Email Marketing Tips Blog

Many marketers seed their autoresponder lists with test email addresses from various email providers to test delivery and appearance. But with the growth in the iPhone, Blackberry, and other smart phones, it’s essential to test your message on these devices as well.

I’m not an early adopter in the smart phone category, and just purchased my iPhone last year. If I’m out of town for a business trip, I can quickly scan my email for important messages that need to be answered before I return to my home office. It’s simply an adjunct to my normal method of reading email, which is from my office computer.

My daughter, however, is in that early adopter group (she’s a college student). She confessed that she seldom uses a computer anymore, especially for such mundane tasks as email.

She is not alone. 

Reading email on the run with a tiny screen is a far different experience than viewing them on a 24” monitor from the comfort of your home or office. It is critical that, as marketers, we understand what will – and will not – work for mobile devices. The best way to do so is to view your emails on several types of smart phones. This will give you the best indication of your subscriber’s experience.

You may also wish to consider offering an alternative email address, with messages specifically designed for smart phones. Or, you might include a link that goes to an abridged version of your message.

If you use one group of messages for everyone, be sure to include lots of white space, short sentences and paragraphs (only 2–3 sentences each), and bulleted or numbered lists. Your emails need to be easy to scan while remaining compelling enough to “get the click”.

You might also test a short message linking people to “the rest of the story” on your blog or web site.

If you haven’t tested your emails, I encourage you to do so TODAY! You might be shocked to see the condition of your message!

Have you made changes to your emails or newsletter to accommodate mobile devices? Share them below!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

We are extremely excited to announce Get Response has joined another web 2.0 community!

Join the Get Response conversation at: www.twitter.com/getresponse

For those of you who are new to Twitter, here are the basics:

Twitter asks one question, “What are you doing?” The answers must be under 140 characters so users get right to the point! And Twitter messages can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web, so it goes anywhere you go.

Want to learn more? Check it out for yourself at:

https://twitter.com/about#about.

Why Twitter?
It’s fast, easy, and immediate! For most of us, business emails, and even blogs, take up too much time and are often outdated by the time we get to them. Twitter helps us stay plugged in to late-breaking news, great ideas, interesting people, and customer feedback in real time, as it’s happening!

You can use Twitter to monitor discussions, offer opinions and comments, and communicate directly with our global GetResponse family. The list is endless, but here’s a sampling:

• What’s new on the product front?
• Update your contact information.
• GetResponse “tips and tricks”.
• What’s on the drawing board?
• Affiliate program news, bios, stories.
• “Who does what” at GetResponse?
• User experiences and suggestions.

This last one is HUGE! Get in touch with other GR users. Get opinions on various subjects and save time and money, while meeting new people with similar interests and jobs. Ask them:

• What they like / don’t like?
• Why did they choose GR?
• How is the support?
• Success stories and examples?

So check in often as the GetResponse Team will be providing loads of valuable info and updates. This is just the beginning of our list!

• Blog updates
• Email marketing articles, tips
• Product updates, enhancements
• Technical questions, suggestions
• Special offers, pricing updates

If we sound excited, it’s for good reason. Twitter is already having a big impact on the speed of our communications and knowledge exchange. More importantly, we’re hearing directly from our customers every day. That will help make GetResponse better, faster for all of us!

We invite you to join us on Twitter TODAY and get in the middle of the GetResponse conversation! It only takes a minute to plug into this mega-watt channel! Let’s talk!

The GetResponse Team

It’s been proven that the more information you require in your opt-in form, the fewer people will complete it. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when designing your form:

• Determine what you must know. Aside from an email address, is there any additional information that is crucial?
• What fields will enhance the user experience? While it is not a requirement to include names, it does contribute to a friendlier email.
• Can you offer a bonus or special offer for providing more information? For instance, you may wish to offer an optional, physical CD of a report if the mailing address is completed. You’ve created a win-win situation.
• Is it possible to ask for more information once your relationship with the reader has been established? This can be accomplished through surveys, polls, and soliciting direct comments.
• Are all fields mandatory? There may be some cases where you can ask for optional information. One field that comes to mind is phone numbers. If people feel forced to provide a phone number, it probably won’t be a correct one. By making this field optional, you’ll dramatically increase the percentage of good phone numbers.
• What segmented lists can you promote? You can separate your list by product purchase or customers vs. prospects. Perhaps you’d like to segment by experience level or geographic location. Provide additional content for these groups and you will find many of your readers signed up for multiple lists.

Do you have any proven opt-in form tips? Please share them below!

Debbi Bressler
GetResponse

If your business relies on foot traffic, you may think that topics such as email marketing and list building don’t pertain to you.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

In this competitive environment, it is more critical than ever to keep in contact with your customers and potential customers. Email marketing is one of the easiest and inexpensive ways to keep your company top-of-mind, so that when your customer is ready to buy, they’ll think of you first.

Here are a few steps you can take today to keep in touch …

1. Set up an email marketing account with GetResponse. You can have your first email ready to go quickly and easily, by simply following the step-by-step videos within the GetResponse customer center.
2. Determine your offer. Here are a few suggestions:

   Discount Coupon
   Buy One – Get One Free
   Free Offer – (i.e. a dentist offers a free exam)
   Kids Eat Free
   Valuable Report (5 Tips to Selling Your Home at Top Dollar)
   Free Consultation. This works well for those in service industries, such as financial planners.

   Whatever you decide, be certain that the offer has value to your customer and include an expiration date to create a sense or urgency.

3. Once you’ve determined your offer, you can set up your email campaign. You should also create your opt-in form for those visiting your web site.
4. Promote your offer.

   Cash Register Receipts. If you use a cash register in your business, contact the company that provided it. They can tell you how to add a message to your cash register receipts, promoting your offer page to everyone who purchases from you.

   Train Personnel. “Selling” email subscribers is not much different from selling your products, so train all personnel to do this. As a minimum, they’ll want to circle the information on a customer’s sales receipt and call attention to it when checking them out.

   Point of Sale Signage. Add a sign to your counter promoting your email coupon or highlighting this month’s coupon special. People hate to miss out and this will encourage them to sign up…or remind them to check their email.

   Sign Them Up on the Spot. Just recently, I signed up for a Macy’s credit card because I could save 15% on a few-hundred-dollar purchase. Why not offer the same to customers who are not yet signed up to your list? You might have a computer available for them to immediately go online, sign up, and confirm while they are in the store.

   Offer Incentives for Referrals. Recently, I mentioned a referral program used by Restaurant.com. But you can take that a step further and offer your readers an incentive for forwarding your offer to others. In the case of Restaurants.com, they could have further incentivized their readers by giving THEM a free gift certificate (or another premium) for every five friends who joined the list.

   Include Your Landing Page URL on all marketing material. It’s easy to forget, but be sure to include your web site on business cards, yellow page listings, Chamber of Commerce directories, space ads, direct mail – anything that promotes your company.

   Joint Venture with Another Business. Years ago, I worked with a client who owned a flower show. We created a relationship with a restaurant in the same center and each business owner promoted the other, thus expanding the “lists” of both. Think of companies in a similar, but not competitive niche to yours. (As an example, a financial planner might offer a coupon for a free consultation with an attorney for clients who haven’t prepared a Will. Or, a used car lot might promote someone’s “Free Oil Change” promotion, while they promote $250 off your car purchase.

The above is quick and easy to do. You can add, subtract, or tweak in the future. But, by implanting the above, you can begin building your email marketing list in days!

If you are a bricks and mortar business and have ideas you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you! Please comments below.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Continuing with our series of articles about building your list, here’s some great information recently shared by MarketingSherpa about making small tweaks to your registration form.

Before starting, be certain you’ve set a control that you can test against and are using tracking software, like HyperTracker, so you can easily compare conversion statistics. Here are some areas to test:

1. Type of offer. Test discounts,– vs. buy-one-get-one offers,– vs. free reports or ebooks– vs. exclusive offers.
2. Images. Most studies show that conversion is higher with images, as it lends physicality to your digital offering. But your business model could be different. Test images of coupons, freebies (like free appetizers at a restaurant), or sample reports / newsletters. You can even test your offer without an image to see if it improves or diminishes conversion.
3. Shorter is better. Test any degradation in conversion as you add required fields past the commonly used name and email address field.
4. Sell it. In a previous post, I mentioned “selling” your opt-in. MarketingSherpa’s report suggests testing your description as well. They suggest you concentrate on headlines that convey:
• Frequency – Monthly, weekly, daily
• Exclusivity – Special sales, discounts or content for subscribers only
• Excitement – Announce products to list before the general public, limited-time offers
5. Button. While the majority of marketers use “Submit” on their buttons, test other verbage to see if conversion improves. Some examples: Join, Sign Me UP, Subscribe, Count Me In, Send Me My Discount!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse