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Effective email designs: A picture is worth a thousand words: Part 1

June 18th, 2011
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Apparently, creators of most, if not all, email clients have never heard of the infamous adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”. As a result, email designers are stuck with too few options to introduce graphics in emails and even those are not guaranteed to work in every email client.

Fortunately, web designers’ community has learned to monitor and adapt to intricacies of mail user agents widely known as email clients.

Without further ado, here are a few simple tips to elevate the pain of dealing with images in HTML emails:

1. Absolutely and positively use images.

Rely on <img> HTML tag to display images that are located on any website. For example, the following would display EkoBuzz logo:

<img src="http://ekobuzz.com/templates/eko/images/logo.jpg"  width="215"
height="85" alt="Build Better Relationships with EkoBuzz">

2. Do use images as body backgrounds.

To satisfy Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, Apple Mail, and all flavors of Outlook,

use “background” attribute on both <body> and <table> elements not worrying about the fact that this attribute is outdated by W3C standards:

<body background="url(http://ekobuzz.com/templates/eko/images/bg.jpg);">
<table background="url(http://ekobuzz.com/templates/eko/images/bg.jpg);"
 id="main" width="600px" >

OR use inline css

<body style="background-image:url(http://ekobuzz.com/templates/eko/images/bg.jpg);">
<table background="url(http://ekobuzz.com/templates/eko/images/bg.jpg);" 
id="main" width="600px" >

Do not use images as backgrounds for table cells or divs.
Attempts to trick email clients into displaying background images in table cells are growing by the day. We are yet to see the one who’d claim the laurel wreath of victory.

The bottom line: Use HTML <img> to display graphics in emails.
Restrict use of background images to email <body> tags.

3.Capitalize on use of images by introducing ‘alt’ attribute on every image

Majority of email clients refuse to display graphics by default unless are being explicitly asked to do so by their owners. Since we don’t know that many people who would dive into their Outlook or Apple Mail settings in order to enable default image loading, we always work with the assumption that we have to tell the tale, rather than show it.

We use ‘alt’ attribute on <img> element to

  1. Show an alternate text for an image if the image cannot be displayed.

So, while

<img src=”http://ekobuzz.com/templates/eko/images/bg.jpg“ width="215" height="85" >

will result in an empty icon being displayed,

<img src="http://ekobuzz.com/templates/eko/images/bg.jpg"  width="215" height="85"
alt="Build Better Relationships with EkoBuzz">

would display

Build Better Relationships with EkoBuzz.

2. Convey our best intentions to search engines

Google has officially confirmed that it mainly focuses on an alt text when trying to understand what an image is about. Sounds very similar to what our recipients would do, doesn’t it? That is, they would read ‘alt’ tag to decipher what an image is about, not what an image is.

For example,

<img src=http://echo.ekobuzz.net/themes/NewEko/images/new_eko_style/logo.jpg
alt=’logo’>

is quite meaningless,

<img src=http://echo.ekobuzz.net/themes/NewEko/images/new_eko_style/logo.jpg
alt="EkoBuzz web site">

is better,

<img src=http://echo.ekobuzz.net/themes/NewEko/images/new_eko_style/logo.jpg
alt="Build Better Relationships with EkoBuzz">

is what I would use.

3. Have a safety net when the <img> tag points to a wrong image location or the image had been removed or damaged

In case when the image hosting web site is down, the image has been removed from the website, or the subscriber, after receiving the message, has disconnected from the internet, ‘alt’ tag might save the day and still project your message to the subscriber.

The bottom line: Always repeat the thought your image is intended to project via ‘alt’ attribute.

mobile and email marketing

Who opened your email?

February 3rd, 2011
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Understanding your email marketing campaign reports and improving your campaign performance. This is the Mantra to get most out of your email marketing campaigns.

The first question that comes to our mind is…what can we hope to see after launching an Email Campaign?

Email marketing, a direct marketing channel, can practically & precisely track a variety of results once a campaign is launched. Some of the basic metrics that we can get from an Email marketing campaign report are

  • Number of emails Sent
  • Total number of emails opened
  • Percentage of Opens
  • Which contact opened your email
  • Total number of Clicks
  • Who Clicked on your email
  • Number of times each contact clicked your email
  • Percentage of Clicks
  • Number of Bounces
  • Percentage of Bounces
  • Number of Invalid Emails
  • Percentage of invalid Emails
  • Number of Unsubscribed
  • Who unsubscribed
  • Total number of Forwards
  • Percentage of Forwards

What can we deduce from these reports?

It’s good to know what and how people are interacting with your message but the bigger picture it’s all about ROI. Understanding and segmenting your customer list based on the Email Campaign Metrics will help you send relevant, targeted message to your subscribers. If your subscriber is interested in hair products, send them a shampoo coupon rather than a bathroom décor offer. Therefore, the more you pay attention to each individual’s interests, the more positive response you will receive.

EkoBuzz’s New Report

EkoBuzz has added a new report to its already robust tracking system, our Domain Activity Report. This report is a blessing for everyone. Since we know that HTML emails appear differently in some domains/email clients, it is a challenge for email designers to create the perfect template that can be sent to every email client without discrimination. The new domain report gives a clear breakdown of exactly which email client each individual uses. This helps with testing the email for format and content; the report gives you the ability to ensure that your email is received looking the way intended in both AOL and Gmail inboxes.

Overall tracking and analyzing your email campaigns will give you:

  • Improved Open Rates
  • Improved CTR
  • Higher conversions rates
  • Better relationships with customers
  • Improved ROI.

So please, take the next step. Launch your campaign. Monitor and analyze the success of your email campaign report, segment your contact list based on their responses, send targeted messages to your sub segment and increase your profit by improving for the future.

Thanks for reading,

Our team is waiting for you to join us.

mobile and email marketing

Email Marketing for Real Estate Agents

January 30th, 2011
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How can Email Marketing help real estate agents?

In our continuing series of what is email marketing?;  Lets see how a Real Estate Agency can use email marketing to grow their lists and build awareness.

While economists are split in their views, see  high growth outlook vs tepid growth. Both camps are predicting a halt in falling prices.  As the market is starting to change, real estate agents should focus on reaching out to their current contacts and cultivate new ones.

Besides advertising, real estate agents can use email marketing to really educate their audience.  Real estate agencies can use EkoBuzz web based email marketing solution to

  • Promote Open houses and available properties via e-newsletters.
  • Report on most recent closures.
  • Create and deliver newsletters on industry trends and developments.
  • Send invitations to open houses and receptions for VIP clients.

Real estate agents can use EkoBuzz to grow their customer base, continue to communicate with them on a regular and scheduled basis and track their interests in real time.

See some of the stylish email templates that we have designed for the real estate industry

mobile and email marketing

“Capture Your Imagination” Part 2

January 23rd, 2011
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If you haven’t already read this link then you will be confused by the second half of the EkoBuzz email template editor program.
If you’re like me, you probably hate receiving mail addressed to “Mr. X or current resident”. Seeing those makes me wonder what has happened to that infamous personal touch a company tries to establish with each customer or subscriber. An innocent looking ‘insert a pin’ button is that personal touch that is so often missing in our laundry list of electronic mail. Clicking this button opens up a choice box with a selection that you can use anywhere in your email to ensure your recipients that you are talking to them.
Clicking a pin name will insert the code into the text box you are editing. So when we chose ‘First Name’ pin, the ‘$first_name’ code was inserted into the block. When we ask Echo to send our message to a list of contacts, it will replace ‘$first_name’ with every contact’s first name making our message personalized for every one of our recipients.

In only 15 minutes you can be looking at a sophisticated but casual personalized newsletter worthy to be in any mailbox located within boundaries of this universe.


After you complete your first email template you may be interested in turning your attention to the ‘Design from Scratch’ option. Though less colorful, the more artistic may enjoy their own creation the best when it is put together from scratch on their own. You can finally explore the outskirts of our creativity, and produce a masterpiece of an email. Seriously, we were almost there – the design layout, color scheme, text font and face, sample images position and size were exactly what we needed; all that was left there to do was to put what we had in mind down in words, replace sample images with those of our choice, and sprinkle the text with a few links to make our email interactive.

Now that you have read my mini tutorial, I encourage you to try EkoBuzz for yourself and post any questions or comments.

mobile and email marketing

“Capture Your Imagination” Part 1

January 23rd, 2011
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Finally there is an editor for those of us whose recreational activities don’t include html development.

Remember your childhood where drawing masterpieces on walls was acceptable? Those were times when, though you had a lot to say, you didn’t stop and search for proper tools to express your ideas. You still have a lot to say to your friends, family, and even the strangers you have yet to introduce yourself to. And of course, who wants to be slowed down when the question “how?” sneaks up on them.

We told our resident rocket scientists that we needed an editor to capture our imagination. The scientists sharpened their pencils, exchanged some jargon, entered their laboratory, warmed up with Wii, dueled with Xbox, violently fought with Playstation, and finally presented us with their creation: Echo Email Editor.

The first thing we saw was “Courtesy of EkoBuzz templates” section. They are a gallery of exquisite email designs: casual and professional, sophisticated and simple, fancy and conservative, modern and classic, vivid and reserved. We discovered that each template has descriptions that pop up every time the cursor hovers over it: who could ever think that rocket scientists are creative?

We clicked on a random thumbnail and next thing we saw was canvas filled with a full-size version of our email design divided into smaller blocks of text and graphics.

Each block has a small toolbar with three buttons: edit, copy, and delete.
Clicking ‘edit’ made two things happen simultaneously; the toolbar changed to display two buttons ‘save’ and ‘cancel’ and the entire block became active and ready for editing. Since we preferred to get rid of a few boxes, we were able to delete them with a simple click on the third image of the toolbar- the trash can .

After fooling around with the format of the first graphic box, we wanted to repeat the same design on the bottom of our email. We clicked ‘copy’ and immediately an identical textbox appeared ready to be dragged to the bottom of our template. Our box even resized itself to fit perfectly in its new place.

Conveniently, our rocket scientists designed a palette of controls on the left-hand side of the editing page.

Yes, my attentive reader – controls at your fingertips. But these controls serve only one purpose: they feed your imagination! There were controls to change font face, size, color, background colors, create borders, move the text around and turn text into URL. Finally, there was a “Preview” button that displayed our masterpiece to show how a person on our contact list would view it.

The “Image Manager” button deserves special attention. It opens up the Image Gallery.
We clicked on one of images from the gallery and watched it being inserted into the spot in a block where we had placed our cursor inside the block. Our scientists also ensured that resizing the image would not skew, distort, or break its proportions. This means that in order for the image to look its best, the size does not matter. Then we remembered that another block would be a better place for this image. Without breaking sweat, we hit the trash can and image disappeared.

To see more of our adventures through the editor visit Part 2.

mobile and email marketing

What are your Email Marketing Objectives for 2011?

January 6th, 2011
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New Chart: What marketers are really trying to achieve with Email Marketing in 2011

Are you curious as to how your 2011 Email Marketing goals compare with fellow marketers?

More than 1,100 marketers were asked to identify the level of importance for a group of email objectives ranging from “engaging social media audiences” to “increasing sales revenue.”  See how they responded in the following chart.

Email Marketing Goals of 2011

mobile and email marketing

Useful email marketing features with Echo 2.0

January 4th, 2011
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I am excited to announce the release of Echo 2.0.  A New Year and a major update to our on-demand email, mobile and social marketing platform with plenty of useful email marketing features.   Here’s my pick of 5 changes I’d been waiting for the most. You don’t have to agree with me and come up with your own list. We might even throw a short poll about which feature you find to be the most useful one and win a prize.

1. Easy to use and navigate: We re-decorated our entire online platform. We call it Echo, by the way. That last year’s fashion is all gone in favor of bright colors, large buttons, and eye-friendly fonts. My personal favorite in this category is greatly improved site navigation: now I can jump to any page on the site with pretty much one click.

2. Email editor for designers and those of us who are not there just yet: we built a sparkling and shiny drag-and-drop editor that can be described in three words:

  • Fun: You can assemble your email elements just like you would create a castle with Lego blocks
  • Stylish: Using your imagination and our starter templates, you can design stunning emails just like you would create drawings in a Crayola factory
  • Friendly: We have created our editor to to be email client friendly, which means that it will only create elements that can be displayed correctly in all email clients. This way you should not be very concerned with extensively testing how your email displays in various browsers and email clients. We let our editor do all the hard work

3. Design Emails from scratch: express yourself with our email design templates. We created a number of email layouts for you to paint and fill with images and text.

4. A Guiding light: Our new “to-dos” widget is a smart, self learning tool that will create helpful suggestions and to-dos to guide our users based on the actions they perform. From the very first time a user logs in to when they have launched a successful campaign the “to-do” widget attempts to help the user navigate to the next step they need to take

5. Marketing ROI measurement and segmentation: Our powerful tracking and reporting tool has a new look to help easily see how your marketing campaign has performed. Segmentation of your audience based on their preference and exporting segments of contact information has improved tremendously.

Some upcoming improvements in the coming months include a seamless email and social marketing experience, tracking social marketing, a better way to organize and track your prospects and customers and most importantly many more reports. Stay tuned…

Many experts predict that 2011 is the year US economy improves.  We like your marketing efforts to take advantage and increase your revenue. Our resolution this year is to continue to improve Echo to help you achieve your marketing goals.

mobile and email marketing

What is Email Marketing

January 2nd, 2011
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Email marketing, if done correctly, can be an inexpensive and quick way to reach a large audience and grow your business. Email marketing is one of the most cost effective direct marketing channel. The key is to get people to want to receive your emails. To do this, you need to do permission mailing, which means having people either sign up on your Web site for such mailings or provide their e-mail addresses when they purchase something from your company. In this way, you can collect e-mail addresses without buying a list that may be created and/or sold illegally.

Email Marketing

what is your answer to the questions below

1. Do you have a business that can use an inexpensive marketing method to reach a wider audience?

2. Would you like to gain a high return on your marketing budget and have the ability to track the results?

3. Would you like to keep your current customers informed of your products and/or services?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you should consider adding email marketing to the marketing channels you use today.

Email Marketing is a permission based direct marketing channel.  Half of all Internet users check or send email every day.  Email allows marketers to send relevant, timely and personalized messages to their audience.

Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them.

Business of all sizes use email marketing as an effective tool to promote their products and services and build strong relationships with their prospects and customers.  Some very good examples are powerhouse retailers like Amazon to Hudson wine,  my local wine retailer.

EkoBuzz is an on-demand email marketing solution that marketers can use to send stylish emails with rich visuals to their contacts and track audience reaction to their messages in real time.

Besides this EkoBuzz enable these visuals and messages to be automatically sent to social networks to get a wider reach.

I read several email marketing articles myself. I found the included image in another fellow email marketer blog and was very impressed with the graphic and its relevance to this topic.

Please let me know your comments and questions.

mobile and email marketing

Ten Most Horrifying Display Ad Placements

October 4th, 2010
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We don’t want to say it but sometimes Marketing can be damaging, especially when your brand  gets associated with the content that’s conflicting with what it stands for. It can be possible scenario in the Contextual ads. Econsultancy.com posted an article on Ten Horrifying Display Ads Placement.

Below are the example from Econsultancy blog post, its hilarious for most of us but can be a death sentence for the brand manager.

1. Want to grill like an expert?

2. Hooray for beer

3. Free Dinner for two

4.  Samsung blast

5. We’ve got you under our wing

6. Toyota

7. Dad, what would happen…

8. Evian

9. Point. Shoot. Wow.

10. Win a mni-break in gorgeous Greece….

So be careful with your display ads you don’t want to end up in this list of horrifying display ads.

mobile and email marketing

10 Ways to Advertise Your Business on Facebook

July 19th, 2010
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1440336_lowLike any other marketer & entrepreneur or should i say like all of you, I love to read blogs, articles, white papers etc.  Today I read an interesting and extremely relevant post ’1o ways to advertise your business on facebook’ on Econsultancy. Who would not like this, beacause all of us are actively tweeting, posting updates on Facebook pages. Its not wrong to say being active on social network personally or professionally is the ‘IN’ thing.

Read it once then twice then thought of sharing this wonderful article with you all. You must have some of these implemented and add rest in your new social media strategy.

Below are the 10 take aways of the article

  1. Create a Facebook Profile Page
  2. Promote the page offsite on marketing materials like biz cards, brochures, shopping bags, outdoor etc.
  3. Be different. Make your page interesting
  4. Know what you want visitors to do.
  5. Advertise on facebook paid ads.
  6. Invest in a facebook App
  7. Get Integrated. free flow of information from blog to facebook to Twitter.
  8. Create, join and interact with relevant facebook groups
  9. Reward your messenger. exclusive offers to followers and visitors who promote your brand or company
  10. Measure. Use facebook analytics to know more about your visitors, page views etc.

Please read the complete article 10 ways to advertise your business on facebook

mobile and email marketing