While motherly prodding is sometimes annoying, there's no denying that 'momisms' guide us through lots of sticky situations and come in handy when we least expect them to.

Moms even know what they're talking about when it comes to working on your email marketing campaign. Follow this advice for a mom-approved campaign.

Treat Others the Way You Like to be Treated

It's the golden rule, and really quite simple to adhere to. Your email list is made up of people, and those email addresses that you covet really belong to human beings.

Don't talk at them, but engage in conversation and invite feedback in a friendly and polite manner.

Be Yourself

Everyone is a little quirky. Use your uniqueness to your advantage and make your newsletter a reflection of your personal style. Your personality sets you apart, and it could be the edge that brings subscribers back for more each week.

Mind Your P's and Q's

Remember though, just because your newsletter reflects your personality does not mean it is the right stage for your personal rants and raves.

Be polite; don't discuss topics that might offend your subscribers or you might have to wash out your mouth with soap!

You Catch More Flies with Honey Than Vinegar

Use an incentive in your web form to sweeten the deal. Outline the benefits to subscribing to your list, and always use positive language. If you constantly berate your competitors, subscribers will pick up on your negativity.

Take a hint from big box retailers. If a subscriber finds a product elsewhere for less, honor the discount if possible. If you don't have something in stock, point your subscriber elsewhere. They will appreciate your frankness, and will remember that you were looking out for their best interest down the road, which will give you a great advantage.

What If Everyone Jumped Off a Cliff? Would You Jump Too?

Your competitor recently purchased a list, and now their readership has grown by leaps and bounds. Does that mean you should do it too?

Sometimes doing the right thing is hard. It's not easy to build a list, but in the long run you will win when you have legitimate and engaged subscribers.

If You Make a Mess, You Clean it Up

Mistakes happen. If you send out an email without a subject line, or you send to your whole list instead of a segment, use the opportunity to apologize to your subscribers.

Don't brush it under the rug or run and hide like when you broke your mom's favorite vase in the 4th grade. As moms say, learn from your mistakes.

Never Be Too Proud to Ask For Help When You Need It

We're always here to help - not just on Mother's Day.

Give us a call or send us an email if you ever have questions!

Tweet This

Continue reading Email Marketing Tips from Mom

Except the ones who deleted your emails or saved them "for later". And the ones who hadn't signed up yet.

Now, when you mention those ideas in new emails, confusion builds for those subscribers. Link back to your original explanation, and that confusion crumbles.

Creating those links is as easy as 1, 2, 3 with AWeber's broadcast archive.

3 Steps to Clear the Confusion

Click Syndicate

Start at the broadcast editing page. Scroll down to "Syndicate". If you haven't checked this box, you'll need to now. This creates the web version of your broadcast.

Grab Link

The "My Web Archive" link displays a list of links to all your broadcasts. Copy the "Direct Link" to share the single broadcast you're working with.

Insert Link

In the new message you're composing, highlight a few words that best describe the concept you're linking to. Use the "Insert/Edit Hyperlink" tool to create the link.

With these links in place, clueless or confused subscribers can simply click, and your old emails will tell them all they need to know.

How do You Keep Subscribers on the Same Page?

Are you sensitive to the gap between how much your new subscribers and your veteran subscribers know?

Have you tried linking back to previous broadcasts in you new messages or follow-ups? Does it seem to have an effect?

Do you have other ways of keeping subscribers on the same page?

Tweet This

Continue reading Confused Readers? Try This Easy Fix

Fortunately, your fellow email marketers have left signposts along the way. Their comments, tweets and reviews signal which resources they found most useful. Their comments add their voices into the discussion, making that resource even more valuable.

One hill in those mountains of resources is the AWeber blog. Our readers' comments and tweets show which posts they appreciate most. Those posts are assembled below to give you insight into some of the biggest issues that could crop up in your path.

The Posts Most Traveled

How to Add an Opt-In Form to Your Facebook Page

This Facebook application lets you invite your entire contact list - and anyone else who visits your page - to sign up for your emails.

Watch the video in this post to find out how to set this up, step by step.

"Do Not Reply" Address? Don't Bother

If you send emails from an address that doesn't accept replies, you're sabotaging your campaign and your relationship with subscribers.

This post and the responding comments explain the mistake you're making and discuss the effects in detail.

3 Ways To Build Urgency In Email Subject Lines

A sense of urgency in your subject lines might prompt more subscribers to open your emails. Getting too dramatic, however, jeopardizes your credibility.

Find out how to strike the right balance with compelling, straightforward subject lines.

How to Market Like Nine Inch Nails

This industrial rock band has a marketing strategy as alternative as its sound. Email's conversational, customizable nature means it's an ideal medium for putting this strategy to use.

Read this post to discover ways you, too, can market like a rock star.

{!firstname}, Think Before You Personalize

Personalizing emails with subscriber names has been reported to send opens and clicks skyrocketing. It might do the same for you - but it might also cause other problems.

Learn what they could be, and then discover some deeper, more useful ways to personalize.

Engage Subscribers: Six Fun Email Ideas

Written as a response to no-spend New Year's resolutions, this post is appropriate for any time you hit a lull in sales. Instead of pushing discounts that customers don't want and you can't afford, use this time to build loyalty with these entertaining ideas.

Test Results: How Long Should Your From Line Be?

Before customers even get to your subject line, they encounter your from line. But what do they see there?

Different ISPs have different cutoff points, so your from line might be chopped in a way that leaves subscribers questioning who you are. Find out how to rewrite your from line for maximum recognition.

If You're Lost, Ask Us For Directions!

If you find yourself confused by anything in these posts, you are welcome to contact our helpful and friendly Customer Solutions team. We'll be happy to provide the best directions we can to guide you on your journey.

If, instead, you have a brilliant insight about any of these posts that you want to share, please feel free to leave your own comment. We look forward to reading your take on these topics!

Tweet This

Continue reading Tried and True Email Marketing Tips

Why Build Relationships?

Building a good relationship with your contacts is a must in today’s marketing world. It can take you into the realms of stellar achievement both on the local and global marketplaces.

Also, a home can the biggest investment a family will ever make. It’s very important for people to have a high level of trust in you. This is the place their family is going to come home to; they’ll create many special memories there.

Once you have built this trust, your contacts will always come to you when they need something. In addition to this, your customer’s word-of-mouth business can prove invaluable.

Some Relationship Building Ideas for Realtors

Because of it’s dynamic nature, real estate marketing can lend itself to creative ideas. Building your reputation can be a unique adventure.

Here are a few that you may find helpful for your prospective referrals:

Of Realtors and SPAM

It’s very important for Realtors to know which practices are acceptable and which aren’t. There is a bit of a difference between traditional real estate marketing as opposed to what is acceptable in the email marketing world.

Realtors use a technique called farming in order to reach out to people in their area. This can be done in the form of sending unsolicited postal mail to a given area, over long periods of time.

Farming to email addresses is considered SPAM – bottom line. Because SPAM is such a problem worldwide, it is completely unacceptable to send out unsolicited email to those who have never asked you for it. This includes people in your local board of Realtors, NAR, or from any type of directory.

If you have any questions about specific marketing practices, please feel free to contact us. We would be more than happy to answer your questions.

A Realtor Apart

The merger of real estate and email marketing can be a very exciting and lucrative one. If done correctly, it can add a new level to your creative approach and set you apart from the rest.

I invite you to take a look at a couple of previous posts about content for real estate emails, and real estate email tips.

Keeping the points above in mind, how can you use AWeber to establish and strengthen relationships? Share your ideas.

Continue reading Email Marketing For Real Estate Agents

One of the people I met was Chris Garrett, a new media consultant and longtime blogger and email marketer.

We sat and talked about what Chris has learned about email marketing and what he's doing with his campaigns.

Today, I'd like to share two excerpts from our talk with you.

"What Do You Test In Your Email Marketing?"

In this video, Chris shares:

• Why he doesn't use popover forms as a list building tool, even though other users have had success with them.
• What he tests in his email marketing campaigns.
• The value of looking at indirect or long-term metrics in addition to direct/short-term ones.

"How Do You Use Autoresponders?"

In this video, you'll learn:

• Why incentives like ebooks don't always yield quality long-term subscribers (even though they can help build your list).
• Why an ecourse may not be the best marketing use of autoresponders.

Learn From Other Email Marketers Using AWeber

See how...

• Ramit Sethi uses email to build a community.
• Chris Guillebeau establishes trust and fosters relationships with email.

Tweet This

Continue reading AWeber User Chris Garrett on Autoresponders, Incentives and Testing

According to industry experts, customer service is "the new marketing". When you take care of your customers, they feel good about you. When they feel good about you, they stick with you.

With email marketing, thoughtlessly pushing the same message at your entire customer base is no longer enough. It doesn't take care of them. It doesn't show that you recognize and respect them.

Let's take a look at how you can apply the new marketing approach to revolutionize your email campaign.

It's About the People

Chris Brogan

"Old marketing would be: find buyers for my product. Hunt them down and relentlessly hit them with messages until they buy. The bigger the number of prospects, the better the yield.

"New marketing is more like: find people who make more sense. Start relationships with them before selling to them. Learn more about them. Make the offer - if it makes sense."

Broken down step by step, this advice holds several useful suggestions for email marketing in ways that serve your customers.

"Start relationships before selling to them."

In a video interview, AWeber customer Chris Guillebeau says about his subscribers, "I'm going to be in these relationships for years." So he invests time courting each one.

• He sends each new subscriber an individual message to thank them for joining. It's quick and small, but an appreciated personal touch.
• In his first autoresponder, he candidly expresses hope that they'll find his emails interesting.
• In the next few emails, he challenges readers to reflect on their lives and goals - no sales yet. A few messages in, he invites feedback. And then he responds to it.

"As you gradually introduce products and services," he explains, "many of those people will end up purchasing and supporting you."

"Learn more about them."

The best way to learn about your customers is to ask about them. You could:

• Send out surveys that ask for preferences
• Engage your subscribers on social networks
• Use a from address that invites replies, instead of refusing them

Guillebeau suggests the question: "Why do you read my (emails)?" The answers he got from his own readers helped him entirely reconceptualize his content.

"Make the offer - if it makes sense."

Make sure each product you introduce is something your audience wants. Then, make sure you get them ready for it.

• Guillebeau leads up to the launch of each product or service by introducing it ahead of time.
• Flint McGlaughlin of MarketingExperiments suggests thanking existing customers for their past purchases. This establishes a level of intimacy and reminds them that they trust you already.
• You could also segment - split your list into new, mature and veteran subscribers. Each segment might appreciate different offers. Every few months, reset the segments.

Keep in Mind

The key to new marketing is building two-way, trusting relationships with your subscribers. You want their purchases, yes. But you also need their word-of-mouth support, their ideas and their goodwill.

Tweet This

Continue reading A New Approach to Email Marketing

As in any relationship, the best way for you to both get what you want from your email marketing is to set clear expectations from the very beginning.

An example of your newsletter goes a long way toward setting correct expectations. But how can you share one before the signup?

It's easy, actually. Just combine two of the tools in your AWeber account - the broadcast archive and the web form generator. This combo lets you offer a sneak peek of your campaign to make sure it's a good fit for each new subscriber.

Here's how:

Link to a Past Email Newsletter at Signup

The broadcast archive stores web versions of your past broadcast messages. The web form generator lets you create custom signup forms where people can subscribe to your emails.

To show your newsletter to potential subscribers before they sign up, you would simply need to display a link on your web form to the archived version of one of your newsletters, like this:

Choose a newsletter to be your example

Scroll through your past newsletters Broadcast page. Choose the one you think best represents your emails. Remember, you're trying to give the most accurate depiction of what you'll be sending your subscribers.

Grab the link for it

Open the message you've chosen in the message editor. Scroll down to the "Syndicate" section. You'll need to syndicate the message if you haven't done so yet - this publishes it to the web.

The part you will use is the "Direct Link". You can copy this link whenever you are ready to put it into your web form.

Add the link to your web form

Open the web form you'd like to use (or create a new one) in the web form generator. Decide where you'd like to put the link to your newsletter example.

Then decide what words to use and click on the Text icon to add them to the form. Remember, it's an invitation, so be welcoming, not pushy.

Type the text you want in the editing box. Highlight it, click the link icon and paste in that link from Step 2. When you're satisfied, save the changes.

If the text doesn't appear where you want it to on the form, simply click and drag the field to the proper place.

Start Using Your New Web Form

Congratulations! You've just upgraded from asking subscribers to take a shot in the dark to letting them make an informed decision.

You are one step closer to a community of interested readers who look forward to your messages.

Your Thoughts

Do you share an example of your newsletter or product before asking people to sign up for it? Does this seem to make a difference?

Can you think of any cases when you might not want to share an example first? How can you set clear expectations about your emails in these cases?

We always enjoy the ideas you share. Let us know what you think about setting expectations with a newsletter example below.

Tweet This

Continue reading How To Give Visitors a Sneak Peek at Your Newsletter

You want your subscribers to trust you (and give you their time and possibly their business), but they may not know if they can. How can you reassure them?

We've talked about building trust with welcome messages and privacy policies. Another key is using transparency throughout your campaign. Be up-front, be honest, be approachable. In the anonymous Internet cloud, be someone real and tangible.

There are several effective ways you can do this:

How to Be Transparent In Your Emails

• First, include a valid postal address.
  
  Yes, this is already required by CAN-SPAM, but it also conveys your authenticity. You aren't afraid to provide your location, so you must be on the level. And if you do get snail mail from a subscriber, you'll be able to respond.
• Put your face where your mouth is. Include your picture in your emails to put your subscribers even more at ease. Bonus points if you're wearing a friendly smile (see below).
• Post a link to your privacy policy on your web form and in your emails. This reassures subscribers that you will keep their information secure.
• Provide valid FAQs.
  
  If the answers are evasive or vague, alarm bells might go off in your subscribers' heads. Answer directly. Answer completely. Answer helpfully. Then provide a way to ask questions you may have missed.
• Deliver what you promise.
  
  If you offer a 30-minute Pilates video, there should be 30 full minutes of quality instruction and demonstration. If you link to a how-to guide, the landing page should be that actual guide, not an ad. Follow through, and you won't break trust.
• If you want to be transparent, approachable and trustworthy, do NOT list a 'do not reply' email address in the from line. If your subscribers can't contact you back, you are not in a dialogue; you're just blasting them with information. Hitting 'reply' is the most natural way for them to respond. Stop them from doing so, and it looks like you've got something to hide.

How Do You Build Credibility?

How do you show subscribers that you are trustworthy? Have you found some methods more effective than others?

Thank you for sharing!

Amanda
3103 Philmont Ave. Ste. 200
Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006, USA

Tweet This

Continue reading 6 Easy Ways to Market Transparently

With the best intentions, businesses set out to grow their lists by the thousands and send more targeted, relevant messages. They made lists and reviewed last year's figures, invigorated by the new year and certain that they could increase click through rates and ROI by leaps and bounds.

Perhaps you even set lofty goals for your own campaign, only to be sidetracked by more pressing issues. If you've temporarily put your resolutions on the back burner, refocus your efforts with these spring cleaning techniques.

Dust Off Your Messages

You should treat old emails like attic treasures. Just like you stash your belongings away, only to rediscover them in a flurry of excitement later on, take a close look at your existing messages and examine the available reports for your account.

The Verified Subscribers report shows exactly how many people have confirmed their subscription in the past 30 days. If you aren't satisfied with your current results, re-purpose your old confirmation email to make it sparkle.

The Follow Up Totals report displays the total number of clicks and opens for each message. If necessary, change up your content to make it more conversational and engaging and fine tune your follow up messages to reflect questions that you frequently receive from subscribers. Examine your subject lines and determine if they are compelling and consistent enough to click through.

Using templates? Make sure your messages look good in all email clients - test them.

Polish Your Web Forms

If you haven't tried the new Web Form Generator yet, now is the time.

Make your forms shine without any HTML knowledge whatsoever. You can create visually appealing forms that give your website a more polished and professional look in only 5 minutes.

Because you don't need to edit the HTML for your page each time you work on your form, you can make changes whenever you want without a hassle - you could even try seasonal templates if you're feeling festive.

Campaign Overhaul: Renovating Emails and Forms

When you're pouring over various reports and rewriting entire message sequences, how can you be sure that the changes you're making are the best for your email marketing efforts? By split testing, of course.

Split testing lets you conduct a controlled experiment with your sign up forms and messages to help to see which factors make them perform better for your campaigns.

Web Forms

Split testing web forms lets you evaluate:

Which type of form works best for you (e.g.pop-over vs. inline)

How many fields you should use

Which field labels work best

Whether or not your headline copy is compelling enough

Email Messages

Split test your new messages against your old ones to learn...

Does sending in the morning work better than sending in the afternoon?

Does using a button instead of a text link get me more clicks?

Does subject line personalization get you more, or fewer, opens?

For accurate results, split test broadcasts can only be created for lists that have at least 100 active subscribers.

Revive Your List With Some Careful Pruning

Yard work goes hand in hand with spring cleaning, and it's common landscaping knowledge that most plants benefit from regular maintenance. Take a cue from mother nature - with careful pruning, your list can flourish.

This is not to say that you should immediately unsubscribe anyone who hasn't opened recent emails.

Consider the number of disengaged subscribers on your list. To start, search for subscribers that haven't opened a message in 3-6 months. Are there a lot of them?

Resist the urge to channel your inner Edward Scissorhands; don't delete them them - try to reengage them first!

Think about what you offer in your emails. If your product is seasonal, are those subscribers really inactive? Perhaps they are simply not opening your messages because they are familiar with your brand and assume that they will still receive emails when they are ready to purchase.

What are Your Housekeeping Plans?

Are you clearing out your unsubscribes anyway, despite our advice to think it over? Rewriting messages?

We'd love to hear what you're doing next with your lists! Share your thoughts on the blog.

Tweet This

Continue reading Email Spring Cleaning: 4 Easy Ways

-D. Peppers and M. Rogers, Enterprise One to One

Customer satisfaction is vital for a company's success. You take care of every customer, not only because you appreciate their business, but also because you know the profound effect of word-of-mouth.

Promptly responding to feedback can make you in an otherwise break-you situation. Read on to discover one company whose lack of response cost them millions, and three others whose effort earned them rave reviews.

As Joseph Jaffe points out, "Retention is the new acquisition." Work on your own retention with these ideas on finding out what subscribers want - and delivering it.

A Public Relations Nightmare

Canadian country singer Dave Carroll's guitar was broken in spring of 2008 by United Airlines' boisterous baggage handling.

The airline ignored Carroll's complaints for months. Fed up, he launched a YouTube video informing the public that United breaks guitars (and a follow-up about the messy aftermath.)

The video was viewed over 7.5 million times. United eventually offered Carroll a settlement, which he redirected to charity.

United's share value fell by 10% after the video's release. The $180 million loss would have bought Carroll over 51,000 new guitars - and saved the airline's reputation.

Gold-Star Acts of Service

On the other hand, when companies jump to respond to customer feedback, it pays off. Not only did these three avoid the snafu that United went through, they were also publicly praised.

Cathay Pacific flight attendants circumvented protocol to get a stranded passenger halfway around the world to his home, earning a glowing recommendation.

Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas found a disgruntled Facebook post about poor customer service. They apologized within hours with a basket of wine and chocolate.

Comcast's Frank Eliason addresses customer concerns - and improves the company's reputation - on Twitter. No need to wait for the cable guy - he's @ComcastCares!

You Can Do It, Too

As an email marketer, you are already a step ahead of the game. Through your email list, you are already in contact with lots of your customers. Here are some ways you can tell your readers that you want their feedback, and get it from them.

• Make sure that the "reply" address and postal address listed in your emails are legitimate. If you don't check them frequently, start doing so. Respond to every complaint and every compliment - show each customer you appreciate them.
• Periodically send out customer satisfaction surveys. Design them so your readers can critique as much as possible. Cover every topic you can think of, then leave room for ones you miss. Encourage comments and stories, and again, respond wherever you can.
• Include your company's phone number in your emails with a clear invitation to call you with any questions or concerns.
• Set up an autoresponder that invites feedback. For example, AWeber's new blog subscribers get an email that shows all the ways they can contact us and asks for their feedback and preferences.

Once you have your customers' feedback, go use it!

• Apply your findings to the content of your newsletter. If your readers prefer certain topics, concentrate on them.
• If you get feedback regarding a lack of interest in certain types of content, try segmenting your list. Group subscribers with similar preferences and send the content each segment most wants.
• If you use a rating scale, segment the subscribers who rate an email low. Ask them what they didn't like or what content they'd rather see. Personally address any serious problems.
• Use the feedback as content in your emails. Positive comments can be included as testimonials. If you make a change based on a reader's suggestion, write about it. You value your subscribers and your door is always open - let them know.

What Makes You Shine?

It's been said that customer service is the new marketing.

How do you find out what your customers want? How personal do you get with your responses?

How does their feedback make a difference in what you do? Share your thoughts!

Continue reading How Email Can Make You A Customer Service Star

Browsers AWeber Supports

• 

  Internet Explorer 7.0+
  Internet Explorer 8.0+

• 

  Mozilla Firefox 2.0+
  Mozilla Firefox 3.0+

• 

  Google Chrome

• 

  Safari 4.0+

• 

  Mozilla Firefox 2.0+
  Mozilla Firefox 3.0+

• 

  Google Chrome

• 

  Safari 4.0+

For Linux/Ubuntu:

• 

  Mozilla Firefox 2.0+
  Mozilla Firefox 3.0+

Continue reading Now Supporting Google Chrome, Safari

The new archive saves a web version of each broadcast in a central location, making it simple for you to share message content with subscribers new and old.

With it, you are able to resurrect your dusty emails for new purposes and strengthen your existing relationships with your subscribers.

But did you know that the broadcast archive can also help you build your list? Here's how.

Link to an Online Version

Placing a link on your web form to an example of your newsletter shows that your intentions as an email marketer are crystal clear.

Given the chance to preview a real message, subscribers know exactly what they are getting into when providing their email address. There are no questions as to whether or not your campaign will apply to them, since they can sample your content beforehand.

This can also lead to a higher retention rate, because subscribers are better informed prior to signing up to your list.

Make the Most of Forwarding To A Friend

When a subscriber forwards your email, your audience expands for a moment - a blip in eternity. And then it shrinks back, unless the recipient takes initiative and hunts down your sign-up form.

Now, the web version of your newsletter automatically displays a sign-up form. If your subscribers forward your emails to their friends, they will be able to sign up effortlessly.

Even better, you've just suggested subscribing to those who might never have thought of it at all.

Leverage Social Media

Twitter and Facebook are fantastic complements to any email campaign, and now integrating them is even more beneficial.

You've had the ability to link to your archive in your Facebook status or tweet your newest newsletter to create some buzz and generate traffic for some time. You can even publish each broadcast to Twitter with one click.

Now, as with forwarding, that web form on the archive page means interested readers don't have to hunt to sign up for more of you - the option is automatically available when they are directed to your archive from your Facebook or Twitter status.

How Do You Use Your Archive?

Using the new and improved archive, the full value of your campaign is available to all of your readers: past, present and future. It's also a great way to get new subscribers when using these methods.

Do you have any interesting uses for your archived newsletters? We would love to hear about them!

Tweet This

Continue reading 3 Ways to Build Your List with the Broadcast Archive

But emails can prompt more purchases. They can remind local customers to swing by and inspire long-distance customers to visit on their next trip through. They can even offer extra incentive to shop with you.

And though you may not know it, your store already has content for the emails. Read on to find out what this content is, how to get it to your customers and how to make sure it's well-received.

How To Go From Brick & Mortar To Click & Mortar

Collect Email Addresses

First, collect your customers' (and potential customers') email addresses. Emailing them without permission is spam, so make sure you're cleared to occasionally pop into their inboxes. Ask for them:

• At the point of sale. Hand each customer a card with their receipt that promises a discount on their next purchase in exchange for their email address.
• During customer satisfaction surveys. Include a field for email addresses, and be clear that those provided will be mailed to.
• With signup forms on your web site. It's a good idea to include one on each heavily trafficked page.

Send Messages

Once your list is ready, start emailing. Send out broadcasts to:

• Bring customers into your store by alerting them to sales and promotions.
• Demonstrate creative ways to use staple products. Make sure to point out where the products can be found in your store.
• Introduce new products. Explain how they can be used with current products. Specify where and when they'll become available.
• Deliver printable coupons. These keep your customers opening your emails and coming into your store to redeem them. They also encourage new subscriptions from word-of-mouth recommendations.

Make sure to list your hours of operation and phone number, and provide a way for subscribers to offer feedback.

Segment and Target

Rather than sending the same messages to your entire list, you may want to boost relevance with segmentation. This lets you send each customer the emails they want most. You can segment, or divide up your list, in endless ways. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Ask for preferences on your sign-up forms. Add fields to find out what content and format each subscriber prefers. Then create segments based on those preferences.
• Send out an optional survey to collect preferences after the sign-up - keeping the sign-up form itself simple.
• If your business is a chain, you may want to segment by store location according to IP address. If you have just one location, you can use the same tool to segment by distance.

Use this information to segment your list. Then send each email to the appropriate segments.

Conclusion:

If you are a brick and mortar business, do you have an email marketing campaign?

How much time do you spend on it? How do you divide your efforts between in-store happenings, other marketing and your email campaign?

If you don't email market, what's stopping you?

Tweet This

Continue reading Email Tips for Brick & Mortar Stores

While that model might work for a few businesses, it's certainly not for everyone (nor is it in line with most of the email marketing tips you'll find on this and other blogs.

Of course, it's all well and good to talk about the theoretical value of building relationships via email... but is anyone doing it? And if so, how?

Recently, I talked with AWeber customer Chris Guillebeau, who uses email to connect with subscribers, build relationships - and, oh yeah, grow his business while traveling the world.

Watch These Videos From Our Interview

Chris and I talked for a while about:

• How he "does" email.
• What he's learned about email marketing.
• What mistakes he's made (and how he recovered from them).
• How much (if at all) other businesses "get" relationship building.
• How he sells products without making subscribers feel he's being "pushy."

... and a number of other topics.

We talked for about an hour, but that would be one loooong video... so we broke our discussion up into a handful of shorter videos. You can watch them here:

What About You?

How do you build relationships via email? What have you learned along the way?

Share your thoughts on the blog!

Tweet This

Continue reading How To Build Relationships Via Email: We Talk To Chris Guillebeau

For example, here's the top portion of an email I received from Wells Fargo:

See the two lines above the logo? That's the preheader. It's called a "preheader" because the part just below it - the logo and navigation - are typically called the "header" of the email.

Many businesses use preheaders in their email marketing campaigns to get more subscribers to open and read their emails - and to ensure that their campaigns are as deliverable as possible.

How Can a Preheader Improve Response Rates and Deliverability?

In the uses I've seen, preheaders typically aim to do one or more of the following:

• Link to an online version of the email and/or remind subscribers to turn on images.
  
  Why: Many people view emails with images turned off. If your email relies on images to drive clicks or get a point across, you want those subscribers to be able to see them.
  
  Here's an example from MarketingProfs.com:
  
  
• Ask subscribers to add the sender's address to his/her address book.
  
  Why: As we've discussed before, getting in subscribers' address books increases the likelihood that your email will (a) end up in their inbox and (b) actually get opened/read/clicked.
  
  Here's an example from REI.com:
  
  
• Deliver a compelling one-line summary of the email to get subscribers to keep reading.
  
  Why: People are busy. Many of them scan emails rather than read them top-to-bottom, and many use Gmail-style text snippets or their email program's preview pane to determine which emails to bother reading.
  
  Giving people an overview of why they should read your email can increase the odds that they'll actually do so.
  
  Here's an example from Backcountry.com:
  
  
• Provide an unsubscribe link.
  
  Why: People who want off your list will get off your list one way or another. If you make it hard to unsubscribe, they'll click "Spam" - and they'll keep doing so until they stop seeing emails from you in their inbox.
  
  Here's an example from Viddler.com:
  
  
• Remind subscribers why they're getting the email.
  
  Why: Again, people are busy. They may forget that they ever signed up to your list. And if they forget they signed up, they're probably going to want off your list (see above).
  
  Reminding them why they're getting your emails can help you re-engage subscribers and minimize spam complaints.
  
  Here's an an example from LaQuinta.com:
  
  

How Do You Use Preheaders?

You'll notice that in the examples above, not everyone uses their preheader the same way.

Doing every one of the things that you could do in a preheader could make it unnecessarily long; you have to pick out what works best for your email marketing campaigns.

Do you use preheaders in your emails? If so, what do you put in them?

Share your ideas in the comments!

Continue reading 5 Ways a Preheader Can Increase Response and Deliverability

Obviously providing valuable content plays a big part here (as we've discussed on several occasions), but sometimes a little extra incentive can help, too.

Recently Tracey, our Director of Customer Solutions, passed me an email with a helpful example of how to provide an incentive for subscribers to keep reading and clicking on your emails.

How T-Shirt Vendor TeeFury Uses Open and Click Data to Reward Readers

Here's the body of the email from t-shirt site TeeFury (click image below to see full size):

Toward the end of the email, you'll see this banner:

As you can see, they're offering an incentive - a free T-shirt - to a somewhat randomly selected reader.

I say "somewhat randomly" because they're only opening the giveaway to the first handful of people who open their email.

You Can Do This, Too!

Among the many Email Analytics tools available in AWeber is the ability to search for and segment subscribers based on whether they opened a certain email or clicked a certain link.

You can find options to search your list based on whether subscribers opened a certain email or clicked a certain link on the "Subscribers" page of your account:

All you have to do is:

1. Decide what behavior you want to reward (reading a certain email? clicking a certain link?)
   
   Note: Personally I prefer having people click on a link rather than open an email. This is because tracking email opens relies on subscribers having images enabled, and some people might read your email but have images turned off - so even though they might read your email, you might not know it.
2. Come up with a bonus, gift or special offer specifically for those subscribers who take the desired action
3. Tell subscribers about the bonus/gift/offer/giveaway/etc.
4. Send the email you want them to act on
5. After a certain amount of time (whatever you decide), search your list and pick out your winner/s!

Your Ideas On Using This?

Can you see yourself using this tactic? What sort of incentives would you offer?

Share your thoughts on the blog!

Continue reading Want More Opens or Clicks? Reward Subscribers!

So let's have a little fun in the spirit of the season.

I was thinking recently about what I was thankful for, and when my mind turned to work, a question occurred to me:

What Should Email Marketers Be Thankful For?

A few things I came up with:

Affordability

Not everyone has the cash to spend on radio, TV and print ads. (This is doubly true if you're just starting a business, or taking a struggling one and rebuilding it.)

Email gives us a powerful, yet relatively inexpensive, means of marketing our products and services.

Tracking

No other marketing channel lets us track our results as extensively and quickly as email does.

From open rates (which are still useful, even if they're not perfect), to clickthroughs, to conversions, we can use email statistics to see what works, what doesn't, and what we should do to increase the response to our campaigns.

Reputation and Relevancy Rule

Used to be, content filtering was a really big deal. And a lot of people were lured into the trap of obfuscating words like "F.R.EE" to try and get around those filters. (PS - if you're still doing this, stop. Please. Learn why here.)

Nowadays, effective email marketing involves building a reputation for sending timely, relevant, useful information to subscribers. (Permission still matters, too, but it won't save you if you're sending junk.)

The moral here? Send subscribers what they want, when they want, and you don't need to micro-manage your content to get your email delivered. That's a lot to be thankful for.

You Don't Have to Be an Artist to Create Good-Looking Campaigns

Still like hand-coding your messages? Go for it. I don't envy you.

For the less design-inclined, HTML email templates make it easy to spice up your newsletters with a splash of color and imagery, helping to build your brand as subscribers associate your emails with your website.

That's not to say hiring an email designer to create a custom design for you isn't ever a good idea; it absolutely can be. But it's not critical for every business, and it's not always in the budget.

There's No Shortage of Useful Advice

And not just on our site, either (though in our humble opinion you'll get a lot out of subscribing to this blog and sitting in on one of our webinars )

Organizations like MarketingSherpa and MEC Labs feed us a steady diet of case studies and benchmarks to show us what works and what doesn't.

And blogs like no man is an iland and BeRelevant give us plenty to think about as we evaluate our own email marketing campaigns.

Point is, if there's something you want to know about email marketing, you can rest assured that there are people out here willing and ready to help. All you have to do is ask.

So What Are You Thankful For?

How has email marketing helped you this year? Share your experiences on the blog!

Continue reading 5 Reasons Email Marketers Should Give Thanks

We've been talking about it a lot on the blog lately, and you've been asking "Where is it? When's it coming out?" since the first post.

Starting today, the new Web Form Generator is rolling out to AWeber customers. Some of you will get it today, some will get it over the coming days/weeks.

Either way, you probably want to get a look at how it works...

Come Take a Look

I thought it would be nice to give a little tour and show you the Web Form Generator in action (think of it as an open house, only with less house and more web forms :) ).

Building web forms with the old generator got the job done, but now you can create great looking forms and do it in a way that is much more convenient (look Ma, no HTML editing!).

Enough beating around the bush... let's see the darn thing already!

Webinar: More On the New Web Form Generator

This free one-hour session will cover what's new and give you an opportunity to ask questions in a live Q & A session.

Register now (even if you can't make it that day, we'll send you a recording of it!).

Hope to see you on the webinar!

Have You Made a New Web Form Yet? Show it Off!

Are you one of the first to get the new Web Form Generator? Have you made a form with it yet?

If so, show it off - link it up below!

(If you don't have the new Web Form Generator yet, you will soon... be sure to stop back and share your form, too!)

Tweet This

Continue reading Have a Look at the New Web Form Generator

Makes sense to us. So the new Web Form Generator - coming out soon - aims to help you do exactly that.

Here are just a few ways you'll be able to customize the look of your forms to build your list faster and create a better new subscriber experience.

Put Your Form Labels Above, Beside or Inside Fields

Want to try putting the "Name" and "Email" labels above the boxes that subscribers fill out, instead of beside them?

Now you can choose how you want your labels aligned:

You can even put them inside the boxes if you want to - when subscribers click inside the field, we'll remove the label so they can type their name/email!

Add Color to Your Submit Buttons And Position Them Where You Want

Want your form's submit button to stand out and beg to be clicked? You got it.

Think that changing the colors and/or the location of it will help you get more conversions? Now you can find out.

Customize the look of your submit button - you can even add gradients to it to make it slicker:

and you can place it where you think it'll get clicked the most - left, center or right:

If you want to get scientific about it, split test the different colors or positions to see what gets you the most new subscribers!

Show Subscribers How to Confirm With Dynamic Thank You Pages

Want to use video on your thank you pages to increase confirmed opt-ins, but don't have the time or equipment to make it happen?

Use our video thank you pages to give each new subscriber precise instructions on how to confirm.

We'll even show them exactly what your confirm email looks like in their specific email program (Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, Mac Mail, etc).

Collect Addresses With Smart Fields

Need to collect more than just name and email address? How about a postal address?

Now you can easily ask for an address in your forms:

You can then use that data to search and segment your list in AWeber (example: send an email to all of your subscribers in Pennsylvania), or export it so you can build relationships with your subscribers by postal mail.

Automatically Insert a Privacy Policy

We've talked before about the merits creating a privacy policy and linking it from your signup form to increase trust, but that's always been something you had to do on your own.

Now, just tell us to add a privacy policy to your form:

We'll add a link to a privacy policy we created for AWeber customers to use:

It reaffirms your commitment to delivering email to people who want to get it from you and shows people how easy it is to unsubscribe if they choose to do so.

See the privacy policy.

That's Not All

There are tons of ways to make your signup forms cooler and more appealing to subscribers (templates, anyone?). These are just a few examples.

What else can you do? You'll have to try the new Web Form Generator and find out for yourself...

You can also sign up for a webinar/demo of the new Web Form Generator scheduled for Tuesday, November 24th.

Continue reading 5 Cool Things You Can Do With The New Web Form Generator

Lets be honest, most forms are well... boring.

And creating the HTML for a web form is about as interesting as watching paint dry.

But, believe it or not... it doesn't have to be that way.

Our new Web Form Generator: More Powerful Than Rocky?

OK, maybe it can't beat up Clubber Lang. But it definitely packs a punch.

In fact, dare I say - using our new editor you can build a beautiful looking form without knowing the first thing about HTML.

Not only that... its fun to use. Really.

So for those of you who used to hire a professional to make your forms look pretty - take that money and go have a beer on us. YOU'VE just been promoted to lead designer.

Show Us How You Want Your Form to Look - We'll Do the Heavy Lifting

The new Web Form Generator makes it way easier to create an elaborate form, which when done properly will help you better communicate with your subscribers.

I'll show you what I mean.

For this example, lets say I am the proud owner of a real estate company called "Honey & Vinegar Realty." We currently have a form on our website which collects subscribers' name and email. This is great, but we really feel like we could be getting more out of our list of subscribers.

So as always, I first click the "Web Forms" tab and then click the green "+ Create New Form" button, although this time I'm greeted by the new Web Form Generator (see screenshot below).

So, Let's Make a Real Estate Signup Form!

Looking through the different form templates I find that the first one is best suitable for my website.

So I click on it, which brings me to this black box that provides me with a variety of color schemes. (see below)

I like the "Trevose" color scheme... after all it is named after my home town. So I click the blue "Load Template" button.

Now my template is loaded and the template bar has been minimized.

OK, I've only clicked a couple of things and my form is already looking decent... now what?

Let's Think - What Information Do I Want to Collect From My Subscribers?

In real estate, location is key. So I think for my form it would be a great to have subscribers select areas they are interested in. This way I can segment my list and send each subscriber information that is more closely tailored to what they are looking for.

Working from top to bottom... Name and Email are already inserted into my form for me. So the next thing I'm going to want is a place for my users to pick locations.

I'll use a "Text Element" to add an instructions sentence. In this case I'll write - "Select the counties you are more interested in:".

Now, I'd like them to be able to select multiple areas. Using a checkbox might be my best bet.

So I'll create a new "Field" for each county and set the "Input Type" to be a checkbox.

I'm happy with my design but I feel like maybe I should have some sort of divider to separate the sections of the form a little bit.

So lets add one in:

And of course I can't forget to add some some writing in my header and footer:

There you have it! A nice, professional form... without touching any HTML.

At This Point I Know Everyone Is Probably Thinking "Yeah, Yeah... Get to the Templates!"

Eric and I are now in the phase of development where we are spending most of our time cranking out form templates. We want to provide some fresh designs and ideas to take your forms to the next level.

Click to view some of the ones we've made up to this current date.

Of Course, Your Input is The Most Important Thing of All.

If you have any ideas for form templates that you'd want made, please leave a comment.

Eric and I will be creating a lot of form templates in the up coming weeks so any inspiration and ideas you can send our way will go a long way!

Continue reading How Easy Is It To Make A Web Form?

As it turns out, that was about three and a half years ago now. And we've grown more, to the point that the office we moved into in 2006 just can't hold us.

So after over a year of planning and construction, we're moving into a new office.

Limited Support on Moving Day - Friday, June 26th

Tomorrow, AWeber's team is moving out of our 4000 square foot office into a much larger building (it's 24,000 square feet!).

(Click for a larger image of our Customer Solutions area.)

It's going to be a busy day for our Customer Solutions Team as we move computers, phones, chairs and other equipment to the new office and get it all hooked up there.

However, we still want to be able to provide support to the 60,000-plus customers who rely on us for their email marketing.

We're going to stagger the move throughout the day so that at least part of our team is answering your questions throughout our normal business hours (8:00am - 8:00pm).

Please Bear With Us As We Move

Since some people will be moving while others "hold down the fort" we may not be able to answer all of everyone's questions as quickly as normal on Friday.

So if you call and can't get us on the phone promptly, leave a message and we'll get in touch with you as soon as we can. As always, we'll work to answer your questions (by phone, email and live text chat) within one business day.

We're excited to get into a new facility that will help us provide email marketing services more effectively than ever.

Thanks for your patience as we move!

Continue reading AWeber Moves to a New Office Friday, June 26th, 2009

Today, let's talk about email design. Specifically, plain text email design.

While creating plain text emails seems easy (and it is) there are things you can do to make your plain text emails more reader-friendly.

A recent email I received illustrates this well:

Evernote's Plain Text Update

Here's an email I received from the makers of software program Evernote:

(Click image to see full-size)

Now, we could take the easy way out and say that Evernote should be sending HTML emails instead of plain text - so they could more easily present this information in the excellent way they do on their website and blog.

Instead, let's focus instead on how Evernote could make it easier for subscribers to get the information they want out of this email.

For the record, I don't think this is a bad email overall. It has a great tone and a lot of good content in it. I just think that the format makes it hard for subscribers to use and appreciate that content.

Making This Plain Text Email Usable

While this email isn't just one big continuous block of text, it does leave a few things to be desired...

No Maximum Character Width

Notice how long the lines are in this email?

(Click to see full-size)

Those are being cut off by my Gmail account when it runs out of room at around 133 characters - about twice what we recommend as a maximum line length. And if Gmail had let the, the lines would have run even longer than that!

Keeping the lines shorter would mean subscribers don't have to move their eyes so far across the page and back to read the email, making scanning faster and easier.

Headers Aren't Easily Visible and Scannable

If you're going to have an email with separate topics/sections, it's best to use headers (just like you would on a web page) to make those sections easy to find as subscribers scan your email.

This email has headers, but fails to separate them from the corresponding paragraphs.

At the very least there should be another line break between the header and paragraph; I'd probably also try making the header stand out a little more with some hyphens or asterisks.

No Separation of Content Within Paragraphs

Each section of this email has a header and then a single large paragraph of text.

Even at the long line lengths shown here, each paragraph is several lines long. If you were to shorten the lines to 60-70 characters, these would be really long.

This email could be far more readable if you broke the paragraphs apart, maybe used some bulleted lists... you don't have to follow the old "5-sentence paragraph" structure when writing an email!

No Conclusion or Signoff

This email just abruptly ends after the last content section:

What's strange about this is that the rest of the email actually has a great friendly, personal tone to it... so a signature or conclusion of some sort seems like a no-brainer.

Leaving the signature off makes it feel less like an email you're receiving from an actual person at Evernote, and more like a machine-written news summary.

Your conclusion and/or signature need not be elaborate (for example, look at the one in Kayak's email newsletters) but it should be there to bring everything else in your emails back together.

Just For Fun: My Rewrite Of This Email

Here's that same email content, with ~3 minutes' work to format it differently:

(Click image for full-size)

It's longer since I shortened the lines and broke up the text a bit, but I think it reads a lot more smoothly than the previous version.

I'm of course biased since this rewrite is my creation, so I'll ask you:

Would you agree that the simple layout changes in this version make the email much easier to scan and read?

I hope so.

Plain Text Doesn't Have to Be Plain-Jane

It's perfectly fine to send plain text emails; they might work better for you than HTML.

But if you do go the plain text route, don't assume that means there's zero design involved!

How do YOU lay out your plain text emails to make them easy to read?

Share your ideas and thoughts in the comments!

Tweet This

Continue reading How To Make Your Plain Text Emails Hard to Read and Use

Ever wish your email template could match your blog?

At AWeber, you can use any of our 100+ HTML email templates to create great-looking emails in a variety of color schemes – but what if you could match the look of your email marketing campaigns perfectly to your website?

To help make this happen, and have some fun in the process, I’ve created a couple HTML email templates based on some free WordPress themes that you

Continue reading Freebie Email Templates