Thursday, 31 January 2019

The clueless parent’s guide to understanding TikTok


In September last year, TikTok surpassed YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and even Facebook in monthly App Store downloads. For a fringe social network, the kind most would assume occupies a second-tier of the internet’s social media hierarchy, you’d be forgiven for not noticing the app had become the internet’s most interesting network of creatives. For more than 500 million monthly active users, TikTok is a place to let your freak flag fly. It’s a difficult thing to describe, but comparing it to Vine — the now-gone six-second video loop platform — seems like an obvious place to start. Like Vine, the…

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Instagram hacks for brands

How to build your social media marketing strategy for 2019

Tuesday, 29 January 2019

Teens are eating their own fingers to Evanescence covers on TikTok


Have you ever heard of Evanescence, the Arkansas-originating metal band — when we say metal we mean more like the shiny substance melted over the buckle of a Hot Topic piano key belt — who brought us the 2003 classic, “Bring Me To Life”? I remember wailing this into my bedroom mirror, sobbing. And did you ever see that magic trick where one person — usually a dad — bends their finger, and then using highly technical illusions makes it look like they’re pulling off their finger from the knuckle? Well, luckily for us, both have combined in this digital age,…

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Friday, 25 January 2019

2019 Valentine’s Day GIF Guide: 9 FREE GIFs Your Subscribers Will Love

Valentine's Day Sale

Time to get all mushy: Our readers and subscribers are the absolute best. To show our appreciation, AWeber’s amazing Brand Designer created some brand-new, free Valentine’s Day GIFs for you. (We also included our most-downloaded GIFs from years past, too.) Go ahead and pass on the love to your own audience. Put these Happy Valentine’s Day GIFS in your emails, on your website, or in your social feeds! Not an AWeber customer yet? Create your FREE account right now, and see how easy it is to use one of these GIFs in our Drag-and-Drop message editor.

Download Your Valentine’s Day GIFs

Step 1: Find the animated Valentine’s Day GIF below that you want to use in your email. Step 2: Save it to your computer by either right clicking the GIF and selecting “Save Image,” or by dragging the GIF to your desktop. Step 3: Upload the GIF into your email template. Related: Everything You Need to Know about Using GIFs in Email

2019 Valentine’s Day GIFs

Popping Balloons GIF

Want to make your emails “pop”? Use this fun balloon GIF.

Popping Balloons Valentines Day GIF Valentine’s Day Sale GIF

Glow bright in the inbox with this neon sale sign. Valentines Day Sale GIF

Happy Valentine’s Day GIF

Make your subscribers’ hearts burst with this GIF.

Happy Valentines Day GIF

Best Valentine’s Day GIFs

Here are some of our readers’ all-time favorite images from past V-Days.

Candy Hearts GIF

What’s almost as good as candy falling right into your mouth? This GIF. Candy Hearts Valentines Day GIF

Love You GIF

Knock Knock. Who's there? Olive. Olive who? Olive you.  Tell your subscribers how much you love them with this GIF. Love Ya Valetines Day GIF

Heart GIF 

What do you call a very small Valentine? A Valen-tiny. Just like this small heart GIF! Heart Valentines Day GIF

Happy Valentine’s Day GIFs

“You must be a keyboard, because you're just my type.” No cheesy pick up lines required. Get the message across with these two GIFs. Happy Valentine's Day   Happy Valentines Day GIF

5. Candy Heart “Hugs” GIF

Give your subscribers a hearty hug this V-Day.  

Show your appreciation year round

Want to show your love for your customers the other 364 days of the year? Here are some clever ways to deliver awesome experiences.

1. Send personalized notes.

Have you ever received a tweet from your favorite company? Or a lightning-fast response from tech support when you’re having an issue? It feels good to be acknowledged, doesn’t it?

Do the same for your customers and send a bunch of individualized emails. You can say “thank you for your business” to a new or interesting customer. You can send a quick note of thanks to your subscribers who gave your product, service, or program great reviews. Or maybe you can send followup emails to the ones who didn’t gave you good reviews — and ask what you can do better.

Include your contact info and tell them to get in touch with you if they ever have any questions.

2. Deliver seasonal content.

Get creative and think outside the traditional holiday seasons. For example, if you’re a coffee shop owner, you could send your subscribers a special coupon that they can use for a pick-me-up during tax season.

3. Reward your customers.

First-time customers could use a push to buy again and return customers deserve to be recognized. Give them a little something — like free shipping on their next order, a free consultation, or a downloadable resource that can help them make a buying decision.

4. Turn your 404 page into an opportunity.

A 404 doesn’t have to be a dead end. Instead,  use it as a chance to delight.

One quick example: If you stumble upon a 404 page on the site Flooring Supplies — the UK’s largest online flooring company — it says “Floor…Oh … Floor!” Here are some more awesome 404 ideas.

5. Respond to questions and comments.

Join in on your customers’ conversation. Forums, Twitter chats, and your own social profiles are great places to start. When someone gives you a digital shoutout, respond! It’s a fantastic way to retain customers and maintain stellar customer service.

If a customer has an issue, give them your undivided attention. By simply listening and working with them to solve it, you can turn a negative situation into a position one. Check out these ideas for turning customers into raving fans.

Have more ideas for delighting your customers? Tell us in the comments! Additional reporting by Kristen Dunleavy. 

The post 2019 Valentine’s Day GIF Guide: 9 FREE GIFs Your Subscribers Will Love appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.



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How to engage customers on social with brand storytelling

Medieval monster-drawing monks and why it’s ok to hate-follow shitty people on Twitter


What would a social media feed be without monsters? I’m talking figurative monsters here; your racist uncles, your Trumps, your worst influencers – people so terrible you have to read everything they say and see everything they post. Despite their awfulness, we can’t go without them. Buy why? My theory is that these people exist in your feed as a contrast agent, a reminder of awfulness that makes the good stuff stand out more, sometimes comically, sometimes aggravatingly. Believe it or not, there’s a parallel to be made between monsters illustrated in the margins of medieval books by monks, and…

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Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Reddit’s model community offers a prototype for controversial discussion


The threads start as they would anywhere else online: a contentious topic, the type that adds fuel to debate before engulfing an entire comment field in flames. “Just like anorexics are forcibly hospitalized and made to gain weight, overweight people should be hospitalized and forced to lose weight,” one thread reads. For those who ignore the internet‘s number one rule — “never read the comments” — you know that this is the sort of statement that precedes an orgy of insults and abuse. When rationality does make an appearance — often in the form of an insightful, sensible comment or…

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7 social media trends to watch in 2019

Tuesday, 22 January 2019

You can now share your Netflix faves to Instagram Stories — if you have an iPhone


When streaming first took off it felt like the period of shared viewership had ended. How could anyone gather around the water cooler to discuss a show or movie when you could all be watching different things at different times? But, recently, things have changed. The success of (and the raft of discussion about) Netflix titles like ‘Bird Box’ and ‘You’ illustrates the communal viewing experience is alive and well. The difference is that the forum has changed. Rather than the aforementioned water cooler, we now discuss on social media. And Netflix is paying attention. Yes, the streaming giant today…

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Monday, 21 January 2019

4 Easy Ways Podcasters Can Use Email to Grow Their Audiences

As technology continues to improve, it’s never been easier to start a podcast.  But it's also never been harder to build an audience. Bringing in new listeners is no longer just about producing remarkable audio content. We have to find new ways to reach and engage listeners in an increasingly saturated industry.  That's why Hack the Entrepreneur has put a consistent emphasis on using email as an audience-building tool for the past four years. We use email automation to promote our new episodes, and we use our weekly newsletter to provide additional value to our listeners. Email has helped us garner 5,000,000+ podcast episode downloads, grow our listener base, build deeper connections with our audience, and get closer to our goal of helping 10,000 people start side hustles and live a lifestyle of their own design. But we're just one podcast in one market. Let’s take a look into how other podcasters are using email to grow their audiences. Related: The 30 Tips You Need to Know to Succeed with Email

Create conversations

Alistair Clay, of Famous Business, has a great technique that you can implement immediately: Replace your stagnant  stagnant “subscribe to my show on Apple Podcasts” call-to-action with a supercharged CTA that triggers action. Here's exactly how Clay does it: “My audience is made up of small business owners looking to get media attention. This is an urgent problem that they need solved fast. To help them, I offer to answer their burning questions immediately," explains Clay. "The only catch is they need to sign up to my email list and then hit reply! I call this a win/win/win situation. It gets them an answer fast, gets me a subscriber, and it also gives us a chance to make a deeper connection." Through email, Clay is offering quick, personalized advice — something that most other podcasters do not offer. His listeners get individual attention, which automatically inspires loyalty. They'll keep coming back to Clay, again and again. Then, Clay can continue to communicate with his listeners through email. Their interactions don't just end with a podcast episode. Related: How to Get Your First 50 Email Subscribers in 30 Days Clay also gains important insight from these Q&As. Their questions may help him come up with his next podcast episode or next product idea. "This one technique has been an essential element to the growth of my podcast," Clay says.

Do the extra legwork

In order to grow your audience from scratch, you need to put in the extra legwork in the beginning, according to Jane Ellen, of Glistening Particles. That's why Ellen solicits feedback via email as much as possible. “I’m Googling the heck out of the topic of each episode and sending direct emails to people who might be interested in the episode," explains Ellen. "My goal is to send 50 per episode. I have had people reply back – even one to be a guest!" It's not a long-term, scalable solution, but it's crucial to the initial growth of your audience, explains Ellen. That's because feedback is fuel. "I’m of the belief right now that ANY engagement is good. I’m even open to hear my show stinks or my interview style is annoying or whatever — it means someone’s listening.” Using this intel, Ellen can react and iterate, too. As she implements positive changes to her show based on this feedback, she'll be able to bring in more listeners and more guests down the road.

Follow up with past guests

One of the unspoken powers of hosting an interview podcast is the potential connections you can make with your guests, and, by extension, their audience. By staying in touch with past guests, you stay top of mind and increase the chance of introductions to their network, who may also be great guests for your show. Unfortunately, many podcasters fail to follow up and stay in touch with their guests to nourish and grow these relationships.   Related: How Do I Avoid the Spam Filter? Andy Wang, of Inspired Money, builds an email list of past guests he’s had on the show and keeps in touch with these guests. “I periodically send an email to past guests letting them know what's new with my podcast and highlighting recent higher-profile guests," says Wang. "A little PR never hurts, especially to past guests who are the real stars of my show. This is a way to express gratitude and keep my show in their minds. This can also lead to an introduction to another guest.”  

Syndicate your podcast

When you format your podcasts for radio, you can unleash the powers of syndication for yourself. Jerod Morris and the team at The Assembly Call have managed to not only syndicate their podcast on local radio, but also leveraged it to significantly to build their email list. Radio syndication is not feasible for all podcasts, but if your show is focused on a specific niche (like a sports team), location (a city or neighborhood within a city), or demographic, then this is a possibility. To get started, you can reach out directly to your local talk radio or sports stations and ask them about syndication. “On The Assembly Call, we have mostly used our podcast to grow our email list, but that changed last year," explains Morris. "We started syndicating our weekly news roundup on one of the biggest Indiana University sites. In exchange for the ability to post our content on their site, the site owner included an email form for visitors and readers to sign up for our email list so they could get the roundup via email. We've gotten 1,000+ subscribers since this began.” Related: Your Start-to-Finish Plan to Get 1,000 Email Subscribers

Use email to turn listeners into fans

As an on-demand medium, podcasts have the potential to connect with new people when and where they want. But connecting with them via email is how you deepen the relationship from a passive listener to a loyal fan.  Want to get started building your podcast audience via email today? Create a free account with AWeber. You can try the award-winning email marketing platform for free for 30 days.

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Friday, 18 January 2019

Facebook’s secretly working on LOL — a meme hub meant to lure teens from Snapchat, Instagram, and Tik Tok


Facebook hasn’t given up on attracting teens. After numerous failed products aimed at teens — including LOL, Facebook Watch, and IGTV — the company is now hard at work on LOL, a meme hub of sorts meant to win the hearts and minds of teens fleeing for greener pastures at Tik Tok, Snapchat, and Instagram. First reported by TechCrunch’s Josh Constine, LOL would bridge the gap of a traditional News Feed with meme-focused content that Facebook hopes will attract teen attention. For the 100 or so high schoolers currently testing it (each bound by NDA with parental consent), the feed…

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Tuesday, 15 January 2019

Gillette triggers Twitter’s right-wing elite with ‘toxic masculinity’ ad


Gillette, a company that sells razors, triggered a slew of right wing celebrities on social media yesterday with an advertisement featuring a new take on its old “the best a man can get” slogan. The video in question is nearly two minutes long and serves as a vehicle to call out toxic masculinity. It depicts men and boys showing violent aggression towards one another, pretending or preparing to sexually assault women, and dismissing poor behavior with the typical “boys will be boys” line. “Boys will be boys”? Isn’t it time we stopped excusing bad behavior? Re-think and take action by…

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The 30 Tips You Need to Know If You Want to Succeed with Email

Everyday Email

You know what's complicated? Astrophysics. The plot of Inception. Folding a fitted sheet. You know what shouldn't be complicated? Email. That’s why I created Everyday Email, a free course that strips out all of the jargon and confusing, mumbo jumbo surrounding email marketing — and makes it simple and fun! Every day for 30 days, you’ll receive one, easy-to-follow, “snackable” tip about email from me. (Lucky you!) You can read your daily tip as you drink your coffee, stand in line at the store, go between boring meetings, or watch a commercial break. Each tip takes about a minute to read, but they’re humorous and they’re written in language that everyone can understand. Here’s a sneak peek of some of the Everyday Email tips that’ll hit your inbox when you sign up: Tip #3: How to get people to open your emails. (That is, besides your mom, sister, and best friend.) Tip #13: How to put your email strategy on autopilot so you have more time to do other important things. (Like watch Bird Box.) Tip #29: How to send content you know your subscribers want. (So they don’t fly off your list faster than a toupee in a hurricane!) Everyday Email is the most fun way to learn email marketing. And the best part: By the end of the 30-day course, you’ll know exactly how to grow your email list, write compelling emails, and turn subscribers into paying customers. You’ll be excited — not overwhelmed — to launch your own email strategy on day 31. (However, you’ll want to get the tissues ready. You’re going to miss seeing me pop up in your inbox every day.) Are you ready to get started? Sign up for the free Everyday Email course, and receive your very first tip in your inbox today!

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Sunday, 13 January 2019

Why researchers want to build an AI that can predict a person’s attractiveness


It’s an age-old question – what makes someone attractive? We often say things like “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” but while this romantic notion may bring comfort to those dealt a poor hand in life, it also gives the impression that the foundations of attractiveness are elusive and unpredictable. It suggests that what each of us sees as an attractive trait – whether physical or psychological – is so variable that everyone must be looking for something different. While there is variety in what each of us regards as beautiful, cutting through this noise are common and…

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Friday, 11 January 2019

Facebook and YouTube aren’t even trying to enforce the Alex Jones ban


After Alex Jones was effectively banned from the internet — or at least his major distribution channels — last August, it appeared that we’d be rid of his half-baked conspiracy theories once and for all. Or, that’s what we thought, anyway. Following multiple “strikes” for content that violated its terms of service, YouTube permanently removed Alex Jones’ InfoWars channel last October. Gone are thousands of hours of archived content, more than 2.5 million subscribers, and the ranting diatribes of the internet’s most marketable villain — now that Martin Shkreli has stepped out of the public eye while appealing a seven…

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Sharing your children’s bad behavior on social media is making it worse


Matt Cox knew he would be criticized when he forced his 10-year-old daughter to walk 5 miles to school in 36-degree weather as her punishment for being suspended from the school bus twice for bullying. “I know a lot of you parents are not going to agree with this, but that is alright, because I’m doing what I feel is right to teach my daughter a lesson and to stop her from bullying,” Cox said in a Facebook Live video that he posted of her punishment in December 2018. The video quickly garnered over 15 million views. Although some online…

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Thursday, 10 January 2019

Trump Jr.’s deleted Instagram post likened border wall to zoo fencing


Donald Trump Jr. recently likened his father’s proposed border wall with Mexico to that of a zoo fence meant to contain animals. “You know why you can enjoy a day at the zoo?” the now-deleted Instagram post asks. “Because walls work. At face value, the comment is insensitive. But given the administration’s history — calling Mexicans criminals and rapists, locking Guatemalan and Honduran children in cages, proclaiming there were “good people on both sides” at a neo-Nazi rally in Charlotte, and proposing a Muslim travel ban — it’s easy to see why some see this as yet another in a…

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9 Instagram analytics tools to help you crush it in 2019

Our obsession with taking photos is changing how we remember the past


Last year I visited the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia – one of the best art museums in the world. I was expecting to serenely experience its masterpieces, but my view was blocked by a wall of smart phones taking pictures of the paintings. And where I could find a bit of empty space, there were people taking selfies to create lasting memories of their visit. For many people, taking hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures is now a crucial part of going on holiday – documenting every last detail and posting it on social media. But how does that…

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Wednesday, 9 January 2019

2019 Email Marketing Statistics: We Analyzed 1,000 Emails from Today’s Top Experts

Nearly every business with an email marketing strategy wonders how to write the perfect email. They question the length of their emails. (Short or long?) They wonder how they can get more people to open their emails. (Should I capitalize my subject lines or not?) And they debate even the little things. (Emojis or no emojis?) And there isn’t a simple answer to these questions — until now. With the help of AWeber’s data scientist, we analyzed 1,000 emails from 100 of today’s top marketers. Our goal? Gather email marketing statistics that will answer these questions. The 100 experts we analyzed are the best of the best. Their email strategies engage thousands and drive millions in revenue. Many of them see unheard of results (like 80% open rates and 30% click-through rates). In this post, we answer 4 important questions: And more!

Want to skip to a specific section? Click on one of the questions above.

Email marketing statistics: Words in an email

The average email length

Of the 1,000 emails we analyzed, we found that emails have 434.48 words on average. 434 words takes approximately 3.3 minutes to read. Email marketing statistics: Words in an email  

Why some pros go with shorter emails

However, more than 50% of the emails we analyzed contained 300 words or less (a 2.3 minute read time). With people receiving more emails than ever before, it makes sense that experts are sending shorter emails. Email marketers need to stand out to captivate their readers. Short emails might be a good strategy for doing so. Henneke Duistermaat is the founder of Enchanting Marketing and one of the 100 top marketers whose emails we analyzed. She often sends emails with less than 300 words. “Have you ever heard someone complaining they're not getting enough email?” Duistermaat said. “Everyone’s inbox is overflowing. We’re all time-starved. So, we love succinct messages that help us make a quick decision: whether to reply or not, whether to click through or not.”

Why some pros send long-form emails

Yet, 24.1% of the emails we analyzed contained 601 words or more. And 11.4% of them had more than 901 words, a read time of approximately 6.9 minutes. These experts stand out by sending long emails packed with valuable content, like Ann Handley. Handley is the Chief Content Officer at Marketing Profs, a marketing education company, and one of the top 100 marketers we included in our research. She sends her newsletter TotalAnnarchy via AWeber every other Sunday. On average, her newsletters contain 1,838.5 words, which takes roughly 14 minutes to read. Handley said, “It's not that long-form emails are effective. Rather, what's effective is emails that have value for the people on your list. I don't set out every other Sunday with a goal of writing the longest email I possibly can. But I do have a goal of writing an authentic, valuable, fun letter to each and every subscriber on my list. I put my heart and soul into it, and that's why people respond.” Matt Kepnes, author and founder of travel blog Nomadic Matt, is also on our list of top marketers. He sends long-form emails as well. On average, they contain 802 words. Instead of linking off to posts on his blog, he includes entire articles within his emails. These messages see high open and click-through rates. “People will read longer emails if the topic is important enough," Kepnes says.

How to choose your email length

So how do you decide whether to send short or long emails? It depends on your unique business goals, according to Andy Crestodina, a top email marketer and the founder of website consulting company Orbit Media. “If your goal is simply awareness, long or short is less important. If subscribers see it, like it, and smile, you met the goal! If your goal is traffic, then give the recipient the minimum amount of information needed to decide to click. The CTR (click-through rate) is everything and more text just means more noise in their inbox.”

Email marketing statistics: Characters in a subject line

The average character count of a subject line

Email subject lines play a huge role in whether your messages get opened. In fact, 47% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone, according to research done by Business2Community. After researching 1,000 subject lines, we found that email subject lines have 43.85 characters on average. Email marketing statistics: Characters in a subject line   82% of experts send subject lines with 60 characters or less. Which makes sense considering most desktop email clients, such as Gmail and Yahoo!, only display approximately 60 characters before a subject line gets cut off.

Why you should consider using short subject lines

46% of emails are opened on mobile devices, according to research conducted by email testing service Litmus. So it’s important to consider how mobile devices affect the ideal subject line character length. Most email clients stop displaying an email subject line on mobile devices once it reaches between 33 and 43 characters. The exact number varies from one email client to another. Since they don't get cut off in the inbox, shorter subject lines may outperform longer ones. And because only 10.9% of subject lines contain 20 characters or less, it may also be an opportunity to stand out. Brian Dean, founder of SEO company Backlinko and one of the 100 top marketers whose emails we analyzed, sends subject lines with an average of 15.1 characters. “After lots of testing I've found that short subject lines get much higher open rates,” Dean said. He believes these results are due to two factors:
  1. Short subject lines reach the inbox more frequently.
  2. Short subject lines are more mysterious.

“I used to try to outline the entire message in my subject lines. And it gave people no reason to actually open my email,” Dean says.

Email marketing statistics: Emojis in subject lines

The percentage of emails with emojis

Only 6.9% of the 1,000 email subject lines we analyzed incorporated emojis. That leaves a whopping 93.1% of subject lines without them. Email marketing statistics: Emojis in subject lines  

Why only 6.9% of emails contain emojis

Experts might see emojis as a risk, since they can display differently, and sometimes incorrectly, in email clients. In fact, subscribers opening emails on old computer operating systems may not see emojis at all. “Windows 7, which holds a major market share of 48.4%, offers very limited support for emojis, displaying in black and white or not at all,” email testing company Litmus says in its research on emoji support in email. [caption id="attachment_88494" align="aligncenter" width="800"] [Image source: Litmus][/caption]

Why you should consider using emojis in your subject lines

While only 6.9% of subject lines included emojis, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. In fact, this may mean you should test them with your own audience. It could be a huge opportunity to be unique. And emojis might actually increase open rates — as long as you use the right emoji, according to Mark Asquith, marketing expert and founder of Rebel Base Media. (Asquith is one of the 100 top marketers whose emails we included in our research.) He frequently uses the icons in his own subject lines. “A well-placed smiley, timer, or contextual emoji used alongside a well-thought-out subject line will really make your message stand out within someone's already very busy inbox,” he said.

Try a/b split testing two email subject lines — one with an emoji and one without. The results from your split test can help determine if emojis boost open rates with your own audience.

Related: How to Split Test Your Emails

Email marketing statistics: Subject line capitalization

The 3 capitalization formulas for email subject lines

To find out how top marketers use capitalization in their email subject lines, we examined the subject lines from our 100 experts to see if they relied on a particular capitalization formula. We found 3 common formulas: sentence-case capitalization (the first letter of the first word is capitalized), title-case capitalization (the first letter of every word is capitalized, except for articles like “the” and “an”), and all lowercase capitalization (every letter is lowercase). As an example, here is the same subject line with these 3 different formulas applied to it:
  1. Sentence-case: This is an email subject line
  2. Title-case: This Is an Email Subject Line
  3. All lowercase: this is an email subject line

How experts capitalize their subject lines

60% of email subject lines use sentence-case capitalization, 34% use title-case capitalization, and only 6% use all lowercase email subject lines. Email marketing statistics: Subject line capitalization  

Are lowercase subject lines an underused secret?

The majority of the experts we analyzed use sentence-case capitalization. But a few experts consistently send emails with entirely lowercase subject lines, like email marketing expert Val Geisler. Geisler is a freelance consultant and writer who specializes in email marketing, and we analyzed her emails for our research. Geisler points out that people are more likely to open an email if it’s from a personal connection or friend. “If you're writing an email to a friend, are you going to title-case the subject line? Probably not. You likely won't even use sentence-case capitalization," she said.“I write my emails like I'm writing to a friend so my subject lines follow the same principles. Does it work? I'll let my ~80% open rates and ~30% click rates speak for themselves.”

How should you use these email marketing statistics?

Use these findings as a guide the next time you’re writing an email. Want to stand out? Try a strategy that most people aren’t using — like emojis in subject lines or lowercase subject lines. Want to follow a proven strategy used time and again by the experts? Use the findings in this report to follow time-tested email copy strategies used by the majority of experts. To receive more research like this, as well as free email marketing advice and strategy, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter FWD: Thinking.

About the data from this research

We analyzed 1,000 marketing emails from 100 successful businesses and entrepreneurs. While we didn't randomly select these businesses, we chose experts across multiple industries and from numerous countries. See the complete list of the 100 businesses we included in our research (and follow them!) here.

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Tuesday, 8 January 2019

Twitter will begin testing ‘ice breakers’ to spark healthy conversation


Last year, Twitter touted a handful of features meant to spur conversation on the platform. Or, “increase the health of public conversation,” as CEO Jack Dorsey told Congress last year. At CES today, company representatives confirmed to Engadget that the features would roll out to certain users in the coming weeks as part of a public test. The first of these was a Facebook-like presence indicator that displays when users are online. Presumably, it’s easier to start a conversation with people who are actively using the social network at the moment you want to talk to them… who knew? Depending…

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In Instagram’s darkest corner, all it takes is a hashtag to uncover images of child sexual abuse


For pedophiles, a single hashtag opened the door to one of Instagram’s seediest corners, one where images of sexually exploited children were openly traded as if they were collectibles. For anyone willing to engage, finding images of child sexual abuse was about as simple searching for a laptop on Craigslist. The transactions started in the open with one of several hashtags — #dropboxlinks was one of the most popular, although variants for those seeking boys, gay, or a specific age group were prevalent. All it took was following (or searching for) the correct hashtags. Users then moved the conversation to…

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Wednesday, 2 January 2019

Create your social media campaign plan for 2019 (with editable worksheets)

The Ultimate Guide to Email A/B Testing

email ab testing

In a world where people are bombarded with countless emails on a regular basis, it’s more important than ever to craft emails with purpose. According to Statista, 269 billion emails were sent in 2017, and that figure is expected to rise to a staggering 333 billion by 2022. These days it’s not enough to assume you know what type of email your audience will want to open — let alone read through it entirely. You have to be certain. Creating great emails requires a lot of hard work, researching, and strategizing. The best emails are crafted not only with goals in mind, but also with the target audience at the forefront. From subject line strategies to sound design principles, there are many components that make up a successful email. But how can you be sure that one version of an email will be more successful than others? You’re not the first person to ask that question. What if there was a way to be sure that one version of an email would generate more engagement, lead to more landing page views, and/or provoke more sign ups? Well . . . there is. Email A/B testing or split testing is a brilliant way to determine what resonates with your audience and what sparks their interest. With email A/B testing, your team can gather data-backed proof of the effectiveness of your email marketing. (AWeber just released a new email A/B testing feature that allows you to test more than just your subject lines — like send times, copy, templates, buttons, and more! Try out AWeber for FREE for 30 days — and split test away!)

Getting Started with Email A/B Testing

Conducting an email A/B test is simple. Create two or three identical versions of the same email, but change one variable like the subject line, the lead image, or the CTA button. You can test variables as distinct or as nuanced as you see fit. For example: You might test the color of a CTA button versus testing the subject line. Related: 6 Email A/B Tests You Can Set Up in 1 Minutes If you think that creating multiple versions of the same email with a tweak or two sounds tedious or time-consuming (and wonder how much insight can you gain from changing the text on a CTA button), consider this. AWeber customer and photo sharing community Light Stalking split their email subject lines to gauge the success of one versus the other. email ab testing email ab testing As a result, they were able to increase their web traffic from the winning subject line email by 83%. How’d they do it? The founder of the community, Rob Wood, wanted to run an email A/B test on the subject line of the Light Stalking weekly challenge email, which asked subscribers to send in a photo of a silhouette. The test was simple: Wood created two identical versions of the same email, changing only the subject lines. The first email used a straightforward subject line, “The Weekly Challenge is Live!” and the second email was just one word and hinted at the nature of the challenge, “Silhouettes.” The email with the shorter headline (“Silhouettes”) was the winner, which Wood sent to the remaining 90% of his list. From there, the email yielded an above-average click-through rate, which drove more people to the Light Stalking website and increased overall engagement levels. Impressive, right? And simple. This is a perfect example of how email A/B testing helps you make data-backed decisions. With that, let’s talk a bit more about the basics of email A/B testing and how it can help you optimize your next email campaign. Related: Should You Capitalize Your Subject Lines? This Marketing Expert Found Out

Setting Goals for Email A/B Testing

Anyone can split test an email, but like anything in digital marketing, having a clear goal and purpose for testing is essential. Sure, you can run a quick email A/B test and obtain useful results, but having a more precise testing strategy will yield more powerful data. Email A/B testing is a great tool to use at any time, but it can be especially useful if you want to gain insight on a new campaign or email format. Before you begin your test, it’s essential to establish what you are testing and why. A few questions that can help guide your team at this stage include:
  • Why are we testing this variable?
  • What are we hoping to learn from this?
  • What is the impact this variable has in relation to the performance of this email?
In theory, you could test any element of an email, but some variables will give you more insight into your subscribers' minds than others. The beauty of split testing is that no variable is too small to test.

Copy Elements

Copy elements such as subject lines, headlines, body copy, and calls to action immediately come to mind when thinking about what variables to test. After all, copy elements are some of the first things people see when your email pops into their inbox (as well as after they open it), so it’s important to optimize. For example, a personalized subject line that reads, “Ben, did you see this?” versus “Did you see this?” could be the difference between a subscriber opening and deleting the email. But just how important are a few words? We wanted to get to the bottom of this, so we added an extra word to a call-to-action button in one of our promotional emails. Doing so subsequently increased our trial subscriptions by 12.8%. Talk about the power of words.

Design Elements

Design elements like colors, fonts, images, templates, and spacing are just as crucial to an email as the copy and links. Did you know that 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices? With this in mind, think about how your email visually appeals to subscribers and what they need to get the best reading experience. email design ab testing These two emails have the same copy and messaging, but are presented in very different ways. One puts a bit of written copy up top, while the other relies on a central hero image as a visual cue. This simple tweak in formatting could yield wildly different results. Email A/B test different templates, layouts, and formats to see which yields the best results for your email campaigns. Related: How to Create Amazing Photos for Your Emails on Zero Budget

Additional Elements

Aside from the visual and copy elements within an email, you can A/B test a few other variables as well. Testing when you send an email could be just as important as what your email says. When measuring the success of an email as it relates to the time it’s sent, consider:
  • Day of the week
  • Time of day
  • Relation to the time of year (e.g., holidays, industry events, seasons, etc.)
Testing the time you send an email can provide a valuable understanding of your subscribers' behavior as well . . . not just their interests. Not sure about what font to use for the body of the email? Test it. Going back and forth between a few colors for the CTA button? Test it. The bottom line: You can and should test different variables of your email campaign before launch so you can optimize for success. Just be sure you’re testing only one variable at a time to get the most accurate and useful results possible.

How big should your test sample size be?

It’s important to note that when conducting your email A/B test, you’re testing on only a small percentage of your subscriber list. You want your test list to be large enough that you can gauge how the rest of the subscribers will likely react without using the entire list, but just small enough that you can send the winning version to a large portion of your audience. The goal is to get accurate, significant results, so bigger lists (minimum 75 to 100 subscribers) typically work the best. However, keep in mind that you should be using a sample that represents the whole list, not just a specific segment. Related: Your Start-to-Finish Plan to Get 1,000 Subscribers So what does a sample look like? There are many ways to approach this. You can figure out a generic sample size with a calculation that factors in your email list confidence level, size, and confidence interval. Or, if you’re an AWeber customer, you can manually select the percentage of your list that will receive each version of the split test. create email ab test Either way, make sure you select a viable percentage of your list to send your test emails to so you have enough data to analyze. Often this is in the 10% to 20% range.

Best Practices for Email A/B Testing

Email A/B testing seems pretty straightforward, right? It is, but like any experiment, if you don’t solidify the details and ensure your test is valid, your results may turn out to be useless. Keep these things in mind when creating your split test:
  • Use a large enough sample to get as close to statistically significant as possible
  • Make sure your sample group is randomized
  • Test early (like before a campaign launch, so you have time to interpret the results) and test often
  • Identify each variable you want to study and test one at a time
The important thing to remember when it comes to creating an email A/B test is that it doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Email A/B testing is designed to deliver powerful, straightforward insights without a bunch of confusing variables.

Email A/B Testing Set Up

You have the basics of email A/B testing down, so let’s next discuss how to set one up properly.

Determine your goals

First things first: Identify the intentions behind the campaign you want to test. Your goals will act as your compass when figuring out the details of your email A/B test. Every component of your campaign should trace back to your end goals.

Establish test benchmarks

Once you have defined your goals, take a look at your current email data and examine how your previous email campaigns have fared. From there, use your findings as benchmark numbers. These numbers will be significant when it comes time to analyze your email A/B test data so you can gauge early success. These numbers should also help you decide on the variables you want to test moving forward.

Build the test

You have your goals and your benchmark data; now it’s time to build your test. Remember to test only one variable at a time. (Refer back to our best practices — above — if needed.) Bonus: Did you know AWeber customers can automatically split test their email campaigns (and can test up to three emails at a time)? It’s true. Here’s how it works: 1. Log into your AWeber account. 2. Hover over Messages, then click Broadcasts. email ab test 3. Click on Create. email ab test 4. Name your split test. Be as detailed as possible when naming them so you can make sure you select the right one when it comes time to run the test. email ab test 5. If you’d like, you can send your split test to a segment a.k.a. a group of subscribers. Click on the drop-down menu and select the segment. email ab test email ab test 6. Using the slider, define your split segments into their two or three groups. (You can change the percentages to make sure you’re testing with only a small percentage of your list. So if you were sending to two groups, you could have 10% of your list get one variation and another 10% get the second variation. Then, you can send the winning message to remaining 80% of your list.) Once you are satisfied with your settings, click Save. email ab test email ab test 7. Then, to select the message you want to test, click Select a Draft on the right hand side menu. email ab test 8. From there, select the message you want to use and click Select. email ab test 9.You will then see the selected message added into one of your split test segments. Click Schedule to schedule your split test message. email ab test email ab test 10. Schedule your message just as you would with any other Broadcast message within your AWeber account. Once your Broadcast settings are set, click Send Message Now. There you have it! Repeat these steps each time you want to send a split test message.

Email A/B Testing Inspiration and Examples

It can be tricky to identify what variable test can help you improve key metrics. Here are a few examples that can help you figure out which variables to test.

To improve your open rate…

This one is easy! To improve your open rate, you need to test different subject lines. We recommend trying a few different types of subject lines like questions, capitalization, long vs. short, subject lines with emotional value, emojis, etc. You can also test different preheaders — the preview snippet of text that is next to your subject line or below it (on mobile) in your inbox. In addition to testing subject lines, try sending the test emails at different times of day and see if that has an impact on the open rate. Your subscribers may be more inclined to open an email in the morning on their way to work or at night after dinner instead of during the middle of a workday. The better your subject line, the more likely your subscribers will open the email and read through. Having a solid subject line is like getting your foot in the door. Related: How Do I Avoid the Spam Filter?

To improve your click through rate…

Keep subscribers interested in the email by providing eye-catching, engaging content throughout. If it’s your click-through rate you want to improve, make sure you create clickable content. Consider how interactive content, information gaps (missing pieces of info that spark a reader’s curiosity), or contests could boost your in-email engagement. There are also many variables you can test to optimize for click-through rate — a strong CTA, intriguing anchor text, personalization, spacing, or bold imagery. Just remember to test one at a time to ensure you know precisely why subscribers are clicking more (or less).

To improve your reply rate…

Many marketers tend to overthink this one, but it’s actually pretty simple. If you want your subscribers to reply to your emails, ask them to! It’s that easy. Try testing a “From [your name] at [your business here]” approach, which can make an email feel like a personal note instead of an email blast. (For instance, “From Andy at AWeber” would be the sender name that appears.)  Think about it: If subscribers think they are replying to an actual person, they are more inclined to do so. You also might try testing long-form vs. short-form emails with a call-to-action that encourages subscribers to reply to the email with their thoughts, opinions, or questions. Leverage that P.S. line, too. That last line can be an opportunity to encourage conversations and replies from subscribers.

Tracking and Measuring Email A/B Testing Success

We’ve covered a lot of ground so far around email A/B testing. With so many elements to test, you might be thinking, “How can I verify that a campaign is successful or that a test yielded helpful data?” The answer: Think back to your goals. Your goals will tell you what metrics you should pay the most attention to and what you should work on improving. For example, if generating more leads from email campaigns is your goal, you’ll want to focus on metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and form fills. It’s also important to look at your metrics as a whole to see the big picture of how an email performed. Being able to track that data and refer back to it will also help you optimize future campaigns. Another question that might be top-of-mind for you: How long should you let an email A/B test run for before ending it and analyzing the results? According to Zapier, after about four to five days the effectiveness of an email dies out. They claim that if your email isn’t seeing any other significant activity after five days, it’s likely it won’t see any other activity. However, digital marketer Neil Patel recommends running your A/B test for at least two weeks with 100 subscribers to determine any statistical significance of your results — or that they aren’t due to chance. If you run your test for too short a period, you run the risk of not allowing enough subscribers to open the email. With that being said, why not test how long you run your test? If you see engagement with your emails die out after 48 hours, then you can cut the tests off around that point. Once your test has ended and as you begin analyzing your data, keep detailed notes of your findings. Ask yourself:
  • What metrics improved?
  • What elements of the email flat-out didn’t work?
  • Were there any patterns that correlated with past tests?
Maintaining records and tracking results will help guide future campaign optimizations. Put together a testing roadmap or a detailed record of what you’ve tested, the results, and what you plan on testing in the future. That way, you’ll have a detailed account of your tests and won’t leave any stone unturned in the process.

Get Started with Email A/B Testing Today

Email A/B testing is imperative to the success and optimization of any email campaign. It allows you to gain real insight that can help you make decisions about existing and future emails. Email marketing is always changing, and as subscribers’ attention spans seem to get shorter, it’s vital to know what will yield the most success. Get started today with AWeber. Our email A/B testing tool allows you to do more than just split test subject lines — you can test almost anything (calls-to-action, colors, templates, preheaders, images, copy, and more!). Give AWeber a FREE spin for 30 days.  Want to learn even more about email A/B testing? Download our free guide here.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Email A/B Testing appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.



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