website

Monthly Archive for October, 2011

The Value of Facebook Fans Versus Email Subscribers

Published on October 31, 2011 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Every business should understand the differences between their fans on Facebook and their email subscribers. Which is best? Do you need to have both, or will one be sufficient? Businesses have many questions regarding the best way to promote their products and services in this era of Internet technology.

Most research concludes that email subscribers are the largest group of purchasers. When you consider that research also shows between 40% and 50% of Facebook fans become email subscribers, their significance becomes obvious. Marketing techniques are always evolving, and an approach that includes more than one venue for your business is the safest method to follow.

According to an October 2011 statement from Nielsen Online, participation in social media and blogs reached “nearly 80 percent of active U.S. Internet users, and represents the majority of Americans’ time online.” This is important information for businesses. Adapting marketing practices to current consumer behavior, provides a significant advantage over competitors who are less progressive.

Continue reading ‘The Value of Facebook Fans Versus Email Subscribers’

New Hotmail Features: Email Marketing Friend or Foe?

Published on October 25, 2011 in General and Tips & tricks. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Hotmail feels that it has won the war against spam, having announced that true spam in users’ inboxes has reduced to under 3% using SmartScreen™ filtering. Now they have turned their attention to graymail, the emails that users may or may not be happy to receive. Graymail includes newsletters that subscribers may have forgotten signing up for or time-limited offers that clog up users’ inboxes long after the deal has expired.  They found out that “more than half of the mail in a typical inbox is newsletters or deals, 17% is social updates, and about 14% is person to person email”.
For this reason, Hotmail announced on their blog that they will release soon some new features  to help users filter out unwanted emails and clean up their inboxes.

Let’s see the most relevant ones.

Newsletter Category
Using SmartscreenTM technology, Hotmail  automatically categorize newsletters, removing them from the general inbox. Boasting an initial accuracy rating of 95 percent, Hotmail’s technology will improve as users tailor their preferences. This feature will make it easy for users to ignore unwanted email newsletters. However, it will also allow them to quickly locate relevant information. Provided your emails contain valuable content of interest to your subscribers, Hotmail’s new newsletter category could work to your advantage.

Continue reading ‘New Hotmail Features: Email Marketing Friend or Foe?’

4 Free Halloween Email Templates

Published on October 24, 2011 in Sendblaster and Templates. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Halloween is fast approaching, so maybe you are looking for some themed templates to send out to your subsribers.
Here are 4 new Halloween templates that you can download and customize any way you want. They have already been tested in all major email clients, so just add your custom text, and/or your logo and send them out using SendBlaster!Halloweeen TemplaetsHow to use Halloween HTML email templates:
Download Halloween email template pack (zip)
Extract and copy .eml files in C:/Documents/SendBlaster2/Template
(in C:/Programs/Sendblaster/Template for SendBlaster 1.x versions)
Open SendBlaster (or download it)
Select “Compose message”
Click on “Choose template”
Choose your favorite Halloween template (2011 Halloween 01, 2011 Halloween 02, 2011 Halloween 03, 2011 Halloween 04)

Image Credits: Pickyme – Pajkabajka – Kirrara002

The Environmental Cost of SPAM [Infographic]

Published on October 20, 2011 in Infoghaph. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Did you know that SPAM has also a considerable environmental cost?
The folks at WebpageFX have calculated the carbon footprint of the world’s spamming activities and they discovered that “a certain amount of Spam emails is actually the equivalent to the level of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions released from driving 3 feet.”
In particular 28.5 million metric tons of CO2 per year are spam related. Pretty impressive.

Check out the infographic below and you will find out why spam is more than just an annoyance.

How to Apologize by Email and Retain Your Subscribers

Published on October 19, 2011 in Tips & tricks. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Everyone makes mistakes, but as an email marketer your blunders are often sent to thousands of subscribers at the click of a button. No matter how hard you try, your emails are unlikely to be 100 percent error-free all of the time.

If you discover some minor spelling mistakes, generally it is not required a formal apology. However, if you accidentally send an inappropriate or inaccurate email or if customers can’t access your promotional offer, we have some tips on how you can apologize gracefully and rescue the situation.

  1. Get your apology out as soon as possible after the event. Don’t wait until customers complain. A timely, proactive response will make your apology more meaningful.
  2. Be clear in your subject line and content that you are apologizing. Ironically, apologies have a higher open rate that regular email marketing campaigns. Even if the subscriber has not been personally affected, they are likely to open the email out of curiosity
  3. Tailor the content to match the mistake. Small errors may leave room for you to poke fun at yourself. Larger or more serious slip ups should be addressed with a suitably solemn tone.
  4. Consider having a senior manager or even the CEO sign the apology email to let subscribers know how important it is to the company. As a general rule, the more serious the error the more senior the signatory.
  5. It may be appropriate to include a special offer in your apology email. If customers have missed out on a promotion or discount due to a broken link or an over-loaded server, consider extending the offer or providing an additional discount. However, if you are apologizing for inappropriate tone or content, think twice about including a promotional offer. It may look as if you are trying to buy the customer off.
  6. Be sure that your email apology is flawless. Check it over several times before you hit the send button. Also, check and double-check that the issue leading to the apology has been fixed. There is little point apologizing for a defective discount code if you send a further faulty code in its place.

Image source: Flickr

Propel Your Email Marketing to the Top of the League

Published on October 12, 2011 in Best Practices. 0 Comments Tags: .

Sports fans are perhaps the most loyal of consumers. An avid sports fan remains unwaveringly loyal to his chosen team, no matter how well or how badly it performs. With the U.S. sports industry worth an estimated $422 billion in 2011, according to Plunkett Research, companies can capitalize on fan loyalty with sports-related email marketing campaigns.

Over half of Americans describe themselves as avid fans of mainstream sports. The 2011 Scarborough Sports Marketing Study reports that 53 percent of Americans are avid fans of football, baseball, basketball, hockey, NASCAR, or the Olympics. However, the study also reveals a loyal fan base for minority sports, such as gymnastics, figure skating, and horse racing. No matter which sport you choose, email marketing offers an opportunity to make a connection with dedicated fans.

Follow the Season
Email marketing to sports fans should mirror the ebb and flow of the sports year. Emails sent during the season should be rich with game-related content, including reviews of recent games, team news, and dates for future games. Game reports need to be sent out as soon as possible after the event. Be sure that your contributors can produce compelling content quickly if you want sports fans to be hooked by your post-game analysis.

You may have to work harder in the off-season to find sports-related content of interest to your subscribers. Use the quieter months for in-depth analysis or behind-the-scenes stories which make the fans feel like part of the team.

Continue reading ‘Propel Your Email Marketing to the Top of the League’

Load Times Plugin made by Cheap Web Hosting