Sep 05 2019

Creating an Email Marketing Strategy for Your Blog - Our Top Tips

By Uncategorized

Nowadays there is a blog for everything. In fact, it is estimated that there are currently over 500 million blogs in the world!

For many, blogging is no longer a simple hobby or online diary, but a genuine business opportunity. As seen in recent years, a successful blog has the potential to gain a huge following and generate revenue through ads, merchandise, fan events, and more. For this reason, it's more important than ever for you to maintain your traffic, in order to stand out from competitors and allow your blog to succeed.

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Why should I consider email marketing?

Due to the sheer amount of content on the web, even if a reader stumbles across your blog and finds it super interesting, there's unfortunately not much likelihood that they will remember to keep checking back in the future.

This is where email comes in. Unlike social media, email is a more personal channel between you and your readers. Rather than competing in a sea of thousands of social media posts, you can use email to directly inform subscribers about your latest news.

This guide will tell you all you need to know about creating an email marketing strategy for your blog, as well as some useful tips and examples to help get you started...

Getting subscribers to opt in

The biggest challenge to begin with is building up your mailing list. To do this, you will need to get your blog readers to opt in to receiving your email updates. This is massively important, as GDPR regulation means sending unsolicited emails can land you with a hefty fine.

The simplest way to encourage your audience to opt in is by including a sign up box on your blog. Generally speaking, you should consider every visitor to your blog as a potential lead. If they are already checking out your blog, they clearly have an interest in your content and would likely be open to receiving email updates. We've included a few examples of how you can encourage more email opt ins below.

Lifestyle blogger InTheFrow has a pop-up window to make sure her readers don't forget to subscribe.

Football blog The Anfield Wrap grabs readers' attention with a prominent, green CTA (call-to-action) button at the top of the page.

Fashion blogger Dina Tokio keeps things stylish by integrating this minimalistic sign up box into her blog content.

RockMyWedding keep things simple, yet effective with a sign up box in the website footer, alongside their social media pages.

Alternatively, if you really want to grow your list, you can also try to include an incentive to get your readers to sign up. Food blog Pinch of Yum offer their readers a free eCookbook when they subscribe to their email newsletter. For some, the promise of a free gift could be the deciding factor of whether or not to sign up!

Pinch of Yum tempt their readers to sign up with the offer of a free eCookbook.

Drip campaigns

Now that you've started to get your list set up, it's a good idea to think about how you want to kickstart your email strategy. One great way to get new subscribers on board is by using drip campaigns. This is a set of pre-designed email templates which are automatically sent out after a specific event (e.g. signing up to your newsletter.)

One example of where this type of campaign comes in useful is the welcome email. Typically, after a reader subscribes to a blog, they will be sent an email to thank them for subscribing and welcome them on board. Setting up a drip campaign to be sent out across the first few weeks is a great way to introduce your new subscribers to your blog.

Here is an example set of emails you could send over the course of a few weeks:

Thank you for subscribing
Welcome email and introduction to blog
Showcase most popular blog posts
Sign up to social media

Remember, the key here is to find the right balance for your blog and your subscribers. Sending too many emails could act as a deterrent, whereas not sending enough could result in subscribers quickly losing interest.

Another way to improve your drip campaigns is by including personalisation. Using your subscribers' name not only makes them feel important, it also helps you capture their attention straight away.

After subscribing to Pinch of Yum, I received this friendly welcome message. Although it's just a generic email, the personalisation made it seem like it was written just for me.

Final tips

With all those key points out of the way, here are some of our top tips for all emails, which you can bear in mind when working on your email strategy:

Think about your subject line and snippet text. These are your best (and only) assets when trying to win over readers in their inboxes.
Be sure to send a test mail or get feedback from a colleague or team member before you send. Mistakes are embarrassing and could damage your blog's reputation.
Include a clear CTA (call-to-action.) Every email you send should have a clear intended outcome for the recipient e.g. purchasing a product, reading a blog post, etc. This helps you measure the success of the email.
Avoid image-only emails. These are a great risk, as they could result in your email being deemed untrustworthy and getting sent to spam. They're also larger and can take much longer to load.
Include a sender name. It's nice for your readers to be able to identify where emails are coming from. Anonymity doesn't do much for the friendly impression you're trying to create for you and your blog.

Remember to check out the rest of the Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy for even more tips, ideas and examples for your next email marketing campaign.

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Aug 22 2019

5 Easy Ways to Increase Open Rates - Get Subscribers to Open Your Emails

By Uncategorized

As an email marketer, one of your biggest challenges is achieving successful open rates. Convincing subscribers to open your email when they first see it in their inbox can be difficult, as you are relying entirely on the strength of your subject line, as well as your customers' interest in your brand to try and win them over.

Put yourself in the customer's shoes. How many of the dozens of emails you receive each day do you actually open and read? Not many, right?

According to research from 2018, the average email open rate lies at around 17-18%. Although this sounds extremely low, it is a realistic figure to aspire to and anything above this should be considered a great success.

What influences open rates

There are a whole host of key factors which can impact upon your customer's decision to open your email. Here are some of the most significant aspects to keep note of:

Key words and triggers: Using the correct key words can make a seasonal email campaign stand out in a crowded inbox.
Brand identification: How likely are you to open an email from a brand or sender you don't recognise?
Day of the week: Emails sent during the week may have slightly higher open rates, as people check their emails more whilst at work.
Time of year: Sales and promotions may be more popular in the build up to the holidays, as people are actively looking for great deals.
Deliverability: Naturally, emails that don't appear in the customer's inbox at all don't get opened. This means stay away from spam traps at all costs!

Keeping these influential factors in mind, following these five simple tips should help you achieve brilliant open rates and massively improve the success of your email campaigns...

1. Stay relevant

Because email providers such as Gmail have separate tabs for promotional, marketing-style emails, you will have to work hard to make sure your customers actually notice you in the first place. The best way to do this is by identifying the needs of your target audience.

Use detailed market research and customer analysis to find out what your target group is looking for. In doing so, you'll be able to highlight key words and concepts to include in your subject line and draw in readers.

New Look have been clever with this email subject line. University and Back to School are both massive seasonal topics. If you know your target group is students, mentioning this buzzword in the subject line is a guaranteed way to pique interest and hopefully increase open rates.

Use the relevant buzzwords for your target audience to entice them to open.

2. Use personalisation

It's one of the oldest tricks in the book for a reason! Using personalisation in your emails is a certain way to grab your readers' attention straight away. By capturing your readers' attention, you will also see a rise in open rates, as they will be curious to find out more.

Not only is it an instant eye-catcher, personalisation is also a great way to make your customer feel special and creates a sense of exclusivity.

Research by Deloitte suggests that including your customer's name in the email could increase open rates by over 5%. In this email from Booking.com, the use of the customer's first name instantly makes the subject line more eye-catching.

Using your customer's name in the subject line is an effective way to grab their attention and increase open rates.

3. Outline the sender

Nobody likes receiving emails from an unknown sender or no-reply address. As well as appearing untrustworthy, they're also confusing and prevent the recipient from connecting with the brand. To combat this, be sure to provide a from-address which readers will be easily able to recognise.

It's much more likely your customers will open your emails if they instantly recognise your brand in their inbox. Using your company name as the sender should improve your chances of increasing your open rates. As shown in the example, Thomas Cook always make sure their subscribers can immediately tell when an email is from them.

Thomas Cook always make sure you know the email is from them.

4. Have fun with emojis

In order to increase open rates, you need to think of ways to make your email stand out against competitors in your customers' inbox. Emojis are a fun way of adding color to your subscribers' inboxes. As well as helping you say more with the few words you have, emojis will help your email be more eye-catching to your customers.

This email campaign from Boots is a great example of how to effectively use emojis in your subject line. The fire emoji brings the heat to customers' inbox while also complimenting the rest of the text.

Adding emojis to your subject line makes it much more eye-catching for customers.

5. Include a snippet text

One common and unfortunate error made by many email designers is to leave out the snippet text. Your snippet text is your extra opportunity to sell your email to customers and gives you a chance to summarise your message for them.

In Mail Designer 365, you can use the inbox optimisation tool to craft the perfect subject line and snippet text for your email campaign. Your subject line will then remain visible at the top of the design window so you can view it alongside your design:

Craft the perfect subject line and snippet text with Mail Designer's inbox optimisation tool.

Key Takeaways

Use tricks like emojis and personalisation to make sure your subject line is interesting enough to stand out in a sea of similar emails.
Always include a recognisable sender name so customers know who you are.
Keep your subject line concise and use clear keywords which are relevant to your readers.
Use the snippet text to convincingly outline the main message of your email.

We hope you have found these easy tips for increasing your open rates useful and will keep them in mind when building your next email campaign. Want awesome emails that everyone wants to read? Download Mail Designer 365 free today and check out the inbox optimisation tool, as well as tonnes more exciting design features!

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Aug 07 2019

8 Useful Email Marketing Tips for Startup Businesses

By Uncategorized

Email marketing is a simple and affordable way for your startup to communicate with potential customers and showcase your product or service. In addition to being direct and efficient, email is also a super flexible channel that allows your business to try out different ideas for your marketing campaigns.

Here are some tips and ideas you should consider when building an email marketing campaign for your startup...

1. Build a Strong Mailing List for Your Startup

From a marketing standpoint, building your mailing list should be one of your key priorities during the early stages. For a startup, it is vital to secure a list of valuable contacts who will have a genuine interest in your business.

The main thing to remember when building a list is quality over quantity. Try and identify contacts who will be interested in learning more about your startup and are more likely to engage with your emails.

Include a sign up box on your website! Someone that has consciously made the effort to subscribe is a high-potential lead. Beauty box startup Birchbox use this technique on their website to help grow their mailing list. The 15% discount acts as an added incentive.

Birchbox include a pop up window on their site to encourage customers to subscribe to their newsletter.

2. Produce Good Email Copy

As a startup business, it is important that your emails are able to make a good impression on customers who don't yet know your brand. This means you have to pay extra attention to spelling and grammar, as well as the tone of your email messages.

Smaller businesses should adopt a more friendly and inviting tone, in order to help establish a connection with new customers. Let the personality of your startup shine through in your emails to give readers a sense of who you are.

Phrasee's emails always include interesting copy which you can use as inspiration.

Good copy is also vital in your email subject line. Avoid spammy subject lines, as these could result in your email being ignored, or sent to the spam folder. Words like "free", "win", "cash", or use of all caps and excessive punctuation are all no-go's. This guide should help you prevent your email from being marked as spam.

3. Carry Out A/B Testing

For a brand new startup, it can be hard to find a marketing style that works. Email is great, as you have the opportunity to test out different ideas until you've found your perfect formula. This is where A/B testing can come in super handy.

Whether it's a subtle change like logo size or background color, or a more drastic change such as subject line or intro text, testing both variants with your mailing list is a great way to see what works and what doesn't. In Mail Designer 365, you can duplicate your master template and make as many different versions as you like to trial on customers.

Duplicate designs to carry out minor changes and compare using A/B testing.

Tip: Make sure you track the results to identify which email design performed the best. Find out more about this later on in this post...

4. Include a Clear Call-To-Action

One common error made by businesses big and small is to create a stunning email design but forget to make the CTA (call-to-action) clear to readers. Without a clear CTA, your email will not reach its full potential, as readers will not be able to move on the the next step.

You can use a CTA button to encourage customers to: visit your website, download your software, subscribe to your social media page, read a blog post, and much more...

There are many ways to create stand-out CTA buttons, as demonstrated in this guide. The main tips to keep in mind are:

Keep text short and concise
Use a colour which stands out in your design
Make sure the font is bold and legible
Test all links are correct before sending.

The below email by Lyft (source: reallygoodemails) is a great example of an effective CTA button. The white button contrasts well with the blue background and the text is clear and concise.

Lyft make their CTA super bold and clear in this promotional email.

5. Work Together with Your Team

For all businesses, your relationship with your colleagues and team members is one of the key factors for your success. During the early stages in particular, you should be constantly sharing feedback and ideas for potential email campaigns with your team.

Check out Mail Designer 365 Approval as a straightforward, efficient way to share email designs with your team and get all their feedback and comments in one place. The process could not be easier:

Build an email template in Mail Designer 365.
Upload to Approval and invite team members to make comments or suggest feedback.
Carry out changes until your design is approved by your team and send via the app or your preferred ESP.

Click here to learn more about Approval and how you and your team can get started.

6. Concentrate on Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are the types of emails your startup will be sending most often to clients and customers. These cover anything from on-boarding emails, drip campaigns, order confirmation emails, or shipping emails, and generally contain the information your customers find most valuable.

Treat your transactional emails with the same amount of importance as any other sales campaign. They represent your startup on an operational level and should be clear and effective.

This order confirmation email from FreePrints is a nice example of a transactional email. The email represents the brand well in terms of logo and color scheme, and contains all the information the customer needs regarding their order.

7. Encourage Referrals and Testimonials

As a new startup, a great amount of your success will be based on how willing your first customers and clients are to recommend you to others. Before your brand becomes more established, you will find yourself heavily reliant on customer referrals and positive testimonials to attract new customers.

You can use email marketing as a way to encourage existing customers to share their experience of your business. Many companies operate referral schemes which offer the customer an incentive such as a discount, when they refer your business to a friend.

This email campaign from Tictail (source: reallygoodemails) is a great example of how you can advertise your referral schemes using email and build up a solid reputation for your startup.

8. Run Analytics for Future Improvement

Last but not least, just like any business, a startup business should always be looking for ways to improve themselves.

Using tools such as Google Analytics to analyse the performance of your newsletters is super helpful. For example, Google's campaign tracking links are easy to generate and are a great way to see how much one link (e.g. a CTA button) has been clicked in comparison to another.

Head over to Google Analytics to analyse the individual performance of your links. You can then use this data to determine which button style/message works best for future email campaigns.

Use Google Analytics to track links, analyse performance and improve for the future.

We hope you have found this guide useful and will consider using these tips for your email marketing campaigns. Mail Designer 365 is the perfect email solution for startups and offers a wide range of tools and resources to help your startup business hit the ground running. Find out more about how we can help your startup here.

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Jul 18 2019

Stay Top of the Class with these Back to School Email Marketing Ideas - Plus FREE Email Template

By Uncategorized

August is just around the corner, which means that it's time to start thinking about the next big event on your email marketing calendar: Back to School.
Back to School with Mail Designer 365

Although a lot of schools don't start back until September, many students and parents will already be on the lookout for the best deals and offers to get them ready for a brand new school year.

Make sure your business is prepared with these great tips and ideas for Back to School email campaigns. Keep reading until the end to also discover your FREE Back to School email template; exclusive for Mail Designer 365 customers.

Include Back to School in your subject line

Every email marketing pro will know the importance of a good subject line in grabbing the reader's attention. In the case of Back to School campaigns it's no different. Use your subject line to clearly outline the theme of your email.

This is especially important during the summer holidays, when your customers will already be receiving a large amount of emails and promotions.

Here are some A+ examples of businesses who have won customers over with their subject line:

The emojis add a colorful touch to this Back to School subject line from Shpock.

Adobe's subject line introduces their tempting Back to School offer to students.

Think about fonts

Fonts are also a very important element of your email design. For a Back to School campaign, using a fun font is a great way of appealing to both younger readers, as well as parents.

Here are some web fonts which we think are great for Back to School vibes. Tip: All of these fonts are available in Mail Designer 365!

Caveat Brush on a black background is great at recreating that chalkboard effect.

Finger Paint brings a fun element to your design - especially when advertising products for younger kids.

Sophisticated college students would love the classic, varsity style of Graduate.

A handwriting-style font like Just Me Again Down Here is a casual way of highlighting the Back to School theme.

Appeal to the more edgy side of kids with a graffiti-style font like Permanent Marker.

Quicksand Bold is another great font for younger kids and looks just like the fonts you'd see in a school book.

Use bright colors

Using a bright color scheme in your email design is a great way to get customers excited for Back to School. Although it means the end of summer, you should try your best to portray the new school year as a positive to look forward to.

Bright colors help you to motivate customers and also make your design look great. Try using bold, primary colors to recreate the classroom in your email design.

Sports Direct help get customers in the mood for Back to School spending with this dazzling blue design.

This inviting email design by Kohl's is also a great way for them to show off their products and offers to customers. We love the clear CTA.

Focus on kid-friendly imagery

The more your reader associates your design with school and the classroom, the more effective it will be. Incorporate as much school-themed, kid-friendly imagery as possible to make your message clear.

This Back to School design by Peek gets full marks for the clever imagery and use of primary colors.

Doc Martens also do a great job of appealing to older students with this laidback school bus image. We love the pops of yellow to brighten things up.

Offer discounts and promotions

It's no secret that offering a special promotion is a great way for your to boost sales and attract more customers to your website. During the build up to the Back to School period, it is especially effective to run a sale or promotional offer to make things easier for parents and students with supplies to buy.

Try sending out an email advertising your special offer. Bonus marks for including a clear and effective CTA (call-to-action) button.

Animal are winning plenty of extra credit with this great promotion. Not only are the image choices great, the CTAs are also super clear and clickable.

Provide a useful Back to School checklist

Provide readers with a Back to School checklist to make sure they have all the supplies they need for the new school year. This could be anything from uniform, to stationery, or even a new lunch box. Whatever it is, don't forget to include direct links to the products on your website!

Bando's checklist is super colorful and includes everything needed for the new school year.

FREE Email Template

If you're still in need of some inspiration for your Back to School email campaign, don't worry! Mail Designer 365 are here to make sure you're always top of the class when it comes to creating impressive email designs.

Check out this brand new Back to School email template - exclusively available for Mail Designer 365 users in the Design Ideas section. Click here to view the design in the app.

We hope these tips and ideas will come in useful when you're creating your Back to School email campaigns this summer. Don't forget to download Mail Designer 365 free today to try out the brand new email template, as well as a whole range of exciting creative tools!

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Mail Designer 365 helps you create stylish, professional HTML emails on your Mac. Download for free to see what you can achieve.

Jun 17 2019

Writing Emails for Students and Young People

By Uncategorized

Students are a growing market for your business to explore. Whether you want to attract more customers for your business, or are targeting students for research or recruitment purposes, it's important to adapt your email strategy to suit this unique target group.

In this guide, we are sharing some useful ideas about what you can do to make your email campaigns more attractive to students and young people.

What to consider before you get started

Students are a unique target group in many ways, before you start building your campaign, it may be useful to consider the following points to help you understand your audience a little better...

Don't stereotype: The stereotype of students spending all their free time drinking and living off pasta may be true for some, but definitely not all. Even if it seems funny, including stereotypes like this in your emails is more likely to make readers roll their eyes and look elsewhere.
Is your product appealing enough?: Being in full time education and having to pay for rent, living costs, etc. means most students won't have a large disposable income. For this reason, they will only be wiling to splash the cash on things which they deem worth it.
Brand image: Your brand will also play a part in whether students and young people will want to purchase. For example, despite their premium prices, Apple's strong brand image means their products are still massively popular among younger customers.
The latest trends: Young people are usually very in tune with the latest trends. If you do your research, you should be able to capture these trends in your campaigns. For example, many companies are now experimenting with more vegan and vegetarian options, due to a huge rise in young people going vegan.

It's important to understand your target market before starting work on your campaign.

5 tips for writing emails for students

These 5 useful tips should help you create emails which are more appealing to students and young people...

Focus on good design

Young people in particular will be drawn in by a great aesthetic. One way to win them over is through an email which is visually appealing and interesting to read. Incorporating colours, images and funny GIFs (check out Giphy for this) is a great way of livening up your newsletter. You should also avoid long chunks of text, as these will quickly become boring.

Urban Outfitters is massively popular with students. Vibrant email designs like this help them maintain their cool brand image.

Keep the tone friendly

When trying to recruit students, it's generally ok to take a more laid back approach. Although it's important to always be respectful and maintain an air of professionalism, overly formal language is not really required. Try and keep the tone friendly to avoid alienating potential new recruits. This will also help students paint a picture of your company's working environment.

Provide useful information

Students are busy and, like the rest of us, won't appreciate being sent meaningless content which clogs up their inboxes. Make sure the content in your emails is actually useful for your audience. Think about how your business could help students solve some common problems they experience.

Here are some ideas you could try:

Selling stationery or study supplies? You could try including some helpful study tips in your email. Tip: This would be especially useful during exam periods.
A food or cookery-related business could offer some low cost meal ideas to test out.
Banks or financial businesses could share their best advice on budgeting and saving money.
Recruitment agencies could try giving tips on perfecting a CV and applying for graduate jobs.

Target Jobs use their email newsletters to provide students with useful careers information.

Include discounts and special offers

If anyone loves a bargain, it's students. One way of winning the hearts of students and young people is to offer them a discount on your products. Many students will appreciate this gesture and actively choose your business over competitors who don't offer a student discount.

Try using your email newsletter to remind subscribers that you offer a discount and you should notice a boost in click-throughs and sales.

Students will definitely be aware of the discounts available to them thanks to this bold email from New Look.

Concentrate on your social media presence

Maintaining an active social media presence is a good way to keep students aware of your business. It also provides you with more opportunities to directly engage with them. Together with a strong email marketing campaign, you'll be able to increase your reach.

Tip: Remember to link all of your social media profiles in your email newsletters so readers can follow you! Check out this guide for more tips.

We hope this guide will inspire you to consider students and young people as a potential new target group for your business. Remember to keep things relevant, interesting and on trend, and you're sure to be on the right track!

Until next time!
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Jun 12 2019

How to Improve Collaboration Skills in the Workplace

By Uncategorized

Collaboration is a huge part of working life, but mastering the art of collaborating effectively on projects and tasks can be a huge challenge. Not only can effective collaboration speed up your workflow, it can also promote innovation and creativity; improving the overall outcome of your project.

In email design, it can be helpful to work together to make sure emails meet the high standards you expect. For this reason, collaboration is also a key part of successful email marketing strategy.

In this quick guide, we will share some effective tips on how you can improve your collaboration skills at work; whether working together on email campaigns, or other projects.

Promote an open environment

It is important to make colleagues aware that their feedback and opinions are welcome. If team members don't feel like their ideas are wanted, they are unlikely to share them with you. This could lead to you losing out on opportunities for collaboration and missing interesting ideas which could potentially improve your project.

Here are some ways to promote a more open environment for collaboration...

Encourage your team to socialise

Whether this is during the lunch break or after work, the more your team socialise with each other, the more comfortable they will be discussing ideas and collaborating on projects.

Encourage your whole team to socialise and become comfortable sharing ideas.

Keep meetings small and informal

Meetings give your team the chance to catch up on the status of a project but, if too many people are involved, it can be hard to get the ball rolling. A quick sit down together over coffee with 2-4 people is great for productive discussions and brainstorming. A formal meeting with 4+ attendees is a productivity killer

Use informal meetings as a chance to share ideas in a laid back setting.

Improve communication in the workplace

There are many ways to improve communication in the workplace, but one quick and easy method is to create an internal newsletter. Not only does this keep your whole office up to date on what's happening within the company, it also gives other members of staff the opportunity to provide their opinions on projects they may not have been aware of.

Tip: If you are stuck for ideas on a project, try asking for feedback in your next company newsletter/office bulletin. You may be positively surprised on the suggestions you receive!

Consider all perspectives

Different people will have different experiences based on the department they work in. For this reason, it's important to consider all perspectives when collaborating on a project. Successful collaboration involves interdependence between teams and departments.

Whose input should I consider?
Assume you are creating a product release email for a small to medium business. Although the marketing team is usually responsible for sending these emails to customers, it is also important to consult with other departments:

The product development team can provide feedback on the technical information you include about the product.
The sales team will be able to guide you on prices and special offers.
The branding team can instruct you on the specific visual aspects of your email as well as brand guidelines.
The legal team will check over any disclaimers or terms & conditions, if you have included an offer or promotion.
The management team can help determine what the main message or CTA (call to action) of the email is; as well as approving it for sending.

Finding the right collaboration tool

Using a collaboration tool can vastly improve your productivity and speed up the project completion process. It reduces the need to send emails back and forth and stops you wasting time sending new drafts around the office.

With so many different perspectives to consider, it's important to find the right tools to productively collaborate on projects. There are many tools out there for collaboration, but few can provide you with all the aspects you need to be able to successfully communicate with your colleagues.

The right collaboration tool will help you streamline your workflow and become more productive.

Here are a few things to look out for when choosing which tools to work with:

Mobile optimisation

Nowadays, everyone is on the go, and it is important to be able to keep up with work while you're outside of the office. Whether it's the daily commute or you're attending a conference or meeting, it's good to be able to check up on your projects using your smartphone.

Cross platform compatibility

With so many different devices out there, it's a good idea to choose a tool which is compatible with all platforms; as this will be more convenient for your team.

Usability

A good user interface is always a must-have with any kind of collaboration tool, as it must be comprehendible for users of all abilities. Over-complicated tools will only deter busy team members from getting involved, so it is a good idea to choose a software which is easy to use.

Affordability

There are many tools out there which cater to the needs of big businesses, but at a high price. In particular for small and medium businesses, it is important to find a tool which suits your needs; both productively and financially. As well as this, having the option to tailor plans to your own personal preference is also a plus.

Customer support

Finally, a tool which offers high quality customer support is also essential, as it is important for you to have access to support and advice, should you need it.

A collaboration tool for everyone

Mail Designer 365 is the perfect collaboration tool for email communications; offering expert design features and easy-to-use creative tools. Mail Designer has been specially designed for business teams to help streamline the workflow process for email design.

Mail Designer 365 collaboration

How it works

Build up an email layout on your Mac using the Mail Designer 365 app.
Lend your design to team members to add copy, graphics, legal disclaimers and any extras you may require.
Share a mobile optimised, web-based preview of your design for your colleagues to add comments and feedback.
Carry out suggested changes to your design and invite team members to decline or approve.
After the final approval, you can export your design from the Mail Designer 365 app to send via your preferred ESP.

Check out this video to see Mail Designer 365 in action:

Why Mail Designer 365?

Mobile Optimised

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If you thought Mail Designer 365 was just for Mac users, think again! Even Windows users can get involved in the feedback process; making it easily accessible for everyone.

Easy to use

Thanks to its WYSIWYG interface, Mail Designer 365 is a great tool for all abilities: no coding skills required! Drag and drop to build up your own, custom email template, or use one of our pre-made HTML design ideas.

Affordable

There is a Mail Designer 365 plan for everyone - whether you're a designer, or a manager looking for an approval license. We even offer tailor made plan options for bigger businesses purchasing licenses in bulk.

Here to help

We pride ourselves on our customer support and are always happy to answer any questions you have about the app via our support system. FAQs, video tutorials and a step-by-step manual are also available on our website.

We hope you have found this guide useful and that it will help you improve your collaboration skills. If you're looking to optimise your email workflow, try Mail Designer 365 for free today. Already a Mail Designer 365 user? Make sure to set up your team at my.maildesigner365.com to start using the approval features!

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Apr 15 2019

Email Marketing Ideas for Hotels and Travel Agencies - Use Email to Get More Customers

By Gabrielle Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

Thanks to the rise of the internet and social media, it's getting easier and easier to find great deals for holidays and getaways. One way for you to get ahead of the game is by putting together a solid email marketing strategy for your hotel or travel agency.

Here are just a few reasons why you should consider email to communicate with your customers...

Low cost - Especially compared to costly TV ads or unsustainable print media.
Direct access - Share tailored offers directly with your customers.
Quick conversion - Transport your customers straight to the offers on your website.
Visually effective - Get creative to convince customers through HTML design.

In this guide, we're sharing our top tip on creating an effective email strategy for your business, as well as some great examples of best practice in the hotel and travel industry to help you get inspired.

Email Marketing Best Practice for Hotels

1. Building an email list for your hotel or travel agency

Although there are ways to obtain large numbers of email addresses without putting in a lot of work, it is always better to go for quality over quantity and try to encourage organic signups. This will mean your email content is being sent to people who actively want to receive it.

Potential customers visit your hotel's website to find out more about your offers and deals. For this reason, it's likely they'd be interested in receiving this information straight to their inbox. By building a newsletter sign up form on your site, you will attract more customers with a genuine interest in staying at your hotel or booking a holiday with you.

Here are some great examples:

Trivago

On their website, Trivago go for the subtle option of integrating a sign up box into the footer area. This is simple and effective, but only if customers can find it first!

Booking.com

This sign up box from Booking.com is bright and uses convincing wording to encourage curious customers to sign up:

Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook have gone for an even more eye-catching option. The pop up window is a great way to grab customers' attention and inform them of your email newsletter:

Connect Mail Designer 365 to your website, with a dedicated sign up form builder for seamless lead generation. How it works →

2. Segmentation

To ensure you're sending the appropriate emails to your customers, it's helpful to have an idea of what they might be interested in when it comes to holidays and travel. You can do this by using list segmentation to split all of your contacts into separate audiences based on their tastes and preferences.

What do your customers want?

One of the first things to identify is whether your customer is travelling for business or leisure. This will help you set the tone of your email as well as knowing which types of deals to send out to them.

In this example from Thomas Cook, customers signing up to their mailing list are asked to answer a few quick questions:

Let customers tell you what they want while they sign up for your newsletter.

Tip: Easily implement this strategy into your Mail Designer 365 sign up form using the customer attributes field in the form builder.

Offer optional holiday types (e.g. families, couples, or party) for users to choose from to show you their preferences. When they sign up, the chosen attribute will be assigned to their contact in Mail Designer 365 Delivery Hub so you can send them tailored offers.

More information →

3. Email design tips for hotels and travel agencies

Without effective email design, your newsletters will not pack the punch you need them to in order to get customers onto your website. Here are two tips you can use to make sure your design stands out.

One of the most important elements of any email is the CTA (call-to-action.) Particularly for a travel related email, where there is a lot going on, it's a good idea to make this as clear as possible so readers know where to click to access your deals. This example by cheapflights is a bold and clear way to showcase their best deals:

Make your CTA buttons vibrant and clear so your readers know how to access your deals.

Another key aspect is the choice of image. In order to sell your hotel or holiday package, you have to let the image do all the talking. In this example from easyJet, their winter deal takes centre stage. The choice of a festive feature image will instantly help customers imagine themselves in the location and entice them to click to find out more.

Use strong, powerful images as your featured image in order to grab readers' attention straight away.

4. Email subject line ideas for hotels and travel agencies

When you're ready to send out your email, you'll need to craft an effective subject line which will convince subscribers to actually open it once it lands in their inbox. This isn't always as easy as it sounds. For some advice and inspiration, you can check out our quick guide.

Here are some simple, yet effective tips to try out:

Keep it short and snappy
Use holiday keywords to get straight to the point
Mention a key offer or deal to entice customers
Include time sensitive language to create a sense of urgency
Use emojis to brighten up their inbox

easyJet get straight to the point in this subject line, enticing customers to get booking.

Stuck on your subject line? Try out Mail Designer 365 TextScout AI for AI-generated subject lines. Just enter your campaign keywords and go!

5. Transactional emails

Your initial email has worked its magic and you've managed to sell a holiday or take another booking for your hotel - the hard work isn't over yet! A good email marketing strategy will also concentrate on the after sales aspect, including booking confirmations, up-sells (e.g. upgrades, car hire), flight reminders and the all important customer satisfaction rating.

In contrast to your sales emails, the key to a good transactional email is simplicity. Here it's important to provide the customer with all the relevant information for their booking so they can refer back whenever needed. Remember to always include contact information for your support team, in case customers have any questions.

This flight confirmation from easyJet is simple, but contains all the relevant information the passenger will need to know before taking off.

We hope you have found this guide useful and that you'll consider these tips if you're building up an email marketing strategy for your business. Mail Designer 365 is the perfect choice for any travel agencies, tour operators, or hotel owners starting out with email marketing, due to the easy-to-use nature and stunning design tools.

Find out more about our email marketing solutions for hotels and travel.

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Apr 09 2019

Subject Line Inspiration for All Types of Emails

By Uncategorized

Your subject line is often the thing which entices readers to open your email in the first place. For this reason, it has to be good. After all, what's the point of designing a standout email newsletter if you can't even get your customers to open it?

We've collected some of our favourite subject lines from all types of emails to help provide you with some inspiration for your next campaign...

News Updates

You want your customers to read about your company's latest news and announcements. Make sure you are emphasising your exciting news to customers by mentioning it in the email subject. This example from Amazon is simple, but lets their brand new release take centre stage in their subject line:

Amazon shows that when it comes to news, sometimes simple is most effective.

If you are confident in your list segmentation, you can also go one step further in sending out more personalised news emails such as this example from Spotify. I got sent this email because of my frequent streaming of Fleetwood Mac, so it was a no-brainer that after reading this subject line, I'd be interested in the content of this email.

Spark your reader's curiosity by using segmentation to identify their interests.

Sales Emails

Sales emails are an integral part of most email marketing strategies, but that doesn't mean they have to be boring. In fact, making your subject line stand out is a great way to make readers choose your email in an over-crowded inbox.

In this example, easyJet play on our love for a good bargain and some sun. This alongside their use of personalisation in the subject line had just the right amount of temptation to make me click on the email!

Use personalisation to attract your reader's eye to your email.

If you aren't able to personalise your emails for whatever reason, using personal pronouns is just as effective. This email from Selfridges would have been sent to thousands, but the use of the word "You" made it feel so much more personal.

Using personal pronouns is a simple, yet effective way to make your subject line more direct.

Promotional Emails

If you're running a promotion or you have a sale going on, of course you don't want your customers to miss out. Similarly to the sales email, you need to make your email subject shine in their inbox. In this instance, it's really a case of go hard or go home!

This subject line from New Look leaves the reader asking questions but in all the right ways. Building up a sense of intrigue is a great way to get your recipients clicking on your email and on your site in no time:

Get your reader asking questions which can only be answered within your email.

Another effective trick is the use of emojis. In this Easter email promotion from YO! Sushi, they are clever in using a cute and eye-catching chick emoji to help readers immediately identify the theme. This, alongside the capitalisation of "FREE" creates a statement in the inbox.

Emojis are a great way to brighten up your subject line and make it stand out.

*Tip: Caps are super effective, but can also land you in the spam folder if you over-use them. For more advice, check out our guide to avoiding the spam folder.*

Sense of Urgency

Many sales and promotions will also require readers to feel a sense of urgency - especially when it gets closer to the end. The best way to incorporate this into your subject line is by using lots of time-sensitive phrases to get readers to realise that time is running out.

In this email by Boots, they have made it perfectly clear what readers will be missing out on if they don't get shopping. Phrases like "last chance" naturally spike our interest and help get customers browsing through the site to find any last-minute deals.

The use of time sensitive language such as "last chance" creates an intense sense of urgency.

It may also be useful to create a sense of urgency surrounding a certain event or occasion. This subject line from Funky Pigeon does a good job of reminding customers that Mother's Day is coming up, while also highlighting that time is running out.

Focusing your subject line on an upcoming event also creates a sense of urgency.

Drip Campaigns

A welcome email or a drip campaign is another crucial element of an effective email marketing strategy, as it's really important to keep customers engaged once they have signed up for your service. The key to making sure these emails are read is to keep the subject line clear and informative.

Weight Watchers' week-long "Getting Started" drip campaign takes members through the most important tips and information surrounding the programme.

The subject line makes it perfectly clear to the reader which information they can expect to find within the email and encourages them to actively use the service. This makes it much more effective than a simple "welcome" or "thank you for signing up" email.

An informative subject line can make all the difference when setting up a drip campaign for new users.

Re-engagement Emails

If you've noticed customers are starting to slip away, it may be a good idea to send out a re-engagement email. This helps to try and get them back on track and engaging with your business. When you're writing your subject line, the key is to be friendly, and maybe even tug on their heartstrings a little.

In this example from New Look, the message is clear. Some customers may be touched to see this subject in their inbox, and even more pleasantly surprised to open the email and reveal the discount:

Try an emotive subject line for your re-engagement campaign to help make readers feel more special.

We hope you have found this post useful and that you're at least a little bit more inspired when it comes to creating your subject lines for your next email campaign. Remember that Mail Designer 365 offers you a subject optimisation tool so you can test your subject line alongside your email design. Happy designing!

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Mail Designer 365 helps you create stylish, professional HTML emails on your Mac. Download for free to see what you can achieve.

Apr 05 2019

Email Marketing Guide for Restaurants

By Gabrielle Uncategorized

With a market value of over 465 Million Euros in Western Europe alone, it's safe to say that the food industry is one of the largest, most powerful industries in the world. For the average restaurant owner, this makes it extra important for you to stand out from your competitors and strengthen your connection with your customers.

Here are some of our top tips on how you can use email marketing to boost sales in your restaurant and build up long-lasting relationships with your diners...

Branding and Style

To kick things off, let's start by thinking about your brand and your target audience. This will massively help you to determine the style of your email and create the right aesthetic to really speak to your customers.

For a down to earth, family friendly eatery, feel free to use bright colors and focus on the happy, fun atmosphere of your restaurant. This vibrant email from Giraffe shows customers that the whole family is welcome:

Use bright colors and bold typeface to show off your restaurant's fun atmosphere.

A more sophisticated restaurant may want to opt for a refined approach, focussing solely on the atmosphere and quality of the food. Pizza Express use a minimalistic color scheme in this email and shine the spotlight on their delicious food:

A down to earth, minimalist theme is a great way to emphasise the quality of your food.

Building up your email list

The best way of getting contacts for your email list is by recruiting customers who already know and love your restaurant and want to stay informed. These are the customers who genuinely want to read your emails and will give you positive click through results.

One effective way of getting customers to sign up for your newsletter is by advertising it on your website and in the restaurant itself. If you want to go the extra mile, you can even offer an incentive such as a discount code when they register.

Here are some great examples of sign up boxes you could try on your website...

Bright and eye-catching from YoSushi.

Sleek and cool by Nando's.

Warm and inviting design by Wildwood.

Classic and inviting from Bill's.

Types of Emails

Now that you've got your email list built and ready to go, it's time to start deciding which types of emails you want to send your customers. For restaurant owners, there is a huge variety of options available to you when it comes to contacting your customers. Here are some of the most popular ideas...

The discount email

One of the most effective ways to kick off your email marketing journey is by offering all your new sign-ups a discount to say thank you. This will encourage them to come back to your restaurant and also make them feel appreciated.

The seasonal promotion

If you're lacking in ideas, take a look at your calendar for inspiration. See what events are coming up and plan an email campaign around them. This Father's Day promotion from Toby Carvery is a brilliant way to get customers to come and dine with their families and celebrate their dads:

Get inspired by seasonal events to create tempting promotional offers.

The family-friendly email

Do you have a lot of families visiting your restaurant or cafe? If so, this is another great theme you can utilise in your emails. Offer busy parents an incentive to choose you by emphasising the family-friendly nature of your business. This "kids eat free" promotion from Jimmy Spices is a clever way of attracting families to eat at their restaurant:

Show parents that they are more than welcome to bring their whole family along.

The newsletter

Many of your customers will have signed up to receive your emails because they are interested in what is going on with your business. Keep customers in the loop by sharing your most important news with them via your email newsletter. Alongside offers and promotions, this could also include information about...

Upcoming events (e.g. Open mic, quiz night, charity fundraisers.)
New menus or seasonal menus
Booking information for busy holidays
Important news such as closures or renovation work
Themed nights (e.g. Mexican night, Italian night...)

The Birthday email

Sending out a Happy Birthday email is a great way to build on your customer relationships and make them feel valued. This can be easily achieved by asking customers to fill in their birthday as part of the newsletter sign up process.

This example from YoSushi also provides an exclusive birthday offer to make the customer feel even more special on their big day:

Wish your customers a Happy Birthday and leave them feeling appreciated.

Booking confirmation emails

Sending a confirmation email to guests who have reserved a table at your restaurant is a great way to welcome them in advance and get them excited for their visit.

Show your restaurant's welcoming atmosphere by using personalization and a warm greeting. Don't forget to include all the essential details like date & time of the reservation, number of guests, location, your contact details, and a link to your menu so guests can start planning ahead!

The follow up email

Last but not least, a follow up email can also be a super effective way of showing your customer you care about their experience in your restaurant. This is easiest to achieve with a loyalty card system in place, so you can track when customers have visited your restaurant. Alternatively, you could also provide customers with a website where they can give their feedback.

A good follow up email will give customers the chance to rate their dining experience and help you improve in the future. This example from Nando's is a cheerful and colorful way to get customers to share their views:

Follow up with customers and use their feedback to improve your service.

We hope you have found these tips and ideas useful and will consider trying them out in your restaurant. For more information on how you can use Mail Designer 365 to create and send emails for your restaurant, head over to our dedicated restaurants page.

Get started with Mail Designer 365 today

Start your 7 day free trial and use your Mac to create stylish email newsletters for your business.

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No credit card required

Compatible from macOS 10.13 onwards

Mar 29 2019

Maintaining Your Internal Newsletters - Keep Co-Workers Engaged and Interested in Your Newsletter

By Uncategorized

So you've recently launched an internal newsletter? Congrats! This is a great way to improve your team's workflow and keep co-workers motivated. Although you've taken the first step to create your newsletter, the hard work doesn't stop after you've built your first issue!
In order to really keep your team engaged, it's important you maintain your newsletter and keep it relevant and interesting for them. Here are some easy ideas on how to achieve this without breaking a sweat...

Introduce new content

One way to make sure that your company newsletter remains interesting is by regularly introducing new content and sections to the newsletter layout. This prevents your newsletter from becoming boring and monotonous and encourages your team to keep opening it when they see it in their inbox.

Ideas

There are countless examples of content which you could be including in your newsletters each week/month/etc. Fun and engaging content such as quizzes, competitions, thought of the day segments, employee of the month, book/film recommendations, recipe ideas, etc. Get creative!

Keep things relevant

Following on from this, one useful tip is to try and keep your newsletter content relevant. Don't just recycle old stories or features you've used in the past, try and actively search out content which you know is relevant to the time of year or what's going on in the news.

Ideas

You could start polls or a discussion board based on controversial news stories, or, if there is a holiday coming up (e.g. Christmas or Easter), try and incorporate that into the theme of your newsletter. Even the smallest mention of something seasonal will be enough to keep your team interested in the content and get the office talking.

Include topical and seasonal themes into your newsletter to make it more relevant.

Include a mix of content

Another important thing to consider is the balance between work-related information and lighthearted content. Too much of one or the other can make your newsletter seem either too boring or not informative enough. You need to try and find the perfect balance to make sure your co-workers are benefitting from the newsletter.

Ideas

Start your newsletter off with the most important, work-related information (e.g. upcoming meetings, events, new protocols, new employees.) When those things have been covered, you can get started on the more lighthearted, social aspects of the newsletter. This way you're clearly prioritising work matters without compromising on fun!

Play with the style

Although we recommend you try and stick to a trusted format in order to make the editing process easier, there's no harm in trying to spice things up a bit if you feel your newsletter layout or color scheme needs to be updated. A small refresh every now and again might be all your newsletter needs to remain interesting.

Ideas

You could try adapting your theme to the different seasons in order to make your newsletter as relevant as possible. Mail Designer 365 has tonnes of creative tools which you can explore to make this happen. Try including a seasonal mood picture for each newsletter - you can find all you need in the Unsplash library in the app.

To keep things interesting, update your design with imagery which reflects the seasons.

Find out what your team is interested in

Of course the most effective way of finding newsletter content which your team is interested in is to directly ask them what they want to hear about. Once you know the type of content your co-workers enjoy and don't enjoy, it will be much easier for you to refine your newsletters to their taste.

Ideas

There are many websites like Google Forms which allow you to quickly create a survey or questionnaire for free. Use this to send to your co-workers to find out more about their interests. The key to this is to keep the survey as brief as possible so staff are more willing to give up their time to fill it in.

Send a survey out to your team to get their feedback on your newsletter.

We hope you'll test out some of these ideas when you're putting together your next internal newsletter. The more you try to keep things interesting, the more of a success your newsletter should be with your co-workers!

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Why should I consider email marketing?

Getting subscribers to opt in

Drip campaigns

Other types of Content

New blog post alert!

Giveaways or competitions

Promotion or product launch

Final tips

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What influences open rates

1. Stay relevant

2. Use personalisation

3. Outline the sender

4. Have fun with emojis

5. Include a snippet text

Key Takeaways

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1. Build a Strong Mailing List for Your Startup

2. Produce Good Email Copy

3. Carry Out A/B Testing

4. Include a Clear Call-To-Action

5. Work Together with Your Team

6. Concentrate on Transactional Emails

7. Encourage Referrals and Testimonials

8. Run Analytics for Future Improvement

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Include Back to School in your subject line

Think about fonts

Use bright colors

Focus on kid-friendly imagery

Offer discounts and promotions

Provide a useful Back to School checklist

FREE Email Template

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What to consider before you get started

5 tips for writing emails for students

Focus on good design

Keep the tone friendly

Provide useful information

Include discounts and special offers

Concentrate on your social media presence

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Promote an open environment

Encourage your team to socialise

Keep meetings small and informal

Improve communication in the workplace

Consider all perspectives

Finding the right collaboration tool

Mobile optimisation

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Usability

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Customer support

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Email Marketing Best Practice for Hotels

1. Building an email list for your hotel or travel agency

2. Segmentation

3. Email design tips for hotels and travel agencies

4. Email subject line ideas for hotels and travel agencies

5. Transactional emails

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News Updates

Sales Emails

Promotional Emails

Sense of Urgency

Drip Campaigns

Re-engagement Emails

Give Mail Designer 365 a try today for free...

Branding and Style

Building up your email list