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Email marketing effectively builds customer relationships, creates brand awareness and generates sales. Mobile email marketing gives us access to new markets and helps us to better reach our customers. It is imperative that emails should be as accessible on a mobile device as it is on a desktop or a laptop.

Let us consider a few mobile email marketing optimization techniques to make your email design more mobile friendly:

Short Subject Line: The shorter the subject line (not more than 15 characters) the easier is is  for a mobile user to view it and decide whether he should open the mail.

Simple Layout: Limit the email size to 50k because mobile devices are slower to load. Creating an email with a multi-column layout or heavy data content would make the reader abandon the email before it loads. 

Easily Readable: Use fonts and sizes easy on the eyes. Your reader may be on the move and if your email is not easily readable he may ignore it. Use white spaces and bullet points for easy readability.

Mobile Friendly Landing Pages: If your email offers the ability to click through on a link, make sure the page you directed them to is also mobile friendly.

Easy Handling: Mobile users use their thumb to navigate. So make sure while adding call to action links and buttons make sure they are positioned where it is easy for the reader to navigate to.

Click-to-Call: Add a regular text phone number or a buttonto your message for a "call to" function.  Mobile users will prefer to call rather than type a reply.

Quick Sharing: Icons for sharing social media information should be placed where it is easily accessible to the reader. Do not put them at the end of the email, place them within the content, as relevant, so they can share if need be.

Text Version: Always have a plain text version available. Place a link above your message so subscribers can 'view it online' in case their phone does not display the email correctly.

As a marketer, you have to keep experimenting to increase your sales. With the right optimization techniques, it is easy to tweak your email to see what works for your readers.

I love testing. I love finding out what works and what doesn't. It's amazing the things you learn by watching how your recipients interact with your content.

The problem? Not enough email marketers try it. Even within my own client base at Delivra, only a handful have chosen to run valuable test scenarios with actual takeaways. This just blows my mind: why are marketers so hesitant to start? It does take time and effort. You will need to be dedicated to your email marketing strategy to run valuable tests. But the rewards are worth it!

So what can you do to get those gears grinding? Below are 3 tips to get started:

1. Get brainstorming on improvements you can make to your email marketing content.
   Know what your competition is doing. Subscribe to other email lists and pay attention to what they're sending. Would aspects of their email newsletters be relevant to your own audience? What is it about your own content that is not living up to your competitor's? This is a great starting point to brainstorm on - what you could, or should, be changing in your emails.
    
2. Have a plan.
   It's not worth your time to blindly test different aspects of your content with no goal in mind. Know the different ways to test your content with multivariate or email AB split testing, and figure out what aspects of your content would benefit from a change.
   
   Let's say you're testing out 2 different subject lines: Don't simply split your list and send one subject line to each half. Where's the benefit in that? Instead, know why your subject lines are different and set up a test group beforehand. Say you send each subject line to 10% of your list. Give yourself enough time (I usually advise 3 days minimum) to review the email analytics and send the 'winning' subject line to the remaining 80%. Using this information, you'll see a much better response to your email campaigns.
    
3. Don't be afraid.
   Yes, there is a chance your recipients will not respond well to change within your content. But if you don't test it out, how will you know what you're sending now is the best content possible? No email marketer wants a negative result, but even knowing what doesn't work for your recipients is valuable information.

What have you learned about your audience through testing? If you haven't tried testing your content, why not? Comment and let us know!

I get a lot of questions about what these services mean to marketers and do they have an effect on deliverability.  The topic came up recently during one of my discussions with friend and Deliverability Consultant Greg Kraios (Den Of Deliverability), who emphasized that "it is important to understand why those features exist in the first place.  Recipients feel like their inboxes are out of control.  And that isn't an issue of SPAM anymore.  The large email providers have largely eliminated true SPAM from inboxes."

And that's so very true.  And to those of you who just spit out your coffee and shouted "SPAM isn't a problem anymore?!?", calm down. I understand SPAM is still a problem in many ways (from phishing and malware to the the sheer bandwidth and resources it consumes), but SPAM is generally not what is responsible for an overcrowded inbox.   The problem they're addressing now is greymail: those emails you may have signed up for, but are either no longer relevant or are coming too frequently. 

And why does that happen?  Because, in large part, marketers are setting poor expectations and giving little control over frequency at the point of signup.  Many marketers take the approach of "keep sending until we get push-back."  That "push-back" is often in the form of an unsubscribe (or worse, a complaint.)  I've seen growth in the use of profile forms which allow recipients to adjust frequency or type of mailings happening at the back end (after they've decided they've had enough), but very rarely have I seen it being given at the front end. 

Keep this in mind as you're creating (or making adjustments) to your email marketing program.  Put yourself in the shoes of your audience when examining your sign-up process.  Is it apparent what you'll be receiving? Or how often?  If not during sign-up, is that information (or the ability to adjust it) conveyed in a welcome message?

Next time, I'll focus more on this from the Marketer's perspective.  In the mean-time, if you're looking to evaluate your program or need help making improvements, give us a call.  We'd love to help.

Everyday your inbox brings in emails intended to market something. You might spare a glance to the ones that stand out in your preview pane. A successful email is one that leads the customer to your product and generates sales. So what makes your email successful? Relevant content – yes, Interesting subject line– yes, but having just the right content and subject line do not always work. The first step to a successful email is a good design.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you design your email:

• Have a good contact list:  Carefully study the interests and habits of the people in your contact list. Design your emails to suit their needs and make sure they find it interesting.

• Branding: Establish your brand when you design your email. Your company logo should be part of your emails. Your emails should have a particular style unique to your brand.

• Be mobile accessible: Your emails should easily work in all platforms especially in the mobile platform as many people read their emails though their mobile phones.

• Readable messages: When you send emails with images, it may not be accessible to them because many clients disable images. Therefore include a description of the image to your email provider and add a caption for it in the email. This way the message will be clear to the reader even if he cannot view the image.

• Stick to a font: Select a clear and easy to read font. Be consistent in the size and type of font you use for all your messages

• Keeping it simple works: Forget complex messages and intricate designs. When designed properly, a direct and simple tone will convey your idea beautifully.

Retaining your existing customers costs less than getting new customers. Maintaining a consistent and familiar look in your email marketing campaigns will go a long way in establishing a comfort feel with your brand.

http://directmarketing.thomsonlocal.com/News-Advice/Email-Marketing/Try-standing-out-from-the-crowd-with-innovative-email-design/

http://thedigitaldivablog.com/email-marketing/5-effective-email-marketing-design-tips/

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

This is absolutely one of my all-time favorite quotes. As a results-oriented-marketer, I've spent many days (and nights) pouring over data, trying to understand why things are they way they are. But the reality is, data only paints part of the picture.

This is a fantastic blog post from MarketingExperiments, Optimization 101: How to get real results from A/B testing by Paul Cheney, illustrating the entire picture to successful testing. I really liked alot about this post, but this paragraph in particular really rang true to me:

So while most marketers can certainly slap together two treatments and see which one gets a higher conversion rate, the marketer that asks “why” more customers responded to one treatment over the other is gleaning the maximum customer insight.

This may seem like a really basic statement, but how many of us actually take the time to combine numerical data with anecdotal data from prospects, customers or other stakeholders? I'd actually love to have your response! Please reply in the comments section with the types of data you collect to run your testing.

What we find from many of our managed email marketing clients is their need to outsource much of this testing to ensure their projects get done, the right way. As marketers, we've all been there, awesome intentions to run a comprehensive A/B campaign only to get side-tracked with another priority mid-stream. Sure you may glean some high level wins, i.e. a particular subject line yielded higher opens than the other... but by taking it one step further and asking "Why" just might yield the biggest win of all.

At Delivra, we're an email marketing agency that provides software and managed services to our clients. We enjoy putting together testing campaigns and ensuring we paint the entire picture of their email marketing programs. If you're looking for an email marketing partner, give us a call at 866.915.9465

For those who missed it, the 2012 Byte Night, an NPower annual event, was awesome: it's one of Indianapolis's premier networking and leadership events for technologists. By the way, you should be sure to attend next year - what a GREAT organization.

Consistent with NPower's mission, Byte Night provides an opportunity to showcase some fantastic not for profit organizations in Indianapolis. In addition, NPower has a long standing tradition called the Tech Angel awards. This year, Delivra has agreed to be a Tech Angel for two sensational organizations in Indianapolis: the Martin Luther King Community Center and the South East Neighborhood Development Inc. Both have amazing mission statements and are out there on the front lines serving our community.

Delivra is excited to offer both organizations a FULL YEAR of professional email marketing. We're going to partner with both organizations to provide a full suite of not just email marketing tools, but every bit of the strategy and consulting they need to create truly effective connections with their stakeholders and donors.

Check out this quick video that provides a great overview of NPower, the Tech Angel awards, and these two, very deserving organizations.

When Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, he probably didn't consider what a tremendous opportunity this social media website would present for corporations all across the country and even across the globe. In conjunction with Twitter, Blogger, LinkedIn, and more recently, Google+, social media platforms are quickly becoming crucial components of any successful Internet marketing strategy. 

Despite the opportunity offered by these social media websites, reports have shown that many email marketing consultants are failing to take full advantage by connecting professional email marketing with social media marketing for ultimate exposure. If you want to enjoy greater exposure and subsequent success for your own company, consider the following tips for leveraging social media in your professional email marketing campaign. 

Provide Easy Sharing Features

If you want your emails to be shared more often, you can start by simply making your emails easier to share. If you're thinking, "But our emails already include a 'forward to a friend' feature," you are part of a surprisingly large group that is missing out on incredible opportunities for brand exposure through social media. According to a 2010 study by eMarketer, 48 percent of marketers allow email recipients to forward the email to a friend, while just 13 percent offer special features for sharing emails on social networks. A study by MarketingSherpa discovered that the simple addition of social media sharing buttons in a managed email marketing campaign led to a 25 percent increase in reader interaction and dramatic surges in Internet traffic to a company's website. With the promising results of this study and the slow pace of the competition, integrating easy sharing could dramatically enhance your company's professional email marketing campaign. 

Cross Promote

Cross promotion is a highly effective strategy for maximizing exposure. If there is an unusual imbalance of subscribers on your accounts, this likely indicates that your company could be doing a better job at cross promoting. For example, if your company has 16,000 Twitter followers and only 2,000 email subscribers, it's likely that not all of your subscribers are aware of the benefits of subscribing to your email newsletters. Encourage your subscribers on each social media outlet to subscribe to receive emails from your company and stay connected through other social networks. Asking nicely may not work every time, which brings me to my next point: 

Offer Incentives

Despite the fact not every company makes it easy for consumers to share emails on social networks, nearly every business in the country has at least one social networking account. This poses a problem for businesses because tougher competition leads to higher selectivity from consumers when choosing which corporations to follow to prevent cluttering news feeds with promotion after promotion. To successfully encourage more email subscriptions, or to follow you on social networks, you need to be able to answer the tacit question of the consumer, namely, "What's in it for me?" Incentives can include discounts, sweepstakes, freebies and other attention-grabbing benefits of this nature. 

Because trends in both email and social media marketing change at a rapid pace, an email marketing agency is the most effective way to maintain momentum and stay ahead of the competition. With a world of opportunities available through social networking, your professional email marketing campaign could generate more attention than ever before. 

Newsletters have been considerably popular vehicles of information for businesses, clubs, societies, and various organizations since before the Internet was even a concept. Although the advancement of technology could have easily caused newsletters to become obsolete, they survived - or rather, successfully adapted to - the digital age for one very simple reason: both subscribers and organizations continue to find them useful. In accurately describing the power f the newsletter, "useful" is actually a mild characterization of the many benefits that come from this medium. Newsletters grant organizations the opportunity to share current promotions and reviews of previous events in a friendly, journalistic tone. 

Why It Works 

While the underlying purpose of the newsletter is to increase subscriber interest and ultimately generate more business, the conversational nature and structure of newsletters gives companies the opportunity to build a more personal and relaxed relationship with consumers and partners. Although newsletters come with several inherently positive qualities, they have even greater potential than the average professional may be able to recognize and uncover. A newsletter is more than just formatting and content - it is an opportunity to expand your business and improve customer outreach. 

Staying Consistent

The potential for greater success is not something that an opportunistic company would or should take lightly. With managed email marketing by a well-trained and highly experienced email marketing agency, crucial marketing tactics and strategies can be applied to your company's newsletter to ensure a consistent message and maximum appeal to the consumer. Effective email marketing requires more than just creative content and an attractive newsletter design, but requires supervision from an educated and experienced email marketing consultant to integrate specific strategies, tactics and various idiosyncrasies involved in professional email marketing. 

Email marketing practices are not something learned overnight, either. Keeping up with popular marketing trends and monitoring the competition are two highly important elements of a successful managed email marketing campaign. Marketing trends aren't always black and white. In other words, what may be an effective strategy for one industry many not be as effective for another. Often, determining the most effective marketing strategy requires a continuous cycle of trial and error to create a solid set of appropriate tactics. With the fast pace of the Internet marketing sphere, these strategy trends change on a weekly, even daily basis. 

Get Results

Since time is money in the world of business, most companies can't afford to sacrifice the time (let along the effort or expertise) necessary to create effective newsletters on a regular basis. The cost of hiring a highly qualified and well-experienced email marketing consultant at Delivra is affordable and logical for businesses of all sizes due to the impressive return on investment (ROI) that comes with this business decision. The Direct Marketing Association reported that ROI for email marketing at $40.56 for every dollar invested in 2011. Although this figure is projected to decrease slightly in the year 2012, it is expected to still remain highly substantial at $39.40 for every dollar invested. With the promise of high returns and effective, competitive strategy integration, the question you should be asking is: Could my company's newsletter generate a more successful response and greater impact with the benefits of professional marketing? 

Delivra has been named to the 2012 Best Places to Work in Indiana list, an annual ranking by the Indiana Chamber. Delivra competed in the small to medium-sized business category and was recognized, along with several other organizations, for their positive and productive workplaces. 

Last night, part of the Delivra Team attended the awards dinner at the Indiana Roof Ballroom where the winners' rankings were announced. Delivra is excited to share that we were ranked number 10 on the list of honorees! 

In order to celebrate and prepare for the unveiling of the rankings on Thursday, Delivra had a Spirit Week. Each day was a different theme that people dressed up in. For pictures from the week, please visit our Facebook page.  

For the more information about this honor, check out the press release here. 

Email analytics help you to understand how successful your email marketing campaign has been. 

It goes beyond the basic email tracking of reporting the number of times your email has been opened, bounced or clicked through. It helps you ascertain your customer's individual behavior including browsing and purchase habits. Armed with such information you can create specific, targeted, and personal campaigns. In short, relevant to your customer.

Here are some basic ways email analytics can help you track your emails:

• Add Social Sharing Links: By adding links to social networks in your email you can use email analytics to track who is sharing your email. By ascertaining the number of “likes”, “followings” or “shares”, you get to know the success rate of your email.

• Adding Video Links: This is not much different from adding social links to your emails. Here you can use email analytics to determine which video links work and which do not with your email.

• Adding 'Calls To Action': Keep varying the calls to action in your emails. Use email analytics to track which calls to action works best with your target audience.

• Adding Relevant Content: Content matters - always! Be interesting and creative with your content to produce maximum impact in your reader's minds. Email analytics help you find out what type of content works best with your audience.

• Adding Successful Subject Lines: Your subject line should grab attention. It is the first thing your readers see. By tracking which emails has the most success rate you can decide if your subject line needs tweaking to make it more inviting or aggressive.

By identifying each users behavior, it becomes easy and profitable for you to tweak your email campaigns to suit their needs. With effective email analytics in place, you can quickly customize your email content to create highly relevant emails.

http://www.listguy.com/email-analytics/

http://www.stratigent.com/community/websight-newsletters/email-analytics

http://www.benchmarkemail.com/blogs/detail/5-metrics-to-track-with-your-email-analytics

In a world increasingly tech dependent, consumers still respond to seeing a friendly face. One of the best ways to show your clients the human side of your business is to include video in to your marketing efforts. We've talked before about how video and email marketing go together like bread and butter, but here are some tips on how to best integrate video into your e-newsletters and email marketing campaigns. 

Don't bury the lead: 

Studies show videos lose consumers' interests within 60 seconds. If you have something important to say, do it fast. Lead with the most important information and let the rest fall into place naturally. If you're announcing a new product line, don't tease it with a 30 second intro, go ahead and say what it is you're focusing on and then go into more depth on it. Don't worry about being flashy or artistic, a simple video of a person standing in front of a plain backdrop can be just as effective as a Flash-filled animation. 

Fill it with facts: 

Consumers will devote more time to a video when it gives them actual information instead of just wasting their time with unimportant details. Unlike traditional e-newsletters, consumers can't skim through and pick out the parts important to them. With a video, they can either listen to everything you have to say, or click away. There's no equivalent to subheads in a video, so save the minute descriptions for a different format, or at least put it at the end. Once you start going into product dimensions, you're likely to lose viewers. Remember - you only have 60 seconds, and each second matters! 

Take a shot: 

You don't need thousands of dollars worth of equipment just to try out video email marketing. If you have a laptop with a webcam and a decent microphone, you can easily film it yourself. Just look directly at the camera and speak in a natural voice. Be confident in what you're saying, but not so confident you begin channeling Billy Mays. Once you're satisfied with the quality of your video, consider where it's going to live on the Internet. Having a dedicated landing page will let you see how many people are coming to your site exclusively because of the video. It will also let consumers follow a logical path from their first moment of engagement to their final conversion. 

Video email marketing can be a powerful tool in your arsenal. It's important to remember that, like with any tool, it can't stand alone. Using a variety of approaches in e-newsletters can keep your content fresh and exciting for consumers. 

Since the advent of social media, Internet marketing has evolved at a rapid pace. These dramatic changes have caused many people to question whether professional email marketing is still a profitable component of the marketing campaign. It's true, email marketing has company in the Internet marketing sphere, but those who disregard its marketing potential will miss out on a consistently performing opportunity despite the increasing success of social media outlets. 

Although social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others give users the opportunity to communicate through messaging features, studies have shown email still retains its popularity. During an earnings call in January 2012, Google claimed to have 350 million active Gmail users. In October 2011, Hotmail claimed an identical user base, while Yahoo! reported a figure relatively close at 310 million users -- and this is just coming from the three major hubs. Studies also show most of these users are checking their email every day, which makes this medium a tremendous marketing opportunity for businesses. 

When it comes to the value of email marketing, most companies don't need much convincing. Data has shown they are already willing to invest large sums toward professional email marketing strategies. Forrester Research has projected companies will spend approximately $1.676 billion on managed email marketing in 2012 and approximately $1.649 billion on social media in the same year. These statistics indicate many companies have equally assigned values to both email marketing and social media marketing. Actually, with email marketing leading by $27 million, it appears this component is considered slightly more important than social media marketing alternatives. 

So, we can see email still has a large user base and is still considered highly valuable by American corporations, but does it pass the test of being effective for generating sales? According to Adrian Mullan of WebProNews, email marketing is not only effective for generating online sales, but offline sales as well. A reported 59 percent of email users claim to have made an offline purchase after receiving an email promotion, which indicates that while one email advertisement may not lead to an immediate sale, it certainly leaves an impression on the buyer. Further research reveals that the average shopper comes into contact with an item nine times before making a purchasing decision. This means each marketing technique plays a key role in encouraging a sale. Leaving email marketing out of the equation can cause this exposure to fall short. 

Unlike social media, managed email marketing through an email marketing agency has a unique value because it ensure a personalized and continuous relationship with the consumer. Maintaining the relationship with current customers is highly important, since studies show acquiring a new customer is eight to ten times more expensive than selling to a current customer. New sales are certainly not to be disregarded, but keeping up with current customers through email has proven to generate repeat sales estimated to be four times more profitable than the first purchase. 

To take full advantage of the many benefits that come from managed email marketing, an experienced and educated email marketing consultant is essential. With proper execution, your company can soon begin to see why email marketing truly does matter. 

Here at Delivra we are happy to announce two new email to CRM integrations with NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics. The integrations will allow Delivra customers to sync important database information into Delivra to create highly segmented email marketing campaigns. Important email reporting data is then pushed back to contact and lead records in the respective CRMs.

Click here for more information about Cazoomi. 

For more information about these integrations, check out the press release. 

I want to let everyone know that Delivra is about to release our Microsoft Dynamics CRM Integration via Cazoomi. 

Similar to our NetSuite CRM integration, the Microsoft enterprise solution supports both MS CRM 2011 and MS CRM 4.0 with: 

• Unlimited Sync Profiles 
• All Sync Templates
• Sync on Demand 
• Flexible Sync Scheduling 
• Premier Support
• Customization (additional charge)

This is fully tested, productized integration that takes minutes to install. 

Cazoomi is offering a free 14 day trial which Delivra is supporting. 

Interested? Call our email marketing consultants for more information at 866-915-9465 toll free. 

What could be more appropriate in finishing up our series on industries benefiting from email marketing than a spotlight on government? With the upcoming presidential electing approaching rapidly, political interest and publicity is on the rise. Organizations involved in government on multiple levels can all use this heightened interest to their advantage through professional email marketing. In fact, many of them already are. 

It's so easy to see why managed email marketing might be appealing to governmental entities. For one, an email marketing agency can specially tailor an organization's marketing campaign to approach the issues in an effective, personalized manner. For example, say a government-sponsored public housing sector was looking for support in expanding a certain kind of housing into another district. Residents of the affected district would have to be approached from a  more sensitive angle than those in surrounding regions unaffected by this expansion. Under the supervision of an experienced email marketing consultant, candidates can depend on customized messages regarding these types of sensitive political subjects. 

Complementing the personal approach taken through email marketing, government also has the advantage of cost-efficiency when integrating this strategy. In an environment where government funding is increasingly limited, this components especially appealing. In addition to the more obvious reasons why an organization in a governmental entity might find managed email marketing useful, the strategy has already proven to be effective for governments in other less immediately obvious ways. 

According to several studies comparing the efficacy of email marketing among multiple industries, government ranks higher than the majority of measured industries in several components of email marketing. One particular study, conducted in December of 2010, revealed open rate of 25.66 percent for email marketing campaigns of governmental entities. This rate is higher than ecommerce at 14.98 percent, recruitment and staffing at 15.21 percent, sports at 19.54 percent, and even business and finance at 15.47 percent. This high open rate indicates subscribers are both interested in the issues and concerned about what the local, state and federal government agencies have to say about these issues. 

The click-through rate for the government is also comparably stronger at 5.37 percent for all emails received. This statistic might seem low from a general standpoint, but it ranks nearly 2 points higher than the average click-through rate of 3.7 percent. Since click-through rates indicate how compelling the message is to the reader, this puts government at a significant advantage in terms of general public interest regarding government issues. Government also has considerably lower rates for abuse complaints and unsubscribers at 0.04 percent and 0.20 percent, respectively. 

Ensuring the public's awareness and involvement in government issues is an important component of building stronger communities and a stronger country. With managed email marketing, this goal is made easier than ever for organizations in government, while also offering a convenient outlet for the public to receive word and speak their peace as well. 

Email is an integral part of marketing. But if not used properly it can turn into spam. Or worse, it could end up alienating your customers and prospects who are already tired of seeing ‘sales’ emails in their inbox.

So how can you make email prospecting effective? Like in the sales process, the first thing you should be doing is to build trust. Email prospecting should be used to initiate conversations, generate interests and create awareness about you, your company and your products. Some pointers to keep in mind when prospecting via email include:

• Keep your emails short: Long emails are usually not read until the end and usually gets deleted without a second thought. They look intimidating and your prospects may not find the time to patiently go over it. Therefore, it is necessary to keep it simple and short.

• Have a short subject line: Your subject line should be comprised of just a few words rather than a long sentence. It should be clear, purposeful and should relate to your email.

• Personalize your email: Compose your email as you would to your friends and colleagues. You can use short sentences and informal language, but not at the risk of sounding sloppy. It doesn't have to be a standard template either - make it creative by adding the contact information of the Business Development Manager they will be talking to if they respond. 

• Pique your prospect's interest: Your email should spark your prospect's interest. This means your message should be about them and not about you. You can highlight a specific problem or interest you think your prospect is facing right now and suggest a solution for it.

• Show what you can do: Rather than just telling them you know about their problem and offering your solution for it, show them exactly how you can help them. Illustrate with an example or better yet, with customer testimonials or third-party product reviews.

• Make it easy for them to connect: Make it easy for them to act immediately adding “reply”, social share buttons, or including important links on your website for contact info, etc. 

At Delivra, we have perfected the art of creating email campaigns to build brands and sell products. Consult with our email marketing experts to create a campaign just right for you.

The advancement of technology and Internet marketing has been highly beneficial for the photo and video industry for perhaps fairly obvious reasons. With email and social media marketing, professionals in this industry are able to share their work quicker than ever with greater detail. Having a strong email marketing campaign, in an industry where aesthetic quality has the heaviest influence on whether or not a consumer chooses that particular business, is key to enticing the buyer to take advantage of current promotions, discounts and new techniques or services offered by the company. Although there are a number of reasons that might account for the photo and video industry's email marketing success, consider the following top three contributing factors.

1. More Subscribers Open Their Emails

It may seem like a no-brainer, but the success of many professional email marketing campaigns in the photo and video industry is in part due to the high open rate this industry has overall. Studies indicate a 28.93 percent open rate for all emails sent by companies in the photo and video industry, which proves strong interest among the general public. Even ostensibly more popular industries, such as retail and education, rank considerably lower with just 17.8 percent and 16.64 percent, respectively. Greater interest means greater profit for any business, and for the photo and video industry this certainly holds true.

2. More Subscribers Click the Links in Their Emails

Any experienced email marketing consultant will tell you the click-through rate of an email marketing campaign is one of the most important factors for measuring its success. For the photo and video industry in particular, studies reveal a click-through rate of 5.7 percent. For those who aren't well versed in proper measurement of click-through rates, this figure is exactly 2 percentage points above the average of 3.7 percent. The population used to determine an average click-through rate included several other notable industries, including real estate, insurance and legal industries.

3. Fewer Subscribers Complain or Unsubscribe

An irresponsible or inexperienced use of email can lead to abuse by overwhelming the consumer with excess emails in a manner technically classified as spamming. When email is abused in this way, it often results in customer complaints and a surplus of customers unsubscribing to the company. Although this abuse of strategy, should rightfully only affect the company at fault, it can often have a negative effect on the customer's perception of the entire industry. With the photo and video industry, abuse complaint rates and unsubscribe rates remain significantly low, with a measured 0.07 percent of the former and 0.26 percent for the latter.

Although the nature of the photo and video industry likely helps contribute to its email marketing success, a well-trained and experienced consultant can often have the biggest impact on compelling subscribers to open emails and further encourage them to click the link embedded in the email. In addition to these highly important components, managed email marketing also decreases the likelihood of abuse, which can frequently have a detrimental effect on the campaign overall. Since statistics indicate email marketing favors the photo and video industry's, companies who are currently taking advantage of professional email marketing opportunities can continue to expect positive returns in the future.

The construction industry has had a rough few years with a sharp decline of demand resulting from the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Although this crisis posed a substantial setback for the industry, the slow recovery of the economy has led to greater business opportunities and promise for the industry as a whole. The gradual improvement of the economy can take most of the credit for this increased success; however, credit should also partially be attributed to widespread integration of email marketing throughout the construction industry. Compared with other industries- including entertainment, health and fitness, and public relations—the construction industry has generated substantially greater interest and success with their own email marketing campaigns.

A Firm Foundation

Recent studies have reported a 28.7 percent open rate for emails sent by businesses in the construction industry, with an equally impressive click-through rate of 8.01 percent. Put in perspective: the business and finance industry follows far behind with a 15.57 percent open rate and a dismal 2.77 percent click-through rate. The music industry lies even further from this point with a 13.95 percent open rate and a 2.43 percent click-through rate. Based on this information, it's clear the construction industry is benefiting much more from managed email marketing than many other industries.

Understanding What Works

Despite the relatively high open and click-through rates of the construction industry and the general success of email marketing among construction companies, surveys have shown many businesses in this field aren't even aware of how well they are doing in terms of email marketing efficiency. When a group of construction companies were asked what their open rates were for their email campaigns, 51 percent responded they didn't know. An even greater 76 percent reported not to know the company's click-through rates either. This lack of communication and data analysis within the company could be caused by a failure to hire an experienced email marketing consultant to analyze data and manage the campaign in an effective manner. With proper management, the construction industry could potentially generate even more success through the strategy of email marketing.

Building Better ROI

Although the construction industry may need better management to ensure maximum email marketing efficiency, collected data indicates the strategy already comes with a great deal of profit potential for this industry in particular. For construction companies working independently or still struggling to get back on their feet, the prospect of email marketing can be especially appealing due to its high return on investment (ROI). Statistics indicate professional email marketing for the year 2012 is projected to generate an ROI of $39.40 for every dollar spent toward the service. This substantial return is unmatched by any other traditional media or Internet marketing strategy available, which is why it's a preferred choice for various industries.

What sets the construction industry apart from other successful industries is the widespread lack of understanding and appreciation of the tremendous benefits they're receiving from email marketing. This industry may be enjoying a unique success now, but as trends develop and more industries become proficient in managed email marketing tactics and understand the implications of increased ROI that result, the construction industry may get company.

I'm REALLY excited about our recent NetSuite Email Integration via Cazoomi. 

Easy set up. Automatic syncing of the two software applications. Fast results. Affordable pricing. 

Read the case study on how the Delivra/NetSuite Cazoomi SyncApp helped John & Kira's gourmet chocoloate company go from vanilla to chocolate ganache. 

Or call our email marketing consultants for more information at 866-915-9465 toll free. 

On April 19, 2012 from 10:00AM - 4:00PM (ET), Delivra will be exhibiting and participating in the Retail Marketing Virtual Conference & Expo presented by Retail Online Integration. During the show, participants will get up-to-date, essential information about the hottest retail marketing topics for 2012. The show provides sessions throughout the day on key best practices and trends, straight from the experts. For more information about the show, the agenda for the day, or how to register - visit this website. 

Delivra plans on exhibiting at the show - sharing information about our company and email marketing tools to the attendees. We will have several of our Delivra resources, such as success stories & whitepapers available throughout the show.  Our Delivra email marketing experts will be manning the booth to answer questions and share their email marketing knowledge. So if you attend the show, be sure to pop by and say "Hi"!