Email Marketing RulesReport: Live Optimization Notebook on Welcome and Onboarding Emails
Posted on January 3, 2019
Creating effective welcome and onboarding emails is hard—and many of your peers are struggling with the very same challenge.
In this notebook, onboarding email expert Val Geisler, Litmus Community & Product Evangelist Jason Rodriguez and I review welcome emails submitted by fellow email marketers and provide hands-on copywriting suggestions, design feedback, and strategic takeaways that you can apply to your own campaigns.
You will learn:
- How to make a good impression above the fold
- Why focusing on the most valuable call-to-action helps declutter your message
- How to create a clear content hierarchy so your email is easy to scan
- Why defensive design and optimizing for image blocking is key for effective onboarding emails
We’re bringing the spirit of the highly popular Live Optimization sessions at our Litmus Live conferences directly to your desk with this report. Download your copy to get the tips and inspiration you need to take your welcome emails to the next level.
>> Download the free guide
Happy Holidays!
Posted on December 25, 2018
Whatever you celebrate, I hope your holidays are filled with family and fun. Best wishes, Chad
Our Favorite Litmus Blog Posts of 2018
Posted on December 21, 2018
Litmus published more than 130 blog posts in 2018—that’s a lot of tips and resources!
Not sure where to get started? We asked some members of the Litmus marketing team to share their favorite blog resources of the year. Here’s what they said…
- Jason Rodriguez’ pick: Presentation Tips: Lessons Learned from Giving 100+ Talks and Webinars
- Jaina Mistry’s pick: Gmail’s Promotions Tab Is NOT the Spam Folder
- Bettina Specht’s pick: The Ultimate Guide to Background Images in Email
- And my pick: 6 Manipulative Email Tactics that Disrespect Subscribers—And Hurt Marketers
To learn why these are our favorites…
>> Read the entire post on the Litmus blog
Our Favorite Litmus Reports of 2018
Posted on December 20, 2018
Litmus published five reports and six whitepapers during 2018, covering a wide range of email marketing topics from analytics to email service providers and interactive emails to email’s return on investment. The reports and whitepapers we released during 2018 include:
- 2018 State of Email Analytics
- 2018 State of Email Service Providers
- 2018 State of Email Workflows
- 2018 State of Email Report
- How to Recover from Email Marketing Mistakes
- Interactive Emails: Understanding the Hottest Trend in Email Marketing
- Why a Lack of Email Marketing Mistakes Is a Red Flag
- Email Marketing ROI: The Factors that Lead to Better Returns
- How to Improve Email Review Cycles and Email Approvals
- Email Marketing Staffing & Resourcing for Success
- How to Overcome the Biggest Email Marketing Challenges of 2018
That’s a lot of content. More than 135 pages of email marketing insights! (And those are just the reports. We also did webinars, infographics, and blog posts based on this research.)
Of course, we think every one of those reports is worth your time, but in case you’d like some guidance on which ones to read first, members of our marketing team have selected their top picks:
- Jason Rodriguez’ pick: Why a Lack of Email Marketing Mistakes Is a Red Flag
- Bettina Specht’s pick: Email Marketing Staffing & Resourcing for Success
- Jaina Mistry’s pick: 2018 State of Email Workflows
- And my pick: Email Marketing ROI: The Factors that Lead to Better Returns
To learn why these are our favorites…
>> Read the entire post on the Litmus blog
Our Favorite Litmus Webinars of 2018
Posted on December 18, 2018
Litmus hosted eight webinars during 2018, covering a wide range of email marketing topics from email workflows and how to start the year off right to the ESP industry and welcome emails.
That’s a lot of content. More than 8 hours of email marketing insights! (And those don’t include the webinars that did with our partners like Salesforce, SparkPost, and the Email Experience Council.)
Of course, we think every one of those webinars is worth your time, but in case you’d like some guidance on which ones to watch first, the members of our marketing team have selected their top picks:
- Jason Rodriguez’ pick: Live Optimization: Supercharge Your Onboarding Emails
- Bettina Specht’s pick: The Trends Transforming the Email Service Provider Landscape
- Jaina Mistry’s pick: Email Tactics Customers Hate
- And my pick: Key Insights from a Year of State of Email Research
To learn why these are our favorites and watch the webinars…
>> Read the entire post on the Litmus blog
The Last Word on November 2018
Posted on December 14, 2018
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Email Accessibility: How to Craft the Perfect Accessible Email (EmailMonks)
The Challenges of Attribution in Email Marketing (OnlyInfluencers)
Introducing Reminders and Unsubscribe features in Yahoo Mail (Yahoo! Mail Blog)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
Look what showed up on the Siren chalk board today @BrightWave pic.twitter.com/nqlux8QbjY
— Simms Jenkins (@SimmsJenkins) November 26, 2018
Ok I’m all about using email subject lines to create urgency, but, uh Cyber Monday literally JUST started… pic.twitter.com/5kNkditmeg
— Matt Lindner (@RetailMatt) November 26, 2018
Black Friday: the day of the year when you find out what marketer’s list your email has been buried in for eternity only to resurface in all its glory. #emailmarketing
— Anthony Chiulli (@AnthonyChiulli) November 22, 2018
Noteworthy subject lines
Saks Fifth Avenue, 11/5 – Your “I Voted” sticker needs an outfit to match
American Red Cross, 11/2 – A friendly reminder for Daylight Savings Time
Panera Bread, 11/28 – Chad, an update on the romaine recall from the CDC.
Applebee’s, 11/2 – We’re Thanking Veterans With A Free Meal Nov. 11th
Aeropostale, 11/12 – In Honor Of Those Who Serve
Epicurious, 11/4 – Our 155 best Thanksgiving recipes
Hayneedle, 11/11 – 5 steps to a holiday-ready home …
West Elm, 11/15 – Up to 30% off SUPER deals to get you guest-ready
eBags, 11/4 – Heading Home For The Holidays?
Crate & Barrel, 11/1 – An early-early holiday gift: 15% OFF.
Nike, 11/13 – Nine great gift ideas for kids
Staples, 11/30 – Do your coworkers rule? Give them something great >>>
Saks Fifth Avenue, 11/30 – Your favorite person wants these…
Gap, 11/30 – This would look so good on you (it’s okay to self-gift)
RH, 11/2 – Introducing the Ultimate Faux Fur Holiday Collection
Lenovo, 11/21 – PCs starting at $99 – extremely limited quantities!
Lane Bryant, 11/28 – 2019 is coming FAST. Grab your glitter.
Brooks Brothers, 11/19 – Save 15%. Save lives.
Wayfair, 11/10 – SPOILER! Awesome WALL PANELING inside >>
Ikea, 11/2 – IKEA Wins J.D. Power Award
Neiman Marcus, 11/4 – Be the best-dressed wedding guest
Anthropologie, 11/7 – Stand out in a marshmallow world.
Feeding America, 11/10 – We know we’re your favorite. Will you make it official?
P&G everyday, 11/2 — *Gasps.* *Clasps face.* *Happy tears.*
MAC Cosmetics, 11/17 – Say SOIRÉE NOT SORRY with These Fashion-Forward Gift Ideas
Clinique, 11/13 — #FindMyiD: It all starts now.
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
3 Reasons Brands’ Email Marketing KPIs Are Overly Focused on Engagement
Total Retail: Email Marketing’s ROI – Three Insights for Retailers
Webinar Recording + Q&A: Key Insights from a Year of State of Email Research
Posted on December 13, 2018
If you didn’t have time to read all of the hundreds of pages worth of reports and research insights that came out of our 2018 State of Email Survey, you’re in luck: We’ve condensed the key stats, trends, and takeaways from all our research into a single webinar.
In this webinar, I discuss four major themes from this year’s research:
- Why most email review and approval processes are inefficient (and what you can do to fix them)
- How performance visibility impacts the subscriber experience
- The use of third-party tools to supplement ESP functionality
- How the under-measurement of email marketing ROI is hurting budgets
To watch the recording, view the slides, and read the Q&A…
>> See the entire post on the Litmus blog
Help us help you by participating in Litmus’ 2019 State of Email Survey
Posted on December 11, 2018
All of the industry research that Litmus does is only possible with the support of awesome email marketers like you.
If you’ve read our State of Email reports, attended a Litmus webinar, or read the Litmus blog, please consider donating a little of your time to complete our 4th annual State of Email Survey. Your responses will help us establish benchmarks, identify trends, and continue to deliver the unique and valuable insights you’ve come to expect from us.
Make sure that your voice is heard.
>> Start the survey
Our Favorite Talks from the Litmus Live 2018 Season
Posted on December 7, 2018
Across its three cities—Boston, London, and San Francisco—Litmus Live 2018 featured over 50 different talks from some of the brightest minds in the email industry. There were so many talks hitting on some of our favorite topics—whether it’s modular design, interactive email, automation and personalization, or collaborating more effectively—that it was hard for us to pick our favorites. All of them were exceptional and helped illuminate different facets of a complex and evolving industry.
But, pick we did. Here are some of the Litmus marketing team’s favorite talks from this year’s batch of amazing sessions at Litmus Live:
-
- Jaina Mistry’s pick: “Moving Beyond Campaigns: Creating a Flagship Email Product” by Drew Price
- Jason Rodriguez’ pick: “Fixing Enterprise Email with Design Systems” by Fabio Carneiro
- Bettina Specht’s pick: Live Optimization
- And my pick: “Improving Engagement Through Feedback Mechanisms” by Leonie Jonker
To learn why these were our favorites and watch the recordings of those sessions…
>> Read the entire post on the Litmus blog
13 Email A/B Testing Mistakes
Posted on December 6, 2018
To A/B test your emails, all you need to do is present two variations to two different groups of your subscribers and then listen. The metrics will tell you their preference, which you can then act on either in the short-term by sending the winning variation to more of your audience, or in the long-term by applying that preference to future campaigns.
That sounds simple—and to a degree, it is, thanks to email service providers and testing software providers rolling out functionality that makes email A/B testing much easier to execute. However, it’s also rather simple to mess up your email A/B testing and either come to the wrong conclusion or undermine your results completely.
Doing a bunch of email A/B testing and then realizing that you didn’t actually learn anything actionable because of poor execution is painful. To avoid that fate, here are 13 tips that will ensure you’re getting the most out of your email A/B testing…
>> Read the full post on the Litmus blog
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
Head of Research
Oracle Digital Experience Agency
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
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