Jim is crazy busy in Las Vegas, interviewing great email marketing minds and thought leaders while we do what we can to bring the conversations to you as soon as possible. After two days of the conference, we’ve got video interviews from Brian Solis, Flint McGlaughlin and many, many more!

The MarketingSherpa Email Summit this year has already brought some inspiring keynotes and great networking opportunities resulting in interesting conversations going on backstage. Jim has recorded some of them and we’re very glad we can show them to you.

During the second day of the conference Jim managed to talk to Brian Solis, Flint McGlaughlin, Sergio Balegno and other experts present at the event about various aspects of marketing. Here’s just a taste – you’ll find much more on our YouTube channel and our GetResponse TV site. Enjoy!

Great Insights from the Email Summit 2012 is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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So here we are. This year’s Email Summit has started, and Jim Ducharme, our Community Manager, is there with his camera, interviewing the movers and shakers of the email marketing industry. Curious what he’ll find out?

On the scene in Las Vegas

The MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2012 is taking place at Caesar’s Palace Hotel in Las Vegas. It includes four days of email marketing research, case studies and great keynotes.

Our very own Jim Ducharme is at the event, asking important questions of the contributors and visitors. Some of those questions may be directly from you, (if you took part in our Twitter contest, that is.)

Video interviews and updates

Jim will be sending videos to us from “across the pond” as he completes them. Check them out by visiting our site:

http://www.getresponse.com/promo/emailtv

And keep visiting every day this week, as we’ll be bringing you lots of inspiring conversations and email marketing insights.

Get up-to-the-minute information on Twitter

If you are a customer and are at the Email Summit yourself, just give us a shout on Twitter @getresponse, or contact Jim directly @hugeheadca if you want talk.

You’ll now see four interviews at the site including with Jeff Ginsberg of the Email Guide, with more following veeery soon. Enjoy the videos and stay tuned!

GetResponse @MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2012 is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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In November of last year, we ran a quick test – Email Marketing Success Tester – for all email marketers, to test their know-how and awareness of email marketing strategies. We promised to follow up with an analysis of the Tester’s results. Today we proudly announce that our free report – The State Of Email Marketing In SMBs 2011 – is ready for download.

The study set out to analyze the implementation of the most popular email marketing practices, strategies and trends amongst the SMB marketers. It tried to answer the following questions:

• Which email marketing tools are the most and the least popular among marketers?
• How do business units of different sizes implement email marketing strategies?
• What are the major differences in utilization of email marketing strategies by specific industry sectors?

The State Of Email Marketing In SMBs 2011.Free Special Report is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a formal name for something that many brands do at least in part, even if they are not aware they are doing it. In its most basic form, SMO consists of such things as RSS feeds from your blog, a tweet button and Facebook “like” button. You should also be using such things as blog tags and optimized titles and meta descriptions to make your content “discoverable”.

What’s the difference between SEO and SMO?

SEO is aimed at driving traffic to a specific website, while SMO builds a web of interactions around your content. This is done via people sharing the content on multiple social networks. Done right, SMO means people will carry your content and your message beyond your site. No one is saying that SEO is less important or becoming less so compared to SMO, but you do need to have an overall strategy which encompasses both.

If your corporate blog is running on WordPress then you have tons of free plugins available to help with Social Media Optimization. With a few clicks of the mouse you can add sharing buttons to your blog and make it easier for your community members to carry your content to others.

Here’s a great list of WordPress plugins which can help with your SMO and SEO efforts.

Make it easy for people to share your content

Most people won’t go out of their way to share your content. Make sure you have social sharing buttons at the top and bottom of your posts and pages or use a slider which keeps those buttons handy for each page and post.

Be sure it’s easy for people to share content in your email marketing newsletters too! Making it intutive for people to share your content socially in your email marketing can boost CTR up to 115%! Take a look at this stunning infographic we put together to demonstrate the power of social sharing in email marketing.

Never underestimate the power of social sharing

Don’t underestimate the power of social sharing sites either. Doing so could cause unexpected and perhaps even unwanted results.

Today a regional promotion might be picked up by contest sharing sites and go viral globally. You could find yourself totally overwhelmed by the response and way in over your head such as one Canadian coffee shop chain recently.

Be sure you can deliver what you promise people!

Learn from others

Take a moment to look at how other successful brand blogs are using social media optimization. You probably have some brand which you envy for their ability to get people sharing their content via such channels as Twitter and Facebook. It’s likely you’ll see some common factors among those sites which are having success with social sharing.

So what about you?

What are you doing to leverage social media sharing in your email marketing and on your website?

Has the subject of SMO ever come up in your organization? What are you doing now and what could you be doing better?

Are you operating in a vacuum or are you looking at what your competition is doing with social media? Do you have a plan/strategy to monitor their efforts and compare them to your own?

Have you got any good SMO tips or resources you want to share?

Social Media Optimization Basics is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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We’re ever so excited to invite you to the first of what we hope will be a long and successful series of email marketing webinars by Jim Ducharme and Mac Ossowski (from now on also known as Jim & Mac ). The first one is called 10 surefire methods to build your email list and will take place this Thursday, 2 February, at 3 pm (EST).

During the 60-minute webinar, Jim Ducharme, GetResponse Community Manager and Mac Ossowski, our Director of Education, will talk about proven and effective ways to grow your email list. And I’m personally pretty sure it’s worth attending the event as these two guys really know their stuff. (be sure to click here for Jim’s and Mac’s bios).

And if you’re still wondering what list building tactics you should be using to be successful, this webinar is the place to be.

So mark the date in your calendars and go to the following link to register for the webinar: http://GetResponse.clickwebinar.com/10_steps_to_build_a_list

See you Thursday!

Webinar: 10 Surefire Methods to Build Your Email List is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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This is the second (here’s the first) in our series of GetResponse customer spotlights. If you are subscribed to our newsletter than you already have an invitation so please feel free to reply with your answers. We can’t promise that we’ll be able to publish every response we get because of the huge response we’ve gotten, but we sure will try!

This time around the GetResponse spotlight shines on Jon Bard, self proclaimed, “Fightin’ Bookworm-in-Chief” at The CBI Clubhouse — The Essential Children’s Writing Resource.

Can you tell us a little about your business and your experience using email marketing?

We help ordinary people learn how to write and publish children’s books. We’ve been doing it for 22 years, and our business has evolved into a full-fledged online community for children’s writers. You’ll find it at http://cbiclubhouse.com.

Tell us about the success you’ve experienced as a result of using GetResponse.

Using GetResponse, we’ve built our ezine readership to more than 44,000 aspiring writers. We provide mostly content with some special offers mixed in, and the response is always tremendous. Readers like the look of the HTML template we’ve chosen and we’ve enjoyed a high delivery rate since coming to GR.

Why is email so important to your business as a marketing channel?

Because it allows us to build real relationships with those who haven’t yet chosen to purchase a membership to our site. Sending a regular ezine keeps them as “part of the family” and gives us the opportunity to convert them to paying customers at some point down the line. It’s also an excellent tool for “pass alongs” as many of our ezine readers forward the newsletter to friends.

What is the biggest mistake people make in email marketing and how can it be avoided?

Too much selling, not enough content. If you can provide real value, folks will stick around for the sales pitch. If all you do is pitch, they’ll unsubscribe, and with good reason.

If you could give one email marketing tip to others, what would it be?

Have a personality. Connect with people on a human level and let them see something of your real self (or your brand’s “real self”). And give more value than they can possibly expect — they’ll return the favor by giving you their business.

You can join the “Fightin’ Bookworms” @ http://cbiclubhouse.com

Customer Spotlight: CBI Clubhouse is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Along with our pricing adjustment, we’ve got some important announcements to share with you. The first is that we now have a 30-day free trial account with full functionality and unlimited sendings. The second is that the 1000-subscribers plan is now the cheapest on the market.

The free trial account has now replaced the free account in GetResponse. It has all the functionality of the paid account and allows you to market to a list of 250 subscribers for 30 days.

Email power tools

So if you are ready to start your email marketing journey with GetResponse, you can now try all the great features to get you off to a fast start, including:

• Unilimited sendings
• Autoresponder
• Advanced statistics panel
• Inbox preview
• And many more

The free trial account lets you try out all these innovative features, experience the high deliverability of GetResponse, and get help from our 5-star customer support department.

Quality + Price + Service

After you’ve tried out your new account and decided for yourself whether it’s everything you’ve been looking for, (and we’re pretty sure it will be ), upgrade to the plan of your choice to enjoy all the benefits of email marketing, with unlimited sendings at a great price.

Speaking of which… GetResponse pricing has recently changed and now starts at $15 for an account with up to 1000 subscribers. You’ll see that this is absolutely the best email marketing offer. You won’t find a cheaper plan on the whole wide web! Pricing for other plans is equally attractive.

So if you’re thinking of getting a GetResponse account, think no more. Just get a free trial account here and kick off your email marketing!

And for our existing Customers, no worries, your current plans will stay as they are and this also includes the existing free accounts.

Stay tuned for breaking news

Once you’ve got your GetResponse account, remember to keep visiting our blog for useful tips on how to use its full potential and learn about new features. Sign up for our GetResponse Buzz newsletter, so we can remind you of interesting new posts.

In the meantime, have fun with your new GetResponse account, and let us know if you have any questions!

New Free Trial Now Includes All Features is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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MarketingSherpa Email Summit – the world’s largest research based email marketing event – takes place February 7-10 in Las Vegas. We’ll be there video-interviewing the top industry thinkers. You can help us ask the right questions – and win a Bloggie Touch camera.

Email marketing’s top experts – in the hotseat!

The Marketing Sherpa Email Summit will host top email brains for the four days of the conference in Las Vegas. The names include Brian Solis, Justin Bridegan, Flint McGlaughlin, Brian Clarke and others.

GetResponse Community Manager Jim Ducharme is taking a video camera down to Las Vegas to interview the keynote speakers and talk about email marketing (and a lot more). His videos will be posted on our special contest site devoted to the event.

Get answers to YOUR questions

To make the interviews as relevant as possible, we want you to participate by helping us make a list of questions you’d like Jim to ask during the interviews.

Enter to win

We’ve even come up with a contest in which you can win a Sony Bloggie Touch camera, so you can make your own videos and instantly upload them to your blog or social network.

Here’s how the contest works.

You gotta Tweet it to win it

Starting today and running until February 6, (the day before the conference begins,) we’ll be waiting for your questions on Twitter. Be sure to include a #getresponse hashtag in your tweet, so you’re eligible to win the prize.

We’ll be collecting your tweets meticulously. Then we’ll have a random drawing and announce the winner on Twitter on the morning the conference starts – February 7. Be sure to stay tuned to our Twitter profile.

All the tweets with the #getresponse hashtag will display in a live feed on our contest site, so you’ll have an opportunity to track the questions easily. You can also tweet directly from the site. The number of questions a person asks is virtually unlimited, but listen gang, let’s keep it within reason

Stay tuned for video interviews

So, if there’s anything you’ve always wanted to ask the top email brains, or you’re looking for answers, or you just want to share in this event, we’re waiting impatiently for your suggestions. And don’t forget to watch us after the contest ends to see the videos (and perhaps hear your questions asked.)

Let the tweeting begin!

Contest rules and details are posted on our special contest site. To visit the contest site and start tweeting, click HERE.

Help Us Ask the Right Questions at Email Summit 2012 is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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In response to our customers’ demand GetResponse has jus launched integrations with 7 new e-commerce, CRM and CMS platforms to improve synchronization and data flow all now available straight from your account.

GetResponse integrations available in your account now include the following 7 platforms:

• Magento
• Zoho
• Highrise
• Shopify
• Batchbook
• Formstack
• Freshbooks

GetResponse Integrates Magento, Zoho, Highrise And More is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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Fingers are less accurate than a cursor, so you’ll need to rework your email creative paying special attention to CTA buttons, pre-headers and navigation.

A guest post by Anna Yeaman.

1. Vertical spacing

The lack of vertical spacing between the main CTAs in this Brooks Brothers email, invites mistaps in an otherwise great design. REI is less shy with their spacing. In Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, they recommend a minimum target area of 44 x 44 points (the height of the blue, “Inbox” bar).

{ Brooks Brothers and REI }

2. Left justify for Android

Unlike iOS, Android devices don’t scale content to the width of the screen. This means emails are cut of at ~320px wide on Smartphone’s and 600px on the Kindle Fire. You can swipe to see more, but I’d still place crucial information – like the CTAs below -  aligned left. Or better still, design buttons that span the width of the screen.

{ Bonobos and Groupon }

3. Product images as links

44px high buttons take up room that could be otherwise dedicated to content. By combining the two, you make the most of the available space. Experiment with drop shadows etc. to make product images appear more tappable. There’s no hover state on mobile devices, so users need visual cues.

{ Diesel and Park & Bond }

4. Don’t ignore the footer

Kudos to Filson, for making their footer text easy to read. UO have also given the footer some love, with five finger-sized tabs. Anything more than five, and they would become hard to read and tap. The blue toolbar at the bottom, is a good starting point when designing email navigation.

{ Urban Outfitters and C.C. Filson }

5. Push contrast & font size

Push the contrast beyond what you’d do for the desktop, as content becomes hard to read once its scaled down. Try running a quick grayscale test. Also increase the size of your fonts, or the iPhone automatically scales it up, often breaking layouts. WP7 recommends no smaller than 15 points, Apple recommends a 17-22 pixel font.

{ Skinny Cahoona email with high contrast + large text }

6. Lighter, cleaner content

On a recent cull of our newsletter, I remember thinking if I carry on at this rate, all we’ll have left is a green CTA button. Youzee beat me to it. This is their entire email (with just a bit of their logo cut off at the top). While you may not need to go this far, try condensing your copy and ditching any image weight that’s not essential.

{ Simple fluid email from Youzee}

None of these tweaks requires special mobile coding, just a mindset change. It’s time to get serious about designing emails for touch. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you can gradually rework sections over time, but you should make a start. Have you?

Anna Yeaman is the Co-Founder and Creative Director at STYLECampaign, an email creative agency in LA.

• Website:  http://stylecampaign.com/blog
• Twitter:   http://www.twitter.com/stylecampaign

Designing Emails for Touch – 6 Beginner Tips is a post from: Email Marketing Tips - Blog GetResponse

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