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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.

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. 

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"! 

• Online (Website and Blog)
• Face to Face
• Telephone
• Direct Mail
• Social Media
• Brick and Mortar
• Email
• Other?

a.       Only collect information you plan on using to personalize your emails or information to evaluate a mailing. Asking for too much information will deter people from taking the time to fill out your form.

a.       A redirect page could provide a thank you or a reward for signing up.

The American Le Mans Series is a Delivra client. A friend and I recently attended their road race in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. She commented, "No one asked us if we wanted to sign up for their email list. Shouldn't there be some visibility here?" I make a mental note to discuss that at a later date with ALMS. 

This week, we met with Chris McMurry and team, ALMS marketing agency. They laid out two strategies, one which was to increase the fan base. Consequentially, they were planning to pass out 3x5 cards at entrance gates for attendees to sign up for their email list. 

Seizing the moment, we suggested testing our text-2-subscribe tool. It allows someone with a mobile device to sign up for email announcements directly. This email list building tool eliminates websites and manual data entry thereby providing a more convenient and possibly a more accurate way to subscribe. 

ALMS will test both methods (card and text) at their October race in California. I'll get back to you all with the results. 

Successful emailing!

Delivra is an email marketing software and services provider. While email marketing is our specialty, we understand the importance of incorporating several different types of marketing efforts to be most effective.

Blogging is an active piece of the inbound marketing puzzle pertinent for some businesses to be an active part of.

What is a blog?

For the technical definition of a blog, click here.  For companies,  a blog is an interactive tool that allows them to share information about their company, industry, or business practices in general. They can share this blog post to their social networking sites or comment with their own views.   A blog is a great way to engage visitors with your website, increase traffic, and potentially assist in gaining leads.

Who should be using a blog?

With the Internet so readily available today, literally anyone with access can write a blog.  Determining what businesses should or should not write a blog is based on individual companies. Some things to consider though before starting a blog would be to make sure you have the resources available and determining if you have something to say relevant to your audience.

How should you start blogging?

As with any new marketing channel, you want to make sure you have a plan of action completed first. Determine the following:

• What kind of audience do I hope to reach?
• What software do I want to use to present my blog?
• What content do I want to share?
• What do I hope to accomplish with my blog?
• What metrics and statistics can I track to see how well my blog is progressing?

This is a brief overview of blogging and some tips on getting started. For more information, check out these resources!

This Blogging Thing Really Works

9 Tips to Start Blogging Successfully

How to Start a Blog

As with any marketing strategy, it's important to continuously evaluate and improve. Over the next few weeks, we're going to be doing some work on the Delivra blog.  You may notice changes in the look and feel of the site, more guest bloggers participating, and more. Stay tuned for more updates!

Lavon Temple | Marketing

A website is often times considered the hub of a company. The main location for potential customers to quickly go in order to see a variety of information about your business. Therefore, it should be a well-designed, easy-to-use tool for visitors.

In a previous blog post, I mention three tips to ensure a reader has a great experience on your site. Below are a couple I'd like to add to the list.

1. Simplicity. Some companies really overdo it with the amount of information they try to add to their site. To start with, most prospects skim through a site. Make your website clean and organized, making it easier for navigation.

2. Mobile. More and more people own smartphones. Consider creating a mobile version of your website for those users accessing your site while on the go. Creating a mobile version makes it easier to see and navigate through your site on their mobile devices.

Any other helpful website tips you can think of?

Lavon Temple | Marketing

Email marketing is a great tool to help you reach your overall marketing and sales objectives. However, sometimes it's hard to know where to to start to make the leap from sending everything to everyone to really utilizing the targeted and dynamic power of email marketing. Here are some tips that should help you get started:

Define your Goals- This should not be confused with your email marketing statistics. Email open rates and clickthrough numbers are good indicators of how you are performing, but not necessarily end goals. Define what you want to accomplish. Is it to increase attendance at an event, raise more money or sell more of a widget? Define what the goal is and create an attainable (yet stretch) goal that is measurable and use email metrics as indicators of your success towards that goal.

Create your Baseline- Compare a series of mailings that have gone out to your audience over time to observe any trends.

Clean your List of Unengaged Members- If a member is not doing anything with your emails, then why continue to send to them? A re-engagement campaign pools all of your unengaged members into a segment so you can attempt to re-engage them. After you send your re-engagement emails and there is no activity, then change their member status so you are no longer sending to them.

Segment your Audience- If your audience is diverse and will likely respond differently to email content, time or day sent, then consider segmentation. For example, if this is a campaign to raise money, maybe define segments based on past donations. Another good option would be to segment based on age ranges or member engagement/previous activity.

Start Testing and Sending Email Campaigns- A/B Split testing is a way to test different pieces of content among your defined segments to see which piece of content gets the best results. The best way to utilize this is to test one or two variables at a time and evaluate which content gets the better results to send to the rest of your segment.

Evaluate and Make Changes-Review your baseline statistics to your new statistics coming in. The frequency of sending your emails to that audience will determine how long before you can really evaluate your results and start making changes to your content, sending frequency and subject lines.

Refining your email marketing tactics can take some time, but is well worth the effort. Need help? Contact us today with additional questions!

Rachel Rewerts | Account Management

Email marketing can be an extra tool you can use to direct people to your website.  However, once you have captured their attention, what will they find? Here are some tips for making sure your website is always offering a great experience to viewers.

Call to Actions. It is recommended you locate your calls to action on all the pages of your website where people can easily find them. Keep these calls clear and concise so people know what to expect when they click them and what information they will be receiving.

Brand Consistency. When directing people to your website, make sure they know it is actually yours and they have made it to the appropriate place. So many times I have clicked on a link to a website only to wonder if I've somehow been directed away. Placing a logo and using colors consistent with your other marketing efforts can usually help deter this from happening.

Clear Navigation. Once you've motivated readers to visit your website, do not make it impossible to find everything. Clear navigation ensures that readers do not have to click numerous times to find certain information or they do not have to remember a complicated way to get back to a place that interested them.

If you've intrigued people to look at your site, be kind to them. Make your site easy to use and manipulate, so readers will be more likely to return.

Lavon Temple | Marketing

Are you an online retailer participating in email marketing?  Here are some features you may not currently be taking full advantage of and may want to consider incorporating into your email efforts to make sure your company stays on the top mind of your consumers.

Abandoned Shopping Cart Programs. Set up an email marketing campaign in response to when a consumer browses through your website, adds items to their online shopping cart, but for some reason gets distracted and does not complete their purchase. Send them strategically created emails to remind them of their abandoned purchase and encourage them to come back and finish the checkout process.

Autoresponders. Use this effective tool to communicate quickly with consumers based on their shopping behaviors. Once a shopper completes their purchase, send them an automatic email thanking them for their purchase and persuading them to come back and visit soon.

Bar Codes. Delivra offers a barcode editor allowing companies to create scannable coupons to add to their emails so shoppers can print them for easy use. Using coupons is a great way to encourage shoppers to visit the physical store location.

Text-to-Subscribe. Have your customers subscribe to your email list via a text and send them a promotion letting them know you appreciate it.

Purchase Tracking. This feature allows companies to see which emails generated the most purchases and what individuals purchased the most based on what clicks were linked.  This could be extremely helpful information in creating more targeted emails for consumers.

For more information on features that can boost the shopping experience for your consumers and keep your company on the top of  their mind, contact Delivra today!

Lavon Temple | Marketing

Recently, I received an email from MarketingSherpa.  Many of you may have received the same email and have seen this new chart they have presented called, Top Tactics Organizations Use to Improve Email Relevancy. Please click here to read more from MarketingSherpa and to review the information in the chart.

In today's blog post, I'm going to go into more detail about some of these ways you can make your email more relevant.

Segmented Email Campaigns Based on Behavior. Using an email marketing service provider, like Delivra, can offer you tools that can assist you in tracking your customers behaviors.  For example, by implementing clickstream tracking or purchase tracking you can see the items your customer is interested in or what links they are clicking on.  You can then send them emails based on this information which is more targeted to their needs based on the acquired information.

Allow Subscribers to Specify Email Preferences.  This is SO important. People opting in to receive your mailings should have  an opportunity to be heard and to tell you what they want.  For example, have a subscriber preference center available so your subscribers can choose to receive your mailings daily, weekly, or monthly.  Note: This preference center can also function as a tool to have subscribers update their personal information such as: name, email address, company.

Automatically Send Email Based on Triggers. Setting up an email based on triggers is a great way to get relevant content out to your subscribers efficiently without having to take  up to much of your time. Using an email marketing service provider makes it easy to set up a drip marketing campaign.

Segmented Email Campaigns Based on Sales Cycle. As mentioned above, a drip marketing campaign is a simple way to send continual emails to a subscriber at timed intervals.  For example, you can set up a prospect to receive emails on a weekly basis so you can continue to offer a little bit more insight into your company and how you can help them.

Dynamically Personalized Email Content. Sending a personalized email to a subscriber is important because it makes them feel like they are actually a valued part of your company and it makes the email more relevant to them. Again, not to beat on this point TOO much, but Delivra can assist you in personalizing your emails quickly and easily for each customer.

To learn more about Delivra and how we can help you to send more relevant emails with less time and effort spent, contact us today at info@delivra.com or by calling 866.915.9465.

Lavon Temple | Marketing

Price:
Fancy Feast $0.62
Chunk Light Tuna $0.64

Weight:
Fancy Feast 3 oz
Chunk Light Tuna 5 oz

Ingredients:
Fancy Feast - Fish broth, salmon, liver, wheat gluten, meat by-products, chicken
Chunk Light Tuna - Light tuna, water, vegetable broth

My Cat's Reaction:
Fancy Feast - smell, stare, lick the gravy, back for the good stuff later or never
Chunk Light Tuna - meow for dinner, then head is down until the dish is licked clean

Packaging is an art form for consumer goods but does not always have your best interests in mind. Packaging with email service providers can also be misleading.

How do you evaluate software tools, deliverability, rendering, training, service, security, success quotient vs. price between providers?

Feature sets, service, results and price varies widely. The phrase 'email marketing' is used liberally. What you don't know can be defeating against the crush of email that recipients contend with on a daily basis.

How do you know when the fancy packaged service appears to offer more but actually offers less than the plain tuna variety?

Here at Delivra we take our tuna seriously. Our values statement reads, "We exist to serve our customers."

Now, Delivra does not have the only straight-talking tuna philosophy in this business, but my advice is to seek out those that share our vision of how to partner with people rather than those that prefer to partner with the paycheck.

Have a comment or story to share? Contact me at n_berman@delivra.com.

Neil Berman | President & CEO

There are a few places in our organization where we've always used some form of Symantec's Protection Suite. They recently rebranded one of the offerings we use to "Symantec.Cloud" - a hosted solution provider that offers some neat SaaS tools for security. We have been using part of the new suite in our HQ and I've really enjoyed some of the new features and streamlined reporting. So, when Symantec sent me an invitation to complete a survey and provide some specific product feedback, I set aside some time and made sure to complete the survey (who doesn't want to toss their hat in the ring and ask for a few new features?).

The survey was straight-forward and easy to use. What caught my eye was when I completed the survey and was asked to review some checkboxes. I saw a security threats newsletter that I didn't even know existed. I'm already subscribed to a few other Symantec newsletters, but this was one I didn't know existed. I'm no raving Symantec fan by any stretch, but I like to keep up with what the biggest security providers are thinking - and I find that email newsletters are the best channels for doing that. It took two seconds to review the checkboxes and toss a check in the box for opting in to receive the new content from this partner of ours. Look at how easy they made the subscribe option:

Not only did they provide a quick checkbox (among some other calls to action), but they told me the name to expect to see (Symantec.cloud Intelligence Report) and the content I should expect in it. This way, they can keep the brand name they want - the .cloud stuff - while maintaining clarity as to the specific content that will be in the newsletter. They already have my email address because they offered me a chance to win a $20 gift certificate for providing it in the first question of the survey. Not a huge incentive, but I'm already a customer - so they have my email address somewhere. They're capitalizing on a customer that is already very engaged in their brand. Very nicely done.

Now that I know exactly what I'm getting, I'm actually looking forward to my first Intelligence Report from Symantec. Make it easy for your users to subscribe and you'd be surprised how easy it is to grow your list - the right way! Hit us up, we'd love to help you develop a Marketing strategy that will leverage all of Delivra's offerings to help you better engage your customers through surveys, landing pages, and proper email strategy: we're here to make you look good!

Chris Nelson | IT & Security

I recently wrote about my visit to The Comedy Cellar, and how running a successful email marketing program can be similar to doing stand-up comedy.  But the performances that night weren't the only part of the evening that reminded me of a valuable lesson:

If you truly want to engage your audience, it helps to know something about them... and be respectful.

After the show, my party and I weren't quite ready to call it an evening and made the decision to check out The Olive Tree, which sits directly above the Comedy Cellar.  It's a charming little place, with slate for the tables and bar surfaces, allowing patrons to doodle or write on with supplied chalk.  Beers are reasonably priced (by NYC standards) and you never know who is going to walk-in.

After a couple of pints, I see my friend's eyes go wide in the direction of the front door.  I turned around to see Tracy Morgan enter with a small group, greet a few other comics and take a seat at a booth.  Now, I'm a big fan of Morgan (specifically his work on  "30 Rock") but everything about his body language said "don't bother me".  So we just observed from afar.

The women in the booth next to ours noticed our excitement at his entrance and --in a thick Brazilian accent-- one asked "Who IS that?"  We explained, referencing "30 Rock" and "SNL".  Neither seemed to register.

"I'm going to talk to him." she announced, before standing up, walking to his booth and sitting down.

Somewhere short of 2 minutes later, she returned, stating "He is NOT a nice man!"  I asked what she meant by that, and she explained it with "Well, he wouldn't even look at me or talk to me."  Somehow I avoided laughing and asked her to continue.  "I mean, he was rude! Normally, people are very interested in me and want to know all about me, like where I'm from. He didn't ask anything about me."  After venting for a while longer, she and the rest of her table left.

Around that time, in walked my favorite comedian, Dave Attel.   I knew he was on the bill for the two shows that followed ours, but the lineup wasn't available at the time that I made my reservations.  He sat for a while, looking over some papers, then disappeared down the stairs to do his set.

A little while later, Attel returned and sat at a table.  I made the decision to walk over and say hello.  He was jotting down some notes in a notebook, so I decided to be brief.  "Hi. I don't want to interrupt but just wanted to tell you I really enjoy your act.  I've seen you 4 times, beginning about 10 years ago in Kansas City for New Years Eve, and every time I laughed until it hurt.  I really miss (the Comedy Central show he hosted) 'Insomniac.'"

He looked up, then stood up, put out his hand to shake and said (I'm paraphrasing because I was a bit star struck) "You know, I love hearing that kind of thing.  It's good to know that people enjoy the show."  He asked a couple questions about where in KC, and if that's where I'm from.  Upon finding I am from Indianapolis, he mentioned getting on the Bob & Tom show and that he hoped to make it out this summer.  I asked if he'd mind a photo together and he agreed.  I was thrilled.  Then he asked if we'd seen his set tonight.  I explained that we had hoped to, but that the reservations were for the earlier show.  To my delight, he said, "Well, come down.  I'll have them let you in."  We accepted his offer, and were shown to a few seats that are kept in reserve by the bar.  His material was great as always, and when the waitress came by she asked "What can I get you? Dave's buying."  It was the perfect ending to a perfect evening.

And all I could think of was how completely opposite my encounter was to that of the woman at the next booth earlier.  We were both approaching a celebrity that we'd never met, but knowledge and respect made a big difference in how we were received.

I see marketers make a similar mistake all the time.  Be respectful.  Your subscribers are the celebrities in this case.  If they're going to bother to look at you, you're going to need to show that you know who they are.  Sending offers that aren't relevant or not establishing (or abusing) their permission is more likely to get you ignored or deleted (or worse.)  Delivra offers the tools to collect feedback, analyze your subscriber data and help you send more targeted messages.  And we're always glad to help if you have questions.

Kris Dougherty | Operations & Deliverability

With the rise of social media, people assumed email marketing was dead. I'm assuming that with the number of mobile phone owners increasing, people will again think...email is dying. I can't agree.

In fact, just like there is great potential in email and social media integrating, I think the same is true for mobile and email.

Recently, a HubSpot blog post highlighted effective email list growth tactics based on information from MarketingSherpa. It was encouraging to see that mobile capture was proving to be a valuable tool for B2B companies. I have no doubt that B2C will also soon find the effectiveness of using mobile capture for email lists. There are so many opportunities to engage with your customers via the mobile marketing channel, such as text to subscribe, SMS, and email.

According to one article by Christmas of 2011, 1 in 2 Americans will own a smart phone. With so many people in possession of a mobile device, it's pertinent marketers start to infiltrate this marketing channel. If you haven't started engaging with mobile marketing yet, here are a few quick tips to get you going:

1. Plan. As with most new marketing strategies, it's important to prepare a plan. You have to determine which areas of mobile marketing are the best to implement based on who your audience is and how active they are on mobile devices.

2. Goals. Once you've determined that your audience is, in fact, going to benefit from your company engaging with them via this marketing channel, it's important to figure out what your company's goals are with using mobile strategies.

3. Budget. Next, figure out what available funds you have to incorporate this new tool. Once you have an idea of what you can spend, you can start the implementation process of some of these tactics.

Of course, these are just the very beginning steps to get started implementing mobile marketing. If you are currently working with an ESP to send your email marketing campaigns, you may want to check with them to see if they also provide mobile marketing services as well.  Delivra plans to soon launch the text to subscribe functionality for it's clients, allowing people to text a keyword to a short code number in order to subscribe to your email list.

I think we all agree that mobile marketing is on the rise. Have you seen a mobile marketing campaign that you thought was exceptional? Please share in the comments; I'd love to hear about it!

Lavon Temple | Marketing