Apr 15 2019

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

By Gabrielle Uncategorized

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

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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!

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

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

Feb 15 2019

How to Create Crisis Communication Emails for Your Team

By Uncategorized

No matter how big or small, when crisis strikes, it's important your team is briefed as soon as possible. For many managers, the crisis email is probably one of the most important you will send, as it allows you and your team to productively move on from a problem while avoiding widespread panic.

Here are some of our best tips on keeping calm and putting together effective crisis communication emails...

When to send a crisis email

In crisis situations, timing is everything. You should aim to send your email as soon as possible before the news starts to spread around the office. This being said, you should also make sure you have asked yourself the following before you send out the email...

Do I have the full story? Providing only part of the story could cause more harm than good. Waiting for more details is much more effective than panic sending.
Is the information sensitive? Some information may be legally sensitive or confidential and you should check before sending it out to your staff.
Have I fact checked the information? It's important to make sure you have established the facts, as sending out incorrect information will make the situation worse for you and your team.

Who to send a crisis email to

Before you get started with putting the message together, it is important to consider who you need to inform and whether you need to send one mass email, or multiple emails to different groups. One way of identifying who to inform is by assessing who will be directly impacted by the crisis. Some examples include:

Management: This will be your first port of call. The senior management team should be informed about everything before deciding who else will be affected.
Staff: Anything which will have a direct impact upon staff should be shared with the whole team. This includes funding cuts, branch closures, security breaches, or technical issues (e.g. network problems or power outages)
Shareholders and investors: Anything related to company finances or the profit making potential of the business should be shared with investors.
Customers: Your customers are the core of your business and it's good practice to keep them up to date. This could include issues such as a serious data breach, changes to your normal operating hours, or problems with the website.
The press: If a problem is likely to become public, it's advisable to inform the press as soon as possible to avoid false information being leaked. This includes legal allegations against your business or serious financial problems.

What to include in a crisis email

Here are some ideas of things you can include to effectively communicate the problem to your team...

1. Outline the crisis

You should start the email by briefly recapping the problem for anyone who might not know what is going on. This is also an effective way of making sure everyone has received the same information and helps you to avoid any confusion.

2. Give practical advice

As a manager or team leader, your staff will look to you for direction in times of crisis. Make sure you include some kind of strategy or way to move forward from the incident. This will help to motivate your team and get the problem resolved faster.

3. Use subheadings and paragraphs

If you are experiencing a major incident, your email must be clear and concise. It's easy to forget about presentation when you are in panic mode, but long chunks of text will only make your email harder to comprehend. Take the time to put together a clean cut email and include logical sub-headings to help the reader navigate through the most important information:

Make your crisis email easy to read by using clear paragraphs and sub-headings.

4. Provide contact information for the crisis

Some of your recipients may have further questions or concerns. You should provide a way for them to get in touch with you or the person in charge, such as an email address or phone number.

If the crisis is large scale, you may want to consider setting up a crisis hotline to efficiently manage incoming questions. For press statements, you should include a designated contact to deal with any follow up questions from journalists.

Contact information for a crisis situation

Include contact information so readers can get in touch with any questions or concerns.

5. Create a dedicated crisis landing page for the public

Think about which of your business activities (e.g. delivery times, services, opening hours, stock availability) will be affected by the crisis and briefly summarize the answers on a dedicated FAQ page on your website.

This will help your customers find the information they require faster, while also reducing the strain on your support team.

Tip: Provide a temporary link to this page on the support area of your website to help answer common support queries before your inbox and phone lines become overloaded.

6. Keep sensitive information private

In Mail Designer 365, you can quickly build a professional email to keep your team informed in times of crisis. If there are things which need to stay confidential to eliminate the risk of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands, you can send securely via your own servers using your own address - directly within the app.

Sending a crisis email from Mail Designer 365

Send via your own servers using your own email address.

How to create a crisis communication email for your business

We've created two new crisis communication email templates suitable for keeping your customers up to date during a crisis:

Email template to update customers about the coronavirus crisis

These templates are ready and available to edit now in Mail Designer 365. Simply update the messaging to fit your business and send to your entire mailing list to keep them informed.

We hope you have found these tips helpful. Remember to keep calm and work proactively. The crisis won't last forever and your customers will appreciate you keeping them informed. If you want to use one of the above templates, sign up to Mail Designer 365 free to get started today.

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

Mail Designer 365 helps you and your team create stylish, professional HTML emails.
Sign up free today to see what you can achieve.

Jan 18 2019

How to Convert Keynote or PowerPoint Slides to Email - Our Quick Guide

By Uncategorized

As people are getting busier and technology is advancing, you have probably found yourself looking for a practical and interesting way to share important information with your colleagues and business partners. Here are some of our top tips on how you can easily convert your Keynote or PowerPoint presentation slides to compelling emails and keep your whole team up to date...

Select the most important slides

Before you get started with your email, identify the most important parts of your presentation which you want to relay to your colleagues. By only including the key points, you'll keep your readers engaged and share information more efficiently. Remember you don't need to use every slide! Once you've identified these key points, you can start to build an email layout...

Export slides with graphics

To save time and hard work, you can export your content-heavy slides as images to share with your team. This is a quick alternative to manually inserting or rebuilding charts, infographics, graphs, and other graphics.

This is easy to do in both programs. For example, in Keynote, go to "File" > "Export to" and select "Images". You can then select the slides you wish to export and then save them to your computer.

Export content heavy slides as images to use in your email.

Crop slides to keep it short

To reduce the length of the email, you can also crop slides to only show the important information. Things like the header with your logo and slide title, or the footer with contact information aren't required to convey the key points of the presentation.

Crop slides to cut out any irrelevant or unnecessary information.

Creating your email layout

Nobody likes to read a long list of information, which is why you should try and keep your layouts interesting! Here are a few quick tips you could use to make your email quick and easy to read:

Insert clear headings to explain slide content. This will distinguish the sub-headings from the main body text and allow busy readers to quickly skim the email and still understand the key points.

Keep the length under control. It's a good idea to keep your email as short as possible so readers aren't endlessly scrolling to get to the end. Do this by arranging text and images side by side or inserting multiple text columns:

Column layouts help arrange text in a more interesting way while also reducing email length.

Use tables to clearly present information. A table layout is a simple yet effective way of presenting information such as project status updates and pricing plans without taking up too much space in your email. You can use a table to summarise more detailed slides.

Tip: Mail Designer 365, you can use table layout blocks to present information to readers. Check out this tutorial for building professional project status tables.

Use tables to visually convey how a project is going.

Stay on brand

Once you've converted your presentation to email, you only need to make a few minor changes to make sure the email is still professional and on brand.

If you haven't already, make sure your company logo is clearly incorporated into the email design. If you're sending to external colleagues, partners, or shareholders, this will make it clear who the email is from.

Try to match the colors used in your presentation throughout your email. Not only will this compliment any slides you have included, it also gives your email a clear color scheme so it is on brand and aesthetically appealing...

Keep emails professional and on brand by incorporating your logo and color scheme.

We hope you have found these tips for converting presentations into email useful. It really is that easy to take your existing presentation content and transform it into a well-presented, easy to read email. If you like what you've read here today, why not try out these tips in Mail Designer 365? Download the app for free and see what you can create!

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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

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

Jan 06 2019

5 Smart Hacks to Reduce Your HTML Email Size

By 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

An oversized email can lead to many problems. As well as creating difficulties when loading, in some email apps, email designs above a certain size limit could appear incomplete; leading to less than ideal results.

In Gmail, email messages above 102 KB will be cut off. To help you prevent this from happening, we've got 5 helpful hacks on how you can use Mail Designer 365 to keep the size of your email design down...

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About data privacy

5 Smart Ways to Reduce the Size of Your HTML Email

Be smart with email content

This may sound like a no brainer, but cutting down on your email content is the easiest way to quickly reduce the size of your email design. If you notice your email is getting too long, think about how much content you have included and whether it's relevant.

Including links to landing pages with more information is a great way to cut down and still keep readers up to date.

Cut down on layout blocks

Layout blocks are a great way to stylishly arrange email content, but too many of them will significantly increase the size of your email design.

One way in which you can smartly use layout blocks is by utilising combi layouts. Combi layout blocks allow you to save space by arranging image and text side by side instead of having to double up and insert separate blocks for each:

Use padding instead of spacers

Another smart hack is to make use of the padding tools. These can be found in the Style menu. Instead of inserting a spacer layout block to create space between blocks, simply adjust the padding to give you your desired amount of spacing. This helps cut down the HTML and reduces the email size.

Use the padding tools to reduce use of spacer blocks

Optimize newsletter images

This is arguably one of the most important factors when it comes to saving space, as images can add a great deal of weight to your email design.

Luckily, Mail Designer 365 offers an image optimization feature, which automatically recognises the optimal image type for your design. You can also use this tool to compress the size and quality of images.

Use image optimization to configure the optimal size and resolution for images

Keep alt text concise

Every little helps when it comes to saving space. One further way of cutting down the size of your HTML is by keeping any alt text descriptions brief and concise - especially as alt tags which are too long will get cut off in email clients such as Gmail.

Adding an alt tag to an image is easy in Mail Designer 365, simply click on your image and select "Edit Link & Background" in the Style menu:

Keep alt text tags short and concise to reduce the amount of HTML

Bonus tip...

The Pre-flight checker in Mail Designer 365 tells you the exact size of your finished email design so you will know whether you need to cut down:

The pre-flight checker lets you know the exact size of your design.

We hope you have found these tips on reducing email size useful. Don't forget to use them next time in Mail Designer 365!

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Dec 27 2018

Inspiration for your 2019 Email Marketing Calendar

By Uncategorized

2018 is coming to an end, and for email marketers and businesses, going into a new year can be a daunting prospect. With so much to plan and consider, we wanted to make things a little more straightforward for you in 2019. Here are 12 inspiring dates for your 2019 email marketing diary...

January 21st: Blue Monday

Officially named the most depressing day of the year, Blue Monday is hardly a cause for celebration. As marketers, you can be clever and do your best to take advantage of this day by giving your customers something to smile about. This may be a special offer or discount, or simply a kind email to remind readers to hang in there!

Travel company EasyJet launched an 'Orange Monday' campaign offering discounts across flights and holidays as a way to cheer up customers from the Blue Monday gloom.

Take your customers' minds off the Blue Monday gloom by offering a sale or promotion like EasyJet's Orange Monday...

February 5th: Chinese New Year

Vibrant and colorful, the Chinese New Year is an exciting event observed by Chinese families worldwide. Get involved by integrating some aspects of Chinese culture into your email campaigns to celebrate the start of their year.

This clever email from Karen Millen is a humorous way to incorporate Lunar New Year celebrations into a marketing campaign:

March 8th: International Women's Day

International Women's Day is a great opportunity for you to celebrate your female customers and colleagues. A marketing campaign giving back to women's charities or simply an email recognising the day would be highly effective way to show women your appreciation.

April 1st: April Fool's Day

Widely known as a day to joke around and have fun, April Fool's Day gives you the perfect chance to show off your funny side to your customers. Try integrating an appropriate level of wit and humour into your emails to make your campaigns more interesting, but remember to stay on brand whilst doing so!

This funny email from Domino's Pizza is well on brand and incorporates just the right amount of humour for readers to appreciate it as an April Fool's campaign:

Keep the humour of your April Fool's campaigns on brand and relevant to your business

May 15th: International Day of Families

It is important for businesses to be family friendly and cater to different age groups. The International Day of Families is a great time to show that your business does just that. Try coming up with a promotion to benefit families, such as kids eat free, or discounts across children's toys or clothing.

June 1st: LGBT+ Pride Month

LGBT Pride is quickly becoming one of the biggest celebrations of the calendar, with large scale events and parades taking place worldwide. As a business, it's important for you to show your support for this movement and email marketing offers you a convenient way to make this happen. Whether you incorporate the rainbow theme into your design, or build a specialised campaign, any support will be widely appreciated.

This bright and colorful email by Harry's effectively communicates their support for the Pride movement. Donating the proceeds of their shave set to LGBT+ causes is a further way to give back.

Bright colors and genuine displays of solidarity like this one from Harry's are highly effective

July 20th: Moon Landing Anniversary

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Depending on the nature of your business, this could make a unique and interesting theme for an email campaign. Try incorporating celestial imagery such as stars and planets to create a space theme, or take the opportunity to promote any products with a connection to outer space.

August 11th: Eid Al Adha

Eid Al Ada is a great celebration for Muslims all over the world and for many, marks the start of the pilgrimage to Mecca. If you know you are likely to have many customers celebrating Eid, it would be a good idea to send out an email greeting, wishing recipients a happy Eid.

This effective email design from drumbeat is a lovely way to reach out to customers celebrating Eid and shows they care as an organisation:

Reach out to customers celebrating Eid by sending out an email greeting

September 13th: International Programmers' Day

This is one for all the software and tech firms out there... Show appreciation for your fellow programmers by giving a nod to them in your email campaign! Try offering a discount on new software which developers may find useful, or provide programmers with early access to your beta releases. They'll definitely appreciate you going the extra mile for them.

October 27th: Diwali

Diwali is a Hindu festival of light, which is particularly prominent in India, but also celebrated throughout the world with fireworks and colorful lights. Recognising Diwali in your email campaigns is a nice way to include all the recipients on your list who may also be celebrating this festival.

November 11th: Singles' Day

Originating in China, Singles' Day is a day dedicated to celebrating single people and is now massively growing in popularity. Many businesses use this as an opportunity to offer discounts and great deals to their customers. In particular, this holiday is popular with younger people in China, the UK and the USA.

NastyGal effectively celebrate singles with this cat themed email design offering 25% off their entire site:

Give your single customers something to celebrate by offering deals and discounts for Singles' Day

December 3rd: Giving Tuesday

Taking a break from the hype of Black Friday and Christmas marketing, Giving Tuesday is another charitable way to demonstrate your business's CSR and encourage customers to get involved in good causes. In the last few years, many big brands have gotten involved in the Giving Tuesday campaign.

This festive email design from ONA inspires customers to purchase a camera strap to support charity water:

Choose a charity to support and encourage your customers to give back for Giving Tuesday

We hope we have given you some ideas and inspiration for your 2019 email marketing calendar. Alongside the regular holidays and events in your planner, these events should give you some fresh and interesting new subject matter to create engaging emails with in 2019.

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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

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

Dec 19 2018

B2B Holiday Emails: Dos and Don'ts

By Uncategorized

With Christmas just around the corner, many businesses will be getting ready to send out their festive email campaigns to customers. While most businesses will be focused on sales and promotions this month, for B2B companies, holiday marketing is slightly different. To help you get started, we've put together a useful guide of dos and don'ts for business to business holiday emails.

Don't send your emails last minute

Remember that most offices will be closing over the holiday period to allow their staff some well deserved down time. If you send your emails out on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, it's highly likely that they won't be read. Make sure to send your emails in the week prior to Christmas (at the latest) to ensure they will be seen before the big day.

Do keep things professional

Although it may be tempting to get into the Christmas spirit and adopt a more informal tone, as many B2C companies do, it's important that B2B companies remain consistent all year round. This means if you have always kept a professional tone with clients, you should continue to do so. This doesn't mean your email has to be boring. Mail Designer 365 has hundreds of font and design options which you can integrate into your email to keep things interesting:

Utilise Mail Designer 365's wide selection of business fonts for a professional holiday design.

Don't feel obliged to sell

The holiday season is hugely commercialised and businesses try everything they can to boost sales during December. For a B2C company, this is usually an effective strategy, as consumers are looking out for the best gifts and special offers. As a B2B company, it is often much more effective and professional to send out a simple email thanking your clients and wishing them all the best for the holidays.

Do include useful information

Including information which your clients and customers will find useful is another highly effective email strategy for B2B companies. Let clients know your opening hours over the holiday season, or remind them about last delivery dates before Christmas. This is something they are bound to appreciate you going the extra mile for.

This email by Zenmed is a nice way to inform customers about using their express shipping service over the holiday season:

Provide your clients with useful information they may need to be aware of over the holiday season.

Don't just send to all

There is never an occasion where we would recommend you send one email to your entire mailing list. Not only is this a large risk, it can also be counter productive when sending unnecessary emails to the wrong target group. Instead, make the effort to segment your list based on who would find a holiday themed email appropriate or beneficial. It is useful to consider aspects like culture and geographic region when doing this.

Do include an incentive

Gifting is a common tradition during the holiday season and it can also be used effectively in a B2B email, where business relationships are especially important. Show your clients you appreciate their custom by offering them a gift or incentive which they can use in the New Year. This is a great way to improve customer retention levels.

In true holiday spirit, this email by Trello gives clients a free license for a month to use for themselves and share with friends and family. This is an effective incentive to keep users using the service:

Give your subscribers a holiday gift to keep them coming back in the New Year.

Don't assume all customers celebrate Christmas

Last but not least, it is more important than ever with B2B companies to be aware that not all customers celebrate Christmas, and there are many other holiday taking place during this time of the year. For this reason, it's much more appropriate to use neutral terms like "Happy Holidays" to appeal to a wider audience.

We hope this quick guide has been useful for B2B companies looking to send out a holiday email campaign this month. Feel free to try out all of these tips in Mail Designer 365!

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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

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

Dec 14 2018

The Best Christmas Email Designs and How You Can Recreate Them

By Uncategorized

Christmas is coming and we hope you're as excited as us to get started on your festive email campaigns! With so many great designs out there, it can be hard to know where and how to get started. That's why we've picked out these super christmassy designs from our Pinterest board which you can easily recreate using Mail Designer 365. Time to get inspired!

Festive gift guides

Christmas shopping can be tough for everyone with so much choice out there. Narrow down your best products to create a gift guide for your customers. This magical gift guide from Pandora is a simple, yet elegant way for a store to display their top products for Christmas.

Make it in Mail Designer

Mail Designer 365's extensive selection of layout blocks provides you with all you need to build a festive gift guide. Use a combination layout block to cleverly combine text and images.

Spread Christmas cheer with bold fonts

Got a Christmas offer to promote? Use bold and big text to show your customers what you've got in store for them. This design from J Crew gets the message across using clear, bold fonts. The red emphasis on certain letters makes it extra festive for holiday designs.

Make it in Mail Designer

In Mail Designer 365 you can apply text styles to your newsletter text to create effects similar to those seen in the J Crew design. Use the style tools to apply emphasis to certain letters and phrases which you want to stand out for your customers. This is a much more reliable way to integrate stylish lettering into your email designs than using images which may not be displayed in all email clients.

Vibrant color blocking

Christmastime is all about bright and vibrant colors which represent the fun of the holiday season. Urban Outfitters hit the nail on the head with this colorful email design. The use of color blocking makes their gift guide even more effective.

Make it in Mail Designer

Mail Designer 365 gives you ultimate freedom when it comes to choosing a color scheme for your design. Use the color picker tool to apply the perfect shade to your layout block and create the color blocking effect seen in the design from Urban Outfitters. For more inspiration on festive color palettes, check out this blog post.

Stand out call-to-actions

Your call-to-action (CTA) brings your entire email design together and instructs your readers on how to view your seasonal products and festive offers. For an extra effective CTA, choose a vibrant color which stands out from the rest of your email design - just like in this super christmassy design from J. Renee.

Make it in Mail Designer

Building CTA buttons is quick and easy in Mail Designer 365. Explore our graphic library and choose from pre-made buttons which you can edit to suit your design, or build up your own using shapes and graphic text styles.

We hope these festive email designs have left you feeling inspired for your own holiday designs. Remember, all of these design techniques can be easily recreated using Mail Designer 365. Get creative today!

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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

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