for the little guys too

Constant Contact's survey of small business customers indicates it's not only large businesses that benefit from email marketing programs.

57% of respondents said that are trying to expand their email subscriber lists "at all times." 

When pushed to describe why it was important for them to increase their email lists:

• 44% indicated the importance of encouraging repeat business

• 39% said that email marketing helps customer relationship building

• 12% reported that email marketing improves customers for referrals

92% small businesses capture opt-in email addresses is through sign-up forms on the company website, 64% through direct requests, 46% via Facebook sign-ups, and 35% use sign-up sheets at point-of-sale.

three email stats for today

1. Emails that include social sharing buttons have a click-through rate 115% higher than those do not.
2. 63% of Americans will close or delete an email not optimized for mobile
3. Subscribers read 14% of the messages promising percentage-based savings in the subject line, while reading 12% of those promising dollar based savings in the subject line.

Ka-Pow!

Addtional wiz-bang facts available at Business2Community...

new gmail: potential implications for marketers

Gmail is currently rolling out a new sorting format for messages.  It will now sort messages by social, primary, updates and "promotions," the last carrying the greatest implications for marketers.  Marketing messages can now land in the Promotions tab rather than the standard inbox, which could affect open rates.  Apparently, plain text messages will continue to land in the Primary inbox, which is an option.  As usual: keep them relevant and strong because there's always a great deal of competition for attention.

mobile adoption + email marketing

Sundeep Grapur has some great tips re: catering marketing emails to be read on mobile devices.

My favorite three:

1. Design for the mobile browser in terms of font and images
2. We preen emails from our smartphone: grabe their attention so they don't delete the message.  Oftentimes, people go back to an email later from a desktop or laptop to really dig into the content.
3. Your primary call-to-action should be a button and not a link.

Read more -

email metrics from top ten wholesale

Good reminders:
Ignore open rate and subcribe rate.
Worry a lot about spam and unsubs.
Love clicks, conversions and sharing.

thanks toptenwholesale

Business2Community Email Engagement

Stages of Engagement

Recommendations to drive engagement include animated GIFS & consistency.  Check out the article to read more.

over mailchimp and constant contact?

Check out Emma.

List segmentation & surveys are easy. It's possible search for specific responses, e.g. opens or clicks, and send messages to just those people.

The design flexibility and user interface are closer to Drupal than WordPress (read: user friendly).

$30 for the first 1,000 subscribers with unlimited sends, up to $125 per month for 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends.