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Email marketing isn't just for huge companies with a lot of budget to spend.  It can be a great way to help small to mid-sized companies level the playing field. 

By teaming up with an email marketing company that can provide email software, smaller companies can share information with their audience quickly and efficiently in the same way that a large company can. 

By working with an email marketing service provider, a company can:

• Provide a central hub for storing their email lists. 
• Give assistance in setting up the appropriate email opt-in for subscribers. 
• Receive templates, making the design of emails much easier. 

Being small doesn't put you at a disadvantage when it comes to email marketing. In fact, an email marketing company is a resource you can use to help you become a powerful player in the game. 

Long ago, before the days of email marketing and Internet-based communication strategies, businesses had to be pretty bold in reaching out to customers. You might send an attractive, well-designed piece via postal mail. Perhaps there was a telephone number printed on your collateral, but chances are good that you will still have to follow-up and follow-up and follow-up again to generate real business.

Email marketing certainly makes it easier to send lots of high-quality, unique marketing pieces to thousands of customers. You can do this at the click of a button at incredibly competitive rates. But I'm shocked how many email marketers seem to forget that at it's heart, email marketing is still email! If you want your customers to engage with you, why not simply ask them to reply?

Virtually any email service provider can customize the "From" field of outgoing messages. When an email is received, customers can hit the "reply" button in their client with thoughts or questions. That's not just an "open" or a "clickthrough", but an actual, intentional reply! These kinds of interactions are gold. Why not encourage your customers to start a conversation over email?

If your email marketing templates include disclaimers like "Do not reply to this email" or "This message is sent from an unmonitored address", get rid of those statements right away. Sure, you might find yourself receiving more than handful of customer inquiries, but that's a great problem to have.

Next, change your boilerplate text to request feedback. "Like what you see? Want to learn more? Just REPLY to this message and we'll get back to you right away."

When you start to think of email marketing as a conversation, you realize that not all campaigns need to be slick, multi-column newsletters with tons of content. Instead they might be a couple of sentences just to try to trigger a response. After all, that's the point of email marketing. We send messages so that customers might be interested in getting back to us to make a purchase. Use those email messages to actually request feedback!

Guest Blogger | Robby Slaughter

Robby Slaughter is a Principal with Slaughter Development, an Indianapolis - based business process and workflow consulting company. His new book, Failure: The Secret to Success is available now at www.failurethebook.com.

In Indianapolis, the forecast is heating up which means summer is right around the corner. Hopefully, you have already started creating some fun, festive emails for the summer season, but if not - here are some summertime tips to get you started:

1. Re-design. Have you had the same email template for several months now?  Summer is the perfect time to create a new email design that adds freshness to your email marketing campaign.

2. Bright Colors. If you are creating a new summer template, we encourage you to use bright summer colors like red, orange, pink, and yellow. Incorporating these fun colors can really make your email design POP!

3. Images. Adding bright colors to an email template may be too much for some businesses to incorporate.  Instead, if it is more appropriate, add a summer time image!

4. Content. It may seem easy to do with the sun shining and birds singing, but remember to include upbeat content that is fun for your subscribers to read. Great content will encourage them to click to read more.

Any other summer email tips you think of? Please share in the comments!

Lavon Temple | Marketing

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to visit my favorite comedy club (The Comedy Cellar in NYC) and had a blast (as usual).

Stand up comedians have always amazed me. The process of developing and refining a routine is fun to watch. If you've ever seen the movie "Comedian" about Jerry Seinfeld's return to stand-up, you know what I mean.

And the Comedy Cellar is a great place to witness it first-hand. It's a well-known club, so there are up-and-comers who have already gone out and tried their material out in smaller venues, but there is a good mix of big-name comedians who live close-by and may walk in to try out their new stuff.

The process reminds me of good email marketing practices. A comedian has to deliver value in the form of making his audience laugh. And a key to that is listening and incorporating the feedback that they're getting back.

One act on the bill the night I was there (Anthony Jeselnik) was preparing for the upcoming Comedy Central roast of Donald Trump. Toward the end of his routine, he ran through some of the jokes he's planning to use. At one point, after a big laugh, he stopped and made a note to himself, telling the crowd, "Maybe I need to open with that one." I won't give the joke away, but I will be watching and hoping he does.

A marketer who isn't paying attention to which mailing and/or links are generating the most inquiry, is missing an opportunity to improve their future sends.

A good comedian is clued into what is on people's minds. If you're still making jokes about Tiger Woods' affair, rather than, "Tiger's blood", you're not staying up-to-date (though I realize that my reference to Tiger's blood is probably already passe, which is one good reason for me to stick to my day job).

Making sure your emails are delivering new and desired information will keep your audience engaged and looking forward to your next email. If you continue to send the same old thing, without delivering value, you'll find your audience seeking out what they're looking for elsewhere.

Good comedians often ask questions. Whether they're targeted specifically at the front-row folks ("How long have you two been together?") or at the audience in general ("Anyone here from Europe?") they're an excellent way to get/keep the crowd engaged.

And the questions, while often targeted as a seguay to an already planned joke, can result in a new, fresh direction or new joke.

In email, this could be as simple as asking for more information at the time of sign-up, or regular surveys asking "How relevant was this article?".  Treating your subscribers as one large, homogeneous group (or assuming that your audience hasn't changed over time) can mean missing out on great opportunities to connect, or sending information that is meaningless.

I also noticed that the other acts weren't cloistered away in sound-proof rooms while not performing. They're watching each other, seeing what works and what doesn't. They're picking up on how people are reacting to others and using that to help determine the direction of their own set. Is this topic going to be taboo? Does this crowd need more explanation or are they sharp? Marketers who aren't staying abreast of what others in their industry are doing can find their programs out-of-date. Sign up for competitors' mailings. Are they making use of video, or social sharing? If so, and you're not, you might want to step it up. Does your template still look like it did 5 years ago but the competition is fresh and slick? Check with our design team about creating a new one.

Timing and cadence are crucial to stand-up. Refining an act means figuring out when to give some time for the joke to sink in and when to circle back on a punchline. You want to figure out which jokes work together and in what order. Or even when what started as an unintended stammer broke the joke up in a newer, funnier version.
Do your mailings do better if sent on a specific day of the week? Does the time of day make a difference? Are you sending too often? Or do your subscribers want to hear from you more often? If you're not testing you could be off the mark.

If you want to do more, and are looking for help, let us know. We're here all week. And don't forget to tip your waitress.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

PS: I mentioned the movie "Comedian" earlier, and it still has my all-time favorite trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi995033369/.

Wow - I stepped outside to let my dog outside this morning and it was cold, which can mean only one thing. Fall is finally here. It was only a month ago that Rachel was writing about the Dog Days of Summer and now we have to quickly switch to the fall season. But, like she mentioned in her blog post, it's time to start planning for those fall and holiday email campaigns.

Hopefully, by now you've already planned your email marketing campaign for the holidays and now you can start implementing the decisions you've made.  Here's a brief reminder as to some items to consider in your plan:

• What are your holiday email campaign goals and objectives?
• When and how often are you going to send emails?
• What are you promoting or trying to tell your audience?
• What creative holiday design can you add to your content?

But, relax - there is still time to work on your holiday email campaigns. In the meantime, here are a couple of  links to help boost your email marketing campaign in the fall season:

Take time to sit and watch the leaves turn - Outlines some emails you can send to readers that reflect the fall season, including:

• Fall Back Reminders
• Appreciation or Thank You Emails
• Sales & Promotion Announcements

What's IN/What's OUT: Email Trends for the Fall Season - explains some email marketing and email trends to look for in the upcoming fall season and points out those things that may be dying out.

Our application even offers some various Fall and Holiday templates to help get you started.  If you need help creating an effective fall season email campaign and preparing for the rush of the holiday season, contact us here at Delivra and we'll be more than happy to help you to plan (and remind you to breathe).

Lavon Temple | Marketing

In a world of multiple web platforms, companies are faced with having to decide which platforms to use when marketing to their current and potential consumers. Of course, they want to have a website where all of their information, products, services, and promotions can be housed, but as we all know, social networks and blogs have emerged as places where people go to find information. While social media has its marketing benefits, one of the simplest and often forgotten mediums is email, something that we use every single day. Even though social media can be more unique and appealing, I think that email still has some great benefits that people commonly overlook.  The benefits can be explained with a simple equation:

Email Marketing =Value + Consistency + Accessibilty

Here's why:

1. It's Permission Marketing

While you're always going to have those email subscribers who immediately delete the newsletters or promotions you send, you still have a list of people who specifically asked to receive emails from you. Take this opportunity to consistently stay in contact (and stay top of mind) with your subscribers. Furthermore, send them the information that's going to provide them with the most value. What's going on next week? What's in your store? What's on sale? How can you increase sales?

2. It's Branded

Most newsletters or promotional email templates are designed to look like the website and also guide visitors back to the website. This not only increases a company's chance of customer contact, but it educates the customer on what the company provides. Having this consistency between the website and email creates a positive correlation for the customer. The consistent branding gives the company an identity that potential customers recognize.

3. It's Everywhere!

Almost everyone has an email account, while not everyone has a Facebook or Twitter account. Furthermore, you have an email account in order to setup the social media accounts. Therefore, when marketing through email, you have much more accessibility to your designated target marketing. Your marketing messages can also be easily forwarded to friends, family, coworkers, etc. And you can send it to anyone as long as you have their email address. You don't have to be friends with them or following them.

So next time you think about immediately deleting a promotion from a company, stop and actually look at the email. The company is sending you the email because they have something relevant to say. It will provide you with relevant information, it will educate you about the company, and you might be able to help someone else. Remember, you were the person who subscribed to that newsletter or company's website in the first place. Why do so if you don't get anything out of it?

Guest Blogger | Jenn Lisak

Jenn Lisak, Project Manager, is a recent graduate of Butler University, where she majored in Marketing and Business Development.  She currently resides in Broad Ripple with her new kitten, Delilah.

Jenn's role at Fusework consists of client management, social media marketing, and creative development of the company. She loves helping clients reach their marketing objectives,and she acts as an in-house social media consultant.

In the future, she plans to publish a novel and eventually own her own business.

For those of us that have not been hiding under a rock, you've probably witnessed the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, where Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White (my personal favorite), and Larry the Cable Guy put on a comedy act that has entertained the masses.  One of the more infamous segments of their act is the "You might be a redneck if..." piece.

If you have, you'll recognize my spin off: You might need an email makeover if...

• You do not have a strong call to action in the email telling your readers the next step you'd like them to take.  A strong call to action should be placed in the email subject line that also shows up in the preview pane.  In the content of the email, there should also be a hyperlink to the call of action.
• You are using too many pictures and not enough text.  Sometimes all your pictures won't load and you want to make sure people aren't losing the message because they can't see all of it.  Put enough words in your content so that people can understand the message without the pictures!
• You haven't considered how it looks on mobile devices.  Many people are checking their email on mobile devices, so shouldn't you be considering how your emails look to them?
• You haven't inserted social media links into your email marketing campaign. So many people are involved in the social media world, you want to make sure you give them the opportunity to share your emails or parts of your emails to their followers and friends.

So, I have to ask...are you guilty of making some of these email marketing mistakes?  If so, DON'T PANIC!  Delivra can help!

Lucky for you, Delivra has launched its first ever Extreme Email Makeover Contest and you still have time to participate because the contest doesn't close until July 31st.  That gives you plenty of time to upload your email designs.

Don't forget what you could win! If the winner is a current client of Delivra, they will receive a custom made, sophisticated email template placed into their established account for use in future mailings.  If the winner is not a Delivra client, they will receive one custom designed email template, one hour of email strategy consultation, access to Delivra 101 and 201, and a 90 day trial account.

So, don't be embarrassed if you have a terrible email design, enter it in the Delivra Extreme Email Makeover Contest and save yourself!

Lavon Temple | Marketing

I often hear dramatically different definitions and interpretations of what "Full Service" means as it relates to email marketing.  Please don't confuse the quality of service with the level of service...these are two very different things.  "Level" describes the agreed upon ownership of various activities between the customer and the contractor/vendor.  These activities could range from creative design, automated email campaign setup and management weekly or monthly coaching/consulting all the way to "here is my vision...let me know when you are there." "Quality" on the other hand describes how well or poorly those activities are handled in the eyes of the customer.

Let's face it, marketers are continually being asked to do more with less.  If by chance I temporarily forget this and need to be reminded...I need only look across our office at our Director of Marketing, Carissa Newton, as she navigates through the constant barrage of requirements and requests: e-newsletters, product releases, press releases, SEO optimization, website improvements, sales collateral, speaking events, whitepapers, blogs, company Facebook page updates, tweets, clicks, PowerPoint templates, etc...all of which need to be done yesterday.

So what level of service is right for your organization?  If I had to group our industry into buckets, I would give you these three:

Full Service - This relationship is where you tell them what you want and they do the work for you.  Typically, you would never have a need to see their user interface.

Self Service - This is the typical SaaS model.  You pay money for access to software...you get training and off you go.  There is usually a phone number, web chat, or email address available if you have a question or concern.

Hybrid - This gives you the flexibility to control those items you wish to control and outsource those that you wish to outsource...either all the time or case by case.

So which one is right for you?  Take a look at your email requirements and your core business over the course of the next 12 months.  Maybe you have a marketing team that can get the job done 6 months out of the year, but will fall short during the trade show season.  Maybe email is the number one most vital component to your business so you would like to have the professionals drive the system.  Maybe you are great at the business aspect of email marketing, but lack a team member with design talent.  Depending on your department and situation, there is a solution out there for you.

To find out if Delivra is the solution for you, please visit our website or give us a call at 866-915-9465.

Scott Cramer | Director of Sales

Delivra has just announced its first ever Extreme Email Makeover contest! If your current email design is in desperate need of a major "face lift" and you want to take advantage of the design skills and various other talents of the Delivra team to help then this is definitely the opportunity for you! 

Wondering how you can participate and get in on all the action? It's really simple! All you have to do is go to the Delivra Facebook Fan page and click "like" this page. From there, you can simply upload your current email design. Then, you can vote on which email you think should win! That's it! 

The sweepstakes runs through the month of July, so there is plenty of time to get your emails in. Then, on August 3rd, 2010, after waiting so patiently, Delivra will announce who is in the most desperate need for an email "makeover" - the winner of the Extreme Email Makeover!

Wondering what you win? I thought so! If the winner is a current client of Delivra, they will receive a custom made, sophisticated email template placed into their established account for use in future mailings. If the winner is not a Delivra client, they will receive one custom designed email template, one hour of email strategy consultation, access to Delivra 101 and 201, and a 90 day trial account. Pretty sweet, huh? 

To learn more about the Extreme Email Makeover, you can read the press release located on the Delivra website or go straight to our Facebook page. 

You do not want to miss out on your chance for an Extreme Makeover!

I have the exciting opportunity to partner with a client who is literally starting from scratch. No e-mail content to send and no e-mail addresses to e-mail the content to. What a fantastic situation to be in!! First, it answers the age old question “How many e-mail addresses do I need to have in my database to sign up for Delivra services?” Apparently you do not need any. Second, starting from scratch gives them the opportunity to start with best practices from day one, think through and determine their long term goals with e-mail marketing, establish what is going to be the most effective way to grow their list, design a branded HTML template to mirror the website, and set benchmarks for success.

I believe that anyone can theoretically start from scratch.  What would you do differently if you had a blank slate? What process would you change? Template would you redesign? Benchmarks you would set? The good news is that you can start over one change at a time. The new client and I are not making all these decisions all at once and you don’t have to either.  Just change one thing.

• Ask for a quote on a personalized custom template (or make some changes to one of our new templates).
• Set up an automated Welcome Message.
• Talk to your account manager about determining benchmarks for success.
• Brainstorm with your team about opportunities to capture new e-mail addresses and demographic information (ask us about a profile form if you do not have one).

Little changes can make a big impact. Need help figuring out what to change first? Call us. That’s what we are here for.

Rachel Rewerts | Account Management

I don't know about you, but email marketing isn't the ONLY marketing function I handle these days.  In fact, it is one function of about 500 others.  In addition to that, unless you go to school for Web design many schools never even cover email marketing, HTML, or even the web-based technologies that we are all using today to manage those hundreds of things we do.  I doubt anyone can disagree that email marketing, when done right, generates tremendous ROI.  According to the DMA just last year, email marketing can generate as much as $43 of ROI for every ONE DOLLAR you spend.  That's pretty powerful when you think about all of the other marketing methods and tactics that are typically generating one-to-one or two-to-one at best.  And isn't that what it is all about?  ROI-Return on Investment.  Here is a very simple video to learn the concept of ROI...

In today's economy if you are a marketer that isn't measuring each tactic and the results it generates, then you are likely headed for the same demise as the 8 Track Player, the Walkman, or even very soon, the CD!

So NOW you truly get it and you begin marketing by the numbers.  You know email brings the greatest result and you want to integrate more into your strategy, now what?  Well, if you are like me you are juggling all things marketing and cannot self-teach yourself HTML overnight.  there are still a few things you can do to be successful.  Here's my list of three things that will guarantee your marketing superstar status regardless of your knowledge of HTML:

1. Use an Email Marketing Service Provider (otherwise known as an ESP) to manage your campaigns.  You see, with an ESP you get the software to build, send and track each campaign with ease.  In fact, almost all ESPs have very user-friendly editors & templates in which you can use to build your HTML message.
2. Find resources that help you along the way...whether you design in Dreamweaver, FrontPage or in an ESPs editor, finding email marketing or HTML tips and guides to reference along the way will help you a ton!  Email Marketing Reports has an excellent article where they reference over 50 articles on HTML and email design.  The Email Experience Council offers research, blogs, and webinars for you to learn more.  In fact, even Delivra offers webinars to our customers now to learn more about the email basics and next steps.
3. Outsource your design work.  It's not unheard of!  We,  as marketers, outsource PR, web design, and many other projects....you can outsource your email design as well and be more effective with the strategy to implement each campaign.  Here at Delivra, we have a full-time design team that can provide advice, custom project-based services along with full-service.  Not only is it a great service for your investment, their design often makes mine blush!  You can even follow their tips, hints, and tricks in our blog in the Design Category.

Hope this blog post provided you some insight and resources to get started today!  Drive powerful results with email marketing today and let me know what questions or comments you have.  Comment today!

Carissa Newton | Marketing

Delivra customers know we have a stock of free-to-use email template designs under our Templates section. This month, we have three new designs available:

The Nail Polish/Product - templates include social sharing links above the fold and are great for highlighting product imagery alongside text blurbs. The design has a delicate, soft feel to make your product imagery pop!

The Free Thinkers - available in both Newsletter and Announcement format and include prominent & powerful social media links. The design is strong with eye-catching colors.

The Fruit + Gray - designed with tiering tables of information to allow for a natural flow to your newsletter content. The design contains bright fruit imagery and colors above the fold to engage recipients.

Haven’t tried out our free templates yet? They’re a great solution for a clean, professional design on a low budget or short timeline. Once logged in, head over to the View Templates section under Content. Browse the tabbed categories and see if we have a design that fits your needs.

One of the great things about Delivra’s free ready-made templates is that they are completely dynamic. Don’t like one of the images? Replace it with your own. Need three columns for content instead of two? Just add another.

Keep an eye out for regular updates to our free templates section in the coming months!

Delivra Design Team

There is a slight learning curve to switching from print to e-mail newsletters, but not to worry it isn’t too steep!  Think of the benefits, your results are immediate (real-time tracking on who’s opening, clicking or sharing), your cost is substantially lower (no more printing and postage costs) and you get to know your audience better (what are they clicking on and what information do they like to read about).  Here are three things to keep in mind when making the switch.

1. Length- With a print newsletter you may have 4 or more pages with lengthy articles.  With e-mail you may need to reduce the overall length, but you do not have to compromise your information.  Use Delivra hosted landing pages for full articles and just give a summary or teaser of the article so the reader will be compelled to read on.

2. Design- A lot of times when you are designing a newsletter for print you may be using Word, Publisher or InDesign.  For creating e-mail newsletters we recommend a couple of things:  You could use Adobe Dreamweaver if you are going to create from scratch or use one of our free templates to begin and the editor to make the e-mail look like your brand.  Creating your e-mail using Adobe Dreamweaver or using our free HTML editor and templates will be a lot less frustrating than attempting to copy and paste from Word and more effective than using InDesign to create one large image.  If you are new to HTML altogether we also have some fantastic designers that can create a custom template for you that can save you a lot of time.

3. Tracking- With print newsletters you do not know who received the mail, who opened it, what articles were read or if they shared it with a friend.  With e-mail you do, so take advantage of that! Create different calls to action. Those calls to action could be landing pages (so you can see what information they are interested in), a table of contents linked to anchors in the article, opportunities for your recipients to go to the website, e-mail you or share the e-mail on facebook, twitter or (insert social media of your choice).  After doing all of that work, don’t forget to check out your reports.  Use that information to craft your next e-mail newsletter.

Need help? Call us for more info! 1-866-915-9465.

Rachel Rewerts | Account Management

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