Your list isn’t true opt-in
You swipe names off business cards at tradeshows, buy affinity lists, or enter customers in contests without gaining permission to send other email.

Your creative is burned out
You send the same emails over and over again with minor changes. Your customers feel SPAMed and drop out.

You don’t have effective landing pages
Your email sends customers to a page in a catalog that is unrelated in design and message to the email, and doesn’t have a response mechanism. This trains them not to click!

Your list is stagnant
Even the best email programs lose subscribers. Email addresses and jobs change, and people just get overwhelmed. Make sure that your acquisition plan replaces subscribers at the rate they’re lost and also factors in your growth objectives.

There is no reason to click thru
Are you giving away the whole story in your email instead of using teasers? Do you provide offers, white papers or real news to entice prospects? If not, don’t expect higher click thru rates.

Your frequency is off
Every list has a frequency it will tolerate. Are you mailing weekly, bi-weekly, monthly? If you increase or decrease the frequency does your response increase?

Poor design
Do you give your customers something to click within the first 300 pixels? Is your email just one big image? Do you have clear and compelling calls to action in text? If not, review best practices and tweak.

With more people turning to their phones for email, it’s worth a little extra time to make your emails mobile friendly.

Make sure your leads are brief and catchy. People who use cell phones for email are already on the go, so catch their attention fast with leads that scream “open me.”

Define link colors clearly, and use text links in favor of images or buttons. Always include a visible plain text version of the email.

Find out how many users are actually using their mobile devices to open the newsletter. Analytics are important because if none of your audience uses mobile email, it’s not necessary to fret – yet.

Most new smartphones (iPhones, Androids) display regular emails (Blackberrys don’t), but because the screen sizes vary and are considerably smaller than PC monitors, formatting can be a pain. Generally, the rule of thumb is the less complex coding and images, the safer the email. The mobile resolution will be about less than half the size of desktop emails. Never use large images!

QR Codes for Advertising

Japanese companies use QR Codes for advertising, notably on billboards so consumers can snap pictures from their cell-phones and head directly to the companies’ websites. The codes can be slapped on magazine ads, billboards, signage, or even business cards.

Some smart phones in the United States have already integrated QR Code technology, and as smart phones continue to skyrocket in popularity, that number will increase. The codes are appealing to advertisers because of their ability to seamlessly bridge the gap between cyberspace and the real world. By holding up your phone to an ad, you are instantly transported to the destination.

Do a Google search to create your own QR Codes. Does your smartphone have a QR reader? Scan our code:

As you select your criteria, the program dynamically updates how many people you’re likely to reach with your ad. Facebook ads are so precise that one man was able to create an ad solely for his wife, and it worked.

Consumers are 10 times more like to buy products via social media, according to one study, so get on Facebook and get cracking on brand promotion!

BP’s PR strategy for the bad press is no shocker. One study showed that nearly 30 percent of people will click a sponsored link before genuine search results.

Google’s AdWords program lets companies purchase sponsored links that appear above normal search results depending on the company’s budget.

Terms that also trigger BP’s response website include “oil spill claims,” “oil spill disaster” and “oil spill cleanup.” BP may be paying $10,000 daily to stay at the top of search results, according to ABC News.

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Send Every E-mail Twice

Remail is the best practice in the email industry and it’s simple. After you send the initial mailing, wait at least one week, remove the people who already opened your mail from the list and send the same content again. Our return rates on remail range from 10 to 15%. But even if you only get an incremental return, say 5%, it’s almost free!

Integrate Newsletter Content With Social Media

A study of nine major websites recently showed that more traffic was driven to their sites by social media than organic search. So put your newsletter content to work.

• Invite signups to your newsletter every month on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Turn your friends into subscribers and prospects.
• Tease specific stories from your newsletter over social media throughout the month and build traffic to your site.
• Boost your credibility and provide your sales force with links to specific articles they can send to prospects.

Turn Newsletter Articles Into Blog Posts

Get added mileage by posting news stories to your company’s blog. Every article with target keywords will bolster your site’s performance in organic search.

Real dynamic content is much different, and much more powerful. Based on user preferences or segmentation, contents are tailored to individual interests. This increases click- thrus and conversions, and overall ROI of your campaign.

Engage your audience through more relevant content.

To get started with email marketing you’ll need an emailer who can handle dynamic content, separate content for each segment you wish to target, and a segmented list.

1. Define the most advantageous segmentation for your business. For example, a professional oven manufacturer might capture e.g. the names and titles of restaurant owners and head chefs, and type of restaurant (Italian, French, Haggis).
2. Invite your existing subscribers to express their preferences on a web page; and explain what’s in it for them, e.g. they’ll receive a recipe that’s perfect for their restaurant every month.
3. Create a newsletter format and design that contains core content pertinent to your entire audience, e.g. trade shows you’re attending and company news. And allow a space for dynamic content.
4. Create a specialized chunk of content for each of your markets, and space for it to be dynamically inserted in your newsletter.
5. Continually prod subscribers to update their preferences. For example, would you like to see a recipe just for your restaurant every month?
6. Track analytics to improve the content for each segment.

The screen capture shows Google results for the term “Ideopia.” Note that 8 out of 10 results are from social media – Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook. And these results are being incorporated fast, e.g. the Twitter post on phobias was posted just 28 minutes ago. Food for thought!