VerticalResponse for AppExchange Blog

Why Your Email Should Resemble A Picture Book

Remember reading picture books as a child and the happy, warm and enjoyable emotions that usually accompanied the process? Whether it's reading a picture book to yourself, to your child, or to a group of eager 2nd graders, it's hard to feel anything but positive emotions while projecting playful sentences or turning the book to display the vibrant images. And it's usually those positive emotions that keep everyone interested, entertained and captivated.

We know what you're thinking...how do picture books relate to email marketing? Well, much like a picture book is designed to gather and keep readers' attention, emails should also be crafted to enthrall their audience. This is not to say that your recipients are equivalent to a group of 2nd graders, but with busy schedules and workdays their attention spans certainly may be. Below are suggestions for designing your email to captivate your audience.

Keep it positive! - No one likes to read a sad story or see unattractive images whether they come from a picture book or an email. Likewise, we certainly don't want any of that negativity associated with our company or brand. To avoid this, insert images that include smiling faces, vibrant colors or appealing scenery to your emails and use positive language wherever possible.

Example: Use conversational language within your emails or include a joke! It will not only make your messages more digestible but it may even give your customers a reason to smile.

Appeal to aesthetics - Much like a picture book appeals to its audience with a healthy balance of pictures to text, an email should include about 20% images and 80% text. Rather than overwhelm readers with an all text email, include images to draw-in your recipients' attention and encourage them to read the accompanying text.

Example: Include a complimentary image for each headline, title or section of your monthly newsletter.

A picture still tells 1,000 words - A reader's eyes will usually be drawn to an image first and then look to your text for an explanation. Make sure the pictures in your emails are relevant to your text in order to keep your message consistent. Similarly, relevant images can help to quickly convey the purpose of your email to recipients.

Example: Include a coupon or image that displays the total savings in promotional emails.

Credit the Author - After doing the work to create aesthetically appealing, positive and relevant messages you'll certainly want to your company to reap the benefits! Make sure the from label in your messages clearly references your company name or company owner and include a company logo in the header of each email message.

Example: To avoid entering the information in "Set Up" each time you create an email, you can save your company name, logo and address under the "Account Information" link in upper right hand corner of the "VR Email" tab.

Want more?  Check out the Image Library section of our help site for more information on how to easily find, edit and add images or attend our weekly VR for Salesforce live demonstration.

Posted by Savannah Stewart

Savannah Stewart is the Partner Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse and blogs here about all things related to marketing and B2B communication. Connect with her on Twitter at @savannahstewart.

Event Marketing is Coming to VR for AppEx - Stay Tuned!

Back in June we announced we're adding event marketing and ticket sales to our product offerings, and we're delighted that VerticalResponse for AppExchange Event Marketing will be released very soon! This new tool will enable you to quickly create event websites, sell online tickets, accept sponsorships and donations, and send emails to promote your events − all through your VR for Salesforce account.

After the launch, users of VR for AppExchange will notice a new “Events” section under the "Resources and Tools" portion of the VR Email tab in your account.

Getting Started & Selling Tickets

To get started you'll simply complete a quick sign-up page. After that, you’ll be creating and marketing your event in no time!

With VR for AppExchange Event Marketing there are several ways to "sell" event tickets:

• Create an online box office on the event website where customers can buy tickets to your events.
• Use the Shopping Cart feature to sell tickets at various price points (or free of charge) that your customers can purchase, and then print a receipt to gain entrance to your event. 
• Embed the ticket widget on your web site, or even your Facebook page, within minutes!

Collecting Funds

If you're selling tickets, the funds can be deposited directly in your PayPal account. Ticket purchases and revenue figures can be accessed for your event at any time, allowing you to quickly gauge how your promotions are performing and whether you need to expand your mailing lists or exposure to social networks.

Get Social with Your Event Marketing

Speaking of social networks, have you taken advantage of our recent Social Media Updates for getting the word out about your email campaigns and events? Well, now’s your chance! Your event marketing programs can also benefit from our social media update to track the popularity of your events among your customers and their social networks. Simply turn on our social sharing features in your email invitations and announcements, and then your customers and their connections can promote your events for the widest reach possible. The number of posts, tweets, and Forward to a Friend actions are all tracked through your VerticalResponse email reports dashboard.

Event Marketing Email Templates

Currently in your VR for AppEx account there are new email templates that can be tailored for a variety of invitations and campaigns. If you've already created emails for events you don't have to worry about redoing all the great work you already have, since invitations can be sent through your VerticalResponse account.

Non-Profit Discount

We're proud to offer our non-profit customers discounts on the service we provide, and with Event Marketing we continue our commitment to those of you who do so much for your communities. Along with selling tickets and collecting payments you can also accept donations or sell sponsorships for your events. Event sponsors can then be recognized in your invitations and event website to showcase those who donate to your cause.

Feedback

As you can see there's a lot to be excited about, and we hope you are as excited about these new features as we are to provide them! To foster your input we added “Event Marketing” in the Feedback tab of the application, since we're very interested to hear your impressions while working with VR for AppExchange Event Marketing. We ask that you continue to provide feedback and suggestions to improve and maximize your experience, and we'll strive to bring more of these great features to you!

Hit Your Target Audience with Geotargeting

  There are many tactics you can use to build your lists and maximize their efficiency:

• Run  split tests to increase open and click performance.
• Use Salesforce campaigns to target by a contact's lead or opportunity status.
• Map list data to personalize your message based on specific contact information. 

One simple method of list creation that's  often overlooked is geotargeting. Geotargeting involves building your list to send specific messages or offers to target individuals by geographic area. How's it done and why should you do it? Glad you asked!

To create a geotargeted mailing list you'll need to have a contact's city, zip code or phone in your salesforce records. You can collect information to target markets by any size area you'd like. Next, use this information to run a Salesforce report based on the specific geographic information you've gathered. Then, add the members of that report to a Salesforce campaign and select to use that campaign as a list.

Check out our blog post How to Use a Salesforce Report as an Email List, our guide Map Salesforce List Data or view our tutorial Build Lists Using Lead & Contact Queries for more detailed step-by-step instructions on creating targeted lists.

Okay, now that you know how to do it, why should you give it a try?  We've compiled a list of our top geotargeting ideas. Check them out! And, feel free to comment and add to the list!

1. Events - Use geotargeting to promote events to residents of specific regions. Rather than send a mass email informing recipients of multiple events in various cities or states, use geotargeting to send a more specific invitation. This can increase both sign-up and attendance rates by making the invitation more relevant and exclusive.

2. Promotions - Notice low sales, subscriptions, or sign-ups in a particular area? Send a targeted promotion to low performing regions or use geotargeting to vary offers across low or high performing territories.

3. Personalization - Personalize messages by referencing local celebrations, events or landmarks.  Your messaging will be more relevant, personal and effective. Moreover, recipients are more likely to feel they are being addressed by an individual instead of a large corporation. 

4. Loyalty - Let your local customers know that you're nearby. This not only informs them that you are easily accessible, but allows you to foster a more personal and intimate relationship with them. Individuals are often more comfortable conducting business locally, especially when they know you share a city or state or that you're only a neighborhood or even a block away.

5. Subject Lines - Geotargeting can also be used in subject lines to increase open rates. Reference an individual's place of residence or even their hometown in your subject line to catch their attention. Recipients may be more likely to notice a message containing their city or state in the inbox over a generic subject line.

Want more on lists? Check-out the lists section of our VR for AppExchange helpsite for information and tutorials on managing lists, creating opt-in forms and queries, and list best practices.

Related posts:

How to Use a Salesforce Report as an Email List

Top 10 Things to Test to Put Your Email on the Top 10 List!

5 Simple Tips to Engage Your Audience

Ever open up your inbox and see an email from an unfamiliar sender you don't remember subscribing to? Most of us have and the first reaction is usually to delete the message and perhaps even unsubscribe. If the sender hasn't been of value to you at this point, chances are they won't be in the future.

It's important to develop a rapport with your subscribers in order to add value to your emails. Below are 5 tips to keep your recipients engaged and coming back for more.

1. Consistency is key: It's important to follow a consistent sending schedule. With too little messaging recipients may forget who you are or forget they even subscribed to receive emails and if you mail too frequently, your audience may become overwhelmed and feel spammed. To avoid either scenario, create a schedule or a baseline for your minimum and maximum number of sends (i.e., at least once a month and no more than twice weekly). Stick to a schedule and your recipients will pay attention to your content and not the number of messages in their inbox.

2. Diversify your messaging: The last thing you want is for your recipients to be bored with your messaging or to feel the sole purpose of your emails is to sell them something. Rather than send the same promotional offer or product promotion week after week, change it up by sending a newsletter with industry tips, a company update or an employee profile. Having a good mix and variety of information with relevant content rules.

3. Reward your recipients: As many of us gathered in grade school, the best way to captivate an audience is by rewarding them for their attention. Are we suggesting you deliver each of your list members Red Vines, Tootsie Rolls or Jolly Ranchers for opening your emails? Not exactly, but you can reward your recipients by holding contests or randomly selecting a list member to receive a discount on your product or a free one-month subscription to your service.

4. Know your audience: When you notice a decline in open or click rates or a spike in unsubscribes find the cause. Ask your audience for feedback, send out a survey or encourage comments to find out what they're thinking. Put yourself in your readers shoes and ask yourself what would catch your attention or what would you find interesting? Then experiment with a test. Send two emails with differing subject lines, content or send times to optimize performance rates. 

5. Keep growing your list: After creating engaging emails you'll want to send them to as many individuals as possible.  You'll lost approximately 30% of your subscribers each year due to attrition, so you constantly need to grow your list. The easiest way is to include an opt-in form on your website, blog and your Facebook page or other social networks.

Follow these simple tips and your subscribers will keep coming back to the inbox for more!

Related Posts:

5 Ways to Get More Action from Your Call-to-Action

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