So today I got an email asking me to join in a protest against Outlook 2010 and its use of the MS Word rendering engine for its emails.

Now I’m not passionate about many things, but I went as far as joining Twitter to actually voice my discontent at this news (yes, I wasn’t on twitter before – @mailingmanager by the way).

So why am I so passionate about this?  Well, my main reason is that having Outlook 2010 not changing from its 2007 rendering ways, means Email Marketing is essentially left with the same design limitations for years to come.  So whilst the Web world can continue to grow and try out (I assume) great new things, we’re left working with tables for years to come. 

Don’t get me wrong, if they had changed the rendering engine, it really wouldn’t have changed too much for us at the present as a lot of people would be continuing to use outlook 2007 and we’d have to continue to base our designs on ensuring it renders in this program.  There would though, be those possibilities in the future for designs to start to change and barriers to be broken down.

Anyway, foot stamping over.  So what does this actually mean for us right now?  Well, not a whole lot really.  We’ll still be pretty much sticking to the same rendering rules as far as I know, so it’s business as usual.  If you’re unsure on what this is, have a look at one of my previous posts about email design essentials.

Keep a look out for a really in depth email design post coming soon giving you all the CSS coding you can use.

Also, join the stand against Outlook 2010 using the MS Word rendering tool here: http://www.fixoutlook.org/

So we’ve been having a little test of things in the mailingmanager towers over the past week or so and thought we’d pass on our findings for you.

The effects of images on email inbox delivery

So we had a thought about fully image based emails and how it might be possible to increase the deliverability of them by extensively using the alt tags to raise the image to text ratio.

Basically, the thought process was that Spam filters only read the emails they have received in code view anyway.  So if the content of the email was just inserted into the alt tags, the spam filter could still see the content and give it a more favourable score.

Using the Delivery Monitor system, we used one of our clients emails to test (thanks go out to Crimestoppers for letting us use their email – see the email here).

We sent out 5 variations of the email which are as follows:

Email sent at 10:35 – Full Image, No Alt Text

Email sent at 10:45 – Full Image, Alt Text Included

Email sent at 11:10 – Email split into multiple images, Alt Text Included

Email sent at 11:15 – Email split into multiple images, No Alt Text

Email sent at 12:25 – Full HTML

View the accompanying results here.

Though it can be argued that the Alt Text helped a bit with deliverability, there really isn’t a great gap between each variation.  What this did manage to do though, is outline how important it is to get a decent HTML designed newsletter created.

When you look at the inbox deliverability drop between image and html based email, are you willing to sacrifice a fifth of your subscriber list out of laziness?

A way of judging forwards without the forwards stats

I’ve always found the forward to a friend reporting system a bit of a pain as it is always so much easier to just click forward in your email client than go through the long winded approach that we have to use.

The only successful way I’ve found for this to work is to offer some kind of promotion code in the forward to a friend process, which allows them discount once the forward to a friend form is completed.

This though, really doesn’t manage to capture the “true forwards”, of people who have forwarded an email on to colleagues or friends as they found it interesting.

Now to my point.  Can I just say now that this is just an observation and in terms of getting a lot out of it, I’m unsure you can really use it as a metric.  This is really just something we realised in the office.

Sometimes you will find an email address has multiple opens within a really close amount of time.  This, it would be logical to say, is actually evidence of that person forwarding their email onto colleagues and friends.  The opens will still be registered to the original recipients address as the email has that users ID in it, but to say they opened it 6 or 7 times within two minutes seems a bit much.  

And yes, I know that this theory has a superb amount of holes in it but it may be worth considering that those multiple opens could actually be unique opens from people not on your mailing list.  Just a bit of food for thought for you.

This year, as I’m sure you all know, will see a sharp increase in companies using email marketing.  It doesn’t then take a genius to realise that will mean an increase in competition in your subscribers inbox.

So how do you ensure that your email ends up being opened in your recipients’ ever increasing inbox?

Well, don’t you worry as I’ve decided to do a quick checklist of the really important things to remember and I’ll try and link back to previous posts so you can read on in detail on areas you may be a little rusty on.

The first place to start would probably be with the initial list building.  Making your emails as relevant as possible to your recipients is (as I’ve said far too many times) the key to making a success out of your campaigns.

This always means that a self built list is far, far more useful than a purchased list.  By having a self built list you’re giving yourself a great headstart over any competitors that have chosen the other route.  Have a read of my post “increasing active subscribers” to get a few tips on how to get the most out of your sign up process.

Whilst you’re looking at that post, also have a look at “using transactional emails as a promotional tool” for inspiration on your thank you/receipt emails.

Some of you may be sitting there smugly, knowing full well you have a self-built list, but that’s merely the start of the battle.  You must still make sure you’re sending relevant emails to these people.  You may have several different areas of your company and not each area appeals to each recipient.  So how do you go about targeting those different sectors of your audience I hear you cry?

Have a look at my post “passive segmentation” for ideas on how it should be done.

So with your list self-built and sufficiently segmented, you young padwan, are ready for the next stage: design.

This year it isn’t just about ensuring your designs match the standard requirements, though it does help as a foundation for your campaign (here’s the “email design essentials” to help you).  You will have to really make a great first impression on your recipients when they open.  One subject that was brought up a while ago was videos and animated gifs in emails, which I personally didn’t cover on this blog but you can follow the discussions here (plenty of links in this post as well so you can get the full story).Though, as you will read, there are limitations to it all, it is a great trick to draw someone’s attention straight to a certain area.

Design aspect aside, the content of your email must be something that is always heavily considered.  Try to be regular but at the same time, don’t send for the sake of sending.  You want each email to be as interesting as possible and something that your recipients will be happy to open the next time.  A way to do this is without too much trouble is by linking to social media.  A friend of mine who works in the AOL music department was directing users to the site by hosting the latest buzz videos interlaced with their own recent videos.  A great way to grab the recipients engagement with your content.  For a further thought on this, take a look at “viralability: forward to the future”.

Now onto the final bit, unsubscribing.  Though this has in the past been a one-click affair, 2009 is the year to increase your efforts on the unsubscribing efforts.  Take a look at “preference centres and positive unsubscribe processes” for further assistance.  I’ve put a few great links at the bottom of that post to help you further.

People are suggesting that this year will be a competitive year to say the least in the email marketing world.  I’m sure you may have noticed that the economy has somewhat declined in the past few months and companies are increasingly turning towards email marketing in a bid to still market whilst reducing costs.

So this year you will have to not only attract your customers but also compete against a greater amount of emails in your recipients’ inbox.

Fear not though!  We’re going to point out what you should be looking out for and then give you a couple of ideas on how to distinguish yourself from the competition.

The first thing to do is start to look back at your years statistics.  Try and look at them to see any emerging patterns:

• Yearly Trends (open rates increasing/decreasing)
  • What has changed during the year? Make a note to use for future planning.
  • If you are not already, make sure you’re split testing your campaigns to makes sure you know what makes your recipients react.
  • If you have changed nothing but are still seeing negative results for the year, it may be that your campaign has become stale and un-interesting.  Definitely time for a rethink.

• Any anomalies in results (positive or negative)
  • Look at the campaigns that have out of the ordinary results – what was different?
  • Subject lines, Special Offers, Design etc. should all be looked at to get ideas for your upcoming campaign.

By really spending some time going through the stats, you can get a feel for what turns your customers on/off from your mails.

Re-Energise Campaign

One thing to look out for is a gradually turned off customer base.  If you’ve seen your open stats gradually decrease over the year, it could be that your recipients are slowly growing tired of the same email format you are sending.

A re-energise campaign is in order to get those lost opens back.  Sales, competitions and other similar, out of the ordinary campaigns will re-ignite a lot of your subscribers interest within your campaign.

It could also be a case that you are sending too regularly to your recipients.  Many email experts have always stressed about making each and every email you send interesting and not just sending one for the sake of sending.

Relevant, interesting emails, every email, is the key to a better conversion rate. 

Subject Line

I’m signed up to that Google alerts email for email marketing and some of the ones I’ve recently received have been along the lines of “2009: The year of the subject line”. 

If you’re unsure about subject lines and how to get the most out of them, here are a whole bunch of links that should really get you up to date.

Writing Effective Subject Lines

Subject Line Review

Step Out From the Croud

I know this is really easy for me to say and so much harder for you to do but you have to think of a way to distinguish yourself from the competition.

As there will be more companies using email marketing than before, this point becomes even more valuable than before.

I have previously talked about emails with viralability.  Such an email can have a massive impact not only on business itself but also exposure to new potential customers and if you can think of something which can have this effect, you’re on to a winner.

Themed campaigns can make your emails stand out as well as keeping your newsletters different throughout the year which will keep your recipients interest maintained.

Theme’s could be seasonal or in line with the current news stories or maybe evolve around major events.  All of which should grab their attention (depending your company).

Design

Keeping your newsletters design up to date is another thing worth considering.  Are the call to actions clear and visible?  Is the email engaging and professional?  You can go to my article on the basics for email design and make sure you’re considering everything.

But now people are looking further and I think probably the biggest buzz around email marketing is videos and animated gifs in emails.  Perhaps the big trend on 2009?   Only in moderation hopefully.

Hopefully this has given you some good ideas on where to take your 2009 email marketing campaign. Remember to keep A/B Split testing everything you do and learn from each mistake and success that occurs.