I’ve read a couple of blog posts recently that turned out to be a bit of an eye opener and have really helped me to look at email marketing in a new light (look at the bottom of the page for links).

Now, I can hold my hand up and admit that I may have spent too much time getting obsessed with the strategic side of email marketing and not offering some more inspiration for creativity.

Don’t get me wrong, I think a well thought about and well maintained email marketing campaign can really work wonders for you.  The problem lies in the fact that more and more companies are taking on email marketing and soon enough there will be many well maintained email marketing campaigns and yours will not be standing out from that crowd as much.

As well as having a stand out campaign, the main goal in todays climate is to not only grow the recipient list but to make sure that these recipients are attentive to your messages.  With that in mind I started to think about email campaigns and the holy grail of viral-ability (yes, I have just made that up, but if Ian Dowie can do it….).

In a previous post I pointed out how H&M had exceeded my expectations by giving me a £10 voucher when I signed up, which I then subsequently told my friends about who also signed up.  Though this was an expensive technique that most companies can’t really afford, the idea of it is still worth some heavy thought. 

Yes, I know, it’s easier said than done but if you can get something that has that forwarding on effect, you can guarantee yourself some serious, cheap exposure.

You have your usual just for laughs viral campaign that will guarantee forwarding during those long office hours (such as reggae irie name generator). 

But it doesn’t have to just be the usual type of viral campaign.  The H&M one was just such a good offer, it would be rude not to tell your friends about free money.  Another great example of this is from one of our own customers, The Urban Shop. They offer 15% off to anyone who forwards the email to their friends, plus another 10% for the person who gets the forwarded message.  Both people benefit from the forward whilst at the same time encouraging the recipient to sign up to the list to receive greater discount in the future.

Another thing you’ll have to remember is to not leave it to the customer to forward this email on.  Treat the link like you would a call-to-action (which it is really), and make sure that a well-placed forward button is present for them to click on.

So when you’re next creating an email make sure that you think long and hard about your forward link, it could be a fantastic way to not only re-ignite or maintain your recipients interest in your campaign, but may prove to be a successful way to increase your mailing list size in the process.

Useful Related Articles:

BeRelevant: How To Make Your Email Marketing Campaign Stand Out From The Rest

No Man is an iland: Take a design risk and get animated? I was dubious about this idea until I read the post and then was left with a head-nodding hmmm at the end

A little while ago I wrote an article about using transactional email as a promotion tool.  I wrote the article and then just completely forgot about the subject, until recently.

Today, I was just catching up on all the blog posts I’d missed over the past week or so and stumbled across a couple that really got me thinking about this subject again (see links at the bottom of my post).

When I wrote my post I just thought that by throwing in a couple of other related or best selling items into the email might increase a bit of interest within your company post-purchase.

As Nick Valeriote points out in his blog post, on average 54% of transactional emails are opened compared to the 21% of promotional emails that are opened.  As far as I can see it, you have opportunities to do so much with that transactional email.

Firstly you could try and get repeat business by offering a time-constrained deal or voucher.  Offering a month long discount or promotion to them will encourage repeat purchasing and may even put them on the step to the marketing holy grail – brand loyalty.  This kind of promotion as well would not be something that would annoy your recipient; whilst it is encouraging them to return to your site and purchase, it’s giving them something for free and not being too pushy.

Another option you could take up is a “send to a friend” promotion.  Once again, you will be offering a discount or voucher to both the sender and recipient of the promotion.  This way as well, you can take advantage of the purchasers recent interest in your company and reward it by giving them something for passing on your companies information.  Not only could this be a great way to increase both sales and email list size but there is no more trusted marketing channel than word of mouth; especially when the deal is sweetened with a discount.

Urgent: Why you should put house ads in your transactional emails starting tomorrow

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29944

Enhance your transactional emails

http://www.inboxmarketer.com/blog/2008/03/enhance-your-transactional-messages.html

“Send to Friend” in emails can be very useful in not only spreading your message but also in expanding your list with customers who are open to the messages you are sending out.

There was a recent debate on the email marketers club from someone who wanted to send out emails to all the contacts he had (500,000 or so) but only 200,000 had actually asked for any further communication from them.  He wanted to send them a free voucher to spend at his company’s store.  The thing is, however tempted you are to send to those others, they opted out for a reason.

That’s not really the point of this post.  There was hefty debate over this mans’ proposal, and though the majority disagreed with him sending to those “opt-out” recipients, some decent alternatives were brought up.

The best idea was an open “send to friend” on this voucher he was going to send his customers.  So not only is he not treading on anyone’s feet, but any forwards that his recipients are sending are increasing his own marketing spread.  Not only that, but his recipients are actually doing some marketing work for him; sending the message to friends who they think might be interested in the product.

It’s not all that easy though.  You can’t just stick a send to a friend in the newsletter and think that people will instantly be inclined to forward it.  Like the above example, send an incentive to both forwarders and the recipients.  Something like “refer a friend to our list and receive 15% off of your next purchase with us”.  As ever I’ll leave you to work out what incentive would best suit your company, but just think of the potential that a well-constructed “send to a friend” could do for your company.