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 >>

The second holiday email campaign (see above for email design) had such compelling and humorous, original content on its landing page that it made up for a slightly expected subject line and simple email design and copywriting.  Basically, this email from Sandstrom Partners was incredibly effective at getting me to click on the main call to action and even better at getting me to laugh as I completely connected with the agency gift conundrum.  See if you think their video landing page is funny too >>

Does email design really matter? Is it just “fluff,” or does it truly drive results?

At eROI, we just let our Resource Center subscribers know about this exclusive email marketing case study. See how a fresh, targeted, and on-brand email design by eROI’s award-winning creative team took the CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports emails to the next level.

Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on Email Design. Give us your take Before & After you read the case study.  Thx.

I almost forgot — this blog will transition over the next month or so to having everyone subscribe to eroidays.com, no longer emaildays.com (same content, just a more accurate name):

Full disclosure, eROI did the design for this CBSSports.com Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball newsletter signup email. One pleasant surprise is how well this email performed both before its launch in eye-tracking testing and in the number of newsletter signups it drove in the actual campaign.

What are your thougths on the above email design? Please comment.

I love the business model and the concept behind RYZwear.com and Threadless.com, but I’m wondering how much room there is for me-too type companies. Is it truly a revolutionary shift where an entire new economy can be built around it or is there significant first-mover advantages to Threadless.com and other community-based business models already up and running?

Please comment to share your thoughts.

This email from my sister highlighted a hero in her home town of Lexington Kentucky:
“This guys brother is a 9 year old on my son’s team. He has been up at the park for the last 4 years motoring around the bleachers. His family is great and his attitude is awesome. Makes you rethink complaining about any aches and pains or “I can’t do it” attitude. Make sure you watch the video.”

Adam Bender – plays baseball with only one leg

The next email was sent by one of the top experts in the email marketing industry. I’m sure he had received an email like this before, but like me, he was struck by how powerful this video was a second or third time – his email said:
“The Story:
A son asked his father, ‘Dad, will you take part in a marathon
with me?’ The father who, despite having a heart condition, says
‘Yes’. They went on to complete the marathon together.
Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father
always saying ‘Yes’ to his son’s request of going through the
race together. One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let’s
join the Ironman together.’

To which, his father said ‘Yes’ to.
For those who didn’t know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon
ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile
(3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2
kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195
kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island.

Father and son went on to complete the race together. View this with music. ”

Can World’s Strongest Dad

However, one of my colleagues, brought up a good point. Here is what she had to say:

Hi Ryan,
Just my latest email marketing peeve. I was a John Edwards supporter. When Edwards endorsed Obama, I got an email urging me to register at Obama’s site. There was a specific link (www.barackobama.com/johnedwards). I signed up because I do want to support Obama now, and I also want the Obama campaign to be able to gauge how much support comes via Edwards.

Below is the first email I got after signing up. As if I’ve been a supporter all along. It seems like a missed opportunity to send me something relevant, ie. thanks for signing up, we really respect Senator Edwards and like him, we support issue X, Y and Z.

It would have been so easy. Sigh.

Cheers,
Jean

Begin forwarded message:

From: Barack Obama
Date: May 21, 2008 4:45:21 PM PDT
To: Jean
Subject: Thank you
Reply-To: info@barackobama.com

Dear Jean,

You did it.

Not just yesterday, but every day for more than a year, you did what the cynics said we couldn’t do.

You said the time has come to get beyond the same old tactics that divide and distract us, and you gave people a reason to believe again.

Because of your work, we won the Oregon primary by a large margin — and made it clear that at this moment, in this election, there is something happening in America.

There is something happening when Americans who have never participated in politics get involved and knock on doors, make phone calls, and talk to each other about their vision for our country.

There is something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to but for the hopes they hold in common.

Change is what’s happening in America.

The momentum you created won’t stop now. Together we’re building a campaign that will compete in the general election — and a united Democratic Party that can lead this country for the next generation.

You can keep it going by taking a trip to Montana for the last primary in the country. Supporters like you are needed to help get voters out to the polls for their June 3rd primary.

Sign up now to help Get Out The Vote in Montana:

http://my.barackobama.com/cometoMT

We’re within reach of the nomination, and we are ready to take this country in a new direction.

Thank you for everything you’ve done to make this possible.

Barack

Freedom, A Twitter Away For UC Berkeley Student Arrested In Egypt

“As surreal as it may sound, Twitter can get you out of jail! The catch…send the right message to as many people as possible as fast as you can and voila!

UC Berkeley journalism graduate student James Karl Buck (29), former Oakland Tribune multimedia intern, was arrested during a demonstration in Mahalla El-Kobra, an industrial city in the Nile Delta.

What the Egyptian authorities didn’t probably expect was the prompt reaction of a large circle of friends in the United States and the anti-government bloggers in Egypt, who were sent an instant text message from his cellular phone: “ARRESTED,” the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The micro-blogging service allows users to send text messages up to 140 characters long, and the message Buck sent had the desired outcome: his friends called the University, the American Embassy, as well as the Associated Press, the International Herald Tribune and other media.

The result: he was released the next day, although according to his affirmations, the Egyptian authorities told him just hours after his arrest, in the middle of the night, that he was a free man.”

Download the Full PDF presentation of “Bringing Sexy Back to Email” here>>. It’s the second downloadable document on that page. Tell me what you think.

The genesis of the idea for this speech came from attending a panel on email marketing at MediaPost’s OMMA Hollywood show last month. At that panel, the nation’s top email experts, who I have a ton of respect for, all had a similar response to the question, “what’s exciting coming up in the near future for email marketing?” After a few chuckles and shrugs that it’s the same old same old in the email world, these top email software and agency experts’ answers included “email is a workhorse” and it “is the plumbing of the internet.” To paraphrase the response, email has the highest ROI of any online marketing medium, but it’s ultimately boring in its implementation.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Where is the passion? Where is the sex appeal? Email has been around for a long time, but don’t tell me it’s boring. Email is dead sexy, but first let’s explore who is sexy to you? Before you look at the images below, think about who you find sexy and why are they sexy? Great looking. Hot body. Amazing voice. Atheletic. Bad girl or Bad boy personality. Something luring you in?

Ignore these pics below, and tell me WHO IS SEXY to you?

What does this have to do with Email?

Email is Dead Sexy and here’s why:
–Email is the Killer App – only true push medium
–More brand touchpoints than any other medium
–Highest ROI – Email Works
–Core of Building Online Community
–Successful Email Trigger Campaign – Fosters 2-way dialogue

Don’t forget to download the Full PDF presentation of “Bringing Sexy Back to Email” here>>.