Archive for August, 2006
Helping Your Subscribers Verify
Justin Premick - August 30th, 2006I took a support call recently where the customer was concerned about using Verified Opt-In with her subscribers. She remarked at one point:
“My subscribers aren’t web-savvy, and they don’t know what double opt-in means.”
She brings up a good point: language that is understood among one group of people (in this example, senders of opt-in email) may not be understood by another group (such as your subscribers).When telling your subscribers that they need to click a link in the verification message, your wording will affect your verification rate.
Posted in : Articles & Tips | 12 Comments »Keep it Simple
Marc Kline - August 28th, 2006It’s often said in the web design world that people don’t read on their computers; they scan. This is to say that when confronted with large amounts of information, people tend not to read and read. Instead, they take a glimpse and unless something pops out at them, they move on (and all the more reason to grab their e-mail address while you can!).
Posted in : Email Marketing | 2 Comments »Why Split Test Your Messages?
Justin Premick - August 21st, 2006It’s common for our support team to get questions such as…
- Which of our HTML message templates is the “best” (or the most popular)?
- Do plain text messages convert better than HTML ones?
- Will a short message or a long one get a better click-through rate?
- What subject lines get the best open rates?
Ultimately, this type of question can only be answered one way:
“It varies from customer to customer, and you’ll want to perform your own tests to determine what’s best for your list.”
Posted in : Email Marketing | 1 Comment »Archiving Email Newsletters
Marc Kline - August 17th, 2006Ever flip through a magazine and find back-issues for sale? Have you ever searched the web for something and found a useful article in the archives of a print or digital magazine? Clearly, there is value to archiving past editions of publications. This should especially be true for your e-mail campaigns, given the ease and affordability by which you can do so today on the web.
Archives provide more valuable information for your web site visitors (and search engines) to browse. A back log of newsletters will also help to entice prospective subscribers to sign up for your list. New subscribers will get a kick-start on your campaign and will be psyched for the great messages that have yet to come!
There are a couple of ways you can implement this:
- Work with your web designer to copy your messages to your website. They’ll just need to set up a “Newsletter Archive” section on your website and copy the HTML from your messages there. This will be quite simple if you’ve followed our previous tips suggesting you post a web version of your newsletter for your subscribers. It would also be useful to put a sign up form on each page so that new visitors can easily sign up for your newsletter.
- Use the built-in archiving feature of your e-mail service, if one is provided. AWeber, for instance, provides our customers with the option to publish sent broadcast messages to a web archive. Just have your web designer link to it, and you’re all set. If your audience is more tech-savvy, you can even provide them with an XML/RSS feed to add to their feed reader.
If your goal is to maximize your communications with your website visitors and your subscription rate for your mailing lists, offering an archive could enhance your efforts.
Posted in : Articles & Tips | 3 Comments »Effective Image Usage in HTML Messages
Justin Premick - August 14th, 2006HTML messages offer several advantages to senders:
- they can be customized to include colors, formatted text and tables
- they enable the sender to track message open rates
- they allow the sender to hyperlink words and phrases rather than typing out full URLs
Inserting a Picture in your HTML Message
Sean Cohen - August 10th, 2006When creating an HTML email it is certainly possible to insert a picture, but the picture needs to be hosted online. In this tutorial I will walk you through the steps involved in taking a picture from your website and inserting it in an email.
Keep in mind that a picture can only be displayed when creating an HTML message. The following instructions outline how to insert a picture when using the WYSISYG editor in the AWeber control panel.
Step 1:
Find the picture on your website that you want to use in your email.
Posted in : Articles & Tips | 4 Comments »Punctuation Reputation
Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO) - August 9th, 2006Are your attempts to avoid email content filters getting you filtered even more?
I’ve commonly seen publishers use punctuation in certain words trying to bypass content filters. Thinking those words such as free, profits, savings, winners, sale, profitable, no cost are going to automatically get them filtered.
Unfortunately by using punctuation to obfuscate words those publishers have just made their messages look exactly like the messages spammers send.
Examples such as:
Pro^fits
Sa^vings
W.I.N.NERS
FR^E
Sa|e
FR^E
Pro^fitabl
fr^ee
No^Cost
Regardless of how much your subscribers want your information, to the ISP filtering you’re message you’ve just labeled yourself as a spammer by employing the same tricks spammers use to try and get their messages delivered. Not to mention the credibility and readability issues you have with subscribers if they receive your message.
Bottom line:
Don’t use punctuation in words to try and bypass content filters. In the long run it will hurt your email deliverability.
Posted in : Email Deliverability | 20 Comments »Why Newsletter Publishers Need Autoresponders
Justin Premick - August 7th, 2006In my time at AWeber, I’ve been struck by the number of people who manage newsletters using either our broadcasting feature or Feed Broadcaster, but who make zero use of the ability to send autoresponders and timed follow up messages to subscribers.
I understand, of course, that newsletters contain date and time-specific information, and that broadcasting is the best way to send a newsletter… but why don’t newsletter senders use autoresponders too?
Posted in : Articles & Tips | 8 Comments »What Do Subscribers Expect from You?
Justin Premick - August 3rd, 2006Consistency is something that we all lean on, from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep. When my alarm clock goes off, I hit the snooze button and it consistently reminds me to get up exactly 10 minutes later. I turn the left-hand knob on my shower, and hot water comes out of the faucet.
If my alarm doesn’t go off again after I hit the snooze button or if my faucet won’t give me hot water, it throws me off. It doesn’t necessarily ruin my day, of course, but it does remind me how reliant we are on routine and how disruptions in that routine aren’t usually welcome.
And just what does this have to do with your newsletter?
Posted in : Articles & Tips | 18 Comments »Stumped Trying to Write Follow Up Messages?
Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO) - August 1st, 2006If you’re anything like me, you’ve undoubtedly had a bit of writers block a time or two in the past.
Fortunately, creating the messages for your follow up sequence doesn’t have to be an excruciating experience that keeps you from following up. I have good news for you…
You’ve already written your follow up messages and don’t realize it.
Yes, that’s right, you already wrote the messages you need to start following up with your website visitors. Before you call me crazy see if the following applies to you:
- Website has been up 1-2 months or more.
- Your email address is on the website.
- You answer questions from visitors via email.
If so, congratulations! You’re already nearly done writing your follow up messages.
The Secret:
Posted in : Articles & Tips | 18 Comments »
