Posts Tagged optin campaign
Customize your sign-up form
One of the more important parts of email marketing is building a strong list and that means gathering necessary information from your customers. Once you collect all the good stuff like first name, last name and email address, many company’s still want more. That is why the new version of SimplyCast’s email marketing service will allow you to customize your sign-up form so you can add in all the questions you want. This feature, as well as many others, will take center stage on August 10th. So, whether you want to know where a person is from, what industry they work in or even if they have a website, now you can gather all of that info right from your sign-up form.
Like the sound of Version 5.0 of SimplyCast? Act now and we will give you a 10% discount to get you started. Go to SimplyCast.com and use coupon code LAUNCH5 at point of purchase.
Only a few more days to go before we launch. Keep checking the blog each day for more features and updates.
Add comment August 5, 2009
How effective is your Call-To-Action?
In our last blog posted titled Break up your email marketing routine, we shared a few tips on how to evaluate and improve your campaigns just by changing a few aspects of your email.
One area that we did not mention was the Call-To-Action (CTA).
The Call-to-Action is arguably one of the most important elements of your email and needs to be evaluated and tweaked just like every other part of a campaign.
Your CTA must stand out to be successful. It needs to be inviting, not intimidating, and ultimately encourage readers to click from the email onto your website or landing page. As an email marketer it should be your overall goal to include design elements with well written copy to achieve a CTA that is distinctive and drives clicks.
Design Elements
Positioning: The CTA must be positioned above the fold. This means in the top 300 pixels of the email. You do not want readers to have to scroll down through your message to find the CTA. Position your CTA with appropriate white space so that it stands out as its own element on the page.
Colour: Use a color that compliments your overall design, yet stands out and draws the eye of the reader. This could mean using a contrasting colour, or simply using a more intense shade of colour. It is very important that the CTA stands out visually from the background of the page. A reader’s eye should perceive it as being it’s own element on the page when reading the email. Don’t be afraid of using colour, but use it carefully and correctly.
Font: Always focus on readability and never sacrifice function for form. In most cases sans-serif fonts are preferred over serif fonts but it is always a good idea to test how different fonts look compared to the rest of your email.
Size: The CTA does not need to be the largest element on the page, but it needs to be large enough to draw the reader’s attention.
Well written copy
Clear communication: Use concise action phrases like “click here” or “act now”. Avoid passive phrases that lead a reader to think they can take care of this later. Short, punchy words will get your message across quickly, and at the same time enable you to use a larger font.
State Benefits: State clearly what the value for the click is.
A few examples would be:
Act now to save 50% Off
Click here to receive 30% savings
Incite immediate response: By including a timed deadline it enforces the need for the reader to act now and not put if off. When we send out promos at SimplyCast, we always make it clear when the promotion expires.
What happens after they click?
After investing all this effort and time in the design and placement of your Call To Action, be absolutely certain that you link to the correct landing page. One thing we preach over and over on this blog is to test everything more than once just to make sure even if you think it will work.
Also don’t expect people to surf around your website or landing page to find what the CTA states. If you do not take them directly to the information that your email advertised, you should not be surprised if they leave after a few seconds.
Taking the time to evaluate the strength of your Call-to-Action will not only increase the number of emails that get opened, it will also increase the overall success of your business or product.
To read more tips on how to evaluate and improve your email marketing campaigns, click here.
SimplyCast’s Interactive Marketing Suite includes:
Email Marketing | Survey Marketing | Event Marketing
Fax Marketing | SMS Marketing | AutoResponder Marketing
4 comments May 13, 2009
How to grow your permission email list?
If you just started your business, or if you just launched your own website, you most likely don’t have an email list to send to. So how do you get one? You could always look into renting one but that process is highly frowned upon.
You are better off starting from scratch and growing your own.
Ways to grow your opt-in list:
1. Place your email newsletter signup form on your home page. Make it quick and easy and only ask for information you need to begin.
2. Link to your signup form from every page of your website. By adding a link to your footer, or side navigation, it does not matter what page visitors are landing on.
3. Place a link to your email signup form in your email signature. The signature is an overlooked place for making contact with potential customers.
4. Add the link to your signup form in all the invoices your company sends. Just like the email signature, this is often overlooked.
5. Post free whitepapers or helpful articles on your site. There is a good chance they will get downloaded like crazy if you offer them for free, and with no registration. Then inside your whitepaper, place your own advertisement to your newsletter.
6. Be creative by offering free giveaways to a lucky subscriber. This can be a company shirt, hat, coffee mug or something really crazy. If you provide a service, offer special deals or discounts for that person once they join.
7. Send out personal, one-to-one emails to all your clients, and ask them to “please signup to your newsletter”. Everyone is so busy these days, you just might refresh their memory about your business and what you are about.
8. Add a checkbox to “signup for our newsletter” anywhere on your website that someone will go to contact you.
Already have a fully grown list?
If you already have an email list of customers that you have been using for another business then you just need to know how to use it properly. Just because they are already your customers in one regard, does not mean they want to start receiving your email newsletters for a new business.
If you just assume they would want your newsletter, and you subscribe them to your list without their permission, you’re just going to irritate them. You could even be reported as a spammer.
If you have an e-commerce store, you are probably sitting on a very large email list of customers who have purchased something from you in the past. But if you have not emailed them anything in a long period of time, you should not start sending them emails out of nowhere. It does not take many customers to forget who you are and report your campaign as spam. That could lead to the worst of scenarios, being blacklisted.
What should you do in this situation?
It is pretty simple, but surprisingly few email marketers follow through. The excitement about sending out the first campaign is too great and they throw being polite out the window.
If you have a list of customer email addresses but don’t have permission to start sending them your email marketing, just ask for permission.
This would be referred to as a “re-introduction email” and it can be very effective, while still remaining polite. Just create a personal note and write it like you’d write to a friend.
Bottom line, do whatever it takes to remind them who you are and how they got on your list in the first place. If you stick to this formula you should prevent them from mistakenly reporting you for spamming.
Another best practice to consider is called confirmed opt-in (COI), also referred to as confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in. The logic behind this practice is that no email newsletters are sent to anyone until that person has taken an action to indicate their desire to receive future email mailings from you.
With confirmed opt-in practices, you may end up with a smaller mailing list but the mailing list you will have will contain a much more engaged audience.
2 comments March 25, 2009
Kill your email marketing with spam-traps!
A spam-trap is an email address collected using automatic harvesting methods for the purpose of sending unsolicited communications. The spam-trap address is usually hidden from view by using tiny font or coding the email using the same color as the background. However, spam-trap emails are different than regular emails, if an email is sent to this address the owner of the spam-trap will process the unsolicited email and beginning a complaint process to your ESP/ISP or block your domain/IP completely.
The only way to protect yourself from falling into a spam-trap is first, ensure you follow best practices of email collection using only closed-loop double-optin confirmation process, where users must confirm their intention of receiving your email. Second, remove all hard bounces regularly to ensure you are sending to a clean and current list.
SimplyCast Email Marketing has a built-in system to automatically remove bounces from your list and the web sign-up form will automatically generate a closed-loop double-optin confirmation for each recipient.
3 comments October 20, 2008
