Striking video content and fabulous photography

The world is full of outrageously brilliant photography and video content these days. Not only are top of the range DSLR cameras absolutely cheap as chips at the moment, but if you are the owner of a smartphone, then chances are, you are also a pretty awesome smartphone photographer. We are a society obsessed with selfies, Instapics, filters etc. and our collective eye for detail is growing more and more fixated on the perfect pic. Whether it be for your Facebook profile pic, Snapchat story or a Pinterest pin.

So, if your website is lacking perfection when it comes to imagery, it’s probably time to shut up shop and move back to the 20^th Century. Back in simpler times, pixellated pics were considered arty. The fear of falling victim to ‘false internet advertising’ was less real and more humorous. Like when you ordered cowboy boots for your autumn winter wardrobe and they arrived in a matchbox instead of a shoebox and looked just perfect on your nephew’s Woody doll.

So, striking video content and photography is not only about aesthetically pleasing imagery. It’s about accuracy and being true to the services and products you provide. This is vital for building a trusting customer base and providing a service that people would be happy to recommend. Being transparent online is an extremely useful business tactic. If consumers know what to expect from you, then the likelihood of them being let down or misunderstanding what’s on offer is dramatically reduced.

Amazing content not only does wonders for your customer base but also helps significantly with marketing your business. This can be through unrelated ‘sharing’ of your content or reusing your imagery. Either way, you are getting YOUR brand out there, potentially into a different demographic of potential customers.

The hamburger and other delicious icons

The hamburger menu icon is one of those simple symbols, which will go down in history as one of the most effective. Consisting of three straight horizontal lines stacked one on top of the other – the top and bottom lines being the bun and the middle line being the burger – the hamburger takes up little space and is not restricted by language and can be rendered on all web-enabled devices.

The hamburger really is an icon of our generation, something that has gone from ‘what is the deal with those three lines in the corner of that website?’ ‘Where the heck is the menu?’ to ‘……….’ That’s right, silence. Because everyone now, knows exactly what the function of that simple little icon is. We don’t know how these sorts of transitions take place, from something being completely new and ineffectual, to them being a full-on part of our digital lives. From social media icons, the search magnifying glass or the microphone icon, all of these tiny images are now part of a digital language that we all recognise. Despite them all being, for the most part, is less than a decade old. Awesome, effective icons are set to stay and this brings us straight onto our next point about intuitive design…

Intuitive User centred design

Your website design should always consider the user/customer as the most important person in the whole process. If the interface for your website is not user-focused, then is it unlikely that your customer base will be able to interact with your online business without a hiccup, if at all. A glitchy website that doesn’t do what it says on the tin, is the most annoying thing ever. Equally annoying is a super stylish website that is completely dysfunctional and totally style over substance.

As a website user, you want to feel that your web browsing experience has been developed with you in mind. A slick, easy experience that allows you to do whatever you need in about 4 clicks. Maximum.

Intuitive design means that the customer doesn’t have to do too much leg work to get what they want. YOU as the business owner are supplying THEM a service. By making their experience easier, you are doing yourselves justice.

2018 is the year when slow load page times are just unacceptable. Websites that require flash or any other random plugin to work are completely obsolete. As well as low-quality design, these simply will not be tolerated. So there you have it, it’s the intuitive way or the high way!

Card design ala Pinterest

The card design has been around for many moons and is set to be here for quite some time yet. With its simple, yet effective layout and structure, card design offers a clean, off-beat style of web design that is very ‘Skandi’. Which is very on-trend. Paired with simple sans serif typography and muted colour palettes, card design can take your website from tired to contemporary. Without having to reshape or redesign the whole concept of your site.

Think cool mood boards, retro colours and clean typography. Card design is a minimalist’s dream and set to be a favourite amongst web designers and developers in 2018. Not only does the simplistic design of a card designed website make it easily navigable, but it also allows your content the space to shine.

Long-form content

For years, businesses have refined their content into snappy, short form-focused nuggets of information that are easily digestible. But the times are a-changin’!

Well, not completely, but this trend of making content so short and focused that it could essentially fit into a tweet. This is something businesses are now reconsidering when they design content for their websites. We think the long-form text approach is, naively, something they do because they anticipate it will increase organic web traffic. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes the best way to approach content is simply quality rather than quantity.

So, here we are, our top 5 predictions for web design trends 2018. If you want to be ahead of the curve and redesign your website or create a site from scratch then please do get in touch! We’d be happy to help!

P.S we are also now on Instagram so come say hi!

The post Reactive Predictions : Web Trends for 2018 appeared first on Web Design London.

There are thousands of free templates online that can make it so easy for you to send a newsletter, but you really should take the time and effort to customise a template or better yet, create one from scratch. There’s nothing worse than a blocky template that looks like hundreds of others.

Remember that your newsletter is an extension of your website and represents your work and who you are. Yes, getting started with a blank canvas can be daunting but it is actually very easy to create an attractive, engaging and responsive email newsletter.

Once you’ve figured out the ins and outs of your e-newsletter, you can then start thinking more about the design. Here are some of the most important things to consider within your email campaign.

The Overall Look →
The Subject Line →
The Header →
The Footer →
The Use of Images →

The Overall Look

Background

Taking into consideration your target audience, how many of these readers will view your email on a mobile or tablet device? Probably more than half – so we recommend bearing this in mind when choosing between an image, a simple colour or no background at all. An image background could also distract from other elements such as your header or opening picture, so you don’t want one that’s too busy.

Colour

Think about your readers and what they expect to see from you. Maybe your audience like bright and bold colours or maybe they like something a little more clean and sophisticated. If you have a colour scheme on your website or in your logo, use the same colours for your newsletter. This will instantly help readers establish a link between your emails and your company.

Fonts

Unfortunately you cannot simply download a fancy font that you think looks perfect in your email, because it’s more than likely not universally supported. With HTML emails, there are limitations. It’s best to try and stick with simple cross-platform fonts. MailChimp have put together a great guide for choosing your email fonts.

Here are some of our top recommendations: Arial, Courier, Century Gothic, Verdana, Times New Roman and Helvetica to name but a few.

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The Subject Line

The subject line of your email is potentially the most important part, and quite often the tricky little one-liner most people get stuck on!

Make it personal

We love emails that start with our name. Yes, we all know that they haven’t personally written to us, but it does add that little something extra. Alternatively, if you’re targeting a specific location, add that instead! For example, “Reactive, see what’s happening in Fulham this weekend” is great because it has our name and also our location. It’s also intriguing enough for us to think “Ooh.. I wonder what is happening in Fulham this weekend!”

Keep them short

When you receive an email, the first thing you see is the subject. If you consider how many people will be opening your email on mobile or tablet, they may only see half a subject line so it’s always best to try and keep them short and to the point.

Grab your reader

Having an opening subject line that pulls your reader in is very important. Is it a sale, a promotion, an event, something free? Put it in. Grabbing your reader is great, but so is maintaining their interest. If you send one email once a month, be sure to change up the subject line, otherwise they may think the content is the same as before. If it’s something simple like “Our Monthly Newsletter”, add in the month so your readers know it’s fresh.

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The Header

Your header is the part of your newsletter that’s right at the top. It should include at least your company logo but you may also want to add contact details or your social media links if you have any (and if you don’t… read why you should here).

It’s important to spend time working on your header and to be happy with it, as this will be the same for every newsletter you send and it will also be one of the first things your reader will see. You want it to be identifiable and for your readers to feel like they’re being handed a treat as opposed to more spam.

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The Footer

Like your header, your footer also plays a crucial role in your newsletter design. As with your website, the footer should be the hub of any extra information your readers may need. For example, your address and contact details, links to important pages on your website, social media share links and lastly but most importantly – your unsubscribe link.

It’s the law that your newsletters must have an unsubscribe link and there’s absolutely no reason for you to try and disguise this, as that’s very bad form and not the picture you want to put across about your company. It doesn’t matter if people unsubscribe, what’s most important is sending an email campaign to someone who is going to enjoy it rather than someone who is going to trash it.

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The Use of Images

People love pictures – it’s true. But that doesn’t mean you need to fill up your newsletter with them.

A great way to catch your readers’ attention is to go big – have bold images that make a statement. If you have an abundance of small pictures, this can lead to a messy looking email and, like the background, distract from other elements.

Pictures in your newsletter are there to accompany your content and should never be used to display important content. There’s a chance that some of your readers may have images disabled, so having content placed in an image is useless to them. Remember to always add alt text to your images, this is alternative text that will appear in place of your image should your readers choose not to load them.

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Need help?

One more important thing you should consider when creating your e-newsletter is whether or not it is responsive. If your email newsletter isn’t responsive then it’s likely not going to look great when your readers are on the go and reading from their phones or tablets. This can be tricky and leads more into the creation of the newsletter as opposed to just the design.

Even if you’ve read this and you still feel a little daunted by the prospect of creating and designing your email newsletters, don’t worry! Reactive Graphics have years of experience designing and building responsive HTML emails and we are more than happy to help.

Why not get in touch with us or even pop in for a chat in our on-site cafe.

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Here we are in the year 2016, a year of digital revolution, virtual reality and ecommerce! The digital landscape and the internet in general is altering so rapidly that inventions are happening at a rate in which we are no longer able to keep up. Company’s which aren’t online in some form are almost invisible in the ever evolving business world, which is one reason why digital branding is something that should take precedence when either building a new business or re-envisioning an existing one.

Digital Branding is the presence of your business in the online forum. It is the online identity of your company specifically realised and conceived via digital means. Last year we blogged of the importance of digital first design as a branding concept when building a website or a digital portfolio for your business. The difference between then and now is that yes, digital is definitely no longer an after thought and with real estate costs rising many businesses are choosing to opt to be digital only!

Digital Branding has changed the way we go about our daily lives. We have easy access to all kinds of weird and wonderful things via the web and the human brain is literally being altered due to constant digital stimulation and online activity. This is why it is not only important to address Digital Branding to ‘sell’ your business or services, but it is also extremely vital that we begin to understand the future implications of web based identity. Your digital brand must have longevity, truth and an identity that can be distinguished in a crowd.

Aesthetics are the characteristics, appearance and style of your digital brand. The Aesthetic of your brand has to be conveyed across all mediums and needs to be consistent in order to voice the correct tone for your business. The Aesthetic choices you make when building your brand will need to be coherent with what ever way your business grows and evolves and therefore needs to be well considered.

B is for Brand

A brand is either an identification stamp that is burned onto livestock in order for owners to identify them or a series of attributes which contribute to an overall identity for an organisation. This is what we are addressing here – Digital identity and creating a recognisable character for your company.

C is for Colour

Colour can be a distinctive way to separate yourself from competition. A colour choice can instigate certain reactions for people engaging with your company. For example colour can evoke certain memories and derive certain connotations due to their pairings. For example red with white may remind users of Christmas, or Yellow and Blue make evoke thoughts of the seaside. Last year we blogged about the use of colour in ‘Colour me happy‘ and we shared thoughts on how to utilise it creatively to enhance your brand.

Design is where the brand is born. Digital Design comprises of Animation, Photography, Typography, Layout, Alignment, Video and much more. Without design, a brand would have no thread to hold together the various different elements. Clever design can determine whether people invest their time and interest in your company or whether they go elsewhere. Much like fashion, brand design also goes through various different trends – for example right now, it seems the Nordic trend is what many companies are going for. This plays to the broader ‘minimalistic’ design trend that has been popular throughout 2015 and continues to thrive in 2016. Designers should address trends when designing brands however it is important not to invest too much into them as new fashion’s emerge with the every new season.

E is for Engaging

A brand should engage a companies customer base. It should also engage the company staff. A brand should be relatable and should address the needs of the people who are endorsing it. In order to be engaging a brand needs to renew with the evolving digital landscape and needs to be available across multiple platforms for greater audience reach. Social Media is a great way to engage new customers, build a reputable readership and guarantee regular website hits. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are easy to access on the go and can be updated on the fly.

F is for Focus

Choosing a particular genre or style to identify your brand is a bold choice. This can determine the overall perception of your whole company and shouldn’t be a choice made on a whim. If you begin designing your brand with a brocade print to start with then this is quite a strong aesthetic to keep up to and may not be easy to interpret across varied platforms.

H is for History

Historically digital branding has gone through a lot. Various file types have been and gone, some of which are no longer accessible to the programmes we use now. It is important to understand these technically histories, to ensure that we build brands that are sustainable and build for the future.

I is for Imagery

Imagery is an important part of your digital identity. Humans engage in photography emotionally and the way that you use imagery can assist in visual storytelling and help customers to understand your brand.

K is for Keywords

Engaging with keywords when you are developing an online identity is essential for SEO and getting seen on the web. KeyWords can be implemented as you blog, for example Reactive Graphics may use key words or terms like ‘Web Design London’to ensure that if these search terms are typed into google Reactive Graphics will be identified by Google as being a Web Design company in London.

L is for LinkedIn

LinkedIn amongst any other social media sites is an important tool to utilise when building your brand. LinkedIn is a professional network for people interested in finding services or like minded people to connect with digitally. Most social media profiles can be edited in order to fit with your brand and this should be utilised to maximise your brand coverage.

Make your brand memorable, for the right reasons. Do not choose garish colour ways to simply stand out. Do not be memorable for your lack of professionalism in an email. Do not be memorable for choosing a questionable logo design for you brand. Be memorable for developing a brand that listens to the requirements of its customers and delivers what it says on the tin

N is for Name

When choosing your business name, you could consider addressing what your company actually does – eg Reactive Graphics, specialise in Graphic Design, however this is not absolutely essential. You should however consider whether the name you choose has any other meanings that could maybe misconstrued later down the line.

O is for Openness

As a brand you should be open to change and adaptability – things that you feel really passionate about may not necessarily work out and therefore you cannot be too precious about what you want.

Q is for Quality

Once you start to develop your digital brand, you must maintain the same quality of execution for all materials you create under that identity. For example if you have a wonderful website but a very badly written blog, the quality of the blog with reflect badly in the overall standard of you business.

R is for Recognition

It is not only important that you are recognised as a company due to effective digital branding, but it is also important that you recognise your success as a company. You must also recognise and credit the people you have worked with to establish your brand and ensure that you ask for permission when using another company’s work.

Scale and Scalability is an important decision to think about when establishing your digital identity. Can your logo be displayed on the side of a van as well as on a postage stamp if required. Does you digital identity translate to print? Is your website scalable across all platforms and devices? These are all consideration to think about when building your digital brand.

T is for Typography

Over the past few years typography has been quite a hot topic across the web design world. With many businesses opting for a watermark text logo in place of the generic circular symbol and choosing typography as the main defining aesthetic for their brand.

U is for Understanding

In order to continue to build a brand you need to understand why you are investing in one in the first place. Does your business require you to engage in a trusting relationship with your customer base in order to have them revisit you for your services? Do you need to have anonymity as a company to become a reputable business? Do you understand how to manage the changing nature of your brand and how to deal with difficult situations if they arise. All of these questions will be relevant to how you initially decide you brand, so before you go ahead, you need to understand your business.

Various versions of your digital brand should be accessible for varied platforms. You should always save original copies of your designs in various different formats

W is for Website

Web Design and Web Development is extremely important when getting your brand notices. A website can make or break your business success and should be approached with the same finesse and enthusiasm as any other part of your business journey. A Website can be the ‘face’ of your brand, a space online to encapsulate all elements of your business possibilities.

X is for eXamine

Apologies for the copout here. But examining the success and failures of your work are integral to building a long-lasting brand. It is vital that you establish your brand but monitor how it is used through statistics and analytics in order to get a measure of how to keep your customers happy and how to build new interest.

YouTube is a important tool when building a digital brand. The video platform hosts over 300 hours of new videos every single minute and is one of the top visited websites on the web today. By working with videomakers and designers you can establish a YouTube channel that works within your company branding and explains what you do, much faster than a page of text would. See our Youtube company video here.

Z is for Zest

It is extremely important that your online identity and overall brand is always fresh and clear. You should have an enthusiasm for your business and allow your personality and zest for life shine through in the work that you do.

Work with us to develop your digital brand

Reactive Graphics have worked closely with various businesses large and small to develop and sustain brands in today’s turbulent digital landscape. With advancements in digital technologies we are able to personalise brands to such a fine degree, that the whole of your online identity speaks with a collective voice. If you would like help to get your business off the ground or need advice with your next digital branding venture, then please get in touch.

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With over 60% of consumers and up to 75% of clients using the internet to find what they are looking for, it is vital that your business and the overall company ethos is reflected in your website and is cohesive, strong and tailored directly to the needs of the users.

A website is not only a trading and information platform, it can also represent the image of an enterprise and a good website design is key to securing a loyal customer base and ensuring credibility.

When approaching a web design strategy for your next marketing campaign here are some key features
(a whole alphabet full) that you and your web designer might want to consider and be aware of.

The A-Z Guide of Web Design in Marketing Campaigns

Analytics
Even if your website is exquisitely designed it doesn’t guarantee that your website will automatically be popular. In order for a website to be successful its performance must be reviewed so that you can determine how users are interacting with the content. Web site statistics can be monitored through the use of Analytics and Google offer a platform that you can build into your website for free. Here you can check who is visiting your site, follow their site path and acknowledge where they leave this site. This can provide vital details that will help assist you to get the most from your online presence.

Branding
Every interaction that a user has with your business is a potential opportunity to build equity. This is why it is important to have a cohesive and relatable brand that people can recognise and understand without having to spend too much time trying to figure it out. If your brand is well-connected throughout your web design and digital marketing strategy, you are likely to be considered more trusted and professional.

Compatibility
Your website needs to be accessible to Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari and their various different versions in order to reach the widest audience base possible.Statistics show that 95% of the digital world is based on these five browsers, therefore by ensure compatibility you are heightening your chance of success.

Demographics
One of the first things to consider when approaching web design in a marketing campaign is identifying who your clients and customers are, what interests them and how to tailor your content in order to engage them with your business.

E-Shots
An e-shot is a direct digital marketing method, which uses e-mail to contact a database of contacts. This is a quick and relatively cheap way to offer personalised information and keep your clients in the loop.

Favicon
A favicon (shortened term for favourites icon) is a thumbnail version of your logo that appears in the URL bar and in the tabs of your internet browser. This Favicon should be designed as a small version of your logo, that is still recognisable and cohesive with the company branding.

Geo IP
We offer Geo IP within our web design service. It is something that is particularly useful for ecommerce websites as it can provide users with a unique experience, allowing them to locate a business in relation to the location of their current position, acquired via their computer IP address.

Homepage
The homepage of a website is important in being the first port of call for directing and informing potential clients or customers. The homepage is effectively the face of your website and should summarise your brand, your services and your CTA in a well designed and easy navigable design.

Infographics
Infographics are graphic visual representations of information designed to capture attention and inform the reader in interesting, manageable chunks.

Java-script
Javascript is a text-language most commonly used as part of web browsers, whose implementations allow scripts to interact with a user, while controlling and communicating with the browser and being able to alter the content that is displayed.

Keywords
Keyword research is very important and a valuable asset within your marketing campaign. It is one of the most important, and high return activities in the search marketing field and one way to increase your SEO. Ranking for the right keywords is vital especially if you are in business with wide-spread competition.

Logo Design
Creating a consistent brand identity is extremely important for any marketing campaign and a logo design is a vital part of the overall picture. The logo is essentially the glue that holds together the overall theme of the design and a strong logo can be the memorable stamp that seals the reputation of your website and your company.

Mobile Friendliness
Since the 21st April 2015 release of Googles mobile friendly algorithm web designers have been even more inclined to make sure websites are developed to the correct standard across all devices. The algorithm affects searches from mobile and can improve or decrease your mobile SEO ranking.

Newsletters
Digital newsletters containing your company branding are a great way to keep clients interested in your product/service/company. These newsletters should be designed in the same tone of voice of the whole company offering insights into your business without over-indulging.

Optimisation
Vector images are ideally suited for website designs as they can be rendered at any resolution without losing any sharpness. When optimising raster images you are posed with a bigger challenge as they image data is encoded on a per-pixel basis. The larger number of pixels the larger the file size will be, which is sometimes a problem when uploading images to a server. The other thing to consider when uploading images to your website, is to ensure you are optimising them for web when exporting from Photoshop.

Page Length
Web design trends come and go like the seasons and one that is regularly reoccurring is the one page scrolling website. These can be very beautifully designed and fun to navigate however when so much information is crammed into one space, page load time can become slow which is the ultimate no go when trying to attract potential clients or customers. Every second you can cut off your loading time will boost the confidence and trust users have in your site.

Quality
Quality over quantity is extremely important in web design, specifically when considering your marketing campaigns. It is important to highlight important information and ensure that the user doesn’t have to trawl through endless pages of bumf to find a service or product they are looking for. Information should be succinct and well written. It is also important that images are as high quality as the content – pixelated images can make you look scrappy and unprofessional.

Responsive
Responsive website design ensures that your business can be viewed correctly across all devices and browsers without comprising content. A responsive website can also contribute to an overall better UX, whilst influencing analytics and SEO.

SEO
SEO is firstly the practice of ensuring your website is ranking well on search engines. This is where you can build a strategy to enhance your business performance and get yourself ahead of the competition. We can offer you an SEO report on how well your website is ranking and how to improve your statistics.

Typography
Typography is the art of arranging fonts in a particular style in order to draw attention to a word or phrase. Used regularly in logo design these days and often the main asset in website design. Web designers often use typography in addition to photography on a webpage in order to highlight certain chunks of information.It is also something that has to be approached with care; choice of font size, style and colour can dramatically affect the design of your website.

Usability
Web usability is based on how efficient, effective and User friendly your website it. Usability is measured by UX and the process and design used to develop the website and the adaptability of a company in creating a user friendly design. There are usability standards that all web design and development professionals should adhere to, specifically now as technologies are rapidly advancing.

Video
Video is an extremely strong marketing tool and a significant factor in engaging users and communicating complex details. Video can make your business seem more approachable and responsive to new technologies. Video also needs to be consistant with your brand and offer and quality is important if you want your business to be taken seriously.

Web Banners
Web banners today are more than a simple image with a slogan places at the top of your website. With technologies such as JQuery, banners are now much more complex and can be ads with text, animated graphics and sound. Most commerce-related web sites use banner ads.

XML, HTML, CSS
All web designers and developers must have a strong understanding of the text mark-up languages like XML, HTML and CSS in order to build web pages. HTML is the foundation of a web page whilst CSS is the language used to edit the style. Understanding the basics of HTML and CSS will help your designer build better websites and gaining knowledge of XML allows your to understand what makes web pages function.

YouTube
Using social media platforms such as YouTube within the wider context of a website can introduce more traffic and help to attract interest in your brand/ business.

Zip-file
ZIP is an archive file format that can be uploaded to a server. Meaning you can offer downloadable content via zip files to gives your clients the opportunity to feel as though they are getting something back from your company. This is particularly useful if you would like to offer product information or perhaps a tutorial type document, or maybe even just free downloads to further engage clients in what you are offering.

So there you have it the Reactive Graphics A-Z Guide of Web design in Marketing Campaigns. These are just a few points (26 in fact) that you should consider when deciding your next move to increase your online businesses value.

If you would like Reactive Graphics to offer assistance on your next project then please get in touch.
Or if you would like to view our portfolio of work or our services you can visit our website here.

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The post Web Design in Marketing Campaigns: The A-Z guide appeared first on Web Design London.

This low cost marketing strategy is an ideal way to drum up both new and repeat business helping your company reach a wider audience.

A simple campaign organised in-house using an existing mail client such as Microsoft Outlook is easy to set up. There are also paid services available online which will only put minor strain on your marketing budget; most email campaigns pay for themselves in no time at all.

Regardless of your approach and budget, email marketing is arguably the most cost effective way of attracting new business and retaining existing customers.

Strategy is important.

Things to consider are:

Creating a recipient list →
Choosing a format for your emails →
Creating your email →
Launching the campaign →
Charting your success →

Creating a recipient list

Your email campaign starts with your recipient list, the prospects you are targeting to find new business from as well as your existing clients you are hoping to retain.

If you don’t follow the rules you will more than likely have your email address blacklisted or worse, you could be sued! If someone receives an unsolicited email they are almost always going to click on it and add it to their spam folder. You may not think this is a problem, but trust us it is! Every time you add an email to your spam folder a message might be sent to your ISP. The senders’ address is essentially marked as suspicious and will be monitored by the ISP from that point on. If others using the same ISP make enough reports (by adding emails from the sender to their spam folder) the suspicious address will be blocked and the ISP will reject all subsequent emails from that sender.

It takes as little as 0.01% of spam complaints to get your email account blacklisted.

Avoid any difficulty by only sending email marketing to those who have actually agreed to receive it.[/box]

You’ve probably got a number of email addresses of clients/customers you have been in contact with or worked with in the past. Send them a polite email asking them if they would like to join your email-marketing list. All those that agree to receive email marketing can be added to an Excel spreadsheet, with recipient names in one column and email addresses in the next column.

In order to develop your mailing list you may consider adding a newsletter sign up form to your website.

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Choosing a format for your emails

Now that you have a mailing list, you need to think about what type of email you are going to send. This will depend a lot on what product or service you are offering. Do you wish to sell directly to new clients, or gently remind your existing clients of your product or skill, expertise and availability? Will you be sending a newsletter with updates about your company and projects or will you be promoting something new?

• Plain text emails that contain no graphics/images, colours or formatting.
• Rich text or HTML emails can contain images, colours and formatting[/box]

There are advantages and disadvantages to both:

Plain text
+ Emails will display/render in the same way regardless of email client
+ The email looks more like a personal message
+ Easier and quicker to create
+ Your email is less likely to get caught in spam filters
– May be considered unprofessional
– Less engaging as lacking formatting, images, call to actions etc.
– Can’t track if the email has been opened or not

Rich text or HTML
+ Potentially looks more professional with the inclusion of graphics/images
+ Traceable – so you know if the email has been opened or not
– Images are sometimes blocked spoiling the design of the email
– Each email client displays/renders HTML emails in slightly different ways. Therefore you can run into display issues unless you possess the technical knowledge/equipment to produce, test and debug HTML compatibility issues.

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Creating your email

Once you have decided on what form your email will take, HTML or plain text, you need to think about the content. Depending on your business, you may have sale products you want to market or exclusive discounts only available for newsletter subscribers. Perhaps you just want to keep customers up to date with company news?

Your customers are likely to be receiving a lot of emails from other sources so it’s important to keep your content succinct and to the point. If you go with an HTML email campaign you can use images or graphics to break up text and make your message more exciting. Think about what text you are going include in your subject line. Make sure you give some indication of what the email is actually about.

By law, you must provide recipients with an unsubscribe link (a way to opt out of your marketing campaigns). More information about direct marketing legislation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/marketing-advertising-law/direct-marketing

It is also useful to include a ‘View in browser’ link. Email clients are known for causing HTML emails to display incorrectly, or not at all. Providing the ‘view in browser’ option will allow recipients to view HTML emails in their preferred browser with the layout the sender intended you to see.

The most successful campaigns arise from an email that makes the customer/recipient feel valued or provides them with something of value, like a discount or promotion. Don’t expect great conversion rates if your just spamming people with irrelevant sales splurge.

Reactive Graphics have years of experience designing and building HTML emails.
Call us on 020 7471 8554 today.

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Launching the campaign

Now you have your email ready and a list of recipients, its time to send it out! The beauty of this kind of mass mail campaign is you can send a single email to multiple recipients without having to email each one individually.

There are a number of online applications like http://mailchimp.com and https://www.campaignmonitor.com which allow you to create an account, import your mailing list and send out your email instantly. Providers offer these tools to monitor the success of your campaigns, for instance by tracking which recipients opened your email. They also offer drag and drop html email building tools and the ability to import and integrate an HTML template of your own. In order to make your email a little more personal you can insert shortcodes to your email template that will automatically insert the recipients’ name (or other more personalised information from your list) that corresponds to the email address that the communication is being sent to.

Instead of using a service like Campaign Monitor or MailChimp, you could send the emails out yourself using the mail merge functionality of programs like Gmail or Microsoft Entourage. Bear in mind that most ISPs have daily and hourly limits on how many emails you can send. You are unlikely to run into any difficulty if you send fewer than 100 emails a day.

If you are using a PC with Microsoft Office, Outlook is a great tool for sending email to multiple recipients. Using the mail merge facility you can send a personalised message or newsletter without your recipients knowing that the email is being sent to a large group. Learn how to mail merge with Outlook here: http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/mailmerge.htm

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Charting your success

If you aren’t using one of the dedicated email marketing services like MailChimp that provide click rates and other statistics, you will still want some way to gauge the success of your campaign. If you are using Google Analytics, one of the best ways of doing this is adding campaign tags to the links within your email. This involves adding some additional information to your URLs that makes them identifiable. By making the URLs unique to a particular email campaign you can see what traffic is being directed to your website via hyperlinks you create within your email content. This is called link tagging. Read up on link tagging here: http://cutroni.com/blog/2006/11/10/google-analytics-campaign-tracking-pt-1-link-tagging/

Many online tools will keep track of the number of users who have opted out of your newsletter. It’s important to keep your database up to date so you can be sure that you are sending emails to only those people who have opted to receive it.

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Summary

Depending upon the quality of your email content and the credibility of your mailing list, like most forms of direct marketing, the chances of someone responding is less than 5% with the chances of you winning new business around 1 – 2%. As a result, volume is key. Don’t be disheartened. The more people you can reach, the better chance of success you will have. Choosing the right tools to do the job is also important. This includes choosing the best technology and delivery format (plain text, rich text or HTML).

Employing a design agency will help with all of these aspects. Please telephone us on 020 7471 8554 or email info@reactivegraphics.co.uk if you require assistance with your next email marketing campaign.

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