Olivia Dello Buono says, “Email marketing isn’t a field of dreams: you don’t simply add a form to your site and gain 200,000 readers overnight. To truly build your audience, and your business, you need to take a few extra steps. That includes using power tools that complement your email growth strategy. On average, AWeber clients who use email integrations have lists 104% larger than those who don’t use such tools. So to help you boost your own email marketing and start 2015 off right, here’s a roundup of this year’s top 10 apps in the most popular categories”. Top 10 Power Tools... [...]

Seamas Egan says, “Black Friday deals. Holiday sales. Travel promotions. New Years offers. This holiday season, email marketers and online retailers are in a Hunger Games of their own: Keeping their promotional emails alive—and out of the spam folder—will determine their ability to survive this season. Avoiding the dreaded delete button is a taxing battle: 23% of consumers claim they get overwhelmed with holiday offers and just ignore them, whereas 31% look but rarely take action (make a purchase), according to a recent Campaigner survey. So, for example, just as Katniss Everdeen puts... [...]

Kim Stiglitz says, “The 2014 Thanksgiving holiday weekend was a busy one for VerticalResponse customers, and we’re not just talking about sales and donations. Our customers sent over 350,000,000 emails from Monday, November 24 through Tuesday, December 2 (Giving Tuesday). We tallied these specific dates to identify a trend in email volume leading up to Thanksgiving holiday weekend, as well as the number of non-profit customers participating in Giving Tuesday (December 2). Many people also assume high email volume or campaigns revolve purely around Black Friday, however, interestingly for VerticalResponse... [...]

Madeline Boehmer says, “With Christmas only 22 days away, I repeat 22 DAYS AWAY, we are all now being bombarded with ads everywhere promoting all the hottest gifts of 2014 and sales that are hard to pass up. Anytime you turn on the TV or radio you hear your favorite holiday tunes with store names sneakily added into the lyrics, and some of the songs are so catchy you might even find yourself singing along. Another place that we get bombarded with advertisements is in our email. While I hate receiving annoying emails just as much as the next person, I do find it interesting to see what techniques... [...]

Erin Hogg says, “Having a growing company with more clients is great for business, but how can you keep that down-to-earth, friendly communication when your client list keeps expanding? Medix Dental adopted a monthly client and prospect newsletter with the goal of keeping the brand top-of-mind as well as to show its appreciation for clients. See how the team discovered what content resonated and engaged with its audience the most and how the team achieved an open rate more than 10% higher than the professional services industry average”. Email Marketing: Monthly client-focused newsletter nets... [...]

Have you ever noticed how most people are interested in getting something for nothing? That’s the principle behind the product samples that are handed out in supermarkets every weekend. If it’s free, many people will take it. But there’s a problem with that strategy. These people are interested in something free, but will they be actual buyers of the product, too? A lot of them won’t. Indian marketer Raimundas M has found a way to use the internet to turn “freebie seekers” into buyers. The free offer attracts a lot of interest, he says, and the conversion techniques... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook today announced buying, video and targeting enhancements to its mobile app advertising program. Starting this week, advertisers will be able to buy app ads that are optimized for reach and frequency. “This allows advertisers to boost awareness while controlling how often someone sees an ad,” Facebook explained in a blog post. “For example, advertisers can set their app ad campaign to reach 5 million people with a frequency cap of three impressions per person for one week. Since reach and frequency optimizes for unique reach, it should only be used for campaigns... [...]

Emily Konouchi says, “Video can be key to conversions and sales, a recent study confirms. For email marketers, using video should be a no-brainer, but the email-video combo still feels like a rare pairing. Only 25% of marketers surveyed last year reported that they used video in their marketing, and a quick look at my own inbox supports that statistic. But the emails with video are the ones that I (and many others) find most memorable, so why aren’t more marketers using them? If you’ve been at this marketing thing for a while, you know that video and email were tough to combine:... [...]

Daniel Faggella says, “For many marketers, the success of any campaign is determined simply by the bottom line: expenses of the campaign vs. revenues generated. In assessing campaigns, companies are often quick to fix the unique and tactical elements of the campaign, but they often leave out vital conversion “checkpoints” that are the ultimate drivers of a campaign’s ROI. In this article, I’ll explain the 4 focus areas of an “email optimization audit” and explain how any company can use this exercise to lift a company’s overall online conversion rates. This process can also... [...]

David Moth says, “Black Friday has come and gone, leaving my inbox full to the brim with tempting offers and discounts. Thanksgiving sales have been big business in the US for many years but they’re now starting to catch on among UK retailers as well. We wrote last week about how the likes of Argos and John Lewis were building up for Black Friday sales, and also looked at how some sites fell over as a result of the increased traffic. And to give another angle to the Black Friday digital marketing bonanza, I’ve dug around in my inbox to look at the different subject lines and creatives used... [...]