Remember when we called email the “red headed step-child“? Well, it’s time to show email some respect! You can do this by starting now on your 2009 email marketing schedule. Get a plan out there that your team buys into so that email is no longer an after-thought to a larger marketing campaign.

Here are five tips to help you get started now on your 2009 email schedule:

1. Start Small. If planning for the entire year is too daunting, start with the first quarter, or the first 60 days. Know how many email campaigns you are going to send each month. Will they be newsletters or promotional emails, or both? If you have several departments sending emails, be sure to check with each other first to make sure your emails aren’t going out on the same day. This will keep your recipients from being overwhelmed, and perhaps annoyed, by the number of emails they receive from your company.

2. Think About the Bigger Picture. How will your emails fit into the overall marketing schedule? Use your company’s annual marketing plan as a jumping off point, making sure that your email schedule fits in well with the rest of the marketing pushes. Also, keep your organizational events in mind and be sure to schedule emails around these dates.

3. Remember the Holidays. Plan to send your subscribers holiday greetings, even for the smaller holidays like Valentine’s Day and Fourth of July. This will help to build the relationship further and will make sure you are always in the forefront of their minds. Remembering the holidays also means remembering the “black-out” days. For example, if you are specializing in B2B emails, you should probably avoid emailing on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, as many people leave work early on these days to extend their holidays.

4. Work Backwards. Once you have your email launch dates planned, work backwards from there to determine when the recipient lists, final copy and creative, subject line, etc. will be due. Add in a little buffer time, just in case. Get your team to buy into this, and there shouldn’t be any last-minute work or surprises. Gosh, wouldn’t that be nice?! To help you get started with this, remember that if you are sending a managed campaign through Blue Sky Factory, we ask for at least 48 hours turnaround time to set up and test campaigns. Please remember to add that time into your schedule to ensure we hit your target launch date.

5. Plan for A/B Testing. You should be performing split tests routinely to determine the best subject line, creative, call to action, landing page, etc. that works for your recipients. A/B test campaigns require a few more days turnaround than straight campaigns, as you need to allow for a few days for the test results from the initial sample group to come through. Buffer this time into your A/B campaign schedules, and plan on doing at least one A/B campaign each quarter. Read more about planning an A/B test campaign here.

Bonus tip: Get Started Today! Before you know it, the holidays will be over and 2009 will be here. Be proactive and get started on your 2009 email schedule now. The sooner you have your schedule developed, the sooner you can start benefiting from it. If you need help developing your email schedule or strategy plan, contact your Blue Sky Factory Account Manager.

Do you remember learning the Scientific Method in middle school chemistry class?

1) Make Observations
2) Formulate a Hypothesis
3) Design an Experiment
4) Test the Hypothesis
5) Accept or Reject the Hypothesis

A client recently contacted me about A/B Testing in their emails. They were struggling with getting started on a test and what the steps should be. It occurred to me that the Scientific Method can be applied to A/B testing in email (and you thought you’d never use chemistry again!).

Here’s what I mean:

1) Make Observations
Review your current email program and results. How do your current results differ from your desired results? What do you think could alter those results? Write down everything you can think of!

Struggling to get started?  Here are some great tests to consider:

1. Date/Time (weekend versus weekday, morning versus evening)
2. Subject Line (short & vague versus long & descriptive)
3. Email content/images (people images versus non-people images)
4. Call-to-Action (button versus link, % discount versus free shipping)
5. Landing Pages (busy versus simple, color schemes)

2) Formulate a Hypothesis
Decide on one aspect that you think could be changed to make a difference to your email results.  For example, “I think my subject lines are boring and not enticing people to open my emails.”  Use this hypothesis to design the test (step 3). Remember to only test one aspect at a time, so that you have a true control group and a true test group.  Other aspects can be tested in future tests (a series of tests is more than ok!).

3) Design an Experiment
Let me now explain how an A/B test should work.  Aspects A and B should be tested to a small, random portion of your email list.  In step 5, you’ll measure the results to determine the winner.  The winning aspect will then be sent to the remainder of your list.

Back to step 3, where you set up your emails and segmentations.  If you are testing something in the email creative, you’ll need to set up two different email versions.  Set up a segmentation in Publicaster that pulls a random number of people.  If you need help with this, feel free to contact bsfsupport@blueskyfactory.com.
4) Test the Hypothesis
Time to launch your email(s) to the two test groups - A and B.

5) Accept or Reject the Hypothesis
Here’s the most important part of this process - the analysis.  Gather the results of both aspects.  How did the results between the two aspects differ?  Focus on the main area of your results that you were trying to improve with the changed aspect. For example, if I tested subject lines, I’d focus on open rates; if testing landing pages, I’d focus on conversion rate.

Here are some results you can look at:

1. Open Rate
2. Click-Through Rate
3. Conversion Rate
4. Website Traffic
5. Inbound Sales Calls/Emails

From the results, determine the winning aspect, and email that version to the remainder of your list.

If you have additional aspects to test, start the process over again.  The more you test, the more perfected your email campaign will become!

So, as it turns out, chemistry was worth our time and pain in school!  Now, can anyone say the same for trigonometry?!?

Have you had success with an A/B email test?  We’d love to hear about it!  Leave us a comment below.

This month we did a little shuffling of responsibilities at Blue Sky Factory, and I was asked to be the main contact for any Publicaster support issues.  While I loved speaking with each and every one of you, I realized there are some commonly asked questions that seem to come up over and over.  In an attempt to streamline the process, I’d like to go over a few of them here. 

I hope that this quick list of common support topics will help you as you use our Publicaster application.  Please do not take this as a hint that we don’t want to hear from you - we really do!  If you ever have questions about Publicaster or email marketing in general, we are here and excited to help!

Without further ado, here are the Top 5 Most Common Support Topics:

1. Your Mailing List Data File

When you are ready to import data into Publicaster, make sure your data file is in one of these formats: Comma Separated Value (.csv) or Text Tab Delimited (.txt).  The first row of your data must be the column headers (Email, Firstname, Company, etc).  These column headers must match what you have in your Publicaster database.  Go to List Manager > Manage Databases > Edit to see what field headers you currently have set up.  As an example, the column header in your data file for Email cannot be spelled “E-mail” or “e mail”.  Spaces and hyphens matter!

2. List Import and Manage Existing Data Counts

Once you have uploaded a list, Publicaster will show you a count of how many records were uploaded.  This count removes any duplicate or invalid records from your original data file.  By invalid record, we mean that Publicaster will check to make sure all email addresses are in the name@domain.com format.  Any email addresses that are not in this format will not be uploaded.  Here’s something new to look forward to: In Publicaster 7.0, you will be given more in-depth counts.  You will be shown how many invalid or duplicate email addresses were removed, and you’ll be able to click through to view those records not uploaded.

Once you’ve uploaded your list data, you can go to Manage Existing Data under List Manager to get Quick Counts on your list(s).  Note that these list counts include ALL records on your list, including Active, Hard Bounced, Opt-outs, etc.  If you want just a count of the Active records on your list (the ones that Publicaster will send emails to), change the Subscriber Status drop-down menu to “Active”.  Note that segmentation Quick Counts automatically give you only Active records, so be sure to keep this in mind when comparing segmentation counts to mailing list counts.  Also note that the Quick Count from the Send/Schedule Emails screen will always give you the Active count.

3. Using Personalization in Emails

You do have the ability to personalize your emails.  This is achieved by using snippet codes, just like you do for the Forward to a Friend and Opt-out links.  For example, if you want your email to read, “Dear (firstname)”, here’s how you would do that:

Dear [~Firstname~]

This would personalize your email for the recipient, as long as you have that “firstname” column in your mailing list and there is a valid first name associated with that recipient’s email address.  For any record that has an email address but not a first name, you can set a default value for this personalization.  You have the opportunity to do so once you’ve saved the email.  Hint: You can also use personalization in subject lines by simply typing the snippet into the subject line text box when setting up your email.

4. Sending and Scheduling Emails

When you go to the Send/Schedule Email screen under Launch/Manage Emails, you have the option to either Deliver Now or Schedule Delivery.  If you want to schedule an email for the future, remember to schedule it at least 15 minutes in advance.  Also, if you are sending a test email to your test list, be sure to choose your test mailing list from the Mailing List drop-down menu at the top of the page, and also to select “Yes” for the question at the bottom of the page, “Is this a test?”.  By selecting “Yes”, this will put the word “Test” in your subject line.  When selecting this option, you can also choose to send separate versions, which allows you to receive and review both the HTML and Plain Text versions of your emails.

 5. Reporting Metrics

The most commonly looked at metric is the Open Rate.  Opens are recorded only if images are downloaded.  (Note: this is an industry standard.)  This means that recipients can receive and read your emails without downloading images, and this would not count as an open.   Alternatively, if someone breezes by your email in their preview pane and has images turned on by default, this would count as an open, although the recipient may have barely glanced at your email.  Because of these two points, we typically recommend that you pay closer attention to your click-through rate.  This metric is much more accurate, since a click can only be recorded if your recipient physically clicks on the link.  This also shows that your call to action was effective and that the recipient is truly engaged in your emails.  And remember, the best way to gauge your email success is to compare yourself against yourself (not against others or the industry average).  Watch your own email metrics over time and try different things to improve upon them.  If you need suggestions for some A/B tests to run, contact your Account Manager directly.

Hopefully these tips will help you as you use Publicaster.  If you still need assistance, or just want to talk to a live person, we’d love to hear from you!  Please contact us at bsfsupport@blueskyfactory.com or 1-866-216-BLUE.  Until then, happy emailing!

Last week, I blogged about how we set up our new subscription page on www.blueskyfactory.com.  This week, I’d like to go over how we set up our new welcome email.  Everything we did was set up using our Publicaster application, so Publicaster users should have no trouble mimicking what we did.

First, the nitty-gritty about how we set up this form and mailing list.  You’ll notice on our subscription page, we offer four different types of email publications - Factory Direct (our monthly e-newsletter), Blue Sky Factory Webinars, 52 Email Marketing Tips in 52 Weeks, and News & Press Releases.  The Publicaster opt-in form, however, only allows you to select one mailing list to have opt-ins added to.  To work around this, we created a master subscription list in our Publicaster account that this form was tied to.  We then set up each of the four publication types as database fields in our mailing list.  Anyone that checks off to subscribe to a particular publication on the form is given a value of “Yes” for that particular field in the master mailing list.

Since all the subscribers are in one master list and are categorized by a field within the mailing list, we’ll need to use a segmentation to launch an email campaign.  If, for example, we want to send an issue of Factory Direct, we’ll set up a segmentation that Includes Subscribers from the master subscription list and has the segmentation condition of “FactoryDirect” “Is Equal To” “Yes”.  This will pull all people from the master subscription list that checked off the box on the opt-in form to subscribe to Factory Direct.

Now, let’s talk about the welcome email.  We set up the opt-in form as a Notified Single Opt-in, which means all subscribers are sent an automatic welcome email.  It is a best practice to acknowledge and welcome your new subscribers within minutes of their subscription.  Your welcome email should be fairly simple.  It should (1) welcome your subscriber to your mailing list, (2) remind them again of the benefits of subscription, (3) outline the type(s) of emails they will receive and the frequency of each, (4) give them the option to change their subscription or opt-out completely, and finally (5) ask them to whitelist your email address to ensure proper delivery.  Check out our new welcome email here.  You’ll notice that all five of these points are covered.

Since we have four publication types, you’ll see that each is listed, along with a description of content and frequency.  Right under the description is a line that tells the recipient if they are currently subscribed to that publication or not.  Since the email types were all set up as database fields in the mailing list, this was really easy to do using a Publicaster snippet code.  As an example, in our Publicaster email, we included a line that read:

Subscribed? [~FactoryDirect~]

If the recipient was subscribed to the Factory Direct email, this would have read:

Subscribed? Yes

So that this line wasn’t left blank, we set up a default value so that it would read “No” if the recipient was not subscribed.  Right under the email descriptions, the recipient is invited to manage their account by visiting the subscriber preferences page.

And there you have it!  Now you have the tools to revamp your subscription process - all the way from your opt-in form and subscription page to the welcome email.  Please feel free to contact us or comment below if you have any feedback or questions.  If you are a current Publicaster user, please feel free to contact your Account Manager directly if you have any questions about setting up your own opt-in form or welcome email. 

An e-newsletter is one of the best ways to build and maintain subscriber relationships. However, all too often, these emails are treated more like sales pitches than the resource centers that they should be.

Join Blue Sky Factory and OpenMoves, email content specialists, for our “Secrets to e-Newsletter Success” webinar this Wednesday to learn how to create the best e-newsletter for your subscribers.

Learn how to:

• Use e-newsletters to truly connect with and engage your subscribers
• Design your e-newsletter to combat the average 51 second attention span of your readers
• Keep your content fresh and relevant to your subscribers

Click here to register!

Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM EST

Presenters: Joanna Lawson-Matthew of Blue Sky Factory and Ronen Yaari of OpenMoves
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

The industry sure has been atwitter lately with talk of the subscriber experience.  I recently blogged about one company that had impressed me with their subscription process.  Today, I’d like to start a two-part blog series about how you can improve your own process.  We’ll start with your opt-in page, and will continue with your welcome email next week.

Not to toot our own horn, but for both subjects, I’m going to refer to Blue Sky Factory’s new process.  We’ve just redesigned our website, and with that came an improved subscription process.  The opt-in form and welcome email were both set up through Publicaster, so Publicaster users will be able to mimic our process very easily.  You can check out our new subscription form here.  Notice that we’ve kept it simple, only requiring First Name, Last Name and Email.  Also, we’ve given four different email types in the subscription offerings, which cover the various content options available to subscribers.

To give your own opt-in page a revamp, you’ll first need to create a new opt-in form.  We’ve created a “how to” document for the Publicaster opt-in form builder.  This feature is found under the Account Manager section in Publicaster and is a simple three-step process.  The “how to” document will lead you through these three steps.  Once complete, Publicaster will give you HTML code for your new opt-in form, which you can simply paste onto your subscription page within your website.  Then, anyone that subscribes to your emails via this form will be automatically added to your specified mailing list within your Publicaster account.  How easy is that?!?  If you need help with the opt-in form builder, email us.

While integral, the form itself is just one part of the subscription page.  You’ll also need to include information about your emails and process on this page and throughout your site.  Here’s a list of best practices you should follow when creating your new subscription page:

• Put the form or a link to the form on every page of your website for maximum email capture.  Notice we have a link to our subscription page in the upper right-hand corner of every page throughout our website.

• Keep the form short and sweet.  Only ask for the information that you will really use in your email program.  Think of what information you might use later down the line to segment with.  Some choose to only ask for basics up front (email, first name, last name, zip), and then follow up later with an email asking for more information.  You can test different form lengths, but general opinion is to keep the initial form short and easy so you don’t get drop-offs.

• On the opt-in page, tell the subscriber what they can expect from your emails.  Include a content summary, promises of special offers and the frequency they can expect.  Setting expectations upfront and sticking to those will help keep your subscribers happy.  Also tell them the benefits of signing up for the email program … think “What’s in it for me (the subscriber)?”  You may also want to include a screenshot of a sample email so subscribers will know what to expect.  Check out the “What am I signing up for?” section to the left of our subscription form.  Subscribers can click on any of the four email screenshots to get an overview of the email content and frequency.

• When building the opt-in form in Publicaster, be sure to choose the Email Validation check so that the subscriber must enter an email address in the name@domain.com format.  This will prevent people from making a mistake or entering nonsense just to gain access to a sweepstakes, free whitepaper, etc.

• Set up your opt-in form to be a Notified opt-in form, whereby the subscriber will receive an automatic welcome email.  (This can also be set up through a Publicaster auto-response campaign, which is what we did.  More on this next week.)  This will also help to validate the email address, and will make your subscribers feel “welcomed” by your company.  In the welcome email, give them instructions on whitelisting your email address.  Feel free to link to our how-to whitelist page that we created for our clients to use. 

This should get you started on building your new opt-in form.  As always, feel free to contact us if you need help with anything.  Next week, we’ll go over the welcome email, and I’ll dive into the specifics of how we set ours up.  Check out the image to the right for a preview of our new welcome email.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the subscriber experience and what a poor one it is.  A recent study by Return Path showed that 60% of the companies surveyed did not send a welcome email to new subscribers.  While 88% of those that did send a welcome email sent it within 24 hours of the subscription, this still isn’t good enough in these days of instant gratification and messaging.

With all this bad news circulating the industry, I wanted to showcase a company that got it right.  I recently signed up to receive emails from Thrillist, a company that promises daily emails about special events or promotions going on in your city of choice.  The emails are quirky, fun and relevant to me as I learn about city life in my new home. 

First of all, let me praise their subscription process.  Right in the middle of their homepage, they have a “Join Up” form, which asks only for your email address.  This form is repeated across several other pages in their site.  Once you’ve entered your email address, you’re taken to another page where you can enter additional information.  All this information is optional, and this is clearly stated.  I love that you are given the option to choose your “Email Type” (either HTML or Text).  Also on this page you can choose which other city edition(s), if any, you’d like to subscribe to.

What they could have done better:  I would have liked to see a sample of their emails, so I would know what to look out for in my Inbox.  In addition, they could have taken this opportunity to tell me what email address I should whitelist to ensure delivery.  Also, I will point out now that some of their email content is a little racy.  While this seems to work for their target audience, a warning may have been nice.  Before going this route for your own emails, make sure it works for your own target audience.

I signed up to receive the daily emails on a Sunday night.  Within minutes, I had a welcome email in my Inbox.  The email was casual and fun, thus setting the mood for future emails.  The email told me what kind of emails to expect and how often.  It also gave me lots of good information, like the email address to add to my Safe Sender List and several links, including those to their Privacy Policy, Subscriber Preferences and Opt-out pages.  The image-to-text ratio was good, including only a simple logo at the top of the email.  This ensured that the email was branded appropriately but also that the message got across to readers without relying on images.

Starting the next day, I fell right into rotation, receiving a funny and informative email every day.  Then, after about 10 days of receiving emails, came something surprising … a subscriber survey!  These people are on the ball!  Again, the email was fun, simple and intriguing.  Sending it to me so early in the game ensured that I was still engaged in their email campaigns and willing to comment.  The witty copy and funny images made me want to click through to the survey.  And in case I needed an extra push, an alcohol-related contest was introduced for those that completed the survey.  Again, this works for their target audience, but double check your readership before using this in your own emails.

What they could have done better:  The survey itself was way too long.  Four pages!  When surveying subscribers, remember to keep it short and sweet, and only ask for the information you really need.

As the title states, I’m absolutely “thrilled” by Thrillist, both from an email marketer and a consumer perspective.  In a short amount of time, they’ve managed to capture my interest to the point where I’m looking forward to their email every day.  How many emails can you say that about?

Have you ever wondered why people are opting out of your emails? Don’t be afraid to ask! You could learn some very valuable information from sending a simple survey to your unsubscribers.

This information could help you improve your email program and retain more subscribers in the future. To learn how to stop beating yourself up about your opt-out rate and use the unsubscribers as a learning tool, read our latest article from our monthly newsletter, Factory Direct.

I love lists. I couldn’t live without them. I recently moved in with my boyfriend for the first time, and he’s already making fun of all the lists I have. But really, I love them. Oh, and the feeling you get when you check an item off - priceless.

So, you can imagine my excitement when the eec announced two new lists in their Email Checklist Series that will help you get your emails out without a hitch. The two checklists are titled “Email Design” and “Code QA Testing”. These two lists were developed by the eec’s Email Design Roundtable team, and they are free all this week to download from the eec’s Whitepaper Room. So hurry and get your free copy today before it’s too late!

We at Blue Sky Factory have also developed some good lists over time that you should check out.  Interested in the do’s and don’ts of email design? Read our Email Design Guidelines here. Looking for a list of words and phrases to avoid in your subject lines? Click here and learn to avoid these Dirty Words in Disguise.  How about ways to Improve Your Email Marketing Program? Check out our ideas here. And finally, need to Grow Your Email List the right way? Click here for our suggestions.

Do you use any email checklists of your own that you’d like to share? Feel free to post them here. Or let us know if you have any ideas for more checklists we could develop that you think would be helpful to our clients.