The 80/20 rule is the economic principle that 80% of your profits will tend to come from 20% of your clients. No matter what business you’re in, you’ve likely already experienced this phenomenon. A certain segment of your customers become regulars; they trust you and value your products or services and so come back to you again and again. Others will make a single purchase and never be heard from again, while still others will always remain ‘potential’ clients–they will contact you, consider your offerings, and ultimately fade off into the distance. A smaller proportion of your clients will even go on to become evangelists; they spread the crucial word-of-mouth advertising that keeps businesses thriving.

Each type of client or potential client relates to you in a different way, and so it is only natural that you should try to relate back to them in ways that fit with this relationship. This is relatively simple and straightforward when you are working with a client one-on-one. It is just basic salesmanship. But mass communication makes it much more difficult to give every customer a personal touch that reaches out to them at their current stage of decision-making.

If you send out a single type of newsletter to all your clients, some of them will ravenously devour the information, some will be moderately interested, some will indifferently delete or leave the message unread, and others will be annoyed to be contacted at all. Now imagine how much more powerful it would be if you could identify each of these groups and custom-tailor your messages exactly for them.

We have already discused the exceptional value of segmenting your email lists according to various demographic data, in order to appeal to different groups within your target market. Up until recently it would have been really difficult to expand the depth of this approach beyond demographics, to the level of the individual. After all, the only way to target the individuals within groups is to base your marketing efforts on the types of actions they have taken in the past. If someone is forwarding your messages to all their friends, for example, you can be pretty sure you have won an evangelist. You’ll want to approach them very differently than you would approach someone who never even opens your messages.

When ActiveCampaign released version 5.0 of 1-2-All, our flagship email marketing software, we wanted to make it possible for you to really drill down into actions that people take when they receive an email message from you. So now you can create a dynamic list of all the people on your mailing list who open your messages. You can create another dynamic list of all your evangelists, the people who are forwarding your messages along to their friends. And still another list segment containing only the potential clients who you have yet to really reach. And you can send out a different type of message to each of them.

The real power of this comes in when you start mixing it with the other features of the software. Split testing is a great example of this. Because if you were to create a list segment containing all those people whom you have never managed to convince to open up one of your messages, then you can make it your goal to shrink that list. And with every message you send, you can try out two different titles, to see what is the most effective type of title for getting people off of your “Never open” list. So each time you can convert more and more of those people who you never established contact with into people who are now reading your messages and building up interest in what you have to offer.

How powerful do you suppose it would be to send a message out to all of the subscribers who have forwarded your messages along in the past, offering a special gift or discount to new customers?

The most important thing to remember when putting together an email campaign is also the most basic: you are doing this for a reason. There is a goal, something that you want to have happen as a result of your mailing. And everything about the message you send out should be tailored to promote the achievement of the goals you have set out in advance.

However, like most things involving people, it can be difficult to predict what elements of a message will be more likely to work. In many cases predicting which title will be opened the most frequently, or which layout will inspire the highest clickthrough rate, amounts to little more than a guessing game.

In the past I’ve written about using A/B split testing to maximize the power of your email campaigns in 1-2-All. But I had to revisit the issue because the latest version of 1-2-All Email Marketing Software takes email split testing to a whole new level. And here’s how: in the past, you had to wait until your mailing was complete, and then take what you learned and apply it in your next mailing. It’s hard to imagine a better way to do things; after all, you need to see the results of your test before you can benefit from them, right?

But what if you were to take just a small sample of your total base of mailing list subscribers, and see how each version of the message worked on them? Then you could be reasonably sure you were sending the most effective message to the majority of your subscribers. 1-2-All 5.0 not only makes that possible, it offers to do it automatically.

You set up your versions of the message, tell it what percentage of your list to use as a test sample, and how long to wait before choosing the winning version of your mailing. And then the software will go ahead and send out the two versions and wait to see what happens. All on its own, the software will calculate the most effective message based on whatever metric you choose–how often the messages are opened and read, how frequently you get a clickthrough to your site, even how often the messages are forwarded. And then, at the appointed time, 1-2-All will tally the results and send out the winning message to the rest of your mailing list.

And you can still use the statistics from your split test to inform your next mailing. You can gradually improve your mailings this way by changing just one element at a time, until eventually every message you send is an absolute email marketing dynamo. And by running your tests at the beginning of a mailing rather than all the way through, you can be sure that you have maximized your conversions at every step along the way.

While we are still working on 1-2-All 5.0 – we would like to share a couple of the changes and improvements that will be delivered in this next version.  This is our largest product update to date (across our entire product line) so there is a lot of information to cover.  This post is just a preview of some of the exciting new features & changes that will soon be available…

Multi-List Management

Prior to 1-2-All 5.0 every action was typically specific to a list.  With 5.0 we are dramatically switching the process so that all options can affect multiple lists (if you should choose to do so.)  When you log in you will no longer be forced to select a list before starting to import, send, etc..  This sounds like a minor change, however after using the new version you will find a lot of time saved and an increase in general usability from this adjustment.

Subscriber Filtering

1-2-All has had decent subscriber filtering (allows you to segment your list into specific conditional groups) but with 5.0 you will be able to take filtering to an entirely new level.  In addition to filtering based off subscriber data you will be able to filter off nearly any action the subscriber has taken.  Thus you can filter your list down to users who unsubscribed from one list, subscribed to another, read a specific campaign, and clicked on a specific link on a specific day.  Combine that with our advanced and/or grouping options along with being able to apply filters (as always) to any type of campaign and mailing that is being sent out – including auto responders.

Subscriber & List Actions

An existing feature that you may have overlooked in the past are subscriber & list actions.  Currently you can set specific things to happen based on certain actions the subscriber takes.  For instance when a subscriber unsubscribes from one list you may want to automatically remove them from other lists as well.  We are building this existing feature into something much more comprehensive.  Currently actions are based on subscriptions/unsubscriptions.  With 5.0 you will be able to set specific changes/actions based on any action the subscriber takes.  This includes subscribe/unsubscribe, reads/link tracking, forwarding mailings to friends, and more!

Advanced Message Options

Personalizing each mailing you send has always been an important feature.  We are taking this to a new level by offering dynamic variables and conditional content.

Dynamic variables mean that you can take a current personalization tag (such as %TODAY%) and alter it dynamically (such as %TODAY+2%.)

Conditional content will allow you to show certain parts of the message depending on the subscribers details.  Much like sending filters but for content.  You can think of this as if you were able to add if/else statements throughout the content of your mailings.

Reporting

I am quite excited about the new reporting options that will be available in version 5.0.  We have an extensive list of new reports along with individual report options.   These are significant enhancements in the way that you can analyze campaigns, past mailings, list reports, user reports, and more…  This is a major section to discuss so we will be releasing more information about this soon.

In addition to the large number of new internal reports you will also find many options to export data (for external analysis) along with Google Analytics integration.

User Management

New user management options will simplify the way permissions are set along with making it much easier to resell 1-2-All as a hosted solution.  The basic ideas of “accounts” and “users” remain the same but we will be introducing new user group options along with a number of new user/account limits/settings

Integration & Public Options

Subscription forms are getting a make over with new style options along with new “completion” options.  You will now be able to redirect to different URL’s, show a custom message, or let it go to the defaults.  You will also have multiple integration options for each subscription form.  Such as embedding it into your current site, popup, link to it, etc..

Database sync (for bringing in subscribers from external databases) now supports MySQL, MSSQL, and PostgreSQL.  We have added a number of new options for each sync and you can even write custom SQL queries.

The public section of 1-2-All has always been an odd issue for many clients.  While they would like the public section, many users want to restrict it down to a list or user account.  We have solved this dilemma.  There is now a general public section, list specific public section,  and an account/user specific section.  Each type of section can be enabled or disabled and everything is SEO friendly.

Sending Methods

You will find new sending settings.  We are doing away with some of the more complex settings and replacing them with easier to use options.  Functionality will not be lost by doing this.  You will now be able to set a specific number of emails to send per hour without having to specify how many messages to send before doing pauses.

1-2-All currently supports multiple sending methods – such as rotating through multiple SMTP servers when sending.   1-2-All 5.0 will also let you choose which sending methods/SMTP servers are used for each account.  That allows you to have different sending methods for each account/user if needed.

Templates

We are including a large number of free email templates that will be pre-loaded into 1-2-All 5.0.  New options will include highly requested features such as system wide templates, easier options to add purchased templates, and more.

Our new template system along with our new editing and message creation options will allow you to lock parts of the template.  Ensuring that your client does not accidentally disrupt the general design and only changes what is needed to be changed.

Add-Ons

As we extended and updated every other section of the software – we have done the same with the 1-2-All add-ons.

A/B Split has been revamped and will prove to be quite exciting compared to the current version.  The update will allow truly advanced split testing and will be included for free as part of the 1-2-All product.

AutoRemind is more integrated then ever. EmailCheck has new integration areas and will soon have new reports shown when you run it. ActiveRSS will support easier custom templates.  We also have a couple of new add-ons (that have been requested by numerous clients) that will be announced during the beta.

Extendability

While we worked on planning and developing 5.0  we have kept extendability on our minds.  We will be doing this with multiple methods.  Firstly we will be releasing 1-2-All with 99% of the files unencoded. This will allow a great number of changes.

We are re-working how language files can be translated.  The changes will allow you quickly be able to translate a section (such as the public section) without having to sift through the text for the admin section.

With the release of 1-2-All 5.0 beta we will begin to release API documentation as well.

New Support Documentation

As the product advances we are committed to making sure everything is user friendly and easy to use.  There are always times where a little more assistance/help docs are required.  You will find in-line help documentation (that is unbranded) throughout the software.  We will also be releasing quick start guides (both branded and non-branded for the resellers) along with an extensive collection of articles and video walk-throughs.

More to come….

This post is only scratching at the surface of what is to come with 1-2-All 5.0. We will be posting more specifics on each area along with new screen shots in the near future.  There are a lot of new items and changes that we will be discussing in great detail.

Please note that while we are nearing a beta we do not have a set date at this time.  We choose not to specify an exact release date as we would much rather prefer to ensure the product is complete and stable before releasing.  We do however expect the beta to be released sometime in Quarter 1 of this year.  Please subscribe to our blog or newsletter to be kept up to date with this.

It’s an accepted wisdom that maintaining an e-mail list and sending out regular e-mail updates is a good idea for your business. But let’s think about why this should be.

Of course, it’s a good idea to have an open channel of communication with your clients, because it keeps them from forgetting about you. A professional newsletter can also increase recipients’ perception that you are familiar and established, and so makes it easier for them to buy from you. But in the end, like everything else in business, it comes down to the payoff. What is the final objective of your email campaign? Better yet, what is the objective of the very next e-mail you’re going to send out?

If the objective is to win a sale, then you’ll already be very clear on this. But often, maintaining a mailing list involves sending out a number of messages with less decisive agendas. You can improve your e-mail marketing campaigns immensely by doing three simple things:

1. Set a goal for every message you send out.

What would you like for this particular newsletter to accomplish for your business? Do you want to inspire your recipients to click through to your web site? Are you hoping to get them to forward your newsletter to their friends so you can grow your membership? Do you want them to fill out a survey? Do you simply want them to trust you more?

2. Think of a couple of different ways you might accomplish this.

If you’re trying to get your message recipients to trust you, then your job is very easy. All you have to do is give them information that is both authoritative and immediately useful to them, and ask for nothing in return. Of course, you’ll have to have this type of information first, so this type of goal is excellent if you are an authority on the topping of your newsletter.

If you’re aiming to induce a specific action, your strategy will be similarly rational: in most cases, you’ll just ask them to do what you want them to do. That isn’t really as simple as it seems, of course. Is it better to ask at the beginning of a message or at the end? In the middle? Should you give them a whole paragraph to pitch the action or just set it aside in a colored box apart from your content? These variables will be different for every newsletter based on the preferences of your demographic and the nature of the information you’re sending out. How do you determine which is best for your purposes?

3. Test them against each other.

Just set up your A/B Split test in our Email Marketing software and send out your mailing. Then pay attention to the results and note them for future mailings. See how easy that was? Now you know something about your client base that you never knew before–you’ve learned a little something about how to induce them to perform a specific action. In your next newsletters, you can keep right on putting that technique to work, or (and here’s the real secret) keep testing. Do a split test every single time you send out a message, and your email copywriting style will just keep getting better and better. It’s just a little more work, and the results can scale exponentially. Use the insights of all of your previous tests to design each of your next tests, so that your knowledge of your customers snowballs into… dare I say… absolute power. Or, at the very least, you can get more people to forward your messages to their friends

Don’t think small with these insights either. Everything you learn about getting someone to click through to your site is also an insight that can potentially be used to win a sale. Knowledge is money.

In the last post, I described in some depth the types of considerations that can help you maximize your chances that your messages will make it into your subscribers’ inboxes–the “email delivery rate.” But email marketing delivery is really only the first consideration. The next question is how to maximize your chances that your content will make it into your subscribers’ brains.

The answer to this problem begins not with your e-mail messages, but on your web page. Your subscription form itself is the first step in ensuring targeted delivery. The form should make it clear exactly what your subscribers are signing up for: what type of content and how often. If there are several different types of content you want to send out that are not likely to interest the same people, consider splitting up the information into separate mailing lists and offering your visitors the option of subscribing to one or more of them.

Next, when you send out messages, make sure the From e-mail address, the sender name, and the subject line are all recognizable. Every message should make it completely clear to the recipient where the message is coming from and why before they open it. When we send out newsletters, for example, the sender name is “ActiveCampaign, Inc.” and the title always begins “ActiveCampaign News.” If your recipients don’t recognize where your message is coming from and why, they may not know they want to read it. Worse, they may flag it as spam, thereby preventing your future mailings from getting through to them. Here’s some more information on subject line copywriting.

It’s a good idea to personalize your messages to enhance this effect. The possibilities of message personalization range from simply opening the message with a personal greeting to much more effective techniques like splitting your subscribers up into groups based on their location or click-through activity. For example, imagine you’re running a mailing list about changes in local laws that affect business owners. If you’ve collected the zip code of each of your subscribers, you can target your messages directly at business owners within an affected area for a given policy change, and spare all of your other subscribers from having to scan through messages that don’t have any relevance for them. The perceived usefulness of your mailing list is likely to be far higher, the perceived annoyingness is likely to be far lower, and your overall retention rate and success will very probably be positively impacted.

Also, don’t forget to include an unsubscribe link in every message. You may also want to give them a link to update their account information, if you collect any special information or if you offer multiple lists, but always include an unsubscribe link. Why? Because if you don’t, people that want to unsubscribe probably won’t contact you, or e-mail you, or call you, or just delete every message that comes in: they’ll probably mark your messages as spam. If they use any of the popular e-mail providers, that could affect the likelihood that your messages will be delivered to other users of those e-mail hosts.

The next thing to think about is the content itself. Be honest with yourself now–is it boring? filled with editing errors? is it all whacked out? There’s only one way to know for sure: have a few people read it beforehand. In the previous article I mentioned some reasons why it is a good idea to set up a test mailing list including all of your own addresses and any colleagues who are willing to help you with your newsletter. Now I will tell you about a great big reason to do so. If you don’t, your dreams will be haunted by the mistakes you failed to catch in proofreading, the opportunities you lost by mistyping a link, or the subscriptions you lost by sending out substandard content.

Once you’ve got everything proofread and okayed by multiple readers, you can start thinking about how to maximize the effectiveness of what you’re sending. A/B Split testing your e-mails is an excellent way to do this. For those not familiar, A/B Split testing involves randomly assigning your site visitors or e-mail recipients into 2 group, and delivering different versions of your content to each of the two groups. You then compare the response rates (click-throughs, read/open, forward-to-friend, etc.) of the two different versions to determine which one worked better. If you’re using ActiveCampaign Email Marketing, then you have a convenient piece of software available to manage this process available to you in the form of the email marketing A/B Split addon. Otherwise, you can split your list into two smaller lists and try to do this by hand. Either way, it’s an incredibly smart way to leverage your existing audience and improve the content you’re providing. You can use this technique, for example, to test the effectiveness of different subject lines, to see what types of subject lines your subscribers are more likely to open and read. You can also try different layouts within the e-mail content itself in order to determine what format produces the highest click-through rate.

Finally, be sure to keep your recipients in mind with everything you do. Imagine what it will be like for them to receive your message. What time of day will it arrive in their inbox? If you send a message outside of business hours, it will be much more likely to get lost among the list of messages which accumulated overnight. Also, people feel much more pressured to get through their list of e-mails in the morning so they can begin their day; this means that if your e-mail does get opened, it’s less likely to be fully read. Also consider how their e-mail reader will respond to the attempt to open the message. If you’ve included multimedia elements like Flash or Javascript, at best they will simply be excluded from the opened message and at worst your recipient will have to see an error message. It will not benefit you to become associated with error messages.

It comes down to anticipating and managing the experience that you’re giving your subscribers, just like any other type of business activity. If you want people to enjoy their experience, become more involved in what you’re doing, and come back for more, you can. All it takes is a little extra time and consideration. Here’s some more information on solid email copywriting techniques.

Let us know what you think about these ideas, what types of things you think about when you’re sending to mailing lists, and what you’ve had success with.

Today we released a new add-on for ActiveCampaign Email Marketing Software.

This add-on allows you to perform a/b split testing as part of your email campaigns. Email Marketing will automatically distribute the two messages evenly between two randomly assigned groups within a single mailing list. You are then offered full statistical data for each version of the message to help you determine which strategies are most effective for your mailing list.

Here are some screenshots: