tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374623252012-02-16T06:50:35.191ZeTips - all about email newsletters, for those wanting to publish their own. eTips has a UK business focus.Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-54160548702067556512007-11-22T09:03:00.000Z2007-11-22T09:06:55.183Z

The old eTips is now finished - but the new eTips is alive and well! Come visit our new blog at Eggblogg - opinion, rants, tips & news about online marketing. Or sign up here for the new eTips by email.See you soon!

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-71536794284126998752007-10-04T17:04:00.000+01:002007-10-04T17:07:29.131+01:00

Guess what - it's National Poetry Day here in the UK, so there's only one thing for it ... ............Freddy Bull the marketer Just loved his direct mail,He used to send out tons of stuffAnd knew it couldn’t fail.He didn't know if it arrived,Nor whether it got read,But just a 1% returnWas good enough for Fred Then one day Freddy realisedThat there was something better:An email can be sent for

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-71538786434615062532007-09-20T15:56:00.000+01:002007-09-20T15:59:02.092+01:00

Does your inbox groan under the weight of email, both wanted and unwanted? For most people, it's a split-second decision whether to open an email or not. If your recipents are using a preview pane, they can see a small section of the email. Otherwise, they only have two pieces of information to go on. The subject line, and who it's from. I've talked about subject lines in a previous eTip, and

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-89304310950538696122007-09-06T15:41:00.000+01:002007-09-06T15:58:10.410+01:00

When it comes to email marketing everyone's looking for definitive answers.You know the kinds of questions I'm talking about. What sort of open rate should we get? What's an average click-through rate? If our unsubscribe rate is 2%, is that good? Unfortunately, there are no absolutes. The answers are dependent on so many factors. Firstly you can seek out industry benchmarks from firms such as

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-51271821241379490772007-08-23T15:28:00.000+01:002007-08-23T15:30:07.991+01:00

List fatigue is something all email marketers have to face. It's a familiar scenario: your first newsletter is a wow. Good open rate, nice comments, everyone is happy. But over time, open rates tend to decline, and, even though your CTRs may be strong there's still the nagging feeling that the majority of people just aren't bothering to open any more. This body of emails can be a dead weight,

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-59637674993362608172007-07-26T10:21:00.000+01:002007-07-26T10:27:53.680+01:00

Sometimes we can get bogged down with the details of email marketing and lose sight of the guiding principles. So, as something to to think about over the summer, here's a quick recap of the four factors that can make or break an email marketing campaign. WHO? The quality of your list, segmentation and targeting. Relevance is king. WHAT? Your message, your offer, your proposition. Whatever you

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-38363134316359595682007-07-06T15:34:00.000+01:002007-07-06T15:37:19.646+01:00

It's no secret that the reliability of open rates is not what it was, thanks mainly to the growing prevalence of image blocking. In a way this is good: it means we have to look beyond simple opens to statistics that are far more telling. I'm talking of course about the click-through rate. Click-throughs are unequivocal proof that you've got someone's attention. You can look at an email without

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-74111532276085940972007-06-21T12:54:00.000+01:002007-06-21T12:58:48.005+01:00

I have a colleague who regularly uses email to prospect for consulting work. She sends out plain text emails, and swears by the results. Every now and then the 'text vs HTML' debate is re-kindled. Just when is it best to send in plain text? Let's consider the benefits: no worries about rendering or image blocking good delivery rate: less likely to fall foul of filters may be more likely to get

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-59078240447484849062007-06-12T12:06:00.000+01:002007-06-12T12:18:20.018+01:00

The other day I received an email which illustrates perfectly the problem of image blocking. Here's how it looked before and after I turned on images: Default view - click to enlargeWith images turned on - click to enlargeTo make matters worse there was no ALT text for the images, and the link to the web version actually wasn't a live link.A number of significant email clients now have images

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-50569439829241416702007-05-24T16:28:00.000+01:002007-05-24T16:31:02.351+01:00

When it comes to emailing private individuals, as opposed to businesses, the law in the UK is pretty clear. You have to have permission. There are a number of good factsheets available which explain what 'permission' means in this context - for example this one from Scottish Enterprise.But what about business-to-business? Is it really true that anything goes? According to the law, yes. With one

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-1040243162405432312007-05-10T13:14:00.000+01:002007-05-10T13:15:33.785+01:00

Whether or not you have a marketing plan, what do you do when other, unforeseen opportunities arise? I don't mean all those ad sales calls offering you a fantastic price on a quarter page display in the next XYZ supplement. I mean the genuine moments when you see someone else jump in and you say to yourself 'I wish I'd thought of that!'One of the beauties of new media tools such as email, pay per

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-85472326510342729902007-04-19T17:12:00.000+01:002007-04-19T17:19:32.368+01:00

In the last eTip I talked about how much we are influenced by the subject lines and 'from' fields when choosing to either delete or open an email.But once your email has been opened, what then? Readers will typically give you seconds rather than minutes of their time. You need to ensure even the flightiest of skimmers gets your message. For example: Use brief subheadsSubheadings or emboldened key

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-89718051352130712007-04-04T17:40:00.000+01:002007-04-04T17:41:44.233+01:00

Are your emails written for skimmers?Skimming isn't about reading quickly. Being a skimmer means you're just looking for the key points and ignoring the rest. Skimmers love a good contents page, a short abstract and quick-fire humour. They struggle with ring-bound reports, jokes that take ten minutes to get to the punchline, and novels by Henry James.So what's my point...? The first thing email

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-19166544819247981102007-03-22T12:53:00.000Z2007-03-22T12:56:02.647Z

Did you know that people don't just click on links in an email, they click all over the page, even on blank spaces? Or that only about half the people who view an email actually make it to the end?These are among the findings of a 2006 email Eyetracking Study carried out by Marketing Sherpa as part of its 2007 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide. Just as it sounds, eyetracking measures both how the

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-47412729342216800402007-03-08T15:42:00.000Z2007-03-08T15:47:19.390Z

In the last eTip I argued that an email newsletter should be seen as a long term marketing tool, not just a vehicle for sales messages. That means including a good proportion of non-promotional content - some would say as much as 60%.Which is all very well, but what if you're just selling something less than glamorous, like spare parts for washing machines, or tax advice, or plastic cups? How do

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-78741493808998905682007-02-23T11:56:00.001Z2007-02-23T11:56:47.361Z

Some years ago, one of my first email newsletter clients was a mail order company selling clothing made from ethically traded materials. I was delighted to have the chance to work with these people as I admired their approach. There was a genuine enthusiasm and sense of commitment about what they were doing. My mind was buzzing straight away about their email newsletter. There was just so much

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-73212459529623074782007-02-08T14:36:00.000Z2007-02-08T14:47:26.501Z

Each email is an opportunity to find out about your customers.Sometimes, market research is seen as something you do when prospecting for customers. Or it's a boring section on the marketing plan or business proposal that has to be filled in.But in fact, as any marketer will tell you, gathering 'customer insights' is a job that never ends. Don't stop finding out about people when they become a

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-60796426514526886732007-01-24T17:45:00.000Z2007-01-24T17:47:25.625Z

An HTML email is just like a web page. Except in some ways it's not. It's worth understanding the differences, even if you're not the person responsible for the design and coding of your email messages. Let me rephrase that - if you're overseeing the business of email marketing then it's essential to have a handle on the potential design issues.The thing to always bear in mind is that the sender

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-1812137332041412272007-01-11T12:11:00.000Z2007-01-11T12:14:48.680Z

Bring up the subject of email in any conversation and the topic almost always turns to spam - how much we're getting, what to do about it, which spam filtering software is worth using, and so on.But talk to a potential email marketer and one of the first questions is 'how can we stop our email from being filtered out as spam?'The war against spam is being fought on many different levels, from

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-6850383574904308242006-12-28T11:48:00.000Z2006-12-28T12:04:54.932Z

In the last eTips I talked about injecting the 'X-factor' into emails - giving them personality, making them more readable, building a rapport with the reader over time.For example, a common technique is to feature the name and photo of the editor or writer, and have them introduce the content or comment on it. You could include feedback from readers or answer a commonly-asked question, as this

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-46892076935507850862006-12-14T13:26:00.000Z2006-12-14T13:30:48.055Z

Now that email has become a standard tool for customer communications it becomes more essential than ever to make yours stand out from the same old stuff. One of the key ways to make email communications more memorable is to make them more enjoyable to read. Sounds a bit basic, doesn't it? But I wonder if sometimes we get so bogged down with making sure we've got enough calls to action, or

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-1164715999234163242006-11-28T12:09:00.000Z2006-11-28T12:13:19.243Z

We're onto a slightly technical subject this week, but it's one to be aware of, even if you're not personally responsible for coding your emails.The growth of Gmail, or Googlemail as it's called in the UK, throws up some interesting challenges for the email marketer. I've done an assessment of all my B2C clients' lists and Googlemail/Gmail addresses still only account for a tiny percentage, but

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-1163497612077710202006-11-14T09:46:00.000Z2006-11-14T09:46:52.083Z

This morning I wrote another letter to the Data Protection Commissioner in Jersey to complain about unsolicited email from Play.com, a Jersey-based online retailer.As you might expect, I get a lot of spam. My various email addresses have been out there in the public domain for so long that I see it as an occupational hazard. I get asked 'don't you get fed up with having to delete all those

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-1163159561011689732006-11-10T11:50:00.000Z2006-12-05T16:52:44.922Z

Deliverability is one of the toughest nuts to crack in email marketing. Time and again I get asked 'how can I make sure my emailshot gets past the spam filters?' It's a bit like the perennial question 'How can I make sure my site is number one on Google?' - the short answer is, you will never be 100% in control of this.Rather than seeing spam filters as a challenge to be beaten, a more effective

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-1163159357813462302006-11-10T11:46:00.000Z2006-12-05T16:53:15.678Z

One of the most important stats for any long term email marketing programme is the bounce rate. Deliverability is now the hot issue in email marketing, with much of the teeth-gnashing focused on spam filters and how to 'get around them' (a phrase I'm not wild about - I'll explain why in the next eTips.) However, there are other reasons why your email may not arrive. It's worth tackling them

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37462325.post-1163158826990204782006-11-10T11:39:00.000Z2006-12-05T16:54:08.287Z

It's now nearly a year since I started my fortnightly email newsletter about email newsletters, eTips. I've been meaning to move it to blog format for some time, so here it is.

Robin Houghtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08170214005426428270noreply@blogger.com0