Changing Your Email From Line? Consider This…

Your from line is your branding in the inbox. It sparks instant recognition of your business. And since it’s the very first thing subscribers see, it may be the biggest factor in getting your emails opened.

So hopefully you don’t just swap from names without blinking an eye. Hopefully you blink several times while you’re thinking about the consequences.

While switching from names should never be done on a whim, there are some cases where a switch is completely necessary. This change can hugely effect your campaign, so it’s vital to have some cautions in place.

Why From Names Shouldn’t Change

From lines are what stand out in the inbox. Subject lines with “20% off” certainly don’t – anyone can send them (and most people do). It’s the familiarity and goodwill inspired by your a reference to your brand that can make all the difference.

Change your from line, and that reference may go unrecognized. Without knowing the email came from someone they know and trust, subscribers may not want to open it.

In fact, they may even assume it represents a new campaign – one they didn’t subscribe to. And – click! – as quick as that, you’ve been reported as spam.

For example, when I saw these emails in my inbox, I knew I’d signed up for emails from Yogasphere. I did not know who Laura and Elle were.

The first email from Laura almost got reported as spam, ’til I noticed the mention of Yogasphere in the snippet. Had I not caught that, I’d probably have ended up blocking their emails permanently.

As for Blush Salon, it appears they use their company name for one-off emails and the owners’ names for their seasonal newsletter. Again, it was the company name in the snippet text that saved them from the spam folder.

Note on name choice: to be honest, I’ve never met Steve & Jay. I’m more familiar with the salon. Individual names may be credited with a more “personal” tone, but here, I’m more comfortable with emails from the establishment.

So you see how a from name switch could cause you to lose subscribers. It’s just not something you want to do….

Unless You’re In These Situations

Some times, keeping your from name the same just isn’t a good option.

Maybe the person your emails are “from” has left your company.

Maybe you’ve chosen a formal name for your marketing campaign that you want to start using.

Or maybe you’ve been using an “info@” address in your from line, and you’d like to put on a friendlier face for your readers. You’ve carefully considered the switch, and only intend to make it once.

In Those Cases, Take Precautions

• Plan to make the switch once and only once. The more changes you make, the more risk of losing subscribers you take. So choose the from name that’s going to work best for your company over the long haul (while still triggering positive brand recognition).
• If your campaign is self-aware (that is, if you tend to talk directly to your subscribers about what’s going on in your emails), announce the switch beforehand. Readers who see the announcement will be prepared for your new from line.
• If you can, work your old from line into your first few subject lines after the switch. This won’t work as well if you’ve been using someone’s name, but otherwise, it can provide that saving flash of recognition.

Any Other Transition Tips?

If you want to switch from names because you send from several different people, you could use a standard company from name and switch signatures inside the message instead.

Can you think of any other ways to avoid changing your from name – or cautions you should take if you find you have to?

Hat Tip To: Email Marketing Tips

From Web Forms to Welcome: What to Write in Your Email Campaign

Industry standard. Best practice. Optimization. Buzzwords can get head-spinning when you’re first setting up your email marketing campaign, especially when you’re more concerned about what to say and how to say it to get subscribers confirmed to your list (there’s three more buzzwords for you!)

Relax. We’re here to help and bring a little clarity to your set-up content confusion. Whether you’re unsure how to label your web form fields or are drawing a blank on customizing your confirmation message, we have tips and examples to guide you through your first communications with your subscribers, starting with your web form.

Web Forms

Use your web form to make a great first impression on your subscribers. Keep it short, clear and show them exactly what kind of value they can expect from the very beginning.

Remember that your web form is the gateway to your whole campaign and your first chance to tell subscribers what they can expect from your emails. But first you have to get them on your list. You’re asking permission to get into their inboxes, but what are you offering subscribers in return?

Incentives are a good place to start. Retailers like Kohl’s give their customers extra coupons for signing up to their email list:

Kohl’s does a few more things right on this form by clearly explaining the content of messages their subscribers receive and using a privacy statement to ease the fears of visitors worried about clogging their inboxes with spam.

A few more content tweaks for your web form:

• Include a title that reflects the name of your newsletter
• Tell your subscribers how often they can expect your emails
• Link to a sample newsletter or offer so subscribers can preview the kind of value you send to the inbox

Still feeling stuck? Here are some more web form tips on our blog:
3 Ways to Set Expectations at Sign Up
Learn The First of 3 Critical Opportunities to Create The Right Subscriber Expectations
4 Best Practices for Web Forms

Thank You Page

New subscribers who fill out your web form are redirected to your thank you page. This is your second communication with them.

Engage subscribers on your thank you page by:

• Explaining the confirmation process (if you’re using confirmed opt-in)
• Telling them what to expect in upcoming emails
• Establishing some brand personality

Skin care company High on Health uses confirmed opt-in and illustrates the next step in the subscription process with a screen shot:

If you don’t use confirmed opt-in for your campaign, take a cue from ProBlogger who uses their thank you page to summarize the frequency and content of their emails so subscribers know what to expect:

Remember that your thank you page doesn’t have to be a boring template. Keep your thank you page consistent with your brand and site design and use it as a tool to engage subscribers before your first message hits the inbox.

More ideas to upgrade your thank you page on our blog:
3 Helpful Thank You Page Examples
Thank You: Another Critical Opportunity to Create Subscriber Expectations
Is Your Thank You Page Awful? Here Are 2 Ways You Could Make It Better

Confirmation Email

The confirmation email is your third communication with subscribers and your first time in their inbox. Make the most of it by using your from name and subject line to remind subscribers who you are and what they signed up for.

Use the body of the email to remind them of the value your emails offer:

Tell subscribers why they should confirm and make sure they know what happens after they click that link.

Just like your thank you page, use your confirmation message as a further introduction to your brand. Get creative with your copy to keep your subscribers engaged for what’s to come.

More ways to customize your confirmation message on our blog:
What To Do With Your Confirmation Message
Want Subscribers to Confirm? Get Creative!

Confirmation Page

This is the page that the link in your confirmation email directs subscribers to if your campaign uses confirmed opt-in.

Carry your brand identity through your confirmation page and keep your content simple. Tell subscribers that they’re now confirmed and give them somewhere else to click, like your homepage, a special landing page or your social network profiles:

You can also drive sales from your confirmation page, like we describe in this post.

Welcome Email

The welcome email is the first installment of your follow up series when a new subscriber confirms to your list. This is your first big chance to engage subscribers.

In your welcome email, you’ll want to include:

• An indication of how often subscribers will hear from you
• Simple whitelisting instructions to ensure that your emails get delivered
• A reminder of the value and benefits they signed up for
• An introduction to the preference center where they can change subscription settings or unsubscribe from your emails if they’re no longer interested

To keep things friendly, you might also want to introduce subscribers to your brand on a more personal level with pictures of your team or company.

Redbox’s welcome email combines a lot of these elements and includes links to help new customers start using their service right away:

Remember that your welcome message sets the tone for your campaign, so spend extra time polishing your content to build trust.

More welcome email examples from our blog:
3 Good Welcome Email Examples
Urgency Redux: Trust Can Make Or Break You

In Closing

These initial points of communication with your subscribers will build trust and the right expectations from the very start of your email campaign. We place a lot of emphasis on the content of your emails once your campaign is up and running, but paying special attention to these beginning details will start your campaign off right.

What content tips can you share from the start of your campaign?

Credit: Email Marketing Tips

New Web Form Templates For Your Site

One of the most important components of any email marketing campaign is of course, the web form. Without a way to sign up to your list, you’ll have a hard time finding anyone to send email to.

That being the case, you want to make sure that your web forms are getting people to sign up. Explaining the benefits of your mailing list is one major part of that process, of course, but you also need to focus potential subscribers on your form and have it grab their attention. In short, it needs to look good.

To that end, our design team always takes time to work on new web form templates (we release new templates every week, with multiple color schemes and layouts for each). We wanted to take a moment today to show you how to keep hold of visitor attention with this host of new forms.

More About Templates

To avoid any potential confusion, let’s go over the concept of web form templates briefly.

Basically, a template is a design shortcut. The idea is to give you the benefit of a professionally designed form that matches your industry and website without having to create a form from scratch. Simply pick the one you like, make any minor edits needed, and place it on your site.

Take a look at our knowledge base for a step by step walkthrough of the process.

The Perfect Template for the Occasion

Our designers like to mix things up, so templates themed around holidays or other events tend to crop up around the appropriate times of the year. Adding a sense of the season or a nod to upcoming or recent celebrations can keep your site and signup forms fresh.

We also try to have templates for a wide variety of businesses and niches. With a steady stream of new designs, we try to keep things fresh so you have the widest range of options to allow you to find the perfect form for your site.

Or the Template Perfect for Any Location

On the other hand, there’s no way to have a form for every industry – some will always slip through the cracks. Also, sometimes the topic of a blog or site might not fit into a specific box – it might be broader (or narrower) than the templates we have available.

For these situations, our team has put together a wide variety of forms that are a little more flexible. Take a look:

The idea behind these template is to give you a chance to find a form that matches your website’s look and feel, regardless of your industry. This way, you can always have a great looking form that doesn’t look tacked on or out of place.

Browse the Gallery

Want to see more templates? Take a look at our online template gallery, where you can find the perfect form for your site.

If you’re an AWeber user, once you’ve picked out a form, installing it is easy.

What Template Designs Do You Want to See?

Our design team is always looking for new ideas, so post any suggestions for new templates in the comments below!

Source: Email Marketing Tips

AWeber, Gmail, and Rapportive: Good Things Come In Threes

We’re always excited to announce a new integration using the AWeber API, whether it’s for signup forms on your blog, landing page optimization, or even social media.

This week, we’re bringing you something a little bit different – we’ve integrated with Rapportive, which is itself an add-on for Gmail. It basically connects your Gmail account to your social media networks, displaying recent tweets or wall posts from the person whose mail you’re reading.

Our app allows you to connect your Gmail account to AWeber – read on to learn more!

What Is Rapportive?

As mentioned above, Rapportive connects your Gmail account to social media sites – for more information, take a look at their website.

As it happens, AWeber and Rapportive work very well together. When do you most need access to information about your subscribers? When you’re replying to their email, of course.

The AWeber app for Rapportive displays your subscribers’ information in a sidebar while you’re reading messages from them.

The Raplet in Action

Once it’s up and running, you’ll be able to see the lists that your subscribers are on when they email you, right in the Rapportive sidebar, like so:

You can get even more information by clicking on a particular list. This will pull up a detailed view of the subscriber’s information on that list, with information including their sign-up date and the last follow up message they were sent:

Setting It Up

To get things rolling, first install Rapportive.

You can find the AWeber raplet through the “Add or Remove Raplets” option in the Rapportive menu once you have Rapportive installed – for more detailed setup instructions, refer to our knowledge base.

Soon, you’ll have access to your subscribers’ information while you’re reading their email to you. How cool is that?

What Do You Think?

How are you going to make use of this app? Are there any other features or statistics you’d like to see implemented to work with Rapportive/Gmail?

Let us know in the comments below!

Origin: Email Marketing Tips

The Pros and Cons of Birthday Emails

Are birthday emails a good idea?

There are a lot of good things about them: subscribers expect them, email marketers recommend sending them, and they’re pretty easy to set up. These things don’t mean they’re always a good idea though.

Like most things in life, birthday emails can fall in a gray area. There are pros and cons to sending them, and it’s up to you to decide if they’re something that can work for your email marketing campaign.

But before you do that, you need to know what the pros and cons are.

What’s Good About Birthday Emails

• Pro: They’re personal

  Birthday emails are great at grabbing your subscribers’ attention. Who doesn’t like getting stuff for their birthday? By acknowledging your subscribers’ birthdays, you’re showing them you are using their information to provide personalized messages.

• Pro: They’re easy to set up

  It’s easy to send birthday emails with AWeber. We’ve talked before about how segmenting your list can help your campaign, so here’s the perfect opportunity to try it out.

• Pro: They bring good results

  Evidence shows that birthday emails do get a lot of action. One study found that birthday emails brought a 60% lift in conversions compared to the normal version of the email.

  Another study with Epson showed their “Happy Birthday” email generates revenue per email that’s 840% greater than the overall email program.

Convincing, right? But not if you don’t set it up right.

What’s Bad About Birthday Emails

• Con: They can be too generic

  I just celebrated a birthday. One of the birthday emails I received was from my gym:

  

  Sounds good, right? Except that they are always trying to give out free sessions.

  Don’t tell me my birthday present is the same thing you tried to give me for Memorial Day, the start of spring, and the last full moon (may be exaggerating here, but you get the point).

  This is the problem with a lot of birthday emails: giving out the usual deals under a different label. Besides being generic, it also….

• Con: Can make you look selfish

  So continuing with the gym example, I know the reason they keep wanting me to try a free session is because they’re hoping I’ll buy a training package.
  Is that really how you celebrate someone’s birthday? By going for the same sale you’re always trying for?
  You think because you put that pretty birthday banner at the top your job is done, but actually…

• Con: They’re not that impressive anymore

  Lots of companies send birthday emails. Some are better than others, but birthdays are a pretty easy segment to target.
  Which means that generic, self-serving emails just won’t cut it anymore. So don’t think slapping some balloons at the top of your regular promotional email will impress anyone.

This leaves us with one question…

What Should You Do With Birthday
Emails?

You know birthday emails can be good, so now you need to know how to make them good:

• Make them valuable

  The birthday email should be beneficial to the subscriber as well as you. Give the subscriber something they’ll be excited about, and something you don’t normally offer.

• Make them relevant

  Use information on subscriber behavior, such as what they’ve clicked on, to send them something they’d be interested in. Don’t take the easy way out and send to everyone who’s birthday is coming up, break it up further so the messages are more targeted.

• Make them about the subscriber

  This is their day, not yours. Send your birthday wishes, include your gift, and that’s all you need. You want your birthday emails to come across as a nice gesture, not an obvious attempt for another sale.

Here’s an example of a well done birthday email:

How Do You Feel About Birthday
Emails?

What’s the best birthday email you’ve seen? The worst?

Do you send birthday emails to your subscribers? How do you make them something the subscriber will enjoy?

Via: Email Marketing Tips

Sneak Peak Into AWeber Life And Culture

Here at AWeber we try to have as much fun as we can in proportion to the hard work that we do. You may have heard some of this fun in our voices when you call in (or you may have heard some of the fun in the background – sorry!). The culture we have over here at AWeber stems from a set of 5 Core Values that we have established. Each one of these values embodies an aspect of our daily lives as we go about creating the best service possible for you.

Come Take A Look!

We have a lot of fun here and we love coming to work each and every day, and we wanted to take a moment to give you an inside look not only at the office over here at AWeber, but into the AWeber culture as well. Check it all out in our Tour Video below!

If you’d like to learn more about the people behind AWeber, come check us out. Or if you’re interested in joining our team, see what opening are available.

Of course we couldn’t have this cool office or this wonderful culture without you, the customer. So thanks for watching our Tour Video and thank you for helping us to create a place and culture where we can not only enjoy ourselves but continue to bring you the best service possible!

How did you like the office? Share your thoughts with us!

Source: Email Marketing Tips

9 Essential Questions For Your Email Marketing

Do you know why you’re using email marketing?

Email marketing can be incredibly valuable for business. But you need to ask yourself how it can be valuable for YOUR business.

When you realize how email marketing can be valuable for you, you’ll get a better idea of where you need to start and what you should focus on. This information can help save time, since you’ll be working on things you’ve already thought through.

Print out this worksheet and follow along; we’ll help you realize what you should focus on.

Your Business Goals

Before you do anything, you need to realize what your goals for your business are so you know what you should be focusing on.

So ask yourself this:

1. Do you currently see how email marketing can help your business?

• What does email marketing entail?
• Check out AWeber features!

2. What are you looking to accomplish?

• Are you looking to get more sales?
• Set up sales tracking in AWeber.
• Are you working to increase awareness of your company?
• Find out how you can collect subscribers.
• Or is your goal to educate your audience about a particular topic?

You will probably find yourself with more than one goal, so you’ll need to decide which of your goals is the most important, and work on the more important ones first.

3. And speaking of your audience, what is your target audience ?

• Is there a certain age range you’re aiming for?

  Depending on your industry, you might want to adjust the terminology you’re using to fit for your target audience. If you’re teaching subscribers about social media, chances are the younger generations will be more familiar with the terms, but you may need to provide more explanation if you’re aiming for an older crowd.

• Is your business geared more to men or women?

  Men and women can be interested in the same thing for different reasons. If you’re a fitness center looking to attract more women, you would want to advertise more of your weight loss programs rather than bulk up programs.

• Does location matter?

  Where subscribers are located should also come into consideration. You don’t want to focus on your warm weather products or activities if the majority of your subscribers live in colder climates.

• How will you incorporate subscriber demographics in your campaign?

Building a List

Once you have established what you want accomplished, it’s time to think about how email marketing can help you reach those goals.

4. First, how will you ask subscribers to join your list?

• Are you going to ask when they visit your website? What will your web form look like? What will it say?
• Its easy to create a web form in AWeber!
• Will you ask after they’ve made a purchase?
• Use AWeber email parsers to integrate with a shopping cart.
• Will you advertise on social networking sites such as Facebook?
• Use the Facebook app to publish a form on your Facebook page.

When you’re comfortable with how you’re going to grow your list, you should start thinking about what features and techniques you will be using.

5. Why should subscribers want to join your list?

• Do you clearly explain the benefits the subscriber will gain from giving you their email address?
• Your web form should tell them why they should give you their email address and what they’ll be getting.
• Do you emphasize why your offer is valuable?
• What makes you different from your competition?

Your Email Campaign

6. When will you send messages?

• How often will you send?
• If you send too often, your subscribers can may suffer from subscriber fatigue, but at the same time you don’t want to send too little and have your subscribers forget about you!
• What days are best to send for your business?
• What time of day should you send?

7. What are you going to write about?

• Will you send coupons to increase sales?
• Would an informative company newsletter help?
• Do you want to share your blog content and more personal stories?
• You have the ability to set up autoresponders, broadcasts, and blog broadcasts in AWeber.

Once you know what part email plays, you’re ready to start thinking further ahead.

Tracking Success

8. How do you know your email campaign is helping you reach your goals?

You can look at some of your stats to determine this:

• Is your list growing?
• Do subscribers stay on your list long?
• Are you getting new ones coming in?
• Check out what reports are available through AWeber!
• How many people are reading your messages?

  Keep in mind, opens aren’t 100% accurate. Opens are tracked by a hidden image in the HTML, but some programs such as Gmail will have images off by default.

• How many people are responding to your call to action?

  This is a much more accurate statistic than opens. The call to action will usually be a hyperlink for the subscriber to click on.

• AWeber allows you to see who has opened and clicked on links in your messages.
• Do you know how many people are purchasing from your emails?

Your Future Goals

You can’t stop now! You should always be looking at your goals, assessing where you’re at, and creating new goals.

Put a note in your calender to return to this worksheet in 6 months, 1 year, 3 years to set new goals, and decide how email marketing can help get you there more quickly.

What Have You Learned?

Now it’s time to look over your answers to get a clear idea of where you’re headed with your email marketing campaign.

Share your goals with us, along with any struggles you’re having, and we also encourage you to discuss this with each other!

Via: Email Marketing Tips

Why Hockey Strong's Email Subscribers Keep Coming Back For More

“91% of email users subscribed to a company’s mailing list and then later decided they no longer wanted to be on that list,” an ExactTarget report stated. That’s bad news.

The same report also showed that 42% of subscribers say they’re more likely to buy from a company after they’ve signed up for the company’s emails. That’s good news, but if they unsubscribe early on, they won’t be getting your emails to buy from.

With this in mind, one AWeber customer has set up her email marketing campaign to encourage long-term relationships. Maria Mountain’s Hockey Strong campaign is gaining subscribers over 6 times faster than it’s losing them.

Hockey Strong’s Success

Subscriber growth is increasing on Maria’s list, mainly due to very few people unsubscribing. About 75% of her subscribers have been on her list for more than 3 months, and over half are still on after the 6 month mark.

Along with increasing subscriber growth, subscribers are also responding to her messages. Her email campaign looks like this:

How does she keep subscribers interested?

What’s Working: Follow Up Series

After signing up to the Hockey Strong list, subscribers start receiving the follow up messages. They get the free report promised at sign up, and part of the follow up series includes a 5 part training course.

In between each of the training course messages, subscribers get messages with Maria’s blog content. This combination of teaching and sharing other useful information works well. Subscribers get to know Maria as a person during this initial phase.

Using the follow up messages to introduce yourself and your email campaign to your subscribers will help start the relationship. You can send a follow up series to:

• Talk about different problems subscribers may face in your industry, and offer solutions
• Include common questions you get from subscribers along with your answers
• Provide reviews for products or services that might benefit your subscribers

Maria didn’t always have this follow up series in place. Initially she just delivered the training, but didn’t think that was as effective as it could be:

“I felt like there was an ‘end-point’ to the relationship once the final training module was delivered, and I definitely did not want that. I wanted the member to feel like it was just the beginning.”

What’s Working: Friendly Messages

Now, Maria’s relationship with her subscribers doesn’t end when the subscriber finishes the follow up series. She carries on sending helpful information through broadcast messages.

She also makes a point to talk to her subscribers as friends:

“I use my genuine voice and project my sincere goal to help them play better hockey with fewer injuries. I think by providing useful, practical training tips and just being a good friend and resource for them, they will stay in my ‘tribe’.”

The blog post content in the follow up series gives subscribers a feel for her voice and lets them see that she has more to offer than just products to sell.

Maria doesn’t focus on the hard sell, but instead tries to connect with subscribers on a personal level.

She believes this approach has contributed to more sales:

“My subscribers have time to see that I am genuinely providing great info that helps them play a sport they love and they begin to trust me. I make it clear that I still love them even if they don’t buy from me. When I do send an email asking them to consider purchasing one of my training products I really believe they are more inclined to do so because they know, like and trust me.”

You can find ways to connect with your subscribers too:

• Invite them to follow you via social media
• Tell them personal stories relevant to your business
• Provide links to other resources and events in your industry

What’s Working: Subscriber Involvement

While Maria’s messages are not designed to push the hard sell, they are designed to increase subscriber engagement.

Take a look at this broadcast message that asks for three actions, none of which are a purchase:

By continually giving subscribers something to do, you will help the relationship last longer.

Here are ways to keep your subscribers involved:

• Hold contests
• Start a conversation by asking them questions
• Ask for their opinion on something

Advice From Maria

Maria didn’t get to where she’s at now overnight. She did a lot of research, and has advice for others starting out their email campaigns, or just looking for ways to improve:

“I think one of the best things you can do when starting out is to save emails that you receive from other Internet marketers that really resonate with you. Look at how the author crafted the subject line, the sentence structure, the location and format of the links. There is such a science to it that you can learn a ton from dissecting the emails of other successful Internet marketers.”

What Does Your Campaign Look Like?

We’ve talked about what’s working for Maria, so now it’s your turn!

Do you have a follow up series that’s working well? Do you send only broadcasts? Both? What has worked for you?

Source: Email Marketing Tips