The From Line

A/B Split Campaigns
Testing is the only way to know for sure what works best with your email campaigns and your subscribers. The most common way marketers test their email campaigns is with A/B splits. A/B split campaigns allow you to randomly split your list between two or more messages. The benefit is that you can test the success of different campaign elements, such as subject lines, from lines, or other content, to find out which work best. eLoop reports each message and its respective portion of the list as a separate campaign. You can then plan your future campaigns based on the  outcomes and recipients’ responses to the variables.
 
Time-Release Campaigns
Eloop’s time release campaign (drip) module helps with the lead nurturing process ensuring that timely, relevant and branded information reaches your recipients.  Whether your lead nurturing is based on time intervals, behavioral or demographic variables, eLoop’s time release campaigns can help.
 
Basic Time Release (Basic Drip)
If your sales cycle is seasonal, revolves around a specific date or is based on distinctive timeframes, then implementing a basic time release (drip) campaign could be right for you.  With a basic time release campaign you can design a string of personalized emails (using merge fields and dynamic content) to be sent in various pre-determined sequences.  This allows you to automatically stay top of mind with your prospects.
 
Time Release Based on Behavior
Trying to sell big ticket items just doesn’t take time, it takes education.  By coupling time release campaigns with web pages visited, links clicked and forms completed, you can automatically target the right information more aggressively to your prospects helping with the educational process.
 
Time Release Based on Demographic Variables
To ensure relevance, marketers need to personalize their campaigns based on a host of variables however continual list segmentation and personalization can become difficult with changing demographics such as age, marriage, kids, etc.  With eLoop A.I. you can create multi-year time release campaigns with messages that automatically change with demographic or other data variable updates.  

Throttled Campaigns
Throttled campaigns in eLoop allow you to break up your sending schedule over a defined period of time. This process is especially useful when you are a new sender with a large list trying to build a good sender reputation. Throttling is also used to avoid the overwhelming of your recipient’s mail servers. In eLoop, this is done at the software level, managed by the user as opposed to the hardware level which is managed by the ESP.

To learn more about these features, please contact the Gold Lasso client support team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The mobile phone continues to rise in popularity as a primary communications device making email rendering on mobile devices a serious issue. According to data from MarketingSherpa, approximately 64 percent of “key decision makers” are reading messages on a BlackBerry or other mobile device. Let’s find out why this issue is finding its way to the top of many a priority list.
 
What is the problem?
 
Right now, mobile devices only display text emails. Basically, they make a mess of a finely-crafted HTML message. They are fussy about font size and the user is often scanning, not reading, the text.  Email marketers will also have a challenging time separating their mobile users in email databases from traditional computer receivers. The segmentation will be necessary, however, to ensure proper rendering of messages to non-HTML friendly email clients. Another snag is that mobile devices also make it more difficult for email marketers to determine the true open rate of their campaigns.  Metrics, we know, are key to evaluating success and implementing positive change.
 
How do email marketers solve this problem?
 
There is no simple answer to this question, yet. But, there are questions to start discussing with your email design and marketing teams. The first step is to make sure you’ve considered your audience demographics. Are they using BlackBerrys? Why? Many mobile-device devotees are checking email for urgent issues and will pass over anything that looks disposable. Another consideration that will play a key role as e-mail marketers update their strategies for this new medium is the nature of the campaign. For example, if the information is time sensitive, can the campaign be targeted to mobile users and not computer receives with only text and short, concise messages?
 
Naturally, we must also consider how we are gathering information in data collection methods such as surveys, landing pages and other tools. Do your sign-up forms include a mobile phone? Do recipients have a way to tell you that they use their mobile device as a primary communications tool?
 
eLoop users already have access to email rendering tools for all the major smart phones.  For more information please contact your account rep.

Last year, advertisers spent nearly $10 billion on search engine marketing, more than 60 percent more than 2005. The value of SEM to increase the visibility of your Web site and company, and as an advertising tool is clear, but it’s also an effective tool to generate database leads.

Incorporating eLoop features into your SEM campaign can maximize your marketing efforts and increase awareness of your company. The goal is to create a landing page that represents your overall brand and that conveys a clear, concise message about your company. The landing page, more importantly, captures contact information for future communication. Using eLoop and the landing page feature also allows you to automatically follow up with leads to peak the recipients’ interest and increase the chance they will opt-in to receiving future messages.

For detailed instructions on how to create a landing page, log into your account, mouse over the Help tab and use the “eLoop 4.0 Knowledge Base.”

Understanding how and when to use Action Based Messaging, or ABM, starts with knowing what ABM is. ABM is a process that allows you to send follow-up messages to an initial campaign based on the action that they take. An action-based message is automatically sent to the recipient in response to their action. For example, if the reader clicks on a link for more information, they might receive a follow-up message that asks if the link they were taken to provided the information they needed or if they have additional questions.

 ABM is an effective tool to follow-up with readers, automatically customize messages based on their response, and increase the success of a campaign. So, why isn’t ABM used in every campaign? The simple answer is that it doesn’t fit every campaign. ABM works best when there is a strong call to action and the opportunity to customize the follow-up messages.

The benefit of ABM is that it works automatically. Despite our best intentions, marketers often forget or ignore the importance of consistent follow up to encourage readers to take the next step. ABM solves this problem because, once set up, it does the work for you.

Follow these instructions to add ABM to your next campaign.

1. Move the cursor over the Outbound Messaging item in the Main Menu Bar, then select the Scheduling menu item.

2. Select the Campaign that you want to send (schedule).

3. Click the appropriate radio button to determine whether you want to schedule the date and time to send the Campaign, or if your want to Send Campaign Now. If you choose to schedule the date and time, use the calendar component to select the date. You can also set the time zone using the drop-down menu.

4. Check the box if you want to add Action Based Messaging to the campaign.

5. Click the Continue button.

6. Review the Campaign's Message before you execute the Campaign. Inspect both the HTML and Text messages to ensure that they contain the information you want to send.

If the HTML and Text messages are correct, click the Execute Campaign button.

If the HTML message and/or the Text message need to be modified, click the Do Not Execute Campaign button. Use the Message editor to complete your changes, then re-start this process to schedule your Campaign.

1. If you checked the box labeled I would like to add Action Based Messaging to this campaign, another window opens. Select the campaign that you want to use ABM from the ABM List.

2. Click on the New icon.

3. The Add ABM section appears. In this section, you specify the parameters for the Action Based Message.

Select the message to send -- this drop-down menu lists the available Messages.

NOTE: The Message you want to attach to the action must already exist.

Select Action Type -- click on the radio button that best describes the action taken by the recipient on which the Message will be based. Depending on the action selected, another set of fields and/or menus appear to further define the action.

1. When you have completed describing the action, click on the Add ABM button.

2. You will return to the ABM List window. Click on the Complete button.

3. You will return to the Schedule Campaign window. At the bottom of the window, you should see your campaign added to the Campaign Queue. From here, you can cancel the scheduled campaign, or you can edit the execution time for the ABM (if used).

We are trained as children (and even sometimes as adults) to learn from our mistakes. Making a mistake is human, but failing to recognize the mistake and learn how to avoid it in the future can be disastrous. This is especially true for e-mail marketers. Repeating common mistakes can lead to deliverability issues and cause the intended reader to ignore the message or send it directly to the junk mail folder—a worse fate.

 Mistakes come in all shapes and sizes, but here are a few that we see too often.

• Failing to close the loop. Email marketing is a cyclical process that ends with evaluation of metrics to determine what works and what doesn’t. Every audience is different. Using the data available in the “Reporting” section of eLoop will help determine the features to which your audiences respond best.

• Links that link nowhere. Using links in a message is just one of the standard elements of our business, but not testing the links can be disastrous. Nothing can frustrate a recipient more than clicking for more information only to be routed to a page that doesn’t work. Test your links.

• Ignoring the advanced features. These days, anyone can send an HTML message, but do you want to be just anyone? Incorporating the advanced features that eLoop offers can expand your readership and, most importantly, improve your campaigns. The features are there for a reason. Take a few minutes to play around with them and learn how to use them to your benefit.

• Customizing your opt-out form. If you haven’t already customized your opt-out form, drop what you’re doing and log into your eLoop account now. An effective tool to limit your list attrition (the fancy phrase for recipients opting out of receiving any communication from you) is to give them some options. Maybe the reader wants to receive some correspondence, such as a newsletter, but doesn’t want others. Let them choose and you may find that they’ll stick around instead of opting out all together.

Don’t wait until New Year’s to make a resolution to avoid these mistakes. Resolve to do better today.