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Perfect Subject Lines for your Emails.

February 18, 2008

Even though I don't write much copy, I love the blog Copyblogger.com. They posted a great trick when you are stumped for a blog post headline, which I think works just as well for subject lines: The Cosmo Headline Technique

Here's their example...

Cosmo Headline, "The 22 Best Relationship Tips Ever", becomes "My 22 Best Design Tips Ever".

Get the picture?

Anyway, they just released the results of the Details Magazine Headline Remix.

A fun read and a great blog. Kudos.

Comments (0) | Posted by AlexWilliams at 8:02 PM | Permalink

This email is from the "Webmaster", really?

February 17, 2008

I think it is time to put an end to email campaigns being sent from the "webmaster@" email address. There are more reasons not to do this than I care to list here today. Same goes for info@, no-reply@, etc...

Plus, most people think a webmaster is like that SNL skit "Nick Burns, your Company's Computer Guy." This is who you want your readers thinking is running the email marketing program?

Here are 2 reasons to change this:

1. Branding
In email clients like AOL, that don't show the masked "From" name, this is the first thing a subscriber sees.
Volvo does a good job with this: volvo@volvocars._.com.

2. Calling out Content
If you have a specific segment, you can use this space to call out "specials" or "events". This can help get an open just as much as a subject line. Some I see in my inbox today are: dailydeals@, specials@, events@,

Little things like this matter.

Comments (0) | Posted by AlexWilliams at 1:54 PM | Permalink

Dedicated IP or not a dedicated IP

February 14, 2008

We have all been at the EEC conference this last week listening to some of the top minds in email. One question that has come up a number of times over the years is whether or not you should have a dedicated IP when sending email. MarketingSherpa recently released a new paper Top 12 Email Newsletter Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes. In this report Mistake #7: Deliverability: Content, Formatting & Lack of Self-Advocacy was to insist a dedicated IP from your ESP. This sounds great in theory, but not in practice.

Deliverability relies on a number of factors and one of them is volume. Low volume and/or sporadic volume hampers your deliverability dramatically. Since many ISPs base their blocks and temporary deferrals on complaint rate, your low volume and inconsistency of sending, albeit, dedicated could be one of the worst things you could do. All of those other senders might actually help your deliverability as long as your ESP employs best practices. So before you "insist" on a dedicated IP like MarketingSherpa says, ask your ESP if it would benefit you. Our job is to provide you with the best solution to get your email to the inbox.

Comments (1) | Posted by Jeff at 1:47 PM | Permalink

Email Evolution: San Diego here we come.

February 11, 2008

We are headed to San Diego for the eec's Email Evolution Conference. The eROI crew will be there in full force, so make sure to say hello if you see us.

Also, eROI's Dylan Boyd will be sitting on a panel with fellow email marketing bloggers Tamara Gielen of BeRelevant, Chad White of The Retail Email Blog/EEC Blog and Maddy Hubbard of Blue Hornet. They'll be talking about all aspects of blogging.

For those of you who won't be there, I will be blogging about the panel session from the show. Visit www.theemailwars.com on Feb. 13 in the morning to see the play-by-play.

Comments (0) | Posted by AlexWilliams at 12:47 PM | Permalink

Wall Street Journal gets Gmail'd

February 8, 2008

Supersize this Image Here is a good visual example of what getting Gmail'd is all about. On the left is the WSJ email in Gmail, on the right the Webpage version of how they want it to look.

After reviewing the code, we noticed that the bgcolor code is missing the "#" (bgcolor="336699" should be bgcolor="#336699") in the banner, headline and content boxes where there are issues.

Some email clients/browsers will show the bgcolor without the "#" in the code, Gmail won't.

Here at eROI, we use the Rendering tools provided by Return Path, to catch these things, a real lifesaver.

For more info on coding email for Gmail, check out the Gmail page at the Email Standars Project. Hopefully Google is listening.

San Diego here we come!

Comments (0) | Posted by AlexWilliams at 1:34 PM | Permalink

What topics do you want to hear about?

February 5, 2008

I have been invited to speak at a conference, basically to reprise a previous speech I had done on the "next phase of email marketing." So now that that speech is a year old, what is the next next phase?

It is tough to speak to a room of 100+ people on email marketing strategies. You don't always have a group with the same skill set & knowledge, which can be a challenge. I always try to hopefully give someone 1 or 2 things they can takeaway and implement with success to their programs.

So, if you have suggestions as to what topics YOU would want to hear about in '08, please comment below.

Thanks!

Comments (2) | Posted by AlexWilliams at 8:01 AM | Permalink