these services.

Email is non-proprietary, which means that no one is pushing its agenda, and, unlike the LinkedIns, Groupons and Facebooks of the world, it cannot attract a market worth. Value theory tells us that if something has no market value (such as air, water, etc.), it is often taken for granted. I think email has suffered a similar fate.

Finally and perhaps most significantly, it lacks the pack mentality that most of social media thrives on. Despite the growth of marketing, email is still mostly private. No one knows which lists I am subscribed to or who I write to from the privacy of my inbox, even if by virtue of Facebook they know what I ate for breakfast. In stark contrast to the insidious evils of “like” culture, my email behavior does not broadcast itself all over the Internet, which for marketers is a decided disadvantage.

Email Is A Currency

Email3 in Email Is (Still) Important And Here Is Why

The currency of email.

Everyone Has It

It’s true that email is fighting with other services for online communication, but it is still ubiquitous in a way that other social media networks are not. As of May 2010, 39% of US Internet users had never used a social network, compared with only 6% who had never sent or received an email. If you want to reach the majority of your audience, email is still the safest bet.

It’s a Unique Identifier

It’s worth noting that people tend to be members of multiple social media websites simultaneously, with varying degrees of involvement, but they usually have only one or two active email addresses. The email address remains the unique identifier online; you use it to log into almost everything, so it would take a lot for it to become obsolete.

It’s a Coveted Resource

According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing is expected to generate an ROI of $44.00 for every dollar spent on it in 2011. This is due in part to the fact that more customers are engaging via email: 93% of email users have opt-in relationships with a consumer brand, as opposed to 15% on Facebook and 4% on Twitter (according to Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs).

This value has been recognized by most social media networks. Facebook launched Messages, which provides each user with an @facebook.com email address, because it understands the importance of email in the social graph. Google+ is also tying email more directly into social media activity, blurring the distinction between the two.

Overcoming Obstacles

I hope I’ve managed to convince you that email is still a powerful part of your social media arsenal. But before you leverage it to the best of your ability, let’s understand some of email’s most notorious limitations.

Email2 in Email Is (Still) Important And Here Is Why

Understand the limitations imposed by email.

Spam

This incarnation of junk mail is relentless. It plagues users, who must be cunning to distinguish genuine mail from hoaxes. Email clients require elaborate algorithms to sift the wheat from the chaff. And perhaps most vexing, Internet marketers have to struggle to get anything commercial through to their subscriber lists.

Unfortunately, Twitter and Facebook are not safe havens either. Business folk are not the only ones taking a bigger interest in social media; scam artists are, too. As of April 2011, spam alone occupied seven full-time employees at Twitter. This is a drop in the ocean compared to email (over 73% of all messages sent are spam), but it might be a relief to hear that we are experiencing the lowest levels since 2008; at least things are looking up!

Broadcasting

Social media networks encourage multi-way conversations between many users. Even those who are not involved directly in the conversation can often “overhear” what is happening. Email is much more direct; it is usually between just two people and does not invite additional participants. Understanding this limitation of email will make it your greatest ally. Unless an email is personal, it will not get a response; however, it is one of the best ways to deliver direct messages, such as newsletters and alerts, which do not invite discussion so much as action.

Presentation

HTML email is far more effective than plain text for marketing, but you’ll need to know the tricks to make it look good across different browsers. Writing code for email usually means going back to 1998, which is enough to put most people off it entirely. Luckily, Campaign Monitor and MailChimp offer some great templates to get you off on the right foot. But make sure to use a tool to test the email across different clients before clicking the “Send” button, or else you could do more damage than good.

Making Email A Part Of The Conversation

Bonnie Raitt once sang about giving people something to talk about, and that’s what you have to do with email marketing! Spark that discussion and keep it going on your blog, Twitter and Facebook.

Email is difficult to ignore. Unlike social media streams, in which content is disposable, an email demands your attention until it is read. Use this to your advantage: write newsletters; push your most engaging content in front of your users; adapt your offers so they match your audience.

Email1 in Email Is (Still) Important And Here Is Why

Use email to provoke conversation.

Also, email is a much calmer medium. Inbox zero is a difficult (yet achievable) goal, whereas staying on top of every stream, tweet and status update is not only stressful, but well nigh impossible! With email, you can take time and give thought to your words; you can dedicate some time to the person you are communicating with. Email not only gives your thoughts some room, but gives you time to write them down clearly.

If you’ve heard of the Slow movement (which advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace), then you might want to consider how email fits into Slow Marketing. Is it possible that cultivating brand advocates over time who have more than a fleeting interest in your product could bring long-term benefits? Could you talk to these customers in a more respectful way, one that leads to substantial, meaningful conversations?

Think Twice Before Hitting “Send”

If you’re not put off by the shortcomings of email and you find 140 characters more limiting than liberating, then you’re well on your way to incorporating email in your social media campaigns. Chances are your email subscribers are your most loyal audience, so treat them with respect (which means offering valuable content, and not too often), and they could become your greatest advocates.

While reams of articles are devoted to creating social email campaigns, here are just a few tips to get you started:

Have something to say.
Sounds simple, but while your daily musings are permissible on Twitter, your email audience will be less forgiving.
Make it digestible.
Email doesn’t limit your word count, but you’ll need to apply some editing of your own. If it’s a long article, include an excerpt and link through to the website for the full story. This has the added bonus of enabling you to track the most popular items.
Be regular.
Set a schedule of emails that you know you can keep to. A monthly or quarterly newsletter can be a good guide.
Be personal.
Tailor your tone to the audience. Most email services offer invaluable segmentation tools. You wouldn’t speak to your spouse the way you talk to your bank manager; neither should you address your entire audience the same way.

Don’t forget that email is only half of the conversation. Find out where your readers hang out (you can use their email addresses to locate them), and continue the discussion there!

by martin

Resources to help you make the most of CSS in Email

E-mail marketing, html/css, HTML5

With funky CSS support and coding practices from circa 1994, designing HTML emails might seem like rocket science. Thankfully, quite a bit of solid documentation exists on effective HTML email design, so below is my recommended reading list if you want to take your newsletters to the next level.

Getting Started With HTML Email

“Design and Build an Email Newsletter Without Losing Your Mind (or Soul)”
“Rock Solid HTML Emails”
An excellent starter tutorial.
Premailer
For moving CSS inline.

HTML and CSS in Email Clients

Mobile Email Design

Style Campaign blog
“What You Can Learn From Panic’s Approach to Email Marketing”
“Mobile Email Design in Practice: The New CampaignMonitor Newsletter”
“Optimizing HTML Email for Mobile Using Progressive Disclosure”
“Finger Snafu”
I highly recommend this post to mobile design enthusiasts.
“Make your HTML Email 5× More Mobile Friendly”

Email Design Inspiration and Templates

by martin

What’s next for HTML Email designers?

E-mail marketing, html/css, HTML5

So, while CSS-unfriendly desktop clients and Web email clients like Gmail will always be here to rain on our parade, the good news is that the rise of mobile email has meant that we may soon be at liberty to create more Web-like email experiences. It has also meant that optimizing your newsletters for handheld and touch displays has gone from being a “nice thing to have” to a given. This doesn’t just affect email newsletters at the code level, but it also changes the way we display design elements. For example, in the following two mobile designs, which do you think is the more effective call-to-action (CTA) button?

Touch6 in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

Or consider the CTA in the following mobile-friendly email. If it’s not visible “above the fold,” as they say, then will it be seen at all? Or worse, will recipients end up accidentally tapping the toolbar instead?

Touch4 in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

If designers aren’t asking these questions, they sure will be soon. You need only visit Style Campaign’s blog (which provided the examples above) to grasp the importance of solid mobile design.

Here are a few other important things to consider when designing adaptive layouts:

Single-column layouts that are no wider than 500 to 600 pixels work best on mobile devices. They’re easier to read, and if they fall apart, they’ll do so more gracefully.
Links and buttons should have a minimum target area of 44 × 44 pixels, as per Apple guidelines. Nothing sucks more than clouds of tiny links on touchscreen devices.
The minimum font size displayed on iPhones is 13 pixels. Keep this in mind when styling text, because anything smaller will be upscaled and could break your layout. Alternatively, you could override this behavior in your style sheet.
More than ever, keep your message concise, and place all important design elements in the upper portion of the email, if possible. Scrolling for miles is much harder on a touchscreen than with a mouse.

Now it’s your turn to design wicked HTML email newsletters that, with a dash of CSS, look just as effective on the small screen as they do in your Web browser or desktop inbox. I have no doubt that your readers will appreciate the effort.

by martin

The CSS support in Email today

E-mail marketing

When I mentioned that a lot of CSS properties out there work fine in many email clients, I wasn’t trying to be vague. Thankfully, the research into what works and what doesn’t has already been done. You need only skim this guide to CSS support in email clients to see what properties are within and off limits. Or just know that most of your CSS rendering troubles will come from Outlook 2010, Lotus Notes and Gmail, due to their refusal to do anything useful with CSS style sheets.

These issues are nothing new. Indeed, the battle for market share between email clients that play nice with CSS versus those that don’t has been pitched for years now. But progress is being made. Looking at the data from over 3 billion emails sent, we found that mobile email clients have gained ground dramatically with the growth of mobile professionals. In fact, one in five emails are now opened on a mobile device. Here is how desktop, Web and mobile email clients have fared comparatively over the last two years:

Email-client-growth in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

Desktop, Web and mobile email client market share, 2009 to 2011.

Mobile’s ascent is great news for email designers everywhere for one reason: roughly 75% of mobile email is read on an iOS device. iOS devices use the Webkit rendering engine, which means they can display really nice-looking HTML emails.

Our friends at Panic (the creators of such popular Mac titles as Coda and Transmit) were well aware of this when they got started on their email announcements. As purveyors of Mac software, they can pretty much always count on their emails being read in Webkit-powered email clients like Apple Mail and the iPhone. As a result, they’ve been able to pull a lot of CSS3 trickery out of the toolbox, including border-radius and text-shadow:

But what really impressed me was their use of CSS3 animation. Check out the mesmerizing glowing button effect in this video:

To sate your curiosity, here’s the code they used to achieve this effect:

`1`	`-webkit-animation-name:` `'glow';`

`2`	`-webkit-animation-duration: .7s;`

`3`	`-webkit-animation-iteration-count: infinite;`

`4`	`-webkit-animation-direction: alternate;`

`5`	`-webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;`

And you thought HTML email was a boring medium? Well, to temper things a bit, CSS3 still has very limited support beyond a handful of Webkit-powered email clients, so use it with discretion. But with that in mind, let’s look at Panic’s newsletter again, this time on the iPhone. For comparison, here it is both with and without a @media query (which calls the mobile style sheet):

Panic-iphone-comparison in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

Let’s now look at how you can optimize your email newsletters for small displays as well.

by martin

Mobile ready CSS in HTML Email

E-mail marketing, html/css, HTML5

HTML email has a reputation for being a particularly tough design medium. So tough, in fact, that many designers regard coding and testing even the simplest email design to be almost as bad as fixing display quirks in Internet Explorer 6, and only slightly better than a tooth extraction. So, it’s with much courage that I tell you today about using CSS in email newsletters: what works, where it’s going and what you should do next.

After reading this article, you will hopefully come away with a few ideas on how to start coding email designs with improved readability and usability when viewed in Web, mobile and email desktop clients alike. Also included are a variety of resources to get you on the right path with using CSS in email.

Then again, the shaky state of email standards today may convince you that plain-text email is the way to go. The choice is yours.

CSS In HTML Email: The Good, The Bad And The Mobile-Ready

If you’re about to embark on your first HTML email coding job, then you probably come from a Web background and are keen to flex a little CSS3 muscle, get a little JavaScript action happening, drop those shadows…

Not so fast. As any old hat to the email game can tell you, what works on the Web and what works in email are about as far apart as Sydney and Stockholm. For the most part, this is because pretty much every email client has its own way of doing things; while there are perhaps half a dozen browsers to test against when coding a Web page, there are literally dozens of email clients, many of which feature radically different CSS implementations.

But before you give up hope, here’s some advice to get you through the night:

A lot of CSS properties (such as font, color and border) work fine across many of the most popular email clients. Once you know which ones they are, you can tailor your designs accordingly.
When a CSS property doesn’t work so well, there are often workarounds (such as using cellpadding in tables instead of padding).
When workarounds don’t exist, focus on graceful degradation.
Your design will never look exactly the same across all email clients, no matter how you use CSS. Once you (and your clients) make peace with this, I guarantee you will sleep better at night.
Keep it simple. The less complicated your design and layout, the less likely something will go wrong. Favor table layouts over divs, and make sure your message is readable (which means text, not images).

At this point, you may be saying to yourself, “Well, this all just sounds too hard.” So, perhaps I should remind you how beautiful an HTML email can look, with just a sprinkling of CSS:

For a more realistic view of what this design will look like in the inbox, here’s the same email in Gmail and Outlook 2007. Both are notoriously tricky email clients to work with:

Css-gmail in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

Css-outlook in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

See? Ain’t so bad after all. But what’s more exciting is how you can use CSS to adapt an HTML email for optimal display on mobile devices. Here’s the same newsletter as viewed on the iPhone:

Abc-widgets-iphone in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS Abc-widgets-iphone-images-view in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

For comparison, let’s look at the same email newsletter without mobile-specific CSS:

Abc-widgets-iphone-no-query in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS Abc-widgets-iphone-images-wo-css in From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

The change might seem subtle, but applying a mobile-specific style sheet has improved the readability of the email considerably. It has also allowed us to remove a lot of visual clutter (like the “Widget August 2011 Newsletter” text) that would have taken up valuable real estate on a small screen.

So, we’ve gone from an email layout that requires a lot of pinching and zooming, to one that can be easily read with a linear scrolling motion, using CSS alone. We’ll look at how you can apply similar improvements to your email campaigns in a moment. But first, let’s start with some of the fundamentals of using CSS in your HTML email designs.

by martin