Return On Subscriber – Email Marketing Blog

Next month, I will be launching a Podcast series where we will cover both Email Marketing and Interactive topics that will focus on how to improve performance of your online programs.  I already have some great guests lined up who are prepared to go in depth on their success as well as provide tips and advice.

The series will be called “The Tip Jar with Alex Williams”.

So how do you win the Wii game?  i though you would never ask.  We will be announcing this podcast to our Email subscribers via email.  That’s where you come in.  Here’s your chance to flex your creative muscles and provide a subject line that will change peoples lives.  Three elements to get your started: Curiosity, Excitement, Actionable.

Post your idea in a comment below.  The winning idea will be used and we will post the open and click thru rates after the email launches.  You will also win the best waste of time ever – Mario Kart for the Wii.

Good Luck!

PS – You can sign up for the eROI Newsletter Here

A breakthrough for Email Marketers may have been achived today when Gmail Labs launched “YouTube previews in mail“.  Once activated in Labs, Gmail automatically detect YouTube links in emails and displays previews with the ability to view the entire video below the message. Also included in this roll-out were Picasa and Flickr links, and Yelp reviews.  I took a few screenshots of YouTube video links in personal emails to my Gmail below:

Preview

(more…)

Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, accounting for almost 10% of all internet time, according to a new Nielsen report “Global Faces and Networked Places. From December ‘07 through December ‘08, Facebook added almost twice as many 50-64 year old visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million), according to the report.  What does this mean for Email Marketing? If two-thirds of your list is on Facebook, you need to give them tools in your email campaigns to share content so you can leverage the growing audience and gain more visibility for your content – and potentially more subscribers and conversions. (This is being referred to now as SWYN (Share with your Network), which is the worst acronym possibly ever.) Let’s take a look at how you can start to integrate Facebook into your campaigns.

Share Links from Email to Facebook

For your content to be shared on Facebook, you need to use the “Share” url they have created.  By using this, it will create a preview of the content, which can then be posted to a profile or sent as a direct message.

Copy and paste the following line of code into your email and replace <url> with the link you want to Share.

http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=<url>

Here is an example of the process from the Thrillist, an über-hip daily email.  Here is the social toolbar from the email, located below the content.

By clicking on the , you are directed to this page at Facebook, which creates a preview with optional image selections from the page URL provided, which in this case is the link to the post on the site, which is identical to the content from the email.

(more…)

I had the great privilege of speaking at the Ad Fed of Central Oregon’s monthly “AdBite” series.  The presentation focused on lead generation and retention marketing techniques in today’s economy.  The good folks at Pinnacle Media captured the presentation in a live stream on Ustream.tv. I had a great time and met a lot of really nice folks.  If you have never been to Bend, get there. It is an amazing city. Enjoy!