Integrate your email marketing with your social media strategy

These days both individuals and businesses are using social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their friends and customers. So can social networks help with your email marketing? Definitely…

Your email marketing activities and social media marketing can be closely integrated to create an overall effective marketing strategy. Make sure that you include links to your email newsletter sign ups on your Facebook and Twitter pages and vice versa. Always ask your newsletter subscribers to become a fan of your Facebook page or a follower of you on Twitter. That way you can increase your brand identity and potentially gain more customers.

In order to match your email marketing and social networking closely, you need to bear in mind how you communicate with your Facebook and Twitter fans. Social networks encourage brands to find a personality and style to communicate to customers with. Ensure that you keep this style in your email newsletters and you will be surprised to see how your subscribers react.

If you are looking for an email marketing solution, visit www.eshoutz.com or call the eShoutz team on 0844 873 0073.

eShoutz email marketing goes from strength to strength during the credit crunch

The eShoutz team has seen continued growth in the uptake of the email marketing solution, eShoutz, despite the downturn in the current economic climate.

eShoutz has had a number of recent upgrades with a wealth of new functionality now available that is ideal for all types of industry. Enhancements such as GEO Mapping now allow eShoutz users to dynamically segment their email subscribers based on geographical location using a simple drag and drop approach on a heat map.

Many companies have chosen to tighten their marketing budgets during the credit crunch and to ensure that they are getting the best return on investment, have chosen email marketing as one of their cost effective marketing streams.

eShoutz provides users with a complete, easy-to-use marketing solution which not only enables them to send out email newsletters, but also allows the integration of surveys and microsites into their campaigns.

eShoutz features and benefits include:

• there is absolutely no software to install or maintain
• travel websites can be integrated with the eShoutz API to automatically store newsletter sign ups
• users can manage multiple marketing campaigns with ease
• the system features automatic anti-spamming safeguards
• users can create professional, personalised email messages
• it is simple to track the success of your campaigns
• full technical support and advice are available once registered……plus much, much more.

If you are interested in the eShoutz email marketing solution, there is a 30 day free trial available at www.eShoutz.com/freetrial. When you sign up to a free trial you can create and send up to 20 emails, see how the reporting tool really works and fully evaluate how cost effective and easy the system is.

Advanced reporting tools with eShoutz email marketing

eShoutz email marketing offers a range of advanced reporting tools that enable you to not only see how well an email campaign has performed, but also to create new email campaigns and address books using this data to increase your ROI. The advanced reporting suite includes:

Geo-maps
In eShoutz you can view your unique email open report by geography, on a simple to use heatmap. You can then create address books with a click of the mouse on the map, further segmenting your existing contacts lists.

Hot prospects
See your most active prospects and customers in terms of their interaction with your email.
Your sales and marketing team then contact these whilst they are browsing the email which will be fresh in their minds.

Campaign performance comparisons
See side by side comparisons of your email campaigns to easily define what works and what doesn't. Improve your return on investment by continuing to work on what gets you the best results.

Email Hotspots
View your email campaign with overlay hotspots, showing you where your recipients clicked most. You can learn from this and refine your email campaign layouts, knowing where to place your most important content on the template.

eShoutz offers even more reporting tools so sign up for a free trial at www.eshoutz.com/freetrial or email sales@eshoutz.com to arrange a demo of the system.

Choosing an email marketing provider

There are many email marketing providers available so how do you differentiate between them and find the right provider for your company?

Things to consider:
1. Is the system easy to use? You should ask for a demonstration so you know exactly how the system works. For a free demo of eShoutz simply email your request to sales@eshoutz.com

2. Is the software provided by a UK company? Using an overseas provider often limits the support available especially if the country is in a different time zone.

3. Does the email marketing provider have its own design service? That way you can be sure that the design is not only attractive but also works with the software and is specially designed for email marketing.

4. How many emails are you required to send each month? Ensure that you are not committed to sending thousands of emails on a regular basis.

5. Can you register for a free trial? This allows you to see how easy or difficult the system is to use on your own. You can also get colleagues to log in and give you their opinions.

6. What is the pricing plan? Some email marketing providers charge based on how many emails you send per month whilst other providers charge a set monthly fee. Be sure to choose the type of pricing structure that fits your needs.

7. What reporting facilities are available? The email marketing provider should offer a variety of user friendly reports so that you can measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

8. What features and functionality will you have access to? Advanced functionality such as list segmentation, dynamic content & subject line split testing can enhance the performance of your email marketing. Also, are there extra services available that you can incorporate with the emails, such as surveys and micro-sites that you can include in them?

9. Does the provider have a high deliverability rate? Email deliverability is a complicated issue and one of the most important variables about different email marketing providers. To avoid having your email campaigns trapped by spam filters, be sure to choose a provider who can prove a high deliverability rate.

10. Do you have the option to have a custom 'from address'? This protects your company from the threat of being blacklisted and also enhances your brand and your delivery rates. If you have to use a generic domain and from address you are likely to become blacklisted very quickly as a result of another email marketing client's activities which you have no control over.

For more information about eShoutz email marketing visit the website at www.eshoutz.com or email sales@eshoutz.com with your questions.

Why have a bespoke email template designed?

There is a vast range of free email marketing templates in eShoutz, so why should you opt to have a bespoke email marketing template designed?

The free templates are ideal for one-off email marketing campaigns; however, the eShoutz team suggests that regular email marketers should have editable, bespoke and branded email templates professionally designed for frequent use.

Why?

• The eShoutz design team can create a template which is easily edited with the touch of a button. This means that each time you wish to send a new email with new content, you can simply use the point-and-click technology in eShoutz to do this.
• The design service is completely bespoke and is tailored to your individual needs. So whether you're looking for a postcard template or a full promotional newsletter, the design team can create it for you.
• Your email template can be branded to reflect your website. It can include all of your website’s colours, logos and even have a similar format to your website. This helps to raise brand awareness.
• Branded emails can achieve better open and click through rates than standard email templates. Recipients will know what to expect in your email over time if you are consistent with the design, and especially if it reflects your website.
• By approaching a professional email marketing design team, you can have editable, creative, eye-catching emails which are often unobtainable from standard free templates. You can decide on a layout and theme which suits your needs, rather than having to fit your content and messages into a free template which you can not adjust easily.
• The eShoutz design team will ensure that the editable email template is created so that it will render correctly in most email inboxes. These include both local inboxes such as Outlook and online email providers such as Hotmail and Gmail. This is done by avoiding style sheets in the design and by using the correct text to image ratio.
• It is very cost and time effective to have an editable email template created. You can re-use the template each time you wish to send a new email marketing campaign as you can easily edit the text and images yourself. This saves both time and money as you do not need to have a design team changing your emails regularly.
• Mistakes are minimal when you have had an editable email template created and imported into eShoutz. There are defined sections for both text and images which can be edited with the touch of a button. By using this approach, you are not going to need to change any of the code which can result in an email no longer rendering correctly.
• Like headed notepaper, correctly branded email campaigns look professional and help install the confidence in your recipients to click through to your website.

For more hints and tips on email marketing visit the eShoutz website at www.eshoutz.com.

Email Marketing VS Direct Mail

So should you use email as a marketing method or direct mail? Read the eShoutz guide to discover the pros and cons of both email marketing and direct mail.

Email Marketing

Pros

• Email marketing is cheap which makes it excellent for contacting large numbers of people.
• It is a very quick method of contacting people. Both production time and sending time for email marketing are minimal. This means that you can get rapid responses.
• You can measure the success of email marketing via ROI tracking. You can actually see leads and sales generated online from your email marketing activity.Emails encourage direct, online sales as it is easy for recipients to simply click through to your website directly from the email.
• It is easy to gain information on your recipients, measuring responses, checking which products and offers are clicked on and work well in your email campaign and also see hot prospects by tracking who is opening and clicking on your email.

Cons

• Emails can sometimes get lost amongst the large amounts of spam emails we all receive on a daily basis. This means that they are sometimes deleted without someone realising that they are not spam.
• Quality email lists are hard to come by. This means that you must invest time in building your own quality databases.

Direct Mail

Pros

• When sending mailers directly in the post, you can send someone many pieces of mail such as flyers, letters and information sheets all together in one envelope.
• Mail is often considered more personal than bulk email marketing.
• Sending direct mail is easy and requires no expertise in online email marketing at all.

Cons

• The printing and postage of direct mail are both expensive.
• Sending direct mail can be very damaging to the environment. Although many households now recycle their waste such as junk mail, it is still much more harmful to the environment that email marketing.

It is clear there are arguments for and against both email marketing and direct mail, and therefore which channel you choose for your marketing will depend on your business. Many onlline businesses and ecommerce websites find email marketing more appealing as it is cost effective and can connect recipients directly with their online businesses.

Take a look at eShoutz.com for more reasons to use email marketing.

Using Animated GIFS

eShoutz have noticed that there has been a subtle growth in the use of animated GIFs in email marketing during 2008. This has been especially true in this month, where subscribers are bombarded with numerous email campaigns and so companies are using animated GIFs in order to stand out from the crowd.

This subtle growth in the use of animated GIFS could be because, despite popular belief, they are supported by all of the major email clients and also because they do still hold a novel quality when used in email.

So what are the benefits from using animated GIFs in your email marketing?
- They can grab your reader's attention - Since animated GIFs are not greatly used in email marketing there is still quite a lot of novelty surrounding them and this is great attribute for grabbing your reader's attention.

- They can allow for a more creative message - Animated GIFs are great for drawing attention to particular elements of your email marketing message and for encouraging your reader to complete a certain action. The eShoutz team have seen in previous emails that animated GIFs have been used to encourage the reader to scroll down the email and also to highlight the call-to-action.

Here are a few points to bear in mind when using animated GIFs in your email marketing:
1. consider the file weight - animated GIFs can be considerably larger files than static images, especially since they use more and more colour.

2. consider how file compression affects your email design - Your email marketing message may lose its effectiveness if the design doesn't look good. Therefore, keep an eye on how the file compression affects the design, if it looks pixelated and garish, then may be animation isn't the right method for you.

3. keep it simple - You should assume that you only have your readers' attention for 10 seconds and so you should keep the copy to a minimum and make sure that your message is clarly defined.

4. consider compatibility issues - the major compatibility issue is that Outlook 2007 uses Word to render HTML emails and so animated GIFs do not display correctly. Instead, in Outlook only the first frame is displayed and so, for that reason, you may want to design your animated GIF so that the first frame contains all the information.

For more tips and advice on email marketing visit eShoutz.com.

Feeling the strain of the credit crunch? Don't panic!

With many high street retailers disappearing before our eyes, it is little surprise that retailers both online and offline are doing their best to increase their post-Christmas sales after a disappointing run up to the festive season.

You will have seen early sales and promotions on the high street, and email marketing has also been used to increase awareness of these sales. However, it appears that retailers are bombarding customers with poorly targeted offers, in the hope that they will generate those much needed sales.

Instead of taking a shot-gun approach, eShoutz recommends that you stick to carefully planned email marketing to inform people of your deals and promotions. Resist the urge to mass mail, and use targeted emails to stand out from all other messages about New Year sales in the inbox. Also, ensure that your landing pages are still relevant to the email campaign, highlighting the important information.

So our advice to you is...the credit crunch scary, but stick to your email marketing best practices and maintain your brand, image and trust.

New version of eShoutz coming soon!

We are pleased to announce that a new version of eShoutz is on its way! eShoutz will shortly have a whole host of new features to make your email marketing even more effective. With advanced reporting tools, free survey creators and microsite builders, you can now get even more from email marketing.

Some of the new features include:

Triggered email campaigns
Set up triggered email campaigns to help generate leads and conversions automatically. You will be able to create unlimited triggered emails based on any variables you choose from your address books.

Subject split testing
Simultaneously test subject lines for individual campaigns. eShoutz will test which subject line is performing the best on a percentage of your send, and switch the rest of your email sends to the more effective subject line.

Unlimited custom data fields
Store as many data fields within your address books as you like. This means that you can store lots of information about your recipients and tailor your email campaigns according to the information that you have. Send dynamic content emails reflecting the stored data.

Segmentation tools
Query and segment your address books using key demographic variables. Queries will also update themselves in real-time so you will never need to re-run the queries as more recipients are added to your address books.

Advanced reporting
The new version of eShoutz will have even more advanced reporting tools, including reporting on top domains, geomaps of results and the ability to create address books from your reports.

Survey builder
There will be an easy to use online survey builder available on the new eShoutz. Learn more about your recipients by sending surveys to your address books and gather more information about their preferences. Include the survey in an email or on your website.

Micro-site builder
The new eShoutz allows you to create dedicated landing pages for use with your email campaigns. It is simple to design and build micro-sites that reflect your own website and email campaign branding.

For more information visit the eShoutz website at www.eshoutz.com

Want to lower your unsubscribe rate?

Does it seem like you unsubscribe rate is increasing? Do you want to lower your unsubscribe rate?

Here are some typical reasons for unsubscribing and how you respond to them.

1. You are sending too many emails
Problem - You may overwhelm your subscriber is you send out emails too often and this may prompt them to use the unsubscribe link like a stop button.
Solution - Try using a preference page during your sign-up process as this would give your subscriber the option to select the topics/services/products that interest them the most and you could use this information to send emails that reflect your subscribers interests.
You could also offer the option for subscribers to select how often they wish to receive your email, i.e. weekly, monthly etc
You could also try testing different mailing frequencies to see how your unsusbscribe rate is affected.

2. Your subscriber has a new email address
Problem - Subscribers may not want to leave your list but just want to change the address that the email is sent to. If there is no easy way to do this, then they may just unsubscribe. If you're lucky this act is followed up by a new sign-up.
Solution - You could include details in the footer of your email about how your subscriber can update their details/change their email address. If your website doesn't have the functionality for this, then give them alternative instructions such as sending you an email.

3. Your subscriber isn't receiving what they expected
Problem - The subscriber will have opted-in to your email marketing with certain expectations. If these expectations aren't met, then they have no incentive to stay.
Solution - Ensure that the expectations you set at the sign-up stage match exactly what you send.
You could also allow your subscribers to select the type of content/topics they wish to receive by use of a preference page during the sign-up process.

4. Your subsciber is receiving too many emails
Problem - Unfortunately, people get a lot of emails and it is possible that your subscriber is overwhelmed by the amount of emails they are receiving in their inbox.
Solution - Although you may have lost them as an email subscriber it doesn't mean that they do not want to stop all communication with you altogether, so you could show them the other ways they can stay in contact by using links to your blog etc on the unsubscribe page.

Finally, the best way to find out why people are unsubscribing from your email list, is to ask them. You could add an optional feedback form on the page users reach when they press the unsubscribe link.

For more email marketing tips visit eShoutz.com

Tips for growing your email list

Looking to grow your email list? Then take a look at the eShoutz tips below.

1. Make your sign-up easy to find - Put your sign-up form/button in a hard-to-miss location on your homepage and also put on as many pages of your website as possible because not all users will enter your website on the homepage, for example, Pay-per-click marketing normally directs clients to specific landing pages.

2. Provide a convincing incentive for users to sign-up - This is normally as simple as 'Sign up to receive our newsletter', as this tells them what they are entering their details for.

3. Reassure the user - Some users may be concerned about what will happen to the information they have provided, so it may help to include information about provacy assurance.

4. Don't ask for too much information - The more information you ask for, the more hesitant or fed-up the subscriber may become. Keep it simple, only ask for the information you need in order to reach your personalisation goals.

5. Do your best to keep the subscribers you already have - Keep your current subscribers, provide good products/services and great customer service. Happy subscribers might even mention your website/company to friends.

6. Use a thank-you page - Once you have gained a subscriber you want to do your best to turn them into an active reader, someone that enquire/buy your products/services. The thank-you page is the first opportunity for you to do this so you should set the expectations about what they should expect to receive.

7. Understand why subscribers are leaving - If you are noticing increased number of subscribers, try to find out why this is. One way of doing this is to give subscribers the option to leave feedback when they unsubscribe. This may point out any glaring issues.

Visit eShoutz.com for more useful email marketing tips.

Top tips for creating successful landing pages

If you are sending email marketing campaigns, it is always advised that you develop an effective, dedicated landing page for each campaign you send out. If your recipients click through to your website, the landing page can determine whether or not you make a sale.

Here are some eShoutz tips on how to create successful landing pages:

1 - Make your landing pages look good
You can grab the attention of your readers with an impactful design, and reinforce your message with large, colourful font or images.

2 - Create a seamless experience
Your landing page should reflect the email campaign, and be the design should be consistent with the email. Try using the same images on landing pages as in the email, and include similar headlines on both the page and email newsletter.

3 - Make your landing pages relevant
Don't repeat the information in your email on the landing page, but make sure that the content compliments your newsletter sales message.

4 - Reduce any distractions from your key message
Don't lose customers who have clicked through to a landing page from your email by offering them too many options once they get there. Avoid links to too many other pages on your website that may prevent a recipient from making a purchase.

5 - Use your landing page to build trust
To build trust and brand awareness, include testimonials of happy customers and company information on your landing page.

6 - Have a clear call to action
Tell customers what you want them to do next with clear buttons or telephone numbers.

7 - Use page tracking with your email campaigns
If you integrate advanced ROI tracking into your website, you will be able to see where your email recipients click through and also track their activity throughout your website. You can then analyse the activity to determine whether your landing pages are working or not.

For more email marketing tips visit eShoutz.com

Email Newsletter Templates

Thinking about using a template for your email newsletter?

There are some good reasons to use a template for your email newsletter, such as;

1. recipients know what to expect
2. recipients recognise your newsletter therefore recognising your brand and company
3. it is cost effective - you should only need your template to be designed once (you'll probably need a little help from the designers occassionally) and so it is a long-term investment because it is reuseable
4. it is time effective - the sections are pre-defined for your content so you should be able to edit your template in-house
5. mistakes are minimal - since the template is reused errors are highlighted and corrected

With eShoutz you don't need a large budget to create a bespoke template for your email newsletter. The eShoutz design team can create a tailor-made template for you from as little as £45 per hour.

Call the eShoutz team on 0870 161 1226 for a personalised design quote.

Should I include a permission reminder on email newsletters?

A permission reminder is a sentence or two explaining to the subscriber where you had their email address from. It is usually found in the footer and can often help prevent you from being blacklisted or reported as a spammer.

It is a good idea to integrate your permission reminder with your unsubscribe link. This means that if a recipient believes that the email is spam and goes to click the unsubscribe, they may be reminded that they actually signed up to receive your email marketing campaigns and add you to their safe senders list instead.

Realistically, if you are sending to quality address books you will not need to remind subscribers where you had their email addresses from as they will have signed up for your newsletters on your website. However, permission reminders are not just for your subscriber's sake. If you do ever become blacklisted and classed as a spammer, your permission reminder can help determine that you are a 'good guy' when it comes to email marketing and help to get you off any blacklists.

When writing a permission reminder, explain thoroughly how your recipient's email address was added to your address book. Don't try listing all of the options, but cover as many as you can in one small explanation. For example 'You're receiving this email because you opted in for email newsletters whilst on our website'.

Always be polite in your permission reminder. Show that you genuinely care about your recipient's privacy, and include actual proof that a recipient gave you permission to email them.

Remember, if you find it difficult to write a good permission reminder, it may be a sign that you don't actually have permission to use all of the emails within your address books.

Finally, here's an example of a good permission reminder:

'In the past you provided 'Company name' with your email address xxx@yahoo.co.uk whilst purchasing from their website. Occassionally you will receive special offer newsletters and promotional emails. If you no longer wish to receive these please click unsubscribe.

For more email marketing tips visit eShoutz.com.

Checklist for your email campaigns

Having an effective checklist for the quality control of your email campaigns can help you to spot and correct mistakes before you send to your email address books.

Most common blunders on email marketing include:
1. misspelt subject line
2. missing images
3. wrong links used or links not working
4. spelling and grammar mistakes
5. sending to the wrong list

Running through a checklist will help you to limit these types of mistakes from your email campaigns so that you can send them in confidence. See the eShoutz suggested points for your checklist:

1. Have I proof-read all the copy? Try reading in Microsoft Word, using the spellchecker to highlight glaring spelling mistakes. You should also read in Notepad, Word won't always catch grammatical mistakes (e.g. to/too/two) so putting your email copy into another environment will help you to see any mistakes that may have been missed previously.

2. Are all links correct and working? Check that each of your links are working and they are each going to the right page/offer.

3. Does each image have an ALT tag? Make sure that each image has an ALT tag decribing the content, this is important because it gives you another way to deliver you information to readers who have disabled images.

4. Have I proof-read all the copy in the text version? Repeat step 1 on your text version. Usually not as much attention is paid to the text version in comparision to the HTML version but this is just as important for your subscribers who do not receive HTML emails.

5. Have I included all of my company information? You should include your company name, street address, telephone number, website address and email address. Having different ways to be contacted encourages your subscribers to interact with you, which in turn makes them feel more confident in your company.

6. Have I previewed the email? Complete a test send so that you can view your email campaign in the preview pane, with images disabled and with different email providers (Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail etc). This enables you to see the email as most of your subscribers will view it. If it doesn't look pretty then go back to your design and make the necessary amendments.

7. Has another person checked over the email? Before you press send, get someone who has not been involved in the creation of your email campaign to check over it. A fresh pair of eyes can spot mistakes that you may have overlooked.

8. Am I sending to the correct address books? This final check helps to ensure that your email campaign is being sent to the intended address books.

For more email marketing advice visit eShoutz.com.

Christmas e-card Design Service

Did you know that eShoutz offers a Christmas e-card design service? Christmas is a great excuse for contacting your potential and current customers wishing them a Happy Christmas whilst reminding them of your existance. With a little help from the eShoutz design team, you can send affordable, eye-catching festive greetings to your customers and colleagues.

With eShoutz you don't need a large budget to create bespoke Christmas e-cards, and all emails can be tailor made to suit your message and branding. Whether you want to send an e-card that's traditional, luxurious or humorous, the choice is yours with eShoutz.

The eShoutz design team can create branded, personalised e-cards from as little as £45 per hour.

Call the eShoutz team on 0870 161 1226 for a personalised design quote.

Improve your email marketing reputation

You may not be aware of it, but ISPs are constantly checking your reputation as a commercial email sender, and will filter or block your newsletters accordingly. Sender reputation therefore plays an important part in getting your emails delivered. Here are some tips from eShoutz on how to improve your reputation:

1. Maintain quality address books.
It is important for both your reputation and results that you are sending email marketing campaigns to valid email addresses of recipients who are interested in receiving your newsletters.

2. Adopt email authentication.
If an ISP authenticates your email, it can enable receiving domains and reputation service providers to establish your identity and to associate a reputation with it. This prevents your email from being sent to the junk box.

3. Reduce your complaint rates.
Prevent recipients from hitting the 'this is spam' button by sending them emails with relevant content. Also, manage how frequently you send email marketing campaigns.

4. Monitor your sender reputation.
Check on a regular basis that your send address is not on any blacklists. Also, keep an eye on your key performance indicators. These include complains, unsubscribes and delivery rates.

5. It is advised to purchase a unique sending domain. Buy one that has been set up correctly to ensure that it is recognised by receiving domains.

For more email marketing advice and tips visit eShoutz.com

Do you really need a text version?

Do you need to create a text version alongside your HTML email campaign?
The answer in short is yes and there are 2 main reasons why you should include a text version.

1. Text versions can help to reduce spam scores
Because of the abundance of HTML emails sent out, some spam filters penalize for sending HTML emails without an accompanying text version. They also penalize for sending a text version that differs from the text used within the HTML version.

2. Not all recipients will receive your HTML version
Some recipients, such as Blackberry users, are unable to view HTML emails and other recipients have chose not to receive HTML emails. Therefore, if no text version is received, they may be more likely to mark your email as spam.

Remember that text version of you email is the preferred format for around 5% of your subscribers so try to keep the text email looking attractive by avoiding long paragraphs and blocks of copy.

For more email marketing advice and tips visit eShoutz.com

Building trust through your email campaigns

We all need recipients to trust our company and our email messages but factors such as spam have taught people to be wary about commercial messages received by email. So how can you build trust through your email marketing?

eShoutz provide some tips below:
1. Ensure a recognisable sender appears in the from address and/or subject line
2. Brand the preview pane - The first encounter of your email is normally through the preview pane so this area needs to support your brand identity - through use of your logo etc
3. Put full contact details in the footer - Providing your company's name, postal address and contact email address shows that you are being upfront with the recipient
4. Ensure the reply-to address is working - This should be monitored regularly and you should try to respond quickly as human interaction breeds trust
5. Match the design to brand expectations - People trust what they know so your email design should try to reflect your website. These don't need to be identical but should share common elements such as logos, colours etc
6. Encourage recipients to share your email - The easier it is for recipients to share your email to others, the more likely they are to do it
7. Be open about privacy policies - make it easy for recipients to find out how you intend to use their data
8. Give the subscriber some control - If you have the functionality, you should allow the subscriber to manage their personal details and preferences. This will also allow you to create and send more personalised and relevant emails to your email lists, this in turn should increase response rates
9. Avoid spelling and grammar errors
10. Check the email functionality - Are all the email links working and going to the correct place etc

For more advice and tips on email marketing visit the eShoutz website.

A guide to planning a Christmas email marketing campaign

The 10 weeks before Christmas are usually the busiest selling period for online retailers. It is also the time of year that retailers should stand out from other online stores to make the most of the shopping season. Take a look at this guide to planning your Christmas email marketing campaigns and maximise your selling potential.

• Send email campaigns early

Customers will be thinking about Christmas well before your busiest selling period of November - December. By emailing them early you can get them thinking about your products and services whilst they are thinking about what to get family and friends as presents.

• Send campaigns right up until Christmas

Customers will buy online every day of the year, including Christmas Day! Therefore, there's no need to stop sending email campaigns actually over the Christmas period.

• Alter your sales message

Your customers may usually buy your products and services for themselves, until Christmas when they will be buying them as gifts for others. You need to change your newsletters to reflect this. Perhaps feature gift recommendations for family members.

• Check what people bought from you the same time last year

You may want to try including similar products, upgrades, accessories or new additions to the range of products which sold well last Christmas.

• Implement a testing plan

Before your Christmas email campaigns are sent out, make sure that you have tested differentt subject lines, calls to action and product or service ranges to see which ordinarily give you good results. These should then work even better in the run up to Christmas.

• The subject line is crucial in Christmas email campaigns

Your recipients are likely to be inundated with promotions in the few weeks before Christmas. You therefore need to make your email stand out within their inbox so that it doesn't get lost amongst all of the others. By doing this you need to use a subject line that will make your recipient open the email. Try the following in your subject lines:

- Inserting relevant product names that may be of interest to your recipients.
- Creating a sense of urgency. Make your recipients feel that they must buy now before stock runs out or to make sure they receive their goods before Christmas.
- Including a unique selling point. Can you offer free delivery? Guaranteed stock?

• Drive further sales

Don't just stop emailing recipients when they have bought from your website. Keep sending them relevant newsletters to try and encourage further sales.

• Retain new customers

You may create a number of new customers over the Christmas period. Make sure you don't lose these...try offering them incentives to buy from you in the future. Perhaps offer a voucher for use in the new year to encourage them to buy from you again.

For more tips on email marketing visit the eShoutz website.