Astonish Blog

Astonish Email

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:52:00 GMT

Hello…

It’s been a while since we have provided an update on the Astonish Email system, but the wait is no more….

BETA Test a success!

We are delighted to announce that our BETA testing period for Astonish Email v1 is almost over. The testing period has been a huge success with some fantastic feedback and many happy testers. Of course there was the odd glitch but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. Some feedback we received included -

“Loving the effective simplicity of @AstonishEmail new system. The uploading of contacts from excel is beautiful, and I'm not even a techie!”

“A pleasant experience all the way through”

“Its modern look and feel is really good, and as a result feels much more user friendly than other systems. Brilliant!”

“The copy and paste ability from MS Office software is great. It is really good not to have to download images into the online software….amazing!”

Testing Astonish Email v1.1

After listening to the feedback provided by testers we decided there were some key additions we would like to make to the system. So while you were testing we were developing! We have a whole host of brand new features ready for when we launch.

If anyone is interested in testing the new features we will be having a small testing phase before we formally launch, if you are interested please email me at adam.lovelock@astonishemail.com. In exchange for your feedback we will provide you with some very special launch offers!

I will be back in contact very soon regarding details of our launch.

Continued success,
Adam L

Building your email marketing list

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:18:00 GMT

The question I receive more than any other when talking to clients and prospects about Email Marketing is ‘How do I build my email marketing list?’ Over the past few years both ourselves and our customers have experimented with numerous different strategies and tactics to build successful lists of opt-in email prospects.

This is a huge subject with many areas to look into, so over the coming weeks I am going to try and Blog back our findings on this topic.

Why Email Marketing?

The overall strategy underpinning email marketing is to drive contacts to your website where you can then do business with them. For prospects, you can continue to keep contact throughout their decision-making process and position yourself as the ‘Expert’ in your field (do not fail by not following up!). And for present or past customers, consistent contact can continue to build your relationship and improve your customer retention over time.

Building your own opted-in email marketing list

This is quite simply the key to email marketing success. Building your opt-in list of targeted email clients is now one of the most important and practiced marketing activities. Your email list is actually a group of potential ‘sales leads’ so the more effort you can put into developing your list, the more potential customers you will have. If you fail to collect email addresses then your online business growth will slow and potentially fail.

Once you start to market your list you can begin to track the trends of your contacts (who opened your communication, who visited your website, who showed interest in certain areas of your communication). You can use this information to further segment your list and send more targeted information to them in the future.

But more than anything else, once you have built a list of opted-in prospects, you have a group of people who are following your content, so ensure you use it to your advantage.

Over the coming weeks I am going to Blog in more detail on various aspects (below) on this subject.

1) Why build your email marketing list

2) Strategies and tips on growing your email marketing list

3) How to capture your prospects email details

4) Best Practices in building your opt-in email list

5) How to maximise the potential of your email marketing list

In the meantime I would be really interested in hearing about your experiences building your email marketing lists, Successes? Problems? Ideas? Experiments?

Until next time...

Adam L

Make sure your emails are being read

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:53:00 GMT

Its not about your ‘open rate’, its all about the ‘read rate’

Firstly before looking at some tips and tricks to ensure your email campaigns are being read, it’s worth noting the 2 main considerations for successful email marketing.  

A good contact list – contacts whom opt-in for your communications.

Great copy – communications that are about the reader, not just your business.

  If you achieve these 2 main points above you are making progress, however let me share some more little tips with you.   

Tuesdays and Wednesdays for B2B campaigns 

Our research has demonstrated that you’ll get a higher response to your email marketing campaigns on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. When you think about this, it makes sense. On Mondays, people are trying to get back on track from the weekend, and on Fridays, people are trying to wrap things up before they take off for the weekend. However this is also dependent on your targets, so testing is the key to find the ideal time for your messages to be sent.  

Mornings are best 

Send your marketing emails in the morning, so that people have time to read them during their breaks or lunch hour. However don’t send to early! Mid-morning is best – first thing in the morning your prospects will be clearing out messages from the night before, and more importantly drinking coffee and talking about last night’s soaps!  

Stop selling and start providing valuable information

 Many companies don’t believe email marketing works. Why? Because all they do is send out sales messages. Provide your prospects with useful information they can actually use that is linked to your business and proves your expertise.   

Short and sweet  

These days, people have information overload. Keep your email short and to the point, and include well-marked, working hyperlinks so they can visit your web site to find out more.  

Watch your frequency 

You have to strike the balance between keeping your business in front of potential customers, and turning them off because they start thinking of your email as spam. Everyone’s list is different, and you need to find the perfect balance when considering frequency.

Do you have any tips on ensuring your email campaigns are being read? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Adam L

Webinar - BETA Test Intro

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 08:33:00 GMT

We will be hosting a Webinar on Wednesday 7th December @ 15:30 (London GMT).

The Webinar is aimed at BETA testers of the new Astonish Email system, however is open for anyone who is interested. It will be chance to have a walk through of the system and hear the theory behind the features, live and direct from Astonish HQ.

There will also be a Q&A so you can ask us any testing questions you have relating to the new system.

The steps to creation.

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:53:00 GMT

It has been a long slog for both Ad and myself, however we are finally about to launch Astonish Email, a system that represents a culmination of 5 years of experience and collaboration working on ‘Email Marketing’. Although our commercial launch date is still not set, we are now into our BETA testing period, and hope to unveil Astonish Email to the world very soon.

Although our overall plan hasn’t always been to build our own system, we have always believed there is a gap in the industry for a system that is GENUINELY easy to use and doesn’t require a huge user guide and hours of training.

After sending out 1,000’s of email campaigns for 100’s of customers you could say we have served our ‘Email Marketing’ apprenticeship, and its this experience which we feel is the key to our new system.

We have learnt:

What features are really needed for successful campaigns.

This is crucial. There are lots of feature heavy systems out there. However the more features a system carries the more complex it becomes.

During the planning stages of Astonish Email we agonised over every little detail and feature. The essentials are all there in Astonish Email and more, however some features were cut to ensure the user experience is first class.

What areas of email systems are the most difficult, and how to overcome the issues.

We have used or tested pretty much every email marketing system available, we could write a rather boring book about it in fact! This knowledge as well as supporting customers’ queries has meant we are more than aware of the most common issues users encounter when using Email Marketing Systems.

For example uploading data to a system is normally a time consuming, tedious job. Not with Astonish Email. Designing beautiful looking emails always encounters problems. Not with Astonish Email. You get the message…

Just providing software is not enough.

Email Marketing success is gained through a mix of art and science There are tons of useful tips and tricks you can use to enhance your campaigns. We have gained vast experience in how to be successful with Email Marketing, and most importantly we are still learning. This Blog, Customer Newsletters and Webinars will all be available to our customers so you can learn with us.

Astonish Email is a result of the experiences we have had on our journey so far. If we had built the system when we first formed Astonish it would have been very different, it would have been just ‘another’ Email Marketing System.

Adam L

You BETA believe it….

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:20:00 GMT

We are delighted to announce that from today our new system Astonish Email is officially in its testing phase (BETA).

The aim of Astonish Email is to simplify Email Marketing so you achieve astonishing results, without eating into your valuable time and gaining the mother of all headaches.

If you are interested in either BETA testing the new system or you want to be notified when we launch, visit www.astonishsystems.com