Become the Publicist to Your Email Campaign

You may be familiar with Samantha Jones, the outrageous yet brilliantly successful publicist of the popular series Sex and The City. Or, maybe you saw Jessica Biel and Queen Latifah take on publicist roles in last year’s hit flick Valentine’s Day.

Either way, there is no denying that Public Relations is getting plenty of publicity these days and applying the publicity angle can do wonders for your email marketing campaign.

A publicist aims to create and build mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its audience. Read on for tips on how to be your campaign’s publicist by focusing on building a relationship with your subscribers so that they remember your messages and get involved in your campaign.

The Web Form or, The Day We Met

In any relationship, the first impression is key. A publicist creates an attention-getting strategy to make a solid first impression in any campaign. In email marketing, the web form is the first chance to greet the subscriber and ask them on the first date.

While setting expectations during sign up, you can say a lot more than just “sign up for my newsletter” in order to really connect with interested visitors. Take a look at this sign up form located on CalorieCount.com:

By adding this snippet to their web form, Calorie Count has initiated a relationship with their subscribers. The word “personalized” creates a one-on-one tone telling the reader they will not be a numbered subscriber. By offering support, they are really offering a relationship rather than just the opportunity to receive messages.

The Love Letter = The Newsletter

To progress a relationship, its important to make your feelings known. To get their point across, publicists frequently send out press releases.

Like an email newsletter, the goal of every press release is to effectively present your idea in a way that stands out. In the quest for uniqueness, publicists relate to their readers by applying the human interest angle.

This angle puts the emphasis on creating a common ground. Like identifying shared goals and interests in a relationship, newsletters can work this angle by telling stories and appealing to emotions.

CalorieCount takes this angle by including testimonials that double as uplifting success stories. Check out this excerpt:

A good testimonial uses the human interest angle to tug at the heart strings. Furthermore, it builds the relationship by establishing trust, credibility and common goals between you and your readers.

Make Sure the Feeling is Mutual

No relationship thrives if it is one-sided. To fully establish a mutually beneficial relationship, encourage subscribers to get involved. The success of a PR campaign is measured by the public’s response and a newsletter is no different.

Calorie Count includes this Ask Mary button at the bottom of each newsletter. The button takes subscribers to the Calorie Count site where they can ask Mary a question.

This button promotes two-way communication between the subscriber and the organization, while also bringing more traffic to the site.

CalorieCount also invites subscribers to submit their own success stories. Inviting feedback improves any relationship including the one between you and your subscribers.

Speaking of Relationships, Let’s Further Ours

In every relationship, communication is important. In our relationship, it’s now your turn to speak. Is the feeling on the importance of relationships mutual?

Public relations is an exciting field for anyone who craves communication and interaction in the work place. As marketers, this is your area of expertise, so what do you think?

Is building a relationship crucial in getting your subscribers to take action? How do you build relationships with subscribers?

Origin: Email Marketing Tips

Are Blacklisted Link Shorteners Getting Your Emails Blocked?

Have you ever used a link shortener on any of your email marketing campaigns?

They’re a handy way to send a long URL to someone using just a few characters. And while they’re nothing new (TinyURL turns 10 in January 2012), they’ve become particularly popular since the rise of Twitter, Facebook and other communication mediums where space is at a premium.

Chances are, you’ve looked at a long link in one of your emails and thought, “It’d be nice if that link weren’t quite so long,” and been tempted to use a link shortening service.

But did you know that link shorteners could potentially hurt your email deliverability rates?

How Link Shorteners Can Affect Deliverability

Link shorteners are handy for trimming down long URLs.

But in addition to offering that convenience, they perform one other function: they mask where a link actually goes.

This makes them appealing to spammers who either:

• Don’t want recipients to see their actual website domains, or
• Don’t want ISPs and other organizations to be able to filter out their spam by blocking emails that have the spammer’s domain in the body of the email.

Of course, some legitimate email marketers may find the idea of shortening links appealing, too. This is particularly true for those who send plain text emails, since in an HTML email you can simply link whatever text or image you want, as you would on a webpage.

The potential problem happens when both a spammer and you use the same link shortener in your emails. If one or more ISPs start blocking emails that include that link shortening domain (to block the spammer), they may inadvertently block your emails, too.

So Which Link Shorteners Are Blacklisted?

I wanted to find out how much of a problem this could really be – after all, everything I’ve said above is true in theory, but I didn’t know how much (or if) it was actually happening – so I cracked open my browser, a spreadsheet and got to researching.

I checked 24 popular link shorteners against three popular URI blacklists:

• Spamhaus DBL
• SURBL
• URIBL

These lists are used by some ISPs to determine whether an email should be placed in the inbox, bulk folder or neither. If the body of your email includes a link to a blacklisted domain, an ISP may choose to not deliver it to subscribers’ inboxes.

Before you look at the results below, keep in mind these results can change at any time. This data is as of June 23rd, 2011. A blacklisted domain could be delisted now, or tomorrow, and an unlisted domain could get listed at any time.

OK, with that said, here’s what I found. Results are ordered by Alexa Rank, starting with the most popular, bit.ly:

Link Shortener	Alexa Rank	Listed in DBL?	Listed in SURBL?	Listed in URIBL?
bit.ly	152	Yes	No	No
tinyurl.com	747	No	No	No
goo.gl	855	No	No	Whitelisted 1
ow.ly	1966	Yes	No	No
t.co	2403	No	No	No
su.pr	6539	Yes	No	No
budurl.com	6907	No	No	No
is.gd	8149	No	No	Whitelisted 1
lnk.co	10,250	Yes	No	Yes
fb.me	11,564	No	No	No
cli.gs	41,012	Yes	No	Yes
deck.ly	72,661	No	No	No
snipurl.com	73,378	No	No	No
tr.im	202,662	No	No	No
fur.ly	249,983	No	No	Yes
twurl.nl	307,728	No	No	Yes
u.nu	585,984	No	No	No
short.ie	695,684	Yes	No	No
blinky.me	1,108,121	No	No	No
kl.am	1,206,876	No	No	No
zi.ma	1,997,505	No	No	No
poprl.com	4,471,928	No	No	No
hex.io	5,784,912	No	No	No
ad.vu	N/A	No	No	No

Yes, I know Alexa rank isn’t a perfect measure of popularity, but Alexa had traffic stats on more of these link-shortening domains than Compete, Quantcast or anyone else I tried.

What Do These Listings Mean?

As you can see, none of the popular link shorteners were listed on SURBL as of June 23, 2011. A couple, goo.gl and is.gd, were actually whitelisted by URIBL.

However, eight of the link shorteners were listed in URIBL or the Spamhaus DBL. So if you sent out an email that included a link to one of those domains, your email delivery rate could have been affected.

Now, the point here is not “OK, so just avoid those ones that were listed.” To re-emphasize from before, these results don’t mean unlisted link shorteners will never cause problems. Any of them, even the ones currently whitelisted, could potentially be blacklisted in the future.

Here’s what you should take away from these findings:

• Link shorteners are handy for trimming long URLs in tweets, Facebook statuses, and similar venues where space is at a premium. But space isn’t at the same premium in an email as it is on social media.
• Whatever convenience link shorteners offer in an email is outweighed by the potential for those shortened links to hurt your email deliverability.
• If you’re currently using these or other potentially abused link shorteners in your email marketing campaigns, stop!

Don’t Like Long Links In Your Emails? Here Are Some Options.

• Set up your own link shortener. If you’re sufficiently tech-savvy, you can install a link-shortening script on a domain of your own. (You’ll need to come up with a short, available domain and register it.)Here are a few different options if you’re interested in this: YOURLS, Phurl, urlShort.
• Send HTML email instead of plain text. If you’re sending HTML email, all you need to do to not have long URLs appear in your emails is to link up appropriate text or images instead of just putting the full URL on display for subscribers.

One last note on links and emails: if you’re sending subscribers a link to a page on your website, isn’t it best for them to be able to see that’s where the link goes? If you see a shortened link in an email, don’t you pause and wonder where it’s going to take you? I sure do.

That’s why with AWeber’ email analytics you can track clicks using your own domain.

Sure, not all links in your emails go to your own website, but a lot of them do. Showing subscribers that they’re going to end up on your site may be the difference between someone clicking and not clicking.

Have You Used Link Shorteners In Your Email Marketing Campaigns?

If so, what was the reason? (I’m not being sarcastic; I really want to know, because I’m not seeing a reason. Enlighten me. ) Have you seen any impact on clicks or email deliverability as a result of using them?

UPDATE: Steve at Word to the Wise has more on bit.ly blocking issues.

1. URIBL’s whitelist “contains legit domain names that [they] do not want to show up on any other URIBL lists.” More on their lists here.

Source: Email Marketing Tips

Optimize Your Email Campaign: Boost Subscriber Growth

Building a list full of subscribers who are interested in your company means more interactions with your website and more sales. But how can you attract more subscribers?

Last year, I worked with some AWeber customers on optimizing their email marketing campaigns. This experience allowed me to see which marketing tactics perform exceptionally well, and which tactics don’t perform so well.

Are you ready to learn the best ways to optimize your campaign to boost subscriber growth? Here are four things you need to start doing to see your subscriber numbers take off…

Location, Location, Location

The location of your web form will impact the number of submissions it gets. I found that it’s best to have your form be immediately visible upon landing on the page, and easily accessible.

Check out the form location on the Runner’s World page:

If you hover over the image, you’ll notice I had to scroll down before I finally found the form amidst other calls for action.

Placing the form closer to the top of the page will work much better. You might also find that including it in your sidebar or header is an easier option, since this will put your form on every page of your website.

The Lost Canyons site is a good example:

No matter what page you’re on, the option to sign up is always available in the sidebar.

The location matters, so pick a place on your site that visitors will see right away and can easily enter their information.

The Power of Influence

Before someone submits their personal information, they might want to see what others think of your company.

People like to read reviews of products they’re thinking of purchasing, and the same concept can apply to email subscribers.

You can include testimonials on your sign up page to influence the visitor’s decision. Seeing what good things others have to say about you builds your credibility.

Take a look at how Drawing Tutorials Online sets this up on their page:

If you don’t have testimonials, you can also provide a counter of the number of subscribers you currently have. AWeber provides a chicklet for you to use to display your current subscriber totals. Note that this works best for large lists.

Happy with your sign up form? That’s good, but there’s more than just your form and website to optimize.

Be Social

If you haven’t heard yet, social media and email marketing work very well together.

Thanks to features like the AWeber Facebook app, you can include forms for people to sign up to your mailing lists on Facebook pages. This allows you to get your social media followers on your mailing list.

Here’s what a Facebook form can look like:

You can also choose to have your broadcast messages published on Facebook and Twitter. This will provide those social media followers a link to a web-based version of your message. The more you share, the more potential subscribers see what you have to offer.

If blogging is more your thing, don’t forget to include a web form in your blog posts or on your blog pages.

Don’t miss out on all the opportunities social media gives you to bring in more subscribers. Start getting in the habit of promoting your material across different platforms. Sharing is easy when you use your AWeber archive…

Build an Archive

You have the ability to publish your broadcast messages to an archive. This enables you to share those messages with more people. The archive will help give your campaign more exposure in two ways:

1. It allows you to share with social media platforms
2. Your messages will appear in search engine results related to your content

With more people viewing your messages, you want to make sure you’re giving everyone a chance to sign up to receive your emails directly to their inbox. Including a form on your archive page will help with this.

Here’s what the archive page looks like with a form on it:

This page is hosted by AWeber, so think of it as bonus advertising.

Start Optimizing!

You know what to do now, so begin implementing the four tips we went over today to start getting more subscribers.

We have more optimization tips for you, so stay tuned to find out how you can keep subscribers on your list! Fill out the form below to join our blog newsletter and you’ll get the next optimization post on increasing subscriber retention right in your inbox.

We’ll also periodically send you the other email marketing tips we publish here. The blog newsletter goes out 2 times per week.

Source: Email Marketing Tips

Do This! (Not That) For AWesome Emails

The AWeber “Do This, Not That” approach was introduced when we realized that email marketing could use the equivalent to the food industry’s Eat This, Not That book. We started off with some tips to improve your deliverability.

Your deliverability might be better now, but that doesn’t mean your email campaign is mistake free. Perhaps the emails you’re creating are what’s hindering your path to success.

This is the second part of the series which deals with mistakes to avoid in the email creation process, and what you can do instead.

Don’t Use a “No Reply” From Address

What this is: Your subscribers see the emails are coming from an email address that has “noreply” in it.

If you’re approaching your email campaign as a one-way conversation, you’re on the wrong track.

A “noreply” address makes your emails sound distant and automated. You’re closed off from your subscribers and discourage developing a relationship with them.

Also consider the fact that your subscribers are getting tools to increase control over their inbox, and Gmail’s Priority Inbox bases its filtering process on your subscribers’ interaction with your emails.

Do this instead:

• Encourage communication!
  Ask your subscribers for feedback on how you’re doing. Let them know you’re available if they have any questions. People like to talk to people, so let your subscribers know there is a person behind the emails.

GreenAnswers encourages communication in their emails by including a question box that directs the reader back to their site to ask a question:

Remember, Not Everyone Can See Images

What this is: You have the ability to create your messages in both HTML and plain text formats. While some subscribers may have their email client set to display HTML messages, others may not.

HTML messages allow you to track open rates and create beautiful messages. However, if you send only HTML, it can make your messages more likely to be filtered. Some of your subscribers may not even accept HTML messages in their email client.

Plain text messages aren’t as likely to be blocked, but they lack the tracking and formatting capabilities that HTML has.

Do this instead:

• Include both HTML and plain text versions
  When you set up both and HTML and plain text version of your message, HTML is sent by default, but if the subscriber does not accept HTML emails it will revert to plain text. Since some subscribers may have trouble with HTML messages, you can include a link to view your broadcast message on a web page when your message is published on the AWeber archive.

Notice how Bon-Ton’s message includes a link to their web-based message:

No matter what you do, make sure you test your message by sending it to multiple email clients and checking that the message appears correctly

Don’t Treat Your Subscribers Like Numbers

What this is: Sending all your subscribers the same message.

You might think you don’t have the time to write personalized messages, so you just use the same campaign for everyone. Or maybe you’ve enabled campaign sharing to use messages someone you know already created and you’re afraid to stray from what you have.

What you’re doing is assuming all your subscribers are the same. This can prevent you from building a relationship with them, and they may be more likely to leave your list. Who likes getting generic messages?

Do this instead:

• Use subscribers’ data to create personalized messages.
  You have the ability to send broadcast messages to a segment within your list. This way you can separate subscribers into different groups, and each group gets messages that are best for them. You can also ask for email preferences at the time of sign up to make sure subscribers are getting emails they requested.

You can choose to send a message to a segment near the bottom of the message editing page:

What Else Belongs on This List?

Can you think of other mistakes email marketers make? What emails drive you nuts? What should be done instead?

By: Email Marketing Tips

Beyond Email: 5 Tips for Marketing Your Business

Yes, email marketing can do a lot to get the word out about your business.

But as a business, you’ve got quite a lot of other irons in the fire. And you’d like them all to get hot.

We know that. We also know that when you do well, we do well. So we hunted up a few little articles that, alongside email marketing, can help you get your business to sizzle.

The 100 Rules for Being an Entrepreneur

Some of this will shock you. Some might upset you. But it’s straight talk on what it really takes to get your business off the ground, from a guy who’s launched several, so it’s all valuable.

You don’t have to agree with every point, but each is worth a moment of thought.

We suggest putting your favorites into your own list. Then you can pull it out whenever you need inspiration – or a reminder of how to stay sane amid all you have to do.

Small sample: “Depressions, recessions, don’t matter. There’s $15 trillion in the economy. You’re allowed a piece of it.”

Google Wonders – Is This Place Still Here?

In an effort to keep search results accurate, Google Maps now highlights listings for businesses it suspects might be closed. Searchers who stumble on those listings have a chance to set the record straight.

If your business has a physical location, you may want to search for your listing and see if your status is in question. And if you’re not listed, for goodness sakes, register now.

The Single Most Powerful Use of Social Media for Small Business

If you’ve ever wondered why your business should be on social media (and what the heck it would do there), here’s your answer. (Make sure to pay attention to John’s advice on who to start engaging with!)

Serendipitously enough, if you take this approach to social media, you should end up with lots of great content ideas for your marketing emails!

Get Your Website Ready for the Mobile Web in 10 Steps

Within two years, half (or more!) of the views of your web site and emails will happen on mobile devices.

Which means that (you’ve heard this a thousand times, say it with me now) now is the time to get ready for mobile.

But what you haven’t heard a thousand times are the practical ways you can do that. What sizes should things be, specifically? What if your site has JavaScript? And how can you tell what it looks like on mobile devices you don’t have?

This 10-step guide has your answers – with practical links to the tools you’ll need.

101 Uses For Quick Response (QR) Codes

In case you missed the post on it, you can use QR codes to get email subscribers: people scan your code with their smartphones, you instantly invite them to sign up for your emails.

Making your codes is easy (again, see this post). The trick is getting them out to the public.

Fortunately, a few of those tricks are laid out here – 101 of them, to be exact – along with links to real-life QR marketing stories.

Are You On Fire Yet?

Put one or two of these in place, and you’ll start to see sparks. Implement all of them, and things will really catch fire.

And of course, if you want to keep the fire of your business blazing brightly, the best marketing tool of all is email marketing through AWeber – just look at what you get!

So if you don’t have an AWeber account yet, get yours now.

Hat Tip To: Email Marketing Tips

Thinking of CC’ing Your Subscribers? Think Again!

You have a message you want to get out to all of your contacts NOW. You’ve been meaning to get an account with an email marketing service provider, but haven’t done so yet. What do you do? Are you just going to use that carbon copy (cc) option your email service has?

Stop!

Using cc to send out your emails will only hurt your email marketing efforts. Besides losing out on all the features an email marketing service can provide, you can damage your reputation as an online marketer.

Why is cc’ing so bad? We’ll break it down for you…

Violation of Privacy

When you cc people on an email, everyone can see the addresses that email was sent to. This can be a problem for a number of reasons:

1. Some of your subscribers may use those email addresses to send their own messages to.
2. Spammers target these types of emails when data mining. If they find yours, they may be able to collect your subscribers’ information.
3. Even if your subscribers’ information doesn’t get abused, they’ll be able to tell you aren’t taking steps to keep their information safe.
4. There can be a “reply all” mishap. There are plenty of horror stories about an email meant for one person getting sent to an entire group of people.

• Takeaway: If subscribers find they can’t trust you with their information, they certainly aren’t going to buy anything from you or want to remain on your mailing list.

CAN-SPAM Breach

Are you familiar with the CAN-SPAM Act?

The CAN-SPAM Act, a federal law with a set of rules for commercial emails, requires you include a valid physical postal address, along with a clear explanation on how to unsubscribe, in every email you send out.

This information is added automatically when you use an email marketing service, but it won’t if you’re using your personal email account. This means the responsibility falls on you to remember to do this every single time.

But what happens if you forget?

• Takeaway: If you don’t have your postal address and clear information on how to unsubscribe, you are in violation of federal law.

Substandard List Management

If a subscriber marks your message as spam, they need to be promptly removed from your list.

Email marketing services have an automated feedback loop that can identify and remove that subscriber, but not your personal email. Just like that, you’ve opened yourself up to more complaints that will negatively effect your sender reputation.

Same goes for if someone tries to unsubscribe. You’ll need to constantly be on top of your unsubscribe requests so you don’t send messages to subscribers that opted out. Processing unsubscribe requests in a timely matter is also another rule under the CAN-SPAM Act.

Another point you should keep in mind, your ability to track subscriber activity for that cc’d email will be limited. Your list may be made up of inactive email addresses not even reading your messages, and you’d never know.

Filters are becoming more strict, and messages can be filtered because of inactive email addresses and high complaints, two problems we already identified you might be having from using your regular email service.

• Takeaway: If you don’t manage your list properly, your messages will be less likely to reach your subscribers’ inboxes, and your campaign will become less effective.

Sender Limits and Deliverability Problems

When you’re using your personal email, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) limit the number of emails you can send at a time. This will make your email marketing efforts much more time consuming. Instead of just creating one message in your email marketing service, you’d need to create multiple copies. And instead of everyone getting it at once, you’d have to send it in waves.

But the even bigger problem you’d face is having your messages end up in the junk folder. ISPs can filter messages for a number of reasons, and sending to too many people is one of them.

• Takeaway: If you’re cc’ing a lot of people, your message can get filtered and your subscribers may not even get to see your message.

Don’t Sabotage Your Online Marketing Efforts

Beginning to realize you can be your own worst enemy? Fortunately email marketing services like ours can change this by keeping your reputation safe and your deliverability high.

If you want to get your email marketing campaign started on the right note, try an AWeber account for $1 for the first month. Your subscribers will appreciate it – and so will you!

Credit: Email Marketing Tips

Do This! (Not That) For Better Email Delivery

Email marketing tactics and food have a few things in common. There’s the good, the bad, and the people that try to make the bad look good for you.

The food industry has resources like the Eat This, Not That book to guide you, but what about email marketing? With all the different tactics out there, it’s hard to know what will help you and what will hurt you.

That will be changing today with AWeber’s “Do This, Not That” approach to Email Marketing.

We’ll kick it off with some of the worst list management mistakes that could be hurting your deliverability, and what you should be doing instead.

Send Only to Those Who Requested Your Information

What this is: You cannot use a list you’ve obtained through a third party service.

Some third party services will pitch the idea that these email address requested information about your industry, which can be appealing if you’re just starting out.

You need to realize these subscribers did NOT request YOUR information, and you don’t even know how their email addresses were originally obtained. You’d be spamming them.

Another danger is obtaining stale or invalid email addresses. Your message may be filtered because of this, reducing your deliverability rate.

Do this instead:

• Build your list organically.
  You can put up a web form on your website so subscribers can sign up if they want to be on your mailing list. You can also include links to sign up on social media sites like Facebook. And don’t forget if you have a store to include a sign up sheet at the register!

Check out how we invite people to subscribe on Facebook:

Don’t Assume Permission- Ask For It!

What this is: Subscribers skip the confirmation message and just start getting your emails.

There are some worries that confirmed opt-in makes the sign up process harder for the subscriber. But if you don’t have confirmed opt in on, you run the risk of again getting bad email addresses on your list. You’ll also open yourself up to more spam complaints, and subscribers who aren’t as interested in your company.

Do this instead:

• Send a customized confirmation message.
  Set up a customized confirmation that explains to subscribers what’s going on. You’ll have a list of subscribers who want your information and are much less likely to complain.

Here’s what a good confirmation message looks like:

Don’t Ignore Your Complaint Rate

What this is: A complaint is recorded when a subscriber marks one of your broadcast messages as spam.

A subscriber who complains will be automatically unsubscribed from your list in AWeber, which may lead to an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. However, consistent complaints hurt your reputation and your deliverability rate will go down.

Occasional complaints may be inevitable, but that’s never an excuse to look into what you could be doing better.

Do this instead:

• Make sure you are properly setting expectations.
  Does your web form clearly state what they are signing up for? Do you have a welcome message that details your email plans? You can lower your complaint rate by ensuring subscribers know what they will be getting from you and how often you will be sending them messages.

Here’s an example of a form that sets expectations:

Don’t Push Down the Unsubscribe Link

What this is: Using space or unnecessary text to push down the unsubscribe link. This makes the unsubscribe link hard to find.

If subscribers want to leave your list, you should let them! Otherwise you will run into spam complaints which can hurt your reputation and deliverability.

It will also mean your list contains subscribers who aren’t really interested in your emails. If they’re not interested, they won’t be interacting with your emails.

Don’t fall for the idea subscribers may “accidentally unsubscribe”. It’s not going to happen. The unsubscribe link takes subscribers to a new page where they will need to actually choose the unsubscribe option. Hiding the link is just not worth the risk.

Do this instead:

• Put a link to unsubscribe at the TOP of your message.
  Including some text such as “If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please click here to unsubscribe” is a much better approach. Subscribers will appreciate that you respect their time and attention.

Here’s what it can look like:

Coming Up Next: The “Do This! (Not That)” Approach to Creating Emails

In the next part of the series, you’ll learn the worst mistakes you can make when creating and sending emails. Find out if you’re doing one of these mistakes, and what you can do to fix it!

Fill out the form below to join our blog newsletter and you’ll get the post right in your inbox.

We’ll also periodically send you the other email marketing tips we publish here. The blog newsletter goes out 2 times per week.

Hat Tip To: Email Marketing Tips

4 Best Practices for Web Forms

You’ve got your site up. You set up your email campaign. You open the web form generator to start your sign up form….now what?

There’s a lot of talk about best practices for email marketing, and they cover everything from list building to messages. It can be hard to sort through them all to find best practices for one component of your campaign, such as how you should design your web form.

So given the broad spectrum best practices cover, you’re probably wondering: what are those best practices for designing your web form? We’ve got four of the big ones to share with you.

1. Grab Your Site Visitors’ Attention

Your form will need to catch the eye of a visitor in order to be filled out. This means you’ll want to make sure you design a form that contrasts aesthetically with your web page. Here’s an example:

As opposed to this wine seller’s form:

Although there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that form, it’s harder to see on that page.

Note that while making your form stand out is good, you want to be careful not to make the background of the form too busy. If there is too much going on, or if contrasts too much with your web page to the point you get a headache, you’re not likely to get many submissions.

You want to get the visitor’s attention, but you also want a form that’s user-friendly.

2. Make the Purpose Clear

Another contributing factor for a usable web form is a clear purpose. To establish this, the form needs to answer four questions:

• What is this?
• Why should I sign up?
• How do I sign up?
• When will I get the emails?

Here’s an example of what this can look like:

Answering these questions will help set expectations. If subscribers know what they’ll be getting and when they’ll be getting it, they’re going to be much more likely to stick around.

3. Only Ask For What You Need

Including too many fields can be overwhelming. While you may want all the information you can get, you don’t want the size of your form to scare away potential subscribers or have them abandon the form halfway through.

Let’s take a look at Bed, Bath & Beyond’s sign up form:

They’re using the sign up form to double as their direct mail form. This requires the visitor to fill out their postal address even if they just want the emails. If they don’t want to share that information, they won’t be on the email list.

Now look at Kohl’s sign up form:

Much better.

If you plan to use other subscriber details for personalization, certainly make sure you ask the questions you need. You need to weigh the cost vs. benefit for each field and decide if there’s a better way you can get that information.

4. Test the Form

Your form isn’t complete unless it works properly, so you’ll need to test it out. Don’t leave this step out, because you don’t want your new subscribers getting an error message after they fill out the form you’ve worked so hard on.

Once you’re happy with how it looks and what it’s asking for, you’ll need to publish it on your website. From there, you can enter your own information to check out how it works.

How do you know it works? This is what happens:

• The thank you page acknowledges the email address has been submitted successfully.
• The subscriber knows they’re going to check their email in order to confirm.
• The subscriber receives the requested information after confirming.

It’s working? Congratulations! You have a web form that follows best practices.

What Do You Think?

We’ve covered the basics, but do you think anything else should be considered best practices for web forms? What about a privacy policy? Should images be worked in?

What other topics would you like to see best practices for?

We want to hear your thoughts!

By: Email Marketing Tips

What to Do About Low Email Delivery Rates

“Twenty percent of email in the United States and Canada is still not making it to the inbox while 3% of email goes to the “junk” or “bulk” folder and another 16% goes missing.” – Return Path (2010)

That’s a scary statement for email marketers. And the stats are similar worldwide:

In Asia, 3% hits the junk folder while 10% goes missing. In Europe, 3.6% gets junked, 11% disappears.”

And this is legitimate email, sent to those who’ve opted in. So, yes, this can (and probably sometimes does) happen to your email.

Let’s talk about how to prevent that, shall we?

Here, I’ll Demonstrate

These are emails from marketers I’ve opened from before. I’ve clicked a few of their links. I never added them to my contact list, though, just to see what happens.

So. You see what happens?

Here’s What You Can Do About It

Learn the Nuts and Bolts

Yes, AWeber handles the technical side of deliverability for our customers. But to make sure you’re doing everything you can do yourself, you may want to get familiar with the back end of things.

Get Started Here

Aim To Be a Priority With Your Readers

Major email providers now offer ways to sort email as you get it – for example, Gmail’s Priority Inbox. Bad news for spammers, but it could be good news for you…

Find Out How

Protect Against Malicious Sign Ups

You’d never intentionally spam someone. But malicious sites crop up. And they would use your web form to sign people up for unwanted mail. So make sure you’re protecting against them.

Use This Technique

Prevent Spam Complaints

You can be doing everything right, and some people will still click the “spam” button. But don’t think there’s nothing you can do to prevent it. We have 5 solutions for you to try.

See Them

Don’t Purchase a List

For goodness sakes. Do you want emails from random brands you’ve never heard of? Of course not. Neither do the people on that list. And as for what it’ll do to your reputation…

Well, Find Out

Stick With One “From” Address

Switch the address your email is “from,” and subscribers may be surprised (especially when they have to re-opt to open your images and re-add you to their address books. If you MUST switch, at least follow this example…

See the Example

Get Whitelisted

If your readers say you’re okay, their email providers will believe them. So ask them to put in a good word for you.

3 Ways to Ask

Choose Confirmed Opt-In

We know, we know. You want as many subscribers as possible, and some of them aren’t going to bother to confirm their interest. But that may actually be a good thing.

Find Out Why

Use an Unsubscribe Header

If you’re an AWeber customer, we handle this for you. If not, you may want to check into this – it’s a good solution for subscribers who don’t trust standard links to unsubscribe.

Read More

One Last Thing About Deliverability

It’s dynamic.

Technology changes, subscribers get more savvy and the email industry evolves. And this effects your delivery rates.

So if you don’t already get updates for the AWeber blog, you may want to sign up for them now. You’ll get emails twice a week with tips for creating emails that get delivered – and get results.

Email:

Via: Email Marketing Tips

iPhone Tips for HTML Email

This spring, one of the biggest smartphones (the iPhone) joined with the biggest mobile carrier (Verizon). People are snatching up the iPhone in droves, which means your mobile email audience is the biggest it’s ever been.

If you send only plain-text emails, this isn’t a very big deal.

But many people send HTML. And HTML emails tend to look a little different on mobile devices.

But we know four easy ways you can make sure they still look good.

Scrutinize Your Size

The iPhone 4G displays at a width of 640 pixels, so you’ll want your email to be just around that size.

Previous versions display at 320 pixels, which still works with a 640-pixel message – your design scales down nicely by half.

AWeber’s email templates are all around 600 pixels. Use them, and you’re all set.

Use the Top Left to Allure

Make sure you’ve got grabby, interesting content in the top, left section of your message. Try a headline, a picture or a paragraph that lets readers know something exciting is happening. They’ll need to scroll over and down to see more.

This actually has double impact. It gives an enticing glimpse to your subscribers who first encounter your emails in a preview pane. They’ll see either the top or the left, depending on their email client.

But Save Your Call To Action For Later

If the top left is where you ask your readers on a date, the bottom or right is where you move in for the kiss. That’s how Dr. Flint McLaughlin, who studies millions of emails at MECLABS, describes the email experience.

Keeping your call to action off the initial screen gives readers a second to acclimate. Once readers decide they’re committed enough to scroll down, you can ask them to take further action.

And In the Meantime…

Get more subscriptions.

While you’re waiting for clicks on that call to action, generate a QR code for your brand. iPhones (and other smartphones) can scan these cousins to bar codes and be taken straight to your sign up form (just follow these easy steps).

You can get your QR code printed onto business cards, t-shirts – pretty much anything. So when all the Verizon-ites who just picked up iPhones are looking for fun ways to use them, they can sign up for your emails.

Do You Read Email On An iPhone?

Or any other kind of smartphone?

If you do, does it matter if the email is big or small? Does the call to action’s location make a difference?

Or does your response just come down to the interest you have in the brand and whether they’re offering something you want?

Share your opinion in the comment section here – we’d love to see what you’ve got to say. (And if you’ve discovered any other helpful tips for crafting emails for the iPhone, we’d love to see those, too!)

Origin: Email Marketing Tips