Archive for January, 2010
Email marketing calendar ideas for February
We have all been there. Monday morning rolls around, the brain is still stuck in Sunday mode and you have to come up with a killer idea for the week’s email marketing campaign.
That is why planning ahead is so important for those creating new campaigns each week. Sometimes if you are not planning a week or two ahead, you are too late or even worse, you waste valuable time trying to come up with something.
We have mentioned it before on the blog and will say it again. Let the calendar be your friend and use special days to base your emails around.
Below is a list of real holidays, wacky holidays, and pop culture events in February that you can develop a timely and relevant email campaign around.
Tuesday, February 2nd – Groundhog Day
You know how this one goes. If a groundhog fails to see its shadow, winter will come to an end much sooner. If the groundhog sees its shadow, winter will continue for six more weeks (Nooooo). If weather is a driving factor in your business, more winter or less winter is most likely something to take advantage of.
Sunday, February 7th – Super Bowl XLIV – New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts
One of the few sporting events that pretty much everyone marks on the calendar. Many subscribers or potential leads who don’t even watch football take part in this day in their own way. Be careful however because of strictly enforced trademark infringements, you can’t use the words “NFL,” “Super Bowl,” or “Super Sunday” in your marketing campaigns. However, you can use terms such as “The Big Game,” or other generic descriptions for Super Bowl XLIV.
Monday, February 8th – Boy Scout Day
Your company could have some fun with this one. Something based on trust, honesty and providing great service. Display to your customers the “Boy Scout” in your company.
Friday, February 12th-28th – 2010 Winter Olympic Games
The Winter Olympics only come around every four years so it is a great event to incorporate into your email marketing. Everyone in Canada has had Olympic fever for months and we can’t wait to share the Vancouver games with the World. Take advantage of people’s excitement about a particular sport or the Games as a whole.
Sunday, February 14th – Valentine’s Day
If this is a big day for your company, hopefully you already have a plan in motion. Valentine’s Day is 2nd largest retailing event of the year. Though men are expected to spend the most on Valentine gifts and are stereotypically procrastinators, don’t wait too long to share your special deals and promotions. This is also a great day to share some love with your subscriber base and maybe even ask them to update their user information.
Tuesday, February 16th – Mardi Gras aka Fat Tuesday
Now this is a day you could really have some fun with. Everything about Mardi Gras is party-related and about going big. The opportunities for fun and creative ideas don’t get better than this. Stop thinking of pancakes for a second and create your own Mardi Gras related event.
Wednesday, February 15th-21st – Random Act’s Of Kindness Week
Random Act’s Of Kindness Day is an unofficial holiday in order to encourage acts of kindness. This is an opportunity to give something back to your loyal audience of readers. Maybe it’s just to say thanks. Maybe it is a no strings attached coupon for something free or at cost.
Saturday, February 20th – Love Your Pet Day
This one is a stretch, but I am a huge pet lover so I had to add it in. Create a theme, contest or some kind of interaction with clients that are pet related. Deep down, we all love our pets so this may be a connection you never knew you had with your subscribers.
The calendar on your wall or desk can spark all kinds of great ideas for your next campaign. The best part about using this concept is that each month you get a whole list of new holidays to use.
Let us know what special days or themes you are using in your email marketing campaigns on Twitter or Facebook. Can’t wait to read them.
Add comment January 26, 2010
FAQ review – Copy and pasting from Microsoft Word
At SimplyCast we have one of the best customer care teams in the industry and they do a great job of answering all your questions on a daily basis.
To help them out and allow them a chance to have lunch and sleep at night, we also have a powerful Frequently Asked Questions page (FAQ) that holds over 400 of the most asked questions from you.
From time-to-time we want to highlight a common problem users have when using SimplyCast’s email marketing service, while highlighting the strengths of the FAQ.
This week’s question is:
Can I copy and paste content from Microsoft Word into SimplyCast?
If you copy and paste content from Microsoft Word into SimplyCast, formatting may be lost because Microsoft Word uses a different format than the HTML format used in the SimplyCast message editor. The copied content may also render incorrectly when displayed in the SimplyCast message editor.
There are two ways you can approach this problem – remove the Word formatting before you paste the content into SimplyCast or convert the Word document to HTML format:
How to clean the content before you paste it into SimplyCast:
1. Copy the content from Word and paste it into Windows Notepad or any other plain text editor, which will remove the Word formatting.
2. Copy the content from your plain text editor to SimplyCast. You will need to format the text through the SimplyCast.
How to convert the document to HTML format:
In newer versions of Microsoft Word, there is more than one option for saving HTML files. To choose one of these options, start by going to the file menu within Word and choose to “”Save as Web Page”". A new window will open up. You will see a drop-down box at the bottom of the window that says “”Save as Type:”". You can choose two formats: The first option is the standard “”Web Page”" option. This should be avoided, as it adds the extra code that is not compatible with most HTML editors.
The second option is called “”Web Page, Filtered”". This will remove all the extra coding that is added by Microsoft Word to keep the web page as clean as possible.
Here are the steps once again to properly copy and paste from Microsoft Word.
1. Choose the Web Page, Filtered option to save the file in HTML format.
2. Open the HTML file using Notepad or a text editor.
3. Copy the HTML code from the editor.
4. Go the SimplyCast Message Editor and click on the HTML button in the bottom left corner of the editor in the Compose Body area.
5. Paste the html code into the html view.
6. Save the message or click on the “”normal”" button to edit it further.
For more helpful answers remember to bookmark SimplyCast’s FAQ page and if you still need to talk to a live person, our team will help you out by phone, email or live chat.
Add comment January 21, 2010
Go organic with email marketing
The trend of eating organic food and buying organic home products has grown tremendously over the past few years, being both beneficial to your health and the environment.
Did you know you can also go organic with email marketing? This will also be beneficial to you because it will increase deliverability rates, increase click through rates, lower complaint rates and much more. So how can you be organic with email marketing?
To start, create lists by using opt-in (preferably double-opt in) to make sure the recipient wishes to receive your email. Then they will likely do their part and whitelist you in their address book allowing your mail to go directly to their inbox.
Next, it is a good practice throughout the year to keep your lists clean of soft bounced emails. Check out this link for helpful tools to show you how to clean your lists.
Finally, once a year send an email to have your recipients confirm that they still want to be on your mailing list or to be able to change the frequency of emails. For example only sending one newsletter per month rather than two or three per month so that you do not end up receiving unwanted complaints.
Start 2010 by going organic with these three simple steps and experience a great year of increased deliverability!
Add comment January 13, 2010
SimplyCast special – 30% savings for one year subscription
The SimplyCast team is starting the new year right by offering you a 30% discount when signing up for a one-year subscription to our email marketing service.
Don’t delay as this special offer expires on Friday, January 15th @11:59pm EST and won’t return until next January.
We understand that everyone needs to manage costs when planning the next 12 months, so we are doing everything we can to deliver the best prices to our customers.
To take advantage of this offer visit SimplyCast.com to sign-up or renew your current package for the full year. Once you are logged in, all you need to do is go to the “Manage Subscription” page under “My Account” and select the 1 year package from the drop-down menu (it will say 30% next to it).
Not happy with your current email service provider?
Here are a few reasons to make the switch to SimplyCast:
Over 1000 free HTML email marketing templates.
Simple and elegant interface.
Every account is assigned to a dedicated account manager.
Option to upgrade to a free Dedicated IP address.
Ability to remove the SimplyCast logo from the bottom of emails.
Access to create Email, Survey and RSVP campaigns.
Compatible with IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari.
A cross-browser, cross-platform WYSIWYG online HTML editor.
Ability to import HTML from Microsoft Word.
Industry leading customer care team that can be reached by phone, email or live chat.
And many more.
The SimplyCast team is working hard for you. Email our customer care team today with any requests for new features and enhancements.
Thank you,
The SimplyCast Team
1.877.312.4979 Ext 1
sales@simplycast.com
Join our Facebook fan page for more special offers and email marketing tips.
**The above offer is only valid on single month purchases made after January 11th 2010 and cannot be combined with multiple coupon codes**
Add comment January 12, 2010
How to choose the right Email Service Provider
Once you have decided to add email marketing to your business plan, how do you go about choosing the right email service provider (ESP)?
An ESP is a service that hosts email marketing services on their servers, which are specifically optimized for that purpose. While you control your email marketing account, create the content and send out emails using a Web browser interface, the ESP’s servers and Internet connections do all the technical work.
A good ESP will also provide detailed reporting on the results of your email campaign, which includes delivery success rates, email open-rates, and link click-through rates. You should even be able to see which of your subscribers performed these actions. Having access to detailed reporting is an invaluable feature as it helps you measure the effectiveness of your overall email marketing campaigns.
Most ESPs also make it very easy for you to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act regulations. What that means is, an ESP should automatically include an unsubscribe link in every email sent through their service as well as verify that all emails are sent from a valid, working email address. Most ESPs also require you to send only to lists of subscribers that have opted-in to receive emails from you. Remember, don’t buy or rent lists.
Here are some features to consider when choosing the right ESP for you and your business.
Private IP vs. Shared IP
If your ESP makes you share an IP address with other customers, too many spam complaints against another customer could get your shared IP address blacklisted by a major ISP. This would prevent your emails from being delivered and it can take time for your ESP to get the IP off the blacklist (if ever). SimplyCast offers the option to upgrade to a free dedicated IP address when you sign-up. To learn more about the differences between shared and dedicated IPs, click here.
Customer support and tutorials
Your ESP should offer both online and phone support and tutorials on how to use the service. SimplyCast’s customer care team is always at your service and you can reach them via online chat, email or by phone.
Detailed reporting
The ESP should offer a variety of user-friendly reports including deliverability success, open-rates, and click-through rates.
CAN SPAM compliance
As mentioned above, any ESP that you choose should require customers to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act and make it very easy to do so.
Email storage space
An ESP in most cases will limit the amount of space you can use to store your emails and any attachments. The amount of space varies throughout the many providers and some even charge extra when you go over your limit. Know what you have to work with before joining.
Robust infrastructure
Make sure your ESP has multiple, high-speed connections to the Internet through more than one source and hardware redundancy. This ensures reliability if one of the Internet connections fails or there is a hardware failure. Go ahead and ask prospective ESPs about their infrastructure before signing up. There would be nothing worse than sending email campaigns to your list and having the ESPs servers go down.
List Segmenting
Your ESP should enable you to segment lists by several different criteria. By targeting subsets of your list with content relevant to them leads to more successful email marketing campaigns.
Free trial with no long-term contract
Do not sign up for a service that requires anything beyond a month commitment. If you are unhappy with your service, you should be able to cancel and switch services as much as you want.
Pricing Plans
ESPs host your email list on their servers. Some charge a monthly fee based on the number of emails on your list, while others charge a monthly fee based on the maximum number of emails you think you will send per month. Be sure to choose a pricing structure that fits your needs.
Ease of Use
Finally and most importantly, how easy is the service to use? Do you need to contact technical support a lot to figure things out? If you don’t enjoy using an ESP, there is a good chance it will influence the result of your email campaigns in a negative way. Remember it is okay to try before you buy.
Now that you are ready to shop around for an ESP, we invite you to take a look at everything SimplyCast has to offer.
1 comment January 7, 2010
