It's that time of year again – the goose is getting fat and the shrewd internet marketers are busy putting finishing touches to this season's killer email campaign. For many businesses, Christmas is a superb opportunity to capitalise on the nation's willingness to splash out on family and friends.

Experts predict that approximately £6.4 billion will be spent online during December 2010, an increase on the £5.5 billion spent in December last year, according to IMRG and Capgemini. In this article, we'll take a look at how you can ensure you get a slice of the pie this Christmas.

Email Marketing Ideas to Boost Christmas Sales
As with all forms of marketing, your company's email newsletter shouldn't stand still. With increased online buying comes more competition and greater shopper expectations, happy to give their well earned cash to those offering the best Christmas shopping experience and value for money.

The following tips are designed to help hone your email marketing techniques in preparation for the holiday season.

1. Check Your Calendar
Timing is everything. Ireland, for example, has a traditional day (the 8th of December) set aside for shopping. Are there any regional variances relevant to your target audience? Consider arranging your campaign to coincide with this collective surge in consciousness. Learn from last year, what worked well, what was the busiest period?

2. Subject Line
Don't under estimate the importance of your email's subject line. Time spent working through ideas and trying them out on people can make all the difference with how many of your emails actually get opened.

• Use relevant product names where possible
• Create a sense of urgency
• Include your unique proposition
• Avoid generic, unimaginative headings at all costs

Your offer may be amazing, your copy outstanding, but all to no avail if your email subject line doesn't entice your customers to open the mail.

3. Less Is More
Instead of bombarding your audience with promotions, consider focusing on a single well thought through offer. A genuinely attractive promotion over a longer period is likely to carry far more weight than a splash of one-off, low value deals.

4. Conversions
Bringing people to your site is one thing, but converting those prospects to sales is entirely another. Ensure your call-to-action is clear and defined on the page and double check the 'customer journey' – from shopping cart to payment. Consider using split testing with small samples to gauge responses.

5. How Much Is Too Much?
If you're going to step up a gear this Christmas compared to your usual mailing frequency, consider warning your customers first. Suddenly and aggressively targeting current subscribers could well result in customers unsubscribing. Building a little excitement with an imaginative campaign comprising of a sequence of emails will both warm your subscribers up and, better still, pique their interest.

Online shopping is an increasingly popular activity, especially in view of the busy schedules people keep. By running these few checks you can ensure that your Christmas email marketing campaigns will be an effective resource for your customers, and a sound investment for you.

No matter how savvy you feel you are when it comes to the subject of email marketing, the landscape is constantly shifting. To stay ahead of the crowd, then, it has become vital to regularly review your strategies and to adapt according to the latest trends.

Even with increased competition, email newsletter marketing continues to be one of the best ways to cut marketing costs while reaching more customers than ever before. With the popularity of social media engagement and cross platform marketing, your newsletter can still play a key role in coordinating your online promotions.

Taking your Email Marketing to the Next Level
As with all forms of marketing, your company's email newsletter shouldn't stand still. In the second part of this two part series we look at the latest techniques to maximise your email marketing.

Perception of Value
Okay, they may have given you their email address at some point in the past, but don't be fooled into assuming your current subscribers (a) remember who you are or (b) even care. Whether you send out weekly, monthly or quarterly newsletters – find a subtle way of reminding the reader of your unique value proposition that prompted them to sign up in the first place.

Consider the Bigger Picture
When it comes to marketing a service or product, an email is rarely just an email. It forms part of the overall customer experience (as opposed to just subscribers). Avoid slipping those blinkers on and thinking of email marketing as a sterile environment.

Consider how your marketing efforts align with your overall brand and image, and ensure your message is consistent.

Use your resources
Only by using data correctly will you ensure your subscribers' experience is a fulfilling one. Data holds the key to any successful marketing campaign. However, as you collect data be careful not to discard or dismiss vital information such as user preferences (how information is used, frequency of messages etc.) – this information is arguably as important as your creative marketing efforts.

Listen to what they have asked for, and deliver on your promise.

Carrot and Stick
Whilst blindly firing out emails and asking for subscribers may result in an initially high success rate, the subsequent drop-off may prove less desirable. Remember, you want people to want your email.

Consider including a sample with your initial mail-out or promotional offer – this will ultimately result in an engaged, receptive readership as opposed to an indifferent one.

Bite-Sized Chunks
You can't please all of the people all of the time, and expecting your content to be absolutely relevant to every one of your subscribers is – in short - unrealistic. With this in mind, the email 'mini-series' has become a popular vehicle for many email marketers.

Pick a topic that engages the reader and bears some relevance to current events – for example the 12 days of Christmas, New Year's resolutions, 7 deadly sins and so on. Placing your message in some kind of social context provides fresh and stimulating ways to engage your readership.

So, when you sit down to write your next marketing email – consider some of the points above. Don't be afraid however to experiment and learn from the results – the rest is up to you!

If you would like assistance in evaluating the effectiveness of your email marketing activities, or wish to create your own email marketing strategy, call us on 0845 345 2592.

Engaging with customers via social media platforms has become the shiny new star in the online marketing world. This doesn't mean that tried and tested marketing methods such as email is dead. In fact, email content still leads to more purchases, subscriptions, and other types of conversions than social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

While social media is changing the internet landscape, email is still the preferred and most effective method of reaching consumers with online promotions and branding messages. It is also one of the most popular ways consumers like to share information with friends or family, with share activity rates for people using email of over 46%.

Making Over Your Email Marketing
The lagging economy has boosted rather than hindered the success of email marketing. Marketers are continuing to increase their investment in building email lists and honing their email marketing efforts, and still find it to be a cost effective tool for reaching existing and potential customers, and in getting the best return on investment for their marketing budget.

So how can you cash in on the power of email marketing? Here are some tips:

Segment Your List
When you first start email marketing, you'll most likely send the same messages and offers to everyone on the list. This is fine when your list is small but as it grows, you'll want to begin tailoring your message to the specific tastes and needs of each individual person on your list.

Segmenting, or separating and categorising the members on your list according to factors such as age, hobbies, sex, or click history will help you to maximise the efficiency of your messages and the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Design an Effective Email
Design your email using a combination of plain text and graphics. A well crafted design will not only effectively convey your brand, it will also help direct readers to the main promotional offers and demonstrate their appeal.

When preparing your design, keep in mind the increasing number of people checking their emails from mobile devices. Ideally, your message should be just as easily read – and actioned – on the go.

Take Time Over the Copy
Your email copy should be an extension of your company's ‘online persona'. Use a tone that your customers will relate to and try to build trust with your readers.

As well as achieving the right tone of voice, use action words that describe how your product or website can solve a unique problem or provide a useful service.

Use a Strong Call to Action
A call to action is simply an eye catching offer or selling phrase that will draw people to your website after they read your email. You can use price as a call to action and offer a huge discount, great rate or time sensitive promotions.

The call to action needs to be short and concise, leaving the reader in no doubt what to do to take the next step. Keep in mind that your call to action will have a lot of competition. Identify your strengths in order to make your offers stand out from your competitors.

Bringing it All Together
Once you have created an effective email list, segmented it, and designed email messages that work, you should make sure that the landing page on your website is also attractive and will convert visitors into customers – but that's a whole new article.

Finally, track conversions carefully to determine which call to action links are creating the most conversions. Tracking the effectiveness of your campaigns will enable you to adjust your efforts accordingly. If you would like help improving your email marketing activities, please let us know

Corporate blogging has become a particularly effective marketing tool for developing and maintaining valued customer relationships and is increasingly proving an excellent way to attract new web traffic from search engines. A proficient business blog can also be used to engage existing customers beyond a one-off purchase.

A well designed and implemented blog can act as a hub for your search marketing, social media marketing and, maybe not as obviously, for your email marketing initiatives. So what techniques should you adopt to ensure a coordinated approach to your promotional activities?

How Blog and Email Marketing Compliment Each Other
Writing a business blog is fast becoming an essential tool in an online marketing arsenal. Today, the benefits of publishing an active blog are widely enjoyed by major corporations and small enterprises alike. Some of these benefits include:

• Extending your company brand.
• An adaptable platform that allows ongoing dialogue with your customers.
• Encouraging customers to engage with you about key issues.
• Allowing you to demonstrate and promote your expertise.
• Providing a catalogue of relevant content to attract qualified search engine traffic.
• Enabling you to incorporate social media activities into your online marketing.

Combine your blog with some best practice email marketing techniques, and you have a potent marketing mix. The following are some ideas that will help you successfully combine your blog with your email marketing campaigns.

1. Promote Your Newsletter with Your Blog
A well published blog is a great way to attract new visitors. Some will come by way of search engines that refer your content in search results. Better still; some web traffic will come by way of direct links from related blogs or authority web sites that reference your articles.

Either way, this is free, targeted web traffic, which are there to be converted. Positioning a straightforward newsletter subscription form prominently on your blog will provide an easy way for visitors to stay in touch beyond their initial visit.

2. Strike While the Iron is Hot
If someone has left feedback or a testimonial message in response to your article, send them an email thanking them and pointing them in the direction of your latest promotion - research shows that buyers are highly motivated immediately after instigating correspondence.

3. Cross-Platform Content Sharing
Once you begin content sharing, you will never again be stuck for email newsletter content. Summaries and links to your latest and greatest blog posts make excellent content for your next newsletter. This strategy works the other way around too - use a segment of your blog template to feature existing promotions from your most recent email campaign.

Not only will this strategy save time with content creation, it will also help maintain message consistency and bring greater emphasis to your promotions.

4. Request Feedback and Invite Testimonials
Use a combination of your blog and email campaigns to encourage your website visitors to engage with you by leaving comments and provide product reviews. A coordinated approach to feedback and testimonials will not only increase your reach, but also enable you to successfully "join the social media conversation."

In conclusion, a consistent approach to your marketing correspondence will help drive home your most important messages and establish you firmly as an expert in your field.

With such a tremendous rise in the popularity of social media and networking websites today, one might be forgiven for thinking that more traditional online marketing methods, such as email marketing - have had their day. But in fact, email marketing remains a very popular and effective marketing medium that continues to thrive alongside social media and networking sites.

Think of it this way - there are 150 billion internet users worldwide - 39.4 million are in the UK alone (Source: eMarketer) and around 90% of those have access to and use email. By comparison, these numbers still generously outweigh social media sites and even search activities. So, how can you make sure your company get the most out of its email campaigns?

10 Checks to Help Sharpen Your Email Marketing Saw
While email marketing still holds its own on the World Wide Web, it's important to consider how recent trends brought about by ever-evolving online behaviours impact the way we access and use email. As a result, the following ten tips include some tried-and-tested advice (from the dawn of online time), along with some more progressive recommendations that will help ensure your email marketing is innovative and successful.

First, some traditional and still valuable tips that remain unaffected by time:

1. Become a Recognised Sender
Be clear, and consistent with your "From" email address and your "Sender" name. This is the first port-of-call in getting your email successfully delivered, recognised and opened and should not be overlooked.

2. Make Them Want to Read More - Be Creative with Your Subject Line
Once your email is recognised, the next obstacle is getting your email actually opened by the recipient. Two key factors remain the best way to accomplish this - your reputation and your email subject line. Take some time to hit the right note with your readers in your subject line, enticing your audience to open your correspondence.

3. Make it Personal - Address Readers by Their Name
This is pretty old news by now – but still not followed widely enough. Email broadcast tools make adding the recipient's name a simple procedure and helps turn a form letter into a personalised message.

4. Tell Them What You Want - Include Unmistakable Calls to Action
Make it simple, even obvious, for recipients to know what you want them to do next. Then, follow through your call to action with consistent messaging on your website landing page.

5. Use a Combination of Text and Images
Most email clients block images by default. This means that an email message made up entirely of images will look completely blank when it is opened. A mix of text and images helps ensure your message comes across even if the images are not permitted to appear.

Now for some more ‘next generation' recommendations...

6. Make it Easy to Unsubscribe
While making it easy to opt-out of your list may sound a little crazy, it is in line with how consumers are used to being treated on social networking sites. The ability to unsubscribe easily from a list - or stop receiving feeds on Facebook, for instance - is a key component of acknowledging consumer choice and, in the long run, ensures happier customers.

7. Bring it all Together - Include Social Links
Use your social media and networking activities to promote your newsletter, and use your newsletter to help promote your website and your social media presence. Eventually, your subscribers will be used to seeing "Find us on Facebook" and "Follow us on Twitter" buttons, and with only one or two clicks, you will have the opportunity of opening an additional correspondence.

8. Provide Greater Data Management
Web users are developing more astute surfing habits and are increasingly aware of the value attached to their data. Giving subscribers the opportunity to view and manage their data will help build trust, keep your lists updated and enable you to send more targeted messages.

9. Implement List Segmentation
With so much online content competing for consumer attention, the emphasis is well and truly on message relevancy. Collecting relevant data about your subscribers lets you segment your list to ensure you send the most targeted content possible to those who will be most interested in it. The more relevant your message, the better it is received and the more often it is acted upon.

10. Finally, Test and Learn
Activity resulting from an email, as with other online marketing activities, is very track-able. Analysing how recipients behave as a result of receiving your email message will help you identify areas to improve.

Email marketing consistently offers a solid return on investment. Adapting your efforts to accommodate Web 2.0 trends will ensure it remains that way. If you would like to explore how your email marketing activities can be improved, call us on 0845 345 2592.

Corresponding with your customers and leads via an email newsletter is still one of the strongest marketing activities the Web has to offer. However, increased competition for your readers' time and attention demonstrates the importance of not resting on your email marketing laurels.

As marketing over the internet evolves towards a more mobile and social medium, it is important to evaluate whether your email newsletter campaigns reflect how and from where your content will be viewed.

Advanced Techniques for Improving Your Email Marketing Activities
Email still serves as an important medium for corresponding with your customers – it's versatile, delivers instant results, it can be easily personalised, and is cost effective. However, it is no longer enough to just send emails – you need to employ techniques to help increase the effectiveness of your email newsletter marketing. Here are some of them:

1. Relevant Content
Content is still king – especially well-prepared content. Deliver articles, PDF white papers, case studies, MP3 downloads and videos that will enhance your readers' business skills and leave them in no doubt why they should stay subscribed to your newsletter, and where to come if they need some help.

Not all the above content formats can be embedded in an email, but the true purpose of the email is to encourage readers to click through to your website, where the complete message can be accessed.

Another effective way to deliver relevant content is to segment your list and deliver a personalised message that matches your subscribers' interests. A professional email newsletter-marketing engine provides tools to identify readers' interests from previous campaigns and allows you to segment your contacts accordingly.

2. Monitor the Quality of Your Email List
Having a qualified list of targeted email addresses can make all the difference for your email marketing campaigns. Remember, quantity does not always mean quality. If a large number of recipients have never opened your email, you may want to consider removing them from your list – or prepare a message to target these contacts directly.

Recipients unsubscribe from an email list for a number of reasons, such as:

• The content is no longer relevant
• Your email frequency is too high – you've become a bother
• Your email frequency is too low – they have forgotten you
• Too many emails are crowding the recipient's inbox
• The subscriber's situation changes

The quality of your email list will have a significant impact on the success of your campaigns, so your efforts to keep your list updated will bear fruit.

3. Review Your Design
Your email deign should not only reflect your business branding; it should also present your content in an intuitive, professional layout. When preparing your HTML email design, you should assume that your images will be turned off by default, and so make sure your message is not lost without the images appearing.

When people view emails in a preview pane, they see only a fraction of the message. This makes the top section of your email the most important area. Try to use this area to instantly present your brand and share your main message or offer.

With an increasing number of people accessing their emails via a mobile device, you may want to use images sparingly to ensure that your main message is not missed.

4. Co-ordinate Your Landing Pages
The landing page is the page on your website the subscriber clicks through to from your email. With ever- increasing message competition it is important to instantly make it clear how the content from your email continues onto your website.

The headline (and images) on your landing page should have a direct correlation to the link the subscriber clicks on. Your landing page should also make it quite clear what your site visitor should do next: make a purchase, fill in a form, call you, make a download etc.

5. Integrate with other Content Marketing Activities
As social media is embraced by businesses genuinely participating in the global community, it is possible you will develop more than one internet presence. While your website should always be the centre of your online marketing messages, it is advantageous to provide additional ways for your target audience to 'join the conversation'.

Your newsletter can play a key role in promoting your multi-platform approach. Consider dedicating a small section of your email design to include a 'find us on Facebook' link or a 'follow us on Twitter' link, as well as links to your latest blog posts, YouTube videos and more. This will enable you to co-ordinate your message and develop a cohesive marketing strategy.

The best marketing strategies incorporate ways to measure their effectiveness; email marketing campaigns provide ample analysis to enable you to identify and cultivate potential buyers and then track whether they respond to your marketing messages and ultimately make a purchase. If you would like help improving your email marketing activities, please call us on 0845 345 2592.