Email Marketing Creative Tips from Trendline’s Alex Williams

Email Marketing Creative Tips from Trendline’s Alex Williams

by Hannah Wilson Comment Closed
THE FOLLOWING CONTENT IS AN EDITED VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL INTERVIEW BY CAMPAIGN MONITOR WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE.  Trendline Creative Director Alex Williams sat down recently with Campaign Monitorto talk about what it’s like to work at a full-service email marketing agency. He shared insights on his daily routine, discussed the challenges he and his team are helping clients overcome, and delved into the details of working in the email marketing agency environment. WHAT’S YOUR AVERAGE DAY LIKE? AW: I like to start the morning at five a.m. with a five-mile run…just kidding! I have two small children, so my morning is all about getting my kids fed and to school. Then it’s all email marketing all the time during the workday. At Trendline Interactivewe have people in every time zone to take care of clients across the country, so being a West-Coaster, the morning is go time. At about 2:00 p.m., when our clients and people on the east coast start winding down for the day, we really dig into our complicated...
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Best Email List Growth Practices for AI

Best Email List Growth Practices for AI

by Andrew KordekNo Comments
Best Email List Growth Practices for AI List growth and email address acquisition seems to always be a central topic (and sometimes a source of anxiety) amongst marketers. The question most frequently asked on this subject is “how do I grow my email list effectively without compromising the quality of the subscriptions?” Many articles have been written on the subject highlighting such tactics as SEM, sweepstakes, co-registration, affiliate, display advertising, eAppends and even email list buying. While some of these tactics work, opinions vary on each in terms of cost and most importantly, effectiveness. The best advice I can give in terms of email address acquisition is to work with people who have experience from your side of the fence and have them perform an audit of your current email acquisition model. Partnering with an email marketing agency will yield the best results. That said, there are 5 key principles to apply when looking to acquire new email addresses for marketing purposes. ...
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Retailers Need Email Marketing More Than Ever

Retailers Need Email Marketing More Than Ever

by Andrew KordekNo Comments
Retailers Need Email Marketing More Than Ever The world of retail can be a tough and cruel place. Most of us have worked in retail in some capacity over our lives, whether on the front lines with customers in certain departments or in corporate offices as an email marketer to a V.P. of whatever. For the last few years, the world of retail has taken a beating by the many new ways to shop; and most of the credit should be given to technology. This past Holiday season was exceptionally bad for quite a few brick and mortar dependent retailers, and as a result a number of companies have decided to close their stores. In some cases, the number of closures are pretty alarming and will likely impact tens of thousands of workers and millions of loyal customers who shopped at these places over the years. Here is a rundown of retailers with store closures slated for 2017:    Abercrombie and Fitch:...
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Why Should You Care About Inbox Clipping?

Why Should You Care About Inbox Clipping?

by Scott BurdsallNo Comments
Why Should You Care About Inbox Clipping? Background Inbox clipping occurs when an email is sent to a Gmail domain and is larger than 102kB, at which point Gmail “clips” the message and requires the recipient to click on a “View entire message” link to see the full code. This size restriction includes anything within the email itself, including text, images, links, tracking codes, responsive elements, and anything else within the HTML. This can happen with other domains in a similar fashion, but we’ll focus on Gmail due to overall consumer adoption rates. Main Issues with Inbox Clipping: Inbox clipping can cause several issues, the most obvious of which is your email is only being partially read. Email teams spend quite a bit of time crafting the perfect email message, and it can be frustrating when your campaign’s content ends up being less effective due to clipping. Another issue is potentially increasing your spam complaint rates. Traditionally, the opt out for commercial emails is found...
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How to Get Email Delivered to Gmail | How Gmail Filters

How to Get Email Delivered to Gmail | How Gmail Filters

by Chris ArrendaleNo Comments
How to Get Email Delivered to Gmail | How Gmail Filters Gmail Getting email delivered to Gmail depends on how Gmail filters its mail. The first step is performing your own deliverability test; send out an email, and see how many are being delivered to Gmail. I’m sure you’re wondering what Gmail looks for when processing inbox placement, right? One aspect Gmail looks at in an email is its double opt-in/confirmed opt-in history. This is when someone signs up for emails and then has to verify that their information is correct. Therefore, it’s a great idea to have an “add to address book” section or any confirmation CTA that a recipient will click on in the first email. This button helps you pass spam filters a lot faster because it is similar to a personal whitelist for the user. Gmail focuses heavily on recipient engagement. Therefore, keeping list hygiene is important. If you are sending to old lists, your engagement will be lowered,...
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How to Get Email Delivered to Yahoo | How Yahoo Filters

How to Get Email Delivered to Yahoo | How Yahoo Filters

by Chris ArrendaleNo Comments
How to Get Email Delivered to Yahoo | How Yahoo Filters Yahoo The key mission of Yahoo is to deliver messages that people want to receive and filter messages they don’t. With Yahoo, you’ll need to perform list management tasks frequently and monitor hard & soft bounces as well as inactive subscribers. Sending emails to users who aren’t reading them or who mark them as “spam” will hurt your delivery metrics and reputation. Send email only to those who want it. Use an opt-in method of subscription for your mailing list and make sure subscribers have verified their intent to receive your mailings. Review email content for common characteristics of spam. Test your emails’ visual look with image placeholders. Many of your recipients won’t see images in your email. Email on Acid is an excellent place you can go to check your message rendering. Make sure you are linking to domains, not IP addresses. Yahoo will filter out these links. Don’t include: HTML forms, JavaScript, or...
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How to Get Emails Delivered to Microsoft & AOL | How ISPs Filter

How to Get Emails Delivered to Microsoft & AOL | How ISPs Filter

by Chris ArrendaleNo Comments
How to Get Emails Delivered to Microsoft & AOL | How ISPs Filter Microsoft Emails delivered to Microsoft & AOL means you are following email deliverability best practices. Deliverability to Outlook.com is based on your reputation. Microsoft releases reputation data via its Smart Network Data Service (SNDS) program. Windows Live Hotmail uses SPF and DKIM authentication. They filter email using Symantec/Brightmail Probe Network, Smartscreen filtering, and other content-level filtering. Blocking may result from being listed with Brightmail; removing those blocks requires contacting Symantec, not Hotmail. The Outlook.com Smart Network Data Service (SNDS) gives you the data you need to understand and improve your reputation. Data includes filtering, complaint rate, and spam trap hits. What Microsoft Looks for in Email Deliverability Best Practices Sending reputation They release reputation data via SNDS DKIM and DMARC authentication They filter using Symantec/Brightmail Probe Network, Smartscreen filtering, and other proprietary content-level filtering Listing (If you're listed with Brightmail, Microsoft may block you) AOL AOL focuses heavily on DKIM authentication and...
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Guts of a Mail Server: What is it and how does it work?

Guts of a Mail Server: What is it and how does it work?

by Zack AabNo Comments
Guts of a Mail Server: What is it and how does it work? What's a Mail Server? “What exactly is a mail server?” Considering how widely-used email is, and how technical it gets, this is not a question you should be embarrassed to ask. So, what is a mail server, then? A mail server is a dedicated computer with a static IP address that your mail client (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) talks to via SMTP and either POP3 or IMAP, and which uses a special program to route, receive, and store messages. That’s all simple enough but not exactly what you want to know. To understand what makes a mail server special, let's break it down: An Inventory: A physical server A good computer on a robust network switch with a high-bandwidth Internet connection and a static IP address. An MTA The MTA, or mail transfer agent, is the program that turns your words into something ready to travel the Internet. It accepts messages...
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