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email marketing
Your Reader’s Experience
“…at some point along the way, gathering and managing their subscribers’ info became more important than their subscribers’ experience.” I made that statement a year ago in response to an article that Danielle wrote explaining her troubles when trying to unsubscribe from Air Canada’s newsletter. … Keep reading…
Everyone I Meet Should Do This
I want everyone I meet to take one key action. Whether you meet me at a networking breakfast or on Facebook, browsing our website or reading our blog, there’s one simple thing I want you to do. You want every person you meet to take … Keep reading…
4 Ways to Constantly Grow your List
Over a year, your mailing list will decrease by 30%. That’s an industry average but we’ve seen it with our own and clients’ lists. You’ll lose contacts in several ways, not just through unsubscribes. People change their email addresses, for example, or have other difficulties … Keep reading…
Fiasco in the Fields
screen shot of email header There’s nothing like getting an email addressed to ‘fname’ or ‘subscriber’ for making you feel valued. Yes, I’m being sarcastic. This is definitely not the message you want to send to your readers. You want to make a personal connection with … Keep reading…
SPAM is a Dirty Word
I really hate the word SPAM. For me, it usually means a sudden sick feeling in my stomach that has nothing to do with the unwanted visual of canned luncheon meat. Clicking that SEND button on a newsletter is the last step in a meticulous … Keep reading…
10 Signs this is Your First Newsletter
I’m such a newsletter critic. I think it makes me better at what I do – learning from others’ good and bad examples. Here are some things that often stand out during my critiques: You didn’t use a bulk email application. This is such a big mistake, … Keep reading…
When to Send
I get asked this a lot, “When is the best time to send out my newsletter?” My short reply is usually this: Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 9:45 and 10:15am. Then one Thursday morning I received 4 newsletters at exactly 9:45am. The fact is, there … Keep reading…
Why Use a Bulk Email Service?
For a small cost, using a bulk email servicer provider (ESP) gives you LOTS of benefits: Cost is minimal. It allows you to schedule your email sends. It handles subscribes and unsubscribes effortlessly and accurately. It has built-in functionality to manage your contact lists and … Keep reading…
Delivering the Goods
Think about the executive summary that prime ministers and presidents read every morning. That has to be a darn concise document. Up-to-the-minute information, well-curated, and accurate, with an appropriate level of detail. Doesn’t that sound like a great newsletter? A newsletter has to be useful … Keep reading…
Don’t Dilute Your Message
Let’s say you own a business that sells services to the general public. And, because you are so good at what you do, you also sell different services to other businesses in your industry. This is a common scenario for successful small businesses. You want to start an enewsletter – let’s … Keep reading…
How are Email Marketers like Santa?
Santa can reach every person in the world all in one night. Email can do that too… as long as every person has an email account. Santa has a hard and fast deadline. Email marketers have hard and fast deadlines maintaining consistency to keep their … Keep reading…
The Devil is in the Details
Mistakes happen – appointments get missed, deadlines slide by, and that phone call doesn’t get returned. These things happen to everyone sooner or later. Sometimes these are things that can be avoided next time, sometimes they’re unavoidable, and sometimes they’re just plain old stupid mistakes. … Keep reading…
The Outrageously Simple Formula for eNewsletter Success
GOALS + VALUE = SUCCESS Simple, right? As small business owners, our email marketing goals can be quite different and varied. Whatever your GOALS are, you won’t reach them if you don’t seriously consider the other side of the equation: giving VALUE to your subscribers. … Keep reading…
Warm Up those Cold Calls
Many organizations are engaging in email marketing these days – informational newsletters, promotional emails, or both. Some of these organizations have even done a great job of integrating email marketing with their social media efforts as part of a comprehensive online marketing strategy. But few … Keep reading…
It Doesn’t Have to be About You
Let’s face it: some businesses are in a better position to provide valuable information through newsletters (blogs, social media) than others. Take our own newsletter as an example. We could easily publish a newsletter about publishing newsletters. (Stay with me here.) It would have lots of tips … Keep reading…
9 Ways to Personalize Your Newsletter
We tell our new clients that the newsletters we design for them will be completely unique. Part of being unique is making a personal connection with your reader. Here’s our best advice about how to make your newsletter more personal and distinct. 1. Write a … Keep reading…
eNewsletter Design and Formatting Mistakes
Mistakes stand out and they can be fodder for others’ discussions. Aside from obvious spelling, grammatical and hyperlink errors, formatting and design can also be a big turn-off. You can have awesome content that delivers value to your readers – but it’s no good if … Keep reading…
Introducing Your Very First Issue
Update – Find a newer version of this topic here: How to Write the Introduction to Your First Newsletter. When writing the introduction for your first newsletter issue, here are some things you might want to include: Acknowledge that this is your first issue and that you appreciate … Keep reading…
A Different Kind of Feedback
Most of us would agree that feedback is generally a desirable thing and necessary for continuous improvement. Yet there seems to be a whole area of performance that gets ignored due to little or no feedback: internet marketing. If you are ignoring your feedback (in … Keep reading…
Original Content Makes YOU Unique!
Do you really need any more information than what you’re already getting? Do your readers? How do you compete with ALL that content that’s readily available? You give them something they can’t get anywhere else! A list is easy – here’s one way to think … Keep reading…
Company News is No News
“Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with us.” “Sign up to get company news and other info.” Does that make you want to invite yet another email into your inbox? I think not. what NOT to do I did a search … Keep reading…
So Many Choices
“What is the one best thing that you want a reader to do?” That’s one question I ask new clients. Research has shown that offering too many choices creates indecision. To be effective, a call-to-action must motivate your reader to, well, take action. It’s not as easy … Keep reading…
Up the Value of Your Redirect Pages
Many of the people connecting with you online are arriving at one of your redirect pages at some point. A redirect page is the ‘thank you for signing up’ page you send them to when they sign up for your newsletter, or the event registration … Keep reading…