The most efficient way to deliver high fidelity personalization in your daily email, and drive over 11x return on spend (works seamlessly with your existing email service provider).
Infinitely expand your brands photography with Curator™ AI. Generate new product photography that’s indistinguishable from the originals, and combines multiple products together.
Create, manage, deploy, and target an unlimited number of personalized messages. Deliver any of the messages from your pool through a single image URL and link embedded within email, SMS, mobile, or on your website.
Zembula connects with any enterprise data source. If you don’t see a specific data source here or have a custom data source, we will always connect it for free.
The most efficient way to deliver high fidelity personalization in your daily email, and drive over 11x return on spend (works seamlessly with your existing email service provider).
Infinitely expand your brands photography with Curator™ AI. Generate new product photography that’s indistinguishable from the originals, and combines multiple products together.
Create, manage, deploy, and target an unlimited number of personalized messages. Deliver any of the messages from your pool through a single image URL and link embedded within email, SMS, mobile, or on your website.
Integrations
Connect with 100+ integrations
Zembula connects with any enterprise data source. If you don’t see a specific data source here or have a custom data source, we will always connect it for free.
Real time package tracking is a retailer’s best friend – here’s why
Online shopping is pretty much cemented as a way of life today. Over the last few years, it’s exploded, and the trends are only going to continue to go up.
According to Statista, in 2016, just over 200 million Americans had bought something online at least once. By 2021, that number is projected to top 230 million.
One of the groups driving that trend is millennials. Big surprise there, right?
Data shows millennials love to shop online. As a generation that grew up tech-savvy and cares a lot about convenience, it makes sense. But retailers might not realize just how big that number is.
In 2019, millennials made 60% of their purchases online
This group also makes 36% of purchases via mobile devices
97% of this group rely on Amazon as part of their shopping
So the numbers don’t lie; online shopping is huge and is going to continue growing.
Retailers need to start paying attention to what they can do to stand out from the crowd when it comes to gaining a vital chunk of this customer base.
One way to do that?
Email.
Shipping woes
So we’ve established that there’s a good chance you’ve ordered something online from a retailer.
What happens next?
You’ll get your order confirmation. And then maybe the same day or a few days later, you’ll get another email telling you that your package has shipped.
Depending on how you paid for shipping, the package will arrive anywhere from the next day to weeks down the road.
The big problem is you generally don’t know where your package is at any given time. And to track it, the process is typically kind of annoying.
It probably looks something like this:
You have to go back to the site, enter your tracking number or your order number, and then you’ll get a somewhat generic timeline letting you know when your package hits major distribution centers.
For some people, that’s fine. But the reality is, you’ve probably had to schedule some part of your life based on when your package is expected to arrive.
We’ve all had that moment of waiting and waiting for a very important package to arrive. And then, if it doesn’t, the frustration of trying to track it down and figure out where it is.
Sometimes, that can lead to missed birthday presents. Maybe you end up having to leave for the airport before your new swimsuit arrives. Or you’ve just headed out for the weekend, and now you’re nervous your package is sitting on the front stoop for a few days.
All of that is common and frustrating.
But there is a better way.
Real time tracking
This is where savvy retailers can really stand out when it comes to email.
Using real time tracking means that when your customer opens up their shipping email, they get the the most up to date information available for where their package is.
They don’t have to go back to the website and try to find out where to enter all that shipping and tracking information. The answers are right at their finger tips.
Your customers are going to love this because they can find out the information they need from you just by opening up that shipping email. It makes it really easy to get the information they need right away.
There’s another interesting thing to think about when it comes to shipping emails too. And it’s the fact that they have some of the highest open rates out there.
These kinds of transactional emails are opened more often simply because they are providing the information that customers want. So retailers can jump on that and add fun stuff to these emails too.
Some examples include:
Upselling opportunities
Use your shipping email to highlight the products that are related to what your customer bought. This makes it really easy for them to click to buy something else. Since so many people open shipping emails, doing something like this can help increase your conversion rates.
Support information
Customer support is really important to today’s consumers, so make it easy. Include ways for your customers to reach support in just a click or two right from your shipping email.
Add order details
Rather than just having shipping information, you can include all of the order details too. This gives customers an easy to see receipt of their transaction so they can track spending too.
Now that you see the potential of real time shipping tracking, it might be something you want to explore for your email marketing strategy.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
Personalization and Interactivity: Why you should be using this perfect pairing
Every email marketer out there is looking for ways to get more opens, clicks, and conversions.
After all, even a modest lift in your most important email marketing metrics can translate to real returns on the bottom line.
So with all the tactics and techniques out there, two strategies have emerged.
One is using personalization in email. That just means trying to segment and focus emails on groups of people vs. sending one email to everyone on your list.
In a situation like this, a simple way to use it is to send all your Chicago based subscribers a Chicago-centric email. This type of content is a great way to get people interested and engaged with your emails because it speaks directly to them.
The other popular strategy is to use interactive content. This is content that gets your subscribers to actively engage with what they see.
Interactive content tends to get more clicks and conversions vs. static content. It gets readers excited about what they’ve got popping up in their inbox.
Where email marketers continue to focus
Litmus recently conducted a survey where they asked marketers about the top email design trends of 2019.
These were the five most popular responses:
Notice anything that relates to what we were talking about before?
Including personalization as dynamic content and interactive content in emails were the top two answers. The fourth most popular response also plays into this, and that’s having more live content in emails.
You can probably notice a pattern here.
Consumers want emails that appeal to them and their specific wants and needs are visually appealing and drive them take action, and are dynamic.
Now, here’s what you should be doing to start capitalizing on these trends.
Combine personalization and interactivity into one.
This paring can offer you a massive advantage over your competitors because in one email you’re giving your subscribers the best of both worlds and driving engagement.
Let’s take a look at it in action.
Revealing content
Take a look at this spa example.
This sort of email can be segmented to a specific subset of customers who are frequent buyers, especially in the summer months.
Now, lots of retailers can send out a SALE email, get some clicks, and call it a day. But by taking it just a step further and making this content more interactive, it intrigues the reader into participating.
They have to take an actual action beyond just clicking to reveal what the summer savings program is. The simple act of ‘scratching’ helps to trigger the reader’s brain to become more emotionally invested and take ownership of the results.
Using reveal marketing, you can tap into both personalization and interactivity to get people more interested in your products or services.
Interactivity in many forms
Another cool feature that brands are tapping into is using geo-location to personalize emails.
Check out the email below.
For a hotel, this is a clever use of both location and personalization.
Imagine it’s the dead of winter and one of your target customers, Karen, lives in Minneapolis. She’s surrounded by three feet of snow and gusting winds.
It’s more than likely she’s a bit fed up with her local weather. As an email marketer, you can use that. You can create an email that shows her what she could be enjoying in sunny California, where the weather is lovely this time of year, and entice her to book a trip.
Now, this email probably isn’t going to work if Karen lived in Miami or Phoenix, but because the personalization is targeted to a specific location, it’s speaking directly to the psychological and emotional needs of the target audience.
Weather and location are becoming increasingly popular methods of combining interactivity and personalization in emails.
Here’s another more practical use:
Transactional emails, like this shipping one, see some of the highest open rates out there. After all, who doesn’t want to know where their stuff is?
But with interactive and dynamic content in your transactional emails, you can start giving your customers much more specific and up to date information on what stage in the cycle their products are and when they will arrive.
That’s a much more transparent way of showing customers the shipping process, and it helps them have a much better sense of when things are going to arrive.
Even seemingly small details like this, if you choose to level them up, can make a really big positive impact on your customers.
Combining personalization and interactivity makes a difference
If you want to start standing out from the crowd and appealing to your customers in a way that targets the needs, wants, and even weather patterns proactively, this is the way to go.
Start learning how you can make your emails more personalized and interactive, so they better serve your customers and subscribers.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
If you’re reading this, there’s probably a really good chance your inbox is overflowing with emails.
And, you probably only read a fraction of them.
Notes from friends or co-workers, shipping confirmations, a handful of newsletters you love, you read those.
The rest?
Good luck. Maybe if you have time, or if something happens to catch your eye.
Now, as an email marketer, that info, while common, might make you cringe a bit. How many people are doing that exact same thing with your emails?
Unless you have a 100% click to open rate, the answer is at a minimum a few hundred and more likely thousands.
That’s thousands of potential customers missing out on really good products or services because they just aren’t that engaged with your emails.
So how do you turn that around?
There are a few ways, but a big one we’re going to cover here is personalization.
Creating personalized emails is a great way to start standing out from the competition in the vast sea of boring emails littering your customer’s inbox.
We’re going to explore personalized emails more here.
Personalized emails: what they are and why you need them
There’s an old saying that you probably heard from your grandparents, but still holds today: everyone’s favorite topic is themselves.
Well, according to one study, talking about oneself activates the same areas of the brain that light up when eating good food, taking drugs and even having sex. Simply put, self-disclosure is gratifying. It gives us a neurological buzz.
That same buzz applies to emails.
When you personalize the emails, you send your readers all you’re doing is finding ways to provide the information that matters to them. These emails also lead to higher levels of engagement — something that matters to most marketers.
That’s why you always read a shipping confirmation email, right? It’s because you want to know where your package is in the supply chain. That information matters to you.
A lot of brands are embracing the concept of personalization in emails, especially in ways that move beyond the standard stuff you see. Now, you can send emails that highlight specific geographic locations, even down to a neighborhood, weather, likes, activity, and more.
How about a few examples of really good personalized emails in action?
Learn from these personalized emails
Grammarly is a great example of a company that sends out highly personalized emails.
Each week, premium users get an email that highlights their writing streak along with any new badges. Plus productivity, mastery, and vocabulary as compared to other users and some personalized tips on fixing errors.
If you don’t think people love opening up emails highlighting their grammar errors, think again.
What’s the first thing you think about once you get home from vacation?
For most people, it’s trying to figure out when they can go back on vacation again! British Airways knows how people thing and do a really good job on both ends of a trip sending out personalized emails.
Before the trip starts, they send out one that offers information about what you need to prepare for your trip. But this one, which comes a few days after you’ve landed is super simple but very clever.
Peloton is another brand that is able to send really personalized emails to their users. These emails pull in all sorts of information, including geolocation and past behavior to make them hyper-targeted to your specific needs.
These are the classes you are either already into or classes that Peloton thinks they can get you to sign up for based on your past visits.
By showing the instructor as well as the dates and times of your local studio, it makes it very easy to sign up for more.
GasBuddy is an app that tracks the gas prices in your area. It also has a feature that lets it track your driving habits.
If you choose to use it, GasBuddy will send you a monthly personalized update that shows you all sorts of information about your diving habits compared to others in your geographic area.
It’s similar to Grammarly in that it also offers you a few tips on how to improve based on your behavior.
As you can see just from a few of these examples, there are all sorts of cool things you can do to your emails to give your readers a much more personalized experience. So what are you waiting for?
If you want to know more about how Zembula does live, personalized images in email, just click here!
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
Email marketing is a critical part of your marketing strategy.
No news there, right?
But where people and brands struggle is getting beyond the basics of email marketing and into the next level stuff.
You know the email marketing tips and strategies that can help boost your open, click, and conversion rates.
That’s the good stuff that really makes a difference between a successful email and one that gets archived never to see the light of day again.
In this post, we want to give you some of those really actionable email marketing tips that help move you beyond the basics and help you see some real results.
Ready to dig in?
1. Understand your numbers
One of the best features of having so much data about customers at our fingertips today is it opens up a lot of opportunities to see where your readers are responding.
To benefit, know your numbers and what they mean. That way you can craft a strategy that impacts them in a positive way.
2. Always be testing
See email marketing tip #1. The advanced data you can get from your email service providers allows you to experiment with the content you send out.
Always test from the simple things like headlines to the more complex including offers, coupons, and even design style.
3. Send at the right time
When it comes to scheduling your emails to go out, don’t pick a time at random and call it a day. There have been many studies, including this one from CoSchedule, that have figured out the best days and times to reach your customers.
It might not seem like a big deal, but even a small lift in the number of people who see your emails can result in higher open and click rates. So why leave it to chance?
4. Include multiple call to actions
You know what you want your readers to do, right? But are you both telling them and giving them plenty of chances to actually follow through?
The standard marketing advice is to often include a nice shiny call to action button at the bottom of your email. But try featuring a number of different ways for your readers to click including images, buttons, and text links.
5. Think about your design
Of course, the copy of your email matters, but let’s face it, the look of your email should too. Having an email template design that is visually appealing, on brand, and jumps out to your reader can go a long way.
Don’t forget to make your designs mobile responsive too.
6. Get your readers involved
An easy and effective way to do that is through interactive content. Content that gets your readers to actively engage with tends to see higher click through rates. Plus, people love it.
Use scratch-its, smash-its, spin-its, and pull-its and other kinds of kinetic emails to engage your readers and get them to click. Seeing the bonuses and prizes they can get through interactive emails will plant a positive feeling in their brains that can only mean good things for your brand.
7. Send survey emails
All too often, brands aren’t creating multiple email campaigns. Remember, you can get a ton of information from your customers through your email, all you have to do is ask.
That’s where the survey email comes in. It’s one of the many types of emails you should be sending to your readers. This doesn’t have to be complicated, even 3-5 question 30 second surveys can provide you with tons of great information on the things that are going to matter to your readers. From there, you can craft emails that promote those messages.
8. Utilize white space
Have you ever opened the email app on your phone only to discover a giant wall of text staring at you? Yea, that’s not great.
Most people, when they see that, are going to close the app — or worse, delete the email. When about half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, you have to take that into account when writing copy. One way to do that is to make sure there is plenty of white space that invites the reader to keep scrolling.
9. Don’t forget about email capture forms
The actual emails are no doubt the biggest part of email marketing, but you also have to get people on your email list. That’s why your sign up forms should be a really important part of your overall email strategy too.
Figure out the best places to put these capture forms on your site. Use pop-ups and slide in forms to target readers, grab their attention, and entice them to get on your list with a great offer.
10. Segment your audience
This is one of the most common email marketing tips you’ll find but lots of brands still aren’t doing it. Segmenting your list has a ton of benefits for your brand:
Makes it easier to personalize content
You can run new tests and trials on specific segments
You can identify your 1,000 true fans and early adopters
Makes it easier to see where your readers are signing up
And so on.
Even if you have a small list, you can start segmenting and glean some great insights.
11. Reward loyalty
Loyal customers are a magical thing in business. But all too often marketers are spending most of their focus on finding new customers versus getting current customers to come back for more.
When you segment your list (see what we mean) to highlight your current customers, you can use your emails to give them special treats. Send them discounts, coupons, and special offers — and don’t forget to make those emails interactive!
12. Reactivate readers
It doesn’t matter how amazing you are at email marketing, there will be a point in the life of ever email list where a percentage of readers have fallen away. This happens for a number of reasons; they aren’t interested anymore, your emails might have gone to spam, they’ve just forgotten to click.
Use reactivation emails to get some of these unengaged readers back into the fray. You can use a coupon or discount or simply ask them if they want to be unsubscribed.
Plus, with a cleaner list, you’ll have more accurate stats too.
13. Give your copy a boost
It never hurts to review your email copy every few months. Sometimes, things get stale, or a joke that tied in with a particular pop culture event is now yesterday’s news.
Take this time to also really think about not only your messaging but how the people on your list are reading it too. Today, a much more casual and friendly approach is what is getting on people’s radars, if your emails feel a bit stuffy, now is a great time to tweak your copy and give it a refresh.
14. Use psychology
You don’t need a PhD in psychology to understand how to best use it in your email marketing. In fact, we’ve got a whole guide on it.
Understanding the basics behind the motivations of your readers and how to trigger responses can go a long way in getting some real results from your email list.
15. Set up your email calendar in advance
There are a few days every year where a perfectly themed email can land. We’re talking about New Year’s Day, the 4th of July, and Black Friday to name a few. But in your industry, there might be other days that you can send out a great email and grab your readers attention.
The last thing you want to do is scramble the night before a holiday email trying to come up with something clever. So make sure you put these dates in your calendar now to get a head start on coming up with a killer idea.
Final thoughts
These advanced email marketing tips should be enough to get you started in your next strategy meeting. As you move beyond the basics, think about what you can do to keep improving your emails and engaging your readers.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
What Movable Ink Is Doing Wrong (and what Zembula gets right)
Being able to use your own data in email campaigns seems like it should be easy enough. However, those that have tried to do so know how hard it truly is to use the data you’ve worked so hard to collect.
Your data is probably spread out in multiple databases across your organization. You probably have an ESP, a CRM, a commerce platform, a loyalty management system, and many, many more. Being able to create highly personalized emails based on the data in these solutions is becoming more and more crucial to the success of all kinds of businesses.
The problem is getting all the data to be available and usable in your email campaigns. It is impossible to do this without the help of a solution. And for a while, Movable Ink was the best choice to get this done for you.
Movable Ink has helped many marketers create more personalized email campaigns. The problem of making it easy still remains. To use Movable Ink it takes a lot of time and manpower. Making changes to your email content is cumbersome and time-consuming.
This is where Zembula comes in. Zembula’s mission is to make email personalization easy!
Here are three ways Zembula helps marketers make the most of their data.
Our modular email approach:
Zembula Dimensions™ uses Smart Banners™ and Smart Blocks™ to house all the live image content within your email. This makes it easy for you to create live email content and swap it out after you hit send!
Here are some key benefits to our modular approach:
You will never need to touch your email HTML after you add it once.
Automation is easy and you can schedule content in our platform.
No more segmentation because our images update at the moment of open and are unique to each recipient.
We don’t use apps:
Our integrations are easy to set up. In fact, most of them are already there for you when you sign up. You can connect our platform to any data source or API. Because we don’t use apps, (hardcoded images that are inflexible and rigidly defined) our solution is flexible to fit your needs.
Here are some key benefits to our live images over apps:
No hard coding images.
Making changes is easy because our images are more flexible than apps.
Our editor is user-friendly and built with marketers in mind:
Ease of use is at the core of our business, so it only makes sense that our product would be, well, easy to use. Our platform is designed to be used by marketers. You don’t need our help (although we are certainly here for you if you want us) to create sophisticated email personalization. We put the power in your hands! Our editor allows you to drag and drop different data points into images and then design them how you see fit.
Here are some key benefits to our easy-to-use editor:
No coding necessary. Our platform generates a code snippet from your design. All you do is copy and paste.
Drag and drop your data into the image.
Total design control. You can use custom fonts, colors, icons, backgrounds, and more!
With email marketing evolving so quickly it can be hard to keep up with the latest and greatest. Email personalization is getting more complex and advanced. It can seem a bit daunting to keep up with your competitors, but Zembula is here to help!
Want to see how we do real-time email?
Cheyenne Miner
Director of Marketing
Cheyenne is the Director of Marketing at Zembula where she gets to collaborate and coordinate with a team of marketing masterminds. On the weekends, you can find her in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest, or not, because they don’t have cell towers out there.
What is a Kinetic Email and Why Should You be Sending Them?
Have you ever noticed that some emails just look cool?
They have all sorts of interesting features; you can scroll, scratch, click, and interact with them.
It’s almost like you’re doing stuff on a conventional webpage, but it’s all right inside your inbox.
These types of emails are called kinetic emails, and we’re going to dive into these today. You’ll learn a little bit about what they are and why the brands that are using them are seeing some real results.
Ready to get into it?
The basics of kinetic emails
Kinetic emails are a form of interactive content that can bring your email marketing to the next level.
Competition for attention has gotten hardcore today. So anything you can do to stand out from the crowd counts. That’s especially true when it comes to email because it’s such an effective marketing channel.
Even a small lift in your open and click rates can translate to real dollars as customers move through your funnel.
And here’s another bonus, people love these kinds of emails.
What makes kinetic emails stand out from the pack is that they tap into the psychological impacts around the power of touch.
One way to look at it is through what’s called the Ikea Effect. Basically, this hones in on the idea that when a person physically interacts with something they give it a higher perceived value.
That’s why you assign a higher mental value to a cake you baked versus one you bought at a store.
It also works with interactive content too, that’s part of the power of reveal marketing. Engaging with an email that asks you to click or touch or scratch puts it into a different level in your brain compared to passive emails that you just read and move on.
Are you starting to get why kinetic emails are kind of a big deal?
A few examples of kinetic emails
When it comes to kinetic emails, there are a few different approaches you can take. How your email looks primarily depends on the back end CSS coding that is used to create the style you’re looking to feature.
And what really separates kinetic emails from other types of interactive content is they primarily rely on readers to engage by clicking, hovering, and scratching physically.
That extra bit of physical touch is something that isn’t a key component of other types of interactive email like gifs, for example.
Here are a few of the most popular types of kinetic emails you’ll see:
Sliding carousels
A sliding carousel is one type of kinetic email you’ll see. These are great for retail operations and will have each slide represent a product or item on sale.This email from Adidas shows you a sliding carousel in action.
You, as the user, must click on each slide to get information, it doesn’t just scroll for you. As you click on each slide, if you choose to shop, you’ll be taken directly to the corresponding page on the website where the products are located.
So, in addition to getting your brain interested in clicking right away, Adidas also gets points for saving time too.
Puzzles and Games
Who doesn’t like to have fun right from their email? That’s where puzzles and games can come in handy.
From the psychology behind reveal marketing, we know that people love playing with puzzles and games, it taps into curiosity and the fear of missing out.
Spin-It style email can be used as a puzzle or a game. It asks readers to get involved; they have to spin the tiles Vanna White style to see a solution or message that’s hidden behind them.
This is yet another type of dynamic activity that gets people actively involved by clicking. Unless you physically move your fingers across a trackpad or screen, you can’t access what’s behind the tiles.
Both of these examples highlight how asking people to actively interact with your emails can make for better results for your brand and a cooler experience for your customers.
Wrapping up
Now that you have a better understanding of what kinetic emails are and how they can help your email marketing you might want to consider incorporating them into your email marketing strategy.
As these types of emails get more popular and brands continue to see higher click rates with them, you don’t want to be left
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
There are tons of different types of emails you can send out to your readers; you probably already know that.
But the reality?
Well, that might be slightly different.
It’s pretty easy to get a weekly newsletter out, but when it comes to setting up other campaigns or trying to decide what exactly to send, things can get a bit more complicated.
Here’s the thing though, there is a ton of value in these other types of emails. They can still be used to educate your customer, motivate them to take action, and build trust with you.
So if you haven’t been focusing too much on these other types of emails, now is the time.
These are the emails you should include in your email marketing mix.
1. Welcome email
Your welcome email should go out within the first 24 hours after someone joins your mailing list. Ideally, this number should be a lot closer to just a few hours.
What is in the welcome email is all in the name. You’re welcoming this new reader to your business, and you’re telling them what’s happening next. So this could be the spot where you say, every Monday at 11 am you’ll get our newsletter and every Friday we send out special offers.
A lot of companies also include things like discounts, coupons, whitepapers, guides, etc., in this welcome email too.
It just sets the stage for building the foundation of your relationship.
2. Newsletter
That brings us to…the newsletter!
A newsletter is a regular update that lets your readers know what’s happening with your company, store, industry, and more.
Now, when it comes to newsletters, what matters is making your newsletters interesting. A lot of newsletters follow a similar format or style, but there are some that jump out to readers and get shared a ton.
These newsletters usually have something in them that makes the subscriber feel special. They are getting some insider information or out of the box tactics that they won’t see anywhere else.
3. Reactivation email
Over time, lists get stale. That’s the way it goes for pretty much any business out there.
But, that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. With so many emails pouring into our inboxes every day, it’s easy to have a few fall between the cracks.[mk_image src=”http://zembuladev.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/reactivation-email.png”]Reactivation emails help try and fix that problem. Send these emails out to that portion of your list that hasn’t engaged with your emails after a set amount of time.
The goal here is to spark interest and remind people why they loved you in the first place.
This is a perfect spot to think about using interactive content because it’s a great way to stand out from the crowd and get readers actively engaging with the email you sent. That makes them more likely to get back into the mix.
4. Surveys
One of the best ways to understand what’s going on in the mind of your customer or reader is to ask them.
Simple as that.
That’s where survey emails come into play.
Survey emails can be a vital tool for marketing because you can learn so much from them. Here’s where you can use them:
Ask customers how they would rate a product or service they bought
Ask people who didn’t convert why they didn’t buy
Ask readers what they’d like to see more (or less) of on your site
Ask readers or customers to rate your business or brand
Ask customers if they’d be willing to recommend you to others
All of that is incredibly valuable information you can use in other areas of your marketing as well. Use that data to improve your check out process, offer new services, or improve your website copy — just to name a few.
5. Surprise and delight
Have you ever opened up an email from a brand only to discover they’ve given you a special treat?
It could be a bonus coupon or discount or a free guide or free shipping or 15-minute strategy session, there are tons of small things you can offer that won’t impact you all that much but can impress your reader.[mk_image src=”http://zembuladev.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/rewards-member-email.png”]Chances are, something as seemingly small as a coupon for a free cup of coffee can end up establishing a real sense of loyalty with your customer.
These sorts of things start to build positive feelings with your readers and, more importantly, keeps establishing that base of trust that’s so important in an email dependent relationship.
So don’t be afraid to send these out from time to time, and track to see what gets a good response.
See the power of email?
These five types of emails are going to put you in a great spot. You’ll be able to have more insights into the mind of your readers, get their feedback, surprise them with cool stuff, and improve your open and conversion rates all at the same time.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
Now that you’ve decided to cultivate an email list, you might be wondering… how do I fill my list up with actionable leads?
Luckily, that’s the fun part of email marketing and it requires some creativity, analytical thinking, and digital networking skills. Every marketing department should be spending their resources attempting to build a strong email list full of qualified potential customers and those seeking more information about your brand’s product or service.
Today, we want to cover some of our favorite tactics for building a strong email list. Below we’ll outline the foolproof methods you can use to score more leads while also explaining why these strategies work using some marketing psychology.
1- Leverage other user’s lists
One creative way to get more emails on your marketing list is to offer your services in exchange for a plug on someone else’s already established email list. You can attempt to arrange strategic swaps with well-known marketers or industry professionals, offering to write press releases or giving a month’s free subscription to your service in exchange for a mention on someone’s popular newsletter or a feature in their next blog email alert!
This strategy works because your consumers already have a trust in the person or brand you’re working with. Their endorsement of your content or product goes a long way in building brand trust between you and your new email list members.
2- Utilize Opt-ins on Your Existing Forms
If you’re anything like most marketers, you already have some forms on your webpage. Whether they’re contact forms, registration forms, contest entry forms or sales quote requests, your organization is likely utilizing forms in some way. Simply adding an opt-in checkbox to all your existing forms is a simple way to collect email addresses from users who are clearly already showing interest in your product or service.
When users are willing to fill in form data, it shows they’ve invested in your brand message enough to share their personal information. By offering them a chance to subscribe to your newsletter or email list, you’re giving them back an item with digital value, and ensuring your relationship with the customer will continue. Bonus points if you use interactive content with your form!
3- Host a Contest or Giveaway
A well-executed contest or giveaway can generate outstanding new targeted leads. If you’ve already got a following on social media, even better, but you can still host an amazing contest without one! Ensure you’re offering something of value to your target audience, like a high-value digital asset. Giving away products will attract attention, but also cheapen your contest and dilute the quality of leads you acquire.
This strategy works best in conjunction with interactive campaign techniques that utilize marketing psychology such as Near Miss Theory. When you’re able to build your audience’s excitement about your offer, it’s easy for them to opt-in and share their email address with you.
4- Look For Opportunities to Guest Blog
Among all the strategies guest blogging is one of the most effective content marketing tactics you can use to grow your email list, drive traffic to your website, and increase your visibility. The right guest blogging gig can not only support your SEO efforts, but it can also boost your email marketing and social media stats simultaneously. You can search for a variety of guest blogging platforms online or look into syndicating your existing content.
This strategy is effective because it not only increases your visibility but also drives new web visitors, boosting SEO and providing backlinks for your website. As a strategy, guest blogging is well rounded and flexible because opportunities can be found or created to accomplish almost any marketing goal.
Final Thoughts
The time you spend building your email list is truly one of the most important investments you can make online. Having direct access to your potential customer’s inboxes allows you to foster a long lasting mutual relationship that keeps your brand top of mind when the time to purchase comes.
nicolecordier
Nicole Cordier is a Marketing Intern at Zembula. A Journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, she is a Portland native who loves coloring, dogs and all things outdoors.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been covering every aspect of interactive email campaigns. From giving you the basics of interactive email, to looking ahead for the state of interactive email in 2018, we’ve been dropping knowledge to make your next email marketing campaign a huge success.
In case you missed it, let’s go over a few reasons why interactive email is the strategy to base your marketing around. First, email boasts the largest return on investment for marketers. For every $1 spent, e-mail marketing generates $38 in ROI. Adding interactive items will only transform it into a more epic marketing tool. Second, interactive email is successful in helping your brand achieve differentiation from competitors. In fact, 83% of marketers believe interactive content separates their campaigns from the herd or marketing messages in their customer’s inboxes.
Now that we understand why we need an interactive email strategy. Let’s explore the most effective content types for your next email campaign.
Video:
Video content in your email campaigns not only helps your customers remember the information you serve up, but it also aligns nicely with customer’s desires in today’s modern digital world. Consumers demand more video content, and the brands that are able to step up to the plate will reap great rewards. In fact, 43% of consumers say that they want more video content from brands.
You can add a boost of interactivity to your next campaign by creating top-notch video content that keeps your customers engaged with your marketing message and creates brand loyalty.
GIFs
In 2018, no brand can afford to ignore the marketing power of GIFs. A recent study by Mesh Marketing Agency found that interactive content such as GIFs is 40x more likely to be shared on social media than static content. This viral quality helps boost the reach of your message while keeping your readers entertained.
Try using Zembula’s GIF builder today to add the spice of interactive content to your next email campaign and watch your brand awareness soar!
Interactive White Papers
Despite all the advancements in content types over the past few years, E-books and white papers still remain a valuable way to inform your customers about your products or services. In fact, white papers are still among the three most requested content types by B2B marketers, with 78% of marketers saying they are valuable for purchasing decisions.
Create an interactive white paper today and check out our examples if you get stuck creating killer content that converts or fostering customer interaction with your marketing message.
Infographics
Interactive infographics are going to be the biggest trend in email marketing campaign content this upcoming year. Since 2016, adoption of infographics has steadily been on the rise in the marketing industry. To stand out in the New Year, static infographics simply won’t cut it. In order to remain on the cutting edge of your industry, adding a layer of interactivity to every campaign type will be necessary!
Start today by converting an existing static infographic into an interactive version, and be sure to A/B test your email campaign to see how much an added boost of interactivity effects your click-through rate.
Zembula Experiences
If you know anything about Zembula, you know our products are based in Reveal Marketing. Backed by 6 key psychological principles, Reveal marketing requires the recipient to interact with your message by sliding, clicking, unzipping or otherwise manipulating your content in some way to reveal a hidden aspect of your communication. Reveal Marketing is effective because it utilizes core components of human psychology to drive engagement.
Get your next campaign started today by learning more about using Zembula experiences to boost your Email CTR and start proving the ROI of interactive content strategies for your marketing team right away!
Now that we’ve covered the 5 most effective types of interactive content for email campaigns, learn more about how Zembula’s solution can revolutionize your marketing efforts by checking our resources page or scheduling a demo today.
Tori Johnson
Tori is the marketing manager at Zembula. A graduate of Portland State University with a BA in Marketing, she enjoys good food, international travel, baby animals, and the occasional video game.
The state of interactive content 2018: email edition
Use of interactive content is on the rise, and it’s no wonder. Competition between brands is intense and marketers need to try something new to stay afloat. The inclusion of GIFs, images, and video in email, as well as interactive, clickable experiences, has upped the game, and we’ve noticed a lot more interactivity in the emails we receive on a daily basis. We realized that we hadn’t seen the consumer view of interactive content in any marketing community studies on interactive content, so we asked 1000 consumers about their experiences with email marketing and the preferences they have for emails from brands. You can read the entire study here, but below are our summarized learnings!
It’s common knowledge that images improve email KPIs; in fact, when asked if consumers prefer text-only emails or emails with images, they answered emails with images 5:1. What about images that move, or images that can be moved?
Well, the staggering preference stays the same as we move toward GIFs, videos, and especially dynamic interactive content.
(To get these answers we showed the respondents 2 emails at a time with each of the elements listed below and asked which email they would be more likely to click on.)
So, having any visual element in your emails like an image or a video is preferred to just text, and will more likely have a higher click through.
In one particular question about purchasing behavior, we gave our respondents three emails, one with an interactive element, one with an image, and one with just text, and asked which email would more likely lead to a purchase. The interactive email was chosen most often, followed closely by an email with an image, and, lagging far behind, a text email.
As we’ve touched on before, people just want to have fun with their email! In our study, consumers reported that they are more likely to buy from a brand that is fun, lively, and inspirational, as well as a brand that makes them feel entertained.
Interactive content is used by brands because it’s much more fun and entertaining than static content. This leads to higher engagement rates and greater brand affinity!
Interactive content can also be used to drum up curiosity by creating tension with an experience that requires an action to uncover a message, like a digital scratch-it.
We also addressed personalization in this research, asking if people preferred personalized email to generic contact. Overwhelmingly, 69% of our respondents preferred personalization in their emails and stated that it would influence their buying decisions.Don’t just take our word for it though! These are actual open-ended responses from real consumers that answered our survey:
“I get a ton of emails and if they are interactive, I’m more likely to pay attention to them and not just automatically delete it.”
“It [interactive content] makes checking emails more fun, and I am more likely to click through to the site.”
“I love emails that really pop! Having something more interactive engages me more and holds my attention.”
With all of this in mind, our prediction for 2018 is that videos and GIF usage will continue to increase in email and they will outperform static emails, but consumers will continue to crave interactive content in email. Brands that cater to this desire will experience increased email ROI and brand affinity!
Give your brand the best 2018 and add interactive content to your email strategy. If you need help getting started, check out this post about how to make your emails more interactive.
To download the whole study, click here!
Tori Johnson
Tori is the marketing manager at Zembula. A graduate of Portland State University with a BA in Marketing, she enjoys good food, international travel, baby animals, and the occasional video game.
