Premium features in Share:

• Integrate multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts and easily move between them
• Post to multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts simultaneously
• Schedule posts to be published in the future
• See an activity count for each of your fans/followers
• Associate notes with each of your fans/followers
• Save more than 3 searches on Twitter and easily view the results

Premium features in Analyse:

Social statistics – includes detailed analytics for each integrated social media page and its fans/followers.

• Twitter social statistics include:

-         Account totals for tweets, retweets, replied to and by others, followers gained and lost. These can be defined within a specific time period.

-         Graphs for followers and vibe rating over time

-         Detailed positive and negative vibe information and overall account vibe

-         Per day account averages for number of tweets and followers gained

-         Per tweet account averages for retweets, replies and followers gained

-         Graphs showing replies and retweets for your last 20 tweets

-         Information on the 20 most active users interacting with your page, as well as the top 10 positive and negative users

-         Review and edit any notes associated with fans

• Facebook social statistics include:

-         Page totals for posts by you and by others, comments by you and by others, likes, fans gained and lost. These can be defined within a specific time period.

-         Graphs for followers and vibe rating over time

-         Detailed positive and negative vibe information and overall account vibe

-         Per day page averages for number of posts and fans gained

-         Per post averages for likes, comments and fans gained

-         Graphs showing impressions, likes and comments for your last 20 posts

-         Information on the 20 most active users on your page, as well as the top 10 positive and negative users

-         Fan counts by location, by city and country

-         Graphs on fan demographics, by gender and age

-         Review and edit any notes associated with fans

Social outbox – includes detailed analytics for each post across all your pages.

• View or cancel any scheduled posts you have lined up
• View the reach, vibe ratings, number of replies/comments and retweets/likes for each post
• Sort your posts by various performance related criteria or by date
• Filter your posts by those associated with email campaigns and those posted from within Share
• Toggle posts from different pages on/off
• Set a date range for viewing posts

Manage a Facebook business page

• Complete control over your Facebook page wall activity
• Post updates, photos and links to your wall
• Comment on and ‘like’ wall posts and replies
• Delete posts or comments from the wall
• View number of likes and comments on a post
• Easily allow Facebook fans to subscribe to a Sign-Up.to email list

Manage a Twitter account

• Post tweets with photos or links
• View your complete Twitter feed or just your own tweets
• Reply to, retweet, favourite and delete tweets
• View and reply to conversation threads and @mentions
• View your saved Twitter searches and save new ones
• Send and receive direct messages

Also:

• Associate Vibe sentiment with Facebook posts and comments from your page users, or with tweets that mention you.
• View profiles for each of user that interacts with your page. See their gender and locale (where available), numbers of posts and comments they’ve left on your Facebook page or number of times they’ve mentioned you on Twitter. You can also view the vibe sentiment of posts you’ve rated.
• Integrate multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts. Move between them by changing the default settings.
• Easily upgrade to our Business Class Social Marketing package at any time to gain access to additional features and valuable analytics for all content posted through our Share section.

To see a fan or follower profile click their name in either your Facebook or Twitter feed.

The first thing you’ll notice is that you can add notes about the fan or follower. The notes are for your use only and they won’t ever see them. You could use notes to store information about that user, perhaps how they’ve interacted with you in the past or details on the type of customer they are. 

Once you’ve added a note to a user you’ll see a pin icon next to their name in your feeds.

Vibe is a cool feature which allows you to mark a Twitter mention, Facebook comment, or wall post as positive or negative. Over time, Vibe will give you a good indication as to the type of response you’re getting from your fans and followers.

The profile windows for your Facebook fans and Twitter followers show you how many posts, comments and mentions that user has made on your pages. This is a great way of knowing how frequently people are engaging with you via social media, and you can act accordingly e.g. if you wanted to reward loyal fans.

On a Twitter user’s profile you can view their last tweet and profile information, such as how many people they follow, how many followers they have and how many tweets they’ve sent in total.

There is also a ‘View Full Profile’ link which lets you click through to the users Facebook or Twitter profile page.  

Some of these features may be premium, please see our guide on Business Class Social Marketing for more information.

This feature is available as part of the business class social marketing tools package and you can easily upgrade from within your account.

First head to the Analyse section of you account and click the Social Media analysis link. When you land on this page you’ll need to select which page you want to see information for.

You’ll see that the statistics are broken down into 4 concise sections (for both Facebook and Twitter) – overview, reports, users and notes.

Overview

At the top of the tab you’ll see information about how many followers, mentions and tweets you’ve sent.

Beneath this there is a pie chart about your user Vibe sentiment and a graph detailing account Vibe over time. You can also see information about your last 10 tweets or updates, in terms of replies and retweets for Twitter and impressions, likes and comments for Facebook. This is a great way of understanding how your followers are interacting with the updates you send.

Reports

In this tab you’ll be able to gain an insight into your social media activity in the past week.  There are some quick stats at the top of the page and when you click them you’ll see an explanation of this figure to the right of the page.

Below this you’ll see a fantastic graph helping you understand how many fans or followers you’ve gained and lost in a selected period, as well as a total figure stat. Again you can hover over each bar to see more information.

Finally, you’ll see some Vibe sentiment information at the bottom of the page.

Users

This is the tab where you’re going to understand who your most active, positive and negative fans or followers are. This information may help you reward loyal users, understand the type of reaction you’re getting through social media and gain a deeper understanding of how fans/followers are interacting with you.

For Facebook pages you’ll also see information about the user’s location as well as a location and age group breakdown.

Notes

On this tab you’ll see a list of all the notes you have made for a fan or follower. Here you can also edit the notes and remove them.  You can also search for specific notes, making it easier than ever to look up fan/follower information.

First head to the Analyse section and click the Social Outbox link which sits at the top of the page.

At the top of the page you’ll see any Facebook/Twitter posts which have been scheduled for the future, and what time they will be sent. Within your account you can schedule as many posts as you like, and they can be scheduled to the minute. To cancel a post just click the ‘Cancel Posting’ button to the right of the page.

Below this you can see all of the social media posts you’ve sent through your Sign-Up.to account. You’ll see a Facebook or Twitter icon next to the account image, and this will tell you where the update was posted. This section of the page gives you a really good way of seeing an overview of how the tweet or update was received. 

• For tweets you’ll see how many people it reached, how many replies and retweets it had as well as how many clicks. You’ll also see if it had any positive or negative Vibe sentiments it had.
• For Facebook updates you’ll see how many impressions, comments, likes and clicks any links had. Again, you’ll also see if it had any positive or negative Vibe sentiments it had.

You can also sort your data, helping you to understand how your updates compare. 

To the left of the page you can filter your sent posts by account and decide on the appropriate date range and from source.

Please note that this section is part of our business class social marketing package, and you can upgrade to this service within your Sign-Up.to account.

In Create, first put together your email campaign – saving it as you go along. Once you’re happy it’s complete click the save button in the top right hand corner of the page.

At the bottom of the window you’ll see a line of button called ‘share campaign options’ so click this. 

You’ll now see a new window showing giving you the option of the Facebook page/Twitter account to share it to. If you have a premium account you’ll be able to send it to multiple accounts. Here you can also enter the text which will be posted as your email campaign is sent. If you’d like a link to the online view of your email campaign to appear in your Facebook update/tweet simply click the ‘include a link to the online view of this campaign’ option. Then click save.

The main save window will now tell you which page(s) your update will be sent to, when your email is sent.

Now click save and exit and schedule your email campaign. The update will post to the relevant social media page(s) as soon as the email is sent.

To create a new update, click on either the ‘New post’ button for Facebook or ‘New Tweet’ for Twitter. 

A ‘Post to your feeds’ box will open and premium users will now have the option to post to any or all of their integrated pages at the same time by clicking to toggle each page on or off. Standard users will be able to post to either their default Facebook or their default Twitter page. To change your default accounts, visit the ‘Integration’ page (in the Share sub-menu) and amend the settings there.

There are 3 types of update that can be selected by clicking the icons.

Text. Simply type your update into the box. You can include URLs here and Sign-Up.to will automatically shorten them to reduce the number of characters they use. Posting to Twitter will put a 140 character limit on your post, regardless of whether your update is also posting to Facebook.

Photo. Browse for a photo here or drag and drop files from your desktop. You can also type text into the main update box to be posted with your photo. A photo can be posted simultaneously to both Twitter and Facebook. Photos posted to Facebook will be added to your ‘Wall Photos’ album. Photos posted to Twitter will be added to your Twitpic account.

Link. A link can only be attached to a update if you are posting to Facebook. Enter a URL into the link box and click attach. Tick the ‘No thumbnail’ box to remove the image associated with the link. You can also include text to be posted with your link. Links cannot be attached to Twitter updates in this way, use the standard text post function for this. If posting to both Facebook and Twitter simultaneously, an attached link will not be included in the Twitter post.

Once you are ready to publish your post, click ‘Share now’ to be taken to a preview. Here you can either click ‘Share!’ to publish your post immediately, or ‘Return to post’.

Premium users also have the option to schedule a post to be published in the future. Click ‘Share later’ to be shown a preview of your post as well as options to set the date and time for publishing. Scheduled posts will appear in the Analyse section of your Sign-Up.to account and can be cancelled if necessary from there.

First head to Share and click the Integration link at the top of the page.

We’ll now explain how to add your page for each social media website.

Facebook

On the integration page click the ‘Add a new Facebook account’ button.

If you’re not logged into Facebook you’ll be redirected to Facebook where you can log in. You’ll need to do this in order to integrate your page.

You’ll then be taken back to your Sign-Up.to account and here you can select the Facebook page to view (if you have more than one).  Select the page to view and it’ll automatically default to that page. If you have a premium account you can manage multiple accounts here and set the default page you want to see.

If you’re just looking to add your Facebook page now click the ‘Back to Share main page’ button (towards the bottom of the page) and this will take you to the main Share window where you can manage your Facebook activity.

Twitter

On the same integration page as Facebook click the ‘Add a new Twitter account’ button.

This will take you to a Twitter authorisation page where you’ll need to allow for your Sign-Up.to and Twitter page to integrate. Once you click the ‘Authorize app’ button you’ll be taken back to your Sign-Up.to account.

This will take you to the main Share page where you can now manage your Twitter activity. If you would like to add multiple accounts click the Integration link where you can authorise further accounts. Premium accounts will be able to manage multiple accounts at the same time.

At the bottom of the integration page you can also install the WordPress plugin.

The top navigation section shows you how many followers you have (1) and which Twitter page you’re viewing (2).

Beneath this there are five different sections. The first one lets you toggle between seeing all tweets and only your tweets (3). Next you can see the tweets where you’ve been mentioned (4), followed by a view of your favourite tweets (5).

Next you can look at searches you’ve set up (6) and it’s a good idea to create some that may help you find people interested in your business.

Finally you can see any direct messages that have been sent to you (7).

To the right of the page you can click to compose an tweet (8).

When posting an update to Twitter, the account you’ll be sending to will appear in a light blue (9). If you have a premium account you can send your update to multiple accounts at the same time, across both the Facebook and Twitter platform.

There are 2 tabs for posting an update, text (10) and photos (11). You can also see how many characters you have remaining in this tweet (remember, 140 is the maximum) (12).

Once you’re ready to tweet click the ‘Share now’ button (13), and if you have a premium account you can chose to send the update at a later date by clicking the ‘Share later’ button (14).

Next to tweets that mention your username you’ll see the Vibe sentiment (15), which you can change at any point. You’ll be able to see overall analytics in the Analyse section of your account (if you have a premium account).

Here you can also favourite, retweet and reply here (16).

If you have any notes on this fan you’ll see a pin next to the users name (17). You’ll also see a blue box telling you how many times they’ve interacted with your page (18).

When you click the name of a user you can see a box where you can enter notes on that fan (19). You can also see some information about how many accounts they follow as well as followers they have (20) as well as how many times they’ve mentioned you (21). You can also see an overall Vibe sentiment for this user (22) and this will help you understand how positive or negative the user is about your brand.

You can also follow/unfollow and block a user here (23).

Don’t forget to check out our overview guide to using Facebook in Share.

The top navigation section shows you how many fans you have (1) and which Facebook page you’re viewing (2).

Beneath this you can toggle between seeing all posts and only your posts (3) as well as find out how to create a data capture form for your Facebook page (4), great for gaining new subscribers. Finally, to the right of the page you can click to compose an update (5).

When posting an update to Facebook, the account you’ll be sending to will appear in a light blue (6). If you have a premium account you can send your update to multiple accounts at the same time, across both the Facebook and Twitter platform (7).

There are 3 tabs for posting an update, text (8), photo (9) and links (10).

Once you’re ready to send you can click the ‘Share now’ button (11), and if you have a premium account you can chose to send the update at a later date by clicking the ‘Share later’ button (12).

Next to any fan comments or wall posts you’ll see the Vibe sentiment (13), which you can change at any point. You’ll be able to see overall analytics in the Analyse section of your account (if you have a premium account).

You can also reply to comments and wall posts on this page (14).

If you have any notes on this fan you’ll see a pin next to the users name (15). You’ll also see a blue box telling you how many times they’ve interacted with your page (16).

If you click the name of a fan you can see a box where you can enter notes on that fan (17) and details on how many times they’ve posted and commented on your page (18). You can also see an overall Vibe sentiment for this fan (19), helping you to understand how positive or negative the fan is about your brand.

Don’t forget to check out our overview guide to using Twitter in Share.

More marketing experts have promoted the benefits of integrating social media and email marketing campaigns.

With social media allowing businesses to reach many new prospective customers and email still the preferred method for online marketing, numerous analysts have claimed that integrating campaigns will bring together the best from both platforms.

The most recent expert to make this claim is Greg Brown, a chief revenue officer and social media specialist. He told btobonline.com that email and social media both share an ability to “lift” other marketing channels.

By combining campaigns, he claims, companies can encourage people to spread the word about their business; forwarding the company’s URL onto their friends, relatives and other contacts. Doing this can mean one email finds itself replicated many times by the recipients.

This is also true of social networks, Brown adds; explaining: “Social surveys are another effective way to build your email database.”

By offering such “hooks” as free samples in exchange for contact details, businesses can establish databases of email addresses in the thousands – with many of these going straight to the users’ inboxes.

“Integrating social amplifies the impact of any email marketing campaign,” Brown told marketingpowerful.com. 

“…Those marketers taking a creative and engaging approach to social – with an intent to build on their powerful email marketing assets – will be the ones who pull ahead of the social pack.”

Businesses using email marketing services are better off sending messages during the middle of the week, according to new research.

A study of over a billion Australian marketing emails found that both open rates and clickthrough rates were much higher when sent between Tuesday and Thursday than they were at the beginning and end of the week.

Emails sent at the weekend had particularly poor statistics whilst Thursday appeared to be the optimum day to send marketing emails.

The study, titled The Big Australian Report, found that more emails were sent on a Thursday than any other day and that open rates (22 per cent) were also highest on this day.

However, Lifehacker.com.au report that clickthrough rates for emails sent on a Tuesday (nine per cent) were higher than those sent on any other day.

According to mumbrella.com.au, the statistics largely pointed to a general improvement on the success of email marketing as a platform.

Clickthrough rates have slightly improved over the last 12 months and this has been reflected in the amount of businesses using email marketing to promote themselves.

The number of individual email marketing campaigns has doubled this year alone, whilst the total amount of marketing emails sent in this time is reported to have risen by a third.

Email marketing and search engine optimisation are topping the list of tactics for B2B marketers to entice new clients.

A report in the 2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Advanced Practices Handbook found 12 per cent and 11 per cent of B2B marketing budgets are being spent on e-mail and SEO respectively.

E-mail marketing services and SEO spending managed to see off competition from other channels such as telemarketing, direct mail or public relations, cites Top Ten Wholesale.

Content creation has also been cited as a good investment “as it can be repurposed on company blogs or social media sites”.

Social media content is also an option for B2B marketers, as statistics show the usage of social media has almost doubled. Only 52 per cent of B2B firms used the platform in 2009 as opposed to the 90 per cent that use it today. However, only 7 per cent of marketing budgets are allocated to social media enterprises.

This is not to say social media is less important than e-mail and SEO. Firms should calculate the highest ROI for each channel and decide from there.

Lori Feldman, a web marketing expert, told btobonline.com how digital based marketing exploits can help firms: “A social web environment is extra well-suited to building trust; generating and converting leads and proving a mechanism for sustained engagement.”

Rich-media mobile advertising can help customers remember a brand more-so than static banner advertising, a study has found.

In a two-pronged trial, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) used a combination of SMS marketing and rich-banner advertising to promote the John Lewis brand.

A panel of 1,024 people were sent an SMS directing them to a website that that contained both static and rich-media advertising banners for John Lewis.

Of the half that saw the static banners, just 3 per cent could recall the John Lewis brand half-an-hour later; whereas 24 per cent of those exposed to rich-media expandable banners remembered the high street retailer. This accounts for an eight-fold increase in brand retention.

All participants were unaware that they were being tested on the effectiveness of John Lewis’ advertising, explains a Marketing Magazine report.

The IAB also found that Android and iPhone users are 50 per cent more likely to recall an expandable banner than other smartphone users.

Commenting on the findings, Alex Kozloff, senior mobile manager at the Internet Advertising Bureau, said on IABUK.net: “This research proves how effective mobile can be for driving a brand message and especially the added value emerging rich media formats can provide.

He added: “It is particularly interesting to see the stand out that the expandable banners achieved with often difficult to reach audiences like high end smartphone users.”

The majority of mobile phone users have no problem sharing their location with marketers in exchange more relevant SMS marketing, a new poll shows.

A survey by media company JiWire indicated that 69 per cent of users were willing to share their location in order to receive location-based deals and reviews.

It also revealed that 92 per cent of respondents have invested in at least one local deal a month, indicating that Brits are becoming more receptive to mobile marketing campaigns than ever before.

Reacting to the results via marketwire.com, JiWire senior vice president David Staas claimed that the sky appeared to be the limit for businesses utilising SMS marketing.

He said: “The mobile revolution continues to evolve and we are seeing much higher adoption of mobile devices, services and offerings than ever before.

“Location is clearly a key driver of mobile commerce, whether it’s for finding local deals or engaging with major brands through location media. The early data suggests that this will be a major trend this coming holiday season.”

According to The Drum, Brits are most keen to use their smartphones to access locally-based customer reviews of products before they make the decision to purchase.

The poll suggests that they prefer to hear about local deals and offers via email marketing.

Email marketers should use natural language within their content, an industry expert has claimed.

Neil Berman, who has experience at the highest level of email marketing, has claimed that marketers who communicate more colloquially are more likely to build quality relationships with their consumers.

Berman said that marketers should ditch the typical sales spiel and write like they were talking to a friend or acquaintance. In an article for mediapost.com, he highlighted a particularly good email received from a website where he had been inactive.

The message which read, “Where are you? We’re getting the feeling you don’t want to hear from us anymore,” was praised for communicating like a human being and including humour.

A new report on marketingsherpa.com about email marketing relevance has highlighted the importance of creating a consistent ‘brand voice’ within email marketing messages in order to create expectations from consumers.

It read: “You want the tone of your initial email to match your brand voice so successive messages don’t surprise your subscribers or catch them off guard. The first content delivery should demonstrate value and establish the habit of opening your future emails.”

This suggests that those using an informal tone within the email marketing messages should do so on a consistent basis from the off.

To run an Inbox test first head over to the Create section of your account. Next click the ‘Options’ link next to the name of your campaign. This will bring up details of your email to the right of the page.

You’ll see a blue shaded box titled ‘Inbox testing’ which tells you how many tests you have remaining for the month. Each Sign-Up.to account gets two free tests a month and to purchase more please contact us. To start your test click the ‘start test’ button.

A small box will now appear asking you to confirm the test, so click the ‘start test’ button to begin.

Next you’ll see a page where the test results are generated and after a couple of minutes will appear.

To the left of the page you can see previously run tests, and be shown a reminder of how many tests you have left.

Each grey box on this page outlines the email client your campaign has been tested in and to view your email in full size click the box.

Within this page window you can now test your email in the following ways:

Showing the preview pane or the full email. This will help you decide which content should sit at the top of the email, where you’re most likely to grab your subscriber’s attention.

Turning images on or off. This is particularly useful if you have an image heavy campaign and to check that you’ve added alt text to each image.

Within this window you can also flick between results, making it really easy to view the results from your Inbox Testing.

This feature is automatically available for main account users on one of our monthly plans. To add it for sub users of Sign-Up.to accounts check out our guide on setting sub user permissions.

Smartphones have become more popular than ever, with one-third of Britons now owning an iPhone, a Blackberry or another similar model.

Furthermore, increasing amounts of people are using them to access Twitter and Facebook – spending 43 million hours alone on the latter in December 2010.

The findings were published in a report from Ofcom, which detailed the communications habits of 2,481 adults throughout the nation. Of these, 52 per cent of males confirmed they had a smartphone and 42 per cent of women said the same.

However it seems to be teenagers who are most welded to their precious devices, as worryingly, two in three said they felt “highly addicted” to their handset – using it in social situations, such as at a play, when they recognise they shouldn’t.

Although the addictive side may be something to keep an eye on, the news may be positive for the mobile marketing industry. What’s more, it may give campaigns utilising social media marketing services a boost, as smartphones provide yet another platform on which to display social media content.

A spokesperson for Ofcom, research director James Thickett, told Thedrum.co.uk that the results clearly demonstrate how Britain’s values are changing.

He also revealed our behaviour is adapting to meet new technology, stating: “Ofcom’s 2011 Communications Market Report shows the influence that communications technology now has on our daily lives and on the way we behave and communicate with each other.”

Nearly half of Birmingham companies are using social media marketing services to tender new business, according to research.

Regus, a global workspace provider, found that Birmingham businesses are utilising social media platforms more than the rest of the nation (46 per cent compared 41 per cent).

Additionally, they are using them more effectively. Birmingham firms that use platforms like Twitter and Facebook are more likely to connect and engage with existing customers than anywhere else in the country (53 per cent compared to 48 per cent).

Greg Lunn, regional director at Regus, believes that social networking in the commercial environment has finally “come into its own”.

“And it seems firms in Birmingham are ahead of the UK average in many areas,” he exclaimed in a Telegraph.co.uk report.

“More and more companies are leveraging the channel not only to increase the loyalty of existing customers, but as a successful acquisition tool.”

Regus’ research states that social media marketing is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ commodity, but rather an invaluable necessity.

According to the report cited by BirminghamMail.net, three-quarters of businesses in the city and two-thirds of the UK agree that without social media activity, marketing initiatives cannot hope to be successful.

However, it also emerged that firms are still in favour of utilising a mixed media approach.

Without a balance of both traditional and digital media, 64 per cent of Birmingham firms believe a marketing campaign will fail, whilst nationally 61 per cent of businesses agreed.

Despite advice to marketers to integrate their email and social media campaigns, it seems that some are struggling.

New research by an independent marketer has found that whilst many European businesses are using email marketing (57 per cent) and social media (44 per cent), around a third are struggling to integrate the two.

It is thought that the new research could mean many businesses look to professionals to assist their email marketing campaigns to help them integrate all of their marketing strands into one successful campaign.

The study also suggested that consumers are started to favour online adverts less and less. As a result of this, an advert that keeps appearing on users’ screens will only serve to make them dislike the brand. If marketers don’t test their campaigns and the public reaction, amsterdamprinting.co.uk reports, they could be wasting money on ill-advised and badly perceived techniques.

Speaking to econsultancy.com, leader of the study Volker Wiewer explained: “The research confirms that there is a serious gap between marketers’ approach and what customers want.

“It’s surprising to see that less than half of the companies involved in this research are using social media and only a third have developed an integrated programme between their social media and email marketing. With the rise of global marketing there is also a danger that local trends are being missed.”

An industry expert is urging online marketers to choose their words wisely; when it comes to launching an email campaign, success is all in the eyes of the beholder.

Writing for Travel Blackboard, Adrian Caruso advised marketers to remember that, with a finite number of words, the opportunities for impressing and converting readers are slim.

In order to be “heard and appreciated,” he makes three suggestions on how to write better copy.

The first is to pick one theme and stick with it: “I think the biggest problem is too much content,” he says. “You don’t need to explain your entire field of expertise in each issue.”

Secondly, Mr Caruso recommends using a “human” tone, forget jargon and formality. Letting readers know that there is a person behind the communication will be “like a breath of fresh air.”

Use of language and accuracy is vitally important in the battle for sales, as they contribute toward overall perception of the business as respectable and reputable.

Entrepreneur, Charles Duncombe recently bemoaned the state of the nation’s spelling, warning that mistakes can cost online businesses dear.

“You get about six seconds to capture the attention on a website,” he told Management Today. “Getting the basics right is essential.”

Mr Caruso concurs; his third point urges marketers to ‘boil down’ the content through editing and copious revisions to produce a simple, succinct email.

New research has shown that email marketing remains one of the top ways a company can communicate with customers.

The study, published on Econsultancy, shows that as businesses look towards multichannel efforts to communicate with their consumers, email remains a popular avenue for firms across the board.

Figures show that 86 per cent of firms who utilise email marketing use it to send out offers promoting products by the firm; while 80 per cent preferred to use it for product updates and service updates.

In addition, 76 per cent liked the channel for sending and receiving feedback. Some 60 per cent used the service for customer service issues.

While customers “are not concerned” with the difficulty a business has managing a multi-channel campaign, firms need to make sure they are maximising their overall data collection in order to make the best decisions for their customers.

Richard Lees, an expert on multi-channel marketing, comments on the findings to Cup of Marketing: “Feeding information gathered from all channels into a single database will allow marketers to move from a ‘gut feel’ approach to informed decision-making based on actual customer behaviour.”

Mobile was cited as the one of the most unpopular channels in a campaign, with 95 per cent claiming the avenue was “intrusive for push messages.”

In Campaign Designer you first need to click on the article in which you’d like the share buttons to appear. Then click on the ‘Go social!’ button in the toolbar to bring up the tools. In Classic Editor, the ‘Go social!’ button appears in the main toolbar at the top of the editing window. Before clicking on it be sure to have placed your cursor where you’d like the share buttons to be inserted. 

From here the process is the same for both editor modes. You will be presented with a new window containing two tabs: ‘Get followers’ (to promote your social network pages) and ‘Go viral’ (to promote your campaign).

Get followers

Adding buttons using this tab will allow you to link to your social network pages.

Tick the box for each social network page you have and would like to promote. Doing so will add the relevant icon to the preview pane on the right. You will also need to enter the URLs for each of your social network pages into the appropriate boxes on the left.

Use the horizontal and vertical options to change the way in which the buttons line up and enter a number into the spacing field to customise the size of the gap between buttons.

If you’d like to change the order in which the buttons appear, simply drag and drop to switch them around.

Clicking the ‘Add’ button will insert the share buttons into your campaign in the arrangement you have specified. They will appear in your campaign in a table and this is shown as a dashed grid, but the grid will not appear in your final campaign.

Go viral

Adding buttons using this tab will allow others to share your campaign on their own social network pages. The ‘Send to a friend’ button also allows your subscriber to easily send your campaign to a number of their friends.

Tick the box for each platform that you’d like your subscribers to be able to share through. Doing so will add the relevant icons to the preview pane on the right.

Use the horizontal and vertical options to change the way in which the buttons line up and enter a number into the spacing field to customise the size of the gap between buttons. If you’d like to change the order in which the buttons appear, simply drag and drop to switch them around.

Clicking the ‘Add’ button will insert the share buttons into your campaign in the arrangement you have specified. They will appear in your campaign in a table, this is shown as a dashed grid, but the grid will not appear in your final campaign.

Should you want to, you are able to use custom images in place of the standard buttons and still retain the share functionality. To do this, insert the standard buttons then click to highlight the one to be amended. Next click on the ‘Insert/edit image’ tool and select the new image from your image library. Clicking ‘Insert’ will add the custom button to your campaign in place of the default.

Click-through rates are the most important metric to professionals within email marketing, a new study has suggested.

A poll by researchers at BTOB online found that 27 per cent of marketers are more interested in a campaign’s click-through rate than any other metric.

Offer conversion rates and open rates were also highly important to marketing professionals but they appeared to be least worried about delivery and unsubscribe rates.

The research also suggested that email marketing remained a highly popular medium, as 96 per cent of respondents claimed they would either maintain or increase their email budget next year.

A source from rics.com suggested that the increased use of smartphones to access email has breathed new life into the platform whilst marketers were also responding well to email marketing software becoming more cost-effective.

A preview of the new research featured on btobonline.com attempted to explain the reasons why marketers were pouring more of their budget into the platform.

It said: “The price of sending mail is dropping and marketers are getting smart. A program that cost $4 million two years ago is now only $2 million.

“These are not things that cost a lot of money. It’s a matter of planning and executing – man hours versus spending any additional cash.”

Email marketers have advised on the benefits of using simple designs within their campaigns.

Cyber-business journalist Molly Motz has claimed that whilst emails should maintain an attractive appearance, marketers can save valuable time and money by avoiding complex designs.

She claimed that the growth of smartphones and webmail platforms on which consumers can view their emails has increased the need for simple email designs.

In an article for provirtualsolutions.com, Motz argued that email marketing messages which were sprawled across various parts of the screen were far more likely to end up in the trash folder before they’ve even been read properly.

She said: “The more bells and whistles, the more likely it is that a message won’t display correctly. What looks awesome in the message preview may look a mess in some mail clients.

“If you use a smartphone, notice which messages you actually read…chances are they are the one that aren’t a scrambled mess of blank spots on the screen.”

Visual communications author Milly Sonneman claimed that the simplicity argument applies to the content within email marketing messages as well.

Writing for selfgrowth.com, she claimed that messages which told a single story and finished with just one call-to-action were far more successful than those that go off on a tangent with a multitude of offers.

Email is a successful and inexpensive marketing tool, but only if used correctly, an expert has suggested.

Writing for business2community.com, marketing blogger George Passwater argued that despite claims that email marketing could be surpassed by social media, email is still the most relevant tool for online marketing.

He did, however, suggest that there are certain things marketers need to do in order to ensure their mail gets through and is not dismissed as spam.

Passwater argues that provided campaigns are well-planned, carefully designed, readable, shareable and readily tested, they should provide one of the most effective ways of marketing.

“For those successfully using email in their strategies, the email newsletter is key for keeping in touch with clients and nurturing leads,” he told business2community.com. ”Make sure you develop the newsletter around [your] goals and ensure they’re measurable.”

Passwater went on to suggest that the emails should be well-designed, with clear indicators of the ways in which to navigate to the website’s homepage. However, the email should not read like a sales pitch, he said, but instead the information should come first – offering the consumer all the details but without sounding too forceful with the sale.

Concluding, Passwater told Email Schools: “Email newsletters are not dead; they are very much alive and remain an essential element to successful content marketing. When you incorporate each ingredient, you have a checklist for successful email newsletters.”

Email marketing experts have outlined three main types of communication and the benefits that each offer.

Marketers have used the three techniques – single, repeated and coordinated - for many years, tailoring the type of marketing for the product or service it would be used to promote.

Explaining what each individual technique involves, marketing expert Martin Wright told mycustomer.com that a single campaign could be well-targeted and would ultimately cause a high, one-off sales peak. In the long term, however, it is unlikely to boost sales indefinitely.

Repeated strategies, Wright claimed, would also see a spike in sales initially, and would be more likely to see the results last a little while longer than their single counterparts. However, these too would eventually see a decay.

Co-ordinated campaigns, however, “particularly those that use multiple channels, can have a greater long-term impact on customer behaviour than simpler tactical or repeated messages,” Wright told mycustomer.com.

Wright’s comments were echoed by internet communications expert Tim Gibbon, who told myhermes.co.uk that successful long-term campaigns can only be achieved by marketers who are willing to “constantly evolve” and change their methods and tactics to accommodate developments in the online world.

By not evolving, Wright concluded, brands can inadvertently dilute their online presence and see a decline in sales and interest as a result.

Consumers are increasingly turning to social media to get their friend’s opinions before making a purchase.

This was one of the key findings in a new report that studied how social media and mobile marketing has changed the way that customers shop for goods and services.

A joint study by Knowledge Networks and MediaPost Communications found that in May 2011, 40 per cent of adults and teens accessed social media via their mobile phones. According to an eMarketer report, this was an increase from 28 per cent who reported doing the same in September 2010.

Blogs and social media posts were the most trusted online resources of friends and family. They were cited by 26 and 25 per cent of respondents respectively. Conversely, just seven per cent of people a trusted strangers’ blog or social content, and only five per cent their tweets.

Most of these people access these vital opinions whilst on the go, commented a study spokesperson.

“The on-the-go consumer is becoming more mobile in their social media usage,” said Chuck Martin, director of the Centre for Media Research at MediaPost Communications.

“This move to mobility combined with the increasing influence of social media during the purchase process has great implications for marketers, who will have to look at location as well as which product purchases are most affected,” he added on KnowledgeNetworks.com.

Overall, 37 per cent of respondents in ‘The Faces of Social Media’ study said that they trusted the spoken opinions of their friends and family about a brand or product, compared to only 10 per cent who trust what strangers say.

Offering rewards is a great method of getting consumers to opt-in to email marketing campaigns, an industry expert has claimed.

Practical eCommerce director Armando Roggio claimed he was witnessed newsletters add thousands of new subscribers off the back of reader competitions or prize draws.

This technique is a fantastic way to encourage customers to try out an email marketing campaign and often results in them sticking with it, he said.

Writing for practicalecommerce.com, he explained the importance of spotting and clearly defining one reason why consumers should sign up to an email marketing newsletter.

He said: “Having divined what motivates your customers and what you want to say to them based on those motives, be sure not to mumble.

“Don’t dawdle, dillydally, or stammer. Get to the point. State your proposition clearly. If folks should sign up to get “exclusive” offers, say so.”

On the subject of rewards, marketing journalist Nelly Bero recently pointed out how this tactic could be more effective than ever in an era where many consumers are bombarded with junk mail.

Writing for knol.google.com, she explained the importance of making sure that consumers knew exactly what they were providing their email address for.

She added that extensive promotion via a range of mediums such as company websites, shop displays and personal email signatures was essential.

Email marketing is a bigger driver of mobile internet commerce than SMS or social media.

A poll of 1,427 consumers has revealed that more are using mobile internet to complete purchases than ever, and that more than half have been influenced by email marketing to do so.

Results gathered by an email marketing company revealed that an email message had been the driving factor for 55 per cent of consumers making online purchases.

SMS marketing had been responsible for 45 per cent of mobile consumers’ purchases; whilst 35 per cent of respondents were influenced by Facebook advertising.

Tim Koff, a spokesperson for the poll, said that the results highlighted the importance of optimising emails to render on mobile phones.

Speaking to screenmediadaily.com, he said: “A majority of smartphone owners are now comfortable making purchases with their smartphones. However, as our Mobile Dependence Day report makes clear, smartphone messaging is driving purchases across all channels, online and off.”

“Marketers must therefore look to optimise their messaging in ways that recognise the consumer’s mobility and control.”

Bizreport.com revealed that around four in ten consumers were owners of a smartphone, and that more than two-thirds would choose to keep it over an iPad or similar tablet device.

A new benchmarking report has been published, informing businesses of how they could improve email marketing strategies.

The ’2011 Top Retailers Study: Benchmarks, Trends and Tactics for Better Marketing’ has found that countless businesses are missing vital opportunities to send out mail shots.

It also suggested ways in which this can be rectified.

Focusing on three key areas – social media integration, abandoned-cart reminders and opt in/out processes – the report looked at ways in which businesses can bring their campaigns up to scratch,

Considering the rise of social integration, the study noted how 78 per cent of businesses now include links to their social pages in emails, up from 2009′s figure of 60 per cent. Of these, 71 per cent include ’like’ or ‘follow’ buttons.

Head of the study, Loren McDonald, told Email Schools that the results for social were important as “using email to grow your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social fans and followers is clearly a good use of the email channel.”

However, despite the figures for social doing rather well, where follow-up emails for cart abandonments are concerned, the figures were not as rosy.

Only 17 per cent of the 500 retailers studied reported sending out emails after carts had been abandoned, despite those who did claiming that it accounted for their first or second largest source of revenue.

Concerning the results, McDonald advised on mediapost.com: “Don’t offer an incentive in the first email, but then perhaps a modest one in the second email and your most aggressive offer in the final email of the series.”

Mobile marketing has the power to change all marketing and even supercede other technologies as the preferred platform for this kind of activity, suggests a new report.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) made this suggestion after considering that the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones offers marketers many chances to get their messages across in “innovative, creative and customer-tailored ways”.

However, they said, these opportunities are not yet being picked up on by many companies who could develop a “vigorous and original mobile marketing strategy” for a vast customer-base.

Direct Marketing International Magazine cites Mark Blayney Stuart, head of research at the CIM, who gave the example that more people now have mobile phones than bank accounts.

Despite the wide-spread reach of mobile users, mobile marketing campaigns must be addressed in the correct manner, said the report, and this includes issues surrounding privacy.

The whitepaper, It’s Not a Phone: A Future of Mobile Marketing, suggested that permission marketing needed to be respected by marketers and that firms should remain transparent and unassuming about personal details.

Blayney Stuart, who also described mobile phones as an “extension of us” said: ”Privacy has a value, like any other commodity, and as long as marketers are transparent about what they do with customer information, it’s possible to be permitted that value if you offer the right incentive.”

Testing your email marketing campaign in order to find patterns on what days/times get the best results will improve your open-rate, reports toptenwholesale.com.

Claudia Bruemmer, a marketing expert writing for the site, notes that beginning a campaign on a Monday or a weekend will garner the lowest open-rate. However, kicking off a campaign on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday “will get the best results”.

Email marketing services should note that early morning campaigns get the lowest rates, whereas midday or 1pm messages get the highest open-rate – creating a sweet spot of midweek at 12pm.

The frequency of messages is important “because you don’t want to overwhelm their inboxes,” notes Bruemmer. Usually, one or two messages per month will suffice for most businesses but monitoring open click-through rates to check the timing is right.

In addition, the actual content of the message of the most important factor of them all.

Bruemmer explains, cited by emailschools.info: “While email is a very powerful tool, its effectiveness is directly related to the quality of your content. Wholesalers and general merchandise vendors need to know how to engage users, how to offer incentives and how to ask for the click.

“Monitor the results of your campaigns with an analytics program to determine open rates, customer interest in various types of content, the optimum frequency of communications, the effectiveness of social media sharing and the success of your call to actions,” she adds.

Integrating email marketing with digital media can be useful for measuring its success, claims a marketing expert.

Gabriel Weiss, who is interactive marketing manager for Mitsubishi Electric, claimed that the hits that any digital media receives can be a fantastic indicator of how a marketing campaign can be improved.

In an interview for Direct Marketing News, he explained: “We can’t directly sell to the consumer, but we can provide the tools and needs for these contractors to answer any questions or objections and make the sale in the home.

“Then we can track this by seeing which testimonials are getting the most views, what tags are getting the most clicks from our literature, and adjusting from that standpoint on all the assets that we have.”

Experts have long believed that email marketers are best off having as many indicators of their success as possible. Those who in invest in quality email marketing software are able to learn plenty about how well their marketing emails are performing.

A source from pluggd.in stated that knowledge of an email campaign’s deliverability and open rates is essential for all marketers. A detailed domain report and a spam complaint rate would also be beneficial to users hoping to improve their campaign.

Email is the most effective marketing platform for gaining consumers details, according to new research.

A study by an unnamed regional retailer revealed that email marketing was more successful at gaining phone numbers than displays, event marketing, social media and radio advertising over the course of a week.

Considering the campaign costs the retailer just an hours’ worth of labour, it also proved the most cost-effective method.

58 per cent of the mobile numbers gained from the study came from email marketing, whilst just 18 per cent came from the next highest platform, display sign advertising.

According to practicalecommerce.com, the retailer was keen to conduct the experiment in order to improve his sms marketing campaign. He did this by advertising a competition where consumers could win free merchandise by texting in.

Writing for the website, web marketing journalist Armando Roggio explained how SMS marketing can be of great benefit to a retail business.

He said: “Text marketing, as a tactic, is known to drive immediate actions, and the retailer wanted to augment what it was already doing with social media, advertising and email marketing.”

Roggio pointed out that gaining additional information from customers could also help marketers send targeted email messages – a statement echoed by internet marketing company director Oscar Pardillo in an article for 1to1media.com.

Pardillo added that targeted messages help to build stronger customer relationships.

Businesses have been urged to build rapport with their customers before sending them sales-orientated emails.

Writing for 1to1media.com, marketing expert Oscar Padilla has claimed that unless businesses build trust and rapport with their customers, any contact with them could be ineffective or completely ignored.

Instead, Padilla claims, building a fore firm business relationship will make for much more accurate email marketing campaigns.

Claiming that the average person has three email accounts and over 200 unread messages, Padilla said that cutting through the noise can be a difficult task, but one that can offer huge rewards if done effectively.

Using the equation “custom content + preferred platforms = hyper-personalisation”, Padilla suggested that businesses can create marketing content that will be highly personalised and much more likely to get read or clicked through. Then, with each additional personalised email, brand awareness and respect can be grown further.

“Remember, one size does not fit all,” he told 1to1media.com. ”The best way for email marketers to avoid spam filters and the delete button is by taking the time to understand how a brand’s customers prefer to interact and applying that knowledge to an integrated and coordinated marketing campaign.”

Concluding, Padilla told emailschools.info: “Email marketing can be highly effective in creating consistent dialogue with customers, in turn cultivating strong customer relationships.” However the only way in which to achieve this level of efficacy is to create and maintain a strong relationship with customers, he said.

Why can’t I see my tables? Where did they go?
Toggle table visibility shows and hides the table guidelines – click it and see!

What’s the best way to build a table?
It’s always good to plan out how you’d like your email to look before building it. We’ve put together a handy guide which explains how to put together tables for your email.

One of my other table cells is shrinking as I type!
This is normal behaviour – without specified widths, they will resize to make room for your content. Stop this from happening by specifying each cell width in ‘Table cell properies’.

How do I align my text at the top of the table cell?
Vertical alignment of cells is set within ‘Table cell properties’, and you can set it to top, middle, bottom or leave it as the default ‘Not set’.

I’ve put a border colour in, but nothing is showing up!
As default, no border width is set. To make a thin border show around your tables, click ‘Modify tables’ and set the border to 1.

I want to change the number of cells/rows, but the numbers are greyed out in the ‘Modify table’ options.
Once you’ve created your table, you’ll need to add rows and columns via the drop-down arrow next to the ‘Modify table’ option. You can also delete them from this option.

Gaps have appeared above/below my image.
Unwanted line-breaks sometimes appear above and below images inside the table. A combination of trial and error with the delete and backspace keys and strategic placement of the cursor will usually take care of this.

What’s a nested table and why would I want to use it?
A nested table is simply a table sat within another table, which helps build up complex sections within your template without running the risk of it displaying incorrectly in email browsers. You can read more about it here.

I’ve made a mistake and I want to start it again.
No problem at all! Click within the table and then click the arrow next to ‘Modify table’ – there’s a delete table option in there. Then use ‘Insert table’ to start again.

Have another question? Ask our award-winning support team or alternatively browse our extensive knowledge pages.

iPads have changed the way people read email, claims an email marketing expert.

Tom Sather, who is director at an for an email deliverability company, claimed that as well as changing the times people read their email, iPads should also change the way emails are designed by marketers.

Sather claimed that the growth of iPads has led to consumers checking their emails at all times of the day, eliminating the need for timing strategies.

In an interview with btobonline.com, he added that marketers should be careful that their emails are rendering on all types of applications.

He said: “Marketers need to keep in mind that a lot of people view their email as an app on their iPad.

“Gmail offers a webmail version for iPad that’s optimised for the device, and the same goes on with Yahoo; so a lot of people might be reading with those applications.”

Sather was reacting to recent figures revealed by MediaPost which stated that email access on the iPad has grown by 15 per cent within six months.

He recommended the use of HTML-5 for creating emails which could be properly accessed on a variety of devices. This technique also allows marketers to add video to their email marketing messages.

A rule of thumb with nested tables is to start simply and build it up from there. Most templates will have a table that is 1 cell by 2 as a basic foundation, and will nest tables within each section that have a few more cells depending on the needs of that section. The best thing to do is plan it out before hand.

When planning, the things to consider are:

• How is the layout going to appear? For example, if the general idea of the template is to have a section on the left for the main body, a section on the right for links, and a section at the top for a large logo, you will want to start with the following:
• What should line up within the email? If you are showcasing featured products down the lefthand side, and want a text description for each one, this layout would work:
• What are the widths of your sections? A good practice in building a template is to specify the widths of cells and tables rather than leaving these blank. This locks the tables and cells in place and stops certain pesky email clients moving them around. For example:

Planning is key to building a quality template that will stand the test of the internet! See our other guides for hints and tips on how to put together a powerful email design.

The first thing you should do when building in Classic is click the ‘toggle table visibility’ button. This toggles the guidelines of tables on and off so that you can view the structure of your campaign.

To insert a new table, place your cursor where you wish to insert your table into your campaign and click the insert table button. Specify the number of rows and columns you need in your table. Cellpadding and Cellspacing should be set to ’0′ unless you require them.

Choose your alignment, and set the width. Alternatively, you can leave the width specified to 100%, and later change this by going back into the table options using the modify table tool.

When you are ready to insert images into your table, place your cursor where you want to insert your image and insert in the normal way, paying particular attention to the width/height ratio of your images.

Good practice is to make your table cells the same width as the images within them, to do this click the arrow next to the ‘Modify table’ button, and select ‘Table cell properties’.

Once your images have been inserted, you may find that you have some unwanted line-breaks either above or below your image inside the table. A combination of trial and error with the delete and backspace keys and strategic placement of the cursor will usually take care of this.

If you wish to add text underneath your images, such as a caption or article, click on the image and from the arrow next to the ‘Modify table’ button click ‘Insert row after’. If you wish to add text above, click ‘Insert row before’.

The ‘Modify table’ tool allows you to change certain aspects of the overall table design such as background colour, border and width of your table. You can amend the colour of individual cells, vertical alignment of text and specify dimensions of individual cells by clicking the drop down arrow next to the ‘Modify table’ button and selecting the ‘Table cell properties’ tool when clicked in the appropriate section.

A marketing expert has outlined four ways in which email marketing is superior to social media.

Writing for Marketing Pilgrim, Chris Keller explained that email is more successful in terms of delivery, read rate, attention and usage in comparison to its social media counterpart.

Where delivery and read rates are concerned, Keller explained how email delivers the content directly to a source where people are actively looking to receive messages. Social media, however, is more a place for browsing and interacting on a smaller scale.

Furthermore, noting the direct message functions on such social media sites as Facebook, Keller said how many will only permit text and will not allow marketers to embed images in the body of the mail.

For usage and attention, Keller added that where 58 per cent of users check their emails when first going online, the figure for checking social media is only 14 per cent.

“People usually do first what they are most interested in or see as the most important,” he told Marketing Pilgrim. “It is still the primary source of communication online and is given the most attention.”

Concluding, Keller told Businessdistrict.com that: “Email marketing is currently superior to social media at attracting and getting new customers,” and that of the two, “email wins hands down.”

Experts have warned that without engaging copy, marketing emails will not be effective.

Writing for Internet Retailing, digital marketing expert Tim Roe urged that having customers opt-in is not enough and that far too many businesses are thinking that their work ends there.

Instead, Roe suggests that delivering relevant and well-timed email marketing will ensure that the content is not just opened, but read and taken note of.

He told Internet Retailing: “Until recently, retailers have been under huge commercial pressure to continue doing the same ‘load and blast’ mass email marketing they’ve always done.

“However, response rates are waning as consumers become fussier about the marketing messages they consume.”

Roe noted that with customers becoming increasingly choosy about what emails they open and which ones they delete (even from sources they have opted-in to), businesses need to go beyond just sourcing email addresses and focus more on the content they deliver and the time at which they deliver it.

Concluding, Roe told Email Schools: ”The best time to communicate with customers is when they are in a position to buy.

“Identifying this intent to purchase means your communications will be most relevant, more likely to go into the inbox and customers are much more likely to respond.”

Repetition is key to success in email marketing, an industry expert has claimed.

Greg Brown, who is director of marketing for an email software company, claimed that consumers must see the same message at least three times before they are ready to buy the product.

Writing for tmcnet.com, he claimed these repeated messages allow the customer’s trust in a company and the validity of an offer to grow.

However, business must showcase a tempting offer to their customer as opposed to simply presenting information in order to secure business, he added.

Small business coach Karyn Greenstreet agreed with Brown’s statements in a recent article for passionforbusiness.com.

She said: “When planning your marketing campaign, common marketing wisdom tells us you need to get your message out to the customer at least seven times before they’ll really pay attention and act on it.

“Daily repetition of the exact same marketing message will cause people to exit quicker than a skunk in a movie theatre – but a balanced packing of marketing messages plus a focus on what the benefit is to the customer will reap rewards every time.”

She added that repetition was particularly key within email marketing because it was particularly easy for consumers to become distracted using this platform.

Subscribers to a brand’s email campaign tend to outnumber its social media followers by around 80 to one, according to new research.

A poll of over 500 email marketing users found that brands had on average 70 times’ more email subscribers than they did Facebook ‘likes’, and 90 times’ more than they did Twitter followers.

Despite these figures, only one in ten respondents had included an email opt-in on their social media pages. An additional 38 per cent said that they planned to.

Loren McDonald, a spokesperson from the email marketing company which conducted the survey, claimed that this should always be seen as a useful tactic to attract more subscribers.

Speaking to Direct Marketing News, he said: “One of the key takeaways from the survey is the opportunity to take advantage of [seperate digital marketing channels] to grow each other. It’s not a zero-sum game.”

Questioning why businesses may be neglecting this tactic, McDonald concluded that they might not own their Facebook page, they may be afraid of turning off their Facebook subscribers or they might not know to add an opt-in button.

According to emarketer.com, the reason businesses deploy both email marketing and social media campaigns is firstly their ease of use and secondly their cost-effectiveness.

A poll featured on the website suggested email marketing was the most used channel amongst respondants but social media had massively grown in popularity over the last year.

You can have the system perform an automatic action around or on the date of a subscriber’s birthday, this can happen on the day or a set amount of time before or after their special day. The available actions are:

• Send another email campaign to the subscriber
• Send an SMS to the subscriber
• Send a notification to a specified email address

To do any of these things you will need to have the subscriber’s birthday on file in the Sign-up.to system. You will also need to have already prepared any follow up content in the Create section of your account, i.e. email or SMS campaigns.

The process in detail is as follows:

1. Go to the Marketing automation tools, within the Send section of your account.

2. Click on the Create a new rule button.

3. Choose ‘When it’s the subscriber’s birthday’ from the list.

4. Clicking Next will take you to a screen which allows you to set your desired action to be carried out on the appropriate date.

• The first option is to ‘Send a notification to…’, with you specifying the email address to be notified in the box on the right. By default the notification will go out at 0:01am on the date of the birthday, so specify a delay to send it later in the day. Alternatively use the options to be notified a set amount of time before or after the subscriber’s birthday.This triggered action could be useful for letting a salesperson know that the subscriber has a birthday coming up. They might want to call and offer a promotion or discount.

• The second option allows you to send the subscriber an email. Simply browse for the relevant campaign on the right. The email can be set to go out at any time on the subscriber’s birthday, or a set time before or after the day. Use the ‘Before or after…’ tools to specify this.This action could be could be used simply to wish your subscriber a happy birthday, alternatively you might want to send them a voucher or promote an event they could attend and celebrate at.

• The final option here allows you to send an SMS to a subscriber. Browse on the right for the SMS campaign you’d like to send and set the appropriate time for them to receive the message by using the options at the bottom of the box. Setting a time here is more important for SMS than email, as people might not want to receive a text at midnight (which is the default setting!).Please note, using this action will cost the standard amount in SMS credits (as specified when creating the campaign) and relies on you having a subscriber’s mobile number in the system. If there are not enough SMS credits in the account or you have no number associated with your subscriber, then no action will be taken.As with email, this action could be a nice way to wish your subscriber a happy birthday. But you could go further and give them some kind of voucher to simply be brought in on the day and shown on their phone.

5. Once you have set up your rule, you will need to name it and save it.

Your new rule will now appear in the list on the Marketing automation page. You can see a summary of the rule by clicking on the arrow icon to the right of the rule name.

From here you are also able to edit any part of the rule, for example the action to be taken, the subsequent campaign to be sent or the timed delay.

You are able to disable the rule at any time by clicking Pause (it can easily be resumed), or you can remove it altogether by clicking Delete. A rule will remain active until it is either paused or deleted.