Jul

3

Happy 4th of July!

Filed Under GroupMail, GroupMetrics, GroupSurveys, Infacta, Insights, communication, email, email marketing, emarketing | 1 Comment 

In observation of the 4th of July, our US Office will be closed on Friday, July 4th. Officially known as Independence Day, the United States is just one of many countries around the world who recognize their independence with an official holiday.

Here is a short list of some things that email marketers wish they were were independent from:

  1. Non-standard HTML rendering across the growing number of email clients that cause HTML email to appear different to each recipient.
  2. The ever-growing number of delivery hurdles that email marketers must jump over to get legitimate email delivered to recipients.
  3. Stringent email sending policies of mail service providers and ISPs which make it difficult for small businesses to communicate with their customers.
  4. Over-zealous anti-spam filters that prevent legitimate email from reaching the inbox.
  5. Recipients using the “Report as Spam” button rather than the available unsubscribe mechanism.

For all of our US customers and friends, we hope that you enjoy the celebrations.

Happy 4th of July!

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Jul

1

Email Marketing Software Discounts for Non-Profits and Educational Institutions

Filed Under GroupMail, Infacta, Marketing, communication, email, email marketing, emarketing, newsletters | Leave a Comment 

Non-profits and educational institutions rely on effective communication strategies to survive. Most of them use email to communicate with large groups. At Infacta, we applaud the efforts of non-profits and educational institutions. We also realize that their budgets are often overstretched. That’s why we offer generous discounts to our non-profit and educational customers for our GroupMail email marketing software.

If you are a non-profit or education provider and want to take advantage of these discounts, please don’t hesitate to contact us at sales (at) infacta (dot) com.

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Jun

30

Server Maintenance Scheduled for GroupMetrics on Wednesday, July 2nd

Filed Under GroupMetrics, Infacta, Marketing, emarketing, metrics | Leave a Comment 

We will be performing regularly scheduled maintenance on the GroupMetrics servers on Wednesday, July 2nd at 10am GMT.

During this time, all of your email tracking data will be collected as usual and all tracking links will remain active. No disruption to email tracking is anticipated.

While this maintenance is taking place, between 10-11:30am, GroupMetrics users may not be able to create new tracking campaigns.

If you have any concerns or need additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact our GroupMetrics support team.

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Jun

27

Email Marketing: Growing Your In-House Email List

Filed Under Marketing, email, email marketing, emarketing, newsletters | 1 Comment 

Let me begin by saying that a successful email marketing strategy takes time to implement. Building a targeted, permission-based email list doesn’t happen overnight, especially if you don’t have a high-volume of visitors to your website. But the value of taking the time to build your list organically cannot be understated. It is simply the best approach for any professional businesses who cares about their reputation, brand and long-term success.

That said, I know that there are marketers out there who are tasked with making things happen quickly. The same was true in traditional Direct Marketing. List acquisition was the cornerstone of a Direct Marketers profession (leads generate sales). But technology (and new attitudes) have changed the game. Using traditional cold-calling techniques as an email strategy is likely to piss people off; and it’s very easy for email recipients to express their distaste for unsolicited marketing. Reporting a message as spam is easy to do, and when enough recipients on your list do it, your domain is likely to get blacklisted. This isn’t something that a reputable business can risk.

Even so, some modern day direct marketers use list brokers as a shortcut to acquire email addresses. There are several methods used for acquiring email addresses. Jeanne Jennings provides a good overview of four of the most widely used approaches for growing a subscriber base: email appends, compiled lists, list rental and email sponsorship.

List brokers charge per thousand email addresses (CPM). According to Worlddata, average cost per thousand email addresses (CPM) in 2007 was:

  • Permission Based Email Business to Business (B2B): $277.00/thousand
  • Permission Based Email Business to Consumer (B2C): $170.00/thousand

* Click here for more details about Worlddata’s 2007 List Price Index.

If you come across a broker offering you rates that fall well below the averages shown above, you can assume that you will get an old list that will have invalid addresses and/or addresses that were acquired without permission. Either way, your email sender reputation will likely suffer and spam reports against you will rise. Don’t be fooled by brokers offering low cost solutions. You’d be much better off standing with a placard in Grand Central Station.

Better yet, get creative and create an email subscription strategy that inspires people to give you permission to contact them. Create a compelling introductory offer or other high-value incentive and spend that money on building your list organically - via permission.

  • Register for our newsletter and receive your first two months free.
  • Place some compelling ads online and offline that will reach your intended demographic.
  • Create a YouTube channel for your campaign to announce your offer.
  • Contact relevant media about the newsworthy value that you are offering.
  • Host free workshops in regions of interest relating to your products or services.
  • Run a contest for a flat screen television (the television will only cost $1,000)
  • Excite existing customers enough so that they will tell a friend or colleague about your products and services.

There is no limit to what you can do to generate buzz about something of value. And if you don’t have something of value to offer, then you might just be wasting your time either way. In that case, I suggest that you spend your money on developing something of value. Then give it away to people of influence so that they can tell others about it.

Of course, the basics apply here. Have an email subscription form on every page of your website. Put it at the top and make it easy for visitors to complete. Tell them that privacy is ensured, explain what they will get and how often it will arrive and provide an incentive for them to subscribe.

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Jun

26

How to Increase Offline Sales with Email Marketing

Filed Under Insights, Marketing, design, email, email marketing, emarketing, newsletters | Leave a Comment 

For retailers, email marketing isn’t all about driving online sales. Email can also be used to drive foot traffic into your store. Here are some examples provided by Chad White of the Email Experience Council.

  • Earlier this month Harry & David held a Gourmet Grilling Sauces Tasting Event and used a June 9 email to raise awareness.
  • In a June 12 email, Toys “R” Us promoted a 3D Crayola Chalk Art event going on in-store.
  • Saks Fifth Avenue emails their subscribers a monthly listing of flagship store events.
  • Macy’s used an email campaign to promote its National Wear Red Day event in support of the American Heart Association: If you wore red to a Macy’s store on Feb. 1, you received a 15%-off coupon.
  • JCPenney, Kmart, Target, Staples and several other retailers include links to store-only circulars in every email, driving at least some traffic to stores with every email they send out.
  • Cabela’s, Circuit City, Coach, Linens ‘n Things, Sears and Wal-Mart routinely promote their ship-to-store programs. Since going national with its Site-to-Store program last July, Wal-Mart has integrated that program into all its emails, touting it in email headers.
  • In a May 6 email, Walgreens announced that it was giving away free 8×10 photos for one day only. All you had to do was upload your photo to their system and then pick it up at your local store.

For more insights and examples of how email can be used to get more people to actually walk through your store doors, read Chad White’s article, 7 Tactics for Driving Traffic to Stores with Email

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