The fourth quarter of every year brings in Holiday cheer and festivities. Alongside, it also brings in lots of opportunities to generate conversions and drive business growth. That’s pretty evident from the fact that US Holiday retail sales are projected to reach USD 1.3 trillion in 2022. Holiday eCommerce is anticipated to touch an astronomical figure of USD 236 billion. It is a 15.5% growth from the previous year. With such a huge revenue opportunity, marketers ought to put in extra effort and leave no stone unturned to attract customers. That applies to emails too. 

Emails give you a platform to send personalized communications tailored to the user’s preferences. Unlike social media platforms, you own the data of your email subscribers. No tricky algorithms dictate the reach of your emails. That’s why you must pay special attention to your email marketing strategy during the Holiday season. Being a dynamic field, there are new trends emerging every year in the world of email design and development. So, marketers have new tactics to try out and readers have something exciting to look forward to in their crowded inbox. Almost a win-win for both!

For this year, here are the email design trends that will smarten up your Holiday email campaigns. 

Let’s get started. 

1. Amazing Animations

Animations in emails have been around for 15 long years. Lake Champlain Chocolates used GIFs in the year 2007 and improved their email conversions by 49%. Even today, animated emails are the hot favorite among marketers and subscribers alike. If you check your inbox during the Holidays, more than half of the emails have some kind of an animation, So in a way, it is a best practice besides being a name in the holiday marketing trends. 

GIFs are so popular because they can be used by email marketers from all industries. Whether you are in the travel, eCommerce, or B2B industry, you can never go wrong with GIFs. 

Here’s an email by Anthropologie in which they have used a lovely GIF to extend Christmas wishes to their subscribers. 

A special type of animation that is in the limelight, especially for the Holiday season trends is a cinemagraph. Cinemagraphs are illusive GIFs that are extracted from a video. They emulate a moment in the past and take the reader back to that lost time. These animations are prettier than GIFs because they are like moving photographs. The entire image is static with movement in a single element, and that’s where the magic lies. 

Korres uses a combination of GIF and cinemagraph in their Black Friday email to showcase their products and get conversions. 

2. Fascinating Colors

Colors are an important aspect to be considered for the Holiday emails. Of course, you must use plenty of red, blue, green, and all those vibrant colors but we have two amazing trends to talk about.

1. Multi-shade Gradients

Multi-shade gradients is a color trend that can bring life to your Holiday design. We have a natural tendency to move our eyes from a light to dark color of the gradient. Your subscribers are extremely busy during the Holiday season, and gradients encourage the readers to scroll till the end by supporting visual hierarchy. 

It is a versatile trend that imparts a unique look and feel to your email designs. They add depth to an otherwise flat email design. Gradients help reinvent new possibilities by adding captivating color textures to the email background. Some brands even go a step ahead and add gradients in their CTA button. It helps draw the subscriber’s attention and encourages the user to click through. 

You can either blend similar colors 

or completely different or contrasting colors. 

Take a look at this Holiday email design by Starbucks that uses multi-shade gradients involving red and green. 

2. Duotone Effects

Do you use Spotify? It presents the perfect example of duotone effects. 

Another real life example that we use quite often is the sepia filter. It is the usage of two contrasting colors to enhance the visual appeal of your designs. 

Now, imagine recreating this effect in your Holiday emails. Wouldn’t it reinforce the psychedelic effect? Duotone effects have become immensely popular because of its dramatic and aesthetic sauciness. 

Just make sure that you use colors that complement each other and blend well. Using colors from a similar color palette will not have much impact on the reader’s mind. Try reversing the gradient map and different saturation values to get good results. Many marketers believe that duotone is limited to real photographs. That, however, is not the case. You can use it throughout the email design. If you want to give a vintage appeal to your emails, you can go for the grayscale effect. 

On has made beautiful use of two colors in their Holiday email. 

3. Prominent and Bold typography

Remember those professors who always pointed out the importance of presentation in your answer sheets? Consider your emails as answer sheets and your subscribers as the examiners or paper checkers. Your conversions can be compared to the report card. So, make your emails as easily readable as possible. That’s where bold typography comes into the picture. 

It helps enhance brand personality and outline the hierarchy and action areas. As the Holiday season inbox sees intense competition for the reader’s attention, there is a lot of pressure to stand out. The right kind of typography can work wonders by building impactful emails that emerge as a winner.
Epic Games uses bold typography and different types of fonts to highlight their Holiday-special game and inspire readers to view the trailer. 

4. Intriguing Interactivity

Interactivity! How I love the word and this feature for Holiday emails!

Interactive elements make the Holiday emails all the more engaging for the readers and pave avenues for a two-way ‘interaction’. Using interactive elements like sliders, hamburger menus, accordions, hover effect, and click-based events can amp up your Holiday email campaigns. They make the email experience fun for the subscribers and also contribute to word-of-mouth marketing. 

Check out this email by Royal Caribbean International that has included an interactive map in their emails. Travel industry email marketers can use this tactic in their next Holiday season email to get more people to travel with them. 

Gamification is the most compelling aspect of interactivity in emails. It warrants the subscriber participation and also encourages the readers to share your email.

The Halloween email by Email Uplers perfectly uses gamification and encourages people to participate in the email. It will enhance the click-through rate which will in turn improve the deliverability and inbox placement. 

5. Adorkable Email Designs

Adorable, dorky, and awkward — that’s the latest fad in email designs for the Holiday season. Dorkily awkward and adorably real has emerged as a trend to connect with GenZ subscribers. If you find mismatched fonts, bold and idiosyncratic layout sprinkled with some maximalism, that’s adorkable designs for you.

They have a warm, fun, and self-deprecating realness overlapping with the first iteration of social media and the web that appeals the most to the zoomers. 

Take a look at this email by behave that demonstrates the usage of adorkable email designs. 

6. Delightful Shapes and Wavy Lines

Shapes have been a quintessential element in the world of graphic designing. There are three types of shapes, namely:
1. Organic shapes derived from nature
2. Abstract shapes that represent familiar objects
3. Geometric shapes like triangles, squares, and circles

Out of all these, geometric shapes are the most effective when it comes to Holiday emails. When used correctly, they are meaningful and help reinforce the email purpose. 

Circles stand for wholeness and eternity.
Squares represent equality and security while triangles portray direction and movement. 

Article has incorporated circles and squares to promote their Black Friday sale. Those shapes also make the email look neatly organized. 

Now, let’s talk about wavy lines. 

Wavy lines in emails can be used for several purposes. It does not have too deep a meaning but it is still a popular trend for emails. It can be used to separate compartments or simply depict playfulness or flow. 

Prismatic Plants uses a wavy line to demarcate the copy and put weight on their 20% discount offer. 

 7. Real, Tangible Product Photographs

Product photography has got more sophisticated owing to the advanced cameras and mobile devices. Including product images in Holiday emails can result in pleasant shopping experiences and drive better conversions. Including better product visuals has led to 40% reduction in the returns. In a way, product images in emails can be compared to actual physical products in brick-and-mortar stores. Your subscribers interact physically with these images. Therefore, they work as trust building elements and prompt the users to purchase. eCommerce email marketers must use larger image real estate with product photographs relative to text and CTA buttons. 

See how Google places beautiful photographs of their gadgets and taps on the reader’s aspirational instinct.

8. Spellbinding Full-bleed Emails

Designing in full width is the best thing you can do to your Holiday email designs. Full-bleed layout has an edge-to-edge appearance extending in the entire screen. The reason for including this point at the end is that combining this feature with interactivity,  gamification, bold typography, and other trends can give a stunning visual appeal to your emails. 

Email Uplers has used a full-bleed layout, combined with gamification in their Christmas email.

Experience the live email here: https://emailmarketing.uplers.com/glam-up-your-christmas-tree-1

Wrapping Up

That’s exactly my feeling while drafting this article. (Also, see how the quote also has a gradient background, haha!)
When I entered the world of email marketing, we just had a bit of images and animations …

… but then slowly the email designs transcended to 3D images, illustrations, 3D animations, interactivity, gamification, and now all these trends of gradients, duotone, adorkable designs, and whatnot. I can’t wait to see what the next year holds. Who knows even AMP emails would get mainstream by the time we enter the Holiday season in 2023. Let’s wait and watch but for now, signing off with all these awesome trends for Holidays 2022.

The post Our in-house experts share Email Design Trends To Make Your Holiday Emails More Impactful appeared first on Email Uplers.

Email is an immensely powerful platform. It offers a stellar ROI, the ability to build unwavering customer relationships and a unique brand identity, gives you complete control over your contact list, and above all, is extremely user-friendly. However, securing these presents is near-impossible unless your business has the right personnel and tools in its armor. And speaking of tools, few are as adept at reaping the benefits of email marketing as Klaviyo.

Klaviyo doesn’t need any introduction, particularly within the email marketing community. From allowing brands to craft highly personalized campaigns to thoroughly analyzing their performance, Klaviyo is a one-stop shop for several email marketers out there. From time to time, the platform is known for introducing innovative and elegant updates to its sophisticated suite of features, which further endears it to its fiercely loyal user base. 

In this blog, I’m going to present a lowdown on one such update- Klaviyo’s new email template editor. We will navigate its ins and outs so that you can use it to create pixel-perfect campaigns, all in a few clicks! Let’s get started then, shall we?

Differences Between The Classic And New Template Editor

Before the new template editor, there was the classic template editor. With two options at your disposal now, it is important to address the differences between them. This will help you to select the appropriate route as per your requirements. 

The table below highlights some major distinctions.

	Classic Editor	New Editor
Adding columns to your email	Click “Blocks” and then drag the “Add Columns to Email” option to your template.	Click “Content”. Under the section named “Layout”, you’ll see an option named “Columns”. Drag it to your email template.
Using Table Blocks	You have three tabs in the Table Block section- Columns, Rows, and Advanced. Using the Columns tab, you can label, add, and remove columns. The Rows tab lets you add content to the table. Over here, you can also convert a table from static to dynamic.	Here, the Table section also has three tabs. But, they differ from the ones offered in the Classic template- Content, Table Settings, Display Options.The Content tab, as the name suggests, allows you to add content to the table. To do so, you have to click on the desired cell. Under the Table Settings tab, you get options to set your table to appear either static or dynamic. Additionally, you can modify the number of rows or columns here. Using the Display Options tab, you can control when your table appears- on desktop, on mobile, or on both desktop and mobile.
Saving Blocks	You can save a block by hovering your cursor over it, and then clicking the star icon from the pop-up. You’ll notice that the Blocks pane will have a new option in it titled “Saved”. To add this saved block to a template, you just have to perform a simple drag-and-drop exercise.	The method to save blocks in the New template editor is the same as that in Classic. Once saved, you’ll be able to access it by clicking the “Saved” tab under the Content section.
Controlling Stack on Mobile	-Select the concerned message. -Go to the Styles tab. -Navigate to the “Mobile” section.  -Click the drop-down box named “Enable Optimizations”. -Choose “Yes”.	If you want the columns of a particular section to stack on mobile, visit the concerned section’s “Styles” tab and enable the “Stack on mobile” option. Further, select if you want the stacking to happen from left to right or the other way round.
Adding personalization	-Select the concerned text segment. -Click the “Insert Property” option. -From the drop-down menu, select a property of your choice. -If you want to add preference page and unsubscribe tags, you need to click the “Insert Tag” option.	-Select the concerned text segment. -Click the person icon.  -From the pop-up menu, select a property or tag (or both) of your choice.

New Template Editor Features

Listed below are the features which are exclusive to Klaviyo’s new template editor.

• Undo/Redo buttons- Allows you to rectify mistakes while designing your template. This is how they look:

• Autosave- Changes made to the email template are automatically saved post certain actions.
• Improved preview experience- The new template editor lets you preview your template using different event data or profiles. This makes validating dynamic content and sending tests very easy. 
• Easier editing- In the new template editor, you have the choice of grouping multiple blocks into a section. 
• Custom fonts- Add a custom font of your choice with a few clicks. What’s more, the custom font you add to the template becomes available in the signup form editor, besides all the new editor font drop-down menus.
• Sections- Every single part of your email template (hero section, footer, CTA, etc.) has a designated section. As a result, organizing content is quite effortless.
• Background images- To overlay text on an image in the classic editor, one has to custom-code a block. In the new template editor, however, they can achieve it by simply adding a background image to the section in question. 
• Universal content- Saving a section or block as universal content enables you to effect edits across all instances of the saved content in one go. 
• Content repeat- With the help of this feature, you can repeat the content of a particular section or block for each entry in a list of data.

Designing An Email Template In Klaviyo’s In-built Editor

Let us take a closer look at the different features available in Klaviyo’s new email template editor.

Content

In the sidebar that’s present in the new template editor windows, you’ll notice two broad tabs- Content and Styles.

Under Content, you get to choose between Default and Universal.

The default section, further, is divided into two segments- Blocks and Layout- to let you build your template from the ground up. While blocks are used to add content, images, CTA buttons, social links and other elements to the email template, layouts are used to arrange and configure the blocks.
All blocks and sections can be saved, cloned, or deleted. To displace any block or section within your template, all you have to do is click and drag it.

The universal section lets you access content which you have designed in other templates and saved for later use. 

Under Blocks, you will have the following options at your disposal to create your template. 

• Text: Used to add text to your template. To modify said text’s style settings, navigate to the “Styles” tab (discussed in detail below).
• Image: Used to add pictures to the email template. There are various ways you can go about it- upload an image from your device, use an image’s URL to import it or insert an image that you have already added in the past.
• Split: With the help of this feature, one can display their content in two columns.
• Button: Used to add CTAs to the template.
• Header/Link Bar: Use this feature to add your brand logo and other navigation links at the top of your email.
• Drop Shadow: A visual effect, which lets you emphasize a specific area of your template.
• Horizontal Rule: Used to draw a line of demarcation between the different content blocks in your template. This line can be solid, dotted, or dashed. 
• Social Link: This feature lets you add icons that link to your social media handles.
• Spacer: Allows you to add spacing (customizable) between vertically stacked blocks.
• Product: Used to add products from your store to your email. You will have two options here- Dynamic and Static. If you choose dynamic, products will get selected automatically from your website depending on what’s popular and what visitors are frequently browsing or purchasing. Selecting static, on the other hand, enables you to manually pick the products you wish to list in your email.
• Table: Let you organize text and images within your template. There are no limitations regarding the number of rows or columns you can add.

Styles

The Styles tab offers a bevy of styling options that you can implement in your email template. Essentially, this is where you define your email’s look and feel. Some things that you can achieve over here have been mentioned below:

• Apply a background color to your email template.
• Set a background image, if you want to.
• Specify different background colors for different content sections in your template. These colors need not be the same as your template’s overall background color.
• Define the width of your email content.
•  Add spacing, padding, border, and corner radius (round the edges of your template).
• Apply different text styles to both headings as well as body copy.
• Select fonts of your choice and tune their attributes (font size, weight, spacing, and color) accordingly.
• Add horizontal spacing between each letter and vertical spacing between lines of text.
• Align your text left, right, or center as per your requirements.
• Optimize your email template for mobile devices.

Preview And Test

Once you are happy with the content and appearance of your email template, you can use the “Preview and test” button to check how it will seem in your recipient’s inbox. 

Based on the message type you’re sending, there are broadly two ways in which you can preview your email.

1. Click on “Preview data source” and select “Event”. Next, choose the event that will trigger the flow. This practice is best for scenarios where you are using a metric-triggered flow. 
2. Click “Search for a profile” and choose the one you like. This could either be someone who’s part of the list who’s receiving your email or someone who could qualify for the same. This works best for scenarios involving campaigns, list-triggered flows, date-triggered flows, price drop flows, and segment-triggered flows.

Best Practices To Keep In Mind While Working In Klaviyo’s In-built Editor

• It is best to use one section block while adding content. Including multiple section blocks will just unnecessarily increase the file size, and, subsequently, the email loading time.
• Try to use media queries for mobile view optimization when you can. Alternatively, you can also use the show and hide technique. However, this will increase the file size, for it requires twice as much code compared to media queries.
• Keep in mind that custom CSS doesn’t work in the Klaviyo in-built editor. So, the best course of action is to use the HTML <style> tag. Using it, you can add CSS, such as media queries, defining class, and IDs. It should be placed at the top of the email, such as the first instance of the hero/banner. Adding one style tag is sufficient because it reflects across the entire email. Avoid duplicating style tags with the same CSS information.
• While building a template in the new editor, try to refresh the email builder page at regular intervals.
• Making sure that there is exact spacing between two and three-column sections is not possible in the in-built editor. The best workaround is to use split blocks while dealing with two-column sections and columns block for three-column sections.
• If you don’t need the columns to be responsive for mobile, you can use the table block or code your own table inside a text block.
• Should your email template have a lot of large elements like several high-resolution images and plenty of text, you might experience a scroll in the mobile view. While the extent of the scroll can be minimized, know that it can’t be eliminated altogether.
• While setting the mobile layout, consider using the show and hide technique.
• Even if you abide by the best coding practices, getting your responsive layout to behave perfectly might prove challenging. You can use a style tag to create a custom CSS viewport for mobile and desktop views if absolutely necessary. We commonly use these viewports for mobile if we want to make the email pixel perfect:

<style rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”>@media only screen and (max-width:600px) { X } </style>

or

<style rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”>@media only screen and (max-width:480px) X } </style>

To properly preview the email, you must click the “Preview and test” button on the top right corner.

•  You will only be able to add the font family that is supported in Klaviyo’s inbuilt editor. Text blocks allow the use of email font TT Norms.

Wrapping It Up

Wrapping your head around Klaviyo’s comprehensive new in-built editor might take some time, but once you get the lay of the land, you’ll be absolutely unstoppable. We hope the insights shared above are able to enhance your learning journey. 

The post The What, Why, and How of Klaviyo’s In-built Editor appeared first on Email Uplers.

That time of the year when the coffee tables and cushioned chairs of your front porch make way for carved pumpkins, fake spider webs, and skeleton figurines (among other things) is almost upon us- no points for guessing what we are talking about! For email marketers, however, expressing their creativity isn’t confined to their yard decorations. It also extends to their Halloween email campaigns. 

Halloween is synonymous with massive levels of customer spending. Last year, in the US, it touched an all-time-high figure of $10.14 billion (up from $8.05 billion in 2020), and if past trends are any indication, this number is most likely to be toppled this year. There is a LOT up for grabs, sure, but claiming it is no walk in the park. If you wish to enchant your existing subscribers and draw in new ones, there’s only one course of action- craft immaculate campaigns!

Need some help getting started? We got you. Today, we share with you a host of stunning Halloween email examples which are bound to get your creative juices flowing. Before you sit down to read this, don’t forget to grab a pen and a notebook; you’ll be knee-deep in notes by the time this article ends!

Grammarly

Subject line: We have a riddle for you . . .

You don’t always have to necessarily go over the top to catch your customer’s eye. Simplicity is enough, sometimes, to sweep them off their feet. Don’t believe us? Take a look at this email from Grammarly. Firstly, the subject line itself is super-inviting. Who doesn’t like a riddle, after all? Next, the hero section- an enticing animated GIF which communicates their special Halloween offer. 

Now, on to the content side of things. The email copy starts with a riddle (which the subject line hinted at). The answer to the same is clever and cheeky, and brings a smile to the reader’s face. And once you disarm someone with your humor, it gets easier to put forth your message to them, doesn’t it? That’s exactly what Grammarly has done too. The riddle is followed by a content segment which, while crisp, perfectly tells subscribers all they need to know about Grammarly’s Halloween deal. 

Penguin Random House

Subject: Thrillers and Horror for Halloween Fright

Aligning your offerings with that of a particular occasion’s theme is among the most effective and reliable ways of making your seasonal emails stand out. And that’s precisely the route Penguin Random House have taken over here. As a publishing house, Penguin uses Halloween to recommend a slew of spine-chilling books to their subscribers. After all, not everyone prefers to go out trick-or-treating on Halloween, right? Some prefer to occupy a cozy corner and dive deep into the most sinister of plots that the human brain has to offer. 

The layout is neat and focuses on making the brand offerings (books, in this case) the hero of the email. One thing that I particularly appreciate about this email is that Penguin has highlighted several online stores where one can buy these books, thereby effectively resolving a dilemma that grips most readers whenever they come across a new book. What this maneuver also does is maximize the probability of subscribers interacting with this email. 

Lastly, let’s talk about the CTA (call-to-action) button. Visually, it contrasts sharply against the background, making it extremely prominent. On the content front, the phrase is crisp and smart, inviting the readers to check out more recommendations. 

Carnival

Subject line: Can YOU embrace the spooky side of travel?

Using the hero image to set the mood of the entire email is an excellent tactic, and one that has been carried out to perfection by Carnival in their Halloween emailer. The hero section has a very small, yet amusing, interactive component to it as well- when you hover the cursor over it, certain parts of the image brighten up, almost as if the scene has been struck by lightning. 

The copy is brilliantly written, has a friendly tone, and sublimely weaves the brand offerings with the celebration in question- Halloween. The pictures used perfectly complement the copy, further heightening the email’s appeal. My favorite bit about this example is its CTAs- not only do they ooze wit, but they are also perfectly aligned with the content segment where they are present. 

Brooks

Subject line: Boo!

The first thing I want to highlight about Brook’s Halloween email is its single-column layout. This approach makes the email mobile-friendly, doing away with all the complications that arise with multi-column layouts, such as overflowing text, shifting of images, and overlapping of columns.

The headline is quite catchy, designed to intrigue the reader and encourage them to engage with the content. The copy, for its part, is persuasive while being endearingly casual. Notice how Brooks has included two CTAs over here, one each for men and women. This, in my view, is a brilliant way to invite greater subscriber engagement and interaction. Additionally, it also provides a better user experience to your customers. A generic CTA leads subscribers to your website where they, themselves, have to put the necessary men/women filters and then browse your products. In this case, they are directly led to the relevant browsing section. Now, which scenario will fetch you more brownie points, you reckon?

Another thing worth discussing is how Brooks have included a social proof section in this email to seal their credibility. This section contains a collage, comprising pictures put up by happy customers. How do you know these aren’t stock photos? Because the social handles of said customers have also been mentioned. Might seem like a trivial detail, but small things like this go a long way toward establishing authenticity.

Email Uplers

Subject line: Sinisterland’s Halloween is far from happy

At Email Uplers, we always look to share the holiday cheer with our subscribers. To actualize that sentiment, we keep a small interactivity at the core of all our holiday season emailers. Last Halloween was no different. The first screen of the game we created looked like this.

This frame elucidates the story and gameplay to the users, as well as sets the mood with the background visual. Upon clicking the CTA button, users are led to the main game frame. Here’s how it looks.

As you can already guess, this game is a re-imagination of the popular “Whac-A-Mole” arcade game. Here, users are required to click on the zombies against a ticking clock to fulfill the game’s objective. 

Depending on how the player fares, there are two outcomes.
If they manage to vanquish all the monsters, this is the frame they are shown.

Along with a congratulatory message, the player is encouraged to share their achievement across their social handles.

If they are unsuccessful, this is the frame that pops up.

Here, they are prompted to give the game another go.

Monica + Andy

Subject line: NEW! Spooky Squad print for Halloween

What’s peerlessly brilliant about this Halloween email from Monica + Andy is their subversive approach to it. While the rest of the brands look to embrace the horror of Halloween in their campaigns, Monica + Andy decided to look at the opposite end of the spectrum. The end result? As convincing as any!

The hero image used over here is probably the last thing you’d expect from a Holiday emailer, but you certainly aren’t complaining, are you? The email, overall, is rich in visuals- from the playful GIF that displays the product to the adorable illustrations that drive home the Halloween sentiment. As a result, it is a delight to engage with. Even though this is a special occasion- emailer, Monica + Andy have still chosen to highlight the brand USP (“All made from certified organic cotton that is soft on skin”). A smart call, if you ask me.

Universal Studios Hollywood

Subject line: Michael Myers is Back for More

Who doesn’t like Halloween horror flicks? A whole genre unto themselves, these movies form a core part of many families’ Halloween rituals. So, dropping a reference to one of the most iconic characters of this genre in your subject line is an amazing way to get readers to open your emails. Yes, we are alluding to what Universal Studios Hollywood has done with their Halloween emailer.

A simple scroll of the email will tell you that black and red are its defining colors- shades associated with dread and terror. The way they have gone about highlighting their Halloween-special attractions is impressive: a stirring visual accompanied by a crisp and impactful description. 

Rugs.com

Subject line: Last Chance For Spooky Good Savings

If you are wondering how to use bold typography in your Halloween emails, look no further than this email by Rugs.com. Here, Rugs.com also instills a sense of urgency in the reader’s mind courtesy of their CTA button. This is a good way to spur subscribers into action. The layout focuses on generously displaying the products and is extremely neat. Additionally, the colors used in the email go wonderfully along with those of the displayed products. 

Wrapping It Up

We hope the above examples have left you bubbling with ideas for your campaign. So, what’s the wait? Gather your team, sit down for a fun brainstorming session, and create a campaign that’ll leave your customers entranced!

The post Beware! Hauntingly Beautiful Halloween Email Examples Ahead! appeared first on Email Uplers.

Update: This post was originally published on 24th Oct 2019. It has been updated on 21st Sep 2022.

With the Halloween tricks, turkey and family dinner, exciting discount offers, and Christmassy vibes back in action, it is difficult for email marketers not to think about the “Holidays”. It could sound too soon but the earlier and better you plan your email marketing strategy, the higher would be the conversion rate. 

According to an estimate, more than 165 million customers shopped between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in 2019. Online sales for Black Friday touched $7.4 Billion. Total retail spending during the 2019 Holiday Season was $1.007 Trillion, making it the very first trillion-dollar Holiday Season. 

Emarketer has also predicted that the total retail spending is likely to grow 3.4% to $1.042 trillion.  

Your prospects and customers are likely to get bombarded with a huge number of Holiday messages and sale announcements on all the digital marketing channels. However, with 80% of small and midsize businesses using email as the primary tool for customer acquisition and retention, you must pay special attention to the kind of emails you send. More than half of email subscribers spend 10 minutes to an hour browsing through marketing emails during the week.

To grab the subscriber’s attention in this limited span of time, the first thing you should consider is your email subject lines. The subject line can pique the subscriber’s interest and prompt them to know more about what’s in the email. With that said, here are some inspirational Holiday email subject line examples that would help you leave a mark in the cluttered inbox.  

Best Holiday Email Subject Lines for Halloween 2022

Halloween is all about creating spooky vibes with pumpkins, zombies, and all things scary. Brands not only incorporate these elements in their email copy and design but also in their subject lines. Take a look at some of the best holiday subject lines out there to get inspired.

1. The moment that’s been haunting you… (PAWZ)

(Source)

2. Oops! Must have been a ghost… ? (Robin’s Jean) 

This email was sent to apologize for the technical glitches caused due to high traffic on their website.

3. Fang-tastic Halloween savings – 4 days only (Petsmart)

Click here now for more eye catching email templates that suit your brand needs >>> 

4. Woo,Halloween Sale Meets Buy 1 Get 1 Free! (ublins)

(Source)

5. Le freak? C’est chic! (WeTransfer) 

(Source)

6. Forget tricks. Here’s our treat… (wholesaleforeveryone)

7. Candy for breakfast! (Magic Spoon Cereal)

(Source)

8. Let us help you get rid of all your credit card debt… (LendingTree)

Image Source

9.We’re so pump(kin)ed about this

10. Bucketfeet – Have a Gourd Time on Halloween

11. Double double toil and trouble

12. Tricks to help you this Halloween (Uber)

(Source)

13. Are you passing out candy this year in Pilsen? (Nextdoor)

(Source)

14. All treats, no tricks

15. Zombie apocalypse: who do you save? The one with the gift card.

Best Holiday Email Subject Lines for Thanksgiving 2022

Spending time with the family and expressing gratitude are synonymous with Thanksgiving Day. It is one of the Holidays that records the highest spending every year. Email marketers, of course, know this fact and try to make the most of their campaigns by tapping on the right pulse of the customers. We have shared some holiday subject lines that can help you get the maximum open rate for your Thanksgiving emails and subsequently enhance your conversion rate. Take a look.

16. Holiday guests coming over? (Framerbridge) 

(Source)

17. Happy Thanksgiving from the Fracture team. (Fracture)  

Image Source

18. Thanksgiving Sale: extra 20% off + Black Friday Specials Preview! (Macy’s)

19. Happy Thanksgiving! Shop Black Friday online now! (Macy’s)

20. Wines That Go With Turkey (And All The Sides)- (expressions of the vine)

21. Thanksgiving Tips & Tricks (Gygi)

22. 1-day wonder 20% OFF everything! (Anthropologie)

23. Help bring Thanksgiving to the Camp Fire evacuees (Good Eggs)

(Source)

24. SO Many Sides: Bacon-Leek Stuffing + Luscious Gravy + Mashed Potatoes & More (Panna)

(Source)

25. Celebrate Thanksgiving With Postmates (Postmates)

Image Source

26. Best thanksgiving ever it all starts here

27. No need to thank us for these exclusive deals.

Best Holiday Email Subject Lines for Black Friday 2022

If you want to drive maximum sales on Black Friday, you ought to have outstanding emails that would cut through the noise and make the customer open and click-through. Get inspired with these great holiday email subject line examples for the big shopping day and get on top of your conversion rates! 

28. Black Friday deal ends tonight (Adobe)

(Source)

29. -20% for all Books ans Magazines! Black Book Weekend (MailerLite)

(Source)

30. Last chance for free shipping (Italic)

Image Source

31. Your Boss Is Shopping Today Too (Madewell)

32. Black Friday DEALS! 1000s of Items at Amazing Prices. (INDIGO)

33. Black Friday – 40% off everything! (Canvas Pop)

34. Mystery Sale – How Much Will You Save (Forever 21)

35. Black Friday Sale Starts… Now! (Postable)

(Source)

36. It’s black Fri-YAY! 30-50% OFF everything from your fave brand 24/11

-DAY 1 | 5 DAYS OF GIFTMAS | 25% OFF SLEEPWEAR

– DAY 2 | 5 DAYS OF GIFTMAS | Activewear: Buy One, Get One FREE!

– DAY 3 | 5 DAYS OF GIFTMAS | All Gowns Now $20

– DAY 4 | 5 DAYS OF GIFTMAS | $5 Undies

– DAY 5 | 5 DAYS OF GIFTMAS | SAVE 30% On Activewear

– Where the party at?

This is the perfect example of how you should be sending your Black Friday emails. Instead of working on one holiday email why not send a series of emails with crisp subject lines.  Perhaps email automation workflow with correct action-based subject lines can bring a great response from your subscribers.

37. Black Friday- last chance for massive vape savings

38. Fear of Missing Black Friday. The time is now.

39. It’s now or never!

40. Waiting in line for these amazing prices on canoe paddles would be quite an oar deal!

Best Holiday Email Subject Lines for Cyber Monday 2022

Cyber Monday broke the online sales record with $7.9 billion in revenue in 2018. To make sure that you get maximum customers on this maddening shopping day, email marketing is the best option. Take a look at some effective Cyber Monday subject line examples for the big day.

41. Best. (Cyber) Monday. Ever. (Lululemon)

(Source)

42. Cyber Monday: The Final Countdown! 60% OFF on Designmodo (Designmodo)

(Source)

43. Pet parent, only a few hours left to enjoy 25% off sitewide! SHOP NOW! (PETCO)

44. Exclusive Black Friday / Cyber Monday Super-Sale Deals! (GoCoffeeGo)

45. Cyber Monday Savings! Free Shipping PLUS Up to 25% Off (Disney Store)

46. Think fast. Cyber Monday is our biggest sale. (Adidas)

(Source)

47. Happy Cyber Monday, again (Google)

Image Source

48. Don’t miss out, it’s almost over

49. Take a break from cyber Monday have some taco-bell

50. Score! It’s Cyber Monday: Mystery deal revealed!

51. Just hours left of our biggest sale! (Udemy)

(Source)

52. It’s GO Time (Fossil)

(Source)

53. Cyber Monday: 60% off – 24 hours remaining (Great Simple Studio)

(Source)

Best Holiday Email Subject Lines for Christmas and New Year 2022

Christmas and New Year are the two most important occasions during the Holiday Season. In 2018, U.S. households spent $1536 on an average during the Christmas holidays. It is interesting that 19% Americans spend their money during the holiday season on completely unplanned purchases. Therefore, email marketers must invest in email marketing to get maximum customers. Take a look at some best subject line examples that can amp up your open rate.

54. Hurry up! Use those plays in Starbucks (Starbucks)

(Source)

55.  Straight from Santa’s bag. (Fleur & Bee)

(Source)

56. Family from Far + Wide, We’ve got the makings of your cozy Christmas morning (Terrain)

57. We’re feeling very merry. Get 50% off your order. (Shutterfly)

58. Holiday Offerings at Captain Whidbey (Captain Whidbey)

(Source)

59. Making Christmas merrier since 1707 (FORTNUM & MASON)

60. You can still get it in time for Christmas.

61. Nature is a Gift: Blue goods for this Christmas (TWOTHIRDS)

Image Source

62. Dog people give the best gifts.

63. H&M Home- A stylish holiday at home

64. Merry Crustmas! Surprise your family with a pizza dinner!

(Note: For pizza)

65. Want to impress someone with a perfect gift? (MacPaw)

(Source)

66. Check your list twice: Tovala’s the perfect gift for everyone on your list (Tovala)

(Source)

67. Disney Style – Heigh-Ho! Heigh-Ho! It’s Off to Saks Fifth Avenue We Go!

68. Phrasee – Brace your elves

– It’s time for some Santa Banter!

69. Sloth Santa’s silly season sale.

70. Uniqlo – The turkey’s all done — let’s shop

– Santa, can you hear me?

– Let’s catch up before Santa gets here!

– Resolve to look good

71. Get your New Year’s resolution off to a new start.

72. New Year new me, blah blah sale is going quick.

73. Your wish list is about to grow.

74. Urban Outfitters – holiday stress level: zero

– new year, new neutrals

75. Welcome the New Year with bigger and better deals

Writing a subject line is an art. If you wish to make your holiday email marketing plan a success, jot down a really impressive subject line to increase email open rate; try these tips.

It’s never too early to start planning your email marketing campaigns for the upcoming holidays in the year 2020. Get in touch with us for excellent email template design and coding services.

The post Top 75 Holiday Email Subject Lines to Boost Open Rate (Updated) appeared first on Email Uplers.

A thoughtfully created, well-designed newsletter can connect your brand to your audience and improve your credibility and authority. Over time, it will increase brand recognition and help you build strong relationships with customers. But only when done right.

There’s plenty you can do to create effective newsletters that resonate with your audiences, create natural and direct touchpoints with them, and increase your brand’s visibility and value. One is to use Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) as your ESP. Another is to follow the five best practices given below. Ready to make your newsletters shine? Read on!

#1: Nail the subject line

For commercial emails, the “battle for the inbox” is a real struggle. The average person receives hundreds of emails a day. So how can your newsletters stand out amid all this clutter? With a powerful subject line!

One of the first things a person sees in their inbox is email subject lines. If they receive multiple brand emails, they are unlikely to open them all, much less read them or act on them. However, you can get your subscribers to open your emails by creating subject lines that:

• Are compelling and unique
• Reflect the value the newsletter will provide them
• Use language and words that attract attention
• Encourage further engagement with personalization, offers, incentives, etc.

SFMC’s tools like Email Studio will help you create amazing 1-on-1 newsletter campaigns with optimized subject lines. You can also use Einstein Copy Insights, an AI-based feature, to uncover language insights in subject lines and make changes to drive more engagement.

Also keep these best practices in mind:

• Keep subject lines short. Aim for a ballpark of about 50-90 characters
• Give the reader a preview of the email’s content so they want to open the message and know more
• Use numbers to inspire curiosity
• Choose words that create a sense of mystery or urgency
• Add personalization. Even a first name can make a huge difference to open rates

Another tip – try emojis if they fit with your brand’s overall tone, voice, and vibe. When used properly, emojis can add creativity to subject lines and inspire recipients to open the newsletter. Just don’t overdo the smileys, otherwise your newsletters will look spammy and subscribers will go straight to the Delete button.

Chipotle uses one single emoji in its subject line. But it’s more than enough since it perfectly complements the emotion of the text:

#2: Make newsletters mobile-friendly

As mobile use grows, mobile opens account for a substantial number of total email opens, with some sources saying that 4/10 of emails are opened on mobile phones. That’s why your newsletters must be mobile-friendly.

To create a mobile-friendly design, choose a template that will look good on both desktop and mobile devices. SFMC will help you with this, since it contains both types of templates plus content blocks for mobile-optimized newsletters. Templates are responsive since they automatically resize newsletters when viewed on a mobile device.

Use these out-of-the-box templates and update content blocks as required to quickly create newsletters and send them to your target audience. When building the template, select a responsive layout. Also preview and test all elements of the newsletter on different devices and screen sizes to ensure that the mobile version loads correctly on every device.

When designing newsletters in SFMC, consider these options:

Other best practices to keep in mind for mobile newsletters:

• Maintain your brand’s overall look-and-feel
• Include concise sentences and section headers to improve readability on smaller devices
• Include white space around the landing page link and the Unsubscribe link

Another good tip: CTA buttons should be at least 44 x 44 pixels for mobile. Include clear labels and make sure the CTA stands out from the rest of the copy.

#3: Include valuable copy

Since newsletters are not salesy marketing tools, you are not trying to sell your products. Rather, you want to provide useful, appealing information to an interested audience. The first step to create copy that addresses the recipient’s unique profile and needs is to decide its purpose. What do you want your email copy to do: Entertain? Inform? Convince? The copy should clearly reflect this purpose and deliver value accordingly.

Place the most important content first. Add CTAs to encourage action (“Download eBook”, “Shop Now”, etc.). You can have more than one CTA and include the same CTA more than once. Just make sure to give the reader only one thing to do. Don’t confuse them with a CTA like “Download this eBook to invite a friend and shop more”!

Reinforce the copy and its main message with visuals. Photos, GIFs, and other media enhance a newsletter and provide more enjoyable user experiences. They also increase newsletter click-through rates by 42% or more. But don’t overwhelm the reader with too many visual elements. Graphics, photos, and video should enhance the message, not detract from it. A newsletter with multiple moving parts that confuse the reader won’t be read. Worse, it may be marked as spam and you may see more Unsubscribes than you want to.

The Sonos newsletter includes high-quality copy that’s well-organized and flows beautifully:

Also remember these best practices when designing newsletter copy and imagery:

• Copy should reflect your brand’s voice
• Avoid using auto-play audio elements
• Each media element should complement the text
• Use SFMC to preview how copy and images render on different devices
• Use video content to engage with the audience and encourage more opens

#4: Get the design basics right: Use fonts and colors wisely

In your newsletters, what you say (copy) is as important as how you say it (design). High-quality and valuable copy is digestible and readable. It also has:

• A logical flow
• Well-placed sections
• Good line spacing
• Readable fonts

In every newsletter, use a simple, clean template. Embrace white space so the reader doesn’t feel bombarded with too much information. Use complementary and contrasting colors strategically to grab attention and ensure that the reader can easily read every part of the newsletter without strain. For example, use a dark color against a white background for the copy and a lighter color against a dark-colored CTA button.

Also choose web-safe fonts. Avoid fancy fonts with unreadable curlicues and other bells-and-whistles. Stick to the classics like Arial or Times New Roman that render properly across a majority of devices.

Some more newsletter design tips:

• Make sure content is visible to everyone, even to visually-impaired readers
• Use fonts that are big enough to be read by any reader on any device
• Include alt text in all images so that even if the images don’t render, people still know what they say
• Use bold colors to highlight products and other important information

Target gets it right with a balanced combination of text, visuals, and colors (particularly its signature red)

#5: Optimize the newsletter audience, frequency, send time

For millions of people, digital devices are an extension of their arms and brains. Knowing this, you have an opportunity to get your newsletter to the right audience at the right time. To find the “right” audience, you must understand them better. For this, do your research to find your target audience based on factors like:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Profession
• Interests, hobbies, likes, dislikes

Then segment your audience based on your newsletter goals. Segmentation ensures that the newsletter only goes to those subscribers who want to receive it. A captive audience is crucial for more opens and click-throughs so don’t skip this step during newsletter planning.

Next, optimize send time and frequency by researching your segment to understand when they are most likely to open your newsletters and how frequently they prefer to receive them. SFMC includes features to help you with both. For example, Einstein Send Time Optimization (STO) can predict optimal send times when a subscriber is more likely to open and engage with your newsletter. You can also view the STO dashboard to predict future message engagement and tweak your newsletter send times and frequencies accordingly.

SFMC also includes powerful features for A/B testing and preference center setup so you can understand your subscribers’ frequency and timing preferences. By prioritizing A/B testing, you can give the audience what they want to increase engagement as well as opens and clicks. Implementing a custom preference center will help you manage subscribers’ preferences around newsletter type and frequency. They will be able to decide how they want you to contact them, how often, and about what topics. They can even unsubscribe easily if they no longer want to hear from you. Giving subscribers these easy options is a great way to build two-side relationships and maintain their interest in your newsletter offerings.

Wrap-up

We hope these five best practices guide your newsletter efforts in SFMC and enable your brand to reach its full potential. For more customized support or advice, contact the Email Uplers team. We will show you exactly how to put these tips into practice and achieve your marketing goals with unique, on-brand newsletters that impress, wow, and convert.

The post 5 Best Practices to Create Exceptional Email Newsletters with Salesforce Marketing Cloud appeared first on Email Uplers.

Expert Interview Series: Part 7

Data protection, privacy compliance, and avoiding the email spam trap during the Holiday season

with Dennis Dayman

Resident Chief Information Security Officer, Proofpoint

Holiday email marketing is a technique-sensitive topic. More so because the volume of emails sent and received reaches an astronomical figure during these busy days. With this surge, spam filters also get extra alert on the kind of sales and marketing emails being sent by brands. While this can put your email deliverability rate at a huge risk, it can be absolutely detrimental for your Holiday email campaigns and conversions.

So, to help you get the maximum out of your Holiday email strategy, we got in touch with Dennis Dayman, the Resident Chief Information Security Officer at Proofpoint. We got some great insights into how spam traps work, sending frequency, trigger words, and anti-spam regulations.

Here’s sharing all those amazing recommendations with you all.

You have extensive experience when it comes to spam traps. Now, speaking about Holidays, most Holiday email subject lines are bound to have words like discount, free gift, sale, and deals. Will they trigger spam filters? If yes, what’s the way out?

Dennis : I think for years now, it’s been known that words like FREE and DISCOUNT no longer trigger spam filters. Why? Well, most platforms today use reputation scores and other items to determine if the message is wanted or warranted – meaning, does it have complaints or is it content that people want to see and if so, are they interacting with it?

For instance, Gmail and other mailbox providers see how people interact with an email today. Did they look at it, how long did they look at it? Did they ignore it? How long did they scroll through it?, Did they folder it?, Which folder did they put it in?, etc. These indicators are the most important in anti-spam filtering as it really gets away from the misnomer that content and words like FREE get blocked more. Think about it today, using the word FREE by a known and good sender/brand of an email isn’t fair to them, right?

What’s funny about this is that spammers do attempt to hide their emails by throwing all sorts of “acceptable” words and stolen copy from brands into their spam thinking it will confuse content filters, but in reality, those filters are looking to see if the receiver liked the message and if not via their interactions or actions upon it.

So, go ahead! Use some of these words if you need to.

What other factors do we need to consider during this time so that we can keep the spam filters at bay?

Dennis : Know that simplicity should be the key goal in email design. You will only have 5-8 seconds to let them know what your email is about.

Today, most emails are opened on a mobile device and it can be a deal breaker if your email is not responsive. Layout, design, and fonts will become particularly important in how fast you can garner the attention of the reader and present your point to them. This means that you must ensure a responsive design for your emails to read well across all devices and content that can be seen and not hidden in a preview pane. Writing a catchy subject line that matches the holiday mood also helps; try to make it unique as well as specific. I don’t know about you, but during the holidays my inbox is slammed not only with end of year work email, but also tons of marketing, so like many, I use subject lines and pre-headers as two things that I use to decide whether to open and review your emails or not, so make sure you use that to grab attention.

Something else to consider that I think is glossed over during the marketing calendar is the different makeup of your subscribers’ beliefs and celebrations such as Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. Make sure you segment your lists properly not just by location, but by beliefs, faith, and backgrounds if you can as well.

By doing these things, users will happily and quickly interact with your emails thus showing mailbox providers that users do want your email and thus increasing your internal reputational scores.

The sending frequency is an important aspect during the Holiday season. How should one go about it? Do you recommend pausing the automation workflows?

Dennis : During the holidays, most retailers start sending daily. And there’s nothing wrong with that, as most subscribers expect it. Some retailers even start sending multiple times per day, which can make sense when done because of non-openers.

Your messages need to be short, but also engaging. Too many times, your readers will not check their email inbox as much during the holiday season. To make sure your offerings are read and engaged with, try to promote them across social media channels as well, and include social sharing buttons in your emails to obtain greater engagement.

Also, know that some of your targets might be traveling and in different time zones, so be sure to consider that what worked for them at their time, may not again for a few weeks.

I would also heavily review campaigns from last year. Look for both strong-performing emails and those that had high unsubscribe or complaint rates. This is your best starting point for determining which messages you should and should not send, as well as the cadence for your messaging.

Also, stay connected with other divisions like support who send email on behalf of your brand. Everyone should be mapping out the holiday email send calendar, and remember to allow for pre-holiday sending, remailing and extended sales, which will also increase the overall sending volume. You don’t want your brand over sending emails and upsetting the receiver.

How far do you agree with the thought of investing in another sub-domain for the Holiday email campaigns?

Dennis : Don’t make sudden and unexpected changes to the “From” email address. Why take away familiarity of your brand when in today’s world of email, you are fighting for the digital screen landscape with other major senders. This is your calling card!

By changing and adding a sub-domain, you are now needing to spend more time building up the email reputation of that vs. using the current one already set for marketing and that critical time to look at your current list makeup to understand who would want a holiday timed email and what targeted advertisement. If you start sending from a brand new sub-domain it will have no sending history and will be treated with greater suspicion.

Changing the email address also kills any whitelisting people have done for your emails and thus again puts you in a danger zone of emails having to go through filters.

Cyber attacks are constantly on the rise and emails are equally vulnerable. So, how to steer clear of the security issues, especially during the Holidays? What should the subscribers and email marketers take care of?

Dennis : You need to know that cyber-criminals take advantage of us during the holidays because of the overload of content coming into us. Like I mentioned above, try not to make too many changes from the normal way you might send in terms of identification. Consumers are already dealing with a lot and if you give cyber-criminals a chance to get into that break from the norm, they will try as hard as possible to trick your customers that they are you and the customer needs to do something immediate or urgent, thus ruining your reputation if it was a false thing.

So, if you change domains or add sub-domains, then criminals might work that to their advantage and send fake emails about bad orders to your customers and in the hustle and bustle of the holidays asking for billing updates because of a failed order and we don’t want customers clicking on malware or fake banking credentials just because we want to get the email task completed ASAP.

Today:

• 91% of cyberattacks start with email
• 20% of emails are considered suspicious
• 70%-80% increases in email attacks each quarter
• Research shows that 43% of organizations that experienced a security incident in the last 12 months reported that Business Email Compromise (BEC)/phishing attacks account for more than 50% of the incidents.
• And there has been a 2,370% increase in losses due to business email compromise (BEC) over the last few years.

Your people are your most valuable asset, your greatest weakness, and your best defence. So, try not to confuse your readers with too many changes and try not to give a leg up to the bad guys who will exploit changes.

Privacy and data protection have become quite significant with GDPR regulations and the CCPA in place. How should you design your controls to steer clear of any violations?

Dennis : So I wish I had an easy answer to this, but this is a VERY complicated answer that would take hours, so let me walk you through some of the basics here.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are laws that emerged to give individuals greater power over their personal information. Both regulate organizations that collect and use data in a variety of different ways.

The CCPA protects “consumers” who are natural persons who have to be residents in California to be protected. However, with GDPR it only protects “data subjects,” and does not specify residency or citizenship requirements and who are natural persons. So as you can see, the laws start out to be different. However these, and many more laws, have the similar goal of giving individuals more control over their personal information.

Again, there are so many more differences in these regulations that it would take hours to explain, but overall, GDPR compliance does not equal CCPA compliance, which makes it difficult to say if you are using one of them to cover the other, things like definitions and applicability will not be the same across the board.

The best thing to remember in all this is to obtain explicit permission to collect, process, share, sell the data that you may obtain. You also should build privacy controls to give users the most options to control, edit, and delete their data if any of these regulations apply to you and/or them. You need to put the people first when it comes to the use of the data. Ask yourself this question every time, in whose best interest will this purpose serve? The brand? or the customer? Yes, we know that GDPR states that the “processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes may be regarded as carried out for a legitimate interest.” (This is verbatim from the text of the regulation.)

However, that doesn’t mean that you’re scott free. You also have to consider the balance of interests and ensure that your “legitimate interest” is not overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject.

Be sure to do your own homework, though in determining how and what regulations apply to you and the customer.

Would you recommend any tools to improve email deliverability during the Holidays?

Dennis : The tools I’d recommend would be first to set up feedback loops of those mailbox providers that offer them. This way you will know quickly if your content is being sent and usually in mass quantities over the holidays. They are provided to aid senders in keeping a better list. Senders should also use feedback loops to watch for signs of what their subscribers want and exceptions that will allow them to take action such as suppressing them if there are complaints. It’s important to learn from the complaints you receive because they can help you evaluate and fix issues before they get out of hand in the next series of campaigns.

Second, get an email marketing monitoring tool, which offers innovative ways for brands to monitor key deliverability and reputation metrics, identify potential issues, and take action to resolve them. Email monitoring tools allow you to watch and measure campaigns after you send emails that then allows for you to take the best steps to correct issues found and ensure the best possible inbox delivery on the next campaign and not perform the same mistakes.

Lastly, obtain a list validation service. List validation services can scan your email marketing contacts for possible bad or invalid addresses. Many online companies offer list cleaning services, but accuracy varies and is never 100%. Cleaning a list may solve an obvious problem, like stale addresses, but it can hide bigger issues with your audience collection and management procedures. You won’t discover or solve ongoing audience issues like abuse complaints, spam traps, or blocklists, so be careful not to be sold on those services by some validation companies if they use it as a selling point.

Lastly, would you like to share any pro-tips that would help our readers make the most of the Holiday season and drive maximum conversions?

Dennis : I think your time is better spent on making sure you’ve prepared for this season, especially not knowing where the marketing conditions are going to be. This year AGAIN is a bit different from normal preparations for the holidays. The last few months have been tough on all of us. Most shoppers are still reeling from the economic and emotional rollercoaster of COVID-19.

One of the top things you can do is show true empathy for them during this time. Show them how much you care about them in your communications and help them find ways to do business with you during this socially distanced time.

In other words, remove the roadblocks and friction for them. Make sure you can help them:

• Meet more stringent budgets this year by offering bigger discounts.
• Offer the best ways to pay online and via any app available.
• Make it easier for them to obtain your products by offering free shipping or free shipping to local stores.

You should also anticipate how the next four months could look and have some different strategies prepared.

Right now, we all could use a bit of holiday cheer and some fun things to do. If you start planning for the holiday season now, you might be able to help alleviate some of the stress that is associated with holiday shopping, as it is sure to be exacerbated by the current pandemic.

Holidays should be about reaching maximum people rather than struggling with your email deliverability rate and inbox placement. We are sure that this interview with Dennis Dayman would help you make your email strategy more fruitful and to get unmatched results.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the same. Head to the comment box below.

The post Expert Interview Series: Part 7 appeared first on Email Uplers.

The holiday season is now knocking at our doorsteps. Which means that it’s that time of the year again when email marketers across the world can be seen hunched around their teams, burning the midnight fuel in a bid to charm audiences, existing and prospective alike. And well, why shouldn’t they? $1.3 trillion– that’s the figure US holiday retail sales are expected to reach this year. What’s more, eCommerce holiday sales are estimated to touch $236 billion. Now, those are some hefty numbers, irrespective of what scale you are using. 

It goes without saying that if you play your cards right, you stand to make your brand very profitable during this season. But, this is easier said than done. With so much up for grabs, the competition to claim the same is also immense. Add on top of that the ever-evolving nature of holiday email marketing trends, and the resulting workload can make it impossible for you to even catch your breath. So, what can one do to effectively navigate the demanding nature of the holiday season? Two words- seasonal staffing.

In this blog, we discuss 5 major benefits of onboarding temporary email marketing resources for your holiday email campaigns. Read on to find out!

1. Reduced Workload of Existing Staff

Now, putting in some extra hours once or twice every month is reasonable. But, if you are made to do so regularly over a period of 1-2 months, your mental and physical well-being is bound to crash and burn. So, whatever you do, don’t subject your staff to persistent long working hours to deal with the increased workload of the holiday season. The subsequent stress and exhaustion will breed a host of health problems. Not to mention the increased dissatisfaction and decreased workplace morale.

This is why hiring temporary staff during busy seasons is crucial. Not only will that reduce the workload of your full-time staff, but it will also increase your team’s overall productivity. As a result, your turnaround time will increase, and staying on top of your customer’s demands won’t seem like an overwhelming affair. 

2. Flexibility to Hire as per Your Requirements

The incredible flexibility that comes with hiring temporary email marketing resources is a big reason why many brands are so fond of this model. You’ll be working on your holiday season campaigns for a period of  3-4 months at best. It only makes sense that you hire resources only for that time window, doesn’t it? I mean, why should you hire a full-time resource for seasonal email campaigns? Additionally, while roping in temporary resources, you don’t necessarily have to abide by the elaborate string of formalities that are non-negotiable while onboarding a permanent employee. Thus, you can hire them on short notice and get started right away. 

Typically, organizations deny their employers from availing their rightful leaves during the holiday season out of fear of being understaffed. This, subsequently, fosters strong feelings of discontentment among the staff. Such a situation can be easily avoided by embracing the seasonal staffing model. It lets your employees enjoy their much-deserved leaves whilst also ensuring that your project remains on track at all times. An absolute win-win, isn’t it? 

Lastly, should you ever feel that any of the temporary resources you have onboarded through an offshore agency has long-term potential, you can always talk to the agency and see if you can continue with the resource for a longer duration.

3. Cost Efficiency

Do you know what the average cost of hiring a full-time email developer in-house in the US is? $65,861/yr. The figure goes up to $78,188/yr for email automation experts. The point I’m trying to make here is that in-house recruitment is not a wallet-friendly affair. Let’s say you decide to assemble a full-time team, comprising email developers, designers, campaign managers, and automation experts for your holiday campaigns. So, for the holiday season, alone, will easily cost you in the range of $85,000-$90,000. And this excludes the expenses that will go toward their skill development.

The important question is this: What happens once you are done with the holiday season? Even though you’ll no longer have any work for them, you’d still have to bear their paychecks. Consequently, your organization will be both, overstaffed and strapped for cash, an extremely unenviable combination. 

Now, let us look at the costs involved in hiring temporary email marketing resources. Allow us to cite our own example. At Email Uplers, you can onboard pre-vetted and trained campaign managers starting at $1750/month for Non Enterprise ESP (Enterprise ESPs being Salesforce, Marketo, Braze, Adobe Campaign, and Eloqua). These professionals are fluent in 50+ ESPs and are certified in Marketo and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Other resources such as email designers, developers, and automation experts can be onboarded around similar price windows, too. This brings your holiday season expenditure to approximately $28,000- $35,000. See the margin of savings in this case? 

4. Access to Professionals With Niche Expertise

While hiring temporary resources, you have the freedom to look for talent with niche expertise and leverage their specialized knowledge to boost your campaigns. Let us consider this discussion in the context of holiday season itself so that you have greater clarity. For your holiday email campaigns, wouldn’t you much rather prefer onboarding a campaign manager who has proven experience running holiday campaigns in the past? 

Moreover, introducing such professionals to your team can prove to be a great learning experience for them. It can help them acquire skills and unlock perspectives that can improve your daily operations by leaps and bounds. 

5. Time Efficiency

When you put out a recruitment call, a large chunk of your time goes into scanning through all the resumes that come your way, isn’t it? Normally, that’s alright, but with a thousand things already on your plate, as is usually the case during the holiday season, you’ll be hard-pressed to prise out that kind of time. So, is there some way where you could onboard the best person for the job without putting any time into filtering the CVs?

Yes! By hiring resources from offshore agencies. All you need to do is provide them with your requirements. Upon receiving it, they’ll identify the most suitable candidate and share them with you. Pretty convenient, you’d agree?

The time efficiency, however, is just not confined to this aspect. You see, when you induct certified and reliable resources, you don’t have to really guide them on the execution side of things. They already have full clarity regarding what is to be done. This allows you to invest your time in other critical tasks, such as chalking out the strategy, shaping the customer journey, and the like. 

What Kind of Email Marketing Resources Can You Hire?

Depending on your requirement, you can choose from among the following types:

Email Designers 

An email designer will help you with:

• Creating a design language for your holiday campaigns that will usher in increased engagement, interaction, and, ultimately, sales. 
• Using layout, graphics, color, and typography in the most optimal manner.
• Abiding with email accessibility design practices.
• Rolling out communication that is consistent with your brand identity.
• Leveraging the latest design technology in the market.

Email Developers

Listed below are the various ways in which email developers can boost your holiday campaigns.

• They take care to develop email templates that render across all devices and email clients. Additionally, they can create dynamic email templates too. 
• They help resolve complex coding issues.
• They make sure your campaigns abide by CAN-SPAM and other similar email regulations.
• They integrate email templates with the client’s ESP/CRM.

Campaign Managers

An email campaign manager takes care of the following responsibilities:

• They deploy your email templates in the ESP.
• They plan out your email calendar (and maintain it, as well).
• They prepare complex segmentation frameworks.
• They set KPIs and define goals for your campaigns.
• They look into building seamless customer experiences across channels.
• They design robust email campaign reports and use them to track your campaign’s performance.

Automation Experts

An automation expert can contribute to your holiday season campaigns in the following ways.

• They are responsible for importing and segmenting lists. In the process, they also look after your email data hygiene.
• They setup, execute, and manage your email automation programs.
• They design multi-channel automation programs.
• They manage copy, coding, design, deployment, and automation testing.
• They monitor the deliverability of your emails.
• They look into the analysis and performance optimization of your workflows.

Wrapping It Up

If you are starting to feel bogged down with your holiday email marketing preparations, you know what to do now! Hire a temporary email marketing resource and maximize your productivity. Remember, we are rooting for you, always!

The post 5 Benefits of Hiring Email Marketing Resources for the Holiday Season appeared first on Email Uplers.

Every business out there, whether small or mid-sized or a full-blown enterprise, has email as its marketing channel of choice. An incomparable ROI, vast market penetration, the ability to implement personalization at scale, and the scope to build a unique brand identity are among the few reasons why everyone wants to hop onto this bandwagon. 

That said, the capabilities of email vary immensely depending on the scale on which it is executed. So, the grammar of enterprise email marketing is entirely different from that of small and mid-sized organizations. Today, our subject of interest is the former. From discussing how it differs from traditional email marketing to highlighting features that are common across the best enterprise email marketing platforms, we cover it all in this article. Read on to find out!

What Makes Enterprise Email Marketing Different From The Rest?

Bigger Email List

This is one of the obvious differences between enterprise and traditional email marketing. In the case of the former, one has to deal with a significantly larger subscriber list. Lists of such lengths can’t be managed efficiently with a run-of-the-mill email service. Only with an enterprise email plan can you store and segment your subscribers, leads, and customers without breaking a sweat. 

More Data

This follows logically from the previous factor, doesn’t it? The more contacts on your list, the greater will be the interactions registered. That, in turn, generates huge repositories of data. To effectively process such an amount (and mine actionable insights from it), you must have an enterprise email marketing solution at your disposal. 

Higher Email Volume

On a daily basis, an enterprise sends out a considerably larger volume of emails in comparison to its small and mid-sized counterparts. In such a scenario, it will get incredibly tough for you to deliver personalized experiences to your subscribers if you aren’t using an enterprise email platform.

Need For Greater Customization

Self-serve plans offered by ESPs (Email Service Providers) are sufficient for small-sized businesses to run their affairs. Not quite the case with enterprises, however. They must avail of custom packages to exercise greater control over parameters such as email send limits, customer support, and integrations.

Courtesy of their comprehensive suite of features, enterprise email marketing solutions often have steep price tags. But, if you’re running a large-scale corporation, don’t let that deter you from investing in one. Sure, there might be a dent in your wallet at the outset. In the long run, however, you will get back every single penny you put into it, with remarkable interest. The demands of a huge and diverse subscriber base are immense. In the absence of an enterprise email platform, streamlining operations can become a daunting task. 

So, at the end of the day, what would you rather choose- spending a few bucks to set up a reliable system or losing precious business by disgruntling your customers? I’m sure the answer spells itself out, doesn’t it?

Things To Keep In Mind While Selecting An Enterprise Email Marketing Service

There is no dearth of enterprise email platforms in the market. To ensure you get your money’s worth, you must take stock of the following factors.

Email Automation

Eliminating repetitive tasks, sending subscribers the right message at the right time, improving click-throughs and opens, increasing customer retention rate- these are just a few ways in which email automation helps elevate your marketing campaigns. In fact, triggered personalized campaigns are responsible for fetching as much as 75% of email revenue. So, one of the first things you must look for in an enterprise email provider is its suite of automation features. 

Some essentials that an enterprise platform must contain are autoresponders, a visual workflow builder, and provision to set up if/else scenarios. If your business has a presence across multiple marketing channels, then investing in a platform which has a multichannel marketing automation suite will prove to be extremely beneficial for you. 

Now, the all-important question- which automated workflows should you DEFINITELY set up for your business? Take a look.

• Welcome emails: Given welcome emails are the first kind of communication your business sends out, their importance can’t possibly be overstated. Hit the right notes with your welcome email/sequence, and you’ll essentially be laying down the foundation for unwavering customer relationships. Typically, welcome emails experience higher click rates compared to other marketing emails. Why is that? It’s because, during this phase, customer interest in your brand is at its peak. So, it’s very important that you are able to capitalize on this enthusiasm with your welcome email. 

Designing a compelling welcome email requires you to be mindful of many factors. The most important piece of advice I can give you is this: keep things simple. You don’t really have to go over the top to cast that perfect first impression. A small message that contains both, the confirmation of the subscriber’s action and your gratitude will do the trick just fine. Another best practice is to offer readers a relevant action- invite them to read your blog, follow you on social media, check out your best-selling products, and the like.

To get some inspiration, check out this welcome email by Shopify.

• Transactional emails: That email which instantly lands in your inbox the moment you finish making a purchase? Those are automated transactional emails. Why are they important? Because promptly sending subscribers an acknowledgement of their action is a great way of winning their trust and consolidating your brand reputation.

This transactional email by Fast, ticks all the right boxes.

• Abandoned cart emails: Without an effective cart abandonment sequence in your armor, you stand little to no chance of recovering lost sales. There are two things I want you to keep in mind while crafting one- always use the picture of the abandoned product, and never shy away from offering an incentive.

Take a look at this stunning abandoned cart email by Google.

• Feedback emails: Feedback emails help you understand how customers are engaging with your offerings, giving you the scope of timely resolving any prevalent drawbacks. Additionally, they can also be used to obtain testimonials.

This feedback email by Bird will definitely get your creative juices flowing.

A/B Testing

One of the greatest dilemmas that grip email marketers across the world is this- “How do I send my subscribers an email that they want to receive?” Well, the answer lies in A/B testing. The development process requires you to come up with several versions of the email to be sent. Now, how do you identify the best-performing one? You guessed it- through A/B testing. Such is the potency of this method, that no less than 93% of US companies practice it for their email marketing campaigns.  Subject lines, preheaders, CTA buttons, content, visuals, email signatures, email footers- you can basically test every single element of your email (one element at a time, however) to find out what works best for your audience. Hence, you should always incline toward an enterprise email platform that lets you conduct A/B tests with ease. 

Email Templates

While your campaigns must look consistent from a design perspective, you’ll gradually lose your audience’s attention if they start looking visually similar. Therefore, selecting an enterprise solution that offers custom email templates is a great way of staying ahead of the curve. More often than not, tools that are equipped with reusable templates have user-friendly drag-and-drop editors. That way, you can whip up the template of your choice even if you aren’t familiar with coding HTML. 

Sophisticated Segmentation

Segmentation refers to dividing your subscribers into different compartments based on a host of different factors like age, gender, occupation, location, past purchases, browsing patterns, position in the sales funnel, and the like. This helps you identify the different buyer personas interacting with your brand, allowing you to devise personalized campaigns for each. Effective email segmentation can shoot up your revenue by a staggering 760%!

Goes without saying, the more complex your segmentation framework, the better your interaction and engagement levels will be. So, it is imperative you select an enterprise email marketing tool which enables you to segment your contact list at a granular level. Some tools even offer lead scoring capabilities- assigning leads certain points to quantify their sales-readiness. Working with a reliable lead scoring system can do wonders for your conversion rates. 

Performance Measurement Dashboard

Sending out a campaign is just 50% of the job- any email marketer worth their salt will tell you this. The other 50% lies in measuring your performance. Hence, it is absolutely negotiable for your enterprise platform to have a robust performance measurement dashboard. How do you verify if it’s top-notch? You check whether it tracks the following metrics to monitor your campaign’s performance.

• Clickthrough Rate (CTR): Measure of the total percentage of subscribers who clicked on the links within your emails, CTR is a solid indicator of the efficacy of your emails. If your CTR is high, it means you are doing your job correctly.
• Conversion Rate: This metric tells you about the total number of subscribers who completed the desired action post reading your email. It gives you clarity regarding your ROI. 
• Bounce Rate: Bounce rate helps you understand the total percentage of your sent emails which failed to land in your contact’s inboxes. It is a solid indicator of your email list hygiene. 
• Unsubscribe Rate: This is a measure of the percentage of your contacts who unsubscribed from your emails. A rapid rise in unsubscribe rates should serve as a wake-up call to evaluate your email content and sending frequency (among other things).
• List Growth Rate: Monitoring your list growth rate gives you a clear idea about the productivity of your lead generation efforts. 

Wrapping It Up

Implementing a dedicated email platform for your enterprise can help you drive the results you desire and outshine your competitors. We hope the guidelines stated above help you choose a system that’s just the right fit for your business. 

The post A Complete Guide To Getting Started With Enterprise Email Marketing appeared first on Email Uplers.

Fact: Key Performance Indicators or KPIs determine the success of your email marketing campaigns.

A KPI is a numerical value that shows whether you are achieving a specific objective with your email campaigns. For example, “open rate” will show how many subscribers opened your emails while “click-throughs” will reveal whether your audience is engaged with your campaign and willing to act on your CTAs (e.g., Click here to buy, Subscribe Now, etc.)

You can easily measure and track these crucial KPIs with an Email Service Provider (ESP) like Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC). More importantly, you can leverage the actionable insights generated by these KPIs to improve your campaigns and successfully meet your goals. This article explores five crucial KPIs that you should definitely measure for your email marketing program. Thanks for reading!

5 Email Marketing KPIs You Should Track in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

1. Opens (or Open Rate)

What it means: The number of subscribers who opened your emails as a percentage of the total number of emails sent.

Remember: An email open is only detected if a recipient also downloads its images. Many users enable image blocking in their inboxes so even if they open the email, the open will not get recorded. Further, some device manufacturers like Apple have introduced privacy features such as Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) which prevents senders from seeing if a recipient has opened the email. For these reasons, open rate is not the only KPI you should measure. Nonetheless, it can be a useful KPI. Here’s why.

Why you should measure it: Email open rate is a great way to monitor campaign performance. It is also a useful metric to compare campaign performance over multiple weeks.

How to improve opens: To improve open rate, follow these time-tested tactics:

• Craft attractive subject lines to grab a reader’s attention
• Personalize the subject lines with the reader’s name
• Include preheaders to give readers a preview of what value they can expect to get from the email
• Use a recognizable sender name like john@new-brand.com instead of no-name@new-brand.com
• Research the best time when your emails are most likely to be opened

2. Click-through Rate (CTR)

What it means: CTR measures the number of recipients who clicked on links in your email after opening it.

Why you should measure it: CTR is a very useful metric to see how many subscribers are clicking on your CTAs. This KPI is also a good way to assess the strength of your CTAs, content, messaging, visuals, and offers. All these elements can play an important role in getting people to engage with your brand and buy from you.

Remember: Combine CTR with other KPIs like web traffic and conversions to understand whether your email messaging is aligned with your web messaging (e.g., on the online store). Alignment will help you create consistent content that contributes to enhanced customer experiences and more purchases.

How to improve CTR: There are many ways to improve your email CTR. Here are the most effective:

• Make emails mobile-friendly
• Don’t hide key information in images. If images are blocked, the recipient will miss important info that could help them decide to click on a link
• Choose a responsive email design
• Make emails scannable with headings, images, text blocks, etc.
• Create interesting content that encourages engagement
• Segment the audience to ensure that you send relevant information to each subscriber
• Implement clear, easily visible CTAs that give readers only one thing to do

3. Conversion Rate

What it means: The percentage of recipients who clicked on a link and completed some action: purchase a product, complete a survey, download a free eBook, fill out a lead gen form, etc.

Why you should measure it: When you send an email campaign, you want them to take some action. The KPI will measure how many of them completed that action. This action is tied to your email marketing goal so measuring conversion will show whether you are achieving the goal.

Remember: To measure conversion rate, integrate SFMC with web analytics by creating unique tracking URLs for each link in your email. These URLs will help you identify which specific campaign the click is coming from.

How to improve conversions: All the best practices we have highlighted to improve email opens and CTR apply to conversions as well. In addition, you can boost conversions by:

• Optimizing your email frequency and send times
• Aligning CTA, preview text, subject line, and content so they all tell a consistent story that leads the reader towards an action
• Running A/B tests to determine which elements are most likely to get the audience to convert
• Choosing your template carefully and populating it with compelling content and an attractive design

4. Bounces, Unsubscribes, Spam complaints

What they mean: Bounced emails are the emails that were not delivered to the intended address or to recipients’ inboxes. The unsubscribe rate is the number of users who clicked on the unsubscribe link and complaints refers to the number of spam complaints identified by an ISP.

How to measure these KPIs

Remember: All these KPIs indicate that people are unhappy with your emails. On the plus side, tracking them can help you figure out where you are falling short and what you must do to retain subscribers and their attention.

Why you should measure these KPIs: Measuring the bounce rate will show you if there are deeper issues with your campaigns. Specifically, too many “hard” bounces, which result from invalid, closed, or non-existent email addresses, can make you look like a spammer to an ISP. This will affect your reputation with both the ISP and with your subscribers. That’s why you must measure bounces.

Measuring unsubscribes and complaints will reveal your overall list growth rate. They will also show if there are weaknesses in your targeting strategy or email frequency, messaging, offers, etc. Drill down into these aspects to understand what makes people leave and then fix the problems to arrest the drain.

How to reduce bounces, unsubscribes, complaints: Bounces, unsubscribes, and complaints can be demoralizing to any email marketing team. However, you can arrest these problems by following these best practices:

• Scrub your subscriber list to remove bad or non-existent email addresses
• Evaluate your sending frequency and message content
• Check if you are informing users about what they are signing up for (email type, frequency, etc.)
• Stick to the sending schedule and frequency you promised your subscribers

5. Campaign ROI

What it means: The overall return on investment on your email campaigns, i.e. the amount you earned from the campaign versus the amount you spent

Why you should measure it: By measuring the ROI of your campaigns, you can determine if your efforts are paying off or if you are spending more money than you are earning. You can also assess how many leads you generated and how these leads translated to real, tangible results like actual revenues.

Remember: Your ROI will vary depending on your marketing goal. Identify this goal and consistently measure ROI. If the ROI falls below your target range, act quickly to identify and quickly address any shortcomings in your campaigns.

How you can improve ROI: Here are some strategies that have proven effective at improving email marketing ROI:

• Send targeted emails to a segmented subscriber list
• Personalize emails to appeal to individual subscribers
• Create quality content and avoid using known “spammy” words
• Create engaging subject lines and a clear and compelling CTA
• Optimize for mobile

Other KPIs you Can Track

Apart from these five KPIs, here are some other KPIs you can track for your email campaigns:

• List growth rate: The rate at which your email list is growing; it shows how your campaigns are performing over time
• Email sharing/forwarding rate: The percentage of recipients who shared or forwarded your emails; it will help you attract new leads
• Most and least engaged subscribers: It measures subscriber loyalty so you can target the right people with new offers and decide who to remove from your list entirely

Conclusion

These KPIs will help you measure your email marketing performance and identify gaps between “what is” and “what you want to be”. However, if you’re not sure where to get started, contact Email Uplers. We will help you identify which metrics to track based on your goals and also help you achieve them.

The post 5 Crucial Email Marketing KPIs You Should Track in Salesforce Marketing Cloud appeared first on Email Uplers.

Today, data can well be singled out as the primary entity responsible for moving the gears of invariably every business out there, irrespective of the domain or industry to which it belongs. It is arguably the most formidable currency of our times, and, well, for all the right reasons.

The field of email marketing, too, harbors deep reverence toward the machinations of data. Visualizing foolproof roadmaps, forming steady customer relationships, taking informed decisions, improving ROI- these are just a few of the ways in which data benefits this field. However, it is most critical to understand that the simple act of gathering data is not enough for you to unlock these virtues. Along with mining data, you must also pay strict attention to its quality. Yes, I’m talking about practicing data hygiene.

A Quick Guide To Data Hygiene

Data hygiene refers to the process of ensuring, constantly, that the data you have at your disposal is “clean”- free of errors and inconsistencies of all kinds. During the course of building your email database, you’ll find yourself inundated with information streaming in from several channels. But, know that not all of it will be useful or reliable. And, when you come across such nuggets, your job is to immediately weed them out of your system.

Why is this important, you ask? You see, when customers entrust you with their data, they expect to receive an exceptional user experience in exchange. That, you will be able to provide if and only if you have a plethora of actionable insights. Such insights, in turn, can only be obtained from data that is correct and accurate. In a nutshell, in the absence of good data hygiene, driving the results you desire will become a herculean task. 

So, if you want your business to stay ahead of the curve, you must embrace data-driven marketing. As many as 70% of marketers admit to data being a central part of their company’s decision making at all-levels. The general consensus is that open access to data holds the key to higher business performance. Increasing customer loyalty and conversion rates are among the leading reasons why marketers, these days, are keeping data-oriented strategies at the core of their operations. Take a look at the graph below to gain more clarity. 

If you are new to this, all of what I just said might come across as a touch overwhelming. Be at ease, though; we’ve got you covered. In this blog, we will help you undherstand why email data hygiene is among the mainstays of a high-performing email marketing campaign. Additionally, we will also elaborate on some best practices to get you started. Curious to see what we have in store? Dive right in, then!

What Makes Your Data Dirty

Data gets dirty due to a number of reasons, such as:

• Failure to extract the data unerringly from the source. 
• Sometimes, while the collecting process is seemingly flawless, errors creep in while feeding the same information to the database. An example would be filing the data under the wrong labels.
• Unfamiliarity with the data source, resulting in a subsequent misunderstanding of the data latency.

Dirty data takes myriad shapes- redundant records, incomplete information, outdated data, inaccurate data, and invalid data. How do they stand to impede your campaigns? Let’s take a look. 

What Can Dirty Data Mean For You

Increased Risk of Getting Blacklisted

Compiling an email database isn’t just confined to the act of adding email addresses to your list. It also involves categorising your subscribers into different buckets, with the aim of greeting them with personalized campaigns. And why is delivering personalized experiences important? Because nearly 80% of customers will be inclined to buy from you if you manage to offer them one.

Now, if you are not on top of your email data hygiene, you will:

1. Find your list being populated by several invalid or inactive email addresses.
2. Mislabel your customers.

Sending emails to invalid email addresses will earn you the suspicion of ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and ESPs (Email Service Providers), thereby dealing a body blow to your sender reputation, and ultimately, your email deliverability. Moreover, there’s always the possibility of encountering spam traps- bot emails deployed by major email ISPs like Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo and the DNSBL (Domain Name System-based Blackhole List) to catch spammers. Once you hit a spam trap address, you’ll get flagged within no time and added to a blacklist, subsequently. Spam traps are of four types- Classic spam traps, Seeded spam traps, Typo domain-based spam traps, and Recycled email address-based spam traps.

In the case of delivering emails to mislabelled subscribers, you will end up getting blacklisted for what you send to your readers won’t ever be relevant to them, to begin with. Gradually, they will grow less and less engaged with your communications, and eventually either flag you as spam, or, worse, blacklist you. 

Difficulty In Minimizing Email Churn Rate

Churn rate refers to the number of subscribers who opt out of your email list. Churns are of two types:

1. Transparent churn: Refers to hard bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints. Also called involuntary churn.
2. Opaque churn: Refers to cases where your emails are going straight to spam, and to unengaged subscribers- ones who are receiving your emails but leaving them unopened. Also called voluntary churn.

Now, churn is inevitable. Over the course of time, a few of your subscribers will drop out of your list every now and then. That’s never going to be in your control. What you will have control over, though, is your email churn rate; you can take steps to make certain it is as low as possible. A good starting point is, you guessed it, maintaining excellent email data hygiene. 

As we have already mentioned earlier, bad email hygiene will keep you from making the most of your customers’ data. As a result, you will never quite be able to come up with marketing campaigns that leave them spellbound. And once your subscribers run out of reasons to look forward to your emails, they won’t think twice before opting out of your list. 

Decreasing ROI

This consequence is really a culmination of the two factors listed above. With your deliverability and engagement down in the dumps, your ROI will, of course, be unenviable. Unless you fix your data hygiene problems, all your email spendings will basically be in vain. 

Sometimes the repercussions of bad email hygiene can appear rather trivial, which is why email marketers tend to overlook them. For instance, let’s say that one of your subscribers is named John. While entering their name into the database however, you misspelt it as Jon. So, the personalized emails you send to him now will now address him as “Hi, Jon!” instead of, you know, his actual name.

It is easy to pass this off as a trifling error. After all, it’s just a case of one missing alphabet, right? Wrong. It is enough to put off your customer and push them to consider dropping off your list. A few seemingly casual mistakes like this, and you never know the scale of losses you might be setting yourself up for. So, whatever you do, never be lousy when it comes to your email data hygiene. Remember, you can strive for the perfect big picture only if you get every single detail spot on. 

Email Data Hygiene Best Practices

Listed below are a few techniques that will help you keep your email hygiene on track, always.

Pay Attention To The Data Entry Sources

Website, mobile application, social media platforms, newsletters- leads for your email list are generated from a host of different sources. Your job, thus, is to ensure that the data collection methods employed across these channels are functioning immaculately. 

For instance, if you’ve put up signup forms on your brand’s landing page, you’d do best to make sure they abide by the following tenets.

• They should have as few data entry fields as possible.
• The design should be simple, attractive, and unfussy.
• Your value proposition should be clear.
• Establish your credibility by leveraging social proof
• Make your CTA (call-to-action) compelling.

Additionally, always look to avoid manual data entries. This will help you steer clear of human error. Wherever possible, deploy an automated data entry system.

Never Compromise Your Email List Hygiene

If the hygiene of your email list is in shambles, your campaigns will never take off no matter what you do. Here are a few techniques that will help keep your list clean and proper.

• Routinely scan your list for inactive subscribers. Identify them, try to draw them back with a re-engagement campaign, and if that fails, remove them. Trust me, there’s nothing to be gained by sitting on them.
• Never purchase an email list. Lists that are up for sale are chock full of invalid addresses, and we all know the consequences of mailing such a list.
• Always segment your contacts. Divide them into different sections based on different parameters such as age, gender, occupation, past purchases, buying patterns, position in the sales funnel, and the like. This will give you a sound understanding of the various buyer personas interacting with your brand. 

Assign A Hierarchy To Your Data

No two sets of data in your database will have the same order or precedence, right? While some will be called upon right away, others will stand to serve a purpose at a later point in time. Thus, to keep confusion at bay and your data pipeline uncluttered, it is best that you specify a hierarchy and arrange your data accordingly. 

Use SQL To Cleanse Data

This approach requires you to be familiar with SQL and is a bit complex compared to the rest. But every second spent learning this technique will be well worth it, I assure you. SQL-based data cleansing will let you modify raw data without having to rely on third-party tools. Moreover, you will be able to unlock functionalities way more sophisticated than the ones offered by said tools. You don’t need to be an absolute whiz, of course, to get started. High-level data transformations can be carried out with the knowledge of basic SQL queries, even.

Wrapping It Up

The concept of data hygiene can be a lot to take in at the outset, I agree. So, my only advice to you would be that you give yourself as much time as possible to acclimatize yourself with every single nuance it entails. Trust me, once you get the lay of this land, you will be able to add a new dimension altogether to your email marketing campaigns. 

The post Data Hygiene: Why It Is The Key To Ensuring Your Email Campaign’s Success (And How To Achieve It) appeared first on Email Uplers.

Banner ads are one of the most effective advertising channels. If done right, it can draw your prospect’s attention and encourage them to take the required action. Banner advertising is an expensive affair so it becomes all the more important to follow the best practices and other specifications as per the medium you are targeting. Your banners should be such that they can beat banner blindness and generate conversions for your business. 

In banner advertising, marketers use rectangular images to display ads. The format of your ad can either be plain text, image, or a combination of text and visuals. Most businesses prefer visually rich banner ads. 

Advantages of Banner Ads

• Banners are the oldest form of advertisement. So, they connect instantly with the readers. 
• They are more cost effective when compared to TV ads, hoardings, or newspaper ads as they get you quick conversions for your business. 
• As they are more likely to get noticed, people will remember the offer even if they don’t act on it immediately. 
• You have the liberty to use attractive visuals in your banners. That helps demonstrate the usage of your products and appeal to a larger audience. 
•  You can showcase the banners on different websites and platforms. As a result, it builds your brand reputation. 
• You can get in touch with an agency like Email Uplers who can design banners according to your requirements. Whether you are looking for animated HTML5 banners or simple designs, they have got you covered. 

Now, how will you create banners that help you achieve all these objectives?

The answer lies in, apart from several other factors, choosing the correct size according to the platform you are targeting. 

Through this article, we shall discuss the ideal banner sizes for Google ads, Facebook ads, and Instagram ads. 

We shall start with Google ads.

Google Ads Banner sizes

Google Ads provides a scaffold to draw the user’s attention across the Google Display Network’s 2 million websites and apps. It helps you reach 90% of Internet users around the globe. 

You get a number of options to design customized and responsive display ads in different sizes. 

Here’s an image showing the top banner sizes and how often they are used.

The commonly used sizes for Google ad banners are:

1. Small square (200×200)

As the ad offers limited space, it often ends up being cluttered with text and visual elements. It is hardly used for the same reason. 

2. Square (250×250)

Businesses avoid it because it is smaller and does not accommodate too much information. 

3. Banner (468×60)

Just like the previous two, this banner also has a space crunch. It is placed above the navigation bar or between the main content. 

4. Leaderboard (728×90)

Popularly used by several businesses, the leaderboard ad format stands out and catches the reader’s attention like a shot. It is seen above the navigation bar, particularly in forums. 

5. Inline Rectangle (300×250)

If you want to reach a huge audience, an inline rectangle or medium rectangle is a great option. When placed in the sidebar and between organic content, it works wonders for the businesses. 

6. Large Rectangle (336×280)

The large rectangle banner ads are most effective when placed in sidebars and main content. It is commonly preferred because it is likely to get noticed and accommodates all the necessary elements. 

7. Skyscraper (120×600)

If you want to show downward descending imagery, skyscraper banner ads are a great pick. You can easily find room for this banner ad because of its narrow width design. 

8. Wide Skyscraper (160×600)

The wide skyscraper is more visible when compared to the simple skyscraper. Choose this banner size when you want to leave a profound impact on your reader’s mind. 

9. Half-page Ad (300×600)

This banner covers almost half of the web page. So it is more engaging for the readers. 

10. Large leaderboard (970×90)

As the name suggests, it is bigger than the standard leaderboard banner. Thus, it is more visible and has a better engagement rate. 

Note that the file size for all these ads is 150kb.

Facebook Ad Sizes

You cannot rely much on the organic reach of Facebook posts due to the complex algorithms. As a result, you ought to invest in Facebook ads if you want to reach more people. You must determine the size of the Facebook ad according to your business type and the objective you wish to achieve. 

Take a look at the commonly used ad sizes for Facebook. 

1. Facebook Feed Image Ads (1200×628)

Facebook feed image ads are the simplest to create. You can accommodate a lot of information along with rich media in these ads. The maximum file size is 30 MB with aspect ratio tolerance of 3%.  

2. Facebook Feed Video Ads (600×315 or 600×600)

With the increasing popularity of Instagram reels, TikTok, and YouTube, video content has gained momentum even in the field of advertising. Facebook feed video ads are similar to the image ads but they use videos and are smaller in size. It supports Mp4, MOV, or GIF format up to 4 GB size. It is advisable to add video captions and sound to make your ad more impactful. You can keep the duration up to 241 minutes. The maximum file size is 4 MB for videos. The aspect ratio tolerance is 3%.

3. Facebook Carousel Ads (1080×1080)

If you ask me, I personally like Facebook carousel ads the most. I will tell you why. It allows you to display a huge range of products in a single ad. The reader can swipe through to see what the business has to offer. You can have 2 to 10 carousel cards in the ad. The maximum file size for images is 30 MB and 4 MB for videos. The video duration is 1 second to 240 minutes with aspect ratio tolerance of 3%. 

4. Facebook Right Column Ads (1200×628)

Facebook right column ads have gotten less popular as they are compatible with desktop only. As most users access Facebook through mobile devices, it has become pointless to invest in these ads. 

5. Facebook Marketplace Ads (1200×628)

Facebook gives a feature of buying and selling things through its Marketplace. If you are using Facebook to sell things, you can feature your ad in the Facebook marketplace. 

6. Facebook Instant Articles Ads (1200×628)

Content marketers and media publishers can use Facebook instant articles ads for content distribution. It is visible on mobile and messenger apps. You can either use images or videos in these ads. 

7. Facebook Stories Ads (1080×1920)

A combination of still images and short videos makes Facebook stories ads a versatile advertising option. It will display the images for 5 seconds and videos for up to 15 seconds. 

8. Facebook Collection Ads (600×600)

Imagine being able to promote a product catalog through Facebook…
That’s exactly what Facebook collection ads are all about. On clicking, users will be redirected to an instantly loading visual catalog. And you know the best part? You don’t need to leave Facebook to access it. The only requirement is Instant Experience that imparts a full-screen experience to users who tap your ad on a mobile device. 

Instagram Ads

Instagram is among the most powerful platforms for advertising. It gives you an opportunity to reach the huge user base of 1.386 billion customers through the ads. If you want to target this 4th most popular social network correctly, make sure you follow all the best practices related to the ad sizes. 

The most commonly used sizes are:

1. Instagram Single Image Ads (400×500)

Maximum users prefer Instagram single image ads. It is displayed on the full screen for the user. 

2. Instagram Video Ads (400×500)

Instagram video ads allow you to create videos in landscape, square, or vertical mode. It is similar to Instagram image ads. 

3. Instagram Carousel Ads (1080×1080)

You can use up to ten images or videos in Instagram carousel ads. eCommerce websites can showcase their wide variety of products through this ad format. 

4. Instagram Stories Carousel Ads (1080×1920 and 1080×1080)

There are two types of carousel ads: Native stories carousel and expandable stories carousel. The aspect ratio for native stories’ carousels is 9:16 while for expandable stories’ carousels is 1:1. It supports MP4 and MOV formats under 4 GB. The maximum length for these ads is 15 seconds. 

5. Instagram Slideshow Ads (600×600, maximum 1080×1080)

Slideshow Ads allow the usage of up to 10 images looped in a video. You can even add the musical track you like, provided you have the legal right to use it. 

6. Instagram Stories Image Ads (1080×1920)

Instagram stories image ads help display a full-screen ad for 5 seconds or unless the user swipes out of it. 

7. Instagram Stories Video Ads (1080×1920)

Besides images, you can add sound to Instagram stories video ads. Just like image ads, they are full-screen vertical ads that users can view for 120 seconds. 

Wrapping Up

Banner advertising is a bit technically challenging as you need to consider several points like file size and its format. It would certainly help to bookmark this article and go through it every time you plan to create ads for Google, Instagram, and Facebook. 
If you need any help with creating your banner ads, help is just a click away with Email Uplers. 

The post Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram: How to Choose the Ideal Banner Ad Size? appeared first on Email Uplers.

Imagine you have two emails in your inbox. Let’s assume that both of them have the same content, and that this content is extremely original and insightful. However, while in the first email, the information has been presented solely in neat textual blocks, in the second, the text has been complemented with different kinds of static visual elements such as illustrations, geometric shapes, icons, and the like. Which email has a better shot at securing your attention? The second one, right? Obviously. 

Now, suppose, a third email arrives in your inbox. It holds the same content as the two emails preceding it. But, that’s where the similarity ends. For here, the information is conveyed using moving visual images. All of a sudden, the other two emails seem dull in comparison, don’t they? It’s not your fault; that’s simply the power that video as a medium exercises over each of us. It’s no wonder thus that email marketers love using them in their campaigns at every chance they get. 

But, it’s not so simple. A lot of email clients throw up stiff challenges when it comes to embedding videos in emails. Especially if you are dealing with Outlook, these problems seem to manifest themselves tenfold. That said, there are multiple ways of overcoming these roadblocks, and that’s precisely what we cover in this blog. Read on to find out!

Why Should You Embed Videos In Your Emails?

Despite having full-knowledge about the complications involved, many, many brands are rather resolute about including a video within their emails. This is because of the following reasons:

• Good storytelling is the hallmark of a high-performing email and if you want your storytelling to be intimate, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better tool than video. Adding videos to your emails enables you to establish a personal connect with your audience, thereby paving the path for increased engagement and interaction.
  
• If you’re working in the B2B or SaaS space, I needn’t remind you of just how difficult it gets sometimes to explain the salient points and functionality, in general, of your products to your clients. Eventually, when you do manage to put in everything you wanted to, the email length ends up becoming quite protracted. And you very well know the kind of response lengthy emails get. So, the workaround? You guessed it: add a video! An explanatory video will offer your subscribers greater clarity regarding your offerings on any given day than a textual guide.
  
• Embedding videos in emails can shoot up your click rates by as much as 300%! In essence, including videos in your campaigns is akin to ushering in greater conversions.
  
• Ask anyone how you can improve your lead generation rates and they will all promptly tell you one thing- improve your sales pitch. Now, how can you go about that? Well, there are many ways, but one of the most potent ones is leveraging video. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment. What do you reckon they will respond best to? A personalized video pitch in which you address them directly and talk about their pain points or a faceless body of text? I’m sure you already know the answer. 

How To Embed A Video In Outlook Email?

In the current scheme of things, Microsoft no longer supports embedding videos in emails in a bid to keep perilous malware and viruses at bay. As a result, you can not add videos in the Microsoft Outlook application. This is true for versions 2007, 2010, 2013, and above. However, that’s not the end of the road. Thanks to Outlook live and the email client’s desktop app, you can still embed videos in Outlook email.

There are broadly four ways you can go about that.

1. Embedding A Video In Outlook live

The online version of Outlook is referred to as Outlook live. Given below are the steps you need to follow to embed Youtube video in Outlook email. Or from any other platform, for that matter. 

• Go to YouTube or the platform where the video you want to embed exists and copy its link (either from the address bar or by clicking on the “Share” icon).
• Next, login to your Outlook email account. 
• Create a new message.
• In the body of this message, paste the link of the video you copied earlier. 
• After you have pasted it successfully, you’ll observe a preview window popping up under the link. Note that this preview will continue to be visible even if you delete the link. 
• Now, you have to write a message to accompany the video. Make sure you make this message compelling enough for the reader to consider opening the video.
• Once you are satisfied with your message, click on the “Send” button. That’s all, you’re done.
• Upon clicking the preview, the subscriber will be able to view your embedded video without being redirected to a new window.

2. Embedding A Video By Linking It To A Thumbnail Or Picture

The technique that we discussed above will not work if you attempt it in the Outlook desktop application. To successfully embed a video there, you need to carry out these steps:

• Play the video you want to embed and take a screengrab of any frame you like. It’s advisable to save the image in .JPEG format.
• On YouTube, you have the choice of saving the video’s thumbnail as an image. To do so:
  • First, place the mouse cursor over the video’s preview section. Next, right click.
  • A pop-up window will appear on your screen.
  • From among the options that appear, select “Save image as…”
• Next, you have to add this image to your email’s body. On the new message window, you should be able to spot an image icon. You need to click on it to upload your image. 
• Once the image is uploaded, you need to link it to your video. Here are the steps for the same:
  • Select the image.
  • Click “Insert” and then “Link”.
  • You’ll get shown a data-entry field. Here you have to paste the link of the video which you want to embed (and whose screenshot you have taken).
• Much like how we had done in the previous technique, add a message after having pasted the link. Once you’re happy, send the email.
• When the subscriber clicks on the image, they will be redirected to the platform which hosts the video (on a new browser window). To intuitively guide your subscribers toward clicking on the image, you can consider adding the photo of a play button on top of your image. 

3. Embedding A Video By Adding It As An Attachment

Another way in which you can embed videos in Outlook emails is by inserting them as attachments. In this scenario, however, you will have to contend with Outlook’s attachment size file limit which maxes out at 20 MB. 

• First off, you need to download the video. Unlike the previous two cases, here you won’t be sharing any links with your subscribers. To be able to insert a video as an attachment, it must exist as a saved file on your system.
• After you have saved the video, check its size. Should it happen to exceed 20 MB, use any of the video compressing tools available online to get it under that mark.
• Next, open the new message window.
• Click “Attach”. You’ll be asked to select the file you want to insert into the message body. Click on the video you want to share.
• Now, write a message to go along with the video. 
• Click on the “Send” button to finish the process. In this case, similar to the first technique, subscribers will be able to view the video in the email window itself.

4. Embedding Videos With The Help Of HTML5

If you are handy with HTML5, you can add additional code to your email’s script to embed video in your Outlook email. 

You can use the <video> tag to go about this. Inside this tag, you need to define the physical dimensions (height and width) of your video. If you want to include a preview image (or thumbnail), add the image link in the code using the “poster=” attribute. Also, add the file link of the saved video with the “src=” tag. 

The code you write will vary based on the email server and device you are using. Additionally, you will also have to navigate your way around fallback codes employed by Outlook to make certain your subscriber’s user experience is nothing short of sublime. Agreed, this is arguably the most complex technique of the lot, but it is always better to have as many tricks as possible up your sleeve, right? 

Wrapping It Up

While figuring out how to embed a video in Outlook email is not really a walk in the park, you must not let the challenges deter you from taking the route altogether. Remember, once executed successfully, your email campaigns will be well on their way to becoming the cynosure of all eyes. We hope the techniques shared above are able to fruitfully guide you in your endeavor. 

The post Embedding Videos In Outlook- The Whys, The Hows, And Everything In Between appeared first on Email Uplers.

How many emails should you send per week?

How many emails are too many emails?

What frequency can get too much to overwhelm your subscribers or too low to make them forget you?

The answers to all these questions lie in the trial and error method… But the key is that if you mess up with the email sending frequency, it will affect your sender reputation, email deliverability, and result in poor open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. That’s what “cadence email marketing” is all about. 

Defining Email Cadence

The process of establishing the optimum sending frequency to increase subscriber engagement and overall email performance is known as email cadence. 

Of course, there are no said email cadence guidelines as such. The type of business, your target audience, and subscriber behavior determine the number of emails to be sent, when to send a follow-up email, or a reminder email. 

Email cadence varies between different subscriber segments. So, a preference center can make things easier for you as the subscribers themselves will let you know how often they wish to receive your emails. 

Some Data to Ponder About

A HubSpot survey carried out on 300 marketers revealed that 95% of them found email marketing effective in 2021. Here’re the salient points deduced in the survey:  

1. Emails get maximum engagement on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. 
2. 9 AM to 12 PM, Tuesday works the best for marketing emails. The same time on Monday and Wednesday comes close second.
3. Sending emails on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is like digging out a grave for your email performance. It performs the worst in terms of open rate and click-through rate. 

A study by Databox concluded that 33% marketers prefer sending weekly emails. 26% send emails multiple times in a month. 63% revealed that they change the send frequency according to the subscriber engagement. 

All these facts and figures show that email marketing cadence is as important as its content and design. 
Now, let’s understand the best practices to be considered for cadence of emails. 

1. Figure out your goals

Why are you sending emails?

It could be to drive sales to your eCommerce store, bring people to your blog, schedule meetings, or get downloads for your content resources. Some marketers even send emails just to engage their subscribers or inform them about a new update. According to the objective you wish to achieve, you must set the right email cadence. For example: If you are an eCommerce store, sending emails twice a week is a good idea to start with. However, it is just a suggestion. You can change it based on how your target audience engages with the emails. 

2. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes

Suppose a SaaS company emails you every day with their content resources. Wouldn’t it get a bit too overwhelming for you? Instead, how about receiving a monthly or quarterly newsletter with a curation of the best articles? Sounds good, right? 
Relevance is the key when it comes to choosing the right email cadence. Consider the buyer’s journey and target the users accordingly. As an example: The email cadence for welcome series will be spread over a period of 24-72 hours. On the other hand, you can send lead nurturing emails and follow-up emails over a period of a month. These emails will help in getting the prospects closer to conversions. 
Once a prospect has made the purchase, you can follow up with weekly emails to ask them if they need any help and request for feedback. 

3. It’s okay to email the subscriber (if it’s in their best interest)

Many marketers shy away from sending emails as they fear invading the reader’s personal life. That’s not the right way to go about it. If you are talking about the user’s best interest, your emails will be useful for the reader and they might convert. There is a thin line between gentle reminders or nudges and annoying emails that come off as spam. Sometimes, consistent communication is all you need to close a deal. It’s a lot like dating. You have to text and speak on call everyday before making it official, right?

4. Use the power of personalization

No matter how many emails you send — whether it is one or many, make sure that you personalize the content according to the user’s preferences. Personalization is not a good-to-have strategy anymore. It is a must-have strategy and best practice. Just like you expect people to respect your preferences and interests, your subscribers do so too. 

5. Analyze what your competitors are doing

Evaluate the businesses from your industry and figure out how they are reaching out to their customers. Are they following a weekly or monthly regime? What kind of emails are they sending out? However, remember that what’s working for others in your industry might not work for you. So, test the email cadence and establish what performs the best for you.

6. Ask for feedback from customers

Every once in a while, send out a feedback email to understand whether your send cadence is in line with the subscriber’s expectations. You can follow the same tactic for your unsubscribers too. Ask them for the reason for opting out — whether the email frequency was too high or did the content not resonate with them. Based on the responses, you can set your email marketing cadence and revamp the content of your emails. 

7. Keep tabs on the number of emails your customers receive

Often, there are two email workflows running simultaneously. One is your promotional emails and another is the automation workflow you have set in response to the triggered events. Whenever you send out the promotional emails, make sure that it does not overlap with the automation emails. Segment the lists mindfully to avoid sending any unwanted communications to the subscribers. Refrain from automatically resending emails to non-openers. This has become all the more important with the launch of MPP by Apple. It does not record the open rates correctly. So, think through it well if you wish to resend any email campaigns to the non-openers. 

8. Monitor the email metrics

Tracking the email metrics is necessary to understand how your emails and their cadence are resonating with your subscribers. Monitor the open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, unsubscribes, and reasons for unsubscribes. Advanced CRM tools like HubSpot give you a detailed insight into your email marketing health. Accordingly, you can keep optimizing your email marketing strategy. 

Let’s Understand Email Cadence With an Example

Let’s take a look at the cadence followed by Calendly for their email campaigns. 

1. On 30th November 2021, I signed up on their website. They immediately sent me a welcome email with a thank you note. 

2. A day later (on 1st December), I received an informative email to help me make the most of my Calendly account.

3. Then, I received the 3rd email on 4th of December to inform me about their mobile application. 

4. On 6th of December, they sent me an email to share some exclusive benefits I could access through the free trial. 

5.  I received the fifth email on 12th December that reminded me that my free trial was going to end the next day. 

After that, I received one email over a period of a week. The emails got quite infrequent as I was an (almost) inactive customer. Needless to say, had I been an active customer, the email cadence would have been different. 

The same applies to the sales emails you send to your leads. 

If you are sending the first outreach email on Day 1, wait for three to five business days before you follow up with them with another email. Send the second follow-up email on Day 7, followed by the third follow-up email on Day 9. If there is no response even after all these emails, you can send one last email on Day 11. Let the user know that you will not send any more emails to them.

Hang on! You don’t have to do this manually. Set an automation workflow so that you can easily scale it even for a large subscriber base. It will not only improve your efficiency but also give you in-depth insights into how people are responding to your emails. According to the engagement level, you can change the email copy and cadence. 

Summing it up

The email marketing cadence is not a regular entity. It does not mean a daily, weekly, or monthly deployment of emails. It’s more about creating a strategy that works for you. Another important point to remember is to define a purpose for your emails. Your sending cadence will be meaningless without a definite aim. 

If you need help with setting up automation workflows or email campaign management, Email Uplers can certainly help. We can also design visually aesthetic emails for you that your subscribers will love receiving. 

The post How to Establish the Optimum Email Marketing Cadence (With a Practical Example) appeared first on Email Uplers.

Irrespective of which industry you belong to, I’m sure that, at some point or the other, you’ve crossed paths with this incredible platform- HubSpot. Especially in the email marketing community, the platform is pretty much synonymous with delivering personalized and highly enriching customer experiences. One of the best things about HubSpot is that besides its already super-comprehensive suite of features, it also integrates seamlessly with several other platforms. Subsequently, this allows users to make the most out of the combined functionalities that result from these integrations. 

Now, HubSpot integrations aren’t confined solely to platforms that are developed and supported by HubSpot. They also include those developed externally by HubSpot Connect partners. So, while this gives email marketers a huge number of options to contend with, picking from among those invariably puts them in a pickle. Well, we are here to make life easier for them. In this blog, we are going to explore ten HubSpot integrations that will enable email marketers to up their game by leaps and bounds. Curiosity piqued? Keep reading, then!

1. Seventh Sense

Seventh sense is an AI software that helps you maximize the engagement of your email marketing campaigns. How, you ask? By allowing you to get on top of your email timing. You see, what Seventh Sense essentially does is figure out an optimal time window for each of your recipients based on their previous email interactions. This, in turn, goes a long way towards improving your deliverability. 

No matter how curated your content and stunning your design, at the end of the day, if you fail to get your timing right, your email will remain buried amidst the wave of others that hit your subscribers’ inboxes daily. And email timing is an extremely subjective affair. What works well for your competitors might just fall completely flat on its face when you try it. It depends on a number of factors such as:

• Audience demographics
• Type of industry
• Email frequency, and 
• Seasonal changes

So, is it possible to take all these aspects into account and figure out the most optimal time slot for your audience manually? Sure, if your subscriber list is 20-30 odd names long. But anything more than that, and you’ll have a tough time managing the circus. Seventh Sense, on the other hand, carries out true send time personalization and automatic engagement-based segmentation. As a result, you can deliver emails not only per your audience’s most optimal engagement time windows but also their favored frequency. This is what makes Seventh Sense such a crucial HubSpot integration.

2. SurveyMonkey

There’s perhaps no better way of staying on top of your customers’ pulses than by gathering their insights regarding your offerings. And one of the best ways of going about that is inviting them to participate in a survey. This is why survey emails are a critical component of every email marketer’s toolkit. Especially so in this post-MPP (Mail Privacy Protection) era. 

However, designing an impactful survey is no child’s play. This is where SurveyMonkey comes into this picture. With the help of this platform, developing a sophisticated survey becomes a breeze because:

• It gives you access to a vast library of survey templates. That way, you get the scope of floating different surveys to different segments of your target audience.
• It allows you to pick from a host of expert-written sample questions and include the same in your surveys.
• It lets you assess, in advance, the efficacy of your designed survey with the help of its “SurveyMonkey Genius” feature.

The SurveyMonkey-HubSpot integration helps you convert customer feedback into actionable insights, thereby improving the success rate of your email campaign. 

3. Zapier

Zapier is an automation tool that lets you connect all the different applications involved in your campaign. By integrating Zapier with HubSpot, you will be paving the path for automating a ton of repetitive tasks, sparing yourself from coding them. 

Additionally, Zapier will keep sending newly generated leads to HubSpot, irrespective of the channel in which they are generated, making sure that your email list is well-maintained and updated at all times. 

4. Vidyard

All of us respond better to information when presented in visual medium than plain text, don’t we? And the more immersive the visual medium, the better the results. GIFs and videos have been known to outperform static images on multiple occasions. So, why not use videos to generate leads? Yes, that’s very much possible. All thanks to Vidyard!

Vidyard is no less than a boon for folks in sales and marketing, for it allows them to record a personalized video and send it alongside their pitches. Now, try to imagine things from the customer’s perspective. You receive two emails in your inbox- both are sales pitches. One is a regular, faceless block of text, while the other contains a video message in which the speaker is talking directly to you. Which one would you be more inclined to interact with? It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? Embracing the Vidyard-HubSpot integration, thus, enables you to establish a personal connect with your prospects, amplifying your lead generation rates to no end. 

5. Terminus

Email signatures are a vital part of your email template. Why?

• They infuse professionalism into your messages, sealing your brand credibility and reputation in the process.
• They help make your brand more recognizable to your readers. This does a whole world of good to your visibility.
• They serve as virtual business cards and are hence an embodiment of your brand personality. 

Still, it skips the minds of many, many brands out there. Well, what if we told you that you could partner up with a platform that would convert unutilized space on your template into customized email signatures? No, we’re not making things up, we’re simply describing Terminus. This wonderful tool takes stock of the recipient’s email address to come up with targeted email signature banner ads. Quite exciting, right? By integrating it with HubSpot, you can monitor the conversations generated from these signatures via HubSpot Analytics.

6. NeverBounce

Struggling with email deliverability? Then, it’s about time you added NeverBounce to your armor. This tool verifies all the addresses on your email list (in real-time) to make sure you are not delivering your emails to invalid or spam addresses. And when you sync NeverBounce to your HubSpot account, it carries out automated list cleaning. A major reason why NeverBounce is extremely popular is because it never relies on historical data for its list verification. Everything happens in real-time. 

Additionally, NeverBounce’s turnaround time is an absolute deal-clincher, taking only around 3 minutes to clean as many as ten thousand emails. With the NeverBounce-HubSpot integration, you will be able to verify and clean your existing lists on HubSpot. Subsequently, not only do you remain free from the scrutiny of ESPs (Email Service Providers) and ISPs (Internet Service Providers), but you also lay down the foundation for sky-high conversions.

7. Spellbound

In this day and age of email fatigue, one surefire way to catch your audience’s attention is by sending out interactive emails. To make that endeavor a success, you need to turn to Spellbound. This tool helps you incorporate an array of interactive features into your emails and enhance signup forms, event signups, purchases, meeting bookings, and surveys, all without having to write a single line of code. 

The Spellbound-HubSpot integration opens up exciting possibilities like:

• Embedding HubSpot forms into interactive emails to ramp up conversions.
• Sending interactive emails designed using Spellbound as part of automated workflows created on HubSpot.

8. Calendly

Want to fix an appointment with a prospective client? Now, there are two ways you can go about it:

1) Exchange multiple emails till both of you arrive at a mutually agreed-upon date.

2) Invite them to book the dates of their convenience on a scheduling platform, and you let them know accordingly.

Option 2 sounds way more feasible, doesn’t it? Well, that’s precisely what Calendly lets you do. By integrating Calendly with HubSpot, you’ll be able to embed Calendly schedule links in the emails you deliver through HubSpot. It doesn’t end there; when someone acts on that link and books a date, the details are automatically updated against the contact’s name on HubSpot. Now, that’s a practical arrangement, you’d agree? 

9. Proposify

Ask anyone working in sales what’s the toughest part of a sales cycle, and I’m sure all of them will utter one word in unison- closing. And in most cases, the roots of unsuccessful closing can be traced to ill-structured and vaguely written proposals. Are you struggling with the same? Proposify is just what you need then. 

Its library houses all the ingredients you’d need to craft a compelling proposal in minimal time. Further, Proposify also lets you keep track of your proposal’s status- from checking whether they were viewed at all or not in the first place to seeing which pages managed to hold your prospect’s attention for the longest, it lets you do it all. 

During the Proposify-HubSpot integration, the contact list between both platforms gets updated on its own, saving you significant time. Another charming benefit of this integration is that any changes effected to your rep’s proposal activity reflect directly on their HubSpot timeline.

10. ReadyTalk

ReadyTalk provides web, video, and audio-conferencing services with a view of making online meetings as collaborative as possible. If you are conducting a webinar using ReadyTalk, you must consider integrating it with HubSpot for the following reasons:

• You can promote your webinar by sending invitation, reminder, follow-up, and confirmation emails.
• All data concerning webinar registration and attendance is recorded on Hubspot.
• Critical insights pertaining to the event, such as landing page views and webinar interactivity data, can be viewed using HubSpot.

Wrapping It Up

All of a sudden, you are looking at HubSpot in a new light, aren’t you? “A whole new world” isn’t just a Disney concept anymore, is it? We hope the HubSpot integrations shared above help strengthen your email marketing strategies and take your campaigns to extraordinary heights of glory! Do you use any other integrations to get the most out of HubSpot? Do share in the comments below. 

The post 10 Essential HubSpot Integrations Email Marketers Must Embrace ASAP! appeared first on Email Uplers.

An email preference center can help you improve your email strategy and unlock a wealth of subscriber data that will reveal their communication preferences. You can then leverage this information to:

• Learn more about their email preferences
• Build more complete subscriber profiles
• Deliver personalized email experiences to boost engagement and ROI
• Get subscriber consent to earn their trust and loyalty
• Minimize inactive email addresses in your list and thus improve your email deliverability

An email preference center can also help you manage unsubscribes so you only have those subscribers who actually want to hear from you.

And that’s not all. A preference center in Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) can also help you meet regulatory requirements. This is especially important in an era where privacy laws are becoming more stringent and you need to be careful about how you use individual data.

Need guidance about designing and optimizing your preference center in SFMC?

This article is for you!

What is a preference center in Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

A preference center is a page that enables subscribers to choose the type and frequency of email messages they want to receive from a brand. They can thus choose to “opt down” from certain emails rather than completely opting-out or unsubscribing.

With a well-designed preference center, you give subscribers control over what they receive from you and how often. This level of control – not to mention the two-way relationship you will build as a result – plays a big part in keeping them subscribed to your emails.

You will also be able to gather more first-party data and use it to match their preferences. This data could include their:

• Name
• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Birthday

or anything else that can help your brand to understand them better in order to:

• Send user-tailored content
• Increase email opens and click-throughs
• Improve user-brand engagement
• Reduce unsubscribes
• Build brand loyalty and trust

A preference center is not a legal requirement. However, considering its many benefits, it’s well worth the time and effort to create one for your email marketing program. Read on to learn how you can make the most of preference centers in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

What kind of preferences can you offer to subscribers?

A preference center doesn’t have to be complicated. The simplest preference centers offer two preferences to subscribers: content type and messaging frequency. With this type of preference center, subscribers can choose from different types of email content and also control email frequency and timing. Examples include:

• Weekly or monthly newsletters
• Daily, weekly, or monthly news digests
• One-off event invites
• Regular product updates
• Special occasion deals or discounts
• Occasional surveys
• Occasional referral emails

If you want to create a more comprehensive preference center, you can also provide preferences for interests or topics that appeal to each individual. This is a great way to capture first-party data and use it to segment your subscriber list, create personalized emails, and create dynamic email content.

You also provide specific days as a preference so subscribers can select the days they want to receive emails for their preferred topics.

Why you should create a custom preference center in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

SFMC offers both a profile center and subscription center. A profile center is a page where subscribers can enter or update their personal information. A preference center is where they update their subscription preferences.

You can use the standard preference center in SFMC. However, this version does not include advanced functionalities like:

• Custom branding
• Custom domain
• Trigger a post-unsubscribe survey
• One-click unsubscribe
• Unlimited custom fields
• Add dynamic personalized content

You can leverage all these functionalities with a custom preference center. Customizing your SFMC preference center will help you:

• Keep up with changing customer communication habits and preferences
• Show subscribers that you respect their preferences, which is the key to maintaining a strong relationship with them
• Set expectations and offer improved controls to build trust and increase retention
• Centralize internal governance and improve your team’s efficiency and timeliness

How to create a custom preference center in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

The first step to creating a custom preference center in SFMC is to create a Cloud Page in SFMC. Use the code view in Web Studio → Cloud Pages. All you have to do is to create a landing page which will be the preference center.

Also use the Cloud Page to create sub-pages for:

• Subscription
• Email address confirmation (double opt-in)
• Updating existing subscriptions
• Unsubscribes (opt-out)

To enable the Preference Center app in your SFMC Privacy Center configuration:

• Go to Setup
• In the Quick Find box, enter Profiles
• Select the profile you want to assign to Preference Center
• Under Apps, select Object Settings
• Find Privacy Preference Center
• Set Tab Settings to Default On

To see the preference center in your Privacy Center configuration, edit the profile of your users. To use the preference center, the “ManagePreferenceCenter” user permission is required.

After you enable the Preference Center in SFMC, you can access its dashboard to navigate to features like consent templates, preference forms, and access tokens. You can also publish, unpublish, edit, delete, and create multiple versions of your forms, and gather information on which forms are published, when they were last edited, and who modified them.

In SFMC, you can create self-service forms for your customers to define their communication preferences. And you can do this in two ways:

• Create forms that work with Apex: Create an Apex class in the Preference Center namespace and then use Preference Builder to select form elements to populate onto a blank workspace
• Create forms populated from customizable consent templates: Choose from three template types and build the template based on your data use purpose and required consent channel

For more detailed information about these methods, click here.

Best practices to make the most of your custom preference center in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

In this section, we explore some best practices to improve and optimize your SFMC preference center.

Always include the email frequency option

Give subscribers frequency options for each type of email. This gives them a clear idea of what they are signing up for and what they can expect. The option also allows them to update their subscription.

Make sure to keep your promise. If they opt for a monthly email, don’t spam them with daily alerts or weekly newsletters!

Give the option to “snooze” emails

Giving subscribers a choice to snooze communications can help you retain more of them. They can take a break without completely unsubscribing. And when they are ready to come back, you can send a “welcome back” email to ease them into the regular email send journey. You can also allow them to set a “blackout window”, i.e., a date/time range when they don’t want to receive your messages.

Define a cap on monthly sends

It’s a good idea to set a monthly cap on the number of emails you send, especially if you only send one or two types of commercial emails. The cap will reduce brand fatigue and increase the chances that subscribers will stay subscribed for longer.

Include tracking permission settings

You can show a subscriber’s tracking permission settings on their preference center. This way, they can control whether they want you to track their activity or not.

Give a universal Unsubscribe option

A universal Unsubscribe option makes it easy for people to unsubscribe from all your emails if that’s what they want. It will also help you stay compliant with laws like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

Other good practices to keep in mind when designing your SFMC preference center:

• Highlight your brand with the logo, brand name, social media links, etc.
• Customize the page with the display language and welcome message
• Keep it simple. Don’t overwhelm subscribers but still give them enough choices to control what they get from you
• Consider accessibility requirements
• Make the Unsubscribe option clearly visible
• Create a mobile-friendly version

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed reading this guide as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. A preference center in SFMC is a powerful way to keep your subscribers engaged, interested, and subscribed. So if you haven’t thought about creating one before, we urge you to do so rightaway.

Need more tailored guidance to design your brand’s preference center? Contact Email Uplers!

The post How to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck with Salesforce Marketing Cloud Preference Centers appeared first on Email Uplers.

Table of contents : 

Adding a signature in Outlook 2016-2019 Desktop version

• Formatting the signature in Outlook 2016-2019 desktop version
• Adding an Image to Outlook signature
• Setting Auto Outlook signatures
• How to manage the signatures
• How are HTML email signatures different?

Adding signature in Outlook 365 Web App

• Formatting the signature in Outlook 365 web app
• Adding image to Outlook 365 signature
• Setting Automatic Outlook 365 email signature

Adding Email Signature in Outlook 2010 Version

Setting the Email Signature in Outlook Mobile App

Adding multiple signatures in Outlook

How to make the same signatures for Outlook mobile and desktop versions?

Limitations of email signatures

Email Signature Generator Tools to Create Impeccable Outlook Signatures

Wrapping up

Your email signature works like a digital visiting card you share with the client once they have read till the end. It offers a scaffold to connect with the customers and leave a memorable last impression. Many people overlook the importance of a business email signature and don’t pay enough attention to it. That’s a huge opportunity lost. Therefore, you must pay enough attention to what you include in the email signature and how the reader perceives it. 

Through this article, we shall discuss how to create Outlook signatures correctly in the different versions. We shall also dive deeper into how to add links, images, social media icons, and format the signature for best visual appeal. It will help you go beyond the traditional sign off statements “Best regards”, “Kind regards”, or “Thanks and regards”. These signatures render the perfect closure to your personal as well as professional emails.

Adding a signature in Outlook 2016-2019 Desktop version

To add a Outlook email signature in 2016-2019 Desktop versions, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Go to Outlook’s in-app editor.

2. Click on the search box at the left side of the screen at the top. 
3. Type in “signature”.
4. “Signature” result will appear on the screen. Click on that. 
5. Select the “Signature” option from the dropdown menu. Subsequently, you will be able to create Outlook email signature template using the in-app editor. 
6. Click on the “New” button to prepare a new signature for your email. 
7. Assign a name to the signature. This is especially important if you plan to create multiple signatures.

8. Add the specifications for the signature. 

To create a simple text signature, go to the text field in the signature editor.

1. Type your name, designation, and contact details. 
2. Click “OK” and that’s all. 

Text-based professional signature for Outlook will look like:

Kevin Geroge
Marketing Manager at Email Uplers
1-000-000-000
123, Carlson St., Roswell, GA 34506
www.email.uplers.com

Formatting the Outlook Email Signature

Just like your email designs should follow a visual hierarchy, so should your email signature. You can choose suitable font colors and font sizes based on the importance of that information.

How to change the text color:
Select the default text color and click the dropdown menu. Choose the color of your choice or pick the “More colors” option if you want to set a custom color. 

How to change the text size:
Go to the Font Size dropdown menu after selecting the text. Pick the right size based on the hierarchy. 

How to change the font type:
Select the text and go to the Font type dropdown. Choose the right option according to your brand personality and industry. 

You can go still further and add a hyperlink to the Outlook signature. 
Here’s how:

Select the text to which you wish to add the hyperlink. The text should be in a gray background when selected. Next, click on the link icon at the right side of the toolbar. 
Enter the URL and click on OK. 
Easy, right?

Now, what if you want to make your telephone number clickable? 
Just add the prefix “tel:” to the phone number like “tel:1-000-000-000”.

Brick and mortar business owners can make their local address clickable and redirect the users to Google maps navigation. 
Look for your business on Google Maps and click on the “Directions” button. 
Subsequently, copy the URL from the address box. 

Select the address from the Outlook signature and add the link from Google Maps like you did for the website URL. 
Click OK and you are done. 

Adding an Image to Outlook Signature

Click the cursor where you want to add the image in the signature. 
Go to the image icon at the right hand side of the toolbar.
Upload the image from the computer.

Next comes the resizing. 
Click on the image and drag one of the black squares at the corners of the image. Resize it according to the rest of your email signature.

You can also make the image clickable. Select your image with the cursor and then click on the link icon from the tool strip. 
Add the URL and click on OK. 
You can even add social media icons to boost the brand visibility. Just add the icons as images and drag them at the appropriate position. Select the icon and click the link button from the toolbar. Add the correct link to the icons.

Additional Tips:

The editor’s toolbar allows you to add a table and organize the signature in rows and columns.
However, it can render differently according to the size of the screen. Therefore, keep the signature width under 360px. 
Stick to one font color that matches your branding guidelines.

The font size that you choose for your name and job title should be somewhat bigger than your contact details. Format your name in Bold font type and keep your designation and company name in regular font type to draw more attention to the name. 

Setting Auto Outlook Signatures

There are two options if you want to add an Outlook signature automatically: Whether you want the signature to be displayed in your “New messages” only and/or in your Forward and Reply messages also.

Navigate to the corner at the top-right side of the Outlook editor. Look for 2 dropdown menus — one to set an auto signature for the New messages and another for the Forward/Reply messages.
Every menu will give you a list of all the signatures available.
Select the signature you want to use for your email communications.
Once done, click on “OK” to save the preference. 
To preview the signature, open a new message in the Outlook interface and look for it at the bottom. 

How to manage the signatures?

You can manage the signatures by clicking on the “Signature” button at the top in the message window itself. Choose the signature you want for the email and it’s done. 

That’s about adding plain text email signatures. Just like emails have an HTML version, your signatures can have too. 

How are HTML email signatures different?

Plain text signatures have basic elements listed below:

1. Your name
2. Your designation and company name
3. Contact details
4. Social media links
5. An image

On the other hand, HTML Outlook signatures can have lot many other elements like:

1. YouTube video thumbnail
2. Custom button
3. Banner
4. Call-to-action and links
5. Scheduler
6. Email disclaimer
7. Instagram gallery
8. Quote of the day
9. Green footer
10. Hand signature sign off
11. Online payment button

Adding signature in Outlook 365 Web App

Navigate to the gear icon at the top right corner of Outlook 365. Settings menu will open on the right. Scroll through it and click on “View all Outlook settings”. 

Open the signature editor and select “Compose and reply” from the left sidebar. 

Create the signature by writing the details in the in-app signature editor.
Click on “Save” once done. 

Formatting the Signature in Outlook 365 Web App

Just like Outlook 2016-2019 versions, you can format your signature with the help of the toolbar at the top. It will allow you to set different font color, font size, alignment, and text formatting like bold, italic, and underline. 

Adding a Hyperlink to the Signature

Select the text you wish to add the link to and click on the link icon in the toolbar. 
Insert the URL and it’s done.

Similarly, you can make the telephone number clickable so that the user can directly place a call simply by clicking through. Insert the prefix “tel:” with the phone number like “tel:1-000-000-000”. 

Adding Image to the Outlook 365 signature

Click the image icon in the toolbar and upload an image from the computer. Drag and drop the image into the suitable position. You can even cut and paste the image. 

Try out different image sizes to create the perfect visual appeal in the signature. 

Remember that you will not be able to add an image from any URL in Outlook 365. 

Also, the signature layout might break if you add an image. 

Setting Automatic Outlook 365 Email Signature

Select the two default signature boxes – one for new messages and another for forwards or replies. (They will be checked by default in Outlook)

Click on “Save” and it’s all done. Now, you will be able to see the signature in all your emails. 

You can change the signature whenever you want. 

You can also add your signature to a single email. 

Uncheck both the boxes (for the new and forward or reply emails). 
Then, copy and paste the email signature in the new message window whenever you want to use it.
Outlook 365 allows only one automatic signature in an account. So, you need to copy-paste the signatures manually as and when you want to use them. 

Adding Email Signature in Outlook 2010 Version

Open Microsoft Outlook 2010 and execute the steps below:

1. Click on the “New” button and assign a name to the new signature.  
2. Hit OK
3. Draft the signature in the text box with the help of the tools offered by the editor.
4. Some people even paste the signature in image format but it is not recommended.

To edit a signature, here are the steps:

5. Select the File tab and click on Options from the left side menu.
6. Once the Options window opens, select Mail from the menu. 

7. Under the “Compose messages” option, click on the “Signatures” button.
8. Edit the signature by choosing the signature from the “Select signature to edit” option.

Setting the Email Signature in Outlook Mobile App

Launch the Outlook app on Android or iOS devices. 

Tap on the account image at the top left corner. 

Open Outlook settings by tapping on the gear icon at the bottom left.

Tap on the “Signature” option and open the signature settings.

Create the signature by typing in all the details.
Once done, tap on the checkmark at the top right and complete the set up.

To add a link to the Outlook signature, create the signature in a new message window. 

Type in the message.
Select the text you want to hyperlink and then insert the URL.

Select the entire signature and copy it.
At the top left corner, tap on your account image.
Hit the gear icon and open Outlook settings at the bottom left.
Open the signature settings by tapping on “Signature”.
Paste the signature in the signature text field. 

The signatures in Outlook for Android and iOS work differently. 
On Android, you will not be able to add an image in Outlook email sign. But you will be able to do so in Outlook for iOS.
The latter supports HTML and lets you add images, icons, and buttons to the Outlook signatures. On the other hand, you can have a plain text-based signature with links in Outlook for Android. 

Adding Multiple Signatures in Outlook

Outlook desktop versions allow you to add multiple signatures. Here’s how you can do it.

Creating different email signatures in Outlook 2013, 2016, and 2019 versions

Open the Outlook screen and go to the search box at the top-left side. 
Type in “signature” and click on the “Signature” result shown on the screen. 

Click on Signature from the dropdown menu. It will open the Outlook signature editor. 

You can create multiple signatures by clicking on the “New” button. 
As mentioned earlier, assign logical names so that you know where to add them. 
Click “OK” and then open a new message.
Click on Signatures at the top of the toolbar and pick the signature of your choice. 

Creating different Outlook email signature templates in Outlook 2007 and 2010

Open a new message in Outlook desktop app

Go to the top ribbon and choose “Signature”. Then, select the “Signatures” option. 
You will be able to make multiple email signatures by clicking on the “New” button in the Outlook signature window. Just make sure that you add suitable names so that you know when to use which signature.
Now whenever you open a new message, click on the “Signature” button from the top ribbon and pick the suitable signature from the dropdown menu. 

Creating multiple signatures in Outlook 365

Navigate to the gear icon at the top right corner of Outlook 365. 
Write “signature” in the search box at the top of the Settings panel
Select the “Email signature” result and you will see the signature editor panel. 
Create a “new signature” with the in-app signature editor. 
Go to “Edit signature name” before the signature field and assign the correct name to your signature. 
Click on “Save” to complete the process. 
To create more signatures,click on the “New signature” button.
Repeat the steps 4 to 6 as discussed above and your signatures will be ready.  

Other methods to create multiple signatures in Outlook

Instead of creating the signatures from in-app editors, you can also use other methods discussed below:

1. Using “My templates” option

If you want to make multiple plain text signatures without any images, buttons, or fancy links, you can use the “My templates” option. 

This method includes the steps given below:

1. Open the web app message box of Outlook 365 and click on “New message”.
2. Find the 3 vertical dots at the right end of the toolbar at the bottom and click on it to see a menu.
3. Select “My templates”, the second last option in the list. 
4. You will be able to edit the existing templates or create new templates with the help of the “Add template” button. 
5. Then, you will be able to click on the templates and add them from the message box.
6. If you want to insert an existing signature, go to step 2 and select “Insert signature”. It is the second option in the menu.

2. Using an external document

While you can add a more complex design with this method, it is somewhat difficult to implement and not so effective. 

Here’s how to apply it:

1. Use an HTML editor to prepare multiple signatures. You can even use graphic designing software like Photoshop for this
2. Save the signatures in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. 
3. Whenever you want to add a signature to any email, you can directly copy and paste it from the document. 

3.  Using a signature generator

You can use a tool like HubSpot, Newoldstamp, and Wisestamp to create multiple signatures. 

Outlook mobile does not allow you to create multiple signatures.

How to make the same signatures for Outlook mobile and desktop versions?

If you are using Outlook for Android, you will not be able to create the same signatures for mobile and desktop versions. The reason being that it does not support HTML. 
For Outlook iOS and desktop, you can match the signatures by creating an HTML signature. 

Limitations of Email Signatures

1. Just like HTML emails, HTML signatures will be distorted when forwarded. 

2. As email clients, including Outlook do not allow uploading media queries, you will not be able to create responsive signatures.

Email Signature Generator Tools to Create Impeccable Outlook Signatures

If all these steps discussed above seem too overwhelming for you, you can take the help of free or paid signature generator tools. They are:

1. HubSpot

Besides offering the CRM marketing and sales features, HubSpot also works as an email signature generator. It is suitable for small brands and influencers. 

You need to fill up the information form with all your contact details and links to social media accounts. You will be able to edit colors, fonts, patterns, and other design parameters in the signature according to the company branding guidelines.  

Subsequent forms will let you include a text or picture as a CTA. You will be able to add HubSpot academy certifications too that will help you and your company stand out from the competitors. HubSpot Signature Generator tool is available for free. 
You can add the new signature to Outlook for Windows and Mac by following the steps mentioned below:

1. Navigate to the Home Tab in the Outlook account and select “New Email”.
2. Click on the Message tab.
3. Select Signatures from the “Signature” option in the “Include group” section. 
4. Select the account in which you would like to add the signature from the dropdown menu in the Choose Default Signature section.
5. Click on the “New” button in the “Select Signature to Edit” section and assign a name to your signature. 
6. Paste the HubSpot generated signature in the Edit Signature section.
7. Hit OK and you are done.

Now, let’s understand how you can add the signature to Outlook.com and Outlook on the web. 

1. Once you log in to Outlook on the web, click on the gear icon at the top-right corner.
2. Go to “View all Outlook settings” at the bottom of the column.
3. Select the Compose and Reply option from the Email section.
4. Assign a name to the signature in the Edit Signature name field.
5. Paste the signature for Outlook in the Edit Signature section. 
6. Hit Save.
Easy, right?

2. WiseStamp

WiseStamp is an ideal tool for freelancers and individual senders. It is the easiest to use with free as well as paid features. You get access to more than 50 ready-made templates. Take a look at this screenshot to understand how convenient it is to use this tool. 

You can even autofill the details from LinkedIn. If you want additional features like removal of the watermark, animated images, and premium templates, you can purchase the pro version at USD 3.90 per month billed annually. (Early bird offer at 30% off as seen on 8th August 2022)
They also offer a 14 day money back guarantee in case you do not like the features. 

3. Newoldstamp

If you are a huge corporate or big business, Newoldstamp is the best tool for you. It will allow you to make a visually aesthetic and impactful signature, rich with CTAs, banners, social media badges, and applications. Through this tool, you will be able to streamline brand-consistent email signatures across the entire company. And what’s more? It will allow you to manage all the signatures through a single dashboard.

They offer you a huge range of customizable professional email signature templates that can be integrated in Outlook. FedEx, GoDaddy, Vodafone, and Nestle are some of the brands that rely on Newoldstamp for their signature email marketing.

You can easily add these signatures into an Outlook account or any other email client too. 

The branding plan is available at USD 7 per month. It entails all the basic features of custom signature generation and central signature management. If you are looking for advanced features, you can go for the marketing plan at USD 9 per month.

4. Designhill

Designhill allows you to create an email signature in a minute, and that too a custom email signature. It is compatible with all the popular email clients like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc. Designhill has plans for individuals as well as businesses. The individual plans are suitable for startups, freelancers, or individuals who want to build a great professional identity. 

The business plans are suitable for small businesses, growing businesses, corporates, and enterprises. It also allows you to add addons to the signature. The interactive email signature generator makes your job really easy without any technicalities involved. 

To add the signature to the Outlook client, just follow the steps listed below:

1. Go to your Outlook account. 
2. Hit “File” and go to Options at the top left corner of the screen. 
3. Select “Mail” from that menu.
4. Click on “Signatures” and create or edit the signature.
5. Copy the signature created and paste it in the box. 
6. Save the changes and it’s done

Optionally, you can even copy the source code instead of the entire signature. 

5. Email Signature Rescue

Email Signature Rescue allows you to create customized email signature designs instantly. They have a huge collection of more than 60 pixel-perfect. signature templates. These signatures are premade by reputed agencies. You just need to enter the design code mentioned under the design you like. You will be able to upload the images from your device and add the logos and banners of your choice. It also has image-editing features like resizing, cropping, and circle-cropping. Whether you want to change the font style or size or change the complete design, the online editor of the software will allow you to preview the signature in real-time. As the templates are tested in all major email clients, you can be assured of its renderability and compatibility. The pricing starts at USD 60 per year for 3 users and goes up to USD 240 per year for 20 users. In case you want to add more users, you can do so at USD 12 per user per year. If you are not happy with their features, you can ask for money back in 7 days. Sounds good, right?

Wrapping Up

Creating a signature in different Outlook versions is pretty straightforward. You just need to follow the steps discussed here or take help of the tools. Just remember that you might have to limit your design freedom for signatures due to compatibility issues, but make sure you try to make the most of the features supported in the email clients.

The post Outlook Signatures: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Email Uplers.

For a business, publishing an ebook is a big deal. Among many things (including generating new leads and growing their mailing list), it’s their bid to assert themselves as a figure of authority within their respective domains. Naturally, they like to leave no stone unturned when it comes to the research, design, and development of the same. Every marketer and business owner reading this concurs, I’m sure. But, an ebook, no matter how matchless it is, cannot work any magic unless it reaches the eyes of its intended recipients- your subscribers. And we all know how devilishly tricky that can be. 

Weeks and months of hard work gone in vain, simply because you can’t figure out how to make your readers click on that “Download” button. The primary culprit behind this? An ineffective landing page. How impactful your landing page is directly determines the success of your ebook. If you’ve struggled with this aspect in the past, you’re just at the right place. Today, we are going to dive deep into four splendid ebook landing page examples to help you understand what goes into crafting an ideal specimen.

However, our discussion won’t be simply confined to landing pages. We’ll also be analyzing the emails through which the landing pages were discovered. Excited to see what’s in store? Well, dig right in!

1. Email on Acid

Subject line:  Ebook: “The omnichannel hero’s journey”

If you belong to the email community, there’s an extremely slim chance that you haven’t heard of Email on Acid, that’s just how prominent a voice they are. This reputation and visibility is not built solely on the back of their brilliant content and suite of offerings, but also the immaculate marketing strategies they employ to spread the word of the same. 
Let’s take a look at how they went about promoting their latest ebook.
First, every Email on Acid subscriber received this email.

There are a multitude of reasons which make this email engaging:

• The first thing which catches your eye upon opening the email is the neat and attractive illustration- captivating and intriguing in the same beat. 
• Next, you are greeted by a catchy headline; you’re invested in this email now. You proceed to read the body. 
• The good work of the illustration and the headline is replicated by the email copy. Its tone is warm, conversational, and extremely friendly. What’s more, it has pop-culture references too! 

Through the copy, they gently break to the reader the gist of the ebook. My favorite part about this email? The CTA (call-to-action) button! It’s crisp, definitely not run-of-the-mill, and perfectly in tune with the theme (yes, Star Wars) that defines the illustration and the copy. 

Upon clicking on the CTA, you are led to this landing page.

The title of the ebook serves as the heading of its landing page. A brief subheading offers additional context to the readers. On the left, you can find the ebook’s salient points, reiterated. On the right, there’s a sign-up form which visitors need to fill out in order to access the e-book. The form ticks all the right boxes too, as it has:

• Few data-entry fields (which is a golden rule while crafting sign-up forms. A form with too many fields discourages visitors to no end)
• An opt-in form for those interested in subscribing to their newsletter
• A prominent CTA

When you scroll down, you come across another summary of the ebook, different from the one presented in the email, further nudging you towards downloading the ebook. 

Despite all your encouragement, there’s no absolute guarantee that you’ll be able to convince your reader. You must always keep this in mind. That said, getting them to check out the landing page from the email was no small feat either, and now that they are here, you must capitalize on their eagerness. How can you do that? By showing them previews of other related content resources, much like EoA has done over here. So what if the reader isn’t very interested in what your current ebook has to offer, maybe they will find themselves drawn to some of the topics you’ve published in the past!

2. Litmus

Subject line: Made an email mistake? You’re not alone.

This email lets you experience the power of a good headline in its full glory. One glance at it is enough to keep you glued to this email, isn’t it? Over here, the headline is followed by a concise and effectual copy- it builds upon the idea of its predecessor and helps the reader understand the context of the email, rather unambiguously. Should you choose to scroll any further, you’ll discover a crisp summary of the ebook, followed by a CTA, prompting you to download it.

Clicking on that button will land you over here.

As you can see, this landing page is essentially divided into two columns- the left half gives visitors an executive summary of the ebook (observe how the key takeaways are in bold; it’s an excellent tactic to grab attention), and the right half is the signup form. 

Now, I’m sure you’d have already noticed that this signup form is a lot more elaborate than the one in the previous example? So, is it just as effective? Yes, because Litmus have clearly justified the presence of additional data-entry fields in this form. They are transparent at the outset, clearly stating that they will be utilizing the user’s data to send them personalized content.

What I particularly appreciate about this ebook landing page is the social sharing buttons. Irrespective of which type of content you’re putting out, it is always a good practice to enable your readers to share the same across their social handles. It’s a good way of gaining traction while also attracting news leads simultaneously.

3. Campaign Monitor

Subject line: A Marketer’s Guide to Enterprise Email Marketing Platforms

If you are ever planning on using stock images in your email, you need to take three things into account:

• It should be of high quality
• It should be relevant to the copy
• It should be optimized to prevent the email file size from going overboard

Or, you could just pin this email by Campaign Monitor over here for they have perfectly executed the points mentioned above. As per the copy, the framing and the tone isn’t largely different from the rest of the examples in this list. 

However, what got my attention was this one unique touch they have added- instead of listing out the central themes of the ebook in bullet points, they have compiled a list of questions that are most likely to rent the reader’s mind with respect to their ebook’s topic. All of a sudden, in your mind, it’s not just another ebook, but a literal answer to all of your questions and problems! You wouldn’t think twice before downloading such a resource, would you?

Now, onto the landing page.

Two things about this landing page stand out for me:

• The top of the page contains a visual representation of the ebook. Although the ebook is, basically, a virtual entity, lending a tangible form to it is a rather smart way of encouraging visitors to download it.
• They have mentioned the exact page count of their ebook- it might come across as a trivial detail, but the length of a content resource does play a big role in shaping a reader’s perception. Everyone has different reading appetites- some find solace in poring through 600-800 page long dramas, while others seek respite in byte-sized short stories. Thus, providing transparency regarding the length of the ebook right from the beginning is a pretty great move, in my opinion.

4. Stripo

Subject line: AMP Geeks. Are You Ready to Build Your New Game?

While text-intensive, the email has been punctuated with visual elements at regular intervals to keep it from looking cluttered. What makes this email really persuasive is the inclusion of a proof of concept in it- Stripo don’t just simply go on and on about the learning outcomes of their course, they incentivize prospective candidates by offering a small demo (yes, the GIF) of what one will be able to achieve by the end of this course. 

Clicking on the CTA will lead you to this landing page.

This landing page is extremely pleasing to look at- besides being minimalistic, the visual cues are right on point. They, on their own, sufficiently convey the landing page’s context to the visitors. Here, Stripo has made it quite convenient for visitors to obtain the resource; all they have to do is provide their work email. 

The landing page copy is succinct and to-the-point, piquing their curiosity by revealing the ebook’s core themes. To cap things off, the landing page also directs visitors to reading material for greater clarity. All in all, it has all the trappings to beget a entry into the landing page hall of fame.

Wrapping It Up

Your notebooks must be full from all the insights these stunning examples had to offer, right? But, the exciting part begins now- putting them into action! I hope that the landing pages you will create henceforth will have no trouble fetching you the downloads you desire. 

Need help with designing and coding landing pages that engage and convert? Email Uplers can help.

The post 4 Ebook Landing Page Inspirations That Will Help You Amplify Your Downloads! appeared first on Email Uplers.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What is an HTML email link?

How to create an HTML mailto link in email?

How to make the most of HTML Email Links?

Advantages of Using HTML Email Links

Use Case of Mailto Links

Disadvantages of Including Email Links

How to Overcome The Challenges of Mailto Links?

Wrapping up

Introduction

HTML emails, particularly marketing or sales emails, are bound to have links to drive website visits, bring people to shop from your online store, or get downloads for your content resources. These links give purpose to your emails and contribute to the conversion rate, depending on the campaign objective. 

Through this article, we will talk about a special type of email links known as HTML links. 

So, what is an HTML email link?

HTML email links allow you to send a pre-written email or pre-filled email to the recipients. The links open the user’s email client and draft an email to the concerned person. 

How to create an HTML mailto link in email?

Making HTML links in email consists of the steps given below:

1. Go to the HTML file and select the text where you want to insert the email link. 

2. Write “<a href=” to add a link to the HTML code. 

3. Insert the “mailto:” tag to send the link to an email address. Place the closing tag. 

The mailto HTML code will look something like this:

<a href=mailto:“disha@uplers.com”>Reach out to us</a>

If you want to add multiple email addresses, separate the email addresses with commas. It will look like: 

<a href=mailto:“disha@uplers.com,kevin@uplers.com”>Reach out to us</a>

How to Make the Most of Mailto HTML Email Links

Adding a pre-composed message, cc, bcc, subject line, and body can make the experience smoother for the users and increase the likelihood of receiving emails. Here’s how you can add all these additional fields to the code of HTML links in email.

1. If you want to add additional fields, add the question mark symbol – ? to separate each segment. 

2. To add a CC, add “cc=” before the email address or addresses separated by commas. 
So, the final code will look like: 
<a href=mailto:“disha@uplers.com?cc=”kevin@uplers.com”>Reach out to us</a>

3. For including a BCC, add “bcc=” before the email address or addresses separated by commas.
The final code will look like:
<a href=mailto:“disha@uplers.com?bcc=”kevin@uplers.com”>Reach out to us</a>

4. You can add the subject line by writing “subject=” followed by the subject line text. In place of spaces, you should use “%20”. 
The code will look like:
<a
href=mailto:“disha@uplers.com?bcc=”kevin@uplers.com?subject=Can%20you%20help%20”>Reach out to us</a>

5. Use “body=” to include message-body. Separate the words with %20 instead of spaces. 
The code will be:

<a
href=mailto:“disha@uplers.com?bcc=”kevin@uplers.com?subject=Can%20you%20help%20”?body=I%20am%20looking%20for%20a%20dedicated%20resource%20to%20help%20me%20during%20the%20Holidays>Reach out to us</a>

Advantages of Using Mailto HTML Email Links

HTML links in email facilitate direct communication with clients and help deliver the message to the right professional. If you use all the above mentioned fields correctly, you can create a readymade template and encourage the recipients to get in touch with you. According to the purpose of the email, you can use different email addresses in the HTML email links. 
For instance: General information, concerns related to delivery, technical help, returns or refund inquiries — It is a great idea to have specific links for each of these reasons. 

Another advantage of having such direct links is that it reduces the possibility of emails being sent to wrong email addresses that bounce. You can add filters to your inboxes to automatically organize the emails in the right folders. With prefilled subject lines, you can even sort out the folders by subject lines.

Use Case of Mailto Links

When you are sending emails to people or subscribers who know you well, mailto links work better. You can conveniently use HTML links in email when the user base is using a default email client that has no compatibility issues. 

Disadvantages of Including Email Links

• The main disadvantage of using email links is that it can increase spam messages. As email links provide an easy way to get in touch with you, some users take undue advantage of this function and send unsolicited emails. 
• Sometimes, it is possible that the email links are blocked in the user’s email client and they see a message as shown below:

• Gmail App for iOS does not support ?Subject or ?Body included in the mailto links. 
• Mailto links are not trackable.

How to Overcome The Challenges of Mailto Links?

To make the most of the href mailto links, you can follow the tips below. 

1. Allow only verified users to send messages to you. 

2. Add filters to send the messages that contain links, certain keywords, or attachments to the junk folder. Your inbox already has a spam or junk mail filter and you can get these messages deleted automatically. 

3. CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) is the most effective function that helps to prevent spam. Make it compulsory for users to complete the captcha before they can email you. It is also possible to set definite time limits on the email requests so that you don’t receive too many emails in quick succession. 

4. Rather than including a mailto link, let the users reply to you directly. Write something like: “Hit reply and we would love to help you out”.

5. For Outlook and Gmail, here are the workarounds that will help you unblock the mailto links. 
Gmail:

• Go to the cog icon at the upper right corner of the Gmail account, below your name. 
• Navigate to the General tab.
• Under Images, select the first option and deselect the second one. 

(Note: This is helpful if you have mailto link on an image.)

Outlook:

Click on the Settings icon at the upper right of the menu bar at the top.

Go to Junk Email.

Navigate to the subheading Filters at the bottom of the pane. 

Deselect the second option and unblock attachments, pictures, and links. 

As a sender, you can include these tips in your emails too if you plan to include mailto links.

Wrapping Up

That’s one more thing added to your email sending checklist. But if you feel that contact forms could get a bit complicated to incorporate and your subscribers use a supportive email client like Gmail, mailto links are a good alternative. Moreover, if you trust the recipients and have a strong rapport with them, go for mailto email links.

The post Best Practices for Creating HTML Links With Advantages and Disadvantages appeared first on Email Uplers.

For every campaign that email marketers roll out, a considerable time is spent selecting and finalizing the design for the same. And that’s perfectly warranted. After all, design, in many ways, is pretty much the life of your campaigns. You could fill up your emails with all the elusive information and products or services you like but it won’t attract any attention unless its design is upto the mark. In this blog, we talk about one design trend which is well-adored by marketers and audiences alike- monochrome. In monochromatic design, designers use a color scheme that revolves around different tones and shades of one base color.

With the rise of minimalism, more and more brands seem to be turning to monochrome design palettes while developing their assets. It helps them achieve an unfussy and sophisticated look, while simultaneously inviting greater engagement from their readers. Thinking of incorporating monochrome design into your own emails but don’t know how to go about it? Well, we’ve got you covered. In today’s blog, we share with you a bevy of stunning monochrome email inspirations that will surely fill you with more than enough ideas for your future campaigns! Make sure you have your email scrapbook handy because you’re surely going to want to pin these. 

Fenty Beauty

Subject line: NEW Fat Water Milky Toner Essence quenches thirsty a** skin

Lining your email’s color palette with that of your products is a great tactical move and that’s precisely what Fenty Beauty have done over here. As soon as the reader opens the email, the hero section shows them the product. Here, one gains familiarity with various aspects of its appearance- shape, size, and most importantly, color. Now, by using a similar shade for the email’s color palette what Fenty Beauty essentially does is keep this familiarity intact for the readers. This, in turn, goes a long way towards keeping the recipients’ attention in place, ultimately nudging them towards taking an action. 

Another aspect that we’d also like to discuss here is the presentation of text in this email. Though scarce, they’ve been set up in all caps to ensure that whatever information they’re trying to convey gets across to the reader loud, and clear. 

Hoefler and Co.

Subject line: Fonts for Tight Tracking

A single glance at Hoefler and Co.’s email over here is enough to tell you that they are absolutely on top of their email design game. I mean, you wouldn’t expect anything less from a font design studio, wouldn’t you? Here, they are talking about “Choosing Fonts for Tight Tracking” and so captivating is the design that the reader will find it incredibly tough to bounce from the email before having scrolled down right to the very end. 

The hallmark of this design is, of course, the purple-shaded monochrome. Denoting royalty and sophistication, the use of purple here helps the brand establish itself as a figure of authority. Taking into account the fact that the presence of darker shade could potentially be stress-inducing, Hoefler and Co. have left the bottom half of this email completely white to balance things out. Clever email design at its peak, really.

The Sill

Subject line: Meet our NEW fiberglass planter

One of the best things about using monochrome design is that it allows your email’s hero to shine ceaselessly. For instance, take a look at this email by The Sill. The hero in question here is their new Column Planter. By placing it against a monochromatic background, The Sill ensures that the subscribers’ eyes remain rooted (that was very much intended, yes) to the product, thanks to lack of interruptions in the backdrop. 

To facilitate greater readability, they have chosen black as the font color. Also notice how the CTA button has been, on design, allocated a color which is similar to the backdrop yet visibly distinct. This has been done to make sure that readers are able to spot it with ease. A pretty smart move, if you ask me.

Cocojune

Subject line: Ready to set sale with us?

This email from Cocojune is a visual delight to behold. The monochromatic pink background exudes a languid charm and is ably complemented by the playful blue font that occupies the foreground. What we particularly like in this example is the manner in which the products have been displayed- they’ve been fitted into circular and rectangular-like frames such that they can easily attract the reader’s eyeballs whilst not blocking the delightful backdrop simultaneously.

Boxed

Subject line: Save $15 when you join our special perks program!

Now, many email marketers out there are a tad skeptical when it comes to embracing a monochrome design for they think it renders the emails rather monotonous. To them, I present this delightful example by Boxed. To prevent your monochrome designs from appearing wearisome, you can do what Boxed has done over here- implement varying shades of a monochrome color palette in your email. And, lo and behold, your outcome becomes visually refreshing! To get the best of this arrangement, I suggest that you assign a different messaging to each shade in your email. This way you’ll be able to offer a lot of clarity to your readers, and goes without saying that always causes them to warm up to your brand.

A24

Subject line: What’s up, Doc?

Another great way of electrifying your monochromatic layouts is by punctuating them with a dynamic element. Don’t get what I’m talking about? Take a look at this A24 email. The animated GIF in the hero section greatly enhances its appeal, wouldn’t you agree? 

If in the past you have had no success in making people take note of your movie recommendations, maybe it’s about time you took a leaf from A24’s gorgeous monochromatic book. 

Comme Si

Subject line: Style Inspiration: Dress socks

Every now and then you’ll find yourself drafting an email which will be a little lengthier than the rest. And then, this question will rent your mind- “Will I be able to hold my audience’s attention?”

I’ll be honest- it’s tricky. Even when your content is completely fluff-free. But, your job becomes much easier when your email design is monochromatic. This email from Comme Si is a glowing testimony to that. Though it is rather lengthy, you find yourself scrolling, rather effortlessly, through its entirety, don’t you? The credit for that, in large, goes to the monochromatic backdrop which is essentially the spine of this email. One more thing we really appreciate about this display is its product display frames. 

Notice how the backdrops in these frames have been sensibly chosen to complement the monochrome palette which defines the email. Might seem like a small detail but ends up making a whole world of difference to the eventual output. 

Eight Sleep

Subject line: Announcing NEW Smart Temp 2.0

If your wardrobe is stacked with garments of every shade black (just like mine), this email from Eight Sleep might just incentivize you to stack it further in the same direction. If you’re having a hard time getting over that sleek and suave black monochromatic background, trust me, you’re not all alone. What really lets the monochromatic design shine here, though, is Eight Sleep’s minimalistic approach to things. Had they not been economical with their copy and prioritized white space, you and I wouldn’t have had the same amount of appreciation for this email.

Food 52

Subject line: A must-have for ice-cold ice cream on the go.

Before I delve deep into this example, let me ask you a question. In this email, had Food 52 used a warmer shade- say yellow, red, or orange- compared to the blue they have, would this email have had the same effect on you? Yes, it might have still looked pretty, but would it have left the same impact? Perhaps not, right? This is exactly the point I aim to discuss with this example. With monochromatic designs, you need to be absolutely sure that your color is in sync with the overall “mood” of your message. Unlike polychromatic palettes, you don’t have the liberty to hop from one color to another. Here, whichever color you finalize will be responsible for binding all the elements in the email. Hence, the decision becomes that much more critical. 

Finn

Subject line: Save 20% on a Healthier Tummy

Finn’s email over here ranks easily among the best monochromatic email inspirations out there. However, there are two things that I’d like to particularly highlight. The first thing are the icons. See how they belong to the same palette as the one making up the monochromatic background? This is a golden rule to keep in mind while designing icons, for it helps render a great deal of visual consistency to the email. The second thing is the color of the CTA button. I love the fact that it’s the same shade as that of the product displayed- an excellent instance of subliminal messaging. 

Wrapping It Up

I hope that the examples shared above have provided you with enough fodder to give shape to your own monochromatic designs. Don’t worry if it takes a few tries to wrap your head around the nuances of it; it’s completely normal. But once you get going, trust me, there’s no looking back!

The post 10 Monochrome Email Inspirations You Ought To Add To Your Email Lookbook! appeared first on Email Uplers.

Post covid, as the world moves towards digitalization at a turbo speed, people are showing their reliance on eCommerce mediums more than ever. Salesforce stated that the unique visitor count on eCommerce sites rose by 43% in the year 2020 alone. In 2021, more than 2 billion people bought goods and services online. As predicted for 2023, the world will see digital sales accounting for up to 22% of all retail sales worldwide.

Considering the huge and increasing customer base of eCommerce platforms, the Salesforce Commerce Cloud is undoubtedly the best choice to create a unified experience. It can help eCommerce businesses, small and big, strategize and create unique experiences for their customer.

In this article, we’ll cover Salesforce Commerce Cloud and how it can help your eCommerce business grow.

What is Salesforce Commerce Cloud?

The Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based eCommerce platform that proposes a one-stop solution for eCommerce businesses. It offers various out-of-the-box tools and consumer and seller portals along with numerous other B2B and B2C features to build your eCommerce business.

It helps you create a unique and smooth device-friendly shopping experience, dashboards for your business metrics, and streamlines the whole eCommerce process. In June 2021, Salesforce released its full on-platform version with B2B2C Cloud, i.e., B2B and B2C both.

Primary Features of Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Commerce Cloud has several robust features for managing and growing your eCommerce business. Moreover, it is an integral part of Salesforce Digital 360, a Salesforce platform that provides a medium to utilize digital channels for eCommerce selling and engaging with customers. 

Salesforce Digital 360 hosts some primary components of Commerce Cloud. A few of them are:

1. Commerce portals: Build quality relations with your customer base by delivering content, introducing loyalty benefits, account management, etc.
2. Order Management: This offers a robust way to manage and deliver customer orders, automating the process as much as possible and unifying the customer experience.
3. Salesforce architecture: Allows you to build eCommerce sites using pre-built frameworks, technologies, and Salesforce integrations.

What businesses use the Commerce Cloud?

Commerce Cloud is specifically designed for B2B and B2C companies. 

B2B (Business to Business)

The B2B (Business to Business) Commerce Cloud strategizes the eCommerce experience for B2B needs. These are generally other companies and organizations buying in bulk. The B2B cloud helps provide these businesses with a premium experience and onboarding. 

As it is the product of Demandware, the B2B Lightning Cloud has the advantage of smoothness and speed. It gives you the power to configure the whole UI within clicks. The main target of this application is small eCommerce businesses looking to build their eCommerce site and business from scratch.

If you already have a website you built on older versions of Salesforce, you can still use B2B Classic mode in Salesforce. However, the new lightning experience is far better and easy to use.

B2C (Business to Consumer)

The B2C (Business to consumer) Commerce Cloud is the product of CloudCraze. It is for brands that deal with many retail shoppers and guest users worldwide. It helps eCommerce brands deliver a smooth customer experience and dedicated metrics to strategize further selling for new and returning customers.

The B2C Cloud allows retail businesses to create and modify their unique platform-agnostic storefronts. The main focus goes towards Salesforce mobile payments with total customization of payment options, catalogs, order management, and many more.

This application is perfect for your business if you have a high volume and low price eCommerce business model.
The dashboard feature of Commerce Cloud helps view past metrics and future predictions in a pictorial form. This makes it easy for eCommerce businesses to refactor their business model and take further steps.

In short, the Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the perfect tool for B2B and B2C eCommerce businesses.

How can Commerce Cloud help your business create a Unified Experience?

Easy Website Creation

The Storefront Reference Architecture provided by Commerce Cloud helps you build a great eCommerce website for your business. The SRA comes with pre-designed wireframes that make web development much faster.

If your team lacks developers, you can also use pre-built templates, APIs, and other tools within the Commerce Cloud to kickstart your eCommerce website.

Personalized Customer Experience

People love personalization. Commerce Cloud gives your business an excellent customer-focused solution. You can use it to analyze and remember each user’s choices and details and provide them with a personalized shopping experience.

You get favorable insights about your customers and the store presented in pictorial dashboards. You can measure almost everything, from order history to customer behavior.

Power of AI

Data is the biggest asset of the 21st century. As an eCommerce business, you can’t analyze vast data manually. Salesforce Commerce Cloud covers you by providing the Einstein AI:
1. Personalized suggestions for returning users
2. Analysis of user behavior
3. Smart search suggestion and experience by Einstein Search Dictionary and Einstein Search Recommendations, respectively.
4. Third-party app elimination

Scalability

Be it a small eCommerce business or a business with millions of users; everyone wants to scale. You need to sell and grow simultaneously to survive in the market. Commerce Cloud offers scalability for your business and operational tools and benefits to manage traffic and increase customer base.

You need to set metrics as you scale, and the Commerce Cloud has many integrations at the platform level that adapt to your business modifications and growth.

Marketing Partner

Salesforce Commerce Cloud proves to be your end-to-end marketing ally. Many businesses use different tools for different purposes, say Mailchimp for email campaigns and Google Analytics for metrics. The Commerce Cloud gives you all in one place.

You can create and run easy campaigns, identify leads, launch promo codes, follow conversions, etc. You can also perform content management, i.e., create, edit, and deliver content over the site.

Mobile optimization

Every desk may not have a laptop or desktop, but every palm has a smartphone. Most online customers shop through mobile, and it is super important to design a mobile-friendly interface. Compromising with mobile optimization may harm your business in unforeseen ways.

Salesforce Commerce Clouds works with a mobile-first approach and ensures a great mobile-friendly experience for your customers.

Commerce Cloud Endless Aisle

A smooth payment process is the key to your customer’s experience and business profits. The Commerce Cloud Endless Aisle serves as a smooth way to make purchases online and speed up the after-payment process.

You get a clear view of every individual customer process, i.e., order fulfilment, cancellation, returns, etc. Moreover, you also get actionable options over out-of-stock or unavailable products. This helps customers know the stock metric and reduce their walkover from the website. 

Conclusion

Merging your eCommerce business with Salesforce Commerce Cloud can give you endless benefits on a single platform. The key advantages of using the commerce cloud are scalability, unified commerce, and mobile optimization.

With Commerce Cloud as your eCommerce business handler, you can generate more sales, drive traffic, and deliver impeccable eCommerce experiences to your new and returning customers. The best part is: that it is Software as a Service that works on instant real-time metrics to analyze and boost your eCommerce business.

Among the countless competitors, your eCommerce business can stand tall by automating and optimizing eCommerce processes with the Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Need help with managing your Salesforce platform? You can hire our certified offshore Salesforce Admins to work as your extended team!

The post How eCommerce businesses can use Commerce Cloud to create unified experiences across channels appeared first on Email Uplers.