It is common for the seasoned email marketing strategist to notice a pattern of repetitive, typical and established email marketing strategies in the marketplace. There is notable emphasis on the email “holy trinity” – ” subject lines,” “creatives” and “images” – as if all email marketing only needed these three elements.

So after years of testing “subject lines,” “creatives” and “images” to get better “subject lines,” “creatives” and “images” email conversion rates are still dropping. What is the email marketer to do next?

If you, just like me at times, find yourself in this predicament, you may be what I call the “bored email marketer.”

Here are three techniques that boost creativity and help to break away from email marketing boredom:

1. Focus on concepts first not creatives and images.

According to a Merkle Interactive Services 2009 study 52% of email recipients have images turned off in their email reader (via emailstatscenter.com). So more than half of your customers will not see that carefully crafted email creative first. They will see your headline and the first few links you have most prominently placed.

So make a decision to not put creative first this year and focus on developing meaningful concepts that resonate with your target audience.

Take a good look at your goals and work back from them to map the path that will get you there. The first step in the chain that will lead to your goal is understanding the multiple ” personas ” that make up your audience. Based on those “personas” develop multiple concepts to test. Develop content to illustrate the concepts and then develop the creatives. So if you follow the analytics/ hypotheses/ test -planning/ content/ creative/ execution/ post-campaign analysis cycle, there are four other email strategy components to keep the email marketer from getting bored.

2. When you run out of concepts to test, retest concepts from a year ago.

A few years back, before Al Gore’s “fight for green” became mainstream, I developed a campaign to test if “going green” was a stronger driver for web usage than “de-clutter your life.” “Going green” failed the test. A year later, after Gore won the Nobel Peace prize and his global warming message became popular, we re-tested the same two concepts against each other and this time “going green” won.

What we learned here is that trends can change very fast, and we have to change with them, even if it means going back to an old concept. It may be old to the email marketer, but new to our customers.

3. Do the exact opposite of what you have been doing.

When you cannot move the needle enough with new tests it may be time to mix in something which is the complete opposite of what you have been doing so far. If you unsuccessfully tested images, throw in a no-image market-cell. If most of your emails have been short, try testing against a long email. If your communication language has been formal, test against informal copy.

I’m not advising here doing away with tactics that have been consistently proven, nor am I advising throwing away common sense. What I’m advocating is challenging ourselves to break away from patters that keep us stuck in an unproductive comfort zone.

Doing the opposite of what you have been doing may not prove the success you were looking for each time, but it will open up new perspectives, trigger new ideas, freshen up your strategy and keep you from becoming the bored email marketer.

About the Author

Mana Ionescu is President of Lightspan Digital, a Chicago firm that helps small businesses build their brands in their local communities through social media. Mana’s practical tips on digital and social media marketing can be found on her blog at manamica.com and Twitter @manamica.

Email marketing is one tool that an increasing number of businesses have latched onto within the past couple years as it is an amazing opportunity to double or even triple profits. If you have decided that this method of marketing to your customers is a strategy you’d like to tackle, plenty of resources are out there to help you get started. However, it can be difficult distinguishing among the many different email marketing companies. Here are several characteristics of a reputable email marketing service.Building the Opt-In Permission-Based Mailing List

A crucial part of email marketing is having easy-to-use contact list management features. First and foremost, an email marketing service should allow you to be able to important your existing mailing addresses from a file on your computer. This is often the preferred method when adding a lot of contacts because manually entering your existing contacts email address one-by-one is more time consuming and leaves lots of room for errors to occur.

Second, one of the characteristics of list management that an email marketing provider should contain is a feature that allows your list to be segmented into multiple groups. As you build your email list, you’ll see why the segmentation is important. Remember, not each contact is the same and having different segments lets you treat them differently.

A third feature that your provider should have is the easy-integration of a sign-up box on your website. Being able to use a sign-up box from your email marketing service is perhaps the most important feature you should be looking for. A sign-up box that’s strategically placed on your site acts as an automatic marketing tool that works on autopilot adding subscribers as soon as they enter their email address.

Sending Emails

An automatic email service should offer a variety of options when it comes to sending out your emails to subscribers. There should be pre-designed HTML templates, image galleries that you can use if you want to include images, and there should also be the option to customize your own design. In addition, there should be guide points along the way and systematic instructions to help if you get lost. An intuitive, user-friendly, and easy-to-use interface is what you ultimately need in an ideal email marketing service.

Tracking Tools

An important part of the marketing process is tracking your efforts. In order to know the success of your efforts, you need to know what your subscribers do with the information contained within those emails. A reputable email marketing provider should contain such data like how many emails were opened, which links your prospects clicked on the most, and how many emails bounced because of invalid or full email addresses. In addition, important subscriber statistics that you should have access to include what your email-list growth rate it as well as how many subscribers have been added and removed. Ideally these reports will be updated in real-time so that you don’t have to wait to gauge your success.

All of these issues are important to look out for when attempting to choose an email marketing service. The ability to customize emails, easily maintain your list, and have data readily available at your fingertips are all features that will help you succeed at the highest level with your email marketing efforts.

About the Author

Rudy Barell is a Senior Account Executive with Elite Email, the #1 email marketing program used by businesses around the globe. Experience how easy it is to build your mailing list, create eye-catching emails and track your success using detailed reports with the complete email marketing software. Try it free!

To grow your business in today’s online-dominated environment you’ll need an amazing eNewsletter. Creating a monthly eNewsletter is easy with the plethora of online email marketing companies offering low-cost services. The more difficult part of effective email marketing-once you’ve crafted a catchy newsletter, of course-is building your list. Here are easy steps you can take to make sure your email marketing list is maximized for the most open clicks:

* Make it easy for readers to sign up for your email marketing campaigns. Don’t request too much information-the more you ask for, the fewer people will likely sign up. Just ask for their name and email address.

* Make sure your eNewsletter subscription form is easy to find. If it makes sense to add this to every page of your website without creating clutter, feel free to do so. You can even add a form at the end of popular articles, in addition to having one at the top of the page.

* Utilize social media. Integrate your sign-up forms with your social networks.

* Create an archive so that potential subscribers can see past eNewsletters and are able to decide if they want to sign up.

* Reward your subscribers. You can offer an opt-in bonus for those who sign up for your emails, but you can also reward those who respond in some way-such as answering poll or survey questions or providing testimonials. Appreciated subscribers will want to stick with you-and your email marketing campaigns

* State your Privacy Policy. No one will want to subscribe to your eNewsletter if they think their personal information will be published, so let them know by providing a policy page that clearly outlines you won’t share their information with others.

* Blog often. This helps to build a community with prospects and potential clients, along with complementing your email marketing strategies. You can also post comments on others’ blogs with links back to your site.

* The No. 1 way to build a larger email marketing list is through publishing useful content. No one is going to want to sign up for your eNewsletters if you don’t provide them with unique and worthwhile content. Don’t send out newsletters too often, and make sure your content is worth reading.

For information on email marketing services, including reviews of popular companies, please visit www.Email-Marketing-Options.com.

About the Author
Darcie Duttweiler is a copywriter at ChooseWhat.com.

I recently got an email from a marketing mentor of mine who was talking about the famous quote, “If you keep doing the same thing, you are going to get the same results.” The interesting thing about this email is that it is about how this is no longer true in today’s economy. What he is trying to say is what worked 6 months ago does not work today. Consumers are making significant changes in their spending habits and are doing so it a very fast pace. We have to work harder to entice that customer, as well as keep them.
After returning home from my vacation, I realized that I was doing the same thing as far as marketing. I was depending on only a few ways to get new customers and keep my customers coming back.

Immediately, I took action by creating a new happy hour. Instead of running ½ price appetizers, I started running all my appetizers at a discount all day but priced at more than half price. After doing this for a couple of months, I realized that I was making more money per appetizer. In addition, anyone who dined in our restaurant was able to enjoy a game of bowling at a 50% discount. This encourages cross promoting between the restaurant and the bowling center.

Next, I created an online back to school coupon that the potential customer would need to input their email address to receive. Not only will this help with knowing how many coupons have been downloaded in order to staff properly, but this will give you permission to email any other offers you have at a later date.
In addition, I posted a 4 question survey to see what customers would like on our menu. If a customer filled the survey then they would get a $5 food coupon. People love free money, especially if all they have to do is tell what they like to eat! Just make sure the survey is short and to the point.

The next promotion we launched is kids eat free every day with an adult meal purchase. Many families are becoming smart shoppers in this economy, and if they can save without bringing in a coupon they will come out. This is a big one! Families are looking for places they can go to save. If they can go and eat what they want and not have to pay for their kids to eat, but still enjoy their company, then they will come.
We also started promoting with all the local hotels. You can either print a discount card they can pass out or advertise in the hotel’s magazine. Make sure in all advertising you place your website address in a visible location on all your marketing pieces.

Lastly, we sent out a mailing to our database in celebration of our 10 year anniversary. Make sure when you are mailing to your customers that you have a reason like a birthday, an anniversary, or a holiday. Always put some kind of offer that will entice them to come to the restaurant.

Another thing you can do to celebrate your anniversary is to not only give them a special offer if they come in on the anniversary, but to give them a sealed envelope with a special discount coupon that they cannot open until they come in a second time. The discounts can be of free menu items, a free meal, a party of 12 to bowl free, etc. Also, consider offering a grand prize. The point of this sealed envelope is to entice people to come back. Be sure to put a deadline on when they must use the sealed envelope.
Something else you can do is to offer “all you can eat menu items with the purchase of a meal.” For example, instead of offering discounts on specific items, try offering all you can eat fries with the purchase of a meal or all you can eat shrimp. Whatever side menu order you are famous for would be the best item.
For those who have bars inside their restaurant, consider marketing to families by offering alcohol as an accessory to the food instead of as the main reason to stop in. Create a place where a person can bring their kids, but the adult can still get a nice alcoholic drink with dinner. This will eliminate the chance that people will not come to your restaurant because you have a bar. Maintain a family atmosphere, so the entire family can come and spend!

Also make sure to not forget social marketing especially the use of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Remember, consumers have less money to spend these days. Even if they still have their jobs and are still making the same amount of money, their perspective has changed because of how society has changed around them and they are taking precautions and saving for “just in case.”

However, while people are being more careful with their money, they are still spending. They are still going out, eating out, and having fun. They are just doing a lot more comparing and seeing where they can get the most for their money.

Think of it this way, it easier to earn $1 ten ways then to earn $10 one way. By this, I mean you must have multiple ways to get more customers. This is true now more than ever!

For a FREE Ebook on 13 insider marketing secrets go to www.instantrestaurantprofits.com

Wasfi(Wes) Samaan

President, www.instantrestaurantprofits.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/