A lot of importance is placed on deliverability in email campaigns.  What this refers to is the percentage of emails that actually make it into the subscribers’ inboxes.

But another important metric is the actual mix of email clients your subscribers are using to view your emails and how each of them displays your message.  Even people who have been doing email marketing for a long time sometimes don’t pay enough attention to this.

For example, many email clients (“email client” means Gmail, Outlook, Eudora, etc.) will have a default setting that turns off all graphics in the preview window.  The reason for this is spam-related, the details of which are beyond the scope of this post.  And since most email campaigns have graphical banners at the top, those banners won’t load when graphics are turned off.  If you’re not aware of this, and you don’t design your email template the right way in order to compensate, your viewer might see just a big blank box in their preview window.  Clearly not what you want!

Some people might say, “But isn’t that why we also include a text-based version?”  While it’s good to include a text version, the reason for doing so is not what you might think.  The text based version is for people who specifically need text-only emails for accessibility or bandwidth reasons.  HTML is text too, from a technical standpoint.  Turning off graphics in an email client still renders the HTML properly, it just doesn’t download and display the images rendered via the HTML <img> tag.

Here’s one final tidbit to seal the deal… mobile devices do not load graphics in the email program, at least my iPhone doesn’t.  It doesn’t even LET me load graphics!  And guess what?  The iPhone is the second most popular email client for one of my lists.   My ESP (E-Mail Service Provider), which is MailChimp, tells me what email clients are used to view my emails.  Take a look at the chart, Gmail is #1 and iPhone is #2.  It would behoove you to check your own list to see what your email client mix is.

Another activity you should consider is email client testing.  Any time you change your email template, you need to retest it on at least the top five email clients that are used by your subscribers.  It’s easy enough to create accounts for yourself on these different clients, and send tests to those accounts and just view them.  View them with graphics turned off and then on.  View them in the preview window and the full reading window.  View them on different devices if you can (Windows vs. Mac vs. iPhone/iPad, etc.)

Yes, this all sounds like a bit of a pain, but isn’t it worth it if it means just a few more of your subscribers will actually have a better reading experience?  For all you know some of your readers are opening your email just to see a blank box (your header) and with 100 other emails waiting to be read, yours might just get passed by.

I don’t want that to happen to you any more than you do.  If you need help, or have a question about this, just post a comment and I’ll be happy to respond with more details.

Myth #4: E-Mail Marketing is Complicated / Difficult – Part 2

[This is part 6 of the series "Debunking the Myths of E-Mail Marketing."]

In my last post I gave you some tips for getting over your fear that you’re not a good writer. Hopefully it gave you the confidence to start working on the next article for your newsletter.

The second most common thing I hear from new writers is “I don’t know what to write about.”

This problem is actually a lot easier to solve, because all it takes is a little research. The thing is, once you have the mindset of constantly looking for ideas to write about, the ideas will just start coming to you all by themselves. It’s pretty amazing actually, and that’s the way our minds work.

So here are some tips for beginners, to get you on the right track.

Keyword Research

I’ve talked about keyword research many times, and how important it is. It’s also useful to give you ideas.

Go to the Google Keyword Tool and type in some words or phrases you think your buyers might be searching on. It will spit back a long list of things people actually are searching on. This is a great way to fill your mind with ideas for things to write about, because you certainly want to be writing about things your buyers are searching on!

Idea File

I use my smart phone for this, but I used to keep a little notebook and pen in my car or in my purse. If I see something while I’m out and about, and it seems interesting in some way, I write it down in my Idea File.

When it comes time to sit down and start writing my article (or a blog post), if I can’t think of anything right then and there I consult my Idea File.

These ideas don’t necessarily have to be related to your industry. It’s amazing how you can tie things you see in every day life to your field, and these connections will be made once you start writing.

Customer Questions

As businesses owners our customers ask us questions all the time. If you find yourself answering the same question more than once, it’s probably safe to assume that more people have the same question and they just aren’t asking it.  This is a great topic for an article.

A question that has a fairly complicated answer can be the topic for an entire article. Or if you have a list of fairly simple questions you can write about a handful or related questions all in once piece.

How-Tos

People love to learn how to do new things. As an expert in your industry you know how to do all sorts of things, and many of them are things your customers want to know also.

How-To articles are always big hits in my field. It’s probably true of yours also.

Seasonal Topics

Do you own a beach resort? A gift shop? An accounting firm? A landscaping business? Many industries have seasonality, and your customers will get big value from reading about seasonal topics.

Just remember to stay ahead. Don’t write about planting shrubs in July, write that one in March or April. Don’t write about taxes in March, write about them in December. Stay ahead.

Interviews

Many people like reading interviews with interesting people. That’s why magazines publish articles based on interviews.

Who do you know in your field that is interesting, or has a success story to share? A mentor? A customer? A competitor outside your territory? Interview them and then either publish it word for word, or create a story out of it.

Article Writing Tips

So now you have lots of ideas (I hope!) for some upcoming articles you can write. Here are just a few quick tips on writing good articles…

1. Keep it short. 500-1,000 words is plenty. My articles usually run about 700-800 words. That’s a good length to keep people’s interest.
2. Write longer articles and break them up into a series. This makes people look forward to your next issue to read the next installment.
3. Be interesting. Have someone else read your article and tell you if it’s interesting enough. Make sure it’s someone you trust to be honest with you.
4. Be entertaining if possible. You don’t have to be funny or wildly clever. Just put a few quips and stories in there to keep people engaged.

Good luck! I invite you to post a link in the comment box below to your own newsletter so I can check it out. I promise I’ll be honest but gentle .

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Check out my new eBook, “The 3 Secrets of Online Marketing Success” which you can download for free at FreeWebMarketingEbook.com.

I’ve had numerous discussions with small business owners who insist that they’ve got to constantly strive to be on the first page of Google.

My response is always the same “Sure, page one is great, but if you can’t get to page one, page two is not too shabby either.”

There are all sorts of statistics that claim that some very high percentage of people click on the first four (or three or five) results on the first page of Google.  I have several counter-thoughts to this…

1.  Many people who click on the first couple of results will then subsequently click the back button and click on another link (or two or three or six) until they find what they’re looking for (or don’t find it and change their search criteria).

2.  I’m probably not all that abnormal or unusual a person, and I often go to page two of the search results if I’m not happy with what I saw on page one.  Occasionally I’ll even go to page three.

3.  The claim that many SEO firms make that they can get you to the first page of Google is a complete farce. Nobody can guarantee first page Google results.  However, if your company name is unique you can probably get to the first page for your company name (Just Google “Avarra Solutions.”)  But you don’t need a shady internet marketing company to do this for you.

4.  A recent article in Website Magazine (July 2011) called “More Discerning Searches?” describes some new stats published by advertising network Chitika.  They found that iPad users are more likely to immediately scroll down (scanning perhaps?) when they get their initial search results.  In other words they are LESS likely to click on the first few results.  In addition, they are more willing to go to pages two and three of the search results to get to what they are looking for.  What this means is that if your target audience is likely to be searching for your products and services with an iPad, that getting on the bottom of page one, or even page two, is a major accomplishment and could still net you a lot of traffic.

If you’re in a highly competitive field, getting to the first page of Google is almost a part-time job in itself.  That’s great if you’ve got the time (or the money) but most of us small business owners are lacking in both of those areas.

Getting to page two is actually pretty great. Even a little blip on the chart of millions of searches can still mean a lot of traffic for you.

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Check out my new free eBook, “The 3 Secrets of Online Marketing Success” on FreeWebMarketingEbook.com.

In the last post I talked about how every business owner’s primary task is to market her business, not simply to create good products.  Traditional marketing is slowly giving way to a mix of both offline and online methods.  Let’s look at an example of how one business owner tried to use the Internet to promote her jewelry business.

The jewelry industry is highly fragmented with thousands of artisans competing for sales.  Jade’s Jewelry Shop offers uniquely-designed pieces, created by Jade herself. Jade possesses the skills, the passion and the creative flair to create a potentially thriving jewelry business. She makes a wide range of beautiful handmade necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings using different materials.

Jade has a small store space in a local mall, and also goes to weekend fairs and art shows.  Jade wanted to expand her reach and use the Internet to start selling her pieces, so she decided to launch a web site.  She hired a professional web designer and bought an e-commerce application. She had hundreds of lovely pieces in her inventory, and her web site showcased them well.  But even with beautiful products that customers want, and a professional web site, people are still not buying from her online site.

What seems to be missing here?

Jade failed to reach her audience. What she missed was the marketing.  While a web site is part of a marketing plan, she also needs to promote, advertise and generate traffic to her web site.

No matter what kind of online presence you have for your business, whether it’s your own web site, an eBay or Etsy store, or a custom Facebook page, businesses still need to follow the marketing process in order to have success with online marketing.

In Jade’s case, she can make use of social networking sites to promote her online shop. She can use search engine optimization techniques to help expand her online search engine exposure. She can also ask journalists to write stories about her business and products to get publicity in online (or offline) magazines and newspapers.  She could use print advertisements and direct mail to target her most likely customers. Online, she should interact more with her customers by joining online auction sites, discussion groups and relevant directories. Her business card, brochures, and sales fliers should all contain her web address.

Marketing your business in a variety of ways is the key to success. The number of ways to generate interest in, and traffic to, your website are nearly endless. By engaging in a just a few strategic marketing activities, both online and offline, business owners are almost guaranteed to see a significant increase in quality traffic and turn that into higher profits.

Without a well-planned marketing “process” it is nearly impossible to create and maintain product awareness.  Every business therefore, is in the business of marketing their products, not simply making them.

Our EMarketingConnection.com web site has had the same “Newsflash” Drupal theme for a year, and I’ve hated it since a week after I chose and installed it.

But at the time I decided to let it go — it was done, and it worked, and I was OK with that.  It allowed me to put in all the basic content I felt was needed to kick start the site, so it was “good enough.”

We have been working on a redesign since February but, like the cobbler’s children who don’t have any shoes, E-Marketing Connection has kept it’s ugly old design — until today!

The redesign is now done (although I still need to tweak a few buggy little things).  I’ll be announcing it in my newsletter later today.

An unfortunate side-effect of the delay in implementing this design is that I was hesitant to really punch up the content until after the new design was put in.  I honestly didn’t want to attract too many people to the site yet, so why add a bunch of content that would just get stale?  Maybe that was an excuse for not doing the work?  Perhaps, but whatever it was, it’s no longer an excuse .

So… now that the design is ready… now the content build-up begins in earnest.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think of the new design.  Many people worked very hard on it!

EmarketingConnection.com