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10 Top Tips for a successful e-marketing campaign

• Traditional marketing principles apply
  • product
  • placement
  • price
  • promotion
• Keep it simple
• Don't spam, get your audience to opt-in
• Plan your strategy well in advance to deliver the desired results
• Make sure there's an obvious incentive or call to action
• Plan the integration of your media - supporting your web content is essential
• Listen to the feedback, take heed of the stats, and learn from them both
• Take professional advice on file sizes and formats for the web
• Think about the timing of your campaign for optimum results
• Keep in contact with your audience, regularly

Don't get caught out by e-mail legislation

Businesses operating websites and/or sending electronic communications to customers must comply with the EU directive, or face falling foul of the law. Opting-in is compulsory for marketing e-mails, and the use of website cookies will be more stringently regulated.

Critically, an EU-wide 'opt-in' approach has been adopted for SPAM, meaning that businesses will only be permitted to send marketing e-mails and SMS messages to individuals who have previously consented to the use of their details in this way.

The directive represented a change of emphasis rather than a change in the substance of data protection obligations, but could have serious consequences for any business not abiding to laws. Businesses need to abide by the laws, both to ensure that their channels to market are compliant, and to ensure that previously valuable customer databases are still useable for future marketing campaigns.

As well as e-mail marketing laws affecting all who send e-mails for marketing purposes, website operators also need to tighten up on how they collect and use customer data. Web operators must provide users with "clear and comprehensive information" about devices such as cookies used to collect their data, including the purpose of any processing.

The opt-in approach is slightly softened by a provision which allows companies to target customers who have bought products or services from them in the past, subject to the following provisos:

• The customer's details must have been collected in the context of a 'sale'. On a strict interpretation, this could rule out the use of contact details or potential customers who have merely registered an interest in a service or product.
• The customer must have been told about the possible use of his or her data for future marketing at the time it was collected, i.e. at the time of the initial purchase, and have been given the chance to object.
• The opportunity to opt-out must be given with each subsequent marketing message.
• The customer's details may only be used by the same entity to whom they were originally given. This has implications for transfers of customer lists between group companies and trading partners (although these restrictions already apply under the UK's existing data protection laws).
• The marketing must be for a 'similar product' to that in relation to which the customer's details were originally gathered, but it is unclear just how similar the new product advertised needs to be to avoid breach of the legislation.

How to avoid embarrassing HTML errors

A missing link could switch your customer off forever

On average, over 40% of the e-mails sent out as part of e-mail marketing campaigns have errors in them, according to new research published by a leading ISP. Lately, there's been a dramatic increase in the incidence of HTML emails containing assorted errors - errors that can not only turn people off, but can also create delivery problems. As marketers, we liken these errors to newspaper ads where pictures are missing; TV adverts without the company or product name; a call to action with the wrong 0800 number; or direct mail pieces with typos and misprints.

Some of the research findings are alarming to say the least; 80 percent of emails to Lotus Notes (almost 100 million users in the US) were broken in some way; 30 percent to AOL users were broken; 25 percent to Hotmail accounts; and 22 percent each for Outlook and Eudora programmes. If you have not tested your campaign on these e-mail platforms before you run it, you will almost definitely be sending corrupted e-mails to customers or potential customers.

People who use e-mail in the business environment get seemingly zillions of HTML emails delivered to their desktops, which is why it's so important that yours stands out from the crowd - for the right reasons. The blunders we are seeing range from careless typos to links that don't work, from graphics that don't display to problematic coding that affects the way emails work appear when they arrive. Some of email messages we receive contain so many of these problems that users were unlikely to read them even if they were paid to.

Many ISPs have developed systems that spot these errors and filter the emails so they never reach the targeted recipient. To fix the problem, carefully implemented protocols are required. If you do not have a dedicated IT department with the capacity to give this issue the time it deserves, a professional e-mail marketing company like eShotz can help.

eShotz has experience of all the major e-mail protocols and has successfully completed hundreds of campaigns for leading blue chip brands. eShotz campaigns are tested before implementation and instant feedback is received on any e-mails that didn't reach the intended recipient, or weren't opened for any reason.

For further information contact us

Apply grey matter to the grey market, with eShotz

Consumer brand owners beware - silver surfers may be your real future

One of the biggest myths about online advertising and marketing is that senior citizens are novices who can be ignored. A study, 'The Truth About Brand Loyalty and the 45+ Market', conducted by US giant Roper ASW and released by AARP, says more than 93.7 million US adults aged 45 or older collectively hold over $750 billion in discretionary household income, and more and more are starting to utilise the web for business and leisure.

Like many other marketing trends, the US is seen as the world pioneer in predicting Internet usage, and it is anticipated that the trend will spread to other western cultures such as the UK, EU, and other parts of the world.

Three distinct market segments are identified within the 'Silver Surfers' group. To reach each, marketers will need to take different approaches to match their needs, lifestyles, and life stages. The first group is The Leading Edge of Baby Boomers (ages 45 to 56). These consumers are at the peak of their career years and juggling work and family priorities. They have probably acquired all or many of life's necessities and can spend on maintaining and improving their lifestyles.

The Gap Generation grouping (ages 57 to 65) are maintaining their careers or making a transition to part-time work, volunteering, or leisure activities. They're asking themselves what kind of lifestyle they want for themselves, not for their families.

Life, Part 2 (age 66 and over) is a new group living through the freedom years with fewer family and work responsibilities. They're experiencing a host of changes in lifestyles, work choices, leisure, housing, activities, and interests.

It is clear that the older generation has a higher disposable income, more life experience and knowledge than previous generations, and the time on their hands to make good use of the Internet. Consumer brand owners in particular who ignore these emerging marketing sectors in the future will do so at their peril.

eShotz allows precise targeting of information and offers to groups of people depending on their personal choices and preferences, at a fraction of the cost of traditional direct mail and with instant results.

For further information contact us

A step by step guide to building an email campaign from generating databases to deciding on content and look and feel.

Accepted file formats if you provide your own content:

• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Wordpad
• Microsoft Write
• Rich Text Format file
• Rich Text Format e-mail
• HTML File

Accepted file formats if you provide your own graphics:

• GIF Files
• JPEG Files
• TIFF Files
• BMP Files
• Original Artwork for scanning

Databases

The list of people the e-mail is intended for. We ask for the first name, last name and e-mail address of each person the e-mail is intended for.

Accepted file formats when you provide your e-mail list.

• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Wordpad
• Microsoft Write
• Rich Text Format file
• Rich Text Format e-mail
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Access
• Plain Text File
• Comma Separated File
• Tab Separated File

Please note that we cannot guarantee that the email addresses you supply are correct, we do provide a service that can manage your e-mail lists, with this service all e-mails supplied will be validated to determine if it meets the correct standard.

Details of e-mail

With each e-mail there are a number of pieces of information that are required for a success.

• Subject line
• From address
• ReplyTo address
• Send date

The power and pitfalls of e-mail

e-mail is here to stay, at least until the next generation technology development, so you might as well put it to the best business use possible.

Unlike the unfortunate legal firm employee who’s intimate email to a boyfriend was forwarded to thousands of bored office workers around the world, within days of it dropping into the wrong inbox.

Despite the negative publicity generated for her firm, the incident served as a timely reminder of the positive and massive potential for the right e-mail message to reach a vast audience within a very short space of time. Call it viral marketing or instant online gossip, either way your news or information could be on millions of desktops around the world within minutes if you get it right.

Never in the history of communication has there been such an opportunity for businesses and individuals to influence mass audiences with such speed. Of course with so many people now trying to do it, you need to focus on sending e-mail marketing campaigns that will appeal to those you are trying to influence, otherwise your message will be one of dozens or maybe scores of e-mails trashed that day.

eShotz top tips on getting the best results from an e-mail marketing campaign are:

• Keep it short and sweet
• Make it look as visually attractive as possible
• Make it relevant
• Make your message obvious
• Make it easy for people to respond or find out more
• Tell them something they didn’t already know
• And never use humour unless almost everyone is sure to find it extremely funny

For further information contact us