It seems that the guys at Australia-based Campaigner Monitor are officially carrying the torch for email marketing design and implementation. I for one couldn’t be happier, and think they are doing a fantastic job with their new initiative.
It’s called the Email Standards Project; its aim: to create a universal standard for email design, akin to the existing universal Web Standards that every web designer adheres religiously to, so that we can all code faster, easier and better HTML emails that will work across all email clients.
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We all love Easter Egg or scavenger hunts.
The Globe & Mail (one of Toronto’s biggest newspapers) have announced a new website promotion that should tickle many a reader’s fancy.
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Much to my dismay, after trying to get my own Free Email Marketing Templates page dugg on Digg (and getting a measly 3 diggs), I saw Campaign Monitor get way up there on the first page of Digg with their page of 30 free templates. Great for them.
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Free Email Marketing templates available now.
Visit http://www.carbongraffiti.com/emailmarketing/emailtemplates.html to preview and download 10 different hand-coded HTML email templates, designed to ensure maximum compatibility with most email clients including Outlook 2007. All designs incorporate industry best practices including CAN-SPAM compliance.
Isn’t it just that simple?
When the internet started, just having a website meant you were likely to be found. But as more people and and more businesses created more websites, the ability to be unique and one-of-a-kind became more difficult. So now, 8 A.G. (after Google) on, the internet is no longer a luxury to those who know how to program, but the norm to anyone and everyone who owns a PC or Mac. And with the ubiquity of the net, websites and blogs, computers and so on, getting seen and heard as a marketer is really difficult; as of 2004, Google was indexing over 8 billion webpages. Imagine what it is now?
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If you’re strapped for time and need to send an email campaign ASAP, don’t have the resources to design a campaign from scratch, or are just plain lazy, visit www.CarbonGraffiti/emailmarketing/emailtemplates.html now to find 10 hand-coded HTML templates ready-to-use. Simply replace the copy with your own, make a few image tweaks (curse you, Outlook 2007), host the images on your server, and send away.
All templates are hand-coded in HTML to ensure maximum compatibility (on most email clients, especially Outlook 2007 in all of its non-CSS-and-Microsoft Word-rendering glory), and images are included in the downloadable ZIP file. Email Marketing Best Practices such as ‘Can’t view this email properly’, Forward and Subscribe buttons, CAN-SPAM compliance and minimal use of background images and/or CSS are adhered to, wrapped in simple and actionable designs.
All templates are free to use, with link-backs and attribution most appreciated.
I’m blatantly syndicating this blog post by David Baker of Avenue A/Razorfish as it does the rounds, because I feel it adroitly simplifies what email marketing should (and might) become in the near future. I saw David speak at a WOMMA conference in 2006, and was as impressed then as I am now with his views and generally 360 grasp on online marketing today.
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According to Chad Mauldin:
‘Google recently filed for a new patent, here, on technology to display ads in email. Some may disregard this, seeing as Google already displays ads inside of Gmail, but this is somewhat different. This is Adwords for email, essentially allowing anyone to place Adsense inside of their outgoing mail, specifically mentioned in the patent, newsletters.
What impact will this have? This will allow advertisers to target certain websites email newsletters, provide publishers on more avenue for revenue, and with that provide Google with an even broader reach. Imagine opening your yahoo/msn/hotmail/any mail account and seeing Google branding and ads.’
The more relevant questions are… how was this not going to happen eventually (I can definitely imagine seeing ads in my hotmail/yahoo/msn account), and are Google pretty much on course to dominate your entire online life? (… and maybe your physical world too?)
This might be well-timed though, considering Outlook 2007’s inability to show rotating gif’s/banner ads in email, Adsense might put money in advertiser’s pockets and see the banner ad go the way of the dodo.
This is likely old news by now, but newsworthy nonetheless. As reported by a recent Forrester Research study, a very healthy 97% of consumers now use email, and 94% of marketers are now using email as part of their larger marketing mix.
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As more and more well-known multi-national companies seem to be turning to email marketing for lead and customer communications, it seems that regardless of their huge budgets they’re overlooking some classic best practices that are crucial in getting their message delivered and acted upon. Subject lines, content, copy, and choice of ESP all play huge roles, but by sending all-image email campaigns to their subscribers, these companies are sabotaging all their pre-send efforts.
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