Of the 36% of Brits who read marketing emails on their mobile device – a figure which rises to 55% amongst 18-34-year-olds – two thirds act on the information immediately, and one third screen them to read later on a computer.

Emails need to work on mobiles, laptops and PCs

This suggests that brands need to shape their email marketing strategy around finding the right balance to maximise consumer interest across both types of screens: mobile and computer.

“Consumers are increasingly using their mobile as their preferred media and communication device,” says Andy Hinder, STEEL’s CEO. “Because of this, the mobile has become the gatekeeper for further action and engagement with emails. With better targeted marketing emails, and the growth in mobile commerce, it is essential for brands to look at how they further adapt their email marketing strategies for mobile.”

Some 69% of people who read marketing emails on their mobile have immediately acted on it in some way – the most common action being to click through to a website (42%), followed by making a purchase (30%).  At the same time, however, there is a significant amount of consumer dissatisfaction with reading emails on mobiles, with the top pet hate being “too much scrolling”, cited by 42% of all consumers – a figure which jumps to a shocking 89% in the over-55s age group. Next on the dissatisfaction list is emails which contain the “wrong layout for mobiles”, cited by 29% of all consumers – jumping to 45% of 18-34-year-olds, and then “too much content”, cited by 27% of all consumers.

“Marketers must also bear in mind when and where the consumer is receiving their communication, explains Hinder. “This has massive implications for how they create the right messages for a highly personal device, and how they want consumers to react to, and interact with those messages.”

Recommendations for marketers

In light of the report’s findings, Hinder recommends five simple steps for marketers to find the ‘sweet spot’ where emails work on mobiles, laptops and PCs:

1. Simplify emails by reducing the number of categories, sub-headings, links and images
2. Limit calls to action and make them obvious, using a small number of obvious buttons instead of numerous links. Clickable areas should be no smaller than a fingertip (44×44 pixels).
3. Use a clear, methodical hierarchy and keep it short: create a clear headline, followed by secondary messaging with smaller tertiary content towards the bottom. Keep the length of the email as short as possible
4. Use capitals in titles to distinguish text and content areas.
5. Stick to one or two columns of content: if using more than one column centre the text in each column to maximise the visual space between them and improve legibility.

You can download the full report in PDF format.

Article source: http://www.fourthsource.com/news/a-third-of-brits-read-marketing-emails-on-mobile-8673

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120517/CG09330)

A Short History of Email as Part of HubSpot Software

For the past six years, the HubSpot community has been preaching the gospel of inbound marketing. We saw a fundamental shift in the way that consumers found and evaluated products and services. Pushing out messages through traditional channels had stopped working and successful business had to get found by their customers.

We were right.

HubSpot’s original mission was to build a killer online marketing system that empowered our customers to get found online and generate inbound leads. In 2011, HubSpot customers generated over 34,000 leads per day using our software. 

Over time, our customers have started asking, “what the heck are we are we supposed to do with all these leads?” This is good problem to have. As a response, almost three years ago, we built email marketing and lead nurturing into HubSpot Software. Last June, we took the next step by acquiring a like-minded company called Performable, and adding marketing automation to our enterprise product.

When the dust settled, we evaluated HubSpot’s email marketing capabilities, and decided it was time to start fresh. Today, we’d like to show you what’s new (we think you’ll like it).

Centralized Marketing Database

As a marketer, your contact database is everything. Your email subscribers, your leads, your customers, this is the community you market to. For too many marketers this information is stored in separate databases. This means, in order to get anything done, you need to export, import, manipulate in Excel, and lose sleep because you know that you’re probably losing leads, or worse, sending someone the wrong message.

HubSpot’s new contacts database lets you keep all your leads in the same place and integrate with your CRM and existing systems. Because you’re using HubSpot, you can also track your contacts’ online browsing history, email history, form submissions, and social media information all as part of the same beautiful profile.

Segmentation and Targeted Marketing

The power of having a centralized marketing database lies in marketers’ ability to segment their contacts and create targeted lists. HubSpot now lets you create static and dynamic lists (which automatically update) based on any contact field, previous list membership and form submission. This gives our customers the ability to create extremely focused lists for email marketing, which means your emails can be more personal and create more value for your audience.

Import and Integration with Existing Databases

HubSpot makes it easy to import your existing database(s), along with all your custom fields. If you’re developer-minded, you can also sync your marketing database with an external system or CRM through our robust API.

Beautiful Email Marketing Experience

Crafting email marketing campaigns can be a pain. You need to check your lists, make sure they’re up-to-date, import new subscribers, create your segment, build a template, craft your message, test your send, select your senders and supression list, and schedule your email.

To make this worse, most email marketing providers make you walk through a series of steps separated by screens. By the time you’re done, you feel like you need to go back to the beginning to check your work.

We feel your pain. That’s why we worked our developers’ fingers to the bone perfecting the experience of building, targeting and scheduling email. It may actually make the task of sending an email campaign enjoyable.

Personalization Based on Every Contact Field

Adding personalization to your email helps increase opens and clicks by creating a better experience for your recipients. Nobody likes feeling that they’re being marketed to.

HubSpot lets you customize your email body, subject line, and sender with any custom field from your marketing database. If you’re connected to Salesforce.com, you can also use any field from your a lead or contact record, including the lead owner. 

Email Analytics for Campaigns and Contacts

HubSpot’s new email system has both big picture and contact-level analytics so you can track overall opens and clicks and then drill down and to see the actions of each individual contact. And because HubSpot’s email and contacts database are both part of the same all-in-one system, it’s easy to create a new list based on the outcomes from a previous email send.

Beautiful, Best-Practice Templates 

Emails should look good in Outlook, Gmail, on an iPhone or even a Blackberry. That’s why we’ve created out-of-the-box, best-practice templates that are easy to customize with your company logo and colors. 

We also made sure that HubSpot’s new email system was designer friendly. You can now create customizable templates complete with editable areas, widgets, and tokens. 

All-in-One Marketing Software

Beyond just email marketing, HubSpot software gives marketers the tools they need to get found, generate leads and close deals. This includes search engine optimization, blogging and social media, lead generation, lead management, email, marketing automation, and analytics. 

HubSpot is the world’s only end-to-end marketing platform.

If you are intersted in trying out our new email tools, or seeing what else HubSpot has to offer, we’d love for you to start a free trial today and take us for a spin.

Media Contact: Laura Fitton, HubSpot, 617-475-0130, media@hubspot.com News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE HubSpot

Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/17/4497153/hubspot-launches-brand-new-email.html

Yeah, winning new business can be an uphill slog. From gaining a prospect’s trust to asking for repeat business, you’re in an endless cycle of marketing and sales.

But what if you could build up some momentum and once in awhile roll with gravity?

Let’s talk email marketing

Email marketing consistently ranks as one of the top three marketing channels (along with SEO and social media). Why? Because it’s effective and inexpensive. According to the Direct Marketing Association email marketing brought in an average of $40.56 for every dollar spent on it in 2011.

Some reasons email marketing is so effective:

1. Your customers rely heavily on their email and check it regularly, so there is a good chance your marketing message will be seen.
2. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 forces marketers to create highly targeted, permission-based email lists that generate high response rates.
3. Links give you the opportunity to ask your customers to take an immediate action from within the email itself.
4. Analytic reporting allows you to track your results and adjust future email marketing campaigns accordingly.

A word of caution about email marketing

If you aren’t careful, though, your emails will be relegated to the email spam box. This can happen for a few reasons.

One is that recipients of your emails click the dreaded spam button. This affects not only that one customer, but can get you blacklisted from having many of your emails delivered properly.

Next, if you don’t build your email list carefully you are likely to get caught in a spam trap set by email service providers. When this happens, once again you get blacklisted.

Finally, even the way your emails are written can affect whether they get delivered or not.

Don’t be discouraged

These, however, are not reasons to avoid email marketing. It’s too beneficial to your business to be avoided.

When done properly email marketing saves you time–one email can be used to reach out to an unlimited number of leads at once. It builds brand awareness as prospects begin to see your name and message on a regular basis. It keeps you in touch with your existing customers, inviting them back to do business with you again. And most importantly, it makes you money by asking for the sale.

The key phrase, though, is “when done properly.” A professional email marketer can help make sure your campaign gets your desired results. Someone who knows email marketing can relieve you of the burden of trying to create an email marketing campaign on your own and take this particular boulder off your shoulders.

If you could use one less boulder in your business get in touch today for a free email marketing estimate from The Website Wordsmith.

This article originally appeared on The Website Wordsmith » Blog and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.

Article source: http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/email-marketing-makes-your-life-easier-0178285

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tactics available.  In an Ad Effectiveness Survey commissioned by Forbes Media, email and e-newsletter marketing is the second most effective tool for acquiring customers (after search engine optimization).

What’s the catch? Some planning is required.

Not to worry: developing an email marketing plan doesn’t have to be hard, it just hast to be done. The basics of developing an email marketing plan are outlined in a whitepaper from email marketing service MailChimp.

For a B2B marketer to have a successful email marketing effort, here is my summary of the 5 key planning steps:

Step 1: Define Your Readers. Who would you most like to be reading your emails? Is it your end customers? Purchase influencers?

You may determine that you have multiple, somewhat different groups of readers for whom you can develop different email campaigns.

Step 2: Determine Your Purpose. Ask these 3 questions:

1.         What does this audience want to hear from me?
2.         What useful information can I provide to this audience?
3.         What do I want to accomplish with my email marketing?

Remember that your readers are not as interested in your company or product as you are. Make sure to provide information that will help them fulfill their mission. It’s OK to talk about your company or product, but only as it relates to how it can help the reader. And keep it short.  If you have a lengthy piece in a newsletter, provide just a summary and a link to the full article.

Step 3: Outline Your Goals. That which can be measured can be improved! Spend some time thinking about the true goal of your email marketing campaign. Is it to increase subscribers? To encourage whitepaper downloads from your website? To generate  inquiries or product demonstrations?  Once you have a written goal, determine how you can 1) achieve it and, 2) measure it.

Step 4: Determine Your Frequency. Think about what frequency makes sense for your audience and your content. An email once a month might make the most sense for most B2B marketers. If you send the email more frequently, your readers might feel overwhelmed and opt out. Conversely, if you don’t send an email for long periods of time your readers may forget that they opted in to receive the email, and report you as a spammer.

Step 5: Create a Timeline. Make an annual timeline with specific deadlines and proposed topics for each email.

Click here to download a copy of MailChimp’s “How to Create an Email Marketing Plan.”

photo credit: jurvetson via photopin cc

This article originally appeared on http://www.artillerymarketing.com/blog/ and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.

Article source: http://www.business2community.com/b2b-perspective/5-steps-to-developing-a-b2b-email-marketing-plan-0179409

Adding an email signup form to your facebook business page is an
important way to convert fans into subscribers. With the NEWSLETTER.IE
email app it’s a simple 3 step process: http://bit.ly/fbsignupform.

What’s more, once installed on your page, you will be able to send
emails specifically to those who signed up from Facebook and include
them in a welcome series.

The Survey app solves that tricky problem of getting data out of
Facebook. With the survey app you can select which survey is active on
your Facebook page at any time. The survey can run outside of Facebook
too, so that all feedback can be aggregated in one place. A customer
service example can be seen here http://bit.ly/hilarysbooks.

NEWSLETTER.IE is completely free for 2,500 contacts. NEWSLETTER.IE can
report when subscribers click on the Report Spam button and rated best
deliverability platform by it’s customers. Trusted by top firms like
Mastercraft, Kyocera and The Chartered Accountants of Canada.

Article source: http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20120518005658/en/NEWSLETTER.IE-Facebook-apps

The prime reason why Email Marketing is still so much prevalently used is the host of benefits it offers to its customers. The model is very effective and using it any organization can garner best results for itself. In this article, we are going to discuss some very effective Email Marketing UK tips. These tips are as follows:-

Before starting with Email Marketing campaign, build yourself a list of current and probable customers whom you can target. Do not worry, if you have a very small client base. With time, you can keep adding numbers to it. So start building it by including your current list of customers. If you are relatively new in this industry then you can directly purchase the targeted email list from any prominent marketing organization.

Offer your customers the option to directly approach you. For this, either include your email address in the contact list, or get a registration form added in your website. This way, the customers approaching your website will have the option of making you aware that they are interested in your offered products or services and want you to provide them further information about it.

Sending newsletter is still a very popular promotional tool. There are many reasons why it is still prevalently used by many organizations in the industry. One such reason is that, by offering these newsletters any organization can easily create a communication channel with their customers and make them aware about the developments taking place in their organization. This way you can better connect with them and at times influence them to opt for the services or products, offered by you.

Always give more importance to quality of the content present in your marketing emails and newsletter. Poorly written content will send a wrong message to your customers and make them believe that you are not quite serious about them. Apart from the content, the design of the marketing mail is also very important component. Poorly designed marketing mail will not be able to attract the attention of the customers and will nullify your efforts. So, avail services of experienced copy writer and designer and target your customers in a best possible way.

So if you are searching for marketing company like Email marketing company UK, does proper Research on company background, their present clients also targeted email list for your campaign.

Visit Us: http://www.wildnettechnologies.co.uk/internet-marketing-uk/email-marketing.html

For further information visit: http://www.wildnettechnologies.co.uk/internet-marketing-uk/email-marketing.html

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Article source: http://www.prsafe.com/new_press_releases/view/8620

Market Snapshot

Dow, SP drop for 3rd straight week

2.

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/email-marketing-firm-newsletterie-announce-email-and-survey-facebook-apps-2012-05-18

Story Updated:
May 18, 2012 at 5:45 PM PDT

Ten different companies trained students for seven days.

CLARKSTON, WA – Clarkston High School students got a taste of the “real world” on Thursday at the annual DECA Take-over event by taking over some local businesses.

Assistant Store Director Blaine Thomas started out at Albertson’s by working at a check stand for the DECA Takeover program.

“I went to Clarkston High School, went through the DECA program twelve years ago and never left,” said Thomas. “Kind of like student Tyler Sidener who may be getting a job offer.”

“I did a good job and I guess Bridget the manager, and some other courtesy clerk people, liked what I did so I’m going to probably get a job,” said Sidener.

Roughly 120 Clarkston High School marketing students involved in the DECA program, worked in various positions Thursday at businesses all over Clarkston. Ten different companies trained students for seven days, and then threw them into the workforce as tellers, baggers and even managers.

“Anything from putting groceries in a bag, stocking shelves to cleaning, they get a total operations how insides of these four walls works and it’s kind of a good experience for them,” said Thomas.

Clarkston High School has one of the leading chapters in the DECA program in Washington State; possibly because of the hands on experience students receive.

Students involved started at around 8:30 a.m. and wrapped up their shifts just as school was getting out.

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Article source: http://www.klewtv.com/news/local/Clarkston-students-get-taste-of-working-world-with-DECA-takeover--151969815.html

(PRWEB) May 18, 2012

GraphicMail, a leading global hosted email marketing solution, announced today the release of updated Reports metrics that make it easier than ever for clients to track campaigns, analyze results and refine messaging. The redesigned Reports feature a Web 3.0 look and feel with a simplified, single-page data display to deliver powerful new analytics such as industry comparisons, geo-location tracking, detailed recipient activity views, device, email client and operating system statistics and social engagement.

“Analytics and tracking are essential to successful email marketing campaigns,” says Nick Eckert, CEO of GraphicMail. “Our clients have always loved our Reports page, and they’ll love the new and improved version even more because it’s now easier to track campaign progress worldwide and analyze results.”

Needless to say, the reports also depict popular analytics such as email deliveries, opens, click activity, bounces and unsubscribe rates over time to enable users to gauge campaign effectiveness.

Clients can also view browser, email client and operating system statistics to find out which technologies and tools their customers are using. Since email newsletter and campaign views vary according to browser, operating system or whether customers are viewing them on mobile or desktop devices, browser analytics can provide valuable insights clients can use to optimize subscriber views and improve campaign results.

The new Reports metrics also allows users to compare their campaign results to industry benchmarks to see how well they perform relatively to their peer group when it comes to measuring email campaign success. Clients can also analyze the geo-location of their customers by viewing a world map that depicts campaign analytics in full detail.

GraphicMail sharpens the focus on recipient activity with a live feed view and new functions that enable detailed tracking of subscriber interactions in real-time. The page displays all relevant subscriber activities chronologically and in an easy-to-understand format.

To support deeper analytics and integration with popular business tools, the new Reports section enables clients to import and export data, subscriber information and more. Additionally, metrics on link or message triggers are also measured in full.

Arguably a first in the hosted, self-service email service provider industry, GraphicMail offers detection by device.

“What that means,” says Barbara Ulmi, “is that you can now detect who in your email list views your mailer on a mobile device or on a desktop. This crucial information gives you the power to further segment your audience and make a positive impact on subscriber experience.”

The upgraded GraphicMail Reports function supports end-to-end campaign tracking and analytics to allow clients to monitor and refine email marketing campaigns to generate better results. Find out more about the improved Reports at http://www.graphicmail.com.

About GraphicMail

GraphicMail is a hosted email marketing solution which lets users design newsletters, manage contact lists and track campaign performance. The platform provides seamless email marketing and publishing features that are easy and affordable enough for small businesses, yet powerful for large companies looking for a corporate-scale solution. GraphicMail offers mobile marketing services, such as bulk SMS / text campaigns and SMS sends with links to mobile sites that can be tracked and analyzed. They also offer social media integrations in the form of social sharing features and social data gathering tools. The company has been used by customers such as, Shell, the American Medical Association and Dell Empower since 2002. The product is available in 11 languages and is represented by 18 offices globally.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/5/prweb9518893.htm

Article source: http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/GraphicMail-Includes-Device-Detection-in-their-3568011.php

Article source: http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/05/18/38-brands-cite-internal-resource-biggest-barrier-email-marketing-success