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The last entry for prepping your Holiday email campaign focuses on content and evaluating results. Choosing your content focus should be easy if you completed the tasks from week one and week two.

Test your subject lines and content. Can't decide on a subject line or where to place that "Buy Now" button? Email AB split testing takes the guess work out of it and shows you the results instead. Do not lean on just open or clickthrough numbers, instead keep the focus on conversion.

Keep your content simple. Just because you have lots of widgets does not mean they all need to be in the email. If you need to, refer back to your goals and ask yourself, does this addition to the content help meet our goals? If not, then take it out. Lastly, don't forget to add your social media share buttons. Your members are friend with other peope like them give them an easy way to share the info.

Use your results to make changes to the next mailing. Email is dynamic. Not happy with your results from your last mailing? Change something. Test. Repeat. While your goals should be pretty set by now, your roadmap should be etched in pencil and fine tumed throughout your campaign.

Benchmark and document for next year. Get a head start by writing out clear and detailed notes for next year. Document what worked, what didn't and ideas for trying next year. The longer you wait the more you will probably forget.

Best of luck on your holiday campaigns. Need some ideas for you campaign? Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling.

Holiday Email Campaign Ideas

• Dynamic Sequence- Create a drip campaign for certain interests. Maybe your recipients just want to see gift ideas for mom or a certain interest like running or reading or travel. Use dynamic content to send them one email with all of their choices rather than multiple emails.
• Themed Emails- 12 days of savings (make sure your members optin for this daily email). Need a special opt in? We can help. Contact us to learn more about profile and subscribe forms.
• Come back- Don't forget to set up shopping cart abandonment emails with an incentive to come back to complete the shopping process.
• Early Bird Campaign- Early shopping deals for "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" can stand out in the inbox if done well. Email graphic design has different rules than Web graphic design. Need some help figuring that out? Check out our design gallery for some ideas, thencontact us to learn more.
• Smart Phone Focus- Creating a special campaign for your smart phone users can increase sales and provide valuable information about where your members are reading your emails. Do some testing to make sure your in store check out process can scan the barcode from a smartphone. Need to know where to start? Check out our mobile design whitepaper.

How many times have you gone shopping for a trendy new gadget only to get home and spend the next hour fruitlessly trying to MacGyver your way into its plastic clamshell? You try scissors, a knife, the neighbor's blowtorch, even that rabid pit bull down the road - nothing is getting through. Your efforts turn into a Wile E. Coyote-esque attempt at catching Roadrunner. By some miracle of physics you finally manage to free the goods from their plastic tomb, only to be so wrought with rage you don't even want the thing anymore.

I'm an Amazon shopper, and was filled with joy, joy, joy when they announced "Frustration Free Packaging". The New York Times recently ran a piece on their efforts, which you can find here. Adoption has been slow, but Amazon has seen a lot of success from the newly - packaged products.

But packaged induced hysteria isn't exclusive to retail goods.  We package our information, our stories, our brand and our connections just like we package a toothbrush going on a shelf. The question is, do you use frustration free packaging, or are you driving your consumers to madness by packaging your information so obtrusively they can't access what they need?

Take e-news for example.  A clean design can go a long way. Is it legible? Interesting? Brief? Did you fill your email with flying toasters, dancing babies and a MIDI version of "The Hamster Dance"? (In regards to that last question, please contact me if you did. I'd love to see it.) The point is - if you're investing countless hours in flashy packaging, nice brochures, clever marketing pieces, whatever - don't cut corners on your electronic communications. Put in some extra effort and make sure it's accessible - offer text versions, use alt tags for those who are visually impaired, etc. Ever see a toddler play with the box the toy came in, rather than the toy itself? The package the product came in is just as important as what's inside.

Here are just a few helpful sites to check out for tips on improving your own packaging:

Creative Briefing:

http://creativebriefing.com/applications-of-usability-principles-on-a-social-network/

Key Relevance:

http://www.keyrelevance.com/articles/usability-tips.htm

Delivra:

http://blog.delivra.com/index.php/2010/07/not-everything-is-set-in-stone/

http://blog.delivra.com/index.php/2010/08/theres-more-to-me-than-my-name/#more-3755

http://blog.delivra.com/index.php/2010/07/should-my-e-mail-design-match-my-web-site/

Guest Blogger | Adam Lowe

Adam Lowe is the Branding Manager for Choices, Inc., a nationally recognized, Indianapolis - based nonprofit serving youth experiencing mental, emotional and behavioral challenges. A graduate of the University of Indianapolis, Adam holds degrees in marketing and information systems and is a self -trained graphic designer. He has worked with Choices, Inc. for the past six years and has previously worked with the Indianapolis' own Survivor All-Star Rupert Boneham and his Rupert's Kids program. Adam has been recognized for his marketing, branding and design work by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals and the Hoosier chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

Twitter: @dudeimbibes | Facebook: www.facebook.com/dudeimbibes

Queue epic movie trailer voice over: Since the dawn of fire, man has been gathering around its warm glow to share tales of adventure and disaster, love and heartache, beer and NASCAR, that hottie at the bar...

When (or perhaps more appropriately, why) did companies stop telling stories?  When did "Three easy payments of $19.95" replace "and they lived happily ever after"? People are, by nature, storytellers.  A kid on the playground tells another story of how strong and cool his dad is.  A coach tells his team a story of yesteryear, when he was on a team that drove for a come-from-behind victory for the state championship.  My wife tells a 45 minute story about, well, something.  I blanked out for a couple of minutes...

Social media has given us the biggest campfire the world has ever known. Hundreds, thousands, millions, can gather around the warm glow of their computer screen and share stories.  Companies have the opportunity to share their story via an email marketing campaign and then share it to their social network and potentially watch it reach millions of social media users. And yet, companies seemingly altogether decided to stop telling their stories.  You can't expect people to care if they don't know your story.  This proves doubly important for all of you in service and non-profit sectors.

Forget the lessons you learned in writing class?  Andy Goodman is here to help.  Check out this issue of Mr. Goodman's Free Range Thinking.  The 10 Immutable Laws of Storytelling will help you get on the way to a strong story: http://www.agoodmanonline.com/pdf/free_range_2007_06.pdf

And try this on for size next.  Break out another bag of marshmallows and let your story turn into a conversation. Don't be afraid if people ask questions, if people want to ask more, or if people want to tell their own stories.  Encourage storytelling on your website, on your Facebook page, blog, in your email marketing efforts, etc.  As long as you keep the story going, you can keep that fire burning.  But if the story stops and everyone leaves the campfire?  Well, at least Smokey the Bear will still be interested.

Guest Blogger | Adam Lowe

Adam Lowe is the Branding Manager for Choices, Inc., a nationally recognized, Indianapolis-based nonprofit serving youth experiencing mental, emotional and behavioral challenges. A graduate of the University of Indianapolis, Adam holds degrees in marketing and information systems and is a self-trained graphic designer.  He has worked with Choices, Inc. for the past six years and has previously worked with the Indianapolis' own Survivor All-Star Rupert Boneham and his Rupert's Kids program. Adam has been recognized for his marketing, branding and design work by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals and the Hoosier chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

Twitter: @dudeimbibes | Facebook: www.facebook.com/dudeimbibes

I know, just when you thought you had heard enough hype on the new iPhone~here it comes again!  Here's the thing, Apple is genius when it comes to marketing and brand (no pun intended).  It's not just them though, simple is something that works in this cluttered time we live in.  So earlier this week I received this email:

Now granted, for me (the early adopter on EVERYTHING) this long awaited email is just the cue I need.  You see I have a birthday coming up and really want my old (oh so old iPhone older generation) to be retired, so I can have this one!  So, I very discreetly forwarded this email to my husband.  No subject line, no additional pleas for the birthday girl.  Just a simple forward of a simple and clean message.  Well, I'm pleased to say I think he got the point.  He turned to his friend who is visiting with his laptop and showed him saying, "I take it she wants a new iPhone."  Thanks dear, you got the hint.

I'm sure my birthday wish list is of no concern to you, but what should be important to note is that Apple achieves success over success because of ONE thing....they keep things SIMPLE.

This is a perfect lesson that every marketer can learn, re-learn, and re-visit!  I even have to do this myself.  As marketers we want to spit out every single thing that we have to say in one communication.  The result?  Well, I spare the detractors of simple from the embarrassment, but I will say that you can't view their email in one, two or even three screens.  I know, I know, you have brand and messaging to convey.  Along with those slick graphics you designed.  That's okay...you can still keep it simple in three easy steps:

1. Engage with Visuals, Video, and Rich Media: All are a great way to reinforce your brand and message without saying a whole lot in words.
2. Link Out: Don't feel like everything HAS to be shown in the email content.  Link out to landing pages, other sites, your website, or even a signup form or shopping cart.  (Note:  There is also an added benefit with linking-TRACKING!  Now you will know what interests your recipients.)
3. Stick to Above-the-Fold: If you can't see it in one screen on a test, then trim it down.  Link out or parse out what you want to say in more than one email.

Simple concepts I'm sure we all know by now, but worth repeating and certainly worth revisiting.  Are you keeping it SIMPLE for your audience? Just think to yourself...what would Apple do?  Need help with your email marketing?  Want to chat about other best practice strategies?  Contact me today at marketing@delivra.com or at 877-915-9465 and let's chat!

Carissa Newton | Marketing

P.S.  I can tell you that while I am an early adopter, I won't be in line for this!  I mean it will be my birthday  right after its release after all....someone is bound to go stand in that line for me, right?

Let’s say you’re just about done putting together your email content. It’s approved to send out and you’re proud of how great it looks. You send yourself a test email for one final check… and it’s completely blown apart! What do you do? Before you light your computer on fire and throw it at the nearest intern, check to see if it’s one of these top 4 issues.

• Are you using only inline CSS and HTML tables? If your text is displaying without all your fancy colors, sizes and fonts, you’ve probably formatted them using an embedded or linked style sheet. Make sure all your content is formatted with only inline CSS or HTML. Stay away from using CSS for positioning – use old-school tables instead.
• Were your images saved at the correct size before you placed them in your HTML? An image saved at a size too big for your email template may break it apart… even after you’ve set the correct sizes in your HTML. A few email clients will ignore your HTML image attributes, so even though you’ve sized down your beautiful 1200px by 1700px banner, it may display at its original size – stretching out the rest of your email. Save your images at their final sizes before you place them in your email content (or Delivra’s Media Library).
• Does your HTML contain lots of nested tables or tables with merged cells? Excessive use of nested tables (tables set inside tables) or complicated tables with merged cells can cause problems. Plan ahead and lay out your content before you take it into HTML. The more you tinker with your HTML as you put it together, the more likely it is that problem-causing invisible elements will be left in it.
• Are you using background images or colors? Code placed in or above the <body> tag can be stripped out – so any background colors or images here may be lost. It’s safe to use background colors in your tables and table cells, but some clients won’t display background images regardless of whether it’s set in HTML or CSS. Place a background color along with your background image just in case (especially if you have white text over it).

For more tips on coding your email content, check out Delivra’s HTML Coding Guide or our HTML Editor Help Guide.

Celeste Odell | Graphic Design 

Delivra's blog stats for December hit me like a nearby lightning strike.

53% and 31% of visitors respectively resulted from referring sites or search engines. Compare this to the main Delivra website (25% referring and 9% search) and you can see what I mean.  In my opinion, blogging and social media make a perfect compliment to our web site and our marketing efforts as a whole.

Launched in September, the eMailChatr Blog is already producing hundreds of first time visitors monthly.  Those blog visitors are reading the content at an average rate of over four minutes on the site each.  We see this as a success in providing thought leadership and driving traffic to our web site and in turn directly to Delivra.  Success is partly a result of careful planning and hiring a social media marketing company (Firebelly Marketing) to set it up for us.  The cost was reasonable for any sized business and quick to implement.

We can also attribute success to the quality of content posted on our blog.  Readers benefit from a wealth of best practices and email marketing tips throughout every post.  Originally intended for management blogging only, we have extended blog opportunities to staff as well. Support, graphic design and sales staff each have valuable information to share for our readers.  Additionally, having multiple bloggers for the company allows us to maintain rich content along with an aggressive blog schedule.  We have a five blog per week standard and are finding that it is easy to maintain that refresh schedule.  This schedule allows us to cover a myriad of timely email and web marketing topics that can benefit any organization.

In short, blogging can certainly work to increase your company's exposure, provide thought leadership and drive traffic to your website.  Interested in blogging or social media?  We would be happy to share our experience or show you how you can weave blogging and social media into your email marketing mix. Tweet us with your comments @Delivra!

Neil Berman | President & CEO

Every now and again, I have a client ask me if it’s possible to animate their email. Since it’s a bad idea to try to use Flash or embedded video, we can’t use animations either, right? Wrong—you can! Animated GIF images can definitely be used in your email campaigns, and if done right, can work to improve your results.

First off, there’s one problem you should keep in mind: while most email clients will run your animation, there are ones that won’t… like Outlook 2007. Instead, Outlook will only display the first frame of the animation as a static image. So any call to action in your animation should be in the first frame, even if the frame displays for only a fraction of a second.  If your first frame is blank, no one using Outlook 2007 will get your message.

Secondly, the file size of your image must be taken into consideration. Generally, it’s a good idea to keep the animation (and any other image in your email, for that matter) around 30kb. This means that your animation is probably limited to just a few simple frames or colors. The longer and more detailed your animation, the more time it will take the recipient to download. Worst case scenario, your recipient may look over your mailing and move on before the animation even runs.  So while your animation of a velociraptor dancing at a rave party with your call to action on its T-shirt may be awesome, it certainly wouldn’t be practical for email.

Lastly, as an animated GIF is still an image, I wouldn’t suggest limiting any call-to-action to just that area. Some good alternatives would be to also include a call to action in text, or maybe to use the animation as a subtle way to direct the recipients’ attention to your main message. The possibilities of tactfully and successfully animating your email are endless, and testing your email is never a bad idea.

Have another email design topic you’d like to see covered? Feel free to let me know.

Celeste Odell | Graphic Design

During a demo of our software a few months ago, a prospective client--the owner of an agency specializing in web design--commented that he admired the features of our product but was concerned about giving his clients access to a user interface that looked "too much like Windows 95."

Ouch.  I couldn't argue with him, though.  Delivra had added many features over the years, but we had never taken time to refresh or upgrade the appearance of the application.  As a result, the plain-brown (or, more literally, plain-blue) wrapper around our software was not an accurate reflection of the advanced features we had to offer.

That's one reason why, starting today, clients logging in to our service will see a new look to our application.  We haven't done anything crazy, like reorganize the menus, that would cause current users difficulty.  Functionally, nothing has changed.  But we've added color and contrast to the site, and made the styles more consistent with our company web site and other Delivra publications.  Our goal was to give the site a more modern and interesting look, but without affecting the ease of using the software.

Another change we've made with the new design is the removal of Lyris logos and branding.  There was a time when it would have been accurate to refer to Delivra as a "Lyris reseller," which is to say that our business consisted mostly of licensing ListManager software from Lyris and offering subscriptions to access it over the Web under the "software-as-a-service," or "SaaS" model.  When SaaS was a relatively new concept, that was a helpful way of understanding Delivra's offering.  But now, as we enter 2010, "Lyris reseller" is no longer an adequate description of what we do.

For starters, we've been making our own proprietary changes and additions to the software for several years.  Delivra has its own HTML content editor, its own media and graphics library, and its own API, all of which offer more features than the ListManager functions they replaced.  Plus, we've added:

• social media integration (with tracking!)
• our own mailing list import utility
• list segmentation options using engagement and geographic proximity
• our own forward-to-a-friend application.

And our product roadmap predicts that 2010 will be our busiest development year ever!

Furthermore, Lyris is no longer our sole supplier of technology.  Our email is now being sent through Momentum, the mail transfer agent software from Message Systems, with whom we announced our partnership in June 2009.  We've also partnered with Cantaloupe to integrate email and video (again, with tracking!) through their Backlight application.  And we continue to seek out other partners who can help our clients get the most from their email marketing efforts.

Lyris technology has been part of Delivra's product for years, and our solution will surely always contain at least some Lyris DNA.  New customers who come to us after having used ListManager elsewhere will find our offering familiar and comfortable.  But when combined with our own features and contributions from other partners, it's misleading to refer to what we have as "Lyris ListManager."  That's why, starting today, it's just "Delivra," and the new user interface for 2010 reflects that.

We hope you like the new look and feel!  Be sure to let us know what you think or if there are other improvements we can make to enhance your email marketing experience.

Chris Broshears | Product Development

Many e-mail marketers seeking new ways to engage their audience are considering using video in e-mail. Video is popular because senders can achieve higher click-through rates and better user engagement, and can control their brand while maintaining an ongoing conversation. While technology eventually will evolve so marketers can fully embed their video into an e-mail, today the best practice is to host the video outside the e-mail content with a play button graphic embedded into the text of the e-mail. This allows the recipient to have a visual call to action without affecting the deliverability of the e-mail.

With advancements in e-mail tracking and design, marketers can easily embed the play button into their e-mail content, host it from a branded landing page and track results in real time. This is powerful, considering how it will maintain a conversation with the audience and provide the marketer a useful tool in measuring the ROI of each and every campaign, video and landing page.

While there are many video hosting applications available—both free and subscription-based—consider a subscription-based model with a hosted solution so you can track results, achieve higher search engine optimization and control your brand, as well as the content that is viewed alongside your videos.

Neil Berman | President & CEO