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Email spending in the United States will grow to $2.1 billion in 2012.
JupiterResearch

Animated GIFs in Your Email Marketing

Is it appropriate to use animated GIFs in emails?  The number of marketers using animation in emails has declined in recent years but has recently experienced a resurgence.  For good reason. Many recent split tests have shown that  emails containing animated GIFs give better results, in terms of engagement and conversions, compared to the same emails without animation. And this is a good reason to rethink the idea of using animation in email marketing.

The Benefits of Using Animation in Your Email Marketing

One advantage of using animated GIFs is the attention factor. Animation engages readers visually and draws their eye to the page. With so many people skimming emails before deciding whether to read, anything you can do to distinguish your correspondence from the bulk of emails works in your favor. Animation grabs attention and makes your email correspondence stand out.

Strategically-placed GIFs can be used to draw your reader’s eye to points you want to emphasize or highlight your call to action and encourage readers to scroll down the page. They can also be used to demonstrate benefits and features of products. Unlike video, GIFs have a small file size that makes them practical to use in emails. Animation can give your email more personality and eye appeal and can be used to spread cheer around the holidays and put your customers in a buying mood.

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Plain Text Formatting: It’s Still a Must for Email Campaigns


Does it make any sense to still use plain text formatting for email campaigns, today?
The way an email is formatted can make a huge difference in who will be able to read your emails.
For example, at present, not all mobile email clients can handle HTML messages. This means that a part of your subscribers who check their emails on-the-go may not be able to read your messages properly if you decide to send out HTML emails only.

Sending plain text email campaigns can avoid these issues. In general (like in SendBlaster), you can choose between two options: Send an HTML+ a plain text version or send plain text only. In either case, it’s smart to format your plain text version so that your message is clearly communicated and the email itself if visually pleasing.

Plain Text Email Formatting Tips
Compared to shiny HTML email campaigns, plain text can appear rather dull, right? While plain text can’t compare to HMTL, you can make it attractive by:
Using standard fonts – Stick with a traditional, easy-to-read font such as Times New Roman or Verdana.
Using bold headers and plenty of white space – People are busy and don’t have much time for newsletters. Bold headers make it easy to scan text and find relevant information while white space aids in keeping your message attractive and readable.
Keeping messages short and concise – Again, it comes down to how busy your subscribers are. If they see an email message filled with huge blocks of text, they may not bother reading it. Large blocks of text give the impression that reading the message will be time-consuming.

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The Explosive Growth of Pinterest

First there was Facebook, but now there’s a new “face” in town. It’s a site that’s attracting a record number of new users eager to jump on board the next big thing. According to Business Insider, traffic to Pinterest has increased by more than 40 times since December of 2011. As of January 2012, Pinterest had 11.7 million unique users, and this social media site with a twist continues to experience explosive growth. Media giants are taking notice. The Wall Street Journal is already using Pinterest to cover fashion week in New York City. This is appropriate since almost six out of ten Pinterest members are female. Not surprisingly, businesses are eagerly searching for ways to use Pinterest to market their goods and services, especially businesses that market to females.

How Pinterest Works

Pinterest is a visually-oriented social media site that draws attention not with words but with pictures. Members create categories and themes for photos that interest them online and pin them onto themed pinboards. Themes might include anything from “delicious desserts” to “sexiest little black dresses.” Members are free to post and share images they find on the web so other members can enjoy and hopefully share them with others. If a member finds a compelling image, they can repin it by adding it to their own pinboard or share it on Facebook or Twitter. Pinterest members can also choose other like-minded pinners to follow, creating their own community of members with similar interests. It’s visual social media at its best.

To add exclusivity, you need an invitation to join Pinterest. Anyone is free to visit the site and fill out a form to join, but non-members must wait for an invitation to arrive through email to become a member. This can take several days. Another member can also extend an invitation to a non-member to join.

Is Pinterest a Marketing Tool?

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Create Your Content Calendar

The biggest challenge of Internet marketing isn’t collecting email addresses, and it’s not figuring out what sort of copy is most likely to persuade someone to click. It’s figuring out what to say.
Too often, that’s a last-minute decision. Marketers set aside a time to write their newsletter or push out an email and it’s not until their fingers are above their keyboard that they start wondering what kind of topic they should write about this week.

That’s the wrong way to go about creating an effective email marketing effort. Although routine is an important aspect of keeping a subscriber list engaged and interested, it’s also important to plan out the content in advance — to know exactly what you want to say long before you have to say it.
That doesn’t just make the writing easier — although it will do that. It also lets you build anticipation through a series of related messages, and increase urgency to buy.

Turn One Email into Many

The most important time to plan ahead is when you’re announcing a special offer. You won’t want simply to tell your subscribers that for the next five days they’ll be able to buy your product for 20 percent off. You’ll want to tell them on the first day that they can buy it cheaply, send a follow-up email two days later reminding them that they’re missing out and send a third email on the last day pointing out that if they don’t buy now they’ll have to pay more in the future.

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How to Switch Your Email Marketing Service to SendBlaster

With its one-time fee and loads of practical features,  SendBlaster PRO can be considered a compelling alternative to many of the more expensive email marketing service providers.

However, those users who are already using other email marketing services or softwares, may be concerned about possible risks, especially regarding their existing email list. After all, we know how much time and efforts are necessary to build an opt-in list. Fortunately, switching your email marketing service to SendBlaster is easier than you may think…and your list is entirely portable.

On top of that, check what you should do to cancel your current service.  You may need to cancel automatic recurring payments through your Paypal account, accessing your client area or sending an email to their support team. Obviously, every ESP has their own conditions of use. But, no worries. Most of them will allow you to cancel anytime, without fees or extra charges. Simply, double check their terms, in order to avoid possible issues before starting any switching process.

Export your list
Whether you’re using an email service provider such as MailChimp or Aweber or email software such as GroupMail, the most important step is to export your list. All email marketing tools, whether online or software-based, include an export feature. While the steps may vary slightly, expect to be able to export your list to a CSV file which can then be imported as-is into SendBlaster or first modified via Microsoft Excel and then imported.

Some export tools allow you to specify what to export such as active subscribers only. This is important because you do not want to import contacts that have previously unsubscribed as that would violate the CAN-SPAM Act. If your email marketing service provider’s tool doesn’t allow you to export active subscribers only, you will need to open the CSV file in Microsoft Excel (or a similar tool) and delete all contacts that have previously unsubscribed. Save the file on your PC and then import your list into SendBlaster.

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Drive Traffic to Your Website With Squidoo

Do you Squidoo? If not, you’re missing out on a simple way to market your business and build your brand. Squidoo is the brainchild of a savvy entrepreneur named Seth Godin, and it’s now one of the premier Web 2.0 sites on the internet. When you join the growing number of internet marketers who “Squidoo,” you have the freedom to create an unlimited number of Squidoo lenses on the topics of your choice for online promotion.

A Squidoo lens is a page you create using easy-to-use tools that require no technical skills. It’s fast and easy to create a Squidoo lens on the topic of your choice whether it’s a product or service you want to promote or to draw traffic to your website. You can also use it to share information about a topic you’re passionate about. Blatant commercial promotion is discouraged on Squidoo, but it’s okay to include a link to your website in a lens. The beauty of Squidoo is how simple it is to get the word out about your business or anything else that strikes your fancy.

How It Works

Once you sign up with Squidoo, you can use the simple lens-building tools they provide to create your first lens. You build a lens by adding “modules” to your page. Some of the most popular modules are the text module where you can post an article or blog post, photo and video modules, news and feed modules, voting and comment modules and modules that allow you to sell product from stores like Amazon, Ebay and Zazzle while earning a commission. If you already have content you’ve written stored on your computer, you can create a Squidoo lens in as little as ten minutes. When you build a lens, the URL for your new lens is squidoo.com/titleofyour lens. When you choose the right keywords, this helps with search engine optimization. It works best when you use less competitive, long-tail keywords.

The Benefits of Building a Squidoo Lens for Online Promotion

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The Noob Guide To Online Marketing [infographic]

The folks at Unbounce designed this awesome infographic, a detailed visual guide to online marketing that explains how to promote a website or a service using 8 different methods, like Content Marketing, Pay-Per-Click and Email Marketing.

Click on the image to enlarge (it’s huge!)

via Unbounce




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