Email is one of the most powerful mediums that you can use to talk to visitors, customers and prospects. In this article I will discuss 12 best practices that you can use everyday in your email marketing activities.

1. Spam Filters
The majority of large Internet service providers now use many spam protection mechanisms to trap unsolicited email before it gets to the inbox. Spam filters generally “rank” each email by criteria, and, if that email rates above a certain level, then it is flagged as spam and deleted.
To make sure your emails don’t get flagged as spam — and deleted before they even get to your subscribers — avoid using words such as ‘Free’, ‘Save’, ‘Discount’, etc in the subject line and content of your email.

2. Click-Thru Rates
Emails can contain a lot of text and graphics, and this sometimes makes it harder to get your subscribers to perform a certain task, such as clicking on a link to see your special offers.
Research tells us that the majority of Internet users respond better to a plain, bold, blue text link, opposed to a banner or button. Therefore if you are going to include links in your emails, make sure they are bold, blue and underlined. This will mean that more subscribers click through, meaning more conversions.

3. Personalisation
If you were standing in a crowd, which of these would get your attention: “HEY, YOU!” or “HEY JANE” (assuming your name is Jane). The power of personalisation can and should be used in your emails. Starting your email with “Hi [subscriber name]” can increase both your reading and click-thru rates by up to 650%. This is because your subscribers feel like they already have a relationship with you as you’ve addressed them by their first name.

4. One-Click Unsubscription
It is highly recommended that you have: a double opt-in process, and a quick way to unsubscribe. It is actually mandatory by law that every email has an unsubscribe link in it. The unsubscribe link should be prominent at the top of the page and take the recipient directly to a page where they are then removed from your mailing list.

5. Signup Confirmation
Always use a double opt-in confirmation process. Double opt-in means that after someone initially enters their email address to subscribe to your list, you then send them a “confirmation” email. This email should contain a link back to your email-marketing program, which will then verify that this visitor did indeed sign up to your mailing list.

6. Tuesday / Wednesday
Studies conducted by online research have shown that the best days to send mail to your lists are Tuesday and Wednesday. This has proven to be the time that most people are more receptive to communication. This means they are more likely to read your content, click on your links and therefore convert to more sales.
Mondays tend to be people catching up after the weekend and Thursdays and Fridays, people are already too busy looking forward to the weekend. The optimal time, producing the best results has been proven by sending out around 2-3pm on a Wednesday.

7. Repeat Email
An auto responder is an email that is scheduled to be sent at a certain time after someone signs up to your mailing list. Auto responders are a great way to automatically follow up with your subscribers or provide them with more information on your products/services.
An example of this could be if someone signs up for your emails, you could setup a number of follow up auto messages. The first could be sent 1 hour after they subscribe, this may contains a thank you message and a link to get a certain % off.
The second is sent 24 hours after they subscribe informing them about upcoming offers, and the third is sent 72 hours after they subscribe, in which you can offer them an extra special deal.

8. Consistency
If you’re running a newsletter or frequent email publication, make sure you keep the look and feel consistent from issue to issue. By keeping the look and feel consistent, you help to maintain and strengthen your brand and your image to your subscribers, which again will make it easier to close sales when you need to.

9. on Time, Every Time
Always make sure that your emails are sent on the same day, at the same time. With this in mind your subscribers will come to expect your email to arrive in their inbox on the same day at the same time every week and look forward to what you are sending.

10. The Preview Pane
Popular email clients such as Microsoft Outlook show a preview of an email when it’s selected in your inbox. Try to always put your most interesting content at the very top of your email, as this is the part that will show in the preview window of your subscribers email program. If it catches your reader’s attention, then your subscriber will open your email and continue reading.

11. Link-Click
When creating marketing emails, try using different text for both content and links. Another tip is to re-position images such as logos and buttons. After sending about 3 different emails, compare the click-thru stats and see which one worked best.

12. Email Marketing Needs to Reflect Your Corporate Design
This ensures that recipients can make a connection between the emails the get and the sender’s other projects such as their website. The company image and the image created by the email marketing efforts can interact and maybe strengthen each other.
If the email marketing does not reflect the corporate design, this can have a bad effect not only on the success of the email campaign, but also on the image of the company as a whole.
By implementing the 12 best practices described in this article, you can take your email marketing to a whole new level attracting more subscribers, and building both your brand equity and credibility at the same time.

5 years ago Berry Burgess and Lee Skinner formed Armadillo after choosing the name from a recipe book in Berry’s kitchen, (it could have been Tomato, Lemongrass or Red Snapper Creative!)

From our first creative day in July 2005 we understood that it was not just great ideas that were important, but great communication delivering effective results for all our clients, large and small, time and time again.  We have grown from small shoots to a respected strong team covering all marketing and creative genre including advertising, brand, design, web, e-marketing, SEO, and everything else in-between, which is a success story in this current climate.

Hard working and determined, Berry Burgess has never let his guard down, creating some of the most successful design and marketing campaigns to date, producing results for many successful companies. His finger is constantly on the pulse of what motivates people to respond to advertising, and he has never missed an opportunity to capitalise on getting the right message across for his agency clients.

We’re all looking forward to another 5 great years.

In Easter Armadillo Creative organised the Star Wars Event at the Royal Quays Shopping Outlet in North Shields. Featuring famous characters from the movie and members of the 99^th Imperial Garrison. Over 30,000 people turned up at Easter to see the event which also help raise funds for the RNLI Tynemouth Lifeboat Appeal.

Judith Ramshaw, Centre Manager at Royal Quays, said, “The event was  planned as a fun way to give something back to our customers, old and new. We see Royal Quays as a family day out, and this event was definitely great fun for all the family and hopefully leave a lasting impression, especially the photographs that are available to take home the same day.” The donations go to the RNLI Lifeboat Appeal which is a great local cause. There’s was not just some great events to see and take part in, we also had two prizes of two authentic, collectible Stormtrooper costumes, worth £1000 each that were won on our online competition. The footfall at the centre was amazing and the event was a huge success for both the customers and the tenants. Due to the success Star Wars will return to Royal Quays later in the year as well.

Berry Burgess, Managing Director of Armadillo Creative said: “I always knew there was a huge fan base for Star Wars and it was nice to see something different rather than Noddy or Pepper Pig. The footfall shows that the marketing and the event works which in a nutshell is job done. It was nice to see Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Sand-People and other characters from the 99^th Imperial Garrison but it was also satisfying to see how many adults and children got dressed up as Jedi’s and Stormtroopers to join in the event.

If you would like further information about Armadillo  Creative  please  telephone  Anne Woodcock on 0191 257 8380

Careline Lifestyles have appointed Armadillo Creative to develop and progress Careline across branding, web and print. Careline Lifestyles is a leading independent provider of high quality nursing and residential care, specialising in neuro, learning and physical disabilities for persons over 18 years of age in addition to providing nursing, residential and social care for the elderly, based in the North East of England.

Established in 1986, Careline Lifestyles now operate 11 care homes throughout the North East of England and have a further 3 units under development which are due to open in 2010/2011.

Moya Goodyear, Marketing Manager of Careline Lifestyles said: “We are delighted to appoint and work with Armadillo on this very exciting phase of the companies expansion and development across a spectre of work. Careline have a very active growth strategy for 2010 and this needs underpinning by strong brand development work which Armadillo will provide with the sparkle that they always do.”

Rachel Burgess, Armadillo Client Services Director said: “Careline Lifestyles promises to be a very fulfilling account, the very structure and unique proposition of the Careline culture makes for compelling brand marketing.”

Careline Lifestyles is just one one of a number of recent account gains at Armadillo this year including Royal Quays Outlet Centre, Chocolate Lovers, Premier Crafts, Edgar Ford, and Game Fishing Supplies.

If you would like further information about Armadillo  Creative  please  telephone  Anne Woodcock on 0191 257 8380

Armadillo Creative, have been successful appointed by Durham County Council to implement the brand development and marketing collateral for the 2010 Brass Festival which will include web, design and advertising.

Managing Director of Armadillo, Berry Burgess, said: “It’s great that Brass has returned back into the agency after a years absence. It has always been a very creative project to work on and we are sure that this years campaign will get heads turning again. We decided to do something completely different to what may be perceived or expected, Brass is a unique event and we wanted to establish a unique creative approach to the norm.”

Brass: Durham International Festival is a two-week celebration of internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles. Drawn from across the widest of musical spectrums with an amazing variety of music, BRASS illuminates the strong musical and cultural bond that connects the North East with the international traditions of brass music. The festival is a testament to the strength of our particular brass tradition and many excellent brass ensembles and brass bands that County Durham produces. The festival will take place from Saturday July 3rd to Sunday July 18th.

If you would like further information about Armadillo  Creative  please  telephone  Anne Woodcock on 0191 257 8380