This is a Guest Blog post by Emma-Julie Fox. To submit a guest blog post to Brandsplat, click here.

With the popularity of social media and its prominence in SEO today, one wonders if email marketing is still useful when social media seems to be a one-stop shop for PR, marketing, SEO and traffic generation.

People also have a general aversion to spam lurking within their email, and the abundance of it is frightening. Besides, who still reads email when they can get in touch with their friends through social media sites? Actually… a lot of people!

The fact that people need to have email addresses for work, means that a majority of paying consumers are very accessible via email. In fact as per a 2010 study, 94% of online users access and use e-mail! A more recent 2013 report suggests that 55% of marketing professionals agree that e-mail marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools.

It is agreed that social media has its own statistics to boast of, but when it comes to B2B marketing, most marketers swear by the quality of leads they get through e-mail marketing! As per a Software Advice Survey, 40% of B2B marketers said they got high quality leads through e-mail marketing.

Email Marketing – How does it work?

Before email marketing can begin, a website needs to acquire email addresses from potential clients or customers. How they get them is up to the website. Some would offer visitors the chance to receive monthly newsletters. Others offer a free E-book to download, but only if the visitors fill out a form and give their email address.

The website or the business behind it will then design an email that’s basically also an advertisement for the website. These emails usually contain graphics, images, calls to action, all combined to make an attractive package.

E-mails can also include attachments, like the promised newsletter or limited-offer discount coupons. Whatever it is that’s contained in the email, it is there to invite people to click on the links provided and visit the main website.

The emails are sent by bulk and sent to every email address gathered. Needless to say, that email list needs to be large enough to justify the entire email marketing effort.

The goals of email marketing, among others, are:

1. To make consumers become aware of their products and services.
2. Make the business and the website a thought leader.
3. Do PR.
4. Generate traffic.
5. Gain conversions.

Email Marketing’s Place in SEO Today

Email marketing is very helpful for businesses that sell merchandise and services. You’ll find, for example, that many websites selling general merchandise like clothes, furniture, gadgets, and services like SEO and virtual assistance invest time and resources for email marketing.

They are very straightforward with their message and there’s no deception. If they are selling something or offering a promo, they state it immediately in their email. In fact, as per a 2012 Blue Kangaroo survey, 7 in 10 people admitted that they had used a discount coupon offered through a marketing email!

There’s little worry that these emails will be flagged as spam because the recipients have been given the choice of whether or not to receive them. They have, in effect, asked for these emails, and the fact that they did sign up is a concrete demonstration of their interest in whatever the website is offering.

Unless a website steals the recipient’s email address, the marketing emails should be welcomed. This is one of the best things about email marketing.

Skipping Steps in the Conversion Funnel

For the consumers’ part, email marketing is useful because it lets them skip several levels of the conversion funnel and go directly to the final stage of purchase. They are presented with product information, service description, and business background. If they are interested in what’s being pitched, all they have to do is click on the link and continue with the actual purchase.

Normally, online shoppers would go to search engines and look for websites that sell items they are interested in buying. Many would go directly to online market websites like Ebay, Amazon and CafePress. Since there are many online sellers on social media sites, consumers also look for sellers there.

By contrast, email marketing presents the merchandise to the consumers and saves them the time and effort of scouting for suppliers. They don’t have to look anywhere else, and that’s very convenient.

This is an advantage that marketing officers should be able to convey to website visitors. By showing how much they can benefit from signing up for regular emails, a website can encourage consumers to volunteer for it. (It won’t hurt to hint that surprises and discount offers are in store for email subscribers.) If you can achieve that, your website’s email marketing can be very successful in fulfilling its goals.

About the author: Emma-Julie Fox writes for Pitstop Media Inc, a top rated Vancouver SEO company that provides services to businesses across North America. If you would like to invite the author to guest post on your blog please contact www.pitstopmedia.com.

Email is still a vital component of every content marketing plan. Some would even argue that as more and more people rely on tablets and smartphones for email, email marketing is beginning to become more relevant. Fine. But where do newbies start with email marketing? And how do mere mortals achieve email amazingness? Fear not, marketing mavens! We’ve come up with a list of easy-to-remember and even easier-to-implement email marketing tips that any size business can rock out.

1. Get Friendly: The No. 1 question small businesses ask when starting an email marketing campaign is, “Who do I email?” Sounds kind of silly, but the concerns of who are we marketing to and where do we get these mysterious emails are legit ones. We always suggest starting with your company’s database of frequent customers and your personal contacts.These folks, presumably, already get emails from you and therefore are a terrific place to start. Friends and loved ones aren’t just less likely to delete your emails, but they’ll also usually give you honest feedback.

2. Post Exit Signs: You want people to be engaged with your email marketing, but the last thing you want is to make them angry. So play by the rules and clearly post a unsubscribe option. As Cara Aley writes, “Nothing says spam like a lack of ability to remove oneself from an email list. Make sure that every email you send has a clear option for removal for your readers; it’s a part of the CAN-SPAM law, and you could be fined $16,000 for not abiding by it.”

3. Deliver the Goods: If your email list isn’t growing, could it perhaps be because your emails stink? We’re sick of digital clutter, and now we are all quick to react to companies who email us with boring spammy content on a daily basis. Instead, challenge you and your marketing team to come up with emails and email newsletter content folks will actually want to read. Consider adding value and really creative content to your subscribers’ in boxes and watch your list grow like a weed.

4. Get Real People: If you have an office or a brick-and-mortar retail shop, don’t forget to gather emails in person! Being able to explain how awesome your emails are to your customers face-to-face is truly priceless and an opportunity that should not be missed.

5. Creativity Wins: ModCloth, Fab.com, Amazon, Starbucks and Epicurious all create the kind of email newsletter we stop and read. Why? Because they all look great and are incredibly creative. Use your favorite email newsletters as inspirations and take them to your marketing team and designers before you start.

Face it: We’ve all followed that brand before. You know, the one that posts disjointed, irrelevant posts on Facebook. That company that only blogs sporadically and when it does, the posts make little or no sense. It’s the same business who opened a Twitter account, made a bunch of blasting noise for a short period of time and then vanished. These brands seem to embody the word “random” — and not in a fun way (like a random disco dance number that happens out of nowhere at a party). We talking random, lazy and nonsensical content that just pops up whenever company officials get around to posting. But in addition to being annoying, random content marketing doesn’t work.

There are two ways being random with digital marketing fails. The first has to do with intention. Facebook page updates that don’t have anything to do with your brand, awkward and overly emotional tweets and blogs with videos that don’t really speak to your customers aren’t the best way to get your message across. Yes, anybody can put whatever they want online, but when it comes to your brand, some thought and planning should apply. Not every online message our brands send out will go viral, but they can at least make sense and share a piece of the bigger story of our brand. Most importantly, marketing randomly can negate other aspects of branding work a company does.

The second way this idea of “random” stinks as a marketing mantra is when we’re talking about marketing with regularity. Brands with no schedule, no plan or no routine when it comes to updating their blogs, websites or social media accounts are doing themselves a huge disservice. One tweet once a week won’t get you noticed. A blog post every blue moon won’t help your SEO. Online marketing takes creativity and regularity. Time and time again, the brands that succeed with content marketing are the ones that keep with it and post regularly.

Whether it’s the company’s email newsletter or branded Twitter marketing efforts, we all have encountered the dreaded unfollow. Seemingly without provocation, folks who used to love our brand on social media and email marketing drop us like hot potatoes, leaving marketing gurus wondering one thing: Why?

Remember when you used to get in trouble for talking too much in class because it was disruptive? Well, turns out we still don’t like chatterboxes, especially ones who are relentlessly trying to sell us stuff. According to a survey released last year by HubSpot, 54 percent of respondents said they dumped brands who emailed them too frequently. Ditto on Twitter, where 52 percent said in a different survey conducted by DK Media they unfollowed brands who were too noisy.

But just being noisy is only the beginning of the problem for unfollows. Turns out the quality of the message is equally as important. When Constant Contact customers were polled last year as to why they unfollowed, 56 percent cited irrelevant content being the catalyst to press that “unsubscribe” button. Thanks to smartphones, consumers are more savvy and more selective as to which brands they let in their in-boxes, and the ones who churn out boring stuff are almost certainly destined for deletion. Granted, it is true that many unfollows are caused by the rare customer that signs up for a one-time deal or who changes his or her contact information. But all of these surveys seem to hint at another big reason for the dreaded unfollow — desperation. “Begging tweets,” pushy emails and relentless Facebook postings which beg for approval all turn customers off.

In the end, the best thing brands can do to avoid the unfollow is to stop badgering and start having a conversation. Brands should talk to followers on social media and in email marketing just like they would to their friends. But you tell us, readers: What kind of crimes does a brand have to commit to warrant an unfollow? Sound off below!

Happy April Fools Day! Thanks to the digital revolution and online marketing, April 1st has gone from minor holiday to full-fledged pop culture phenomenon. Over the last few years, we have seen brands — from the heavy hitters to creative independents — use social media, viral marketing, innovative online video creation and all things Internet to pull off good-natured pranks on their followings. To celebrate, here’s our list of five April Fools pranks you might have missed.

1.) Bacon Fresh: Topping our list is the granddaddy of all 2013 April Fools gags: Scope’s Bacon Mouthwash. Released a few days before the holiday, the spot has wisely had people wondering, “Is this actually real?!?” which is the sign of a damn good prank.

2.) Kitty to the Rescue: See Eye Inc., the school which helps canines turn into helpful service animals, is introducing the world’s first seeing eye cat in honor of the holiday. One glance at the kitty with the service harness on and you’ll see why this smart joke makes our list.

3.) Pick a Winner: Call it the worst surprise of the year. Call it a joke everybody saw coming. But whatever you call it, YouTube shutting down in an elaborate April Fool’s joke is still pretty genius.

4.) Painted-on Jeans: Kudos to clothier American Eagle for cooking up a hilarious parody of both its own products and 20-something customer base. The AEO Skinny Skinny Jeans, complete with a full online video campaign, are literally just cans of spray paint. American Eagle has managed to laugh at itself while laughing with its following, too, which is a rare thing indeed.

5.) Even More Bacon: If you weren’t totally over/grossed out/exhausted by our collective obsession of bacon, the last gag on our list should do the trick. While we can’t be positive it isn’t an actual product, we are praying J&D Foods’ recently-released bacon condoms and (gag) bacon lube are the stuff of practical jokes. Nevertheless, it is memorable and subsequently has nabbed a bunch of headlines for J&D Foods.

Email newsletters could really add a lot to your current content marketing strategy. The best newsletters not only help spread a brand’s message but are actually the kind of emails people enjoy opening. Unfortunately, the bad email newsletters the ones that get instantly deleted and unsubscribed from are far more common. The line between interesting and annoying is a fine one, indeed, in email marketing. Lucky for you, we have a few pointers to help your company’s newsletter bring smiles to your customers’ in-boxes.

SFGate recently looked into what makes time-killing social media site Quora’s newsletter so darn readable and entertaining. Quora’s Adam D’Angelo says it’s all about personalized content.

“Well, it is algorithmically created,” he notes. “I wanted to make something that people would read. What I didn’t want was something that was an annoying little email. It took a while, but it has paid off. We had two people who worked on it (in a dedicated fashion) for a month, though we had been working on-and-off on it for nearly a year-and-a-half. The email essentially looks at what people are reading and engaging (with) the most on Quora.”

In short, D’Angelo and his Quora team worked hard on creating a newsletter that talks about the things their users are interested in — and that’s something any company can do, even without fancy algorithm tools. Simple questionnaires on email subscription lists can help you decipher what topics and products your email newsletter readers are interested in. Short and specific newsletters can be created by simply altering your general customer newsletter. Another thing Quora does brilliantly with its newsletter is publish weekly. Not daily, which is too much, or monthly, which tends to lead to customer amnesia. A weekly, friendly “hello!” from you to your customers says, “I’m keeping in touch” instead of “I’m stalking you” or, even worse, “I’ve forgotten about you.”

Finally, a fool-proof way to get folks to open your newsletters is with a great subject line. Quora asks clever questions in its subject lines, while Williams-Sonoma uses tempting cuisine descriptions and others still use today’s headlines to get us to open. However you get there, the point is you only get one chance to create an intriguing subject line. The Internet is filled with definitive advice blog posts on how to create the world’s most fabulous subject lines. While we’re sure each of these has its merits, we’ve found that simply writing subject lines that you’d want to read yourself is a brilliant place to start.

It’s a story as old as AOL messenger. “A solid plan for email” is what you scratched earnestly at the top of your digital engagement to-do list several months ago. Thus, when you finally got around to handling it, you signed up with a content management system and pretty quickly you started filling up the inboxes of your loyal customers. Yet almost as quickly, these kind folks unsubscribed to your email list, leaving you wondering, “What the heck happened?” We can’t be sure, but it might have something with you being a total jerkface — or, at the very least, exhibiting what subscribers would consider jerkface-like behavior.

Jumping into email is undoubtedly a wise move. It’s still one of the fastest ways to keep in touch with our loyal following. Still, to avoid being the aforementioned jerkface in question, some simple rules should be followed. Primarily, respect your subscribers. Before blasting them with tons of messages about new products and the latest snazzy editions of your email newsletter, maybe you should ask them first if they’re interested in this kind of thing. A quick email inquiring “Would you like to receive fun/interesting/money-saving/informative/fabulous email updates from us?” will help you determine quickly who’s onboard and who needs to be left alone. Once they’ve agreed, some simple wording that binds you from giving their email to any other company will help sweeten the deal, too. Also falling in the respect column is personalization. Personalization is currently a big buzzword in email marketing, but for a surprising reason — marketers are totally missing the boat on this. New reports are showing that even though most businesses have access to information which allows them to talk directly to their customers, they rarely use it in email marketing. This is crazy. Instead, if you know what kind of services they get from you each month, personalize an email to let them know about discounts or other services you think they might enjoy. Simple questions about gender, favorite things and interests can also help you create personalized emails for your followers help assure they get more of the kind of emails they actually want to open.

The journey from email supertool to email superstar can be a quick one with some simple tweaking of your current marketing practices. Be thoughtful about the amount of times you send email blasts. Listen to your gut. If you think you’ve sent out too many emails in a short period of time, you probably have. Cute and well-designed email newsletters get opened a lot more than ugly, boring ones, so make sure your blasts look as good as they read before they go out. Lastly, make it worth their while. We all have enough crap in our inboxes, so give them reasons to open your emails. Monthly deals, coupons, videos, contests, recipes, interviews and how-to articles are a few ways to liven up your email marketing.

Nobody wants to be a jerkface; with a little respect, creativity and thoughtfulness, you don’t have to be.

Happy New Year! 2012 was fantastic, but in the world of online marketing, it’s all about looking forward. For the last several weeks, every blog has posted predictions about what the next big trends for the new year will be. Not to be left out, we thought we’d throw our hat in the New Year’s predictions game and give you our own list of online marketing trends to be on the lookout for in 2013.

High Quality Content: As Google becomes more hardcore about recycled posts and shifty SEO practices, our No. 1 marketing trend for 2013 is quality content. Bloggers, journalists and brands are going to be put to the test in 2013 to create unique content daily as search engines and readers alike demand great content delivered on a regular basis.

Email Explosion: After countless hours tweeting, pinning and Facebooking, wouldn’t it just figure that good, old-fashioned email would emerge as the hot marketing trend of 2013? Turns out that thing you do every day is more effective for sales than social media. Thanks in large part to easy-to-use services like Constant Contact and the continued smartphone surge, companies of all sizes are returning to the channel to talk directly to their clients and followings. A solid strategy for email marketing is a must have for 2013.

Specifically Social: With big brands scaling back on what they spend on social and smaller companies forced to devoting time to one or two platforms, look for social media marketing to get edited — big time. Brands are moving towards developing dynamic, clever, specialized campaigns rather contributing daily noise and newsfeed pollution. 2013 will be an interesting year to watch how businesses use Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest for more thoughtful and particular marketing.

The Blogazine Gets Bigger: The line between blogging for business and mobile marketing is about to get even more blurry. Look for corporate blogs to address the design and content demands of tablet and smartphone users more than ever this year. As the equipment gets more affordable, the demand for blogs that are more mobile friendly and with that digital magazine look is going to be higher than ever. Readers want style and substance, and they want to be able to take it anywhere.

Clever content marketing doesn’t get to take a holiday vacation, so if you’re reading this you, probably don’t take one, either. Thanks to easy access to the Internet and the major holidays falling in the middle of the week, news outlets are reporting that the number of folks working or working from home this year are expected to skyrocket. So in the spirit of working through the season, we’ve recycled some of our favorite blogs from 2012 to help your online marketing stay inspired, all year round.

Funny Makes Money: Our post, Memorable Marketing is All About the Funny, from November is worth a visit if you missed it the first go ’round — or if you just need reminding that the fastest way to our followers’ hearts is through their funny bone.

Ask a Librarian: For a tutorial in online marketing in every platform, your local library has it going on! Social media-driven events, cool and teched-out ways of running promotions and killer blog marketing are just how libraries roll these days, and we’d all be wise to take a page from their marketing playbook.

Ooh La La: Back in June, we raved about My Little Paris. This blog/newsletter is like taking a master classes in both blog writing and email marketing. Plus it’s also a really creative business model to explore for bloggers and marketers looking to monetize their content.

Tweet Terrors: We love to talk about Twitter marketing gone wrong in these page for the sheer educational value, of course. But no other post about the topic covered Twitter marketing snafus better than this one from Halloween. The kicker? We made a boo-boo of our own when we initially published it on the wrong day, proving the that everybody makes marketing mistakes. Even us.

Blogs Heart Facebook: If you’re thinking about ditching Facebook, read this post from the fall first! We make the case that Facebook is still an effective way to promote your blogging for business efforts.

Progressive, Indeed: Last on our leftovers list is this post from August which discusses comedian/blogger Matt Fisher and his battle with insurance company Progressive. It’s a powerful look at how blogs can bring about change as well as being a lesson in blogger-brand communication.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Unless you don’t like getting those overly-saccharine holiday newsletters from people you barely know. The truth is that most of us roll our eyes when we open up a holiday card and see a folded, rambling newsletter shoved inside. Overly-boastful, bland and unnecessary, the Christmas newsletter has become the subject of scrutiny, parody and dread. Yet for those of us whose content marketing strategies include email newsletters, these holiday hand-grenades can actually be seen as a gift that keeps on giving.

Really good email newsletters — you know, the kind that you actually open and read — have something most bad holiday newsletters don’t: a purpose. While spreading holiday cheer is definitely a worthwhile mission, the worst holiday newsletters blather about stuff that wouldn’t even make for good Facebook status updates. Similarly, before starting an email newsletter campaign, decide why you’re doing it. Is it to offer discounts and promotions? Is it to drive traffic to your company blog? Is it to catch followers up on the happenings in your company? Or do you want it to do a little of all of the above? Answer these questions and a purposeless newsletter will be a thing of the past.

Causing the biggest groans from Christmas newsletters is the needless bragging about how well a family is doing or how great their kids are. A boast-fest should likewise be avoided in branded email newsletters. A blurb here or there congratulating a staff member or touting a recent success is enough. Nobody is clamoring for another edition of the Aren’t We Amazing Times, so keep the self-high-fiving to a minimum. Another groan maker is a failed attempt at humor. Look, either you’re funny or you’re not. If your jokes fall flat, best to keep them out of your newsletter. But if humor is something you succeed at, by all means, keep the jokes in there.

Good holiday newsletters offer valuable lessons, too. The best among them contain memorable pictures. Whether it’s ironic, ugly sweaters or pets getting into the spirit, we tend to gravitate toward messages with fun images. So your company’s newsletter should do the same. Images and videos help elevate email newsletters out of Spam Town by containing something more than just advertising.

Finally, the best holiday newsletters are the ones that are short and sincere. Followers of your company presumably get your email newsletter because they like your company. Therefore, your newsletter should be fun, informative and authentic. Keep readers engaged with short articles and posts and leave the long, drawn-out storytelling for that yet-to-be-published autobiography.

Mainly, be yourself… and stay true to your brand in your newsletters. After all, the best greetings — regardless of the season — are the ones that are real and that come from the heart.