The From Line

With the start of a new year comes new opportunities for growth and change for your business. You already know how important it is to have an effective email campaign in place. A great way to vamp up these campaigns and make them even more effective in 2013 is by changing your templates to include newer, eye catching designs. Why not stir things up a bit in 2013?

How long have you been using your current email template design? If it’s been over a year and you’re still stuck using the same bland format, it’s about time for a change. Do you know if the template you've been using translates as well on smart phones and tablets as it does within different email clients? If you're not sure, it's definitely time to reevaluate and consider an upgrade.

More and more people are using mobile technology to view their emails. In order for your campaigns to be as effective as possible, you need to be able to communicate to your leads efficiently, especially within the mobile platform. When subscribers open your emails on their mobile devices, do you know what they see? If you’re not certain of how your message renders, there is a good chance it could be improved. Worse yet, if your messages aren’t getting through, you can be sure it won't be long until your emails are marked as spam, or your leads unsubscribe from them all together. Optimizing your templates to render properly on mobile devices will ensure proper deliverability and higher open rates. The best email templates to use are the ones that translate well regardless of what device they're used on. Your template should look just as nice on a desktop computer as it does when it's viewed on an iPhone.

Using a revamped email template is also a good way to create new buzz about your business. Do you have a new product or a new service you're offering this year? Even if your merchandise or services are the same, a new email template gives your leads the impression that great things are happening in your business and it encourages them to check out what you have to offer.

Are you ready to make some changes to your email campaign for the new year? It's never too late to start. You already know that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. Let us help you refine your campaign to get the best results possible. For more information, contact us today.
 

If your business currently employs an active email marketing campaign, congratulations! You are already taking advantage of an effective and proven strategy. So much so, that according to the Message Systems 2012 Marketing Channel and Engagement Benchmark Survey, email still tops the list as the most popular and successful marketing channel, despite the rise of social media. In fact, 63 percent of their survey’s respondents credited email as their largest return on investment.

Knowing this, it is important for marketers to ask themselves if they are truly getting the most out of their email marketing. Is your email template unique, attractive and eye-catching? Does it generate the interest in your product or service that you are aiming for? Are you able to repurpose templates in an efficient way? In order to make the most of your email marketing campaigns, the bones of the operation have to be top notch.

Creating your own email template can mean many hours devoted to design and coding. Even after all of that effort, you could still end up with a template that fails to connect with prospective customers in a meaningful way. Using a pre-made template limits your options and does not allow for your company's unique character and message to stand out from the crowd. After all, it is unlikely that your company is the only email marketer using any given pre-made template.

Custom email templates allow for more creativity and individuality in your messaging. At Gold Lasso, we can help you create a truly unique and effective email template that will attract attention. Instead of settling for a pre-made template that may already be in use by dozens of other marketers, choosing to employ a template that is professionally designed and coded specifically for your campaign is a proven strategy to connect with prospective customers in a more effective and personalized way.

If you would like more information on our design service for custom email templates or our full line of eMarketing solutions and services, contact us.
 

iPad passes Mac computer in sales. The tablet is the new frontier.

It’s official. Consumers are tablet crazy; so much so that they are choosing the mobile devices over computers. It’s that time again marketers, just when you’ve finally optimized for mobile…

A look into Apples record breaking year provides an impressive example of the tablets’ rapid rise in popularity. In 2011, the company sold over 156 million iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch), 55 million of which were iPads. To put this in perspective, in just one year combined sales of these mobile devices have exceeded the 122 million Mac computers ever sold. Since it was first available for pre-order in March of 2010, the sales trend of the iPad has blown all other Apple products out of the water (see figure below). CEO Tim Cook commented “This 55 is something no one would have guessed. Including us. To put it in context, it took us 22 years to sell 55 million Macs. It took us about 5 years to sell 22 million iPods, and it took us about 3 years to sell that many iPhones. And so, this thing is, as you said, it’s on a trajectory that’s off the charts.” There has been buzz for some time of the possible upcoming announcement of the iPad3, and today we have verification via Mashable that Apple has sent out invitations for an event on March 7th. The invitation states simply “We have something you really need to see. And touch” and according to Mashable is "superimposed on what is almost certainly an iPad". Knowing this, it is more crucial than ever for marketers to take to heart the magnitude of this trend. It has been rumored that the newest generation iPad will have a full operating system, providing the user with a full blown hand held computer, and conceivably further intensifying this trend. Yes, Apple is just one example, but I think it’s safe to say they are usually ahead of the trend. Assessing how we communicate via tablet will be paramount. 

If you're a marketing manager for a mid-sized company and insist that your email service provider offer you a bunch a pre-fab templates you're lazy and should be fired! Pre-fab templates were great back in the day when email marketing was novel and a limited number of marketing mavericks experimented with the medium however the day of pre-fab templates for real marketers has come and gone.

Just think about it, email service providers that push pre-fab templates such as Constant Contact or iContact cater to hundreds of thousands of tiny companies sending to millions email recipients. Since there is only a finite number of templates that these email service providers offer, this means that a large number of companies have the same look and feel to their email marketing efforts without any differentiation to cut through the clutter. If you're a marketing manager at a mid sized company do you really want your email marketing to look like Joe's Bicycle Shop down the street? What if your boss subscribes to Joe's Bicycle Shop email and you unknowingly use the same template? Do you think you'll have your job for long?

I know lifting and plagiarism are common practices among marketers but for G-d sakes don't copy something that's sub-par and meant for people lacking creative abilities. And if you are a small company that's serious about its email marketing it doesn't take much these days to create a professional looking custom template. Any graphic design student at your local community college can create something far better then what an email service provider will give you. Remember, benchmark the best not crap!