A New Report for Your Email Campaigns

If you’ve been using our newsletter tool you’ve always had access to reports like link clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, activity over time and forward to a friend activity. Now we’re happy to bring you a report outlining the email program (email client) that people are using to read your newsletter. So, why is this important? Well, knowing the email client helps in the development of the design, updates to design and spam testing exercises. Some email programs are very picky in how they interpret your well designed newsletter (the actual html) and can often make your newsletter look like a disaster. We want all of your audience to have a similar experience when reading your newsletter, so we’ll use this information to work with you in developing some core design standards.

Beyond a design perspective, understanding that most people are reading your newsletter on their smartphone vs. sitting at their desk in the office tells you that your audience is on the move. Use this information to influence and build upon your other online initiatives. Maybe you should be considering how to use sms messaging (texting) to interact with people? Is your website optimized for a mobile browser? Is your current website full of flash and won’t display on the iPhone? Maybe time to update? These stats should be monitored with the same importance as your website’s analytics. It’s all about your audience and how they’re perceiving your reputation online.

Okay enough with the reporting. Here are a couple of strategies to help you keep your campaign efficient and effective.

Stick to the basics.
When it comes to email, no frills is the way to go. Many email clients don’t support complex html, so plan accordingly and test continuously.

Build with your audience in mind.
Provide value to your readers and deliver quality content.

Use a campaign management system.
Using a tool like our Campaign Manager gives you the tools you need to manage and measure. In addition to valuable stats it reduces your chance of being blacklisted by many of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Have permission.
Sending people unsolicited email, commercial or otherwise, is against the law in many countries. Wouldn’t you rather be talking to people who you know are interested in what you have to say?

Keep your house clean.
Scrub your subscriber lists. Build processes and checkpoints into your contact management practices. Nothing hurts more than having half of your campaign bounce back because of incorrect or stale email addresses.

Watch the wall.
Send on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. When it comes to readership Saturday is considered ‘the wall’, so avoid sending late in the week and you’ll see the benefits.

Maintain a frequency.
If you tell people that you’ll be sending monthly emails, push to hit that target. Don’t send more frequently because people have an understanding that they’ll only be receiving emails once a month. People are busy and get enough emails, so don’t add to the mess.

Keep the subject line concise.
Try to keep your subject lines relatively short and work to avoid using spammy words like “money”, “lowest price guaranteed”, “increase the size of your whatever” and of course “viagra”. You’re headed for junk mail if you include too many sketchy words.

Use list segmentation.
Open rates and clickthrough rates will dramatically increase if you target your campaigns. Segment your lists into different categories and send people a targeted email versus a generic catch all.

Posted by Adam on May 11, 2009 in technology

Twitter: (aka: SXSW 2009: What’s the Buzz Part 2)

In case you missed my earlier post,  I travelled to Austin, Texas in mid-March for the annual SXSW Interactive Festival. It was a great time, and I wanted to share some more of the buzz that came out of the Festival. 

Twitter was everywhere at SXSW, as Adam blogged about. Many of you likely already have Twitter accounts, and know what tweets and hashtags are, and have maybe even sent a mistweet or two (or even a dweep–look that one up). For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, this webdesignerdepot article about Twitter will fill you in. It has some amusing stats and a bunch of third-party apps current twitterers might like, too.

Twitter is essentially a micro-blogging tool that allows you to instantly notify people what’s new with you, or what you’re doing right now. It’s locative too, meaning that Twitterers can get an idea of what’s going on in their neck of the woods. But really, the power of Twitter isn’t that you can see that Michelle is doing laundry, and Kevin is having a decaf, half-sweet mocha latte. The thing about Twitter is its potential to be a really powerful tool for businesses–both in helping to create and build on brand loyalty, and to gauge current feelings out there about trends, ideas and even your brand.

Scenario 1: You’re wondering what your customers are saying and thinking about you. Surveys and focus groups aren’t giving you current, honest, or even accurate information. Or maybe you don’t have the budget to do formal research. Hop on Twitter Search, type in your business name or a term relating to your industry (i.e.: mp3 players) and tap into the instant thoughts of millions of people. And not thoughts from last month, or last year like you might find with traditional forms of research, but thoughts from today and even this instant. And yes, Twitterers are VERY honest. If you’re curious how it works, go to Twitter Search and type in anything–your company name, a celebrity name–whatever interests you–and see the good and bad of what people are saying.

Scenario 2: If you’re only checking into what people are saying about you, it’s like you’re outside peeking in. You’re missing an opportunity to shape people’s perceptions of you–and either build on good feelings, or turn a negative experience into something positive. Get an account (either your company or you, personally), and tweet things of value. Some companies offer links to exclusive coupons through Twitter, which really gives people a reason to follow you if they like what you’re selling. If that scenario won’t work for your company, pass along links of value, advice from a professional, and anything your audience would find valuable. Twitter is a great platform to keep your customers on top of new services, product launches, changes to policies and other tidbits of information they would find useful. Keep in mind, your tweets have to be 140 characters or less, so keep it short and sweet! Don’t be afraid to show your personality: the most popular twitterers are honest, open and share their sense of humour.

Some Twitter stats:

• Twitter’s reach is so powerful, that in November 2008, they turned down a purchase offer from Facebook for $500 million.  
• March was a record month for Twitter–they doubled their traffic.
• The majority of Twitterers abandon their accounts after a month or so (60%). 
• Lots of celebrities have gotten on-board the Twitter train and some have received lots of attention because of it: Oprah (@oprah), Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk), and Shaquille O’Neal (@the_real_shaq).

Posted by Andrea on May 8, 2009 in events, industry, progressive, strategy