2009

Friday, 4 December 2009

Are you missing a Golden Opportunity to extend your Marketing Reach by adding social widgets to your footer?

Posted by Unknown at 1:28 pm Labels: advice , email marketing , facebook , graphicmail features , publish , social networking , socialmedia

MarketingSherpa's Email Marketing Benchmark Report 2010 has reported a massive increase in inquiries for social sharing features, which allow subscribers to post email content to their social networks.

As an immediate response, we here at GraphicMail are now giving you the option to have your subscribers share email content through social widgets which you can now place in your footer.

It’s easy, it’s simple and here’s how to do it:

In your Graphicmail Account, click into >> Advanced Mode >> Setup and Options >> Header/Footer settings >> Set the ‘General Settings’ (at the top) to “Advanced Settings “Click “Email Footer” to expand it. Select “Add social media links on all emails” and you’re done. It’s as simple as that !

For now, there are the 6 major social sharing networks. As GraphicMail designer, Ruan Benade says : "We have limited ourselves to these six major networks, as it is not advisable to clutter your email design with too many social sharing buttons, the buttons we have chosen represents the five most popular social networks at present." As the social networking landscape is a constantly changing, we expect to add a few more in the future!
Have your subscribers share your newsletter on Facebook, Twitter, DiggIt, MySpace, Delicious and Google Bookmarks.

New GraphicMail Subscription form for Joomla users!

Posted by Unknown at 1:30 pm Labels: extension , graphicmail features , joomla , newsletter , plug-in , subscription , subscription form

Listen up all you Joomla users! Using a new Joomla extension you can now add a signup form for your GraphicMail mailing list – it’s easy and it’s quick!
The VERY BEST way for you to gather new subscribers is through a Subscription Form on your site - especially since this method supports opt-in email marketing, an approach that GraphicMail strongly advises

After you have completed the installation, you will be asked for your Login information; the next step prompts you to select the mailing list that you want your users to subscribe to and then it is only takes a few
seconds to add the extension to your site. The whole process is speedy and should take less than 5 minutes from beginning to end – and there is no file editing required…….. absolutely everything can be done via the Joomla Setting!

Keep watching this space for more open source Plug Ins from the GraphicMail Lab!

Let us know what you think about it – post a review in Joomla.

What is Joomla?
Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which gives you the ability to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Joomla has become one of the most popular website software applications mainly because of its ease of use and extensibility and, being an open source solution, it is freely available to all.

The New Social Widgets in the Footer are a real WOW!

Posted by Unknown at 1:37 pm Labels: email marketing , facebook , graphicmail features , how to email market , new , publish , socialmedia , twitter

GraphicMail is again proving to be one of the innovative email marketing people! Setting our lab rats free to mingle with the social crowd has paid off; they’ve found out that email marketing and social networking are the very best of friends!
As best friends always step out together, our developers are showing their newly found relationship through our footer.

What do we have on offer? Social widgets for the footer of your email campaign!

Maybe you are a member of a social network; maybe you are not, the fact is that most of your readers very probably are. Being members of virtual social groups such as Twitter and Facebook, gives them the ability to interact with “friends” and to exchange ideas, personal notes and review products, etc. It works like this : you add social widgets to the footer of your newsletter – then, when you send it out, your readers can forward it to their friends through their social network chosen from the following: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, DiggIt, Delicious and Google Bookmarks. They do this by clicking on the social network link in the footer, which then takes them to that network site. They then receive a prompt to sign in to their social network account, and the newsletter link (URL) can be pasted into their news headline or status line automatically – that’s it!

It’s a simple tool that will have a massive word-of-mouth effect for your business and products. What better way to advertise than to have your own clients recommend you to all of their friends, virtual or not!

Sounds great – but how easy is it to setup in your GraphicMail account?
It’s simple! Follow this route >>> Setup and Options >>> Header/Footer settings >>> from the dropdown, select “Email Footer” >>> click on the “Add social media links on all emails” and you’re done!

The major social network platforms are there now, but we will be adding more in the future.

Social networking is doing wonders for our brand. We now announce our promotions, new features, email marketing tips and more on Facebook and Twitter .

Because we want to assist you in building your reputation in the social sphere too and help you to experience additional online success, we have added this extra feature to the list of your footer customisation choices.

So……… Tweet away, join “The Book”, and Digg your article.

Ho, Ho, Ho - New FREE Christmas Templates

Posted by Unknown at 1:39 pm Labels: Best Practice , bulk , christmas , free templates , how to email market , new , promotion , publish , templates

Put the Ho Ho Ho into your seasonal email marketing. Our designer Santa and his helpers have whipped up some festive new templates for you

They are free and this is where we show you how to have fun with them.

So, Ho Ho How do I get them?

If you don't have a GraphicMail account, it's about time to get one and become one of the cool kids on the block. If you already are one of the cool kids, then just sign into your GraphicMail account and, once there, click on ‘Newsletters’ then >> ‘Select Templates’.

All templates are categorised, and you’ll find the templates for Christmas peeking out of Santa’s bag at the top of our library.

To select your chosen template, tick the check box and click “add templates to my account”. When you’ve done that a green message will appear at the top of the page, to notify you that the template has been successfully uploaded. In the menu, click on ‘Newsletter’ > then > ‘Create’. Type in a name for your newsletter and select your new template from the dropdown.

Want different images in your Christmas templates – Here’s how !

First we need to get you into the editor! Choose the newsletter with your Christmas template and click ‘edit’. Place your cursor in any image that then click on it, and then click on the ‘insert image’ button in the toolbar. A window will pop-up displaying the attributes and current settings of your image. Width, Height, Alignment, image border and vertical spacing are the changes that can be made to the image.

There is also a feature In the popup window that allows you to replace/insert and upload images from your hard drive into your newsletter and straight from your image folder. Just click "update" to complete the process.

I want a totally different template - can I design my own?

Although this could be seen as a bit like wrapping your own present, of course you can. If you don’t like surprises and you’re in the know, you are more than welcome to design your own template. You can create a template in HTML (if you’re an old hand use Notepad, or an HTML software like Dreamweaver if you need a little help), or you can upload your template directly from Word. To achieve this just design your entire newsletter from within a Word document and import it into your account >> Newsletters >> import/export. Under the "Get HTML from" section, click on the button ‘Word’ and browse for your doc. It’s a kind of magic….

Knowledge is power !

Did you know that you can choose from over 100 FREE HTML newsletter templates for a wide variety of different occasions, seasons and industries

Or………why not have a unique template designed by our in-house experts – find out how.

The Importance of Deliverability to Email Marketing

Posted by Unknown at 1:44 pm Labels: advice , Best Practice , delivery , email marketing , first steps , how to email market , targeting

Picture this - you have everything in place - a good marketing campaign, you’ve built up a subscriber list, formed the perfect subject line with irresistible content and you even have the click tracking software in place to monitor results. You’ve tested it to a small group of people and received a positive response. These efforts however, will be wasted if you don’t successfully deliver it to the recipient. Email deliverability refers to the success of actually getting your emails delivered to the right person. In the world of email marketing, ‘almost’ is just not enough. Unless your email gets to the recipient, then your job is not done.

If you’re new to the world of email marketing, then you might wonder what the problem of email deliverability might be. You make an email and enter an email address and expect it to be delivered successfully. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way in email marketing; you send to hundreds, even thousands of recipients but not everyone will get your email. In fact, 10% will most likely not.

There are various reasons why your emails are not reaching the intended destinations. The email boxes of the people you’re sending are first assessing your emails and then classifying if it will be sent to your inbox, marked as spam, or automatically deleted.

In order to ensure a high rate of email deliverability you should not try to beat spam filters but rather learn how to work with them.
If you’re hiring the services of a company to manage your email marketing solution, then they must be able to monitor the number of emails that went out and the ones that bounced back due to issues such as full inboxes or bad email addresses.

Aside from these, there are organisations that follow blocking policies and all emails from blocked IP addresses are automatically deleted. Some use blacklist software to identify emails that need to be blocked. There is nothing you can do when your emails are blocked or deleted,. However, there are methods to improve your email marketing campaign in order to reach a far greater number of targeted readers. This is where an email tracking service comes in handy.
This can tremendously help improve your email marketing campaign and can identify other issues that affect email deliverability - such as Content Filters where certain phrases must be avoided so as not to be tagged as spam - and Permission Filters where all emails that didn’t originate from an authorised source are blocked immediately.

All your hard work creating an email marketing campaign and establishing your contact list will be wasted if you don’t track and monitor the deliverability of your email.

Choosing a Good Email Subject Line

Posted by Unknown at 1:42 pm Labels: advice , Best Practice , delivery , email marketing , first steps , how to email market , targeting

Along with concise content and good timing, choosing a good subject line for your email is one of the most crucial things to consider. Email marketing is a convenient, yet problematic way of promoting your website or product.

The email subject line must grab the reader’s attention and keep retain it - meaning it has to be catchy and interesting enough for the recipient to take time to open and read your mail. On the basis that ‘You only have one chance to make a first impression’, the subject line is very often the only impression an email makes upon a customer - so mastering the magical one-liner is essential.

Some of the important points you should consider when writing your email subject line for a marketing campaign are:

Use the Recipient’s Name
Try to observe your own reactions when you’re reading the subject lines of emails that you’ve received, the ones that are sure to grab your attention are the ones with your name in the subject line. Adding the recipient’s name gives conveys the impression that the email was sent personally to the reader. It’s important to note, however, that appending names on every email that has nothing else personalised in it, is a little too gimmicky. So be sure to include something personalised for the customer in the body of the email, otherwise don’t use their names to personalise the subject line.

Solution-Oriented Subject
Rather than using a brand or product name on the subject line, consider writing your subject to propose a solution. For instance, a website that sells and is promoting, antivirus software could have the following subject line; “How to get your computer protected from all viruses” rather than a product oriented subject such as “Brand New Antivirus software released”.

Keep it Intriguing
Leave the customers hanging by putting ellipsis on the subject line(...). This suggests that there is a continuation on the topic, thereby arousing curiosity.
Restrict information to Top ten lists

There is something interesting and attention grabbing about a top ten list because readers tend to like to see valuable information in scannable, bite-size chunks. A concise, informative list delivers more value than endless paragraphs - even if they contain the same amount of information.

KISS – Keep it Short and Simple
The ‘KISS Principle’ is well known in the field of marketing but seems harder to achieve in email marketing. Try to get your message across in two words rather than half-a-dozen as this will allow it to stand out from the rest of the content in the customer’s inbox.

The above points are just some of the basic guidelines you need to follow to create an email marketing campaign that is effective and won’t end up on the recipient’s trash folder. Try to keep in mind that choosing and using the right combination of words is vital in creating that all important, attention-grabbing, email subject line.

GraphicMail is now a member of the Return Path Certification program

Posted by Unknown at 1:41 pm Labels: Best Practice , bulk , delivery , email marketing , email marketing industry , email metrics , graphicmail features , new

Our email practices have been audited and approved by Return Path.
We are part of the largest, most respected whitelist program in the industry.
As a program member, we are part of a network of trust that covers more than 1.3 billion mailboxes!

FeedMail (RSS to Email): The Smarter Way to Publish Blogs to Email

Posted by Unknown at 1:45 pm Labels: blog , feedmail , graphicmail features , rss

A short while ago, we launched the FeedMail application – and this easy-to-use feature will be seen by the majority of Graphicmail Advanced Mode users as a great benefit. It allows you to publish any feed, such as your blog, to an email newsletter which is then sent to your subscribers on a scheduled basis.

FeedMail will go fetch the content from your blog, or any RSS feed and format it in one of five stylish email templates. Having selected the template of your choice, you only need to supply us with the URL for your feed together with the frequency that you want it sent (how often you want us to fetch your feed and send it) and you can leave the rest to us.

Also – if you prefer to use your own template, you can supply us with a custom XML. We think you will agree that FeedMail is an extremely handy and easy to use application. Another accolade for The Graphicmail Development Team.

The Way to a man's heart

Posted by Unknown at 1:47 pm Labels: adwords , keyword tools , keywords , optimsing , ppc

The way to a man's heart may be through his stomach - but sometimes, all you need are the right keywords.

Not only do we need the right choice of words to woo the opposite sex - we also need them for our clients. Most of us wouldn't refer to the relationship with our clients as a love affair, but it is nonetheless an affair .

It is important that we choose the right words to entice our clients to visit our site. We need to apply an element of psychology - what words would they use to get through to you? Not unlike how we would encourage our loved ones. But unlike our real life romantic advances, the words we choose for our blogs and websites are not enhanced by poetical license. In fact, quite the opposite - they need to be clear and as precise as possible.
So... you don't consider yourself much of a wordsmith - maybe you already struggle with the communication channels in your personal/work relationship/s. You're accused of not hearing what she says and he doesn't react as expected to the words you say. So how to proceed to get the right keywords in order to promote your site with search engines?

We can recommend two free keyword tools to help you.

1 - At the end of September, Google launched their new Beta Keyword Tool. Vertical Leap Search Engine Marketing's Paul Broomfield points out that the new tool can be found by clicking the ‘Tools’ (or ‘Opportunities’) tab and clicking on the keyword tool. You will then see the following beta link at the top of the page ‘Check out the new Keyword Tool (beta)’, that will direct you through to the new beta keyword tool. Thanks, Paul! In order for you to use the new Beta Google Keyword Tool, you will need to set up an Adwords Account. This is free of charge... until you decide to link a PPC campaign to your site (paid Google ads). Why not try it out?

NB: If you just want to do a general keyword search, for instance to get the right set of keywords for your content writing, use the seasoned Google Keyword Tool. You would still have to sign into your Google Adwords Account to see a full list of keyword ideas customized to your website (typically excluding those already in your account).

2 - WordStream have now launched their free new keyword tool. Similar to Google, you can just search for a keyword such as "email marketing" and wait for the return of related keywords that are relevant to your preferred search query. You can have the selected keywords emailed to you or just export them. This keyword tool is recommended by Vertical Leap for use alongside the Google keyword tool, as it will be a great help in maximising your ROI by ensuring that you have all long tail keyword areas and permutations covered within your SEO and PPC campaigns.

Get a double credits Treat this Halloween

Posted by Unknown at 1:48 pm Labels: free credits , halloween , promotion

This month all the young-at-heart will be out carving Jack-o-lanterns, playing pranks on their neighbours, watching scary movies - and doing tons of trick-or-treating! With all this going on, who has time for work? Well….. GraphicMail does! We decided to treat you to a really good deal. There are no tricks; (Honestly). We also haven't employed packs of werewolves to rip apart your mailing lists. And we haven't contracted any ghouls or devils to bewitch you.

Sign up for a free trial account. Play around with our easy-to-use email marketing service, and if you like it - sign up to a paid account from only £9.95 a month!

And what's the treat?

Once you sign up to a paid account of your choice, we will give you double the amount of send credits that you've purchased with your account for your first month.

Chirpy Chirpy TWEET TWEET!

Posted by Unknown at 1:50 pm Labels: email marketing , facebook , media integration , news , social networking , twitter

Follow GraphicMail on Twitter. Get the latest updates! Be the first to hear about the cool, new features from our lab. Grab email marketing news, stats, fun, promotions, call outs and more - from a team of European birdies. Robin, Kookaburra and Common Loon will all be chirping and tweeting with and for you. GraphicMail is a song worth singing!!

Go to Facebook and get the latest GM gossip

Posted by Unknown at 1:00 pm Labels: email marketing , facebook , media integration , news , social networking , twitter

Yes, it’s true, we have jumped on the bandwagon. You can now become a fan of GraphicMail on Facebook! Get the latest gossip, staff pictures, new features, helpful email marketing articles and much, much more on Facebook.

Email marketing has found a new friend in social media. We're actively pushing out features which will enable you to link-up your email marketing campaigns to your social networking. Our FeedMail is being given the final touches which, when complete, will allow you to send your RSS feeds to your email addresses. We're also keeping busy upgrading our customisable footer to allow you to add different social sites into the footer of your next email campaign, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc..

We’re also working on you being able to publish your newsletter, eflyer and promotions from your GraphicMail account to all the major networking sites.

Next stop: Twitter.

DKIM becomes fashionable ! The DKNY of the email marketing world

Posted by Unknown at 1:53 pm Labels: authentication , delivery , dk , dkim , spam

Are you aware that Internet Service Providers are changing their spam filters? How does this impact on you as a legitimate email marketer? In their exclusive report , Pivotal Veracity recently highlighted the fact that the domain-based reputation has now arrived. A number of top ISPs including AOL and Yahoo are said to augment IP-based reputation systems with portable domain-based reputation systems for those mailers using DK/ DKIM authentication. This means that ISPs will “attach” your spam complaint rate, your unknown user rate, and your spam trap rate to your domain, in addition to your IP. So even if you switch IP addresses, you retain your domain-based reputation – be it good orbad.

So what can you do to ensure emails get delivered?
First and most important, reputation is and will remain of your own doing To be sure of a good reputation you must be using a domain in your “from” address that links to you. This means - don’t use generic domains (like @gmail.com or @hotmail.com) as your “from” address. If you do not do so already, start to use an email address with a domain within your control and for which you can begin to create a reputation. For example, if your email address were jo@jofarm.co.uk your reputation would be based on the past and current behavior of the sends originating from the domain jofarm.co.uk and not just on an IP address relating to the server from which the email originated nor the sender from which it originated. This will make each sender more responsible for the delivery rate of their mailings. Both Yahoo and AOL are moving towards this structure and it will probably be in full swing in the early part of next year. Other ISPs are expected to follow suit.

How can we help you to build your reputation?
If PivotalVeracity are right, then having your FROM domain properly authenticated, will become increasingly important. So if you haven’t already started to implement DKIM on your domain, it’s time that you should consider doing it. The DKIM process uses public-key cryptography to guarantee that the FROM sender is actually the domain owner. To implement it, the sender attaches an electronic signature to the email that is then checked against a signing module saved at the DNS. If you don’t know how to generate the public and private keys needed to implement DKIM, then GraphicMail's tool will create them for you.

What else are we doing?
Almost every ISP now bases the decision whether or not to deliver emails to client’s inboxes, on some ratio of the complaint rates that they receive from their clients against the number of sends originating from IPs or domains. ISPs share these rates with ESPs using feedback loops. So every time a client clicks on the ‘this is spam’ in their email client, they let us know that that client didn’t want to receive the message.

We help them close the opt-out loop by unsubscribing these clients and we mark those as complaints against the client’s account which advises them that not all recipients are happy to receive their email and we make the ISPs happy by reducing the amount of unwanted email being sent to their users and as a result they accept more of our mails.

Don’t shoot the messenger!

Posted by Unknown at 1:54 pm Labels: data collection , delivery , email metrics , esp , spam

When it comes to achieving high rates of delivery, it’s important that we all understand that Email Service Providers (ESPs) cannot be held solely responsible for delivery issues. The majority of delivery issues are caused by the ESP users and email marketers themselves, knowingly as well as unknowingly. Matt Blumberg, CEO & Chairman of ReturnPath, refers to Ken Magill when stating that deliverability being controlled by the ESP is a myth – deliverability is controlled by the marketer. Ken Magill further comments that each client can make a massive impact on deliverability by using the right “data collection, data hygiene, frequency and relevance. These are the main factors that affect deliverability and they are all within the list owner’s control”.

Delivery issues

We think that the majority of delivery issues arise from bad list acquisition and bad list management. Delivery issues such as ‘domain unknown’, ‘mailbox unknown’ and ‘complaints’ can be attributed directly to the actions of the user. Sometimes, a simple spelling mistake can lead to the email being returned (domain or mailbox unknown); however, the mail is returned much more often because the subscriber thought that they had not given their permission to be on the list.

Clean lists

Some email marketers become much too greedy when acquiring lists and buy lists or scour the net for random email addresses that fit their marketing segment. This has created an army of expert spammers – users who buy lists are usually far more likely to be blocked and thrown off a sending server because they are easy to spot.

Having a good opt-in list saves time and money and, in the long run, improves delivery. It’s also a good idea to remember that subscribers can change their preferences from time to time – it is therefore a good idea to send the occasional email asking them to update their profile. Then, if someone is no longer interested in receiving your newsletter, they can unsubscribe immediately. It also gives you the opportunity to shift them to a list which is much more targeted and which will communicate directly with them, re-enforcing and deepening your relationship with them.

Clean content

Remember that the content of your subject line and the email itself are both extremely important in reminding your subscribers that they have given their permission. Content should be clean and not contain any words that could be interpreted as spam. Give your next email newsletter a spam check before sending it. Also ensure that your content is in line with what your subscriber has asked for.

Your email content and the quality of your list are the main components that ensure that your email gets delivered into your subscriber’s inbox. So remember to review your practices and make sure that you don’t become your own worst enemy.

If you’re not quite sure about all these email deliverability terms, checkout this helpful glossary by Mark Brownlow.

Expanding your email marketing reach to Facebook

Posted by Unknown at 1:56 pm Labels: facebook , microsite , publish , socialmedia

How do I link my GraphicMail email newsletters to my Facebook page?
Facebook is a great way to communicate with friends, family and general followers, so why not invite them to read your email marketing newsletters?
It's easy too! Simply, copy the hyperlink of your email newsletter and paste it in to your Facebook profile. You can find the link to the newsletter on the top of the Preview Pane in the Edit menu. Adding this link to your profile will also add the link to the News Feed and Mini Feed of you friends on the Facebook network.

You can also take this a step further! If you’ve set-up your free GraphicMail microsite with your archived newsletters, containing all your past email newsletters that you've sent out, you can simply get the link from the microsite page and add your entire back catalogue into your Facebook profile too!

Get Subscribers through Facebook!

Posted by Unknown at 1:00 pm Labels: acquisition , embed , facebook , socialmedia , subscription

What's the point in having a great email newsletter with nobody to send it to? That's like being all dressed up for a party with nowhere to go. So why not take your email newsletter campaign to where the best parties are congregating, on Facebook? All you need is your own Facebook Fan page and your GraphicMail subscription form code.

STEP 1. Ensure that your subscription from is correctly customised

Once you’re happy with your customisation, go to the Embed Form menu and copy the non-javascript code into NotePad or a TextEdit.

STEP 2. Adding the FBML application to your Facebook account

Facebook has it’s own code - called FBML (Facebook Markup Language) and you’ll need to have the Facebook FBML application if you want to add widgets to your Fan Page. To add it, simply search for Static FBML and click on ‘Add to my page’.

STEP 3. Creating the Facebook Subscription page

When you have added the app, go to your Facebook page and click on ‘Edit Page’. Find FBML in your list of applications and click the pencil icon. In Box Title give your tab its name like ‘Email signup’ or ‘Email updates’. In the FBML section just copy and paste the HTML non-javascript code from the Embed Form section of GraphicMail.

STEP 4. Adding the Subscription Tab to your Facebook Navigation

Under the Add a New Tab dropdown in the FBML application you will see the custom name you just gave to the subscription page you created in Step 2.

STEP 5. Try it out
Go to your Facebook Fan Page and do a test subscription to make sure it’s all working.

GraphicMail Goes Italian

Posted by Unknown at 2:01 pm Labels: franchise , italy , news , partnerships , smallbusiness , smme

In the movie Il Postino by Michael Radford, the life of the fisherman, Mario, changes dramatically when Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean writer, settles on his little Italian island. Neruda needs a postman to deliver the huge quantities of mail sent to him by his many admirers and Mario takes on the job (since he hates fishing anyway).

Although GraphicMail may not be as poetic as Neruda, they have definitely found a professional "postman" in Nicolo Capone who runs the newly opened Italian Office. In common with Mario, Nicolo also prefers a good seafood dinner in preference to catching the fish himself. However Lanciano is not on an island but in the region of Abruzzo, just south of Rome. Despite these small differences, we two have entered a relationship that works.

The Italian office is the latest addition to the GraphicMail family whose offices operate successfully in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand as well as The United Kingdom. GraphicMail is also beginning to rub shoulders with lovers of fine cheeses and baguettes, and will light the lanterns for the Chinese New Year... watch this space!

Email Marketing Case Studies

Posted by Unknown at 2:03 pm Labels: case study , email marketing industry , financial industry , marketing industry , newsletter , templates , tourism industry

Hi everyone! Here’s just a quick blog entry to advise you that we have updated our case study section. This can be found in the top navigation under the resources tab. There is so much misinformation on the internet today that it becomes difficult to know which company to trust. When I’m planning to travel I want to read reviews about specific areas and I want personal accounts of the places that I want to go; as well as what to avoid. Honest accounts, case studies and reviews from users are always helpful in making a more informed decision.

Bearing this in mind, the GraphicMail team has sent out a comprehensive questionnaire to a variety of clients across a range of industries. The case studies section was designed to convey the many ways in which GraphicMail has assisted many companies across a variety of industries to increase their online exposure. It also provides readers with honest reviews from our reputable clients. Many of our clients were pleased to go into some detail about which functionalities they found most useful; and how email marketing has increased their overall return on investment. These GraphicMail case studies prove that you don't have to be confined to specific industries to benefit from email marketing campaigns. Read our case studies to find out how a company within YOUR industry has benefited from the GraphicMail product.

Thus far, we have case studies in the following industry:

If you hold an account with GraphicMail and would like to partake in the case study questionnaire, then please contact us.

Our Recycle Bin: Deleting and Recovering

Posted by Unknown at 2:04 pm Labels: deleted html newsletters , graphicmail features , recycle bin

Nobody enjoys digging through trash, but sometimes we throw things away purely by accident. With this in mind, the GraphicMail team came up with the concept of a recycle bin. All deleted mailing lists, HTML newsletters and newsletter folders will be stored in the recycle bin, which will be emptied on Sundays.

Make sure you dig through your trash before Saturday evening!

Target Shoot your Audience

Posted by Unknown at 2:05 pm Labels: bulk , differentiate , segmentation , targeting

So you thought GraphicMail was all about bulk email messages?

Well, think again! Your campaigns can now be send to a segmented list. Our new subscriber segmentation tool is fresh from the GraphicMail lab and allows you to target a segmented group of clients who fit one or more specific profiles. This means that you can send to, for example, only divorced men who love motor Racing and are aged between 28 and 38 years old. All that you need to do is to setup your subscription form to capture the relevant information, or send out a survey to which requests them to complete all the details. It’s useful to remember that some people change habits and hobbies like others change their socks, so make sure that you spring clean your segmented list on a fairly regular basis. Learn how relevancy drives better responses plus the various different ways you can split up your email list to ensure that you hit your target much more often.

Segmentation is simple with GraphicMail. You profile your subscribers and group them together according to their various common denominators (how you profile them is up to you). By using our ‘subscriber segmentation’ tool you can create as many segments as you wish and also save each one as you wish. You can then use them across one or more mailing lists. The Graphicmail application gives you the opportunity to create a highly targeted and effective email advertising campaign which will be of great benefit to your email marketing efforts in the longer term.

So, what are you waiting for?

Sign up for a free trial account and check it out - or sign in to your GraphicMail account.
Need some email marketing pazazz? Our support team will help you with a smile.

The only rubbish we give you access to - your own recycle bin!

Posted by Unknown at 2:07 pm Labels: images , recycle bin , reporting , rss , templates

http://www.graphicmail.com/blog/image.axd?picture=2009%2f8%2frecycle.gif

Our New Editor?!? Who told you about that?

Posted by Unknown at 2:08 pm Labels: new , new editor , newsletter , templates

There are quite a few rumours flying around our office that a new editor to design your eflyers, html newsletters and email campaigns is on its way. Actually, I can confirm that these rumours are all true ! GraphicMail will be unveiling the new drag and drop editor within the next couple of months.

Having taken a sneak preview of the current developments I can say that I’m very impressed with our new product, which boasts a clean and easy to use interface. The editor looks fun to use and, most of all, seems really simple. The Design and Development Team have been working on the editor for quite a while now; tweaking things here and there. The behind-the-scenes features will still be the same and you won't lose any of the current functionality. You can still insert personalization, attach PDF’s to your newsletter and access all the current features accessible in the 2008 editor. The only thing that will really change (for the better!) is the design and usability.

Watch this space…

Making your Online Marketing hit the spot

Posted by Unknown at 2:09 pm Labels: eflyer , email marketing , how to email market , newsletter , templates

Do you wish that your emails had more of an impact on your readers? Do you want more of your readers to respond pro-actively? To click those links, to view those recommended sites, to buy those products?

Or………are have you fallen into the trap of thinking that you just need to keep in touch, “they probably won’t read it anyway so let’s just cobble something together?”

If yours is the latter, you are missing a potential Goldmine!

Either way, read on and find out how to increase the return on your investment:

First we need to agree that the time spent creating a Professional Looking newsletter is never wasted. Something bright and interesting has more chance of keeping the reader’s attention until they arrive at that all important call to action.

Some ‘amateur’ email marketers remain amateurs. They never grow into professional winners or even experience an increase in return on investment because they don’t bother with the small things. An amateur sends a dull looking newsletter and/or campaign as “I’ve got to get it out today” and can’t be bothered to check their stats or improve on anything because it’s “just a quick newsletter”.

With a little more attention and effort to improve your email campaigns, email marketing success, and that illusive increase in the return on your investment, is just around the corner.

Pro email marketers spend a large proportion of their time researching and implementing new trends and features. They stay on top of the internet game by researching, being creative, keeping an open mind and they are aware of the need to check their deliverability, stats and bounced rates to see where and how they can improve their email campaign. When you go pro you'll find your eflyers, promotional campaigns and newsletters will positively affect your company brand.

So, how do you turn pro and lose your amateur status? You follow a few basic guidelines as set out below, you learn some new skills and you brush up on the old ones!

1) Use Newsletter templates that reflect your brand

Whether you choose to design a newsletter from scratch; or prefer to modify it from an email newsletter template you have chosen, it is vitally important that it reflects your company brand. Keep the colours and layout aligned to your company logo- it’s good practice to also have the look-and-feel of your current website. Consistency is what builds brand recognition. Also, when it comes to what your user wants and expects, think laterally. For example, if I want financial advice, I expect accuracy; a funky pink newsletter with broken links or an email newsletter everything misaligned is not going to impress me. Financial institutions have to be taken seriously, to project a look that reflects stability and organised security. So, think beyond what you want to say, think about your readership and how they will perceive you as they view the full layout of your message. Consider going for simple conservative colours and a geometric layout to convey your credibility within your industry. Colours and layout can have a tremendous impact on what potential subscribers think of your company!

2) Ensure you have text and html formats

Keep your text short and to the point. No one wants to wade through pages of unimportant information. As certain email browsers won’t be able to read images, make sure that your most important information is text - not an image. When you design your email newsletter be sure to have both a text and HTML format. Cover all your bases.

3) Images and layout

It is better to go for a simple layout which allows people to scan for the information they need. I don't want to have to search for information in a confusing layout - slap me in the face with it - short and quick! Embed the images in your newsletter so that subscribers don’t have to open attachments and make sure, when choosing images or icons that they actually relate to the content of your newsletter. Remember - Less is more!

4) A clear call to action

Upon receiving your newsletter your readers must know what you expect them do. Which link must they click on to purchase a product? Tell each reader what to do, make the steps clear and easy to follow. Be organised with your sends, have a specific date to send out your monthly newsletter and stick to that send date. It tells your subscribers that you are reliable and organised. People in the internet world like to be told what to do and how to do it. Too much freedom of choice scares and confuses us. Reliability and simplicity are key.

5) Test and preview

That broken image in the corner of your newsletter will get noticed. There is always someone that notices your spelling errors and that kaleidoscope of link colors! Don't think that anything will escape unnoticed. Pro email marketers preview and test their email campaigns. Always send yourself a test email before sending it to your subscribers!

6) Opt-in, spam and subscriber information

It is unethical to send an email campaign to email addresses that have not signed up to receive your newsletter. You run the risk of being branded as a spammer, and spammers are deeply frowned upon. Signing up to receive an email newsletter is called the “opt-in” process and a pro email marketer will always have legitimate sign ups – and will always have an “unsubscribe” button at the footer of their newsletters; giving readers the option to unsubscribe ( opt-out).

Let's delve further into the subscriber sign ups. Having subscribers opted-in to receive your newsletters is all very well, but what if, for example, you have a promotion which would be most beneficial to woman between the ages of 24 – 40; how would you achieve this if you don't have that information on file? This clearly highlights the need to think carefully beforehand about the information you should obtain from your subscribers – consider future campaigns that you may want to implement.

We have a very useful tool titled customer list segmentation, which allows users to target a segmented group of clients with a specific profile. You set the profile based on your chosen, specific criteria (demographics, geographic location etc.). The tool can only be used if you are able to refer to a range of information extracted from your subscribers; so, once again - plan what you may want and what you may need from your email campaign! To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

7) List cleansing

Are you certain that all those readers who subscribed to your newsletter four years ago are still interested in your company and your products? Maybe the person with that email address has moved to another company and/or maybe their interests have change. One way to improve your open rate is to invite your readers to subscribe again, or if your subscribers have not opened, say the last four or five of your newsletters, check with them and see if they still want to receive your newsletter and if not, delete their email address altogether!

8) Check your statistics

Keep up-to-date with your statistics, your open rates and your click throughs. Spend some useful time thinking laterally about the possible reasons that your newsletters aren’t being opened. Did you send it to subscribers who were away (during the school holidays)? Do you send it on the best day of the week and/or the best time of day to give your subscribers the best chance to read it? Is your product only suitable for a certain sector of your subscribers? Keep researching and keep tweaking that email newsletter!

It's up to you - do you want to become a pro email marketer or forever remain an amateur?

Remember: TO FAIL TO PLAN IS TO PLAN TO FAIL!!

Common Email Marketing Mistakes

Posted by Unknown at 2:11 pm Labels: advice , delivery , email marketing , first steps , learning , mistakes , spam

Email marketing is the most common and cost-effective way companies use to promote their products and services. However some companies don’t realise that sending newsletters or email publications is simply not enough. In order to achieve a high success rate, you have to have the right tools, strategy and marketing reports to go with your simple email.

Unfortunately, some companies still commit these five common email marketing mistakes:

Unsolicited Email

Nothing annoys people more than getting newsletters or advertisement emails without their permission. Make sure that you use an email service that allows you to have a double opt in for new subscribers. In this way, you avoid miscommunication with subscribers.

Weak Subject Line

As we very well know, first impressions last. So it is crucial to have a solid subject title in order to encourage recipients to open and read your whole email. This is where good marketing background comes in handy. It’s like creating a tagline for your new advertisement; it should be good enough to have an impact to the audience and encourage them to listen to everything you have to say. This does not mean the use of full capital letters, this, although more noticable in the inbox will actually reduce the chances of it ever reaching the recipient's inbox as it will potentially be identified as spam

Overly Showy Newsletter

While HTML email marketing brings life and color to your newsletter, it can also distract readers if not creatively and neatly done. Make sure to keep your design at a minimum level. A header graphic, bold headings and sub-headings, a sidebar with a few graphics is ok, but 100% images is overkill.

Ignoring the essence of Time

“…Sometimes, right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing” an author once said. This especially holds true in the world of email marketing. Some people think that the more newsletters you send the more chances of getting the attention of the prospective client. But with bulk email marketing, most of the time, the opposite happens since people usually get annoyed at receiving advertisement on a daily basis.

Your ultimate goal is to give your customers the right message, and this means giving it to them when they have the time to read and understand your message.

If you feel you have something interesting to say to your subscribers on a daily basis then offer them the option to subscribe to the frequency of mailing that they prefer - daily, weekly, bi-weekly or just monthly

Quality over Quantity

People subscribe to newsletter and other email publications to get viable information on things that are relevant to them and of great use. Therefore, it is important to provide up-to-date, unique information that entices them to read your emails.

It’s okay to commit mistakes as long as you realise it soon enough to correct them. Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. So as long as you stick to your goals, you will be able to create a good email marketing campaign.

Email Marketing Best Practice

Posted by Unknown at 2:12 pm Labels: advice , Best Practice , delivery , email marketing , first steps , learning , spam

Over the years, email marketing has gained popularity due to the growing number of people who have connected to the internet. Hence, more and more companies have seen the advantages of promoting their products online and utilising the functionality of the Internet. One of the most common and cost effective online marketing campaigns that companies prefer to use is email marketing. But email marketing is a very tricky kind of advertisement that, if not properly use, can work against you.

Below are the top five email marketing best practices that can sure yield you good results:

First Impressions Last

The title that you decide to put in your subject line is probably the most important piece of information in your entire email.

It’s the determining factor whether the recipient decides to open and read your entire mail or just automatically put it in the trash. Always keep it short, never use full CAPITAL LETTERS, exclamation points, or certain words like “free”. Popular email clients such as MS Outlook show previews of emails received, so make sure to have an interesting opening line to encourage recipients to read your entire mail.

SPAM on the plate not on my inbox

Most of the major Internet providers use spam filter protection software to trap unsolicited emails and filter and delete it even before it is delivered to the recipient. Spam filters usually rank each email based on certain criteria and if an email ranks above these criteria, then it’s flagged and automatically deleted. So avoid using words such as “save”, discount, and “£££'s” both in your subject line and content.

Middle of the Week timing

Studies show that the best time to execute a mail-out and get higher response rate is during the middle of the week, Tuesdays - Thursdays that is. Research analysts explain that during these times, people are generally over from their weekend hangovers and are most likely not planning yet for the next one. Hence, they are more open towards communicating with others and, in some cases, are looking for something good to do.

Be Consistent

If your company sends newsletters or has email publications, you have to ensure consistency in both communication frequency and the look and feel of your newsletter. People welcome things that they can grow to expect and are sometimes unappreciative to change. Thus, make sure to create a template for your newsletter and use it as the basis for your future issues.

Add some PERSONAL touch

If you have your subscriber's names, use them! It is important to address your subscribers as individuals rather than as a generic group. A person who feels like he’s being addressed as a single individual is more likely to respond rather than someone who feels like he’s a nameless face in the crowd. It’s not that hard to find email marketing software that can help you add the names of each of your subscriber on your email template and subject line to make it look more of a personal message.

The list can go on and on about the things you should do when launching an email marketing campaign. But the above-mentioned key points should not be missed in order to achieve high level of success rate for your company. Make sure to use email marketing software that can help you create a formidable email marketing campaign.

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