VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

US Holiday Reminder - Mother's Day is Around the Corner

It's that special day that jewelry shops, flower shops and restaurants can't get enough of! What email marketing campaigns are you planning now for Mother's Day which is coming F-A-S-T (May 11th)?

• Wineries - Mother's Day Tasting Event - Mom Tastes Free! Bundle those bottles for a nice basket.
• Restaurants - Mother's Day Brunch with FREE Mimosas! Get Mom happy!
• Day Spa or Salon - Give Mom a Break - A Gift Certificate for massage, nails, facial, hair.
• Jewelry artists or shops - Send a postcard to Moms perhaps she'll leave it out on the kitchen table as a hint!
• Events or Concerts - Got an event that a Mom might appreciate? Send an email with a Mother's Day discount code. I know mine would like to see a local play!
• Retailers - Send an email coupon to all Moms with a Mother's Day discount.
• We've even seen a BOTOX® discount come through for a Mother's Day special! Let Mom treat herself!

Since it's coming up so fast remember to get your emails out now! The more time you give the better. Got any other ideas? Hurry up, we need them, Mom needs them!

Success at the VerticalResponse Spring Marketing Conference!

Thanks to all of our customers, speakers, partners, employees and events team who made the VR Spring Marketing Conference a resounding success. Since this was our first conference, we didn't really know what the turnout would be or what the success would be but boy were we happy with it.

Since we're pretty busy "behind the scenes", it's rare that so many of us get out and talk to customers face-to-face. It was really amazing to be able to do that.

The Good Stuff

• We sold out 1 week before the conference date!
• We had over 300 bay area businesses at the conference. Thanks for coming!
• One of our customers won an iPhone!
• Josh Feinberg our VP of Product made it to the front cover of Time Magazine.
• We got to announce a brand new survey product and non-profits email free. (Our fax machine is on fire from all of the forms you're sending by the way.)
• We had a great time at the cocktail hour.
• We had wonderful panelists sharing their email marketing stories!
• We even had a competitor come to the show. (He didn't give his real company name but our sleuths were on it.) Hey Stu, next time you come, turn your cell phone off in the sessions will ya?! Nothin' like calling attention to yourself.
• We got a ton of great pictures and videos of the show. See if you're in one!
  

We Heard You Loud and Clear. Next year:

• Bigger Screens for you to see the content and the demo. Check!
• Handouts so you can write notes. Check!
• Longer sessions - This one surprised us a bit, we thought they were long but if you want us to dive down even further, you got it.
• Advanced users - More advanced track for those experts in the group. Done!
• Salesforce specific content - There's a lot of it so we'll give you all more sessions. Done!

You can bet we'll be using our spiffy new VerticalResponse Survey product to ask you even more questions about what you'd like to learn next year so stay tuned! Comment if you have any additional things you'd like to add.

New Product: VerticalResponse Surveys!

We are super excited to announce that we just launched our new VerticalResponse Surveys! As easy as we've made it for you to create and send email marketing campaigns, we think we've done it again with Surveys.

We just think surveys are the perfect complement to go with your current email marketing program. It's like a good cheese with a great wine, or some great chocolate dunked in peanut butter. We must be hungry.

To get your started we're offering all of our users 100 free responses to your survey and we've got some really great tutorials.

Create Professional Surveys in Minutes!

Either choose from our 30 professionally designed surveys or start from scratch! We give you the tools you need to do either, right away.

Maximize Responses

You can use our survey product in a variety of ways. Post a link on your site and blog to your survey, link to it from your confirmation emails or even post it on your confirmation pages. Here's an idea...Email your survey to your recipients!

Analyze Results

Filter your responses down to the question or get an overall opinion, it's up to you. You get the ultimate reports in PDF or export to .csv for further analysis.

Take Action

Get an alert based on how someone answered a question. Then follow up with them to thank them for their opinions.

This is truly an amazing product. Check it out today in your VerticalResponse account. You'll have 100 free responses to get you started. Pricing info is found here.

We'd love to hear your comments about it, so chime in.

Non-Profits Email FREE!

As a growing and profitable company, VerticalResponse is always looking for ways to give back. We donate money and hours to volunteer in our community, we have a pretty big green initiative in our company and we've always supported non-profit organizations with discounts because let's face it, small non-profits have it pretty rough. 

Non0-profits don't have a ton of marketing dollars and they're constantly trying to support a cause which probably helps our environment, people or animals. So we thought it would be great to help out even more than a 15% discount.             

All approved 501(c)3 non profit organizations will be able to email up to 10,000 emails per month for free. If you go over your allotted 10,000 in a given month, your 15% discount will apply.

How It Works

1. If you are already an approved non-profit organization with VerticalResponse and you already get your 15% discount send an email telling us you want to take advantage of emailing free.

2. If you are NOT yet an approved non-profit organization download the form on this page and follow instructions on it.

3. Upon approval within a few days you'll have 10,000 emails to mail each month.

More details here. Happy emailing.

Non Profit Confirmation Page - Ask to Add Donors to Your List

I recently donated to the American Heart Association. On their confirmation page right under the receipt information was an area asking me if I wanted to be added to their list.

I thought it was a great way to ensure that donors have opted into receiving offers from them. They clearly outline to donors what they're going to get and they even tell you how often - monthly.

You might want to include an opt-in form on your own confirmation pages. Whether you're a non profit or you're selling a product, if your customers or donors just had a great experience with you, they'll more than likely opt in. By the way, needing a username and password is really only necessary if they create an "account" with you. Many times an email address, name and a few other pieces of information should suffice.

Any other ideas on growing your non-profit list?

Get Rid of the Thick Blue Border Around Your Linked Images

We've had a bunch of people questioning us on how to get rid of the thick blue border around linked images within their email marketing campaigns. I thought it would be a good idea to tell you how to do it.

1. Insert the image in your campaign from the media library.
2. Link the image using the button in your Email Canvas toolbar.
3. Right click on the image and go to "Image Properties".
4. In the border box type in a zero for border pixels.

Voila! The blue box disappears.

Reminding Recipients Where You Met Them - Even for One-on-One Emails!

We tell our customers all the time that it's a good idea in your email marketing campaigns to remind your recipients where it is that they met you. At an event? At a tradeshow? A social gathering? Did they buy something from you or visit your store, even sign up on your website? Remember to include a line or two reminder and your unsubscribes will remain low.

Same goes for sending emails one on one. We all meet people every single day. Bottom line: if you don't include something in the subject line or in the body of the email, your recipient may not remember who you are.

Get In The Address Book Fast - Timing is Everything

If you exchanged cards with someone, try to make sure you email them pretty quickly. If you send an email a year later, chances are your business card went by the wayside, the circular wayside.

Subject Line Reminder

Blind Emails - I just asked our Marketing Manager Jess to send an email to a few of my colleagues to remind them to give us some collateral. I advised her to make sure she put either my name in the subject line and in the first paragraph include a reference to me since I first asked them for it. If it was just sent from Jess without reference to me, chances are they wouldn't recognize her and not take the action we needed them to.

Example of a Subject Line: Janine told me to contact you...

Emails to People You've Met - If you meet someone in the recent past, you should put something in the subject line reminding them of the specific event. This way they'll remember that they've been to that event and it might spur them to open your email.

Example of a Subject Line: Great Meeting You At Last Week's Dog Show

The Electronic Introduction

If you would like two people to meet, you should first ask them if they'd want to be introduced. Then YOU should do it by email instead of giving each person the other's email address. This way the person both are familiar with is you, and an email coming from you is more likely to get opened than if they each emailed each other.

Example of a Subject Line: Introduction: Elliot Meet Ashley, You'll Hit It Off

Hope this helps. If you have any other ideas, do share!

April 15th - Do a Tax Relief Mailing!

It's that time again in the US, April 15th, the dreaded Tax Day. Got your taxes done? Why not give some relief to your customers with a "tax relief" sale in an email marketing campaign? Might be a nice thing for them, especially if they had to pay Uncle Sam. Here are some fun Subject Line Ideas:

Retail

Tax Relief - Sale on Selected Items
Tax Day Blues Sale - Save 40%
Paying Uncle Sam? Save With Us!
Tax Season Super Savings

Spa/Salon

Taxes Got You Down? We'll Pick You Up
Tax Season Stress Sale - $10 Off Massage
Tax Season Massage Sale - Get the Stress Out

Restaurants

Tax Season Special: Take The Tax off Your Bill

Car Sales

Getting a Refund? Celebrate with a New Car
Make Tax Pain Go Away - Lease with No $ Down

Got any other ideas? Comment!

How NOT to Write a Subject Line

I get a ton of email, as I'm sure you all do. I keep up reading it every day but I don't always get to answer every day. My mission this year is to get better at it. So the other day I was on said mission and I got this email that really got me going:

Obviously my reader thought it was junk mail.

The subject line is what really got me. "Interior Design". I'll admit I'm pretty interested in that topic. I opened it because I meet a lot of people so "Jessica Thompson" may have been someone I've discussed this topic with. What I found was a spam email about how to get to the 1st page of Google.

Argh. Not only would I never do business with a company that tries this massive trickery, but it's illegal, against the Can-SPAM law and could get this sender sued.  Other than that it's just not good business. Don't do this. I beg of you.