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A Checklist to Live By

Email is Still King

What can you do with 51 Seconds?

Convert more clicks with Cooler AutoFill™

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TIP
Using an AB split is a great way to test the same campaign with 2 different calls to action, subject lines, link placements and images or copy. You can easily build an AB list by creating a new list, selecting the user criteria (center column) and at the bottom of the center collum selecting the percentage you want to split. Maybe it is 50/50 or even 70/30. We will automatically build that random split for you from your selection and even throw the same creative in each new list.

When you are done they will be flagged with an "A" or "B" next to the list name. We then suggest that you go into each edition and make some changes to one or both to create a good test. Testing is key to success. If you don't try, you won't ever know what you can be doing better.

Sites Worth Checking Out
Adrants
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Google Maps Mania
The Cool Hunter
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MooneyThinks
Gliffy
Pandora
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Email Battles

We are always striving to make CoolerEmail even better. Customer requests for feature enhancements are responsible for many system upgrades. If you have feedback or suggestions, please send them to suggest@cooleremail.com.

And as always.... be cool!
The CoolerTeam
August 9, 2006
A Checklist to Live By
Periodically, perhaps due to an overly burdensome workload or unexpected time crunch, clients rush to get an email out the door. Many times this "rush" prevents an email campaign from realizing its full potential. Creating, and then sticking to, a testing plan before each email broadcast helps ensure your campaigns are as successful as possible.

CoolerEmail does a significant amount of email quality assurance testing for you. But, in certain circumstances - for example, when it comes to uploading your own HTML to the CoolerEmail system (which may not be as streamlined as the HTML CoolerEmail provides in its own templates) - it is prudent to confirm your email broadcast will be successful by a sending test broadcast to a small test list which has different email clients and ISPs email accounts on the list. For example, you may want to set-up accounts with, and broadcast to: Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, Gmail, and AOL. On top of these ISP email accounts you may want to test your email in Outlook and Outlook Express if you have these email clients available on your computer.

With e-mail, the discipline of QA requires exactitude and a reliance on checklists. In order to minimize the risk of something going wrong, you want to make sure that:

  • The database is set up and mapped for personalization (content and data).

  • Content is properly coded and optimized for perfect presentation in email clients and ISP email accounts.

  • All links and redirects are accurate and inclusive of proper link-naming conventions for tracking purposes.

  • The text is accurate and grammatically correct.

  • Any custom code (passing variables to a site) is applied and/or tags are inserted.

  • If you are using dynamic data or text placeholders, be sure all users have data in the fileds you plan on using so that none get incomplete areas (names, company, User1, etc)

  • The site and tracking system is properly tracking and you have placed CoolerTracks between the start and end body tags on all of the pages of your site you wish to track.

  • Responses are routed properly so that any subscribers that respond using the from email address will be sure to get an answer.

  • All forms pages are active and posting data properly to the MasterCRM or any other databases you use on your site.

  • Subject lines and "from" names are consistent and spelled correctly and kept short (less than 30-35 characters)

  • The spelling is checked throughout, using the built in spelling system as well as an extra pair of eyes that did not write the copy.

  • The image is validated in all email clients as to make sure that all HTML and graphics work when delivered.

  • SPAM scoring and HTML validation is complete to ensure your delivery rate is as high as possible.


With this simple check list, you should be able to put in place a routine that aids in the success of your campaigns.

Learn More about Best Practices from the new Email Experience Council. This is a group or various ESPs, ISPs, Corporations and Marketing Agencies in the US and World (many of whom CoolerEmail has helped in their marketing efforts) who meet online to discuss challenges and solutions to various email marketing issues.
Email is Still King
In recent months, some less-than-credible articles have suggested that other mediums like RSS, podcasts, IM and blogs are taking over email. Research shows that this is not true, and it is good to see many new stats emerging to support the success that email marketing has online.

Here are some highlights of recent studies:

Email is the #1 online activity for Americans! (Pew Internet Survey)
Out of 1,000,000,000 (1 Billion) Internet users worldwide, 90% use email! (PostFuture)
82% of online consumers have made at least one purchase as a result of an email! (PostFuture)
People now use email to communicate MORE than the telephone! (Marketing Sherpa)
90% of consumers use email multiple times per day! (DoubleClick)
30.1% of people use email for gift ideas! (ReturnPath Survey)
40.9% of people comparison shop with email! (ReturnPath Survey)
59% of people have redeemed an email coupon at online OR offline store! (PostFuture)

What all of this should mean to you as email marketers is you need to be truly looking at how you and your customers are using email, as it holds an important place in consumer and business life. Don't be satisfied with simply sending out one newsletter a month. Look for opportunities within your list to target groups of recent purchasers, frequent visitors and those that sit and lurk on your newsletter to engage them with relevant content that brings them into your engagement realm. Creating satisfied readers and surfers keeps your churn rate low and drive your subscription rates and list growth higher through send to friend campaigns and word of mouth (mouse) activities that those on your list value.

If you are a large email broadcaster, (over 500K emails a month) you might want to look into our dedicated IP address program as well to place better control over your ISP relations. We constantly monitor all of our IPs, but those with large lists that desire more control themselves, might want to consider getting a dedicated IP from CoolerEmail.
What can you do with 51 Seconds?
We were surprised to see 51 seconds as the amount of time people spend engaged in an email newsletter. We think about our own reading habits and think about 15-20 seconds is an eternity in the inbox. But this bodes well for the possible time you have to really focus on driving home opportunities to get the reader to take that next action... the click.

But then again we know we read for headlines and then skim content and click through or trash it with over 200 plus emails in our inbox each and every day. (M-F)

Stephanie Miller, VP Strategic Services, at ReturnPath found that readers spend an average of 51 seconds with email newsletters, typically skimming the contents. Only 19% of newsletters are read fully. (Nielsen Norman, 2006) That's good news and bad news for B2B email marketers, who are most likely to produce content newsletters rather than tips or pure promotions.

Good news is that 51 seconds is a long time in the email world, as promotional emails get about 15 seconds (Marketing Sherpa, 2005). The average person reads about 200 words a minute, which means, I'm loosely figuring, you'd get about 100-150 words after headlines and images to communicate and engage - or about 5-7 headlines if the reader is skimming.

Read the Full Article.
Convert more clicks with Cooler AutoFill™
Want to make your "call to action" more powerful so clicks on edition links bring you greater results? By using Cooler AutoFill™, you can improve your email campaign results by extending CoolerEmail's personalization capability to landing pages hosted by CoolerEmail OR on your own website.

Imagine the experience of one of your subscribers when they click on a link in one of your editions and are taken to a page on your website which is personalized with their own information. CoolerEmail clients typically see a 50%+ improvement in lead sourcing and order results when using Cooler AutoFill™ service to 'pre-populate' subscription or order form templates. Why ask the customer to fill out information you already have in your database when Cooler AutoFill™ can do it for them?

Do you want to increase your conversion rates? If so, we have the perfect solution for you... Cooler AutoFill™.It is the leading way to personalize landing pages with customer profile information directly from your CoolerEmail CRM database. It's even helpful for creating your own profile update/unsubscribe forms inside your website.

See a demo of Cooler AutoFill™ in action.