Tag : Admin

Updates to the email template editor

Posted by TravelMailer at 10:53 am

Our WYSIWYG email template editor has had an update – we’ve added new menu items and formatting tools so you can take greater control when editing email templates. Once you upload an email template to your account, you can use the editor to add text and images just as before, however now you will find the interface far more intuitive, powerful and be able to add content tags and quick links with ease.

We’ve made it much easier to personalise your email campaigns with regular content tags such as ‘First name’ and ‘Email’. But with this update, you can now also add custom fields from your subscriber list’ and lots of variations of today’s date. The former should be especially useful if you’re planning to personalise your email with nice details such as the subscriber’s location, interests or even a message like, “We’re glad you were referred to us via a friend, please let everyone know about our store, too!” (where ‘a friend’ is the value in a ‘Referrers’ custom field):

We made it really easy to add quick links such as ‘Forward to a Friend’ and ‘Unsubscribe’ via the editor – they’re all available via a drop-down menu. In addition, we’ve given you more control over colors and formatting via the toolbar:

You can resize your editor window, too:

It’s been a big week for email templates and the WYSIWYG editor in general. Let us know what you think of the updates – we hope it makes working with email templates a much easier and more time-efficient task.

Segments are good for you

Posted by TravelMailer at 3:29 pm

Although previously considered to only be in the realm of expert email marketers, segmentation of your subscriber list is something that everyone can do – and should. In this post we will cover some of the great reasons why you should apply segmentation to your campaigns, how to segment your lists and finally, mention that segmentation should be used to promote engagement, not kill it.

What is a segment?

A segment is a subset of one of your existing subscriber lists. Simply speaking, it’s a group that can be defined by you, based on criteria such as:

• If the subscriber clicked a link in a previous campaign
• If the subscriber joined your list prior or a specific date
• A match with any of your custom fields (eg. Subscriber lives in Berkeley)

Lets say you’re running a coffee club meet in Berkeley. Your list may contain a lot of other coffee club subscribers from across the country, but your email is only relevant to subscribers living in Berkeley. That’s where list segmentation can come to the rescue.

But that’s not all…

There are oodles of other reasons why you should use list segmentation, including:

• Sending introductory offers to, or asking for feedback from new subscribers
• Re-awakening subscribers that have not responded to your last few campaigns
• Limiting your subscriber list when sending a campaign to subscribers who responded to a previous campaign
• Testing a new subject line or call-to-action on subscribers who did not respond to a previous campaign
• Sending nice notes to subscribers on their birthday

Segmentation can create more personal, targeted interactions between you and the subscriber, as well as minimize list fatigue. Secondly, it’s a great way to get in touch with specific groups such as inactive subscribers, who may simply need a different kind of prompting.

So, where do we start?

We’re going to pick up again with the example of a coffee club meet in Berkeley. Lucky for us, our subscriber list includes the custom field, ‘Suburb’, so we will be able to filter and segment our list using ‘BERKELEY’ as criteria.

Start by clicking the ‘Manage Subscribers’ tab and in the ‘List’ column, click on your subscriber list. You will now be able to view all the subscribers in your list. To define a segment of this group, click ‘Segments’.

On the ‘Manage segments’ page, click ‘Create a new segment’. You will then be asked to enter a name for your new segment. Make it something meaningful, like ‘Subscribers in Berkeley’. Now we will create the first rule for our new segment. From the ‘Create your first rule based on…” drop-down, select ‘Suburb’ and click ‘Add Rule’.

We now want to specify that we will be selecting subscribers from Berkeley only for this segment. To do this, beneath ‘Suburb’ we will select Suburb Equals ‘BERKELEY’. You also have the opportunity to add further rules, as well as OR conditions to the rules you specify (e.g. Suburb Equals ‘BERKELEY’ OR Equals ‘OAKLAND’). Once satisfied, click ‘Save and refresh count’. The number of active subscribers that match the criteria and thus, will populate this segment are displayed.

You can now use this segment to send your email to, or alternately, you can view the subscribers’ details or export the list as a CSV or text file. To send your email campaign, simply check the segment you want to send to when defining your recipients.

And voila. 87 Berkley coffee drinkers and a list of subscribers happy to receive one less irrelevant email.

So… It all looks like win to me.

Not so fast. While there are countless advantages to clever segmentation of your subscriber lists, the above-average delivery and response rates for certain segments may tempt you to send these groups plenty of email, while ignoring the rest of your subscribers. Remember to share the load – even if a subscriber hasn’t responded to your last two campaigns, that’s no reason to segment them out of your next send. These dormant subscribers may be simply waiting for a more compelling offer. Plus, you may run the risk of fatiguing your most valuable subscribers.

Happy segmenting!