Sep 07

The new service is being rolled out to current users of Google’s Gmail system this week. It creates a two-tier inbox: one for ‘priority mail’; and another for the remainder of a person’s emails. Google will also retain its spam filtering system.

The internet search giant has come up with the priority system to help users cope with the amount of emails they receive in a day.

Users can switch on the feature in a click, instead of setting filters and creating multiple folders as they had to with previous services. Gmail will then adapt the way it treats incoming emails based on the account owner’s pattern of usage.

This will mean that email marketers will have to alter their approach to current marketing by following best practice to ensure their email reaches the priority inbox. Sending email based on data such as previous purchases will increase their relevance, meaning better inbox positioning with less competition.

So how do you ensure that you are a ‘priority’?

Well Google will prioritize emails according to whether the account holder will reply to a message. Marketing emails – especially those sent from “do not reply” email accounts – will be at a disadvantage. It will also deprioritise emails that are routinely deleted without being read.

This means that emails should be as engaging as possible i.e. segregating your lists, following design and HTML best practice and cutting out irrelevant ‘blanket blasts’ to everyone. It might mean emailing less. Make the content interesting and avoid spam words to ensure that your email hits the ‘pinbox’.

So preparing for Gmail’s priority inbox is actually an exercise in being a better email marketer. Smarter inboxes like this are becoming more common, and most of the major webmail players have made noises about this recently, so you need to ensure that you adapt your marketing strategy accordingly.

Aug 11
Featured Newsletter - Forget Computers
 

Forget Computers is a team of Apple support specialists, dedicated to helping people work smarter by managing technology. Notice the Nourish newsletter subscription box on their homepage, allowing visitors to stay updated on the latest tips, techniques and even Tweets! Yes that’s right, Forget Computers have gone one step further by using Nourish to turn tweets into a weekly newsletter. Now that’s cool!

Here are some interesting insights shared by Ben Greiner, Founder & Lead Consultant at Forget Computers:

Why did you want a Forget Computers’ newsletter in the first place? 
We wanted a way for clients and our team to receive a weekly summary of our Tweets.

Why did you choose Nourish?
We choose Nourish because of its ability to quickly and easily take an RSS feed and convert it into a scheduled newsletter.

How easy was it to get going with Nourish?
We were up and running with a test newsletter in less than one hour.

Would you recommend us to friends/ colleagues?  
Yes.

How much has your web traffic increased thanks to Nourish? Do you see any change in figures already?
Not yet. We are still building our subscriber list.

How do you intend to promote your newsletter to increase subscribers? 
We will continue to promote it via Twitter, our public Knowledge Base and through postcard mailings to our current and potential clients. 

Forget Computers provide Macintosh technology management and support for IT and Creative Professionals. A way to improve their open and click-through rates and to quickly gain more subscribers is to create different campaigns. By branding campaigns with bespoke templates and segmenting subscribers, allowing them to sign up for the most relevant campaign/s, they can attract more subscribers who will stay longer and come back regularly. I am sure their website visitors and readers will appreciate the opportunity to subscribe for and receive selected information relevant to their interests and needs.

Segmenting subscribers is a smart way to see which topics are of greater interest. Nourish allows you to create different campaigns and using campaign statistics you will gain considerable insight into what works well for your newsletter and which aspects you can improve.

Nourish can help to provide your audience with the most relevant content. As always, I am here to help you get the best out of your Nourish newsletter, so do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions or doubts.

Found other creative ways to use Nourish? We certainly want to know about that! Let me know by emailing me at my[at]nouri.sh We’d love to showcase your newsletter as an example for our customers to see and learn from.

Stay creative!

Tagged with:
Aug 11

Ensuring email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle especially with developments in spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Not all email is equally important to a recipient and so there is often a gap between email a recipient is happy receiving and email a recipient both wants and is expecting enough to complain about not receiving.

To ensure that your email deliverability is the best it can be follow these 7 steps

1. Verification

The number one step in the battle for deliverability is confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list. You can do this by using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the subscriber. They must click that unique link verifying that they own the email address and did actually request to subscribe.

2. Email Addresses

When asking visitors to subscribe, you should be asking for their “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Google or Hotmail. Free email accounts tend to be used far less.

3. Bounce Backs

Always remove undeliverable addresses as soon as possible. An address that consistently  bounces should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

4. Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and the difference between the two can be hard to distinguish. Always consider plain text emails too as deliverability failure is around 1.2% compare to 2.5% with HTML.

5. Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

  • Advertising

Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

  • Language

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography.

  • Images

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

  • Attachments

Avoid attachments where possible by including a web link instead- where complete avoidance is not feasible. Many people are still afraid of the spread of viruses through opening of attachments.

6. Relationships

Where possible contact the ISP and let them know about your email service. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

7. Legal Practice

There are a number of laws relating to email deliverability. It’s important to keep up to date with current legal practice and you must make sure you periodically review your current practice to ensure legal compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link to remove the subscriber from future messages (which must be swiftly tasked).

May 13

… Enter our newsletter competition then by sending your newsletter to my[at]nouri.sh

We intend to award a feature every month and there is no deadline for this contest but why wait!? This is a great chance to get showcased and gain more subscribers. Send me your newsletter now at my[at]nouri.sh so that we generate awareness and exposure for you from our blog!

Join us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to follow our discussions and share any comments and statistics you may be willing to share with us and other followers.

And remember if you still need a little help getting your newsletter as smart and powerful as you want it, just drop me a line, I’ll be happy to help 🙂

Apr 07

If you're going to offer a prize make it something good!

They say a picture is worth 1000 words… We say a good prize is worth 10,000 subscribers.

Build your list of subscribers by bribing your community with a prize each month. For example, you could offer a prize for:

  • the best comment
  • the nicest testimonial 
  • forwarding the newsletter to the most people
  • proving you read the newsletter by answering a simple quiz
  • just being on the list (random selection)
  • any of the above

Continue reading »

Mar 26

This month we’d like to showcase a great example newsletter created by http://www.dgm-uk.com/ – DGM, the UK’s most experienced  affiliate network.

We designed a custom template to promote the DGM brand and give a more professional look to all their newsletter mailings. With well written content, this is an excellent example of a newsletter designed for hundreds of subscribers.

Continue reading »

Mar 24

Many of our clients have asked for an automated birthday message.

Do you want to send your loyal customers vouchers or promotions as a birthday gift?

Then think about segmenting your subscribers into specific groups – you may want to target certain groups at particular times of the year etc. The more relevant you make your campaign the better the response. Choose demographics such as age, gender, post code etc.

This is a popular marketing tool so make sure you don’t miss out and segment your audience now!

Aug 07

A view of the admin panel in WordPress

Its finally here and we’re sooo excited to tell you about the WordPress plugin we’ve all been waiting for. If you want a quick and efficient way to add subscriber to you campaigns, install this plugin and you’ll see a widget where users input their email address, choose a campaign and join. That’s it! Just watch your subscription base grow and grow.
Continue reading »

Tagged with:

eNewsletter


tag cloud