« July 2008 | Main | September 2008 »

August 2008

August 26, 2008: Online Marketing For Web Designers: Its Getting Implicit
Comments: 2 | Categories: Business Articles/Tips for Agencies
As the web matures in sophistication, the technical demands from web designers have been increasing rapidly. Back in 2000 when most of us designers were simply concentrating on HTML and some javascript, its hard to ignore the demands of our clients for other services such as implementation of Content Management Systems (CMS), Blogs, Forums and other web applications and platforms. Of course, SEO and online marketing have become the norm in many web projects as well. Stemming from the creative circle, I tended to shy away from such requests and instead, left the research and work to web developers, who were in a much better position than myself to be dabbling in such technologies. So what's the big deal to web designers now? Loads when you have to seriously consider the advent of technologies like AJAX, and factor functionalities into your design. Its not just pure aesthetics (and should've never been in the first place, though many of my industry colleagues in the advertising field would beg to differ) anymore.

August 22, 2008: Take The ALA Survey
Comments: 0 | Categories: Misc
I've always been a fan at ALA and their resources. Their annual survey is on and I'd like to help spread the word for designers, developers, information architects, and even online marketers, to take their survey for people who make...

August 20, 2008: Blink Campaign v1.3 Release
Comments: 0 | Categories: New Features and Updates
BlinkCampaign's v1.31 release patches in some new functionalities, as well as enhancements done on the system level to tackle the ever changing environment in email deliverability. We've also set the base framework ready for our eCard module integration and will be investing more time in the new module to meet the upcoming demands for the festive period.

August 19, 2008: 'Tis The Season To Be Busy
Comments: 0 | Categories: New Features and Updates
Yup, we're getting ready to pack a punch this coming festive season. The BlinkCampaign team is busy working in integrating an eCard module, targetted to be released in early to mid-October. What's that again? An eCard Module. We know how your corporate clients love those flashy animated stuff. Stuff that regular HTML emails don't support. Be it this coming Christmas and Hanukkah or 2009, there's an eCard to be designed for every festive occasion. Why we love eCards Designers like us * Its something more visually creative to attempt * Its a great challenge to blend your client's brand and message with the season * We can fire up Flash again and hone our animation skills * We get to create AND deliver eCards, giving us a nice little festive income bonus * Its great for the environment! Clients * They just love those flashy stuff * Its way faster and more cost-effective * They get a great excuse to send one out whenever there's a chance * They'll know exactly who've opened their eCards and who to strike off the list * The marketing or PR department can simply type their CEO's name instead of trying to forge his signature (Honest, I've heard stories)

August 15, 2008: Tip For The Day: Define a HTML Newsletter Standard
Comments: 0 | Categories: Tips & Tricks
Designers out there occasionally gripe about the lack of creative expression in template based designs. However, from a functional point of view, its important to maintain a "standard" by properly templating your HTML newsletter.

August 15, 2008: How One Agency Is Making Good Money From An Email Marketing Business Model
Comments: 1 | Categories: Business Articles/Tips for Agencies
I've recently noticed a flurry of activity on our BlinkCampaign logs from a particular region. New accounts were being setup once every 4 - 5 days and all were using a different email from a same domain. I Googled the domain a bit, came up with the agency's website and got in touch with Dan Riker, a professional web designer and now business owner of SpeakOut Communications. We exchanged a few emails and finally, had a chat over MSN to talk about how his agency has been using BlinkCampaign to grow his online marketing services. Why I was really interested in his story was that not only did he use BlinkCampaign as a platform to sell email broadcasting services, he was actually selling the entire platform to companies, who's individual regional marketing departments wanted the convenience of setting up and sending their own email campaigns. Each instance of Dan's platform went out to the companies at a cool five figure rate and "license" renewable on an annual basis. Read on to find out how he's been doing it.

August 13, 2008: Be Wary Of How You Label Your "Unsubscribe" Link
Comments: 1 | Categories: Design , Email Marketing
File this under the "good-to-know" section for your email marketing developments. Apparently, certain popular spam filters such as Spam Assassin consider the term "opt-out" to be spammy. Coupled with common design practices such as including two unsubscribe links (one at the header and the other at the footer of the email), this could be a double-whammy to your email design. How about "unsubscribe"? Well, I've actually tried it again with Spam Assassin and it seemed to help. Unfortunately, I got word that "unsubscribe" may get flagged by other spam filters. I can hear the "OMGs!!!" right now... The alternative is using other words like "remove" or phrases such as "take me off this list" and "I do not wish to receive anymore emails". Don't get overly creative. Be short, sharp and to the point. The more ambiguous it gets, the more likely someone's going to hit the "report spam" button. If its not a properly constructed or recognizable phrase, yup, there may be a tendency for the phrase to get caught by the spam filters as well.

August 11, 2008: Co-Branding To Enhance Your Agency's Awareness
Comments: 0 | Categories: Business Articles/Tips for Agencies
If you've tried other ESPs (Email Service Providers) previously, you might've notice some ESPs slap on their logo at the end of your email campaign. It usually looks something like "powered by [ESP Logo]" or "sent using [ESP logo]". Coming from an ESP's point of view, this is a great form of viral marketing and getting the ESP's brand and service across to every single recipient that receives an email campaign from the ESP's system. At BlinkCampaign, we've opted-out of doing this as we pride ourselves at being a white-labeled solution. However, this doesn't stop you, as an agency from doing your own viral marketing when developing and sending email campaigns out for your clients. This not only generates great awareness for your agency, brand and services, it reaches out to everyone on all your client's mailing lists. And done so legally as well.

August 6, 2008: Forward-a-Friend, Then?
Comments: 0 | Categories: Email Marketing
I've been going through some past issues of email newsletters and promotional EDMs which I've collected over the years. It then dawned on me that many email marketers had taken for granted, something that should've fundamentally been there in the first place. The lack of a "Subscribe" button. Its really a curious find. Perhaps due to the short-sightedness of some email marketers, having their email campaign forwarded is already an achievement in their context. However, such hit-and-run tactics have little long term benefits. Why pass on any (every) opportunity to grow your mailing list?

August 4, 2008: Sender Reputation
Comments: 0 | Categories: Email Marketing
Being email marketeers, we all know that having a "good reputation" is essential to getting our messages into our recipient's inbox. But, do you know what are the factors that affect a sender's reputation? Although white-listing your servers does partially attribute successful delivery, good sender reputation cannot be bought. Although proper email authentication protocols and setting up of Sender Policy Frameworks (SPFs) do play a part, there are 3 main factors that most large ISPs use in establishing your sender reputation.