about Simplicity

Simplicity is a small creative marketing & web design company. The concept behind Simplicity is to provide hands-on, practical and creative marketing support for your business to get you up and running; give you a competitive edge, and let you concentrate on your business.

To find out more about us, please click here; or call us to discuss how we can help.

simplify, edition #8

How to improve your email deliverability.

The world of marketing has vastly changed over the last 10 years! Long gone are the days when small businesses were unable to target and reach larger audiences. Thanks to eMarketing, a small business can now spend very little to reach their contacts, stay in touch and build effective relationships using the power of eMarketing.

Here's the challenge! However, as our email inboxes get more and more cluttered with promotional advertising messages, you may find it increasingly challenging to get your message delivered and to stand out in the crowd. Don't get discouraged! Use it as an opportunity to improve your communications and tailor your messages. If done well, email marketing can be a very effective route to market.

Here are some useful tips how you can improve the deliverability of your email communications and, improve your email success rate.

• Use an unambiguous "From" line. Make it clear to your audience who the email is from. Ideally include your business name in the “From” line, and NOT simply a string of numbers.
• A catchy "subject" line. Define an interesting and engaging subject line indicative of the email's contents.
• Content is king. Your contacts don't want to have to work out what your email is all about. Keep it clear and concise, informative, engaging, useful to the reader, and fun to read.
• Location, location, location. Most email clients give users the option to read a portion of their email messages in a preview pane. This is why it is important to put your most important content at the top left of your email, where it is most likely to be seen.
• Make it interactive. People like to be assured they can reach you if needed. Provide a phone number for enquiries, an email and a back-link to your website. Make it easy to get in touch.
• Forward to a friend. Think viral. If your contacts find your communication useful and interesting, they may want to 'spread the word' and forward your email on to someone else.
• HTML and Text versions. HTML messages allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition. They are growing in popularity and over 95% of email programs today will support HTML email. You have a lot more options to make your message visually appealing. Unfortunately most spam is also formatted using HTML and thus differentiating between requested email and HTML spam messages can sometimes be difficult for some email servers. Increase deliverability by creating both a text as well as an HTML version of your email.
• Some methods to avoid spam filters. Minimise the use of the following: TOO MANY CAPS IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE; excessive punctuation like !!! or £££, avoid large numbers of links in proportion to the number of words in your email.
• Know your audience! Aim your campaign squarely at a specific segment. Be in tune with your audience, 'know what makes them tick'.
• Show you care. Ask your readers for feedback and their opinions about your service or products. This will give you some valuable insight about what you could be doing better as well as ask your contacts for suggested topics they might be interested in to cover in one of your next editions.
• Contact frequency. Don't overdo it! Strike a balance of sending out useful information on a regular basis, don't just bombard your contacts with one message after another.
• The 'Unsubscribe' link. Ensure you include a single-click unsubscribe link that instantly removes the subscriber from your list.

Ultimately, the most important thing you can do... is gain opted-in permission, write relevant content, and deliver messages according to the contact's needs, wants and preferences. Don't simply use email marketing to tell everyone how great and wonderful you are, use it as an informative means of getting your message out there. Keep your contact's interests in mind when communicating with them, don't simply 'sell to them' but help them make a decision why they would want to buy from you.

How can Simplicity help? Simplicity provides a complete eMarketing service from conception to completion. We can Create, Send, Track, and Manage your campaign from start to finish. You will receive a full report about the success of your campaign with real time results. You won't just know which messages were received, bounced or blocked, you'll know exactly who's opened your messages, even which links they have clicked on.

Learn more about how Simplicity can help, simply click here.

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Who? Simplicity is a small web design and creative marketing company. For whom? We specialise in working with small, medium and start-up businesses. Why? Small feet, big shoes; just because you’re a small business does not mean you don’t need to get your message out there in a big way. What’s it all about? We help make your marketing and design matter, be known, be heard, be found; and make the pieces fit. It's not just about your products and sevices, it's about the whole experience. What’s the difference? Personal. We strongly believe in the personal approach to doing business. Creative. We fuse strategy & creativity into one compelling voice. No fuzz. We are practical & hands-on; passionate about what we do; and practice what we preach. Focus. We specialise in working with small companies and start-ups. Ideas. Ideas are the currency of our business. Ideas can have the power to change minds, transform brands and even make a difference to the bottom line. How much? Because we’re a small company without the high set-up costs of larger marketing firms and the fancy London postcode, we don’t charge London rates and are able to pass on some cost savings to our clients. What’s in the mix? [The Roadmap] Marketing Planning & Strategy: Get your marketing up and running. [Image Works] Branding & Brand Identity: Define who you are, what you can see, touch, feel, hear and watch. [A Box Of Chocolates] Demand Generation & Integrated Marketing Campaigns: Integrated marketing in harmony & style. The ideal blend of marketing initiatives. [The Bigger Picture] Website Design: Every website tells a story. Let your website do the work for you. [A Refreshing Change] Website Re-Design: Give your website an inspiring facelift. [The Perfect Pitch] Collateral Design: You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. What is the concept? Simplexity. The concept behind Simplicity is to simplify complex matters and make the pieces fit. Simplicity, where ideas come to life.