Just a quick update for all of our email marketing clients. We are currently working on version 5.1 which will be available in the near future.
While this is not a major update it includes a number of new features that have been suggested:
- Inbox Preview Tool – Preview how your email will appear in the major email clients and what is causing the email to appear differently.
- Social Sharing – Easily share your campaign with social networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc..) from the admin area and/or allow your readers to share the email.
- Updated Web Version – We are updating the “web version” of your campaigns to have less message information and focus on the email the subscriber wishes to view. This will include some social sharing features.
- Trend Reporting – A new report section (option in the reports menu) that will contain a number of upcoming reports. We will begin with 2 reports in the trends section:
- Email Client Report – View and analyze the email clients being used to view your email. A graph (for email clients) is also being added to the campaign overview page.
- Opens By Time - View and analyze what time of the day is resulting in the most opens. Graphs have been added to campaign overview & list reports as well.
We will post another update (with additional details) once 5.1 is available for download.
If you have any suggestions or questions be sure to let us know!
Email Marketing & The Call For Action
In: Email Marketing
24 Feb 2010It’s important to pay attention to the length of the copy that you use in your newsletter. If your email becomes too “heavy” in content then the purpose of your email becomes confusing to the subscriber. For email to succeed as a form of communication it needs to be clear what you want your subscriber to do. Your subscriber needs to know why you are sending them an email. This reason should lead them to a clear call to action. The call to action defines the action your subscriber is to take after they open up your email. Most email marketers do not pay enough attention to the call for action. They painstakingly pay attention to every detail of their email template and creating engaging content only to leave the call to action as almost an afterthought. As a result “Click Here!” is the most frequently used call to action. Click Here is concise and there is no doubt what you want your subscriber to do but it doesn’t tell the subscriber why they would want to.
Continue Reading -or- read other copywriting articles
Have a great email design?
In: General
19 Feb 2010With the thousands of users using ActiveCampaign Email Marketing every single day we have seen some amazing email designs.
Many users are often looking for inspiration or examples of what could be done with email design. To help connect designers and non-designers we will be starting to highlight some of these designs and the companies that have created them.
If you have an email design that you think is amazing simply forward the email to design-gallery@activecampaign.com. You can include some basic information about your company as well. You do not need to be a design related company.
In addition to sharing your design work you will you get free brand recognition and company details listed on our site.
Help Desk 3.0 Development Update
In: Product Updates
10 Feb 2010We have been developing ActiveCampaign Help Desk 3.0 for some time now. The progress has been very promising and we are looking forward to sharing screenshots and feature / change explanations in the near future. As we have not posted an update yet I wanted to share a couple of the major features that have been completed.
Here are a couple of the major new updates that have been done already for 3.0:
- Views
Create custom views, share them with users, and fully control what shows up for each view. This replaces the old open or closed ticket lists - Automation
Without going into great detail (at this time) I can tell you that automation is going to be the heart of 3.0 and the potential uses and benefits for every users will be great. Simply put it allows you to automate most parts of your help desk in a very customizable manner. - Service Level Agreements
Ability to setup SLAs with working schedules, SLA actions, SLA plans, etc.. along with generating SLA reports. - Billing Logging & Reports
A very popular feature request has been added. Ability to have tickets billable, log billable hours per ticket, etc.. - Due Dates
Ability to set due dates, actions when a due date is not met, etc.. - Companies
Can be thought of as public user groups. Have company members auto-join into setup companies, manage company users, etc.. - Updates
Instead of “announcements” we have created an updates feature where you can post updates (similar to a blog view) and your users can see updates when visiting your help desk. - Troubleshooters
While we did have troubleshooters in version 2 we have changed how you create them (to be much easier) along with a number of options for when they reach the end of a series of questions. - ActiveCampaign Knowledge Management
As with version 2.0 we are including the knowledge mgmt/knowledge base application as a free module of the help desk software. The new improved integration allows us to have the latest version of the kb product always integrated (where as in version 2.0 there was a delay when we released a kb update for it to be included in the help desk)
Those are just a couple of the hundreds of new features and changes made with help desk 3.0. In the near future we will begin to post specific features & screenshots to give you a better idea of everything that ActiveCampaign Help Desk 3.0 has to offer.
Regarding the release date - we do not have a set date at this time. Product quality is our top concern. Once internal development and testing has completed we will announce the beta (for current clients) along with upgrading our own help desk.
Email Design & Email Deliverability Tips
In: Email Marketing
21 Jan 2010We have recently published a number of new guides for email design and email deliverability. Topics include setting up SPF records, DKIM, feedback loops, email design best practices, and more.
You can view our growing list of email marketing articles & guides by selecting one of the following categories:
- Email Deliverability
Learn how to ensure maximum delivery of your email campaigns.
- Email Design
Learn how to design emails that will look great in all the email clients. - Email Copywriting
Learn how to write effective copy that will encourage your subscribers to take action.
We recently released an update to our email marketing software that includes a couple of new features that are useful when reselling our product.
Abuse Management
ActiveCampaign Email Marketing allows you to ensure your users include unsubscription links, require opt-ins, etc.. but until recently there was no built-in abuse management tool.
With the release of 5.0.22 you can let the software manage abuses and automatically have users suspended when they abuse the system.
The report abuse link can be added to each accounts mandatory footer (thus adding it to all their outgoing emails) When clicked it will verify that they wish to report abuse and unsubscribe them from the list if they choose to continue with reporting abuse.
Once a user group (account) has reached their maximum abuse ratio (by default this is 4% of all emails sent) their account will be “suspended” This simply means that they will not be able to send any more emails until you (the administrator) decides to increase their abuse ratio, reset their abuse ratio, or leave them suspended.
As an administrator you will be alerted whenever there is a suspended account. You can view each accounts current abuse, set the abuse ratio limits, send emails to the account from the email marketing software, and reset their abuse history.
How to set this up:
- Go to User Groups > Branding
- Add a mandatory footer for the account
- Include a link such as:
<a href=”%REPORTABUSE%”>Click here to report this email</a>
Screenshots:
New Account Approvals
As you resell the software you are going to want to give your users access to the software right away while ensuring that they will use the software (and your mail servers) responsibly. In addition to the new abuse management feature we have provided yet another layer of protection to assist with this.
With the new account approvals feature you can choose to require approval on the first couple campaigns each new account sends. You can choose to require approval on the first 2, 4, or however many campaigns you wish. When a new account has this setting they will be able to use the software and create campaigns. When they click send it will notify them that their campaign will need to be approved by the software administrators and will keep it listed on their campaign list page with a status of “pending approval”
When there is a new campaign pending approval you can have email notifications sent to notify you and you will also see a notice if you login to the software as an administrator. You can then view the campaign and choose to either accept or decline the campaign. If you accept the campaign it will switch the status of the campaign to start sending. If you choose to decline the campaign you will be able to enter a message that is emailed to the sender (regarding why it was declined) and it will change the status of the campaign to be a draft so that the user can edit the campaign and try sending again.
Once the user has had the set number of required campaigns as approved they will no longer need to wait for approval.
How to set this up:
- Go to User Groups > Edit
- Click “Require approval of campaigns before sending starts”
- Enter a notification email address (if desired) and choose how many campaigns need approval for new accounts
Screenshots:
Want To Make A Career In Email Marketing?
In: Email Marketing
3 Jan 2010If quality email marketing is something that you believe in and are passionate about, you may want to make it a central focus of your career. You may also have noticed that email marketing is thriving in a troubled economy or that it is becoming more effective over time.
If you want to go into business for yourself, then take a look at this article: How To Start An Email Marketing Service. But, as you likely already know, entrepreneurship is hard, and owning a business puts you in a position to manage a lot of operational aspects that you may not be fond of or even very capable in. And, since most new businesses fail in their first year, and few people have the startup capital to support themselves during the two year period that typically precedes profitability, you may find that a job in email marketing is a more attractive option for your individual career path.
Read the rest of this entry »
What Is The Best Format For Email Marketing Messages?
In: Email Marketing
30 Dec 2009It is easy to overthink the design of your email marketing messages. When you go to all the trouble of building a mailing list and writing strong, compelling content, you want to be sure that it is presented in an attractive format that gives your hard-won readers a positive impression of you and the things you have to offer.
The most important thing to remember when designing an email marketing template is to keep it very simple. Focus on readability first, and then add in small amounts of graphic flair to draw in and maintain your reader’s attention.
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- ActiveCampaign Email Marketing 5.1 – Coming Soon
- Email Marketing & The Call For Action
- Have a great email design?
- Help Desk 3.0 Development Update
- Email Design & Email Deliverability Tips
- Email Marketing Abuse Management & New Account Approvals
- Want To Make A Career In Email Marketing?
- 2 Steps To Start Email Marketing For A New Business
- What Is The Best Format For Email Marketing Messages?
- How To Write An Email Marketing Message