Great Email Marketing Resources

We all do it. We all get to a point in our projects, our mailings, or our day to day when we feel like we need a change. It may come naturally, or it may be helped along by an event. The good news is that there are amazing guides out there available to us to help us evolve our email marketing.

Here are a few of my fav's:

1. Mail Chimp's Resource Library: Ton's of easy to read, well written white papers on every top email topic. http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/

2. Epsilon's Email Institute: Packed with great trending news updates and quarterly design "look books". http://www.emailinstitute.com/best-practices/email-marketing

3. The Email Experience Council: Fantastic content from in the know email marketers across a variety of industries. http://www.emailexperience.org/email-resources

Do you have a few that you follow that are not listed here? Post them in the comments to share!

~ Stephanie

Animated GIF's in Gmail: Love it or hate it?

Recently, I have been seeing more and more retailers utilizing animated gif's in their emails to add a fun or intriguing addition to their creative.

As an avid user of Gmail, I think it's pretty cool. I wonder though how many other email clients allow it to rotate? It certainly seems worthwhile if your list is predominately Gmail users.

Here are some recent examples I've seen:

Clinique: Summertime Rotating Hammock: click here
American Eagle: Front/Back Rotating Models: click here
Piperlime: Rotating Free Shipping Call Out: click here

Have any of you tried this yet? Please comment below with your thoughts and results!

Happy Emailing-

Stephanie

Email Design Tips for Small Business Marketers

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Brought to you by The Exact Target Blog Posted: 02 Aug 2011 07:30 AM PDT You've got your subscriber list and communication strategy, but before you start creating your emails consider these tips for designing a more effective campaign: 1.       Create Brand Synergy. Utilize your current brand elements to create a cohesive online brand experience. 2.      Watch your Image and Text ratio. Images may look aesthetically pleasing, but too many divert attention from your message and may cause your email to be too large for and blocked from some email clients. Images should balance and complement your text content. 3.      Use Tables. For consistent display and better control of your email layout, use tables when writing your HTML and when formatting your content within ExactTarget's Content Editor. Check out these resources on Coding HTML for email vs. web. 4.      Edit Images. Use photo editing programs to edit images to proper size and save the edited images in your portfolio. For best rendering results use JPEG or GIF file types. 5.      Use Plain Text and Web-Safe Fonts. Text from websites or word processors include formatting that cause rendering issues when pasted into your email. Copy your text into a Plain Text Editor such as Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac) and format your text using web-safe fonts. 6.      Have a Clear Message. Use a Call-to-Action to encourage a response from your subscribers. 7.      Optimize Your Content. Adding background colors to images and including styled "alt" tags will allow your subscribers to experience your content when images are blocked.  8.      Design for the Subscriber Experience. Organize your content according to the six stages of the email experience. 9.      Be CAN-SPAM Compliant. Become familiar with commercial email regulations and what your email needs to include. 10.  Test. Errors can reduce your message's effectiveness and your brand's credibility. Here's a testing checklist. BONUS TIP: Get Social. Integrate social media into your email design. For more interactive marketing tips and advice, read our past blogs or follow @ETDesign on Twitter! Amanda Parks Associate Designer, Small Business ExactTarget Campaign Solutions Team