by Tim Watson May 22, 2020
One of the worst things you can do in tough times is stop marketing – don’t stop sending email. That’s true even if we had not hit a global pandemic.
Harvard Business School ran a yearlong project analyzing corporate performance from three previous recessions. Studying 4,700 public companies.
The project looked at data for each company for the three years before a recession, the three years after, and the recession years themselves.
There were big differences in company performance. [continue reading…]
by Tim Watson May 17, 2020
A good tool makes the job easier and gets it done right. Here’s a collection of the tried and trusted FREE online tools I use most often. I’ve tested out many tools and these are the ones I keep coming back to, that have stood the test of time. Save your time searching and evaluating other solutions, try these first. [continue reading…]
by Tim Watson January 21, 2019
An unsubscribe link is the law however unsubscribe best practices are about more than staying legal.
Getting unsubscribe right means a cleaner list and stronger deliverability.
I ran usability tests on six brand emails. In the worst-case users needed 2 minutes to unsubscribe and 12% couldn’t find the unsubscribe link.
The test results highlight the best practices and illustrate what confuses customers. A lesson as important to unsubscribe as to buy now links. [continue reading…]
by Tim Watson December 19, 2018
Without much fanfare Google announced to the world at a conference in Holland a new way that brand emails can be featured in the Gmail Promotions tab.
They’re calling it bundles.
Given the relative simplicity of implementation, this could well turn out to be the biggest news for 2019. [continue reading…]
by Tim Watson July 23, 2018
A commonly held email A/B split test best practice is to only test one change at a time.
The logic is simple. If you make multiple changes at once in your email split test treatments you won’t know which change was important to getting an uplift.
Whilst there is truth in this, sometimes you’re simply starting from the wrong place with your email split tests and making just one change at a time may stop you finding the best performing email.
[continue reading…]
by Tim Watson May 1, 2017
Want to know why some email copy gets impressive results, is there a secret sauce?
Help is on hand with this roundup. I persuaded 12 experienced email marketers to let me in on their #1 email copy tip.
I’d be very surprised if in the next 2 minutes of reading you didn’t find at least one email copy tip that helps you improve the effectiveness of your copy. [continue reading…]
by Tim Watson September 2, 2015
Should you add video in your emails? The infographic graphic below claims video in email increases ROI an impressive 280%.
But just throwing a video into your email is not enough. Why? Check out the advice and examples below the infographic to find out.
Lame content can’t be saved by the video format [continue reading…]
by Tim Watson May 15, 2015
Because its human nature to try to answer questions, using a question in the subject line of an email is a great way to engage and hook your reader, so increasing your open rate.
However, just asking any question is not enough to increase your email open rate. It needs to be the right type of question, one that intrigues the reader enough to open, with the expectation of finding the answer.
With the help of a selection of strong performing real subject lines I’m going to give you some principles to creating questions that intrigue and motivate readers to open your email. [continue reading…]
by Tim Watson April 2, 2015
Brands got foolish yesterday and why not? An April Fool email is a great way to add a little spice and fun to the email inbox.
You’ll find some examples of foolish behaviour below and just what made them special, with emails from GoApe, Boden and Redbox. Take a look and see which tickle your fancy. [continue reading…]
by Tim Watson December 31, 2014
High open rates can make you feel good but you should be much more concerned about high click rates.
The reason? Simple, clicks translate more closely to real business objectives and revenue. In fact analysis of 196 campaigns showed [continue reading…]