As its Christmas, the season of giving, we thought that we would give you all a free Christmas email template to download and use for your email marketing campaigns. If you want to use, all you have to do is sign up, and we will upload the template to your account for free.

Registering is free and you wont have to pay until you send a campaign with more than 5 emails.

Based on the Subscribers, Fans, and Followers research I have been engaged in over the past several months, looking at the differences in how consumers want to engage with brands through these three channels, I believe this is a potentially serious mistake.

First, consider newly released data on the impact one-to-one communications through these channels have on increased purchase intent.

• After becoming an email subscriber, 27% of consumers say they are more likely to purchase from a brand and another 41% are neutral, which I’ve interpreted as they may or may not be willing to purchase more. Giving the benefit of the doubt, let’s say 68% may be influenced to purchase MORE after becoming a subscriber.
• After becoming a Facebook Fan, 17% are more likely to purchase, with another 34% on the fence. In total, 51% may be influenced to purchase MORE after becoming a Fan on Facebook.
• After following a brand on Twitter, 37% say they are more likely to purchase, with another 31% on the fence. Like email, 68% may be MORE likely to purchase after becoming a follower.

Facebook: It may seem bizarre given the incredible success of Facebook in general that it trails both email and Twitter in terms of its ability to influence increased purchase intent. Add in the recent study by Syncapse, that showed Facebook Fans spend more, are more loyal, more likely to recommend, and have more affinity for the brands they Fan (or “like”) than those who don’t.

But think about it. Consumers are generally fans in real life before they “like” companies on Facebook. As such, they already purchase from and endorse your brand frequently. Ever had a friend with a Coca-Cola room in his house? Clocks, barstools, soda fountains — all Coke. It is possible that level of fan could purchase MORE Coke products? Not likely, but they sure spend a lot of time advocating for the brand. Don’t they?

Twitter: Consumers who follow brands on Twitter are actually the most likely to purchase more often after following a brand. The challenge for marketers is that this is still a fairly small segment of the online population. Only 5% of online consumers are daily Twitter users that follow brands on Twitter. Do the math, and you’ll see only 3% of online consumers are likely to be influenced to purchase more frequently through Twitter.

So, are these retention-marketing channels?

To some degree, of course they are. However, I believe it is more exciting to think of Facebook and Twitter as acquisition channels.

Facebook is all about connecting with friends and being entertained. Those are the primary reasons people go to Facebook in the first place. Moreover, when people “like” brands, they generally do so to tell others about themselves. If I like Nike, that tells you something about my personality. Some call it social badging, others call it a social resume. Either way, it’s about them. It’s not an open invitation to receive marketing messages.

Even so, they have liked your brand enough (in real life) to consider this an expression of their personality. They have already advocated for you to their friends. Question is, could they endorse you more? Absolutely. In fact, every time they “like” something you post on your Facebook page, they are endorsing you. Each time they comment on one of your posts, they invite their friends to join in and engage with your brand also. Facebook allow marketers to see word-of-mouth happening. It allows marketers to fuel word-of-mouth. And, to me, word-of-mouth is an acquisition strategy, not a retention strategy.

The same goes for Twitter. It’s great that this 3% of consumers may purchase more often, but even greater significance should be placed on the ability of this segment to carry your message beyond Twitter through blogs, private forums, and product reviews. In this same study, we discovered that daily Twitter users are an average of five times more likely to write blogs, and three times more likely to post comments and product reviews than other online consumers. They are VOCAL! The trick is to keep this group happy so that they will generate content that influences others to try your products. Again, it’s about acquisition.

Email stands alone as the channel that is squarely in the retention marketing camp. Nine-three percent of U.S. online consumers receive at least one permission-based email message per day, making it by far the most broadly used of these channels for consumers looking to engage brands online. As such, it is likely to drive increased purchase intent among the largest number of online consumers. Combined with the high value consumers place on trust and privacy, and their expectations for relevant and exclusive content, email should serve as the cornerstone for brands’ retention marketing strategy.

Expansion of your brand’s reach online happens when these channels are integrated into a cohesive strategy. Thinking beyond the database and driving consumers to interact across multiple channels offers marketers the opportunity to leverage these channels for both retention and acquisition.

Source:  Email Insider.

People unfamiliar with email marketing wonder what all the fuss is about. Didn’t spam kill email as a marketing vehicle? And if spam didn’t kill it, what about blogs, Twitter and all the other clever ways we can communicate online? Isn’t email outmoded?

Those wondering about the benefits of email marketing in today’s ever-changing online environment will find the answers below.

Businesses engage in email marketing because it works. And works well. Here are the numbers…

• According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generated an ROI of $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009. The expected figure for 2010 is $42.08. As such, it outperforms all the other direct marketing channels examined, such as print catalogs (reference).
• In Datran Media’s 2010 Annual Marketing & Media Survey, 39.4% of industry executives said the advertising channel that performed strongest for them was email. This was the top result (reference).
• The Ad Effectiveness Survey commissioned by Forbes Media in Feb/March 2009 revealed that email and e-newsletter marketing are considered the second-most effective tool for generating conversions, just behind SEO (reference).
• A summer 2009 survey of Irish marketers found 79% rating email marketing as important or very important to their marketing strategy (reference).
• Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online 2009 survey of retailers found that “E-mail is the most mentioned successful tactic overall” (reference).
• A December 2008 survey of hundreds of marketers by MarketingSherpa saw pay-per-click search ads rank top for ROI, followed by email marketing to house lists in second place (reference).
• A February/March 2008 retailer survey by shop.org revealed that email marketing has the second lowest cost per order (CPO) of any online marketing tactic. The CPO of $6.85 compares favorably with, for example, paid search’s CPO of $19.33 (reference).

The money is following the results…

A December 2009 survey of 300 email marketers by Silverpop found that their companies were feeling the effects of recession, but “four out of 10 marketers reported that their email budgets in 2010 would increase, and nearly half (47 percent) said their budgets would stay the same” (see press release).

• A November 2009 survey of B2B marketers found that email marketing was likely to see more spending increase than any other form of online marketing bar website development (report).
• A Q2 2009 survey of over 5,000 senior US executives revealed that email marketing was the channel most likely to see an increase in marketing budget (see press report).
• 46% of North American small businesses surveyed in 2009 by Hurwitz & Associates use email marketing, with another 36% planning to do so in the coming year (press release).
• Seven out of ten UK marketers surveyed by the DMA in 2009 expected expenditure on email marketing to increase over the next 12 months (press release).
• In August, 2009, Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s annual Communications Industry Forecast suggested total spend for email will grow from $11.9 billion in 2008 to $27.8 billion by 2013 (see press report).
• An April 2009 survey of senior marketing executives by the European Interactive Advertising Association revealed that 46% of respondents plan to invest more in email (report).
• In Datran Media’s 2009 Annual Marketing & Media Survey, 58.5% of industry executives said they planned to increase investment in email. Only 5.7% planned to decrease it (reference).
• Internet Retailer’s April 2009 email marketing survey found that 51.6% planned to increase spending on email during the recession, and only 4.7% planned to decrease it (reference).
• Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online 2009 survey of retailers found that 88% of them list “e-mail as a high priority for the year” (reference).
• A 2009 survey of US B2B marketers by MarketingProfs and Forrester Research found that 39% planned to increase email budgets, while 11% planned a decrease (reference).
• The CMO Council’s Marketing Outlook ’09 Report reviewed the plans and opinions of 650 marketers. Email marketing was the top target area for investment in 2009 (press release).
• A survey of B2B marketers in November, 2008 noted that 68.3% intended increasing spending on email marketing in 2009 (reference).
• The DMA estimate spending on email marketing (in the USA) will increase from $600 million in 2008 to $700 million in 2009 (reference).

Why it works

Email marketing works for a variety of reasons…

• It allows targeting
• It is data driven
• It drives direct sales
• It builds relationships, loyalty and trust
• It supports sales through other channels

Modern email marketing services and solutions support database integration, segmentation and various other tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of outgoing messages. Advanced methods generate on-the-fly emails customized down to an individual recipient basis.

And every email campaign you send out generates a heap of actionable data you can use to refine your approach and messages.

Email promotions and offers generate immediate action: sales, downloads, inquiries, registrations, etc. Informative email newsletters and other emails send people to offline stores and events, prepare the way for catalogs, build awareness, contribute to branding, strengthen relationships, encourage trust and cement loyalty.

All in all, a pretty good way of going about your marketing business. But…

Let’s not get carried away

Just like a garden only bears fruit if managed properly, so it is with email marketing. We know it can work, but you have to get the basics right. The basics of building a list of people who want to hear from you, crafting a message, and ensuring the emails get through to those on that list.
And once you have the basics right, there’s a whole spectrum of more sophisticated tactics you can employ to drive further success. Because the metrics show us that there’s plenty of room for improvement and plenty of rewards waiting for those who do improve.

For example, one report found that “using web analytics to target email campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and eighteen times the profits of broadcast mailings.”

At a simpler level, just mailing a small coupon offer to customers who hadn’t purchased for a while brought in a tonne of extra sales for one retailer.

Convinced? Start the email marketing journey with a look at the basics of email marketing.

Guidelines for permission based email marketing

Why do I need permission?

Sending people unsolicited email, commercial or otherwise, is against the law in many countries worldwide.
Besides that, wouldn’t you rather be talking to people who you know are interested in what you have to say?

Who can I send email to?

• People who have specifically signed up through your website For example, by ticking a checkbox (not checked by default) on your signup or sales form
• People who completed offline forms & indicated they wanted to be emailed Eg: By filling in a competition or survey form where they specifically agree to receive email
• People who gave you their business card and asked to receive email
• If someone gives you their business card and you have also explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them.
• They purchased something off you in the last 2 years. By making a purchase from you they have provided their permission implicitly, although it is much better to explicitly ask them.

Who can’t I send email to?

Anybody that is not covered by the list above! Here are some examples:

• Lists or email addresses received from a third party. Includes any list you bought or rented, got from a partner or membership organization. No matter the claims of the source of this list, you cannot send email to them.
• Addresses you collected or “copy & pasted” from the Internet. Even if they look like ideal customers for you, you can’t email someone just because you found their address.
• Addresses you haven’t emailed in the last 2 years. Permission doesn’t age well. Even if you got their permission legitimately, they won’t remember giving it to you. If you haven’t sent something to that address in the last 2 years, you can’t start now.

Key documents

Privacy and Electronic Communications
This page at the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office directs you to relevant regulations, guidelines, FAQs and other documents governing the sending of commercial email in the UK.

Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations
Full text of the legislation, published as Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2426.

Guidance notes
The above Office’s official guidance documents for the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations.

Companies Act (Trading Disclosures)
Information on the additional trading information a company is required to disclose in any emails that can be considered business correspondence.

Direct Marketing Association
This page links to the UK DMA’s various codes of practice. The main DM Code is obligatory for members, while the specific guidelines on email marketing best practices are recommendations.

British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing
The UK advertising industry’s self-regulatory code for non-broadcast advertising includes direct and indirect references to email marketing. The code is enforced by the independent Advertising Standards Authority.

So, you’re probably thinking, ‘Well, this is obvious. I use print stylesheets on the web, so why not for email?’. Not so fast, buster. As we go through some of the options available when it comes to building printer-friendly email, you’ll come to realize that printing from your inbox can certainly be a fickle beast.

Why shouldn’t I use print stylesheets?

Print stylesheets and email are simply not great friends. Or at best, they’re the kind of friends who routinely show each other up on dates and never shout a round of drinks.
In addition, linking to an external print stylesheet poses its own set of issues. As some email clients tend to strip out
tags, Campaign Monitor imports any external stylesheets into the HTML code. This is sound logic, however it often results in styles for the screen being overridden.

So as you can see, things aren’t looking too good for the print stylesheet. What’s worse, in our tests with web email clients in particular, we had our email designs either degrade in the inbox (Yahoo!), or display our print styles instead (I’m looking at you, Hotmail).

The bottom line: Use print stylesheets with extreme caution. And only if you know exactly which email clients your recipients are using.

How about my web version?

A better option is to link to the web version of your email and prompt your subscribers to print from their web browser instead. This ensures greater consistency with your email design, however doesn’t solve the problem of unnecessarily printing large images and running up a toner bill. On the upside, it simply works.

Another option is to link to a PDF version of your email. This also means that you can make design tweaks such as scaling/removing large images and provide a more print-friendly look overall. On the downside, this requires a little more overhead on top of designing your email newsletter and can result in fairly large PDF file sizes (which not everyone may appreciate downloading).
So, what’s an email to do?

As you can see, there’s no silver bullet when it comes to making your email printer-friendly. However, if you or your client is determined to make your email look great in both the inbox and from the printer, here are some pointers to consider:

• Cut down on the huge images. They can chew up a lot of paper, ink and printing time (as well as making your email slow to load).
• Anything that’s text, display as text. Images used for headings, quotes etc can look pretty natty once printed.
• Anticipate a degree of layout-breakage. Keep your layout simple and avoid loads of floated divs, elements that are likely to wrap beneath each other (and look bad in the process) and non-static positioning (eg. position: absolute;).
• Also think about how your navigation will look - if you have a table of contents, how will this display on paper?
• Keep your email width at 600px or less. Otherwise there’s a good chance that it will chew through extra pages when printing anything that exceeds the margins of a printed page.
• Test, test, test. Have a look at the print previews at least across a number of email clients. But you knew that

If there’s a moral to this story, it’s not a unique one – HTML simply wasn’t designed to translate beautifully from the screen to print. I highly recommend that you read this excellent resource on print stylesheets, as it not only details the challenges faced by folks designing for the web and the printer, but gives you a feel for how this issue compounds when paired with the well-quirky world of email design.

Just in case you’re new to the game, one powerful little technique you should use in all your emails is to personalize the subject line. It’s understandable that a newer marketer may not know about it, but if you are aware of it then you simply must use it all the time. Email open rates are affected by many factors, but your chances automatically go up if they see their first name in the subject. This also makes your email stand out in the number of emails that are usually crowded in a person’s inbox and gives you the ability to increase your response. You’ll need to do all you can to gain a foothold for people’s attention in their inbox, so that’s why you need to do this. For email marketing, whether in the subject or the email body, the first name is all you should use. Be sure to read your email aloud when you’re done, because it will be easier to get a feel about whether or not you’ve overdone the personalization.

There’s a concept of ‘continuing the conversation’ with subject line creation. Ok, the thing to do is write your subject line in such a way that it flows smoothly to the main copy of your email. You can write half of the thought in the subject line, and then continue into the body. There are no specific applications or instances to do this, but do not get in the habit of doing any one approach too much. This strategy relies on the curiosity build in your readers, and it can be powerful depending on how you write it. The copy matters very much, your subject line copy, but marketers have been using this technique for quite a while, now. They simply write their subject line in such a way that it leaves the reader hanging in there, asking for more.

Don’t be afraid to test your subject lines as well as conceptual ideas and strategies. That’s right; you’ll have to test your subject lines on a regular basis in order to find one that gives you a high click through rate. It is normal for the first few headlines to miss the mark. As you continue to write and test, you will discover that your writing will improve.