Welcome Emails 101

Welcome Emails 101

by Trendline Interactive Comment Closed
A Welcome Email is the first look subscribers have into a company’s brand. It should reflect the brand, thank the subscribers for subscribing, provide guidance as to what they can expect, and generate excitement for upcoming emails. Properly implementing the Welcome Email as a key element of your email marketing campaign avoids setting a negative tone for your subsequent sends. A well-crafted Welcome Email will likely be the most-engaged email in your program, so don’t waste this prime opportunity to make a positive first impression. Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts we recommend to help you create an effective Welcome Email. What to do in a welcome email: Make it timely. Be sure to send out the Welcome Email immediately after they sign up, before they receive any other emails. Make your subject line personalized and worthy of your brand. We’re not saying to simply use first-name personalization. Make the Welcome Email personal––personal to the brand, to the recipient, to...
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What do your ESP metrics really tell you about your deliverability?

What do your ESP metrics really tell you about your deliverability?

by Zack Aab Comment Closed
Knowing the deliverability of your email campaigns is essential to understand how well it's doing. It also can be one of the hardest metrics to nail down. You might think you know your deliverability because you can look at the dashboard in your email service platform and see that 99% of your emails got delivered. That's your delivery rate – the percentage of emails that were received successfully by an email server or ISP.  However, that's not the same as your deliverability. Deliverability measures how successfully your email messages reach your subscribers' inboxes instead of being routed to their spam folders or getting blocked outright by an ISP's filters. That's an important difference because, for many subscribers, out of sight means out of mind.  The 2021 Consumer Email Tracker published by the UK's DMA found 46% of subscribers say they check their spam folders at least daily, and 11% say they check it at least hourly. What we don't know, however, is how...
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3 ways to optimize your email program this Spring

3 ways to optimize your email program this Spring

by Trendline Interactive Comment Closed
Spring is in the air! The perfect time to take a look at your email program and get a better understanding of what’s working, what’s not working, and where you might need some support.  Spring cleaning at work can provide an opportunity to practice being more mindful of the tasks you’re doing, promote a more positive attitude and help establish a clear mindset - and quite possibly, avert those feelings of languish so many are experiencing these days.  For marketers that manage a sophisticated email program, there can be so many different ways to optimize its performance - just thinking about it can take time that you probably don't have. We have compiled 3 steps email program owners can take to capture some of the stress-relieving benefits of spring cleaning at work.  Get in the inbox What is more distressing than sending a message and not knowing if it is even being delivered to it’s intended recipients? Even more stressful is actually knowing your...
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Making data memorable with storytelling

Making data memorable with storytelling

by Emma Warrillow Comment Closed
Marketing analysts work hard to gather and analyze data, to generate insights, and to find a variety of impactful ways to present their findings to their audience with impressive data visualizations. But, if analysts want to capture their audience’s attention and to truly resonate with them––and for their audience to actually use their findings in business decisions––they’ll need to use storytelling to make the data more memorable.   In Chip and Dan Heath’s book ‘Made to Stick - Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die’ they demonstrate that stories are far more memorable than statistics. The Heath brothers reference a test they conducted where they asked students to give one-minute speeches.  In the average one-minute speech, the average student used 2.5 statistics, and only one in ten used storytelling. On the other hand, when the audience was asked to recall the aforementioned speeches, only 5% remembered any individual statistic from the speeches but an impressive 63% remembered the stories. Data-driven stories not only...
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Creative trends in email 2021

Creative trends in email 2021

by Alex Williams, Andrea Campbell Comment Closed
For most businesses the email channel has proven to be an extremely valuable utility as our lives and businesses have digitally transformed overnight. According to HubSpot, email marketers are sending 27% more emails than they then did pre-coronavirus, and 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. But with more messages hitting inboxes now than ever before, the big question we get is, what do we do to ensure our messages stand out?  In this article we explore the top 6 creative trends in email you need to know. If you are feeling behind already, don’t worry - unlike fashion trends, email trends come in big long waves, so it is usually not too late to jump on. However, don’t delay too long or you might start blaming your creative execution for a disengaged audience and unfavorable unsubscribe rates. Check out this video from Trendline's Creative Team https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5XWm9c6voU   Color - playing with the secondary palette A compelling...
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Three ways thriving email marketing programs grow healthy email lists

Three ways thriving email marketing programs grow healthy email lists

by Trendline Interactive Comment Closed
At the core of any successful email marketing program lies a healthy database of subscribers. Therefore, marketers should make growing that database a central priority. However, list growth continues to be difficult for marketers. An Ascend2 survey reported that 34% of respondents found “increasing email list size” was a difficult objective to achieve. This was third behind maintaining an engaged list (45%) and reducing spam complaints (37%). The study also revealed that more marketers felt email list growth was more difficult than proving ROI. These results are not surprising. Instead of letting analysis of comprehensive datasets lead the way, we often see “anecdotal evidence” and corporate agendas guiding email-list growth strategy. In an effort to demystify list growth, here are three things we’ve found that email marketers with large and thriving email databases have in common. 1. They track all sources of email list growth. Yes, tracking only some list sources is better than not tracking any list sources. However, unless all sources are...
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4 ways to clean up your martech mess

4 ways to clean up your martech mess

by Mark Pollard Comment Closed
In our previous post, “9 signs your martech is a mess,” we helped you determine whether your marketing technology stack works like a dream or is one hot martech mess. If you discovered that your tech is causing you stress, read this post to start identifying the solutions to your tech headaches. Martech messes don't happen overnight, so they can't be resolved overnight. Your first clue that something is amiss might come from your customers, especially if you notice your email engagement statistics start to drop or you get complaints that customers are getting the wrong kinds of emails. The voice of the customer can be a powerful indication that your marketing tech stack is out of whack. Consider surveying your customers on the value and relevance of your email messages. You don’t have to ask technical questions - just those that will help you identify where your tech might be misaligning with expectations. Also, do an internal review of your stack. This...
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Measure your email acquisition success

Measure your email acquisition success

by Trendline Interactive Comment Closed
The lifeblood of a high performing email program is growing the email subscriber base, whether by converting current customers into subscribers or attracting new ones. Having a growing subscriber list is an important indicator of a healthy digital marketing program, but the quality of those subscribers is just as important as their quantity. In this post, we'll explain why quality matters and how to learn which email acquisition strategies will help you attract the best subscribers for your customer base. (See our previous post, “How to Grow Your Email Marketing List,” for effective opt-in strategies and tactics.) Why quality matters Size is important for an effective email database because it means you are reaching a broader share of your market with email. A larger database allows you to segment and target communications to be sure you're always sending the most relevant messages. It's also a reliable data source for testing new approaches and understanding what your customers are thinking and doing. However, size does...
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How to run a successful email content audit

How to run a successful email content audit

by Scott Burdsall Comment Closed
When COVID’s first wave initially struck in early 2020, many marketing teams were left without a clear crisis response plan. Many needed to develop new messaging plans overnight and created campaigns that might have sounded good at the time, but it quickly became clear that everyone had similar ideas. Even the most comprehensive crisis-management protocols didn't tend to envision a world of lockdowns and mandatory social guidelines–or the economic, social, political, and cultural upheavals that would follow. Over the course of 2020, we've learned what our brands stand for, what our customers really want from us, and some of the organizational traps that kept us from responding as efficiently and effectively as we could. Now is the time to put that knowledge into action. While we managed to survive the initial storm, the pressures placed on the email marketing teams are set to continue in Q4 2020 and into 2021. Prepare for the long haul It’s the perfect time to assess your capabilities...
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Screening checklist for crisis response emails

Screening checklist for crisis response emails

by Scott Burdsall Comment Closed
As part of your crisis management email marketing revaluation, you might have to add some qualitative review questions to your campaign pre-deployment and quality-checking process. Besides checking for typos, broken links and call-to-action button copy, you should audit your content to make sure you're keeping your customers' interests in the forefront and not inadvertently offending with ill-timed or tone-deaf content. These questions can help: 1. Does my content answer "WIIFM?" "WIIFM'' means "What's in it for me?" Or, bluntly, "So what?" You can say yes to this question if your copy focuses more on the benefits of the product that its individual features – or on the benefits of any changes you have to make to accommodate COVID requirements. When you get right down to it, customers are all about themselves, so meet them where they are and remind them – overtly or subtly – why their lives are better because they buy from you. 2. Does my email address the customer's perspective? This goes...
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