Auto-responders are one of our most used advanced features as they have the power to continue the communication with your subscribers when they take a particular action. There are a number of auto-responders that you can use including; subscriber, schedule, open, click, anniversary and unsubscribe; all of which can be set up to send automatically on your behalf. As they are all automated, all you need to do is create the email you want to send and the system will then do the rest for you.
Each auto-responder has its own advantage so to help you we have explained what each of them do and why you should be using them:
Schedule Auto-responders
What it does: Our schedule auto-responder allows you to setup an email to be sent on a particular date and time.
Why use it: This auto-responder can be used when you are away from your desk such as in the holiday seasons. Although you will not be at a computer you can still have our system send an email on your behalf ensuring you don't miss out on any sales opportunities.
Subscribe Auto-responder
What it does: An email can be sent when someone new subscribes to your mailing list.
Why use it: This email can be used to explain what the new subscriber can expect from your emails. Within this email it is also a good time to ask for further details from them so you can segment them into groups to better target your future sends. We would also suggest you ask them to add your from email address as a trusted sender to make sure your emails go straight into their inbox.
Open Auto-responder
What it does: This auto-responder allows you to setup an email to be sent when another email has been opened; it can be sent immediately or delayed for a number of days or hours.
Why use it: An example of using this type of auto-responder is to send emails regarding an offer that has a limited time, once the original email has been opened you might want to send an email reminding them about the offer a few days later to make sure they don’t miss out.
Link Clicked Auto-responder
What it does: This auto-responder allows you to setup an email to be sent when a link in another email has been clicked. Again you can set this automated email to be sent immediately or you can delay it for a number of days or hours.
Why use it: This automated email can be used to interact and continue the communication with the subscriber as they have indicated they are interested in something as they have clicked the link. An example of using this auto-responder effectively would be to have the email sent once a link has been clicked regarding a particular product. The automated email can then send the recipient more information about the product they clicked on and suggest other similar products to try and make a sale.
Anniversary Auto-responder
What it does: This auto-responder allows you to setup an automated email to be sent on your subscriber's birthday. You can set the email to be sent immediately on that specific date or you can delay it.
Why use it: This auto-responder can help to make sales as you can email your subscribers just after their birthday as you will know they are likely to have money. With that in mind you may want to email them some of your more expensive products.
Unsubscribe Auto-responder
What it does: This auto-responder will send an email to the recipient when they unsubscribe from your mailing list.
Why use it: It is a good idea to use this auto-responder as many people will often unsubscribe without realising they have done so. By using this, you can make it clear within the email that they have unsubscribed and provide them with an option to sign up again if they made a mistake. Alternatively you may want to ask them why they have unsubscribed so you can gather feedback from them and make sure you use that to prevent others from unsubscribing.
As you can see we provide many auto-responders that are a great asset to any email marketing campaign. Try them for yourself and see how they can help to improve your sales.
Take an exclusive peek at our New Mobile Editor which you will have access to very shortly! Soon you will be able to create a free mobile site within the new editor which will be more interactive, easier to use and have more features.
As more and more people are viewing emails and browsing the web on their mobile phones we have made it easier for you to be mobile friendly.
Want To Know What Is New?
You can select a template and then customize your web pages to suit the content and images you want. But we haven't stopped there, here is an outline of what you can expect from our new Editor:
- Templates - We have provided 12 templates for you to choose from.
- Colour Themes - Add either custom or standard colour themes.
- Surveys - Allow users to input data via surveys.
- Hyperlinks - Interactive hyperlinks and call options can be added.
- Go Social - Social icons can be added to allow them to follow you.
- Go Viral - Allow users to share your mobile site on Facebook, Twitter or via email.
- Videos - We have given you the ability to include videos.
- Google Maps - You can now include Google Maps.
This new Mobile Editor is going to make it a lot easier for you to create free mobile sites so you can accommodate those that want to go mobile.
You can even customize the URL used for your mobile site so you can easily insert a link to it within your emails. That way you are giving your subscribers the option to view a complete mobile site if they would prefer.
What do you think of this new editor? Leave comments below.
When sending an email to your subscribers you are sending a representation of your company whether you like it or not. People will view the email they receive and judge your company from it. Of course if the recipient really likes the email they see, then they may even share it on Facebook, Twitter or forward it to a friend. With that in mind it is even more important to make sure your email looks as good as possible as you never know who might see it.
This brings us to testing, testing is the key stage that should not be missed as it gives you time to notice and correct any mistakes so you can be confident pressing that all important send button because once it is sent there is no going back! As many of you will know email clients will interpret the HTML code from your email differently not to mention those on different devices. To help you conquer the inbox we provide an inbox preview feature which will show you exactly what your email will look like in over 14 email clients and best of all it is FREE for paying accounts!
Once you have your email looking great in the mountain of email clients available the tough bit is over with.
Don't fall at the last hurdle
Although the main section within testing is complete, lots of people forget about the images they add into their emails and just expect them to be displayed. Unfortunately email clients will often have images turned off by default which means they will only be displayed once the recipient clicks a link to download them. This isn’t so bad if you have a good ratio of text to images as the recipients can still understand the overview of your email and get the full understanding of it once the images have been downloaded. However if you are sending image only emails it becomes more difficult for recipients to understand what your email is about because they won't see anything.
For example, I have shown a screenshot below of a simple image being used as an email but as you can see the recipient will have no idea what the email is about. The reason they won’t know is because they can’t see the image as they haven’t downloaded the images, but more importantly it is because there has been no Alt text added.
Alt text often gets forgotten about when you are in a rush to send your email, but if you don’t have any then you are missing an ideal opportunity to persuade the recipient to download the images to see what is hidden. You can easily style the ALT text being displayed in the images so it doesn’t have to be boring and it can often blend in with your email design.
As you can see from the screenshot below, Alt text has now been used to give the recipient an idea of what they can expect once they download the images. Immediately they know it is going to be an offer for 75% off selected styles. With that Alt text clearly presented it will hopefully get them to click on that “Display images below” link so they can see the full email as intended.
Once the link to download the images has been clicked they will be able to view the images within the email and understand the offer.
As you can see some parts of testing emails are quite small and can easily be forgotten about but they can also have a big impact on your email's success. So make sure you go through ALL steps of testing and not just the main ones because it is down to you to make your email as appealing as possible.
I bet you've heard the term "email is dead" but that couldn't be any further from the truth. Often people don’t actually know why Email Marketing is still worth it. So to clear this up, I would like to take this opportunity to express why we have so many people that do it. I have listed a few bullet points below so you can see exactly why Email Marketing is worthwhile:
- It's simple – Email marketing is very simply to implement when using an Email Service Provider such as ourselves. We provide you with a subscription form so you can place it on your website to capture new subscribers.
- It's cost effective
– You can send up to 2,000 emails for as little as £9.95+VAT which is
considerably cheaper than sending a letter in the post. If you were to
do that you would need to print your letter, buy an envelope, buy a
stamp and make the walk to locate a post box. So for just £9.95 you can
stay in your seat and just click that “Send” button and we will
do all the rest for you.
- It keeps your customers up-to-date – You can send emails to your customers to tell them about events, business news, new products, and offers or even include social marketing.
- It attracts traffic to your website – When sending emails you should include a CTA (call to action) so your recipients know exactly what you want them to do (often it will be clicking through to your website). Once they are on your website the landing page should be targeted and exactly what they expect.
- It's instant – When you click send, your email is placed in a queue and then sent immediately to your mailing list. You can be in the comfort of knowing your recipients received your email and can wait for them to take action.
- It's easy to opt-in and opt-out – With every email you send we include an unsubscribe button and you can also include a subscribe button. This means your recipients or any potential subscribers will always have choice to receive your emails. We also have list management functions within the account to remove anyone that has previously unsubscribed so you don’t have to do anything.
- It can help build relationships – By using email marketing you are continually communicating with your customers and building your brand awareness.
- You can track your progress - If you think of the other marketing methods such as sending a letter you often don’t know if it arrived correctly, if they opened it, if they took action with it (e.g. went to your website). However by using an Email Service Provider we remove all the guessing and just tell you the facts.
As you can see Email Marketing is not one to be missed so if you would like to start a free trial then just click here. Alternatively if you would prefer to see a demo of how everything works just sign up to one of our webinars by clicking here.
We know there is a big temptation to purchase a list from the numerous suppliers out there but don’t do it! If you do, the people within that list are not opt-in to you personally and may not have even opted in at all. If that is the case they may report you from spam and it will be you that will take the fall.
If purchasing a list is out of the question then how can you grow you list? We get asked this a lot so we thought we would give you a detailed insight so you know how you can increase your subscribes the right way. We have shared our best advice to help you increase your mailing list so lets get started:
- Place Subscription Forms on Your Website – You’ll notice that I have stated “forms” rather than just the one. I am sure there will be lots of pages on your website where you can ask people to sign up to receive specific types of emails. This is not only a great way to obtain new signups but it is also one of the best ways to segment your subscribers into targeted lists.
- Share on Facebook and Twitter – Facebook and Twitter are a great way to get your company noticed, you can easily post your emails to those social network accounts. However don’t stop there; you can even add a subscription form onto your Facebook page to convert your Facebook Friends into Subscribers.
- Forward To Friends – Within the GraphicMail editors you can easily insert a forward to a friend link so why not use it? Ask your subscribers to forward your email to their friends so you gain more subscribers. Of course you will need to ensure you have the “subscribe” link presented in your email footer and give your current subscribers and the potential ones an incentive. Just view the Reports & Statistics to see which email addresses have forwarded your email to their friends. Once you know which subscriber have taken action you can then provide them with the offer, discount or whatever incentive you used.
- Social Sharing – As you know you can share your emails on Facebook and Twitter but you can also ask your subscribers to do that too. Much like forwarding to friends you can insert social links into your email while using our editors. Once clicked the subscriber can then share your email on their own Facebook and Twitter account. Again within our Reports & Statistics you can see which subscribers have share it and where to.
As you can see, there are lots of things you can do to increase your mailing list so give them a try. If it works for you then we would love to hear about it or if you have any other suggestions of your own then let us know in the comment section below.
Good luck and happy sending!
Email marketing has the potential to rapidly grow your online presence and customer base. By using GraphicMail we let you harness our system to make Email Marketing a breeze. There are lots of benefits that you might not be aware of so we have broken them down for you so you know exactly what you're letting yourself in for:
- Getting Started – You can sign up for a 30 day trial or go straight into a paying account for as little as £9.95+VAT which will allow you to send 2,000 emails a month. When you compare this to actually sending a letter in the post you can see how cost effective email marketing can be. As well as being cost effective, unlike sending a letter in the post you can actually see who is interested by viewing opened and clicked statistics.
- Capture Data – You can create multiple subscription forms which can be placed on your website or on Facebook to capture data from your viewers. You can then use that captured data to separate your lists into smaller more targeted groups or use the data to insert personalisation into your emails.
- List Management – Our system automatically manages the email addresses you have added into your mailing list so when someone unsubscribes you don’t have to worry, we will make sure you don’t email them again. You can also import email addresses via excel spreadsheets, online email clients, or even use our integrations.
- Email Templates – We provide over 400 email templates for you to choose from so you can easily find one that suits your business. As they have been created for you they will work in all the different email clients so all you need to do is add your own images and text and you will be ready to send.
For the more computer savvy people out there, you can upload your own HTML template and send that to your subscribers. However before hitting send we suggest you use our free Inbox Preview tool as that will show you exactly how it looks in over 14 different email clients so you know it will display correctly for your subscribers.
- Keep The Conversation Going – We provide numerous features within the GraphicMail account so you can always make the most of those taking action within your emails. You can use our Auto-responders to have an automated email sent once a subscriber opens or clicks on a link in your email. Alternatively you can use the data provided within the Reports & Statistics to follow up on any further actions taken.
- Go Social – Within your GraphicMail account you can not only allow users to forward emails to their friends but they can also "like", comment or share your email on their own Facebook or Twitter account using our Social Browser widget. Of course you can also easily post your emails to your own Facebook and Twitter accounts.
- Reports & Statistics – Don't forget to check your Reports & Statistics to see what has worked well. We provide you with sent, delivered, bounced, opened, clicked, shared, unsubscribed and more. You can easily use the information given to improve your next email campaigns. Alternatively if it didn't work as well as you hoped then why not use our A/B Testing feature as that will help you to get the best open or click through rate.
If you would like to see a demo of GraphicMail in action then join our free webinars as our support staff will explain the best features you should be using, to join us just click here.
