Last October I wrote about how to put hearts, smilies and other symbols into the the subject line to make it standout in the inbox. Whilst there was debate in the comments on that post about whether it made the email look like spam or not, its certainly a technique that many marketers have been using this Valentines. Maybe too many? My thanks go to Andrew Kordek of Trendline Interactive and Cathy Conk from Netflix for letting me show the examples below. Note how the iPhone in particular shows a coloured heart with 3D effect.

Mobile email version

Desktop email version

Everyone is going ♥ crazy...

What do you think? If you have run split tests using…

Dear Email, I fell in love with you at first sight! You opened and whole new world for me. You’re smart, well read and fun to be around. Falling in love with you was easy for me. Solid (as a rock) ♫ For years our relationship has been solid and you’ve always been there with new ideas and perspectives which have added more value to my life. You’ve helped me plan some of the most important times of my life. Some Kinda Wonderful ♫ We’ve done some pretty cool things together! Remember that Christmas you helped me shop and got everyone the perfect gift? Or how about that amazing vacation we planned together? You’ve never let me forget a birthday or anniversary and…

A short guide to help review if and how you use Pinterest

Prompted by interest in my first post on the marketing opportunities for Pinterest a couple of weeks ago, I thought a more considered ideas post might be useful. So I've summarised the key points that I feel are relevant to consider if you're set on taking your brand onto Pinterest. I've not got into the mechanics of how it works, others do it better already. First things first…

A reminder - what is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a platform for crowd sourced visual content grouped into topics (mostly lifestyle at the moment). From a broader perspective, it's a social network that allows users to visually share new interests by 'pinning' images or videos to their own or others' 'pinboards' (a collection of 'pins' that have a common theme). Maybe this cartoon explains it…

Insights and examples show why a mobile-optimised experience is becoming essential

The focus for many brands over the past ten years has been getting the fixed line website right. This is often the reason brands give for delivering their full site to customers browsing on mobiles. The vast majority of brands - 83% according to research on UK smartphone usage by Google - still have not optimised their websites for mobile. This stat is mirrored by dismal bounce-rates for mobile sites, which stand at 88% on average. Clearly, consumers won't hang around on a mobile site which gives a poor browsing experience! New Forrester research forecasts, published this week, shows that by 2016, one billion people will own smartphones, many of whom will be professionals taking these devices to work. By that year, consumer spending in the mobile app market will amount to $56 billion, and business spending on mobile projects will have doubled As…

Lo primero es lo primero…

La planificación de marketing digital no es diferente a ningún otro plan de marketing, de hecho es sumamente extraño tener planes separados para “digital” y “off-line” debido a que no es así como los clientes perciben tu negocio. Sin embargo, a menudo se nos requiere separar los planes para “digital” solo en cuanto a la estructura de los equipos y los informes y para ayudar a la transición a digital antes de que se vuelva algo habitual (“Business as usual”). Un formato común ayuda a alinear tu plan a otros planes de marketing! Nota: Esto (download - free for Basic members) es un documento de Word sin formatear de SmartInsights.com, traducido al español por Mabisy.com, crea tu tienda online y paga solo si vendes, que tiene la intención de ayudarte a crear rápidamente tu propia plantilla eliminando las notas de guía en cursiva. This is a…

Questions to ask to make sure you're following the best approach to social sharing

Social Sharing tools are the technology behind embedding of buttons and other widgets onto your website to encourage social sharing, recommending or bookmarking within your site and blog.

We have a separate post on the social networks that are most important to shares in different sectors and countries.

Despite their ability to spread your content, increase your traffic and even aid your SEO efforts, many sites are still ignoring or not using the right sharing tools. The infographic below from popular sharing service AddThis shows why it is essential to implement these tools effectively.

Why do people share content?

Making the best use of Social Sharing technology requires content that is worth sharing in the first place. A great piece of research was conducted by the New York Times…

Are you on first-name terms with your buyer personas?

Do your marketing strategy meetings discuss ‘Jason’s’ likely reaction to the new launch, and why ‘Sharon’ is the target for the upcoming campaign? Experienced buyer persona users understand a buyer persona’s power to generate great insight and high confidence in marketing and business decisions; transforming a marketer’s ability to impact buyer attitudes on solutions and brands. Buyer personas can break down barriers between sales and marketing by enabling both groups to share a good understanding of what action is required to address buyer needs. And, insight into the buying process helps each team visualize their revenue contribution at each stage in the purchase process. As companies learn to appreciate personas’ ability to predict buyer behaviour with uncanny accuracy, marketers can find themselves awarded a place at the strategy table thanks to their insight on key issues…

18 questions you must ask when selecting an SEO agency

If you have a good understanding of SEO, that will help you list requirements and the criteria that an agency must meet. If you don't, then whilst it makes it harder, you can still evaluate service providers if you focus on their understanding of the basics of SEO. With regards to assessing potential SEO providers, areas you should look for:

Their own website

Question 1. How well optimised is their own website for relevant keywords searches? Question 2. How effective are they in using social media to communicate with stakeholders? Question 3.  What is the quality of content on their website? Why ask these questions? Because these 3 strands are crucial to SEO and if they can't be bothered to get their website in order, then you need to push them for reasons. Granted small agencies often let their websites suffer to focus on client delivery and priorities…

Reviewing the six key areas to improve your email marketing

It's hard to plan a route from A to B if you are not clear where you are now and even harder if you're not sure exactly where B is anyway. As a consultant, I will often use an audit or benchmark as an early stage to improve email communications strategy for a company. I created this email benchmarking spreadsheet in collaboration with Dave Chaffey, to provide a fast and systematic method of evaluating the use of email marketing within a company, to enable answering the question of where is A and B? It provides the key questions that need to be considered within your email marketing strategy, broken down into: 1. Objectives and value 2. Evaluation 3. Email Communications strategy 4. Copy and design 5. Deliverability and permission 6. Governance The health check is aimed at Marketing Directors,…

Email campaigns we can learn from

“…the eye, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition”

W. H. Auden

Effective email marketing engages recipients, ultimately leading to more sales by delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. Customers would rather see a beautifully crafted email appear in their inbox than a bad one. Big brands can have a slightly easier email marketing task than smaller brands - an email from Amazon, Barclays, ASOS, or John Lewis already carries with it an expectation of what you will receive. So, it's unforgivable for a big brand to take customers for granted.

Abercrombie & Fitch’s Christmas email campaign

Here’s a snap shot of my inbox showing all Abercrombie emails received over December and January: You will notice the central subject line theme is “The Sale” From…