Delivra has just announced its first ever Extreme Email Makeover contest!  If your current email design is in desperate need of a major “face lift” and you want to take advantage of the design skills and various other talents of the Delivra team to help then this is definitely the opportunity for you!

Wondering how you can participate and get in on all the action? It’s really simple!  All  you have to do is go to the Delivra Facebook Fan page and click “like” this page.  From there, you can simply upload your current email design.  Then, you can vote on which email you think should win!  That’s it!

The sweepstakes runs through the month of July,  so there is plenty of time to get your emails in. Then, on August 3rd, 2010, after waiting so patiently, Delivra will announce who is in the most desperate need for an email “makeover” – the winner of the Extreme Email Makeover!

Wondering what you win? I thought so!  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.  Pretty sweet, huh?

To learn more about the Extreme Email Makeover,  you can read the press release located on the Delivra website or go straight to our Facebook page.

You do not want to miss out on your chance for an Extreme Makeover!

I know, just when you thought you had heard enough hype on the new iPhone~here it comes again!  Here’s the thing, Apple is genius when it comes to marketing and brand (no pun intended).  It’s not just them though, simple is something that works in this cluttered time we live in.  So earlier this week I received this email:

Now granted, for me (the early adopter on EVERYTHING) this long awaited email is just the cue I need.  You see I have a birthday coming up and really want my old (oh so old iPhone older generation) to be retired, so I can have this one!  So, I very discreetly forwarded this email to my husband.  No subject line, no additional pleas for the birthday girl.  Just a simple forward of a simple and clean message.  Well, I’m pleased to say I think he got the point.  He turned to his friend who is visiting with his laptop and showed him saying, “I take it she wants a new iPhone.”  Thanks dear, you got the hint.

I’m sure my birthday wish list is of no concern to you, but what should be important to note is that Apple achieves success over success because of ONE thing….they keep things SIMPLE.

This is a perfect lesson that every marketer can learn, re-learn, and re-visit!  I even have to do this myself.  As marketers we want to spit out every single thing that we have to say in one communication.  The result?  Well, I spare the detractors of simple from the embarrassment, but I will say that you can’t view their email in one, two or even three screens.  I know, I know, you have brand and messaging to convey.  Along with those slick graphics you designed.  That’s okay…you can still keep it simple in three easy steps:

1. Engage with Visuals, Video, and Rich Media: All are a great way to reinforce your brand and message without saying a whole lot in words.
2. Link Out: Don’t feel like everything HAS to be shown in the email content.  Link out to landing pages, other sites, your website, or even a signup form or shopping cart.  (Note:  There is also an added benefit with linking-TRACKING!  Now you will know what interests your recipients.)
3. Stick to Above-the-Fold: If you can’t see it in one screen on a test, then trim it down.  Link out or parse out what you want to say in more than one email.

Simple concepts I’m sure we all know by now, but worth repeating and certainly worth revisiting.  Are you keeping it SIMPLE for your audience? Just think to yourself…what would Apple do?  Need help with your email marketing?  Want to chat about other best practice strategies?  Contact me today at marketing@delivra.com or at 877-915-9465 and let’s chat!

Carissa Newton | Marketing

P.S.  I can tell you that while I am an early adopter, I won’t be in line for this!  I mean it will be my birthday  right after its release after all….someone is bound to go stand in that line for me, right?

We’ve talked about why you should use landing pages in your e-mails. But did you know that Delivra offers themed landing pages to match your newsletter template? If you click on Content, Templates and then click on the Announcements tab you will see a few additional options that look very similar to the new templates we rolled out in the past few weeks.  Click here to see the templates and matching landing pages side by side.

Quick Recap: Benefits of using landing pages with your newsletter include:

1. Concise newsletter- Instead of scrolling down through lots and lots of text the recipient will be able to choose which article interests them most.  Which will lead to…
2. Additional behavior tracking- Not only will you capture what is most relevant to your audience, but also any additional clicking that happens on the landing page.
3. A different social sharing option- Instead of sharing the whole newsletter you can offer the recipient the option of sharing just that article by linking to the landing page.

How To: Linking to a Landing Page (HTML Content) in the Delivra Application

1. Highlight the text or choose the image you would like to link from
2. Click on the insert/edit image button
3. Click on the Browse icon
4. Select the HTML content you would like to link to

Click here to see an example of an e-mail template using a landing page…

In addition to these pre-formatted landing pages, Delivra’s other templates are very dynamic and with a few minor changes you can have a matching landing page with any of the templates. Have questions? Call us 1-866-915-9465.

Rachel Rewerts | Account Management

Delivra customers know we have a stock of free-to-use email template designs under our Templates section. This month, we have three new designs available:

The Nail Polish/Product – templates include social sharing links above the fold and are great for highlighting product imagery alongside text blurbs. The design has a delicate, soft feel to make your product imagery pop!

The Free Thinkers – available in both Newsletter and Announcement format and include prominent & powerful social media links. The design is strong with eye-catching colors.

The Fruit + Gray – designed with tiering tables of information to allow for a natural flow to your newsletter content. The design contains bright fruit imagery and colors above the fold to engage recipients.

Haven’t tried out our free templates yet? They’re a great solution for a clean, professional design on a low budget or short timeline. Once logged in, head over to the View Templates section under Content. Browse the tabbed categories and see if we have a design that fits your needs.

One of the great things about Delivra’s free ready-made templates is that they are completely dynamic. Don’t like one of the images? Replace it with your own. Need three columns for content instead of two? Just add another.

Keep an eye out for regular updates to our free templates section in the coming months!

Delivra Design Team

When is personalization of email content not effective at boosting recipient engagement?  When it comes off as insincere, that’s when.  When it’s transparent to the recipient that you’re only addressing them by name because that’s less work than truly making your content relevant to them as an individual.

I was reminded of this while out to dinner with my wife last week.  When the check came, I paid with my Visa card, and when the waiter returned with my receipt, he said, “Thanks, Brian.”

Now, technically, “Brian” is my given first name.   It appears on my birth certificate, on my driver’s license, and on the Visa card I paid with that night.  But anyone who knows me also knows that I use my middle name, “Chris” (short for “Christopher”).  Not even my parents, who gave me the name “Brian” have ever called me by it–unless you count my mom yelling my full name when I was in really big trouble.

My waiter thought he was being chummy and familiar, probably because he heard somewhere that’s a good way to receive a bigger tip–read the customer’s credit card and address them by name.  But instead, he struck a wrong chord.  Nothing says “I don’t know you, and I’m not your friend” quite like addressing someone by the wrong name.  If he really wanted to personalize the dining experience for me, he should have, you know, remembered what we were drinking so that he didn’t have to ask every time he came around to refresh our beverages.

Sadly, many email marketers take the same approach to personalization.  They deliver the same message to all recipients, but preface it with “%%FirstName%%, ” in the subject line or as a salutation, and believe that they’ve effectively personalized their message.  But that alone isn’t enough to make your message truly relevant to the individual.

True personalization means knowing your subscribers’ interests and preferences–whether by asking them up front, or by tracking their interactions with your emails and web sites–and using that information to deliver content they’re likely to want.  That scooter ad I received a few weeks ago wouldn’t have gone over any better had they addressed me as “Chris,” because I didn’t care about their product.

Merging personal details into email content is only one step towards creating mailings that are relevant to the individual.  You can further divide your mailing list into segments based on their demographic data, subscription preferences, or past behaviors, and then target these different groups of subscribers with different mailings.  Or use Delivra’s dynamic content tools to send one mailing, but vary the content of the mailing for each recipient according to their attributes in the database.

If your content is compelling enough that your recipients look forward to hearing from you, then you won’t need to address them by name to get them to open, click through, and share your email.   And if you use their names anyway, they’re much more likely to cut you some slack for calling them “Brian” when everyone else knows them as “Chris.”

Chris Broshears | Product Development

I recently read a great summary newsletter from Christopher Knight at Email Universe (http://emailuniverse.com/ezine-tips/?id=1323) titled “Email Segmentation 101 – Things to Segment Your Email Campaigns By”.  The article lists out 11 rock-solid segmentation ideas that could and should be used by all marketers to help improve the performance of their campaigns.

I have had a few clients over the past month, ask about how they can take their segmentation efforts to the next level.  These conversations typically wind up with similar action items:

• Video – with integrated video reporting, you can do go beyond seeing if a subscriber clicked on a link that took them to where your video is located.  Now you can segment by who started the video, who watched the entire video, and who forwarded on that video to others.
• Survey Responses – Use surveys to keep your finger on the pulse of your subscribers.  The beauty of having the survey tool integrated within your software is that you can then segment by not only who responded to a particular question, but what their response was.
• Engagement – blog.delivra.com has posted a few other blogs about engagement in the last few  weeks, and rightfully so.  It continues to be a key differentiator when comparing campaign success.

Each of these bullet points will need to be perfected.  As an example, make sure your video link is not just a boring link, but instead has a still that draws attention and provokes them to check it out.

Scott Cramer | Sales & Business Development

It's OK to adjust your plan

I was excited to launch our video integration with Cantaloupe after six months of development. I’m sold on the value of video over plain text/html content and was anxious to collect some real world data. Our newsletter announcement last Friday would be a test to see if the market shared my enthusiasm.

Even though Friday is not traditionally the best day to mail I was astonished at the results received by Monday afternoon. We experienced the highest open rates and highest click rates of any recent email campaign plus the addition of video viewing stats was revealing.  This just goes to show you that best practices are simply that,  methods that have proven to work in the past.  However, marketers must always balance best practices with the needs of the audience.  Based on these results, I believe I share my excitement with many of our customers.  Video can be an engaging tool to reinforce your message.

Lastly, but certainly not least, our push was to not only to announce the new tools but also to fill a webinar on September 30. Within minutes of sending the email that happened too!

Not everything in business works this smoothly so it’s a nice feeling to see the dream become a reality for many.  It also proved a valuable lesson for every email marketer, know your audience and the information they want to know.  We can’t wait to share the video integration with each of you later this month.

In case you didn’t get a chance to sign up, here is the link:  http://www.formspring.com/forms/?702491-XXiAsEuFzr

Neil Berman | President

Video + email, what could be more engaging? As part of our partnership with Cantaloupe, Delivra can now provide video within email hosted through the Backlight Application. Click to read more!

Imagine the ability to make your email more dynamic with stronger calls to action.  Video stories can help you do that in a way that is impactful AND measurable.  An additional benefit to hosting a video through the Backlight application is that you can essentially embed that video or deliver it in a number of various mediums (email, website, blog and social media, etc…) and all of the tracking on that video can be viewed in aggregate in the system.  Users can also optimize each and every video with keywords to further reinforce your SEO efforts. Here is a sample of how it works:

I hope you enjoyed this very cool new technology!  Contact Delivra today to learn how you too can embed dynamic videos into your email campaigns.