Do you host events? 

Perhaps not even regularly, but every once in a while you have a company event, festival or open day you need to promote.  See, most people use their email newsletters to promote specials or to offer their subscribers valuable industry information – but it’s also the ideal way to promote your events.

How?  Well, that’s easy.  You’re already doing email marketing, right?  So here are a few easy steps you can take, using the tools you already have at your disposal, to make sure the word about your event gets out.

1.     Make sure you let them know well in advance.
It’s three months before the actual event, there’s no point in sending out a mailer solely focused on telling your subscribers all the exciting details (you want to save that till closer to the time!), but you want to make sure they keep the date available…
Include a short snippet in your weekly or monthly newsletter – just give your subscribers enough to get them interested.  “Shhhh… we have a surprise coming up! Make sure you’re available December 1st!” or “It’s that time of year again – our annual 1st of December summer party!  We’ll be sharing exciting details soon!” are great ways to let your subscribers know something’s up.  You can then slowly build the hype and release more details as and when you have them, or even send out a mailer dedicated specifically to the event.

2.     Set up an invitation template
A special event requires a special invite…  Surprise your subscribers with a special email invitation!  They’ve become used to your newsletters, so borrow some of the details from your newsletter layout and add a few tweaks or a special image to draw their attention.  Your invitation can include all the need-to-know information, and also inform recipients a bit more on what the event is about.

Browse through our template library and simply adjust one of our invitation templates to set up a special mailer to invite subscribers to join your event.  You can, of course, also create your own invitation template using the 2008 Editor or the Drag-and-Drop Editor (beta version).

3.    Ask them to RSVP – and keep track of your guest list
Of course, once you’ve sent out your invitation you need to keep track of the guest list!  It’s easy to do within your GraphicMail account by using TriggerMail to set up an RSVP trigger.  Here’s how it works:  In your invitation you can ask people whether they’ll be attending the event and to click on “Yes” or “No” accordingly.  By setting up a RSVP trigger, GraphicMail will then automatically add everyone who clicks “Yes” to a dataset in your account.  That way you have a list of every subscriber who will be attending in your account.  You can even ask them to enter dietary preferences or any other information you might need!  You can find out more about RSVP triggers here.

So there’s another thing your email marketing efforts can come in handy for.  Useful to have us hanging around, hey?

If you haven’t spotted in on our home page, or read about it on our blog, I’m sure you’ve noticed the Facebook posts or the tweets – whatever the case, you could not have failed to notice our spring promotion!

We’re offering all our South African clients extra send credits at a 20% discount during the month of September!  For our trials users we’re throwing in 20% more credits if they convert to a paid account this month. 
Sounds good?  I think so!

But there’s more…

To help your email marketing flourish this spring we’ve included our FREE spring guide.  It’s a step-by-step guide to growing your own email campaign – from how to grow your list, design a newsletter and  tips on how to boost your campaign. 

It’s easy to follow and simple to implement – download your free Grow Your Own Email Campaign Spring Guide here.

Finally – it’s spring and we’re all heading outside!  Take this September to spring clean your email marketing.  We’ve put together a fun spring guide that will have you growing your own email campaign in no time. And to sweeten the deal, we decided to throw in a 20% discount on all account credit top ups!

So, what is this about?

From 1 until 30 September 2010, all GraphicMail clients who have a paid account with us will be able to buy extra send credits at a 20% discount!  Perfect for any promotional spring mailings of your own.

You’ll also see details of this when you log into your GraphicMail account.

Happy sending!

Sign up from a trial to a paid account with our Spring promo

It’s time to celebrate:  Spring’s here!  Time for warmer weather, new beginnings and, of course, some spring cleaning…

If you’ve decided it’s time to implement an email marketing strategy for your business, you’ve probably signed up for a GraphicMail trial account…  We’re offering you some incentive to kick start your email marketing campaign.

If you’ve been test driving a GraphicMail trial account now’s the time to sign up to a paid account - and during the month of September we’ll give you 20% more credits to boot!

We also go back to basics with our new Spring guide to help you grow your own email campaign.

We all want better results on our email marketing efforts, but few of us are willing to do what it takes: Test.

I don’t know if it’s because we’re all convinced testing takes too long, whether we’re too excited to blast our sends out there, or if we’re simply too pushed for time; but one of the things most neglected by email marketers is thorough testing of their campaigns.

And then we wonder why our results don’t improve or our campaigns fail…

Whether it’s your content, subject line, your send time or your newsletter layout you’re not sure about, testing your emails is the only way to get a concrete answer on what works best for your subscribers.   Perhaps you think you have the perfect newsletter - it must be your recipient’s fault…or email marketing’s fault…  Time to test!

Not sure what to test?

MarketingSherpa recently published this chart on a survey they did to find out what it is that email marketers test, or plan to test, in their campaigns.  Interesting – and it gives you a good idea of possible things to test for in your own campaign.

So in what way can you test your newsletter?

 A/B split testing
With A/B split testing you can test variations of your newsletter or subject line on a portion of your list.  Once you know which version yielded the best results, you can then send off the winning version to the rest of your mailing list, ensuring that you only send out those newsletters that will have the most impact.  (You can test up to five different newsletter variations.) 

Inbox preview
Every email client shows up your email differently.  That means that those subscribers who read your email in Gmail, will see it differently to those who read it in Outlook…or Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc.  With Inbox Preview you can easily preview what your email look like in a range of different email clients, so you can make sure that each of your recipients will be able to view your email hassle-free.

Test sends
You’d be surprised by the number of email marketers who send off their newsletter without having conducted a test send!  ALWAYS send a test version to yourself – I know I, more often than not, pick up on a broken link or even an incorrect heading in my test sends.  Our support team has, on more than one occasion, had frantic clients on the line desperately looking for an “Undo” button because they’ve sent out an email and realized a crucial mistake too late.  Well, there is no “undo” button – so send a test!

Of course, subscribers evolve continuously – mailing lists and subscriber interests are forever changing.  The only way around this is to test regularly.  You’ve invested so much time and resources into your email marketing venture, a few minutes to test could improve your results dramatically, making it all the more worthwhile.

It’s competition time!

We’ve kicked off a new competition on Facebook:  It’s time to show off your hard work – by submitting your email newsletters for voting!

How to enter:

1.     Email one of your newsletters, or a screenshot of your newsletter (whether the most recent or just the one you think looks super cool), to carmia@graphicmail.com. 
2.    We’ll upload a screenshot of your newsletter to an album on our Facebook page called “May the best newsletter win!”
3.    Get your mom, friends and colleagues to go to our fan page, view the album and vote for your newsletter, either by commenting on it or clicking on the “Like” button.

The newsletter with the most votes, wins!

What’s up for grabs?

First Prize – An iPod touch, a customized newsletter template created especially for your business by our design team and 5,000 free GraphicMail credits

Second Prize – A customized newsletter template created especially for your business by our design team and 5,000 free GraphicMail credits

Third Prize – 5,000 free GraphicMail credits

Sounds cool doesn’t it?  Wish I could enter… Submit your newsletter now.

Want to check out the competition? View the other entries by going to our Facebook page.

It’s an old standby email marketers’ trick, but it still works:  Personalisation.

Of course we all know that personalisation is a cheap trick – it’s not that the brand actually knows you personally, it’s a computer that automatically inserts your name in the allocated space.  However, everybody does it.  We’ve become so used to receiving emails personalised with our names that you notice when an email doesn’t address you by name.  With every other business addressing their clients by name, you stand out like a sore thumb when you neglect to personalise your emails.

First things first:
In order to personalise your emails you first need to “know” enough about your subscribers.  Make sure that your subscription form captures the necessary information.   You can set certain fields, like name, surname, location or gender, to be required fields. 
No idea how to set up personalisation for your campaign?  Watch the video tutorial.

Ready? Right.  Now here’s how to use it:

The personal nature of email is one of the advantages it has as a marketing tool – use this to your advantage by playing around with your personalisation; try using it in a way others don’t.  For instance, while everyone else is on a first name basis, why don’t you try addressing your subscribers by last name?  “Mr. Malema, your new Mercedes has arrived” or “Merry Christmas, Weasley family!” could put a new spin on things. 

Another often overlooked method of personalisation, is to personalise your emails by location.  Say, for instance, you’re sending out an email to announce your Spring Sale – you can tell subscribers to “rush over to their local ____ branch”  and insert the name of the store closest to their location.
If you want to take it a step further, you can also personalize your emails by sending emails relating to a specific store, branch or area only to people who are close to that location.  Use segmentation to do this.

Get creative with your personalisation - you might just impress both your subscribers and yourself!

We also run live online demonstrations on the topics of personalisation and segmentation.  Be sure to check our webinar page from time to time, or else request our team to schedule one by emailing info@graphicmail.com

Everyone wants to see a return on their email marketing – but what’s the difference between those emails getting an ROI on email marketing and those that don’t?

Strategy.

Most businesses adopt email marketing because it’s a low-cost, effective marketing tool.  The problem is that often, they sign up thinking that they can send newsletters on a trial-and-error basis, trying different things until they find a winning formula for their email campaigns.  After all, with email it’s possible to do just that – at no great expense. 
Unfortunately most companies then get stuck in that mode – they keep sending random mailings, never finding the time to truly test and strategize their campaigns.
Sound familiar?

Devising a strategy for your campaign is the key to making the most out of your mailings.

Here are three questions to get you started:

What do you want to achieve with your email campaign?

Back to basics:  Set objectives for your email campaign.  Do you want to create brand awareness?  Grow your mailing list?  Improve on customer relationships?  Boost sales? Promote a particular event?  Generate more traffic to your website?

How about “all of the above”?

How are you going to go about achieving this?

Whether you have one or two objectives, or a whole list, every send needs to have a purpose.  (It will also help you to define a clear call to action.)  Just remember that one email won’t miraculously fulfill all the above mentioned objectives! 

Stick to one or two objectives per send.  The objective of each send can vary, as long as each send is focused.

One way of doing this is to create separate campaigns for each objective.  After all, that’s one of the benefits of the low cost of emails!  It also makes it easier to track how you’re progressing on reaching each of your objectives.  Another way of going about it is to simply segment and target your mailing list according to which recipients are most likely to fulfill which objective.  For instance, new subscribers might need more generalized brand or product information if you’re trying to create brand awareness, while subscribers with a history of purchasing your products might be more likely to purchase again, thereby boosting your sales.

How are you going to know when you’ve achieved your goal?

Your comprehensive send reports already provide you with all the statistics you need to keep track of your campaign, but having clear objectives will give you a clear indication of which stats to keep an eye on.  For example, if your objective is to grow your list you may want to keep track of the number of recipients who clicked on the “forward to a friend” link, or the number of social shares you had (if you’ve inserted social widgets in your footer).  Of course, the subscribe statistics would be a pretty clear indication too!

Taking note of your reports will also enable you to set realistic objectives in terms of how much you can aim for your list to grow, sales to boost, traffic to be generated, etc.

So, whether you’re running a campaign for your non-profit organization or focus on B2B email marketing, the principle remains:  An email marketing campaign without a plan is one that won’t survive in the long term.  Take some time to devise your strategy and you’re likely to see a much better ROI.

We introduce: the  Inbox Preview, BETA version

Do your campaigns render correctly in all the different email programs out there (like Outlook 2007, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and on and on)?  And what about all the smartphones and the iPad? Well, you can setup lots of email accounts and servers to check your campaigns yourself, and get a bunch of smartphones too, or you can click a button in GraphciMail  and we'll do all the testing for you. We have just launched the Inbox Preview tool (Beta version) on our South African market.

Introductory Offer:

Test it – we give you your first 3 tests free of charge!
Then decide what bundle is best for you – we offer them in 10, 25, 50 and 100. So if you want to preview 10 newsletters, buy a bundle of 10, if you want to preview 100, get a bundle of 100 – it all depends on how often you send and how many tests you want to run.

Get a bundle of

•    10 for  R50
•    25 for  R118.75 (5% discount)
•    50 for  R225 (10% discount)
•    100 for R400 (20% discount)

These rates are once off, i.e. you buy the amount of previews you need, and if you want to test more newsletters at a later stage, you simply buy an additional bundle of 10, 25, 50 or 100 from within your account. Believe us, this is the best investment you can make for your email marketing campaign.
You only get one chance to make a first impression with your clients – use Inbox Preview to make sure all of your subscribers get a looker of a newsletter.

How do I use Inbox Preview?

It couldn't be easier to do...

1)    Go to the inbox preview menu which is a sub item under “newsletters” in your GM acount
2)    Select the email you want to run the test on. (It will take a couple of minutes to run the test as GraphicMail sends emails and takes snapshots of the inboxes for you.) 
3)    Go and see the thumbnails of the various email clients. (To see it in greater detail, just click on a thumbnail.  You can then see if you need to make any changes.)
4)    Make the necessary changes and test again.

Remember this tool is to help you save time on testing your emails.  But you're responsible for fixing them. We do offer troubleshooting services or we can build templates for you, but this is not included in subscription costs.

Any questions? Comments? Issues? Contact our support team at info@graphcmail.com or call 0860 106 135

NB: Have you noticed all the mid-year interface changes on Hotmail, Gmail and others that affect the way email newsletters are displayed? One of the first things we have noticed is the change in email alignment and missing background colours when subscribers read your email newsletter in Firefox, Chrome or Safari. With Inbox Preview, you won’t have to worry about these anymore. Leave it up to us to give you the latest look of all email and webmail  providers.

New Help Center voting icons

I’m sure you’ve all had some questions about something in your GraphicMail account.  It happens when you’re working in a technical application with as many features as ours.

When you get stuck with something in GraphicMail the easiest way to go about solving your problem is to go to our Help Center.  The Help Center covers a range of topics offering step-by-step instructions on how to solve some frequently asked questions. We offer help documents, video tutorials and FAQs.

However, we’re not sure how helpful the answers are to you as an individual user. We need your feedback so we can improve continuously on our help centre. So what we’ve done is to enable you to vote for our FAQs.   Next time you have a question, check out our Help Centre, and tell us if our help was helpful or not.  You can also leave a comment or additional question. Highly appreciated! 

So, to the polls - make your vote count! :)