Email targeting and audience segmentation is becoming mission-critical to winning the “inbox wars”! And consumers are certainly becoming more receptive to personalization and most forms of targeting, thanks in part to the Behavioral Targeting Standards Consortium. But what about YOU?!

Less than 40% of marketers use personalization beyond first names, let alone behavioral targeting, or remarketing as it’s often called. Perhaps because it seems more about scurrilous marketers tracking online consumers’ every move so they can place the right ads on the right pages at the right moment. Sure, there’s that. But we think it’s different with email marketing…more about getting to know customers as people…with data fields. There’s a difference!

Let’s say you just launched a product campaign and want to capture a ton of info in order to ramp up your customer database and do more target marketing.  You would, of course, use GetResponse Email Analytics to capture and assess customer responses from open and click-throughs to landing page to order form (you hope!). For your behavioral targeting projects, you know Google Analytics is integrated  with GetResponse, so you have complete access to all that online data, like “who put what in their shopping cart, then forgot to purchase”!  Together, they should point to your best remarketing targets AND give you lots of ideas for drip campaigns and triggered email messages, like “50% off the item you selected during your last visit!” Gotcha!

Ok, so now you have “tons of data” to enhance your profiles and improve your target marketing…now what?!! Sorry, but it depends. Here’s where your experience and “people skills” come in. You need to have a deep understanding of your brand or product line, e.g. what customer like/don’t like about it, why they buy (or not), what similar products they purchase, and when/why do they upgrade, etc. So when you create your segmentation fields, you’re going to have an idea of what types of information will be most valuable in targeting your campaigns, e.g. demographics, purchase history, preferences, as well as suggestions for cross-sell and up-sell, all based on your knowledge of your brand AND your customers.

You also have all the demographic information you obtained at sign up or upon initial order. Did you ask 1 or 2 “special interest” questions to jumpstart your profiles? If you didn’t, try it. And, of course, you have your Survey results, right? We know we’ve nagged you about this since 6.0, but only because it’s such an easy (and free!) way to perform market research and effectively segment your profiles and content.

All these activities and tools together provide more than enough data for you to start ramping up your target marketing database and using this information in your link titles, e.g. “Interested in xyz?” Now does all this require time, thought, and some data entry? Absolutely! But honestly, it’s better to build your profiles and your behavioral data stockpile slowly and carefully. Soon you’ll get used to recognizing the exact segment and stats you need for each campaign. Will you make mistakes? Sure, they’ll be a learning curve, BUT did we mention that Jupiter Research reports…

Email campaigns developed with specific behavioral and demographic data can produce more than 18 times higher profits!

Great results, right? So…to help you focus on targeting AND make a lot more money for your business in 2010, GetResponse is going to introduce some cool new tools to segment your lists based on behaviors with just a few clicks! Watch for the announcement – COMING SOON!

Interested in hearing more about target marketing? Let us know!

Let’s Talk Segmentation! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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The first few days of each new year are full of promises and plans, predictions and expectations. And here at GetResponse, more new ideas and projects!

We also have a New Year’s gift for you! It’s a brand-new monthly wallpaper calendar. Now you can download the GetResponse wallpaper calendar on your desktop and have two cool features in one: a handy monthly calendar and a beautiful scene from your favorite Email Service Provider.

It’s winter time, so this month you’ll enjoy the snowy calm of winter scenery. Every time you go to your desktop, we hope you’ll be inspired for work or play.

To make it easier for you, we decided to give you the 5 most-common resolutions, so everyone can get high-quality GetResponse wallpaper every month.

Please let us know what you think about this new feature and, of course, you have to tell us if you like the January Wallpaper! Also, feel free to send us your ideas for upcoming desktop wallpaper calendars.

Below you’ll find the links to wallpapers ready for download. Enjoy!

800 x 600

1024 x 768

1280 x 800

1280 x 1024

1440 x 900

GetResponse Desktop Wallpaper 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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Now we’re not trying to be morbid, but we are very interested in email security and regulations, and we honestly didn’t know the answer. CAN someone send email from your account or read your private emails if you’re not around to object?

Here’s what we discovered: it all depends on the privacy policy of the ISP or social media site where you had your accounts.  Unfortunately, they vary wildly, and some have their own ideas about how to keep you “virtually alive” after your demise.

For example: Internet giants like Google and Microsoft have a policy of keeping your data after you die and letting your next of kin or the executor of your estate access it. However, when you open your account there is no way to opt out if you want to keep your emails confidential after you die!

This means that when you release this mortal coil, your emails live on. In fact, you could still “receive” emails (including very private messages) which could be read by your kin or executor!

Do we have your attention now? So let’s look at how the biggest email providers and social media sites handle this issue in case you want to make some changes before it’s, you know, too late:

·    Hotmail − Deletes email accounts if they are not used after 270 days. However, if you die, your next of kin would be able to access your account within that period by providing ID and your death certificate.

·    Gmail − Also allows the next of kin to apply for access, however,  in addition to ID and the death certificate, the person would need to provide proof of an email conversation between them and the deceased.

·    Yahoo! – The strictest of them all! They let the users’ next of kin request that the account be closed, but will not give them access to it. They advise users who don’t want their emails shared after death to include it in their wills.

The issue is handled with a bit more variety on the most popular social sites. For instance:
·    MySpace – Their privacy policy doesn’t say much about “deceased user” situations, however MySpace doesn’t automatically delete profiles after a period of inactivity, either. They will remove a deceased user’s profile at the family’s request.

·    Facebook − This is really interesting! Facebook offers a service called Memorialization that allows family members to retain a profile of the deceased former user as a virtual tribute. The profile would be locked and all private information simultaneously removed.

You have to admit, it might be worth thinking about! Let us know your views about any of the policies and the issue in general.  After you pass, would YOU like your messages to live on…online?

Life after death. Does your email die with you!? is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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About three months ago, we were trying to convince you that confirmed opt-in option is much more effective than the unconfirmed opt-in when adding qualified subscribers to your lists. We gave you several important reasons to validate our point of view.

If the last blog post didn’t convince you, we hope the results of our latest analysis will help you understand how well confirmed opt-in works for real-life GetResponse customers, and put all serious arguments to rest.

Now, onto the study: we analyzed over 700M messages sent from GetResponse Pro accounts between August 1st and November 1st 2009, and compared certain “success” factors for confirmed opt-in and unconfirmed opt-in users. We thought we’d find improvements with confirmed opt-in, but the results amazed even us!

According to the analysis, messages sent from accounts using confirmed opt-in returned 71% higher Open Rates and 66% higher Click Rates than unconfirmed opt-in account messages. That’s close to “double” the good results!

That’s not all! The number of “undeliverable” messages in accounts where users applied confirmed opt-in had 75% fewer bounces than accounts where users chose the unconfirmed opt-in option. Moreover, in confirmed opt-in accounts, spam complaints were almost 40% lower!

Based on these stats, just imagine the difference confirmed opt-in could make in the success of your email campaigns. Here are just a few of the advantages of confirmed opt ins:

• Your list is cleaner as your database includes only confirmed email addresses.
• Your recipients open your messages more willingly because they chose to subscribe to your list.
• Usually recipients remember they subscribed and rarely send spam complaints to your email marketing provider (e.g. GetResponse) or your ISP.
• You get much better click-through ratios, which can lead to higher sales ratios.
• You gain higher-value customers and fewer “unsubscribes” overall.

All these factors improve your reputation as an email marketer − and your email marketing results!

Finally, please don’t worry that if you use the confirmed opt-in option, you’ll annoy new subscribers. Most appreciate the reminder and the extra “protection” it gives them from unwanted emails. Believe us when we say, your subscribers will be grateful they are only receiving messages they truly want − and you will enjoy all of the above benefits PLUS have higher deliverability rates and a cleaner list. Remember, that’s your “goldmine”!

To be balanced, if you think there are any disadvantages to the confirmed opt-in option, just let us know. We sure couldn’t find any, but would like to hear from you – pro and con!

Confirmed Opt-in improves campaign results! Check out these stats now! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Kidding aside, we enhanced 100s of existing features and added some amazing power features for 6.0, and we’ve been working just as hard to introduce our Super-Fast GetResponse.  Now creating, editing  and sending your messages will be easier, faster, and MUCH more efficient.

Check out the screen below to see GetResponse “before and after” speeds. This was measured and captured by some very serious technical types here, so this is no joke! See for yourself…

Log in to your GetResponse account and take it out for a test drive if you’re not already “experienced” at these speeds. We told you…GetResponse just keeps getting better!

GetResponse is faster than ever! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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We hope the new GetSubscribers update feature saves you time and “guesswork” so you can focus on your campaigns.  The GetResponse Team is working hard to help you succeed every day, so stay tuned for more new developments.

Read more about GetSubscribers

New GetSubscribers Program Feature 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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First, there are two kinds of email bounces: hard and soft.
A soft bounce is an email message that gets as far as the recipient’s mail server, but is bounced back before it reaches the recipient. One of the most common causes for a soft bounce is a full mailbox. This often occurs with subscribers who use the basic (not premium) ISP email boxes, which offer very little storage.

A hard bounce is an email message that has been returned to you because the recipient’s address is invalid, the domain name doesn’t exist, the recipient is unknown, or the recipient’s mail server has blocked your server.  This is a bit more troublesome and requires careful investigation.

When you receive email complaints…
What does it mean when you get email complaints and how can you reduce them? It’s quite simple.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Yahoo and AOL provide Feedback Loop software which returns all messages marked as SPAM by their email account users.  Now, here’s where your email may get treated as an abusive message or SPAM for a variety of reasons. For example, if recipients get email they didn’t ask for and don’t want, they should click “This is SPAM”.  But sometimes it’s because they don’t recognize – or remember − the sender, even though they opted in.  Sorry, they’ll get flagged and filtered out just the same. Remember, whatever the reason, if your email message is marked SPAM by a recipient and you receive the dreaded message, they are removed from your GetResponse contact list.

Mailing lists are the email marketers’ goldmine, so it’s both productive and profitable to apply best practices to your list hygiene and message creation. Of course, GetResponse does much of it for you automatically, but here are some simple tips to help you reduce bounces and email complaints:

• Keep your subscriber list clean.

Make sure every person you are sending messages to knows they are coming from you. Be very clear on your web sign up forms about what type of information the subscriber would like to receive, whether newsletters, blog updates, coupons, or articles, even which topics.

• Use double opt-in

Double opt-in is a great way to ensure that your list is clean and free from human error. Typing errors can not only clutter your list, but cost you in lost sales opportunities. The double opt-in process makes “doubly sure” that all your email addresses are genuine and correct. And don’t forget to personalize your confirmation emails to welcome new subscribers!

• Test your email messages before sending!

Spam testing your emails is a great way to keep your content spam free and your reputation protected. Whether you know it or not, ISP’s are constantly changing their methods and GetResponse ensures that our spam testing software is up to date and fully compliant. So all you have to do is click the spam check button and wait for the green tick!

Get rid of bounces and complaints! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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That’s right, both art AND science went into this design and we think you’re going to get fantastic results with your new MLM template. You can find this great new template in the MLM category and get it out to your list!

And please let us know how it works for you. We’re always looking for new ways to help you succeed!

Announcing Fabulous New MLM Newsletter Template – Available NOW! is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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