If you're in ecommerce, you've likely seen it happen: the algorithm sends a curious browser to your product page, they nose around, check out your glowing testimonials – and then head to Google to see what people really think. This is exactly what happened to me when I got bombarded with Facebook ads from a camping gear … READ MORE »
A Shortcut to the Spam Folder A recent feature in Which? – that bastion of consumer trust – had a headline that should make any email marketer sit up: "Dodgy pricing tactics exposed". And they weren't pulling punches. In the wake of the Ticketmaster backlash and the growing spotlight on misleading pricing, this is the kind of attention … READ MORE »
There’s a persistent rumour that price is the most important factor in email marketing. Make your product cheaper and the customers will flood to your door. Don’t believe it. It’s nothing more than a comforter for those who don’t really understand what email marketing is all about. It’s not that easy. You don’t pick a … READ MORE »
We all concentrate on the design of the marketing email as the prime requirement of our campaigns. There are spam filters to negotiate, exciting subject lines to capture the imagination, headlines to entrance and images and copy to keep people reading, all the time focusing on the click-through button. It doesn’t sound easy, because it’s … READ MORE »
I’ve taken time away from researching email marketing and have been concentrating on newsletters. I mostly subscribe to those from email marketing companies, but I’ve also included those for my hobbies and local interest. In normal circumstances I open around 70% of them, and have built up quite a knowledge of what makes the difference … READ MORE »
With a downturn in in the public’s buying habits, it can be difficult, and if not, then impossible, to instinctively identify specific reasons for low performance in email marketing. After all, low demand might be common across all your competitors. Then again, it might be something specific you could improve. How to work out which? … READ MORE »
Sorry to start on a rather depressing note, but I’ve recently read an obituary of a book illustrator who revolutionised her art. The way she used, one could say targeted, the pictures was intriguing. Email marketers should learn from her. We have never been so spoiled by choice of image, with a plethora of companies … READ MORE »
A call to action can seem a little intimidating for subscriber reading a marketing email. Some boxes can come across as too demanding. A ‘Click Me’ is nothing more than an abrupt demand for action and lacks the subtle encouragement that should be our norm. We need to do better. We don’t do ourselves any … READ MORE »
We recently briefly mentioned visual hierarchy in the design of emails and webpages. You might think that, as the creators of your free email marketing templates have taken the matter into consideration, you can safely ignore it and just drag and drop your copy and images. What could go wrong? There is a slight difficulty … READ MORE »
I used to edit a magazine. The layout, design, images and copy are there to encourage the person to read the article and become lost in it. It means, hopefully, that they will come back for more. The problem is that editors and graphic designers look at the page from their specific skills point of … READ MORE »