Joe Forte says, “Email marketers understand that the subject line, including key words within it, are vital to obtaining higher open and click-through rates, but what is just as important is a clear call to action. It could be a phrase or sentence, a video, or a single word, but a clear call to action is the primary determinant of whether the email recipient will click on your email or delete it forever (and possibly block others you may send in the future). I would argue that email marketers who want to improve their click-through rates should use video. If content is king, then your video... [...]

Lindsey Gusenburg says, “Lead nurturing is a critical part of a marketer’s job, especially in the B2B space. Forrester suggested that a B2B buyer’s journey could be anywhere from 65-90% complete by the time he or she contacts the vendor to move forward with a sale. This reality of a modern buyer’s behavior has added a layer of complexity to both the strategy and technology we use to guide leads through the sales funnel. Marketers have approached this challenge primarily through email marketing — and more recently through marketing automation. However, even with significant... [...]

Noah Jessop says, “Despite the rise of social media, mobile apps, and other forms of communication, email remains the number one way for many marketers to keep in touch with their customers. Yet, using email appropriately requires a deft touch. Marketers must have a full grasp of not only which message to send to whom and at what point but also how to get their messages into the recipients’ inbox in the first place. Hence the two critical “Ds” of email marketing: decision and delivery. Current email strategies require competencies in both areas. Here are the top things... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Since February Gmail has included an “Unsubscribe” link at the top of many newsletters, a feature intended to give users an easier way to manage their overflowing inboxes. The links only appeared on email filtered into Gmail’s Promotions tab. Today, Google announced that it has extended the Unsubscribe feature into Gmail’s Social and Forums tabs. The benefits for users are obvious, as Google explained in a Google+ post: Making the unsubscribe option easy to find is a win for everyone”. Gmail Pushes Unsubscribe Links To The Top Of More Newsletters Marketing... [...]

This is a reminder for Business 2 Community’ webinar on email marketing. Business 2 Community is hosting a webinar with Aaron Bolshaw on Thursday, August 14 at 2.00 pm ET. The topic of the webinar is “Using Data and Design to Create a Knockout Email Nurture Program”. The ‘Business 2 Community’ team says, “This session will cover: Batch-n-blast vs lead nurturing Lead nurturing 101 The building blocks of a successful campaign: data + design = results How to develop lead profiles Design trends: responsive design, animated gifs, and other ways to break through the attention... [...]

Shannon Johnson says, “If you’ve ever planned an email marketing campaign, you might have wanted to pull your hair out at least once or twice. Maybe you didn’t have enough time to properly segment your lists, so you knew your clickthrough rate was gonna totally suck. Or you were planning several email campaigns at once, so keeping track of all the details for each was kind of like trying to juggle while skateboarding while accomplishing your 50-squats-a-day goal. Sound familiar? Email marketing requires a lot of attention to detail. Sometimes it’s just plain tricky to stay... [...]

Pratik Dholakiya says, “Email marketing advice is all around us — a dime a dozen. You’ve heard all the contradictory tips. Send marketing emails often … Don’t send marketing emails too often. Focus on the content, not the design … Design can make or break your campaigns. You may just want to ignore it altogether, but there’s good reason not to give up on email”. 5 Innovative Email Marketing Tips That Drive Readers to Action ‘Copyblogger’ Blog  [...]

Steve Dille says, “Ten years ago, email marketers could be nearly certain that the messages they sent would be received, opened and read on a desktop or laptop PC with a dedicated wired Ethernet connection to the internet. Today, however, email messages are more likely to be opened and read on a smartphone than a PC. Marketers today have to consider an enormous number of factors when sending messages to customers and prospects. Not only do we need to think about mobile-optimizing our emails, but now we need to consider whether other mobile channels would be more appropriate for a given... [...]

Pamella Neely says, “What’s the leading mistake with most small businesses’ email programs? It’s not choosing the wrong email service provider. It’s not sending bad content. It’s not even mailing too infrequently. The leading mistake with most small businesses’ email marketing is right at the beginning of their program. It’s at the very first step: Not giving their prospective subscribers an incentive to sign up. This one change to your email-marketing program can set you ahead of up to 83 percent of your competition. Get it right, and you’ll beat almost any competition out... [...]

Ryan Scheeppe says, “There are few things more disappointing in an email marketer’s job than seeing a typo in the subject line of your latest campaign after clicking “send”. We all make mistakes with grammar and spelling from time to time (not to mention dead links, failed personalization tags and missing images). However, there are other mistakes you can make that can be avoided with a little bit of marketing knowledge and experience. You might very well be committing these fallacies time and time again without even knowing it”. 4 Simple Email Marketing Mistakes... [...]