Delivra Dishin’ Out Tinderbox

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:30:15 +0000

Every now and then, I take a blog post and introduce our readers to a new technology or something I find valuable in my day-to-day marketing work here at Delivra. I’d like to tell you about a brand new startup application called Tinderbox.

TinderBox is a web-based application that makes it easy for individuals and teams to create, manage, deliver, and track interactive business proposals. TinderBox includes a library where organizations can store all of their proposal building content including templates, pictures, and video. The library and proposal editor allow for quick, elegant, and consistent proposals or business communications. Finished proposals can be securely sent and tracked delivering back helpful information on whether it has been opened, accepted, or rejected.

Now you might wonder why I am so excited about a proposal system. It’s pretty simple actually, with Tinderbox I am able to brand online web-based proposals that are consistent with my messaging, but also are personalized to the prospect and the account manager. Just like in email, follow up and personalization are two powerful tools that make this application really unique. Not to mention the tracking on the back-end once it goes out!

Can you imagine creating, sending, and tracking all within an application where you can easily template out the messaging and brand. If you are a marketer, make sure your sales team knows about Tinderbox and if you are the owner of a company, what better (and more innovative) method than an online proposal to your prospective clients. It makes my job a whole lot easier! Our brand stays consistent and I am not required to touch every document that comes through. Want to learn more? Click here today!

Carissa Newton | Marketing

Make HTML Work for Your Emails

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:16:03 +0000

When working with HTML in emails it is very important to know what works and doesn’t work. Below are some tips that can help make sure everything is readable and works well in different email clients.

1. Maximum recommended mailing “weight” is 50kb, which includes the actual HTML document (10kb or less is ideal) to be delivered and all referenced images (40kb or less). Minimize mailing weight as much as possible through image optimization, markup refinement, the removal of all embedded comments and indentation, etc.

2. Layouts should not exceed a web-standard 600-pixel width limit. Layouts should accommodate the resizing of copy by recipients changing their default font sizes.

3. Do not rely on BODY attributes (i.e. – background image, background color, text color, link color, etc.) or markup present in the HEAD of HTML documents, as web-based clients tend to filter out such layout cues prior to final presentation.

4. Do not use any form of stylesheets, whether it be in the HEAD tag (e.g. – CSS) or inline stylesheets.

5. JavaScript should be avoided as many email clients filter it out.

6. Avoid reliance upon the background image attribute. Any kind of background image whether it be in , , or

may not render properly in all email clients.

7. Avoid using Image Maps. Many email clients strip out all Image Maps.

For more tips on how to improve your emails, click here for some from our design experts.

These tips are just a taste of the knowledge of email that Delivra has. Contact Delivra today and be in the hands of email experts to make sure your mailings look great and get out the door.

Patrick Love | Marketing

Email Marketing + Video = Success

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:30:40 +0000

The landscape of email marketing is constantly changing. This has caused a need for shifting tactics through the years in order to attract email recipients. Video marketing has become an important addition to the email marketing world. It provides a new way to engage people in a fast and efficient manner. Instead of having to scroll through pages of text when opening an email, a recipient can watch a short video that engages and impresses them in a small amount of time.

These videos can also provide your company with a slick and professional interface to send to your recipients. Making and sending out quality videos can help the customers relate and put a “face” to your company. By sending out videos, you will set yourself apart from the competition and (if the video is done well) look like an expert in your field.

There is a reason why YouTube is one of the top viewed sites on the web, and it is because people enjoy watching and sharing videos. Some of the most forwarded email and retweeted lines on twitter are links to online videos.

The key to getting the most out of your online videos is being able to track them. This is where using a video hosting site is key. With the partnership between Cantaloupe.tv and Delivra, tracking your videos and implementing them is a breeze. With VideoHere, marketers can add and manage their videos along with being able to track who watched them and for how long. Also, with the use of Cantaloupe’s Backlight customers can not only embed their videos in their email campaigns, but also distribute videos online with ease. In fact, Cantaloupe.tv’s new Video Whitepaper can show you how to raise click-through rates for your marketing campaign by 2-3x.

Last, but not least, video is currently one of the richest ways to improve your SEO results. Video ranks higher in Google search than any other content, so if you are an organization wanting to improve your web presence, incorporating video into your marketing strategy is sure to improve where you show up in search. Join Cantaloupe for their upcoming Webinar to learn more about how video and SEO work so well together!

Why not incorporate the popularity and professionalism of online video combined with the ease of use of VideoHere that Delivra can provide. Be on the forefront of marketing and start adding videos to your campaign and contact us today at 317-915-9400 or at info@delivra.com.

Patrick Love | Marketing

Delivra Announces Two Extreme Email Makeover Winners

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:30:51 +0000

For the past month, we’ve been running our first ever Extreme Email Makeover Contest. Well, today is the day that the winner is finally announced; actually, because of such a great lineup of entries, Delivra has chosen to award two participants an extreme email makeover. So, this is the day the winners are announced.

The winners of the Extreme Email Makeover Contest are…Keeping Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. and Mainstyle Flooring.

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful is the Delivra client winner of the contest. KIB is a non-profit organization that supports an average of 500 community improvement projects with 30,000 volunteers. According to the KIB website, “since 1995, KIB has helped its neighbors plant more then 14,000 trees, and has been supported by more than one thousand individual donors toward these efforts.” KIB entered the Extreme Email Makeover Contest in order to improve their current email template, stating that their current one is “serviceable, and we haven’t changed it in years.”

Mainstyle Flooring is the non-client winner of the Extreme Email Makeover Contest. Mainstyle Flooring is a small, locally owned flooring company. Mainstyle Flooring is determined to offer great service to their customers and is always striving to exceed their expectations. Mainstyle Flooring entered the Extreme Email Makeover in hopes of receiving help to initiate their email marketing efforts.

Delivra is excited to award each of these winners an Extreme Email Makeover and improve their email marketing efforts. Stay tuned to the Delivra blog because both winners will be showcased in a case study. Also, for those participants that didn’t win or for those of you who didn’t get a chance to enter the contest, don’t worry – Delivra plans to run more contests! The best way to stay current with Delivra news is to read the Delivra blog or to follow the Delivra Twitter account: @Delivra.

Lavon Temple | Marketing

Keep Customers Clicking

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:15:37 +0000

Click through rates have always been an essential part of the email marketing process. They help to let you know if your recipients are engaged and interested in what you are sending. They also let you know if your recipients are reading your emails. So it is essential to make sure to know how to improve your click through rates. Here are a few tips that I have found that help to improve click through rates.

Make sure your links to other pages are clear. It is important to differentiate them from the rest of the text on the page. That way the user can easily find them to click them. One easy way to do this is use the words “Click here.”
Engage the user immediately. Similar to a newspaper, an email should have the important information at the beginning. The call to action to click should come at the beginning of the message before the user would have to scroll down the page.
Use multiple links. Instead of just having one link toward the beginning of the message, space them out throughout the email. More links will always give you more opportunities to engage the user. Make sure they are titled a little differently every time in order to attract different users and not bug the readers with the same words.
Use video links. The popularity of sites like YouTube and Hulu have proved that online video has become very popular. It is easy to entice people with a link to a short video and they have been proven to improve click through rates.
Create a clean email layout. The layout of the email itself has to be simple and easily readable. It will be much harder for users to find links if the page sent to them is cluttered with images and designs. This is another case of simpler is better.

Want to learn more about email marketing and how we can help you? Contact us today at 317-915-9400 or click here.

Patrick Love | Marketing

Keep Them Reading!

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:30:25 +0000

It is important to stand out and grab viewers when sending out email. BtoB Magazine recently released an article on a research study by Salted Services explaining how fast users can delete email and how a good email marketing campaign can put a stop to this. It states that more than 50% of email recipients delete messages within two seconds, but when using a top email marketer 77% of recipients are spending more than 10 seconds reading an email. Click here to read the article and find out ways to improve your own email campaign!

Patrick Love | Marketing

You might need an email makeover if…

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:30:33 +0000

For those of us that have not been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably witnessed the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, where Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White (my personal favorite), and Larry the Cable Guy put on a comedy act that has entertained the masses. One of the more infamous segments of their act is the “You might be a redneck if…” piece.

If you have, you’ll recognize my spin off: You might need an email makeover if…

You do not have a strong call to action in the email telling your readers the next step you’d like them to take. A strong call to action should be placed in the email subject line that also shows up in the preview pane. In the content of the email, there should also be a hyperlink to the call of action.
You are using too many pictures and not enough text. Sometimes all your pictures won’t load and you want to make sure people aren’t losing the message because they can’t see all of it. Put enough words in your content so that people can understand the message without the pictures!
You haven’t considered how it looks on mobile devices. Many people are checking their email on mobile devices, so shouldn’t you be considering how your emails look to them?
You haven’t inserted social media links into your email marketing campaign. So many people are involved in the social media world, you want to make sure you give them the opportunity to share your emails or parts of your emails to their followers and friends.

So, I have to ask…are you guilty of making some of these email marketing mistakes? If so, DON’T PANIC! Delivra can help!

Lucky for you, Delivra has launched its first ever Extreme Email Makeover Contest and you still have time to participate because the contest doesn’t close until July 31st. That gives you plenty of time to upload your email designs.

Don’t forget what you could win! If the winner is a current client of Delivra, they will receive a custom made, sophisticated email template placed into their established account for use in future mailings. If the winner is not a Delivra client, they will receive one custom designed email template, one hour of email strategy consultation, access to Delivra 101 and 201, and a 90 day trial account.

So, don’t be embarrassed if you have a terrible email design, enter it in the Delivra Extreme Email Makeover Contest and save yourself!

Lavon Temple | Marketing

Should my e-mail design match my Web site?

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:30:10 +0000

It’s very important to use design elements – such as color, art, logos, etc. – to make visual connection between your Web site and your e-mail. When you sign up e-mail list members on your Web site, you want the e-mail to be an extension of the site that your customers recognize. If there is a disconnect because the e-mail doesn’t look like the Web site, your subscribers may think your e-mail is spam.

Conversely, when you send out e-mails with a call to action that takes recipients back to a landing page, you don’t want to confuse those readers by sending them to a Web site that doesn’t look like the company you portray in your e-mail.

To read more of the BtoB Magazine article, Should my e-mail design match my Web site?, click here!

If you could use some guidance in figuring out the best way to make your e-mail design look more like your Web site, then call Delivra today at 866-915-9465 . We’re here to help and look forward to assisting you in your email marketing efforts!

Carissa Newton | Director of Marketing

Delivra to Provide Email Marketing Services to Professional Conventions & Meetings

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:30:44 +0000

In yesterday’s blog post, we introduced the non-profit winner of the Infuse Initiative business grant. Today, we’re going to introduce this year’s small business winner – Professional Conventions & Meetings (ProCaM).

ProCaM is a meeting and event planning and management company. Working locally, nationally and internationally, they specialize in corporate meetings, sales incentive trips, educational seminars and training events, association and fraternal conventions, trade shows, government meetings, special events and motor sports hospitality. The company was formed in 2000 and is a certified woman – owned business enterprise.

“We are happy to be part of the Infuse Initiative,” said Neil Berman, president & CEO of Delivra. “Effective communications is crucial to a growing company. We are glad that we will be able to help ProCaM communicate with their customers, prospects and other audiences with sophisticated email solutions.”

As mentioned before, you’ll want to stay tuned to future Delivra news because we’ll be offering case studies on both Infuse Initiative winners! You’ll want to see how the Delivra software was able to help these companies with their email marketing efforts.

Delivra to Provide Email Marketing Services to Indianapolis Early Learning Center

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:30:17 +0000

In an earlier blog post, we announced the winners of the Infuse Initiative, a business grant program. In the next couple of blog posts, we’d like to take the time to introduce the winners in more detail for those of you interested in learning more about them!

Today’s blog post is highlighting the Indianapolis Early Learning Center, this year’s non-profit Infuse Initiative winner. Indianapolis Early Learning Center, located at 3901 West 30th Street, Indianapolis, is a non-profit preschool that invests in a successful future for all preschool-age children, regardless of their socioeconomic status. The school accomplishes this by ensuring that all families have access to the best early childhood education programs to prepare their children for school and for life.

The Infuse Initiative business grant also provides them with pro-bono marketing, technology, accounting, legal and sales training services. Delivra will provide the Indianapolis Early Learning Center a free email software subscription, professional services and technical support for one year to improve their email marketing efforts.

Amanda Byrd

“Recently, I was able to attend the event announcing and congratulating the winners of the Infuse Initiative. I had the opportunity to sit next to Amanda Byrd, the Founder & Executive Director of the preschool. She seemed extremely grateful to be receiving the award and has big plans for the future and I can’t wait to see what she does!” said Lavon Temple, Marketing Intern at Delivra.

Stay tuned to the Delivra blog for more information on the other Infuse Initiative winner – Professional Conventions & Meetings.

Also, keep a look out for more news as we eventually share a case study and more details on how the Delivra and Indianapolis Early Learning Center teams were able to work together in order to improve their email marketing efforts.

emailchatr | Delivra E-mail Blog » Design

Delivra Dishin’ Out Tinderbox

Make HTML Work for Your Emails

Email Marketing + Video = Success

Delivra Announces Two Extreme Email Makeover Winners

Keep Customers Clicking

Keep Them Reading!

You might need an email makeover if…

Should my e-mail design match my Web site?

Delivra to Provide Email Marketing Services to Professional Conventions & Meetings

Delivra to Provide Email Marketing Services to Indianapolis Early Learning Center