Here are 6 things we recommend that take place more or less outside the email but nonetheless work to increase the relevance of your email campaign and serve to increase clicks, reduce churn and reconnect with inactive or lost subscribers.

1. Survey Your Customers

The best way to find out what your email subscribers want is to ask them. Our emails would be better if they… The thing you like most about our emails is… Find out the answer by asking your subscribers. You can do a survey, engage fewer customers in a focus group, or just ask some of your smarter customers.

“A well-designed survey can provide invaluable information on what customers want and how to communicate with them most effectively,” says Sandy Bayer, founder of Bayer Consulting, a strategic research firm.  “A review of more than 100 separate market research projects across many industries found that more than 90% of the projects had a positive impact on their companies, with those initiated by senior management having the greatest benefit.”

Read about online surveys here.

2. Segment Email Lists

You don’t need to build a list to improve performance. Segment email lists, so your recipients receive more relevant messages, based on geographic location, job description, behavior or purchase history. According to eMarketer, 39% of marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates; 28% saw lower unsubscribe rates, and 24% reported increased revenue. Already segmenting? Try additional segmentation and benchmark to see if it spurs clicks or sales. Read our post on email segmentation.

3. Automate Emails

Use automation to tighten the one-to-one bond with your email recipients and increase email timeliness and relevance. For example, polls and surveys post-purchase or after signup do a great job of eliciting information and strengthening the tie with a subscriber or customer. Similarly, birthday emails and reminder emails are easy to do and give users personalized, useful content.

Platforms like LiveIntent and Movable Ink allow you to automate live content and real-time display advertising in your emails.

4. Create an Email Preference Center

Reduce churn, empower your subscribers and increase segmentation in one fell digital swoop with an email preference center (EPC) that allows users to dictate their own email preferences. Read all about it.

5. Use Video

No, 2012 will not be the year of streaming video in your email body (unless you’re using LiveClicker or a similar technology). However, online video has come of age. 71% of adults who go online watch video (PewInternet). And according to MediaPost, the number of marketers that plan to use video in email campaigns skyrocketed five times between 2009 and 2011.

Video adds visual flavor and intrigue and provides a seamless entry point to your brand or website. As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who spend a staggering 2.9 billion hours on the site each month. According to a slightly old (2009) Forrester report, incorporating video into emails improves clickthrough rates by 2 to 3 times. Old report but the song remains the same: we like clicking on intriguing or relevant videos. You don’t have to battle with the technology. A screenshot with a “play” button will likely serve your purposes, and you can setup a YouTube channel in minutes to host your videos.

6. Woo Inactives and Find Lost Subscribers

Before you buy a list of people you don’t know, rebuild your list from people you do.

Don’t treat your inactives as if they are active subscribers, and don’t give up on lost contacts. Reach out to your inactives with an email campaign designed especially for them. Maybe there’s a special offer, or one great new product or service you’re pretty sure they don’t know about. Keep it short, woo them, wow them… and keep them clicking. Reconnect with lost accounts by Email Change of Address (ECOA) services, like FreshAddress.

. . .

How will you know if it’s working? Measure increased sales, open rates and clicks. And let us know if you have success stories to share, questions, comments.

Think Outside the Email: 6 Ways to Send More Relevant, Engaging Emails is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

• Draw attention Animation draws your reader’s eye to important parts of your message.
• Add appeal Animation can make your messages more visually interesting.
• Deliver more content in less space Animation can help you pack a large message into a small area.
• Emphasize Animation can accentuate your offer or promotion.

When displaying animation, it’s recommended to use animated GIFs because most email clients do not support Flash. Animated GIFs display properly in most email software with the exception of the more recent Outlook products. Here’s the list:

When using animated GIFs, keep these tips in mind:

1. Make sure the first frame of the GIF displays a complete message by itself, in case the rest of the animation does not play in the recipient’s software
2. Keep file sizes small to minimize risks with spam filters and to allow the message to load faster.
3. Allow the animation to cycle several times so readers can see the whole animation, but have it remain static after several loops or about 30 seconds.
4. Consider how your email will display without the animated GIF in case the recipient blocks images in his or her emails.
5. Don’t overuse animation, as it could create a visual mess. Use it only for the most important parts of your message or to deliver specific content, such as product features or a call to action.

When used properly, animation can help your email generate additional interest which can lead to better campaign results. Even though animated GIFs have been around for a while, they’re still a viable option. Definitely consider giving them a test or using them in your email marketing campaigns.

Using Animated GIFs For Animation In Email is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

Do you need to start all over again? Thankfully, you don’t. You can build a WordPress mobile site and get back on track.

Following on from our earlier post on content creation, the best way to render your WordPress site on a mobile device is through a separate theme designed exclusively for the mobile format. Using a separate theme with the same WordPress backend means all your permalinks and other crucial WordPress data remains intact.

To achieve automatic theme swapping we will need a robust device detection script that will simply tell us which theme to load and a custom plugin that will perform the actual swap.

Device Detection

I recommend using the popular WURFL library for device detection. The library parses the user-agent string of the viewing device and matches this against a well-maintained database of device capabilities. Is the device wireless? Does it use a touch screen? Is it an Android, IOS or desktop device? The list goes on and on.

Custom Plug-in

The ability to create custom WordPress plugins enables us the extend the base functionality of our site, to add new features that integrate seamlessly with our current set-up. WordPress’s Hook architecture will help to create your theme-swapping plugin which you will be able to activate and deactivate at will. Coding instructions for creating your custom WordPress plugin using the WURFL library can be found on our Garage technical blog.

Congratulations! Your site should now display the appropriate theme according to your users’ device.

WordPress Theme Swap for Mobile is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

Myth #1: Only teenagers read emails on mobile devices
Yeah, teenagers and around 449 million other people around the world (RBC Capital Markets). According to a recent study, 20% of all email opens happen on a mobile device (Knotice). So whoever and wherever your audience is, chances are there are a whole lot of them are checking email via a smartphone. Email is the top activity on mobile devices. Smartphone adoption is rising 37% each year, while mobile email soared 51% during the first half of 2011.

Myth #2: I don’t need to format emails for mobile users
Unfortunately, emails designed for a thirteen inch screen just don’t look so good on a palm-sized device. Our businesses are going mobile and going social, our emails must follow — or, better yet, lead that charge. (See “Web Design Predictions for 2012“).

Myth #3: If I don’t have a mobile website, I don’t need mobile email
In a perfect world, your email, website and social media are linked, mobile, and measurable. In a perfect world, french fries are good for you. In the meantime, do the best you can. Just because users can’t order your product or read about your service on your website doesn’t mean they don’t want to get your emails. Not having a mobile website may hurt the bottom line; not having mobile email diminishes the brand, decreases communications and hurts the bottom line.

Myth #4: Mobile is only for big company’s emails
Big companies may get there first because they have the resources, but mobile email is no longer a choice. Mom and pops, corner stores, everyone should (and, we think, will) have properly formatted mobile emails.

Myth #5: Mobile email design and programming is easy
Not so easy. But not so hard. There are a few simple rules. Fortunately, we know them. See our blog post on mobile email design tips.

Myth #6: I only need to worry about iPhone users
You should worry first about iPhone users, since iPhone and iPad add up to 85% of mobile opens (Knotice). However, Android made up nearly 47% of the U.S. smartphone market share by the end of 2011, followed by Apple iOS at nearly 29%, so the other operating systems are important as well (MSNBC).

Myth #7: I can’t track results for mobile users
Yes, you can. Well, for the most part. Most smartphones use a mobile email client, like MailDroid, Apple Mail or GMail, and open rates, clickthroughs and the like are trackable. The older Blackberry devices (BIS2.5) are difficult to measure. You can measure clicks but not opens. Still, the marketers’ bottom line: most mobile email opens are trackable.

Myth #8: Mobile email preparedness is too costly
Updating your email templates so they’re mobile-friendly is a one-time, low cost investment in the future. Losing customers, being unable to communicate with users and tarnishing your brand — those are long-term costly mistakes.

Which one are you? Myth-maker, myth-buster, or mobile marketer?

8 Myths About Mobile Email is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

Traditionally, when constructing an online presence, content is written and organized for a target audience. With the rise of mobile devices and tablets, the online presence must take into account how the content is being accessed by the end user. Would your content typically be browsed leisurely on the couch? Are you supplying information for people who would be in transit? Are you providing a compelling, immersive experience engaging the user for hours?

Ten years ago, the concern when building a site was browser support of the HTML, CSS and plugin installation for rich media such as Flash. Browser rendering, at least modern browsers, is mostly consistent across browsers and operating systems. Browsers now natively handle many file formats such as PDFs. Rich media has defaulted to Flash which has a large desktop penetration and easy installation and upgrade process. Today, however, not everyone is on a desktop or laptop when browsing the web. Mobile and tablet devices are quickly growing in numbers. The ergonomics of using these devices, not to mention support for media such as Flash, must be taken into account when developing your website, web application, email campaigns or any other online project.

Keep in mind the strengths of tablets and mobile devices:

• Mobile devices are used constantly be people in transit (hence the term “mobile”).
• Tablets are typically used in a leisure setting for media consumption. The device is becoming the main platform for books, video, music, etc.
• The devices are meant for convenience.

There are some issues with these devices:

• Typing is usually more difficult
• Screen size is often small.
• Touch interaction on the screen often experiences “fat finger syndrome” where the clicked link was not the intended one.
• When not connected to wifi, data rates are slower.
• Flash is not supported by iOS (iPhone, iPad, iTouch).
• Rollovers are not possible on touchscreens.

If resources allow, alternate versions of your website or web application can be constructed to specifically support various devices. Wurfl is a great library when coding to detect the client device and get features of that device.

Email client detection is not possible in HTML email campaigns. To optimize email for a mobile audience, design your mobile email so it works across all mobile devices.

So taking into account the rise of mobile and tablet devices, here are some best practices:

• Unless the multimedia experience is the main purpose of your project, refrain from it for better device support.
• If the main purpose is multimedia, consider building in HTML5. This will save you from having to code for various platforms (iOS, Android, Flash, etc).
• Use video in an HTML5 embed which will allow you to specify various formats supported by various devices.
• If your content or application is meant for people on the go, keep everything as simple and easy as possible. Have a simple interface with few images with easy navigation. Make only pertinent content and functions available.
• Keep typing to a minimum for tablets and mobile. Swiping is the easiest gesture.
• Large text and buttons are helpful for readability and clicking interaction.
• Do not use rollovers to trigger important parts of the interface like navigational menus.

For further reading:

• http://www.uie.com/articles/mobile-content-apps/
• http://mashable.com/2011/10/14/tablet-ipad-news-study/
• http://videomind.ooyala.com/blog/videomind-video-index-analytics-meets-big-data

Mobile, Tablet or Desktop? Consider your audience device when creating content. is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

Businesses must deliver the right message at the right time in the right channel.  

Highly individualized, two way conversations in multiple channels are becoming the norm. Businesses need to adapt to this approach and prepare themselves to operate quickly, strategically and be able to gauge their success.

So how does a business start preparing?

1. Gather the right data

Start by determining what data you need to be able to segment, personalize and communicate effectively. This may mean rounding out user’s profiles with social network and mobile information, collecting additional data for personalization and incorporating data you may have in other areas (CRM systems, email tracking results, sales history, etc.).

Data architecture setup is critical. A centralized database is absolutely necessary, and setting up methods to populate this data via API or other automated processes will enable businesses to work off that data quickly and efficiently.

2. Put your recipients in control

Allow your recipients to establish their choice of message topics, the time and frequency at which they receive them and in the channel they want. Creating a preference center where this can occur will not only provide marketers with the ability to deliver better communications, but also provide a wealth of data that can be used to better understand the wants and needs of their audience.

Remember that access to the inbox is earned. Allowing recipients to manage their preferences will give marketers an advantage as recipients can control the messaging the receive.

3. Centralize your content, use it everywhere

Many businesses prepare content for a particular communication and don’t consider how that content can be used in other channels. Marketers should plan an approach where content can be centralized and used for multiple purposes, including creating a content archive that can be accessed after publication.

Email is a good example of this. For many businesses, once an email is sent the content it includes exists no where else. If a recipient loses the email, the content is no longer accessible. Marketers may want to consider storing the content in a content database, tagging it with keywords, and then publishing it not only via email, but also to social channels and allow it to be accessible via the web or mobile. That way their employees and business contacts can always find all the original content the business has created.

4. Operate in real-time

Businesses require real-time data management in order to make real-time decisions. Accessibility to data that is always up-to-date will be imperative to react properly to changes in the business environment. With social media channels generating content in real time and news/press being proliferated so quickly, being able to react, generate content/responses and distribute/publish content quickly and efficiently is the new norm.

If the people within your organization are not able to operate in real-time, then your business will suffer. Employees must inherently understand the culture of the business and be able to communicate on its behalf in order to be successful. Businesses must educate and support employees and provide an environment where real time communication is encouraged.

What other ways will businesses need to prepare themselves for the upcoming changes in marketing communications? What steps are you taking to establish new protocols in your organization?

Image: gfktechtalk.com

4 Ways To Plan For The Future Of Marketing Communications is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

HP Email Preference Center

Marketers like segmenting databases and hate losing subscribers, while customers like to have control of their inbox. So the email preference center is often a good idea for increasing customer satisfaction, improving CPM and maximizing engagement and ROI.

. . .

Here are the benefits for marketers:

1. Creates a permission-based relationship and shows respect for your email subscribers. This sends a signal to the audience that your communication is legitimate and that you are a responsible marketer who is interested in providing the best marketing vehicles for each subscriber.
2. Enables self-selecting segmentation whereby your users can choose which lists they want to join.
3. Creates a two-way communication center between you and your audience:
   - Include a comment or survey section
   - Preview “new publications” or “coming soon”
   - Add relational information (product, webcast, white paper) that falls under your communication category
   - Allow users to sign up for additional lists or emails
4. Reduces unsubscribes and friction between organization and its audience. With an EPC you give each subscriber a chance to view other lists and manage their subscriptions. So, marketers have a better change to save a subscription with an EPC rather than lose them altogether without one.
5. Empowers subscribers. Your users can control when, how and what information they receive. They can update an email address, modify the frequency of transmissions they receive, select the emails they want to see — customize their email.
6. Attracts qualified subscribers who may be influencers of others.
7. Showcases all the communication resources you have to offer.
8. Helps to pinpoint and target the interests of your audience. You can start seeing opt-in, interest and unsub trends.
9. Gives marketers cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
10. Elicits mobile and social media preferences. The vast majority of US Internet users belong to Facebook (85%) or Twitter (49%) or both (Mashable). And by 2014, there will be a 90% mobile penetration rate — a whopping 6.5 billion mobile connections worldwide (Gartner).

. . .

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery Opt-In

Should every marketer build an EPC? No. If you don’t have multiple lists, don’t have multiple product or service lines or audience segments, or if you send infrequent emails, then an EPC is probably overkill. But if you have multiple email lists and a savvy customer base, then having an EPC is a great idea. Subscribers get to choose how to personalize and manage your email communications. Marketers get happier, better-segmented subscribers and a consolidated view of subscriber preferences.

Is an EPC right for your company? Ask us.

10 Advantages of an Email Preference Center is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

Brands are social, whether they like it or not. If they’re smart social brands, they build branding and awareness via social media, and connect and stay in touch with users through social, email, mobile, the web–multiple channels. Lots of touchpoints, lots of engagement.

. . .

So what are the hallmarks of an effective, successful social brand?

1. Socially Engaged
Social brands engage customers to interact. They communicate via social channels, use social contests, polls, etc. They’re not just on Facebook; they use Facebook to achieve marketing goals. Ditto Twitter and other social platforms.

2. Integrated
As social media becomes old hat and email becomes pervasive, the social brands entwine these and other channels providing an integrated brand experience and effectively speaking to customers where they want to be spoken to. Social without email is like Champagne without bubbles. (See our post on email v. social as well as one on multi-channel marketing success.)

3. Consistent
Consistent branding across all channels provides an integrated, trusted customer experience.

4. Benefit-Oriented
Your customers don’t want to hear how great you are or what color you painted the new shop. They want benefit, like cost-savings or content — something they can use.

5. Focused on Brand Loyalty
You’ve probably heard the idea by now that customers own your brand. Giving them a voice and a place to listen (both of which happen in social media) you create more engaged users and galvanize those users, creating brand ambassadors. The result: a more active, alert brand. More people talking, more people listening, less customer drift. As Brian Solis puts it, “When people get socially involved with your brand, they [are] less tempted to stray to another competitor.”

6. Responsive
Good social brands are social leaders and innovators and fast responders. They get there first. Maybe that means a new promotion, or trying a local social initiative, or responding faster to that customer tweet. Social brands have both social media strategy and a social media CRM plan. Being a social brand means you have social media within the top levels of marketing and leadership. (We’re not there yet. According to the IBM report, just 30% of businesses say they have strong executive sponsorship of social media).

7. Measured
So you’re doing loads of social media marketing. Is it working? Can you do better next time? Smart marketers figure out ways to measure social media. See our multi-channel measurement article.

Source: Mashable

The Social Brand, Circa 2012 is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

Previously, the trend for mobile web design was to create separate mobile-friendly versions of your website for each of the most popular screen sizes. They might utilize the same content across all the sites but they still require their own URLs, the ability to detect the device being used and of course the need to make updates across all sites. And then there are mobile apps which are a completely separate entity from the website (though again maybe sharing the same content).

In a nutshell, Responsive Design is the concept that, in order to accommodate the various screen sizes we view the web on, it is possible to design one website that adapts — or “responds” — to its environment and re-formats its content on the fly to create an optimal viewing experience for the device you are using.

How Does it Work?

The beauty of Responsive Design is that it is a technology-lite solution. It relies on a feature of CSS called the “media query” that allows you to call different stylesheet attributes depending on the detected screen-size and orientation of the device the website is being viewed on. For instance, you might want to design your website to have three columns of content for desktop viewing. But that would be hard to read on an iPhone. With a media query, you can switch to a different stylesheet or call a set of attributes within one stylesheet to set your content into a single wide column by detecting the width of the screen like this:

@media only screen
 and (min-device-width : 320px)
 and (max-device-width : 480px) {
 /* Add your styles here or call a specific stylesheet */
 }

You can get very specific with the way you breakdown your media queries and call up styles for various screen sizes. You can grab a free media query template here to get yourself started: http://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/about/hardboiled_css3_media_queries

That seems pretty easy right? Well, that’s just the most basic technical background. Responsive Design is a new way of thinking about websites. We must no longer think of a design as being a fixed layout that we try to make look exactly the same across every browser. It now becomes a more malleable depository for our content that will adapt to fit the way the user wants to consume that content.

What does it look like?

One of the neat features of Responsive is that you can very easily see the different iterations of a design while viewing the site on your desktop browser. For all the following examples slowly resize your browser down to approximately a mobile phone size and watch how it reformats itself.

BostonGlobe.com 
At the time of this writing, the most high profile use of Responsive is probably the new Boston Globe website which was designed by the father of Responsive Design himself, Ethan Marcotte. Pay particular attention to how the functionality of the navigation changes in each iteration.

Colly.com
One of the early and really nice examples. This shows how you can move from a multi-column to single column approach.

Think Vitamin
A good example of how the desktop version allows for more ancillary content (like topic links, social media links) while the mobile versions simplify to the bare essentials.

Deren K
Notice how the desktop version allows for embellishments like large headlines and slideshows but as you scale down the emphasis gets placed on navigation and essential content.

Reveal
For WordPress fans, the Reveal theme is a very cool Responsive friendly theme.

Foodsense.is
A very clean editorial style design that changes in a lot of sensible ways as you move from desktop to mobile.

Should I be using Responsive Design?

Everyone should have a mobile plan for their website. More and more people are accessing your content via a phone or a tablet device. Responsive is the latest solution for accommodating the multitude of needs mobile ends up requiring. Until the next thing comes along this is the solution that most designers and developers will be adopting for new websites and site redesigns in near future.

Is it perfect for everyone? Nothing is but Responsive does have some limitations and complications to consider:

1. Time and budget – Honestly, this can be said for almost any website that considers mobile viewing : We are no longer producing one site design and the design process is now much longer and more complex than it used to be as we need to consider at least the most popular device sizes for your particular audience and how to adapt your design to those sizes. This can have a pretty big impact on your budget.
2. Image file sizes and data load – Using the “max-width” CSS attribute on images means we are scaling down large desktop-friendly images to visually smaller mobile-friendly images but forcing the mobile user to download the same amount of data. Even hiding the images for the mobile-size doesn’t help because the images still need to get downloaded whether they are shown or not. The same goes for excessive code that may not even be needed for the mobile site. Whether it’s used or not it still gets downloaded.
3. Content Type and the Needs of the User - It may not always make sense to replicate the same content from web to mobile. Your mobile users may have specific needs that differ from your web users and making them sift through all the content your website provides may prove to be a hindrance to those needs. Therefore pushing them to a separate mobile-version or even an app would make more sense.

Where can I learn more?

A good place to start is at the beginning with Ethan Marcotte’s book from A Book Apart, Responsive Web Design or even his article I mentioned previously on the A List Apart website: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/

Smashing Magazine has a very thorough guide with some technical tips:
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/12/guidelines-for-responsive-web-design/

Brad Frost has an excellent blog post about Responsive and the need for “Mobile-First” thinking when it comes to website design
http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/web/mobile-first-responsive-web-design/

If you’re not sure if Responsive is right for you, this article on Web Design Shock may talk you into not using it: http://www.webdesignshock.com/responsive-design-problems/

And for even more info, Web Designer Depot has the ultimate roundup of responsive design articles: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/09/the-ultimate-responsive-web-design-roundup/

What is Responsive Web Design? is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

The US, Greece, Spain, Russia and Italy will vote for a new President or Prime Minister.  There will be 55 million tablet users in the US.

What else will happen in 2012? Here are some sources and a sampling of their prognostications.

Business2Marketing: The Future of Marketing
Prediction: Seamless extension of the user experience from one channel to another

Email Insider: Your Email To-Do List For 2012
Prediction: Location-based opt-ins

eMarketing & Commerce: 5 Marketing Predictions for 2012
Prediction: 2012 will be the year of the tablet

Forbes: Twelve 2012 Predictions For The Telecom Industry
Prediction: Broadband penetration of the world’s population will pass the 10% mark globally

Gartner: IT Trends
Prediction: 20% of businesses will own no IT assets

Huffington Post: Social Media — 4 Trends to Watch in 2012
Prediction: Social metadata will spur better analytics and measurement

MarketingProfs: 12 Marketing Predictions for 2012
Prediction: SoPo (social personalization) will grow dramatically

Sabato’s Crystal Ball
Prediction: President Obama will get more public approval for foreign policy than economic policy

Tech Herald: Mobile Menaces Predictions
Prediction: More complex and targeted cyber attacks

VMblog.com
Prediction: The year of BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”), fabric and virtualization

WebSuccessTeam: Online Marketing Predictions for 2012
Prediction: 50% of local searches performed on mobile devices

The Future Is Unwritten: 2012 Trends and Predictions is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!