VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Why a Text Version of Your Email is Important

I know, as you who build your email marketing campaigns, you need to get through it fast so you can move onto important stuff like running your business. I get it. But I think it's time to tell you why you need to take a few extra minutes to include a text version of your email with your HTML email (Wikipedia: HTML email may include typographic information like colored headings, emphasized and quoted text, inline images and diagrams) when you send out your email marketing campaigns.

A few years ago, it was very necessary to include a text version of your emails since so many email clients munged images and HTML in general. These days most email readers like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! render HTML and images nicely but there are a few reasons I wanted to tell you why you need to offer both.

If you use an email service providers (ESPs), chances are when you create an HTML email, your provider sends out two versions of the email you create; the HTML version and a text version that you also need to create. Does your recipient get both in their inbox? No way. Depending on how they set up their email client, they get the appropriate version in their inbox. Here are some reasons for spending the extra 5 minutes to create a text version of your email.

Email Filters - Some spam filters recognize an email that is coming to them with only the HTML version. Many spammers don't include a text version when they send their emails, so the filter might think that a spammer might be trying to get an email through and filter your email.

Sending to Large Businesses - Some large companies don't accept email with HTML so you might want to test a text-only version vs. a nicely laid out HTML version. You might find that your text only gets a better response.

Mobile Devices - Many people today are checking their email on their PDA and many of the PDAs don't render HTML well, especially the older versions. For this reason you'll want to include a text version. Since text emails on a computer have line breaks at about 65 characters and mobile devices are 20 or so, you might consider making it much shorter than you would for an email that is read on a computer.

Transactional Emails - If you're sending a notification of shipment or delivery, or a confirmation, you might not need to send an image-heavy email unless you want to include an offer. People like to scan transactional emails and move on.

I hope this clears up why you should be including text versions of your email. They don't have to be elaborate but you should include one in all of your campaigns.

BtoB Magazine Article - Secrets & lies: Integrating CRM and e-mail

I was interviewed by Karen Bannan, a top-notch Freelance Writer who covers business and technology for a bunch of publications including BtoB Magazine. Her column is called Secrets & Lies: Integrating CRM and e-mail. Check out the story.

BtoB Magazine Article - Secrets & Lies: Integrating CRM and e-mail

If email is the heart of your marketing program, then customer relationship management data is what makes it tick—if you know how to integrate it. Janine Popick, CEO and co-founder of email service provider VerticalResponse, provides one secret and exposes one lie to help you get more out of using CRM in conjunction with your email marketing campaigns. Read more of the story.

VerticalResponse Is Integrated with BigContacts: Contact Management for Small Businesses

I'm pretty excited to announce that BigContacts, an online contact management system that allows small businesses to manage EVERYTHING on one screen, has integrated with VerticalResponse. You can manage customer emails, meetings, files, tasks, notes, history, opportunities, photos and more. Their lowest pricing is about $15/month/user. That's pretty affordable.

Once you've gathered your customer data into your BigContacts online account, you can filter and sort lists by any criteria you have and then package the results into lists for your email marketing campaigns. The lists are then automatically published in your VerticalResponse account for future management and outreach – and stored there for free, no matter much you send your email campaigns.

In your VerticalResponse account you also have immediate access to the results of the campaign, including opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, purchases, and more. Your contact records in BigContacts are automatically updated to reflect when your campaign was sent so you can keep track of them.

So there you have it, it's super-easy to get your customer lists FROM BigContacts. Another time-saver for your business.

If you use BigContacts log into your account and go to the Marketing tab, there you'll be able to start building your email list using the Advanced Search. If you don't use BigContacts but want to try them on for size, they have a ton of great video tours and a quick overview video.

June '09 Inc.com Article - When Business Gets Emotional

The newest article I've written in my new Inc.com column, Girl Power: Female CEOs, is "When Business Gets Emotional". On this 4th of July, take some time and read how some women just can't seem to get over it. Cheers!

5 Easy Things to Test to Get a Better Response in Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Testing something new or changing something seemingly small in your email campaigns can definitely tell you something about how your recipients will respond. You'll either get more open & clicks or you won't. But you won't know until you try.

Testing something new can SEEM like a lot of work but it's really not. If you're going to create an email marketing campaign anyway, it's just three more tiny steps.

    One: Make a copy of the campaign you're creating
    Two: Change a little part of the campaign (see below)
    Three: Test with a small portion of your list or split your list in two

These three simple steps could get you a better response to your next email campaign and it takes just minutes for you to do. Unleash the mad scientist in you with these 5 easy things to test within your next email marketing campaign.

1. Subject Line - If no one opens your email, it doesn't matter how pretty it is on the inside, so why not test two different subject lines? Here's an idea; look at your past campaigns and see what your recipients are clicking on, then include that offer or article in your new subject line. After you send it out compare your open and click rates to see if you got a better response than normal.

2. Offer - Test a % discount vs. a pricing discount like 20% off vs. a $10 savings. Run a test with free shipping vs. no free shipping or with an expiration date vs. no expiration date. Then roll out to the rest of your list the winning offer.

3. Format - Instead of including a sidebar in your emails, try removing it so that perhaps more of your content is "above the fold" or the part of an email or web page that is visible without scrolling. Make sure you've got some links above the fold so you can tell if it's working. If you get more clicks you may want to consider changing your format for good.

4. Links - If your email has 5 links to your offer, try including 5 more and see if your response increases. Read Are Your Clicks Happening Below The Fold?

5. Images - Try removing images and see if a text version of your email works better. How 90's of you!

You can either split your list in half and do the test or you can break off a small piece of your list and do the test a day in advance of your real email campaign date. Then roll out to your bigger list with the winner. Here is how you can do it using VerticalResponse.

One last thing, if you are going to test any of these make sure you test them one at a time so you know which change actually made the difference.

Tell A Friend About Email Marketing & Strengthen the Economy

I was privileged enough to talk to a wonderful couple I met in Pennsylvania who owned 4 Hallmark stores on the East Coast this past week. They said business was a bit down, understandably, but they were working their way through it.

What I'm about to tell you is shocking, but it's harsh reality. They told us that they didn't have a web site and they were just thinking about email marketing because they heard from a marketing company it can really work.

So I started thinking, of course there are a ton of small businesses and non profits that might not have websites or might not use email marketing. I mean if you add up the top three email marketing companies (VR being one of them) our collective customers make up less than 2% of the entire 25+ million small businesses in the US. Crazy huh? Most of the small businesses are either doing nothing or probably using their email client like Outlook to send email marketing campaigns.

Here are a few reasons why businesses may not be doing email marketing today and what you can do if you know anyone who isn't using it to grow their business.

• They think it's too technical - Tell them! Show them videos or tutorials, tell them to sign up for an email marketing newsletter.
• They don't have time - Just 30 minutes of their time every two weeks could get them at least 20% more in sales or donations. See Diary of a Mad Email Marketing Woman.
• They are happy using Outlook - Their email might not be getting into the inbox and they can't tell what's working and what isn't.
• They think it's expensive - Just $10/month or less could get them a huge bump in revenue.

Tell a Friend and Help Strengthen Our Economy

If you're reading this blog you probably know the importance of a web presence and how email marketing helps your business grow. Why not help a friend who owns a small business or a non profit today? Tell them to get a web site and start collecting email addresses, even if it's only a brochure site with 5 pages. People go to the web today to search for their needs nationally and at the local level. Oh, and tell them to start using email marketing, it doesn't matter what email service provider they use.

If anything is going to strengthen our economy and get us out of these tough times it's small businesses growing. After all, we have collectively generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade and we employ over half of the private sector employees! Not too shabby.

Tell a friend today!

New Report: Email Spending to Hit $2B by 2014

I was recently reading Direct Magazine and my good friend and editor Ken Magill published an article about the state of email marketing spend. David Daniels an analyst from Forrester Research talked about their newly published email marketing spend report and how email spending will grow from the astonishing $1.2 billion this year to $2 billion in 2014.

The report also showed that customer retention, which is essentially what you use VerticalResponse or another email service provider for, will be responsible for 75% of the total spend.

What does this mean for you? It means that email marketing is probably working for you and that it will probably continue to work for you in the not-so-distant future. So if you have to tell your boss that email is a tool you need to use, direct them to this article ;-)

David Daniels also reports that the growth is mainly due to the fact that businesses are growing their lists.

Read more of the story here

Writing Email Marketing Copy That Sells

Writing your email marketing campaigns can make anyone want to pull their hair out, especially if you're trying to sell a product/service, or ask for a donation, either as part of your newsletter or the sole purpose of your email. You want to make sure you hit all of the highlights and make sure people SEE your offer.

I've put together some ideas you can think about and put to work when writing copy that sells in your campaigns.

Benefits - I've written about this before, but I can't stress how important it is for you to answer your recipient's question, "What's it going to do for me?" "How is it going to make my life easier?" They don't necessarily care about all of the nifty features you'll offer without getting to the heart of why they need it first. Many businesses get caught up in focusing on themselves rather than their recipients. Recipients should always be the focus of the copy.

Use Subheads - Getting the attention of your readers using subheads is always a great idea. It breaks up your thoughts and gets to the heart of what you're selling quickly while letting them do the skimming.

Write in Small Chunks - You need to get to your point fast in small succinct paragraphs. When was the last time you read an entire press release in an email? It's difficult to do, no one has the time, they need you to tell your story briefly. If they want more detailed information, link off to a page where they can find it.

Use Bullets - Bullets break up points or benefits so that your readers can get your information quickly by scanning. This is a very popular copywriting tactic for email and the web in general.

Get Customer Testimonials - Nothing sells your product better than your customers, but getting the testimonial right is essential. "I love this product!" is not good enough. You need to get to the heart of why they love your product or your cause. "I love this product because it saved me $500 in fees per year!" tells a much better story. Make sure you put your customer's real name and city or company they come from. It adds credibility to the quote.

Get the Subject Line Right - Make sure you think about the subject line first, it's the most important item in your email. In just 40-50 characters get across what they'll get for opening your email.

Write Like You Speak - If you're talking to a prospect or customer you don't speak in long boring sentences. You are probably concise and conversational. So should your email marketing copy be.

Ask For The Order - I've spent a lot of time on calls-to-action lately and it's because they're important. Your call-to-action is your "Buy Now" link or your "Call 1-800.." copy. It's essentially what you want your recipients to do. You should definitely display your call-to-action above the fold so that your recipients don't have to scroll down to find your offer links. Don't be afraid to get in your recipient's face either. If that's what you told them you'd be sending them, they expect it and probably want it. Use expiration dates and bold colors, and make sure to link from everywhere you can in your email to get your recipients to act now!

I hope you find this helpful, if you've got any great copywriting tactics to get more sales, comment!

10 Ways to Get More Clicks in Your Email Campaigns

We all want our recipients to open our email campaigns, right? But it's what happens after the open we're truly concerned about. We want our recipients to read our articles and take action whether it's buying a product, service or donating to our cause. Here are ten easy actions you can take and put to work in your email marketing campaigns that might just get them clickin'.

1. More Links - Obviously you'll link your call-to-action such as "Click Here", but try linking your words within your article or pitch. You might find that people will respond better to more links.

2. Link Your Headlines - If you write a newsletter and you've got headlines for your articles, try linking the entire headline. If you sell a product link the product name.

3. Link Your Images - People are used to being taken somewhere when they click on an image. If you've got an image that relates to your product or cause, link it!

4. Include a Table of Contents - Let people get to the content they want to see fast by using anchor tags in your table of contents at the top of your email. There are however, issues with anchor tags not working properly for Outlook 2007 and a few other email clients so those who read their emails using these clients won't be able to click.

5. Tease Them - Include half the story in your email and link off to the other half. Make sure in your link you tell them there is more to read. A good suggestion might be "Click to finish reading this fantastic article..." or something of that nature. Then on the page you direct them to, you can include offers that relate to your content.

6. Link Your Offer - If you've discounted a product make sure you link either the text or the image you use.

7. Free Gift - Give a free gift with purchase or donation, but only tell them what it is if they click on the link. Then you've got more real estate on the page to tell your story.

8. Give an Expiration Date - See how crazy Neiman Marcus went with their two-hour sale email. Make sure you link the date to where you want them to go.

9. Link to a Customer Video - Perhaps you've got a customer who made a video about your business. Why not link to it in your emails? Nothing sells you better than one of your customers plus your customer will tell all of his friends about it.

10. Personalize Your Links - If you've got a special offer, why not try including your recipients name in the link. "John, click here for your special discount" or "Stanley, click here to learn more about how you can save the Bay."

The more clicks the better. Get linking!

Great Example of Time Sensitive Email

Neiman Marcus sends out a daily email, and close to holidays it's even more often than that. It may be pushing the limits for number of emails sent, but they do have some great ideas that perhaps your business can utilize. This one in particular relates to expiring offers. Many businesses we see that have expiration dates for their offers might have them a week out or even a month out, but NM took it to the next level.

The email was called the Midday Dash. For two hours they slash prices in half on particular items they want to get rid of and it's an exclusive for their email subscribers. They even indicate on the web page that some of the items are sold out leaving me with the impression that things are going F-A-S-T.

I thought it was a nice idea so I'm sharing.

Here's what the email looked like:

Here's what the 12-product website looked like: