Landing Pages

While reaching the inbox of subscribers is the ultimate goal of email marketers, supplying them with an appropriate landing page is important as well. From our experience here at KobeMail, we have seen a lot of email marketers do everything right with the exception of supplying their users with an ideal landing page.
Here are a few examples of common landing page mistakes that some marketers make:

1. Landing pages that do not actually work. You need to test your landing page in every browser, and test them often! We have come across some landing pages that work one day and then do not work the next. Testing and re-testing is a must in email marketing.

2. Landing pages that do not match the ads in your creative. Readers will likely abandon the page that they are redirected to if it seems very different from the products or services that are shown or described within the content of your email. It’s important to remain consistent across all platforms of email marketing.

3. Landing pages that break promises. If within the content of your email you mention a promotion that the reader will receive by clicking a link, you need to actually offer that promotion. We have seen issues in the past where readers will click the redirect link and end up with a mixed message, causing them to immediately exit out of your landing page and maybe even unsubscribe from your mailings altogether.

4. Calls to “inaction.” Assuming that your user knows what to do is not going to work. You need to tell them and tell them clearly. You must create visual “call to action” buttons. You can get a free call to action button generator here.

5. Poorly created landing pages. Making sure they work is one thing, but making sure that they are clean and engaging is another. Be sure not to have a cluttered page with too much information. You should try different copy and test out which receives a better response. You want to make sure that your landing page is engaging yet to the point.

Landing pages are primarily where a conversion takes place. In order to ensure a conversion, you must have an ideal landing page for your subscribers to be redirected to. Try different content changes and test them all to find what works best and what your users respond best to. Make sure that your link works and that the landing page has an immediate call to action. Work with your ESP, like KobeMail, to make changes to your campaign to have a more effective landing page.

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Courtney Dillsworth

Side Advice: How to correctly use Twitter

Here at KobeMail, we love offering our readers insightful advice on how to benefit from email marketing’s best practices. Considering that we constantly preach the necessity of combining social media with email marketing, we felt it was necessary to offer insight on how to successfully market via social media platforms, in this case, Twitter.

Here are a few tips to take into account when trying to expand the reach of your message through Twitter:

Make sure to shorten your URLs. Since you only have 140 characters to post, you want to make sure your link (whether to your blog or company website) does not account for most of your available space. Use a third party source such as bit.ly or tinyurl to shorten your links.

Take advantage of reTweets. There are two ways to retweet; you can either type RT@(name) or use the retweet button on Twitter. The company whose message that you retweeted will get notified of the action, which will most likely build a stronger bond between the two of you.

Check your direct messages, better known as DMs. although the majority of direct messages end up being spam, you want to make sure that you regularly check DMs so you do not miss anything important. Direct messages have a similar role to email, and represents an easy way for a client or company to reach out to you, and vice versa.

Separate the people or companies that you follow into lists. This is a simple way to segment the information posted by companies or people that you follow into specific groups, based on their industry or interest. In addition, this may clean up your newsfeed and separate information into easy to find locations.

Use an outside application that makes using twitter much easier. What I use is an application called Tweetdeck. This is a centralized application that serves as a desktop client. It makes tweeting much easier and highly customizable.

Twitter, like all other social media applications, is extremely easy to use yet fairly difficult to fully understand. While almost every company has a twitter account, most are either not taking full advantage or making simple mistakes. Follow the aforementioned tips, and follow us @kobemail, for more information on how to lead a successful marketing campaign!

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Courtney Dillsworth

Email Newsletters: How to get the Best Results

Sending email newsletters seems like an easy idea, but most marketers are doing it incorrectly. The effectiveness of the newsletter relies heavily on the frequency in which they are sent. Most marketers send email newsletters when they feel it is wise or necessary. However, you should be sending newsletters to your readers when they want to read them.

Here are a few suggestions from the KobeMail team on how to send more effective email newsletters:

Inquire Within: Your email recipients should be very valuable to you. You should focus on getting to know your audience, and in turn, understanding how often they want to receive your email newsletters. You can offer them a preference option, or you can include a form for them to fill out indicating their preferences.

Segmentation: After you follow the first step of inquiring the recipients' preferences, you can implement their suggestions into segmenting your newsletters. Depending on your audiences' preferences, you may be inclined to send emails daily, weekly, or monthly, but at least you will be assured that it is to their liking.

Test: Setup your mailing campaigns according to frequency preferences. See how many of your contacts fall under each specified "preference." Gauge reporting based n the open rate and click through rates by each designated frequency.

Adjust: After sufficient testing, it is time to check the results. While you should keep your newsletter content somewhat consistent through out mailings, changing it around once in a while based on feedback is a good idea. Make sure not to overload your newsletters with too much content as it may force your readers to disregard future mailings.

Follow Up: Check up on how successful your new segmentation based on frequency preferences is. Have you received any feedback? Make sure to make changes based on user comments and experiences.

You need to find out how often your subscribers want to receive your email newsletters. If you can figure that out first, then developing content will be much easier. Allow your users to have control and options!

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Courtney Dillsworth

How to Grow and Maintain your Email List

According to the Email Experience Council, “email marketers lose roughly one-third of their email addresses to bounces, unsubscribes, or spam complaints.” Growing clean email lists must be a top priority for email marketers. After years of analysis, we at KobeMail have identified a few key techniques to building a larger, clean list of email addresses:

Offer substantial incentives for tell-a-friend campaigns. Most readers enjoy sharing good content, but will be more inclined if they receive something in return for doing so. Reward your readers with something fun if they willing to pass your message along.

Identify what your readers want. Surveys are effective for finding out what sort of content your readers truly want to receive. Some of your readers may want information while others may just want coupons. Make sure to segment your email list based on their preferences to avoid spam complaints or unsubscribes.

Enhance sign up opportunities. Make sure to include sign up links everywhere you can. Your website, newsletters and social media accounts should all host sign up links to your mailing list.

Allow subscribers to manage their preferences. You should offer your readers some sort of login option where they can manage their preferences. Whether it be a new email address change, preferred email frequency, or an option to choose specific content, your readers should have the ability to manage their account. You can also give your readers the ability to offer their demographic information, which will help you segment your campaigns as well as track recipient information.

We understand that keeping a clean, large mailing list is not very easy. However, if you follow the aforementioned steps, you should be well on your way to a successful campaign. Happy mailing!

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Courtney Dillsworth