Come to think of it, GetResponse is so easy to use, YOU could create your summer campaigns at the beach! Just decide what types of campaigns and contests to run, choose your themes, and you’re off! And don’t forget to start recording and collecting the videos and testimonials, graphics, and pics NOW you want to use. After all, you have a ton of storage in your Getrepsonse Multimedia Studio, so why not use it! Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Let’s begin with how to use summer themes, then we’ll talk about the types of campaigns and contests you could run to generate interest in what your brand is doing to contribute to the summer fun!

* Summer themes

* BBQs
* Beach fun
* Eating out
* Fishing, boating
* Fairs, festivals
* Hiking
* Games
* Travel
* Water sports
* and… feel free to add your own!

Pick a summer theme and create a multimedia experience around it − From the title and subject line, through the offer, message, graphics, media, and calls to action – make it a total experience! Include one link or media file solely for entertainment value, like a link to an online game, puzzle, music or “cool” summer video.  Need video content? Attend as many local fairs and festivals as possible, not just to get your brand noticed and to network, but to record the event and share it with your readers.  And why not let your customers be creative with a video testimonial recorded at the amusement park or the pool?! Finally, make your campaigns even more fun and convenient with Email-to-Speech! They can listen while they’re at the “barbie”!

•    Choose the perfect design from 300+ GetResponse templates, then customize with your pics, videos, music, summer recipes, jokes, whatever you think will make the email engaging AND relevant.  Wrap it all up in sunny summer colors, with attention to your brand image, and it’s like a “party in an email”!

* Just make sure not to over-do it and hide your CTA buttons, links, or offer with too many special effects. Remember, the key to good email design is balancing text, graphics and media without losing sight of your goal – sales and sign-ups!

Contests & Giveaways
•    Wow, more than half of all Americans participated in a sweepstakes in the past year.(1) Almost everyone loves a contest… and everyone loves something for free, right?  So let your creativity run wild and plan at least one contest per month per target audience. In other words, try using a different contest theme and prizes for each unique segment to increase response rates.

Now we’re pretty sure you’re pros at contests, but please take care to follow these basic rules:
­ * 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.

•    Contests and giveaways offer the perfect opportunity to use your summer themes to have some fun!  Here are a few ideas to get the creativity flowing:

* Best BBQ recipe
* Best summer cocktail
* Funniest beach video
* Backyard antics video
* Best games for long car rides
* Silliest “fish story”
* Most amazing view photo contest
* Any summer-related “best use of product” video (ask a customer to record it!)

Really, the list is endless. But don’t forget to make the grand prize part of your summer theme, like the winner of Best BBQ recipe would get dinner for 2 at a famous local BBQ restaurant. Or tickets to a local festival featuring a BBQ competition, and so forth.  Throw in a gift certificate for your products or services, so they’ll come back for more… or send their friends! And of course, you KNOW you need to follow up with autoresponders every step of the way. Remember, your audience is focused on having fun, not responding to email campaigns!!

Multi-channel it!
Because your target audiences are often on the road, literally, make sure you use a variety of channels to cover all the bases. For example, they may not be working online while sunbathing, but could be tweeting, right? And you know they’ll ALL have their cell phones with them! So here are few tips to make it easier to reach these audiences – and for them to reach you!
* Design your campaign for small mobile phone screens.
* Use short videos to grab attention and for social sharing.
* Ratchet up your tweet campaigns to keep the conversation going.
* Post outdoor pics and videos on social media sites of your product in action.
* Run your contests and giveaways on every popular social media site.
* Use Email-to-Speech for the beach! Seriously, what better way to reach mobile, fun-loving, multi-tasking families while they’re on the go. It’s safe and easy − and you can put it on speakerphone!

Frequency & Timing!
This is better left to your discretion, as you know your audience better than anyone. However, there are major factors that come into play in the summer that you need to consider, mainly:

* Target audiences are probably checking their email LESS frequently, so you may want to survey in early summer to find out how often they want to hear from you.
* Subscribers aren’t thinking about spending MORE money, so proceed with caution! No “hard sell” tactics!
* Families and singles are usually off early Friday afternoon, so not a good day for your marketing messages. But what about Sundays?! It’s always been a good performer, and in the summer, it could be the perfect day of the week to launch your latest “fun” campaign. So stay on track with your newsletters, etc. Tuesday – Thursday, but save the Big Fun for  the weekends.
* As always, test, test, test. Consumer behavior during the vacation months is hard to predict, but if you split test everything, you’re sure to plug into exactly what they need and want!

So happy sailing, or hiking, or whatever you’re doing, but most of all, “happy emailing”! This is where we ask for your comments, but seriously, we REALLY would like to hear what kind of fun you’re planning for your subscribers this summer. Write and tell us!

1(FTC, 2009).

Summer tips for keeping fun-loving subscribers engaged. is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

Related posts

• Six Overused Email Marketing Tactics That Surprisingly Still Work
• “Content is King” – in Email Marketing Too
• How to avoid email marketing monologue

Automating email marketing is all about “doing more with less”. It’s like having a private “virtual assistant” working for you so you can focus on growing your business. You’ll profit by saving time and increasing sales and customer retention. And higher sales bring higher profits, so you see, this game really is a “win-win”.

Just like newsletters and product promotions, automated email messages play an important role in your marketing mix. Whether it’s a one-time “triggered” email or a lengthy series, all you need to do is create your list, compose your message(s), set the delivery intervals, schedule and forget about it! And of course, you can always tweak anything you need to at any time. But most importantly, automated email messages have the power to keep your audiences engaged and informed instantly, or over a period of weeks, even months − without investing an extra minute (or dime) of your time!

To simplify email message automation for you, we’ve highlighted some common uses so you can get measurable results right from the start.

Welcome messages

Say ‘Hello!’ to your new customers and stay in touch by sending timed emails designed to introduce them to the benefits of your product, brand and company, and how to get the most benefit from their purchase or subscription. These emails, called autoresponder or follow-up campaigns, usually include 2-4 emails sent over a period of 2-4 weeks, but, of course, it varies depending on your audience profile, timing, etc. These welcome and follow-up messages will get your subscribers revved up and ready for more!

Drip campaigns

We all know it take 5 or more contacts to make a sale, so most successful campaigns contain an element of automation called a “drip campaign”. Much like the welcome messages, these emails include a series of emails sent over a period of days or weeks, but they are much more focused on bringing the customer along the sales cycle and to the point of purchase. The messages should be informative, targeted, and carefully choreographed to answer their objections and build interest in your product or service. This type of campaign is probably the most powerful revenue generating tool you have in your email arsenal!

Trial tips

Your Free Trial subscribers are like a vein of gold waiting to be mined! Don’t miss your chance to convince subscribers who are already using your product or service of the benefits of upgrading to the real deal! Send them automated messages with value-added materials, tutorials, and testimonials from other enthusiastic customers, etc. This type of autoresponder campaign is a “power tool” for sales and sign ups!

Event/webinar campaign

Don’t let your clients miss the event they signed up for! It could mean lost sales or worse, lost customers! Use email automation to send them some or all of the following to get them back on track: event information, invitation, schedule, potential benefits, or everything summarized in an eye-catching template. Make it easy for them to remember why they signed up in the first place. Let them know you encourage their participation because it will help their business!

Birthday and anniversary greetings

Show your customers that you remember the important milestones in their lives! Whenever a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary draws close, choose the perfect template for the event or business, and personalize it with a message just for them. If possible, include a special coupon or small gift to let them know you value their loyalty. Remember, you can do all this ahead of time, and it will go out on time − automatically!

Surveys

Know your customer! It’s really important to monitor customer satisfaction with your products, company, support and service, etc. – and not just once in a blue moon! There are many ways you can do this and some involve…you guessed it – email automation!

For example, you can set up a “triggered” email message to automatically ask recipients for feedback every time they consult Customer Service. Or you could schedule a short survey to go out to every customer that purchases a certain product or service. There are a million good reasons to find out what your customers are thinking…and doing. Remember, customer satisfaction is the key to your success, and email automation can help!

Transactional messages

The traditional goal of these automated messages is to confirm an action. While some have broadened the definition to include anything that confirms OR requires and action, we think that just confuses. Automated transactional messages are usually sent when a recipient signs up for a newsletter, downloads an e-book, makes a reservation, wins an online auction, buys a product in an e-shop, etc. They provide a record of the transaction and an e-bookmark to easily find the document at a later date, but − that doesn’t mean they have to be boring. It never hurts to add a tasteful ad or special offer in one corner of the document!

Educational campaigns

These automated campaigns help to keep your Value Proposition in the recipient’s mind. Subscribers really appreciate information that helps them gain more benefits from using a product or service. For example, if you run a job portal, you could schedule an educational series on how to create a stand-out CV; another one might be on how to deal with stress, and so forth. Everyone appreciates receiving helpful and useful guides and tips – especially when they’re free! Remember, helping customers succeed helps your brand succeed.

Inactive lead campaign

What if recipients stop responding to your emails? Even if it seems like they’ve forgotten about you, you shouldn’t give up! Most subscribes live busy lives and deal with a lot of inbox clutter. To renew their interest, you’ll want to develop an email automation campaign similar to your Welcome and drip email series, except this time target recipients who have been inactive for say, the last 6 months. The purpose of these messages is to remind them of the value of remaining a subscriber and “sweeten the pot” with some special offers to motivate them to action!

Renewal reminders

Most customers appreciate it when you remind them with an automated email that their subscription-based contract is about to expire. It spares them the trouble of an unexpected termination notification, and lets them know you value them as a subscriber.

We hope we’ve provided you with enough automation options to start with, or perhaps to update what you’re currently doing. How and when you use the power of automation depends completely on your knowledge of your business and your customers. Of course, having the right email marketing tools is essential…but we’ve got you covered there!

Good luck and please send us any stories or tips you’d like to share about email automation!

Automate your email marketing and increase profits! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

Related posts

• Six Overused Email Marketing Tactics That Surprisingly Still Work
• “Content is King” – in Email Marketing Too
• How to avoid email marketing monologue

Perhaps you read our previous posts on “SPAM – why did they do that” and “Build trust with the CAN-SPAM complaint footer”. Now we want to give you some useful tips on how to create and send emails with high-impact graphics, photos and, yes, video − AND avoid any hints of SPAM scandal!

Now we all know that sometimes your messages end up in SPAM folders and you don’t know why − you think you did everything right. There can be lots of reasons, but sometimes it’s the graphical content, and that’s a shame, because we know how hard you work to create attractive emails.

The solution is quite simple. If you’re using photos, images or videos in your messages, upload them first to GetResponse Multimedia Studio, then insert them directly from GetResponse Multimedia into your messages. That way your emails will be automatically optimized for media content, reducing those pesky SPAM incidents.

It only takes a few minutes and it’s really easy. All you do is login to your account, click “Multimedia” on the GetResponse Dashboard, then choose what kind of file you want to upload − document, image or video. Next, when creating your message, just click on the Editor Multimedia icon and upload the file you want to paste in your message.

Wait, there’s more! You can upload files from GetResponse Multimedia Studio to your confirmation emails. For instance, if you paste your logo in a confirmation email, it will be less likely to end up in a SPAM folder. That way, recipients will quickly find you and confirm their subscription – so you can start pitching!. It really works, try it!

Save time, money and aggravation! Remember, if you want to upload images or video to your messages, always use GetResponse Multimedia Studio. You’ll improve your campaign results − and protect your reputation!

Avoid SPAM-use GetResponse Multimedia Studio! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

Related posts

• Optimize Your Spam Filter Resistance – Quick Guide
• Those Forbidden SPAM words!
• SPAM – Why Did They Do That?!!

We hope you all took advantage of our special Holiday gift – FREE Video Emails for the life of your account. Now, to keep your spirits − and your response rates – high, we have another holiday surprise for you and your subscribers!

Santa Claus, Christmas trees, colored lights and family days only come once a year, so why not share the beauty and excitement of this extraordinary time with your subscribers?! Log on to your GetResponse account and check out the new selection of 11 professionally designed Holiday templates!

Santa’s already picking out presents for all the good girls and boys (that’s me), so don’t wait much longer to send something special to your subscribers. Choose a Holiday template, write your best wishes and send to your subscribers today. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to add some cheer with a discount or two! We’re sure they would appreciate it.

To make it easier for you this busy time of year, we’re also giving you a New Year Greetings template. Use it to follow up just a few days after Christmas to keep the good feelings going strong into 2010!

After things quiet down, please tell us how we could make the templates and greetings even better next year! If we made your Holiday just a little merrier, that would be the best Holiday wishes we could receive!

Send season’s greetings with NEW HOLIDAY TEMPLATES! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

Related posts

• The State Of Email Marketing In SMBs 2011.Free Special Report
• Promo Campaign Planner for Seasonal Sale Success [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Wanted: More Blog Love in 2012

About two weeks ago we gave you some stats that showed confirmed opt in improves campaign results. We received some good feedback on that posting, so we decided to keep the email marketing stats coming!

This time we checked video email results. We were pretty sure that most recipients prefer to see and hear from you, rather than read text. It’s easier, faster and more fun to watch, but we needed proof. After all, if video is so popular, it could make a big difference in your campaign ROI, right?

To make sure our advice was sound, we analyzed over 800,000 emails sent from GetResponse Pro accounts. The results clearly showed that emails containing video received, on  average,  5.6% higher open rates, and 96.38 % higher CTRs than non-video emails!

That’s pretty strong evidence that, once opened, video emails engage the recipient enough to click through at almost twice the normal rate. And these results were achieved by users who had just begun to use video emails following the launch of 6.0! So we also expect open rates to increase as their recipients look forward to the new video emails.

It really makes us feel like we’re offering a valuable service when we can back up our opinions with real stats. After all, it’s your business that will benefit.  Now, back to the stats and what you could do next to improve your campaign results. Are you thinking that it’s too difficult to produce your own videos, even if it means more cash in your pocket?

You could learn how to create a video email in minutes! We’re serious! With GetResponse 6.0, it’s a piece o’ cake – no special training or software needed  − just a webcam and a computer or laptop to access your account. That’s right…you could record and send videos on the road, at events, with customers, anywhere, anytime!

Just think about the possibilities…from personalized messages, product demos, and customer testimonials, to training courses, open house events, and much, much more. Use your creativity to create fun videos, like this special Holiday Greeting! You get the idea. However you decide to add the personal touch, we’re positive that your recipients will more like your video messages more than the avalanche of plain text emails  they get every day. Give them a break!

There’s everything to gain, and nothing to lose. A recent Nielsen report revealed a 71% increase in online viewing time in the last year alone, making video the fastest growing trend in Internet history! Just think about how much time YOU spend on YouTube and you’ll know what we mean.

So don’t miss out on this chance to impress your online following and improve your revenue results! Grab your webcam, pretend you’re James Cameron, and make your marketing ideas come alive!

According to the video emails… Did you know that we have a special Holiday gift for you!? We’re giving you FREE VIDEO EMAILS. FOREVER! All you have to do is purchase or upgrade your GetResponse account between December 3th and January 2nd and you’ll get FREE Video Emails for the Life of your account!

You can find more information on www.getresponse.com/holiday

Video emails improve campaign results. Check out these stats! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

Related posts

• GetResponse Email Solutions Team is back from MAAWG Barcelona
• Brand new GetRespone feature – custom subjects in confirmation emails!
• GetResponse #3 Email Marketing Service Provider on the Internet!

If you haven’t seen it yet, we just redesigned our GetResponse home page!

The fonts and buttons are larger for improved readability, and we added more white space and colorful graphics so you can find your way around with ease.

We decided to redesign the GetResponse website to simplify navigation, but also to make your visit more pleasurable and productive. We know your time is valuable and we don’t want to waste it!

Please take a look at our redesigned site and leave us your comments. We’d love to know what you think so we can continue to improve!

Redesigned GetResponse website is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

Most Commented Posts

• 64 Email List Building Ideas
• Email Marketing: 15 List Building Tips
• Publish Your Sign Up Forms on Facebook

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

Related posts

• Our Holiday Gift to You: Inbox Preview – FREE
• Are You Geared Up for Cyber Monday?
• 7 Steps to Earning Money On Email Marketing Bloopers

Thanksgiving is a family holiday full of love, sharing and giving thanks. That’s why you should forget about your job, responsibilities and everyday life for a while, if you can.  You have your work and worries every day, but Thanksgiving comes only once each year.

The GetResponse Team has much to be thankful for as well. We’re especially thankful for you, our loyal customers. You care so much about making our services better, and you take the time to blog, or call, or email us to share your thoughts and suggestions. It makes us want to work even harder so the New Year can be successful and enjoyable for you and your loved ones.

We hope you can spend this special day with your family and friends in an atmosphere full of love and peace. Let you all be truly together today!

Happy Thanksgiving and, of course, tasty turkey to you from the GetResponse Team!

Happy Thanksgiving to you from GetResponse Team! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

Related posts

• The State Of Email Marketing In SMBs 2011.Free Special Report
• Promo Campaign Planner for Seasonal Sale Success [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Wanted: More Blog Love in 2012

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

Most Commented Posts

• 64 Email List Building Ideas
• Email Marketing: 15 List Building Tips
• Publish Your Sign Up Forms on Facebook

That’s why we decided to celebrate this festive season with an extraordinary gift for everyone – ALL new and existing customers. Honestly, we huddled for days, scratching our heads, and thinking and talking, till we finally came up with the idea!

We decided to give you something special that you can enjoy all next year − and even longer! We didn’t want it to be a few dollars saved, then back to the usual routine. Instead of those “post-holiday blues”, we wanted you to be able to benefit from your GetResponse holiday present every time you used it! Give up?

To stoke your curiosity and imagination a bit more, let me give you some clues as to what this gift can do to make the New Year your best one ever!

Your GetResponse holiday present will help you create more effective and profitable email marketing campaigns by dramatically increasing your click-through-rates. You’ll be able to connect in a much more personal way with your subscribers, and motivate them to act on your offers. Recipients will be waiting impatiently for your messages so they can WATCH you and your products or services in action!

If you still don’t know what we’ve prepared for you, memorize this: it all begins on December 3th! Remember to check our website first thing and get your extra-special GetResponse holiday present!

To be 100% certain you don’t forget, mark December 3th on your calendar as the day you MUST visit our GetResponse website!

Guess what holiday gift GetResponse has waiting for you!? is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

Most Commented Posts

• 64 Email List Building Ideas
• Email Marketing: 15 List Building Tips
• Publish Your Sign Up Forms on Facebook