Return On Subscriber - Email Marketing Blog

Threadless is a hip t-shirt company that allows users to upload designs and create t-shirts for sale through their site.  After receiving emails from them for a while now, I noticed a feature of their email design that I am clicking on more and more: “Browse everything that’s in stock in your size:”.

I have never been a huge fan of website navigation “above the fold” in email marketing designs, as I feel it will receive clicks from users that aren’t reading offers/content in the email.

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While this email from Paypal might not blow your mind, I think it is effective and well thought out. How well did it convert?  We don’t know that (hint, hint Paypal email marketing team).  But let me tell you why I singled it out and what you can learn from it for your campaigns, after the jump.

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I recently tried a new technique for a client who send predominantly full image emails. With many email clients blocking images by default, it is more important than ever to use Alt Tags and HTML elements to get the subscriber to unblock those images and view your email in all it’s glory.

HUF, a hip chain of skate culture shoe stores in SF & LA, has a pretty hip and fun audience, so I took a little different approach to the image ALT tag….

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This was the first time I have seen this at the top of an email:

“Click here for the Wireless Version: URL“

Brilliant idea by the AAAA. I personally would change it to “Mobile Friendly”, wireless is kind of confusing.

Most HTML email is worthless on a Blackberry, so daily news briefs, professional newsletters, etc… would be smart to add this feature.

How you do that, either through your ESP tools, or creating that mobile browser friendly version in HTML, you can figure that out through testing.

Click on the image to enlarge

I had just told a client a few days ago - “BlackBerry’s are going to have to add some type of support for HTML emails this year.”

Now this announcement, thank you RIM.

HTML and Rich Text Email Rendering - BlackBerry smartphone users will be able to view HTML and rich text email messages with original formatting preserved including font colors and styles, embedded images, hyperlinks, tables, bullets and other formatting.

More details on the new release here

Landing Pages, use them

Make landing pages for each offer, be dynamic, make them fun. You spent a lot of time on your email, don’t drop them off on the home page or a poorly designed ecommerce product page. The entire user experience is the key.

Rednering. I mean Rendering, I knew that did not look right didn’t it.

If it does not look right or does not look attractive, you are wasting your time. Run some rendering tests, e.g., Return Path. The best offer and most compelling copy is wasted on an email I cant interact with easily.

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We just completed a case study with ReturnPath on Reaching the Inbox and Rendering Solutions and how to design so as not to encounter these issue pre-campaign.

eROI uses this data primarily to educate, consult and design. We like to help the troubled mailers become good ones and enjoy the increased response that comes from improved deliverability. Of course, if education fails, they can segregate their IPs so top-notch marketers don’t suffer because of other mailers misdeeds. (Which is why eROI has so many IPs and spend so much time monitoring, balancing and segmenting mailers on volume, reputation, list hygiene, vertical industry (say banking), and even by brand.)

eROI also uses Sender Score Campaign Preview to help their clients with content assessments. Content is another area where many ESPs typically have little control, so having a mechanism to help clients pinpoint where they need to make changes is crucial. But eROI is a hybrid ESP with full service and self service clients, agencies and other partners; due to this they can head off or test for issues prior to a campaign drop that they are creating, or test on behalf of a self serve client that requests it. Read more about how eROI uses the Sender Score suite to help its clients.

If you are struggling with deliverability issues, talk to eROI about how they address these problems. They help you assess your content? They segregate high reputation mailers from low reputation ones to protect their deliverability. You can’t expect your ESP to solve the problems that you are causing in your program, but you can expect eROI to help you diagnose and solve your problems so that you can increase your email success. Why else would we have so many great long term clients and even more each month selecting us as a partner.

http://www.eroi.com/eroi-email-marketing-q207-reaching-the-inbox.html