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

Every company likes to get referrals.  When a customer or friend recommends your product or service, the sales process is streamlined and the close ratio goes way up.  Referrals lead to longer term customers that have a higher lifetime customer value.

I just finished reading “The Referral Engine” by John Jantsch, also author of  “Duct Tape Marketing.” In the first book, Jantsch discusses how referring is instinctive for most people and shows businesses how to tap into this desire.

To read more of the MediaPost article about “Tapping Into The Referral Instinct”, click here!

To find out more about Delivra and email marketing, please click here!

PINK magazine is an online publication that offers professional women advice about career development, delivering tools, tactics and strategies to help them be more successful in business as well as in life.  A typical feature might be an interview with a female C-level executive or a feature story about raising investor capital.  The magazine’s average reader is worth $1.2 million with an income of 125,000 – an excellent target for any advertiser.  The magazine’s advertisers – including American Express Co., Dell Inc., Ernst & Young and FedEx Corp. – wanted a way to connect one – to – one with those readers without a lot of clutter, said Bridget Cody, PINK’s director of advertising, so Cody and her team started brainstorming.

To read more of the BtoB Magazine article, click here!

Yesterday, Delivra announced its first ever Extreme Email Makeover Contest.  Today, we wanted to take the time to actually detail how to submit your email design entry to eliminate any confusion.

First of all, you want to save a copy of one of the current email designs you are using.  When saving, make sure you save it in a “picture” format, just as a JPEG or GIF.  Do not save it as a webpage or an HTML.  In order to obtain an image of your email design, you can take a screenshot of them from a web browser.

Here are some ways to create a screenshot: if you’re using a Mac use the combination “shift-command-3″ to save an image file of your screen, or “shift-control-command-3″ to copy it to your clipboard to paste into an image editor.  If you’re using a PC press the “PrintScrn/SysRq” key to copy your screen to your clipboard.

I use Google Chrome as my web browser and have found an easy application for taking screenshots.  In the toolbar, click on the wrench and click on extensions.  From there, search for the application: Awesome Screenshot: Capture and Annotate.  It is really simple to use and you will be able to easily take a screenshot photo of your email design, crop the image, and then save it.

After you have saved your email design, click on the Delivra Facebook Contest tab.  When there, scroll down and click on the Enter Contest button.   To start, you will enter information, such as your name and email address and then press the continue button. Once that is completed, you will be asked to upload your email design.

If you have questions, please email me at ltemple@delivra.com.  I look forward to helping you join in the fun!

Abby Alexander | Design Services

Lavon Temple | Marketing

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!

Since the launch of Twitter, people have been scurrying to find out what the best practices are to using it for their businesses.  Twitter can be a great tool for businesses to use, but it can be a confusing one – especially when everyone thinks they are doing right and everyone else is doing it wrong. A great blog post that offers insight on using Twitter is the “50 Power Twitter Tips” by Chris Brogan. (Click here to view)  It offers insightful tips on what to do and not to do when using Twitter.   Remember – these are just tips and should be used (or not used) depending on what you want to do with your Twitter account.

As a side (but very important) note, we suggest you pay close attention to #49 and if you need our help, contact Delivra today!  We’ll be glad to offer a helping hand!

Lavon Temple | Marketing

The Business Marketing Association’s Engage 2010 conference held in Chicago the first week of June was an exciting gathering of some of the best thinkers in marketing today.  As each speaker took the stage, the audience found another great nugget to take back to the real world and implement to make their marketing programs better.

Delivra attendees were struck when they looked around the room and saw that nearly every person was engaged not only with the speaker, but was also busy tweeting, emailing, blogging, YouTubing, Foursquaring, or interacting in some other way with their smartphone.

Interested in reading more? Click here!

Neil Berman | President & CEO

If you are like me or anyone I know, you are likely always on the go.  Life today is not as simple as it used to be.  One of my saving graces has been my smartphone.

• It literally never leaves my side
• It serves as my alarm clock
• It provides me with entertainment
• It has my calendar
• It has my email
• It has my contacts
• I can get movie tickets with it
• I can watch videos
• And so on….and so on…and so on

Sound familiar?  I could go on all day, but simply put mobile devices have become a way of life for everyone these days.  It’s not just businessman anymore.  It’s every generation.  My kids are even using them non-stop.  I was in a restaurant earlier this week and saw an elderly woman pull out her cell phone to call her daughter since there was bad weather.

The point is this, while mobile may be exploding, email is just as important if not more than it ever was!  Why, you ask?  It’s simple…with smartphones today your email marketing campaigns become a quick way a mobile user can get to a phone number, an address, a map, or even a link.  In fact, I will often  forget to save a contact in my email.  My solution…my smartphone.  Where else can I get to a phone number, click on the link and be able to call that person quickly.  Not only that, but my phone is advanced enough to remind me to save that contact while I am at it.  I even use my smartphone to map out directions.  Don’t have an address?  I bet that email I just received has a link!  I was even recently shopping at a store that sends me email coupons.  And as usual, I forgot my coupon!  When the cashier asked me for my coupon I grumbled that I forgot it at home.  She asked if I had the email on my phone.  Can you believe I still got the discount because she was able to take the coupon info right from the email on my smartphone.  ONE DEVICE, but so many uses.  As technology evolves and cost goes down, people like me will be the bulk of your database one day.

Remember, when you are creating email campaigns to include some of those simple things you may think your recipients might already know.  Your website, phone number, address, or even links to email or maps.  Chances are that your recipients might have that info or have seen it in the past.  But if they are like me, they will refer back to emails from key senders for those very links they might need on a smartphone.

You don’t necessarily have to have an advanced or costly mobile marketing strategy.  But, what you should always keep in mind is where your emails might be read, how they render, and what information you include (even if you feel you are repeating often) that might link on a smartphone.

Need help making sure your email incorporates some of these strategies? Contact us today at info@delivra.com or at 877-915-9465 and we’d be happy to help.

Carissa Newton | Marketing

A lot of companies are using email marketing to send out a newsletter in order to update their readers and keep them connected and informed.  In previous blog posts, such as Keep ‘em Moving and Making the Switch from Print Newsletters to Email Newsletters, Delivra has focused on offering tips and guidance to sending out e-newsletters.  Recently, I have been researching best practices for sending out e-newsletters in order to optimize our own quarterly newsletter (shameless plug!).  We’d like to share those new findings with you as suggestions for possibly pumping up your own newsletters!

1. For some companies, it’s a good idea to put an “In this Issue” section at the beginning of their newsletter.  That way the reader has an idea of what to expect in this edition.  You can make the article titles clickable so that the reader can click on the information they are interested in and it will move right to the appropriate article.

2. It’s okay to repurpose previous information that you’ve created.  Creating a newsletter on a regular basis can be overwhelming because you want to be able to provide your audience with up-to-date information in the most compelling way.  However, the reality is that most of your audience will appreciate the opportunity to see previous information or may not have had the chance to view it the first time.  A great way to do this is to put sections, such as an “In the News” section, in your e-newsletter that highlights and repurposes some of the places your company has been represented recently.

3. Don’t forget to tell people about your e-newsletter!  Spread the word.  Give people the option to share parts of you email on their social networking sites because they want to!  Delivra gives you the option to  SWYN (share with your network) by inserting social network links. Not only can you share the entire newsletter, but you can also have them just share bits and pieces that inspired them!

4.  If you can, add clickable images!  Most people don’t read everything in an e-newsletter, so make them want to stay awhile by offering them a couple of creative images to capture their attention.  If possible, you can use the image as a portal for the reader to click on in order to send them to a landing page with more information.

Remember, all of these linking & content strategies also have a tremendous side benefit-TRACKING!  Try some in your next newsletter and then watch to see what types of click-through’s you see.  Then you can tailor future mailings to the information recipients are most interested in reading.  To close, if you are reading through these tips and find yourself wanting more information on how to pump up your e-newsletter, contact Delivra! We’re here and happy to help you!

Lavon Temple | Marketing