Everyone talks about the “crash” kids experience after the presents have been opened, but not many of us adults talk about the post-Holiday blues we experience. Let’s be honest…after you’ve taken down the decorations and scooped all the best sales, it gets boring pretty fast.  So why not perk everyone up with a contest or 2!!

More than half of all Americans participated in a sweepstakes in the past year (FTC, 2009).

Apparently  we like contests, and that doesn’t just apply to the US! But we also know that unscrupulous marketers have used contests to con people out of their personal information − and sometimes their cash! So let’s get the basic rules out of the way NOW! Fortunately, they happen to be email marketing best practices anyway, for example:

• Identify your business clearly and provide your contact information.

• Be crystal clear about the contest rules, terms and conditions

• Offer customers an obvious and easy way to stop further solicitation (opt out).

• No “pay to play”, in other words, no one has to purchase anything to participate.

Now let’s start brainstorming! First of all, what do you want to achieve with your contest? Surely more than just list building, though that’s part of it for sure! Maybe you need to get your audiences primed for a new product launch? Or you’d like to find out how customers are using one of your products to stimulate more interest (and success stories!). Contests will perform for you IF you’re clear about your goals and follow through every step of the way.

Have your goals clearly in your mind? Good, now what’s the perfect theme, prize, and channels for your business and your high-value customers and prospects? Let’s brainstorm! We know everyone has their own processes, so use this as a “cocktail napkin” plan only. After all, YOU know best how to design the perfect contest for your business!

• Establish a clear goal for the contest and list what you hope to achieve.

• Decide which channels you’d like to use for your contest promotion (and how).

• Create a draft plan, with action steps, communications, timelines, and follow up.

• Identify the ideal audience(s) for your contest and create an audience “profile”.

• Create your target segment lists and message (s).

• Check your message headers, etc. against the “SPAM” list.

• Test your messages and groups with GetResponse Split Testing.

• Set up, schedule, and roll it out!

Of course, cool graphics and videos, promotion on social media sites, and teaser emails are all a “must”, but we’ll go into that in our next installment. For now, let us know about your favorite contests, success stories, or even disasters (what to avoid!).  Any contest topics you’d prefer to hear about? Finally, and most importantly, give your poor subscribers and prospects out there a bit of fun…and perhaps a nice gift to cheer them up! They deserve it − and it could cure your post-Holiday sales slump!

Use Contests to Chase Away The Post-Holiday Blues! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Holiday or not, these email stats are really starting to snowball! It was only this October that we posted the news GetResponse sends 500-million emails since the launch of 6.0! Today we checked our stats again to see how we were doing, and it had doubled!!! That’s a BILLION EMAILS sent since the launch!

So we immediately set about finding the lucky BILLIONTH email customer. Well, this time the email was sent from Portland, Oregon, USA, so without any warning,  we surprised the lucky customer with an exclusive GetResponse gift!

We love doing this…and we’re really glad to hear that GetResponse is getting stronger across all regions and markets. While we attribute this to our reliable, affordable and easy-to-use features (of course!), there’s no doubt that more and more marketers are turning to email as a proven driver of high ROI.

Let us know if you reach a major milestone, however large or small. If it’s progress, we want to hear about it

One Billion Emails Sent Since 6.0 Launch! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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We gave you some really big hints about the special holiday gift the GetResponse team prepared for you this year, but I guess the gigantic bolded text below gives it all away, so…

Yes, it’s true! We’re giving you FREE VIDEO EMAILS. FOREVER! All you have to do is purchase or upgrade your GetResponse account and you’ll get FREE Video Emails for the Life of your account!

GetResponse Multimedia Studio allows you to record, upload, send and store up to 100MB of season’s greetings, product demos, testimonials and event videos. It’s easy to do right from your account – no added software, equipment, or training required! And you must have heard about the 96% improvement in CTRs GetResponse video email users achieved, right? We did the analysis right here so you know it’s the real deal!

We can’t wait for you to get the same great results, but this is a holiday gift, so it’s time limited and valid ONLY between December 3th and January 2nd. But we’re giving you exactly a month to make your decision

Hurry and you’ll have time to send Holiday video greetings to friends, family, and customers. And what about your own Holiday promotion? Why not use video and almost double your click throughs?!

So don’t waste another minute! Go directly to the http://www.getresponse.com/holiday to purchase or upgrade your account and send FREE Video Emails Forever!

Free Video Emails Forever. Only from GetResponse! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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As you probably know GetResponse is celebrating its 10th anniversary by offering a special promotion to all new and existing clients. To take advantage of the discount, you need to purchase or upgrade a GetResponse account in the time allowed.

When we started the promotion, it was supposed to be valid only through November 30th, but bargain-hunting email marketers are still purchasing and upgrading accounts like crazy so we decided to extend it one more day!

So hurry…you have 24 EXTRA hours to sign up, then it’s over and regular pricing will apply! If you’re not sure how much time you have left, just check out the countdown clock on the GetResponse website. Remember, there’s only one day left to SAVE!

Get 10% off till tomorrow ONLY! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Based on tips from our first Holiday “blogathon”, we ALL know now that targeting your Holiday email messages can increase open rates by 20% and almost double your CTR1 .  But have you thought about the BEST way to use targeting and list segmentation for the holidays?

Should we do targeting a little different on Holiday perhaps? It’s certainly a unique season in many ways…

Our answer is “yes” and here’s why. Everyone wants to connect in more personal ways this time of year, even at the subscriber-relationship level.  And many of us may be a bit tired or emotional as we plow through double the usual amount of promotional emails, until we just give up and execute the dreaded “select>all>delete’.  Our point is, again, take care to personalize your subject line, titles, greetings and salutations, etc. and target your messages, but in a way that is practical and helpful to each of your target profiles. Don’t send too many messages,  and avoid hype at all costs…rather be a valued shopping partner during this hectic holiday season. Here’s how:

1.    First, send the easiest and most effective Holiday card ever! Create a personal video email greeting you “made yourself” with GetResponse Multimedia Studio! Include family, pets, friends, etc. Everyone wants to hear about family this time of year, so why not share! Now, segmentation…

2.    Use purchasing history data to recommend products or services your customer may like to give as gifts; add value by segmenting your suggestions by demographics, relationship (work, family), etc.

3.    Have fun with geo-location data and group your cross-sell and complementary gift suggestions according to climate, culture, etc. For example, faux fur scarves and mittens or mint julep apple cider mix? Depending on what you offer, there could be lots of practical uses for this info.

4.    Did you run any product surveys this year? Use the results to include your highest customer rated products, and tell them why. Don’t forget to include a testimonial or 2 and a video demo of the top recommended products using video marketing!

5.    Customize your design. Choose your segment look and feel from the 300+ templates GetResponse offers, or order a custom template just for Holiday. Remember to include your best product, service, or destination pictures with easy links to order pages, articles, and reviews.

6.    Options for emailing your campaign to friends and family, posting on Twitter, etc. We’re thinking it’s going to be a HUGE season for social media sites, so think “viral” (the good kind!).

7.    We have one last suggestion that you may not have tried yet. We ALL know you can access the total dollar value of each customer’s purchases, right? Why not try what the BIG retailers do and segment a list by “value” and create a campaign just for them! You could even ask them if they would be interested in receiving additional product recommendations from you this season and, if so, you could increase email frequency to this high-value group. Even if a relatively small number “opt in”, the dollar value of sales revenues may surprise and delight you!

Got some great ideas you’d like to share? Please let us know what topics or issues you’d like to discuss and we promise we’ll respond!

7 (more) email marketing tips to making your Holiday wishes come true! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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A couple of days ago we wrote about why recipients mark your messages as SPAM. We received some good feedback and since we agree that it’s an important subject – especially with the upcoming holiday “spammathon”, we decided to follow up with some more basics…

SPAM is a “four-letter word” that can make you furious when you don’t understand the reasons behind it, or give you a few sleepless nights before a big campaign. Now we’re pretty sure that you know the basic SPAM words such as “sex”, “drugs”, “Viagra” or “for free” and “no cost”. But there are many more words and phrases that can cause that your messages to be blocked by ISP SPAM filters, and the list grows longer every day!

So we decided to do our own research and discover the most common words and phrases you should avoid using in your title, subject line, and message content.
It’s not the entire SPAM list, of course, but at least it will highlight the “big offenders” so you can bookmark or print it out to make sure your email marketing campaigns avoid the “curse of SPAM!” and hit their targets every time!

Source: Profitknowledge.com , Salesnexus.com, Hostdepartment.com. Deliverability.com

Those Forbidden SPAM words! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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The CAN-SPAM complaint footer is a long-standing email marketing best practice. This feature provides your company name, street address and contact info. It should be an obligatory and stable footer that subscribers can’t erase.

There are three basic requirements for any CAN-SPAM complaint footer:
·    Unsubscribe link
Never take your readers for granted. Give them the opportunity to choose if they still want to receive messages from you. Include an “Unsubscribe link” in every email and you’ll find out instantly if you’re succeeding! Providing a clear and concise unsubscribe process can prevent spam complaints, so it’s not only a good email marketing practice, it can improve your deliverability and campaign ratings.

·    Privacy policy link
This is a link to a legal document which describes how you or your company retains, processes, and purges customer data. Privacy policies usually contain details regarding what personal information is collected, how it may be used, any persons or entities to whom the information may be disclosed, and the security measures taken to protect the personal information. The exact contents of a privacy policy will depend upon applicable law. For instance, there are significant differences between the EU data protection and US data privacy laws. Detailed information regarding policy laws can be found online.

·    Physical street address
Finally, according to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, a physical street address must be included in every commercial email message. However, the new rule states that a valid post office box or a private mailbox may be used, as long as it is registered with the United States Post Office, or with a commercial mail service that follows all USPS regulations. If the post office box or private mailbox wasn’t accurately registered, or if the registrant failed to comply with applicable requirements, the address will be deemed “invalid” and the sender will be liable for non-compliance.

Example of CAN SPAM Complaint Footer

Imagine you’re a recipient of hundreds of email messages every day (maybe you are!).  You also subscribe to a few select mailing lists and DO NOT want annoying messages from companies you don’t know or remember. Imagine how helpful it would be if every questionable email included the complaint footer!  You’d be able to check the physical address of the company to confirm it actually exists, or simply use the unsubscribe option.  Whether you choose to stay on the list or not, at least you would consider the company trustworthy and professional, as they’re not afraid to reveal their corporate details and allow you to unsubscribe at any time.  What’s more, you can also read their privacy policy to get information about what they do with your personal data. So maybe their content is worth reading after all? And perhaps their products or services are worth taking a look at? If you’re not interested, you can always unsubscribe in a New York minute!

Now if you’re thinking “sure, I can provide my business address and privacy policy statement, but that “Unsubscribe link” could wipe out my entire database!” Don’t worry!  If your subscribers use the “Unsubscribe link” too much, it tells you that you probably need to consider the following:

·    It’s actually better when subscribers click on the “Unsubscribe link” than on “This is SPAM”! That could mean that subscriber wouldn’t be a valuable customer anyway.

·    QUALITY NOT QUANTITY. It’s better to have a smaller database containing high-quality contacts that actually purchase your products and increase your revenues, than a huge database of useless contacts.

·    Finally, it could be you need to double-check your email marketing best practices to ensure your messages are relevant, sent at appropriate frequency, not too personal, you know, everything we’ve been blogging about recently. Be honest! It could mean a big difference in your ROI. And if you’re not sure, time for another survey!

Build trust with the CAN-SPAM complaint footer is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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The GetResponse Team will be on deck demonstrating how to integrate email marketing and social media across online and mobile channels, and how to use video emails, surveys and email analytics to double or triple email marketing ROI. Visitors are welcome to test drive their favorite solutions, sign up for free accounts and special discounts, and receive the latest Email Marketing Secrets Guide. It’s going to be a blast − and a great opportunity to build your skills and your business.

Register today for ad:tech New York and meet the GetResponse team in person! We’ll bring the best of 10 years of online marketing experience and customer service to every demonstration, so you won’t be disappointed. In fact, we guarantee that visitors to Booth # 2110 will leave with new-found knowledge, tips and techniques guaranteed to increase their online marketing success.

So are you ready to take your online marketing to the next level? Sign up today and be sure to ask about the special GetResponse discount offer for ad:tech attendees ONLY!

Register now! Print map and write on Booth #2110 − “GetResponse! The best booth at ad:tech − Must See!”

We can’t wait to meet you! See you in the Big Apple at the world-famous ad:tech conference!

GetResponse team at ad:tech conference in New York is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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We’ll discuss that possibility and many others in the next few posts, but for now, let’s focus on helping you come up with ideas…like an “idea account” you can draw from on short notice. The only trick is your ideas MUST be relevant to your target audience (s), however you define them.

So, let’s begin: some of these tips are no-brainers, others require a bit of discipline, but pay off in a big way, especially when it’s 10AM and your newsletter needed to go out at 7. Remember that lunch-time reading break? So, let’s pretend you’re starting from scratch…no ideas.
·    Do a retrospective review of most successful newsletters and create topic list.
·    Do your research! Browse industry blogs, competitor sites (sign up for newsletters), online news and discussion forums, social networking sites, etc. Create another topic list, with sources and dates. BTW: organize your folders and files NOW.
·    Compare the 2 lists and cull for “hot” topics from last few months. Do they fall into categories that you should separate and track, like:
-       Case studies
-    Tips and tricks.
-    Opinions, reviews
-    Expert articles.
-    Surveys
-    Contests
-    Event info
-    Interviews
·    Keep separate folders for each category, and populate with ideas, articles, blurbs and snippets as you progress through your busy day. Make it a habit. You may even use a “rating” system, from best to not-so-great, so you can balance quality and desperation.
·    Supplement these easy steps with regular online surveys, either polling on a list of topics or requesting open-ended feedback on any topics of interest. File this valuable information away in your category files and you’re on your way.

Easy, huh! We’re probably talking about 5-10 minutes every day, or 15-20 every other day. But do this religiously, and you’ll have a treasure trove of content to draw from for that midnight composition! And it’s “pre-qualified” by you, so you know it’s good.

Stay tuned for very specific tips about making your content more exciting, relevant and timely!

Drawing a Blank? Create Newsletter Content Ahead of Time! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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It features: brand new user-friendly icons to help both new and experienced users navigate quickly and efficiently, saving some time and stress. They are self-explanatory and communicate clearly what each icon represents and what it can do for your message. But these cool icons aren’t the only things we’ve changed in the GetResponse Editor. We’ve significantly improved the speed and removed all the little “speed bumps” that you told us slowed you down in the last version.

Our mission is to help you create better campaigns every time, and we sincerely hope this helps.

Check Out the New and Improved Editor! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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