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Testing Your Way to a Better Email Marketing Campaign
If you’re in the marketing, public relations or advertising industry you probably already know how important it is to run an an error-free and effective campaign. HTML e-mail marketing campaigns are one way to promote your company or clients’ services, blogs and Website.
It’s smart to do some testing before you send your e-mail campaign to your entire subscriber list. Most e-mail marketing services let you send tests to yourself, but do you know what to look for?
Here are some handy tips for testing your e-mail marketing campaigns:
- Don’t just rely on a pop-up preview. That’s a rough approximation of how your e-mail would look in the best of circumstances. You need to actually deliver your campaign to real e-mail addresses to see how it works “in the wild.”
- Setup e-mail accounts with as many e-mail services as possible (it’s usually free). Use the most common services, like MSN, Hotmail, Yahoo! and Gmail. You might also setup an account with AOL.
- Don’t change any of the default settings for the test accounts. Don’t add yourself to the address book either. You’ll want to test whether or not your e-mail campaigns get spam-filtered to a typical e-mail account.
- Set up a “test list” via the e-mail marketing service you’re using (you can do this in one click by replicating your “real” list) and import these test addresses.
- Try to recruit co-workers, friends and/or family members who use different e-mail services to become testers for you. That way, they can tell you how your e-mail looks in various types of e-mail programs. If you have the resources, setup a testing computer in the office with multiple operating systems and e-mail programs.
- On your sign-up form, are you giving users the option to receive the plain-text version or mobile version of your emails? If so, be sure to sign-up one of your test emails to receive plain-text only and one to receive the Mobile version.
- Send as many e-mails as you can to your test addresses. Knowledge is power and this will help you anticipate mistakes and fine-tune the look of your e-mails.
- Did your campaign end up in the junk folder for any of the email accounts? If so, you might want to include a one-sentence note at the bottom of each e-mail to remind your subscribers to add your e-mail address to their address book. This will help prevent your e-mails from automatically being marked as “spam.”
- Most e-mail programs leave images turned off by default (you have to click a link or button to display images). How does your email look with images turned off? That’s the first impression people will have.
- Do you have “Alt-text” coded for your images to entice recipients to click the “show images” button (Alt-text is the “alternative text” that’s displayed when an image can’t be seen in a web browser or e-mail program)? When we say “entice” we don’t mean you should resort to sales-like rhetoric such as, “CHECK THIS OUT!” Sometimes, a really descriptive alt-text is enticing enough. For example, “Screenshot of the new feature we just launched” is short and sweet.
- When you click “show images” for your e-mail, do all the images work? Do they download fairly quickly or do you need to go back and optimize them?
- Just in case people choose not to display your the images in your e-mails, do you have a link at the top of your e-mail, allowing them to view your message online (i.e. through their browser)?
- Click on as many links as possible (yes, this is mind-numbing, but necessary). Do they all work? Are there any broken links?
- Did you enable click or open tracking? If so, click and open some of your e-mails. Log in and check your campaign stats. Double and triple check that everything is working properly.
Was this helpful? Let us know if you followed these tips in your own e-mail marketing campaigns and had any success in growing your business!
You can also check out HRB’s Marketing blog or Internet Technology blog for more tips and news about utilizing e-mail marketing campaigns.
Megan Jasin
Public Relations Intern
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meganjasin
HRB Week in Review: 8/18/10
A week of golf, planting seeds and helping non-profits raise awareness and funds—we’ve definitely been keeping busy at HRB!
Golf for fun and promotion
Just as German golfer Martin Kaymer was winning the PGA Championship in Kohler, Wisconsin, HRB was helping a client generate some much needed awareness for its brand. Last week one of our clients, a large international IT company, sent two lucky contest winners to the PGA Championship in Kohler. The company wanted to increase awareness of its name and capabilities in the IT industry so HRB suggested a golf-related campaign and contest, as many of the firm’s customers had a high level of interest in golf. The campaign was promoted via direct mail and online banner ads on two east coast news sites. Because of the short promotion time frame, the client expected to receive about 20 entries for the contest. The final entry number reached almost 70. Score!
Planting a seed
For one of its ag clients, HRB presented an ad campaign that not only capitalized on the company’s longevity but portrayed the company’s values. The client was quite pleased with the ads and radio spots created.
Fun raising?
When trying to raise a lot of money in a capital campaign it is important to look organized and polished. This week we wrapped up designs for a local nonprofit’s campaign that pushes the boundaries of it being more than about bricks and mortar and all about the “immigrant spirit in all of us.”
Web & design work
Work continues on two Websites for local non-profits. A photo shoot is in the works for one as we seek photographs that vividly reflect who they are and who they serve. The Website design was approved for the other client and programming has begun as well. HRB also gave in-kind donations to each of these incredible organizations to lighten their financial burdens and to better position them for online donations.
Back to school already?
It’s back to school time for one eastern Iowa HRB client. We just completed two campaigns to help promote their special back-to-school broadband offers. The multi-media effort was supported with TV, radio, print, direct mail and online marketing.
HRB seminars in full swing
HRB’s live, free seminar on Strategic Growth Planning in the Quad Cities was well attended and well received. HRB Senior Vice President Dave Aeschliman explained the benefits of planning strategically for growth and outlined the path to get there. He demonstrated how our GROWTH Division brings five unique strategic advantages to each of its client relationships:
1) Insistent that its efforts be measured against a client growth goal;
2) Comprehensive and unparalleled client industry knowledge;
3) Deeply insightful analysis (research) of client growth opportunities and limitations;
4) Intricately detailed, pre-budgeted, line by line sales and marketing plans; and
5) The gutsy offer to financially share in the risk of following its advice.
**Dave will present the same seminar, “Strategic Planning for Business and Marketing Success,” on Wednesday, September 8th. The seminar will be held at the Skywalk Group at 205 2nd Ave SE in Cedar Rapids. Register here.
Enjoy your week and don’t forget to market, promote and grow your business!
Jim Thebeau
Partner/CEO
Follow me on Twitter @JimThebeau
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimthebeau
HRB Named Best PR and Advertising Agency by Corridor Business Journal™ Readers
For the fourth time in five years, Corridor Business Journal™ readers have named Henry Russell Bruce (HRB) the Best PR and Advertising Agency in the corridor. The poll results appeared in the journal’s Best of the Corridor edition on July 19.
HRB is a full-service full-service advertising and Internet marketing agency in its 37th year of business. The company, which has offices in Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities, builds brands and generates business through strategic planning for its clients.
The poll recognizes the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Corridor’s “best of the best” and results are based on an extensive survey of the journal’s paid subscribers. The awards include categories for Best Insurance Agency, Best Golf Course, Best Place for a Business Lunch, Best Cultural Attraction and Best PR and Advertising Agency.
HRB President Steve Erickson said the changes HRB has made in the last year are focused on bringing greater value and return on investment to its clients.
“In 2009 we purchased a remarkable Web design, online marketing and social media firm that has brought real added value to our clients,” said Erickson. “And in February of this year we started our GROWTH Division, which offers clients five distinct values that our competitors do not offer, including a pay-for-performance option.”
Building an Effective Online Marketing Approach – Part One
This is the first of a series of blog articles where I’ll write about what needs to be done to effectively market your business online using a systematic approach based on fundamentals we all know. My goal is to package this approach in a way that helps you build an effective online marketing approach that delivers results.
There has been so much written about social media marketing. It seems so many people think it’s the silver bullet that will take your business to the next level. It’s not. In order for social media marketing or any other online marketing to work effectively, it’s critical to think of the entire structure of your online marketing efforts. As with every structure, you need a strong foundation in order to be successful.
The foundation of your online marketing, is your Web site. More specifically, your Web site design. Is your Web site designed and built as an online brochure where you talk AT your customers and clients, or is it built in a way that will educate them and entice them to contact you? Take the HRB Web site for example. Our site isn’t overly flashy, and it doesn’t have a lot of text on most pages. People simply won’t read a Web page that is text heavy and image light.
Connect with HRB:
Instead of using a lot of text, we briefly explain most of our services and rely heavily on our portfolio section to show examples of our work. We rely on the HRB Blog as a means to educate our audience and provide insight into our expertise. Both of these serve to begin building a relationship with potential clients and hopefully building trust in our ability to help them. If people like our work and trust in our expertise, then we remain top of mind and are included in the conversation when they are in need of the services we offer.
If you look at our site, you’ll notice we have icons to our social media sites and an icon where people can subscribe to our blog. Another thing you’ll notice is the ability to subscribe to the HRB newsletter. In all of these cases, we are simply providing a way for our audience to receive information from us using the media of their choice. We’re not pushing our articles on people, but rather providing them with choices on how they prefer to receive our message.
On some of our blog articles, we provide an opportunity for people to download white papers that provide in-depth information on a topic. One example is our white paper titled “Learn how to avoid the 15 biggest marketing mistakes in 2010.” You can see an example of how we worked this white paper into our content in this article:
I’m Tired of Watching Companies Fail at Social Media Marketing
Finally, you’ll notice each page of our site has a link to Contact HRB. In the footer of the site, you see the addresses and phone numbers (mobile device compatible) for our locations in the Quad Cities and Cedar Rapids. Those are two items that virtually every Internet user has grown accustomed to. If you don’t deliver these elements, then you’ll quickly lose the user.
Hopefully it goes without saying that the HRB site is programmed to meet the very strict standards of the World Wide Web Consortium with search engine optimization built into the foundation and added to each new blog post and page built.
In summary, your Web site is your foundation. Be sure to offer multiple ways for your audience to engage you. Offer promotions and information that prompts the user to engage you further, or at least keeps you top of mind. Once this foundation is strong, you can begin some marketing efforts to test the effectiveness of your Web site design.
Related Services:
- Website Design Quad Cities
- Website Design Cedar Rapids
- Email Marketing
- Internet Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media Marketing
Henry Russell Bruce is a full-service advertising agency and Internet marketing firm that focuses on branding, developing and executing marketing roadmaps, and growing companies.
Jeff McEachron
Senior Vice President
Director, Internet Operations
Follow me on Twitter @Jeff_McEachron
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmceachron
