Email Marketing RulesFind Your Email Inspiration in the 2014 Best of the Email Swipe File
Posted on May 22, 2014
A swipe file is a record of your top-performing campaigns that you return to for learnings and ideas. It was this concept that inspired us to create the Email Swipe File on Pinterest, where we share the emails and landing pages that excite and impress us. We’ve already shared more than 310 examples of email awesomeness dating all the way back to 2006—and there’s much more to come.
In the 2014 Best of the Email Swipe File, we highlight the 20 examples from the past year that we love most and put them in the context of five trends that are having a major impact on email design:
- ADVANCED PERSONALIZATION: Personalization that goes way beyond first-name merges is one of the key ways marketers can make their messages more relevant to individual subscribers.
- TRIGGERED SOPHISTICATION: Explore ways to make triggered emails ever better—with longer campaigns, smarter content, and better triggers.
- SMART RENDERING: Rendering tactics can ensure that your message is optimized for the platform, situation, person, and time of open.
- UNIQUE VOICE: Influenced by content marketing and social media engagement, the voice of marketers is undergoing a shift from promotional, corporate and detached to helpful, conversational and timely.
- INSPIRED FUNDAMENTALS: Don’t forget the fundamental messaging and design tactics that have been effective for years, like creating messaging that’s on brand, focused, and sharable.
Learn more about these trends, see which email campaigns we loved best, and check out the ideas we most hope you’ll steal, test and make your own. Get inspired!
>> Download the 2014 Best of the Email Swipe File
Email Marketing Double-Dog Dares: Vol. 4
Posted on May 20, 2014
Since email is a fast-moving, fast-evolving channel, marketers must be experimenters to succeed at a high level. With that in mind, I dare you—no, I double-dog dare you—to test these six out-of-the-box, bleeding edge, and fun/weird ideas:
1. Bring transparency and rewards to email activity. Especially now that ISPs are factoring engagement into their delivery algorithms, you want your subscribers to open and click your emails—and perhaps share them with their networks and take other positive, trackable actions. Why not be up front about it?
Launch an annual, biannual, or quarterly activity email that…
>> Read my entire Email Insider column on MediaPost.com
Follow the Swipe File on Twitter @ETswipefile and You’ll…
Posted on May 13, 2014
- See every new digital marketing example pinned to the Swipe File on Pinterest
- Rediscover great pins from the past every #FlashbackFriday
- Be able to chime in on which of two similar examples is the #BetterSwipe every Tuesday
- Find seasonal inspiration for your campaigns
- Learn which pins are fan favorites
- Be sure not to miss that latest Swipe File reports, blog posts, webinars, and videos
So, get your daily dose of digital marketing inspiration.
>> Follow @ETswipefile on Twitter
>>Help spread the word. Click to tweet: “Follow @ETswipefile to discover great digital marketing examples from the Swipe File. I did!”
Crowd Favorites from the Swipe File: April 2014
Posted on May 8, 2014
We pin tons of inspiring digital marketing examples to our Swipe File pinboards on Pinterest every month. And each month you tell which ones most inspired you by repinning and liking them.
Here are your favorite pins among the ones we uploaded last month:
The Email Swipe File’s crowd favorite was…
Pizza Express >> personalized birthday email with awesome images-off rendering >> View the pin
>> Browse the Email Swipe File
The Social Swipe File’s crowd favorite was…
First Cup >> used social listening to target coffee drinkers at the local level >> View the pin
>> Browse the Social Swipe File
The Audience Growth Swipe File’s crowd favorite was…
Home Depot >> e-receipt with email opt-in promotion >> View the pin
>> Browse the Audience Growth Swipe File
Help determine this month’s crowd favorites by repinning and liking the Swipe File pins that inspire you most.
Unroll.Me Is a Promotions Tab in an Email
Posted on May 6, 2014
Unroll.Me is the kind of service that makes email marketers nervous. It facilitates unsubscribes and bundles messages from multiple brands into a single daily email digest, and its user base has quickly grown to more than 720,000.
However, there’s no reason for alarm. We’ve seen this before. Unroll.Me is quite similar to Gmail’s Promotions tab, which in general has had a positive effect on email marketing.
I recently spoke with Direct Marketing News Associate Editor Elyse Dupre about Unroll.Me and how marketers shouldn’t worry, but should expect the service’s growth to drive other changes in our industry.
>> Read the entire story on DMNews.com
The Last Word on April 2014
Posted on May 2, 2014
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, tweets and examples you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & whitepapers
Reengagement Campaigns: When Should You Drop Inactives? (MediaPost)
Triggered Email Messages: Keys to Success (ClickZ)
Results and Lessons from 9 Subject Line split tests (ZettaSphere)
Gmail Continues to Shift the Market Share Landscape (Litmus)
Which Came First, Your Email Content or Your Segment? (ClickZ)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
@fchimero: There’s a special designer hell where you watch someone else use Photoshop.
@mparkerbyrd: 90% of the value of postmortems is actually in the time you spend preparing for the postmortem: forced reflection. #CreativityInc
@CaptainInbox: Wow! a great & immensely accurate list: “Announcing the Magill Report List of Vetted, Reputable Email List Vendors” http://t.co/m21IgP6Mw3
Great additions to the Swipe File pinboards
Pizza Express mosaic email sent in 2/2012 >> View the pin
Marriott responsive email sent on 3/26/14 >> View the pin
Reliant weekly power usage summary email sent on 3/24/14 >> View the pin
Noun Project confirmed opt-in email sent in 3/2014 >> View the pin
Noteworthy subject lines
Hayneedle, 4/27 — It’s time to plant!
Hayneedle, 4/22 — It IS easy being green …
Staples, 4/22 — Up to 50% off eco-friendly supplies.
Lowe’s, 4/22 — Be the Change This Earth Day
ThinkGeek, 4/22 — ThinkGeek salutes \S/upermoms!
Overstock.com, 4/22 — Mother’s Day is May 11th – Start Shopping Now
Drs. Foster & Smith, 4/22 — Become a Better Pet Parent
PersonalizationMall.com, 4/21 — Graduation Party Gifts & Decorations On Sale Now
J.Crew, 4/17 — We moonlight as wedding planners. For free.
Clinique, 4/22 — Breakouts to clear skin—change your story! Plus watch us on YouTube.
SeaWorld Orlando, 4/14 — 50th Celebration SALE: Save $5 at ShamuShop.com
Blue Nile, 4/11 — 10 Diamond Shapes to Help you Create the Perfect Ring
Uncommon Goods, 4/7 — The 50/$50 List
ModCloth, 4/11 — Open this email, get $10. Yup, it’s that easy!
OnlineShoes.com, 4/7 — Get your closet ready for the occasions ahead
Express, 4/7 — The must-have color of the season
Etsy, 4/21 — Mother May I?
Dell, 4/21 — Windows 7?
Barneys New York, 4/13 — Dreaming of Summer? Shop Swimwear, Sunwear and More Now
Drs. Foster & Smith, 4/12 — Travelling with your pet this summer?
Zappos, 4/14 — Got a yacht?
Nikon Store, 4/11 — The Lunar Eclipse is Almost Here! Will Your Photos Do it Justice?
Gerber, 4/10 — Hey Chad, have you seen our new site?
Lenovo, 4/8 — What’s the G for?
Subway, 4/1 — Have you tried our latest flavor madness?
Most popular posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
1. Infographic: The Growing Adoption of Mobile-Friendly Email Design
2. The Many Uses (and 2 Drawbacks) of Animated Gifs
3. The 1, 2, 3 of Defensive Design
4. Gmail’s 10th Anniversary: Its 3 Greatest Contributions
5. Infographic: Shopping Cart Abandonment Email Opportunities
The 3 Pitfalls of Offline Opt-ins
Posted on May 1, 2014
Offline email signups offer many opportunities to lose a perfectly good subscriber through poor process. Shoppers at your stores, patrons at your restaurants, and visitors at your conference booths make great subscribers. The challenge is accurately collecting email addresses in these environments.
Avoid these three offline opt-in pitfalls:
- Transcription, especially without verification.
- Not setting the right expectations.
- Handing out immediate rewards for email addresses.
For all the details and examples…
>> Read the entire post on the ExactTarget Blog
The Most Inspiring Subject Lines
Posted on April 22, 2014
There’s probably no greater fascination among email marketers than subject lines. Creating magic in just a few dozen characters is a mix of art and science and luck.
While straightforward subject lines tend to fair best, I recently shared 100 of my favorite creative subject lines since 2006 to inspire folks to experiment and test. We asked readers to tweet their favorite subject lines from the collection, and keeping track of the nearly 500 tweets revealed some interesting trends.
The subject lines that readers found most inspiring were…
>> Read my entire Email Insider column on MediaPost.com
Don’t Forget Your Subscribers’ Signup Anniversaries
Posted on April 18, 2014
Signup anniversary emails, like most triggered emails, generate strong returns. They are similar to birthday emails, except you don’t need to know subscribers’ birth dates. Plus, you have more flexibility as to when to send them and you can have them escalate over the years, providing greater rewards to those who have stuck with you the longest.
The adoption rate is also lower. My own observational research puts birthday email adoption at around 8% and signup anniversary email adoption at just 2%—which just means there’s potentially even more opportunity for marketers to…
>> Read the entire post on the ExactTarget Blog
Infographic: The Growing Adoption of Mobile-Friendly Email Design
Posted on April 10, 2014
We’ve been tracking the mobile-friendliness of the promotional emails sent by a group of nearly 160 B2C brands since October of last year. We saw a big bump in the adoption of mobile-friendly email design during the holiday season and this summer we expect major progress, followed by another jump in adoption as we approach the holiday season again.
Beyond detailing the adoption rates we’ve observed, this infographic explains the difference between desktop-centric design, mobile-aware design, and responsive design—and the future outlook for each of them. It also includes links to examples of mobile-aware design from Amazon.com, Reiss, and Vizify, and examples of responsive design from AT&T, Toms, and Foursquare from the Email Swipe File on Pinterest.
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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