Remember the last great offer you didn’t see? The savvy email marketer knows that you catch more conversions with honey than you do with vinegar, so make sure your email design is sweet!

If you’re starting a new email marketing program, or looking for an edge to take your email campaigns to the next level, consider these ideas for designing emails that get your compelling offer noticed. These tips and tricks will start you off right, and even help experienced email marketers amp-up existing campaigns, turning precise communication into profits and visibility.

1. Before you start
Prior to constructing your email, make sure that your message is clear and concise. Develop and refine what you want to say so that readers don’t lose interest or get confused about what your call-to-action is. What is your offer? How will reading and clicking through this email help the reader? Make sure they know what’s in it for them. Before and during the building process, continually ask yourself, “What would I think if I got this in my inbox? Would I immediately delete it? Or worse, report it as spam?” Rule No. 1 — don’t be spam.

Even the most compelling message can be rendered ineffective if it’s presented in an undesirable way to your readers. During this process you may encounter many challenges and obstacles. Your design team may want to create something striking and beautiful, but your audience may not want it. At the same time, don’t throw readers for a loop with a design that is off-brand. Your email design should be able to flow well with the look of your website as well as any pieces collateral offered. Consistency is good. Also, design the email around your readers by responding to their personality. Are they tech savvy? Parents? Students?

Check out the rest of the iMedia Connection article here >>

So then I turn to Twitter and gag. Gee, any of this is really worth a tweet, right?  Then I get distracted by someone or something else that needs immediate attention. By the time I get back to Twitter the moment has passed and I’m on to 6 other things and the cycle starts all over again. Yikes! Therein lies my dilemma. I want to share these things but I don’t want to be one of the those folks suffering from “Twitterhea” either –you know who you are. Your constant blathering has to be a sign of some sort of neurosis.

Back to me. Do I need to make the decision to go all personal or all professional? I am finding the mix a little distracting from some of the people I follow. I’m also not sure how I should feel reading the personal bits about my colleagues. (Sorry the garlic pizza didn’t go so well Meggan!) I imagine some of them don’t feel comfortable that I’m following them because I’m their supervisor. I’ve actually chosen not to follow some people for that very reason. I know I wouldn’t want my boss to have a front row seat to all of my personal goings on – and we have a pretty open work environment here at eROI too. ALSO – who are the random people that decide to follow me? So far I’ve had 3-4. How should I feel about their sudden interest in me?

Which leads me to the other twouble with Twitter that I’ve been discussing with other Twitterphiles here at eROI.  I am finding that some companies are pursuing a full blown Twitter creep out strategy. Please stop. I don’t want the fact that I’ve shared my one too many glasses of wine the night before story to suddenly open me up to be followed by some wine company because they’ve heard the news and want to share their love of the vino. Okay, I also don’t want AA unnecessarily following me because they’ve heard and now they’re concerned for my overzealous love of the divine grape. I’m okay, really!

Don’t get me wrong – Twitter is an up and coming force that companies need to reckon with. It is already gaining a serious footing as a marketing channel. The best strategies for using Twitter are surely yet to come but so far most brands are pursuing a couple of solid yet simple strategies. For instance, piggybacking broadcasts of recent posts to drive traffic. Another strategy is using Twitter to widen a campaign’s reach for topic driven outreach to achieve broader messaging and soliciting feedback. Be open to experimenting but stay true to your brand.

One great local example is the way Travel Portland uses Twitter to get info out about local happenings, hot spots, restaurants and the like. In fact they have just launched the first “Twisitor Center” for visitors to our fine city to use for help and insider information. By far though, one of the most powerful uses of Twitter to date taking  place today is Twestival an international charity event bring together Twitter communities 175+ cities around the world for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water. Find your local event!

So if you’re just getting to know Twitter, what should you/ your company do?  I’d suggest you at least secure an account(s) for your company and any brands under your umbrella. If you are already tweeting as a company or brand, step one;  don’t be creepy. Step two; review step one. Ask yourself what your audience would want to hear from you or your brand frequently. Also, are your  tweets achieving any strategic objective? Is your audience going to get anything from what you’re saying? Keep in mind Twitter could be a qualitative strategy providing a way to promote the personality of your brand and the people and the things around it rather than a call to action soap box. (I’m personally looking forward to the real Captain Crunch tweeting.) Above all keep it simple and sane and please avoid becoming a purveyor of “Twitterhea.”

In the meantime on a personal note, I’ll keep working on what the right call for me is– all personal, all professional or a saucy mix of the two. It may be like seeing how sausage is made for awhile but follow along if you dare –yes, even if I don’t know you! http://twitter.com/mpimley

Email Design & Appealing Content Drives Subscriptions for The Smithsonian

Clean, targeted list? Check.

Excellent deliverability? Check.

Hot subject line? Check.

So why aren’t your email marketing campaigns performing like they should?

Our latest email marketing case study illustrates the effectiveness of appealing content and design in email marketing campaigns. Read how creative content offerings and precise brand presentation, combined with email marketing best practices, helped Smithsonian Magazine substantially increase both new & renewal subscriptions.

Initially, Tripwire had the idea of having different icons, colors and backgrounds for each one of the four authors.  They also wanted these differences to reflect the topics of each author’s blog; these including: Steve-Best Practices, Karen-Marketing, Matt-Industry, and, last but not least, Ted-Project Management.  The Tripwire team also wanted to distinguish the Virtual Black Hole blog from all others, steering away from the general post after post format of the traditional blog layout.  Lastly, they wanted to include Tripwire branding within the overall site but not be designed within the usual brand standards.

In order to accomplish the initial requests that the Tripwire team presented, Garrett, our lead designer of the project, dove in and developed very compelling wireframes that organized the 4 blogs in a way that presented all 4 characters separately.  Garrett collaborated with Creative Director Sam White and designer Tom O’Toole to take it a step further and designed functionality that would showcase the most recent blog entry for each of the four authors.

After our team had gathered Tripwire’s feedback, Garrett and Tom worked together to produce the final stage of designs for the blog.  Tom focused on creating the different icons for each of the authors.  He decided to go with a look of blacked-out silhouettes that showed each person differently along with a unique background image for each based on the specific author’s topic/personality.  What resulted was the following: Code in the background of the image icon to represent Steve and his Best Practices blog; a landing page to signify Karen and her blog about Marketing; Flow charts to resemble Matt’s Industry related blog; and, wireless signals to showcase Ted’s blog on Project Management.  As for Garrett, he focused much of his design energy on the overall look of the blog.  He did this by incorporating and balancing fun, comic like elements while still yielding a glossy and technical looking design.  Going along with the client’s request, the designers also visually implemented a connection to the “black hole” by adding stars and galaxy looking elements in the banner.  To also uphold eROI’s standards of best practices in terms of blogging, the team incorporated categories, tags, blog roll, feedback, RSS feeds, etc.

Overall the Virtual Black Hole blog turned out wonderfully, but it was not without challenges along the way.  Balancing a fun and professional design was especially challenging in that the eROI team wanted to give the site the true feel it deserved.  Another challenge was the timeline given for the project.  As the client wanted the new design live for an important press release that revealed the hiring of one of the bloggers, the design team had to work quickly without compromising the blog potential.  Though the timeline was shorter than preferred, the team did well in developing a visually pleasing design that worked beautifully in achieving the client’s goals.   In the end, each of the four authors were showcased along with their personalities, the overall look of the site steered clear of the traditional blog layout, and the site remained true to the Tripwire brand.