5 Festive Tips for Successful Email Marketing this Christmas

It's that time of year again! As a small business owner Christmas can be a frantic time of the year, but one that presents unique business opportunities. Whether you are a retailer attempting to make the most of the Christmas spend, a restaurant targeting the party season or an accountancy wanting to engage in the festive spirit, email marketing can be an integral part of your communications.  

So being the nice guys we are, we thought we would take some time out to give you our 5 tops tips for successful email marketing this Christmas.

Where you can find images to use in your email marketing campaigns

There is no doubt, used well; images can have a major impact on the success of your email marketing campaigns. However one of the major issues many small businesses have is where can I find images to use in my campaigns?

Obviously the temptation is to search the Internet and copy a photo or illustration straight into your website of email campaign. However unfortunately you can’t do this, all images are the property of the photographer or artist, so using images without permission infringes copyright laws.

Looking for a super-simple UK-based alternative to Big US based companies?

After spending many years helping small businesses to be successful with email marketing we became frustrated at how complex the systems on the market had become - so frustrated we built our own!

Astonish Email was created to provide small businesses with a super simple and effective alternative to some of the big names already on the market. Our system saves small businesses time and helps them to develop their own campaigns to grow their business through email marketing. 

Email Marketing IS here to stay!

Over the past few years I have been asked one question more than any other. ‘Is email marketing here to stay?’

I am clearly a huge advocate of email marketing, especially as a tool for small businesses to keep in contact with their customers and prospects. And my view is email marketing is here to stay, in fact it's importance to small businesses is growing rapidly year on year. 

How to grow your business with Email Marketing in 2015

Email marketing continued to grow in popularity with small businesses in 2014 as a method in keeping in contact with customers and prospects; we take a look at how you can maximise the opportunity in 2015.

We were in the lucky position last year to see millions of emails sent through our system, and we are happy to share the unique insight we gained with you. So here are our 6 top tips for successful email marketing in 2015.

Email marketing still offers the most BANG for your buck!

For yet another year, email marketing has remained the best online channel for providing return on investment. In fact, latest research from eConsultancy’s Email Marketing Industry Census shows revenue has increased by 28% in the last year - Wow!

51% of email is opened on Mobile! iOS still leads the way.

The proportion of email opened on mobile devices has reached 51% so has finally overtaken desktop! This means it is essential to make sure your emails are working on smartphones.

And even though the market share of Android OS keeps growing, iOS devices account for a much larger proportion of mobile email opens. iOS accounts for 22% of email viewed on smartphones, with only 6% on Android, while iPads account for a massive 11.4% of the 12.1% opened on tablets.

Astonishing Black Friday offer! 3 months for price of 1

3 Months Email Marketing, for the price of 1!

+ A 1 hour online consultation with one of our email marketing experts

We have a special Black Friday offer not to be missed to help kick start your marketing in 2015! Sign up for our 'Starter' package and you will receive 3 months use of Astonish Email for the price of one!* Plus you will receive a hour long online consultation with one of our experts, who can design you a branded email template, show you how to use the system and provide some tips and tricks for successful email marketing. 

To take up the offer simply enter BLACKFRIDAY14 when signing up for our 'Starter' account by Midnight Friday 28th November 2014.

If you haven't already got a account with Astonish Email you can create one here.

If you have any questions contact the team at hello@astonishemail.com

*You will pay £8.30 a month (inc. VAT) a month for 3 months, rather than our normal price of £25.00 (inc VAT) a month. 

Astonish Guest Blog: Social Media - From Empowerment To Destruction In The Click Of A Button

We are massive advocates of social media at Astonish, however we are also well aware of the risks involved for small businesses. This months guest blog is from Michelle Duckworth, Managing Partner of DBB Solicitors. The blog gives a fantastic insight into the possible legal implications behind your social media strategy.

Social media presents real commercial opportunities if harnessed effectively.  After all, it forms part of everyday working practices, offering professional and personal benefits. It can engage clients, advertise and profile your company, provide feedback, facilitate networking and allow you to post comments and share experiences. Social media knows no geographical barriers, facilitating global access to your business.

Astonish Success Story: AV3 Software

This month’s customer success story is AV3 (www.av3software.com) an online shop based in the UK providing plugins to the video editing industry across the world. 

As an online business, email marketing along with social media is a crucial communication method for AV3, allowing them to send out product information, special offers and industry news to all of their contacts and customers.

Here is what AV3 Marketing Manager Ian Easton had to say about Astonish Email:

“Email Marketing is a key marketing activity for AV3. Since the business launched we have collated a large email list consisting of resellers, past customers and visitors to our site. 

Our main aim with email marketing is to keep our subscribers up to date with the latest news, updates and special offers from AV3 as well as other key industry information. We understand that the more value we can provide within our correspondence, the more loyal our subscribers become. This ultimately yields more return visits to our site, which in turn helps our stats and conversion rates. 

The Astonish Email system is perfect for our email marketing requirements. It's simplicity of use means we can get key product and industry news out quickly. The return on investment we receive is excellent, ensuring email marketing remains one of our top marketing priorities.”

How Email Marketing has become Liveport UK's key marketing strategy

This months Astonish Email success story is Joe Burnell from Liveport (www.liveport.co.uk). Liveport UK provides hotels with guest wireless Internet services and was launched by Joe in November 2012.

In the early stages of the business Joe believed it was important to keep in regular contact with all of the hotels he was meeting. Joe used Astonish Email to ensure at least once a month he was sending communications to explain the benefits of his product and the value it could provide Hotels.

This regular communication has helped Joe to convert many prospect opportunities, proving the value of Email Marketing with Astonish Email.

Here is what Joe had to say about Astonish Email:

“We launched Liveport in the UK in November 2012 and we simply wouldn't have had the success we've had to date without using Astonish Email.

The system is very simple to use, emails are quick to create, and the return on investment we have gained is extremely high. We originally saw e-mail marketing as quite far down the marketing priority list but now I would class it as our must successful and cost effective form of marketing.”

Setting up a Facebook Page for your Business

Social media for businesses has become one of the most important platforms for both engaging customers and promoting brands. Facebook in particular, with a projected user base of around 665 million, has become one of the more fundamental platforms to have a presence on. However, simply creating a page for your business does not guarantee success, and if not approached correctly can end up being a costly drain on time and resources, especially for smaller businesses who may not have the workforce to waste. In order to maximise the marketing opportunities that a Facebook page can provide, there are some useful guidelines to consider when getting started.

Astonishing blogging on AllBusiness.com

Astonish Email founder Adam Lovelock has been recently become the Email Marketing expert for Allbusiness.com, one of the world’s largest and most recognised online resources for Small Businesses. AllBusiness.com's business value has been recognised in coverage by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, US News & World Report, USA Today, and many other publications.

The Business Show 2014 – An Astonishingly Successful Exhibition!

So, the dust has started to settle after an astonishingly action-packed 48 hours. 2 days of winning workshops, stimulating seminars and cracking conversations, all held at ExCeL London, the international exhibition and convention centre.

The show itself was a massive success with over 30,000 attendees and 350 exhibitors gathering from all over the UK to form the fastest growing business show in Europe. 

Astonishing Opportunity to partner with Astonish Email

We are delighted to announce a unique opportunity to partner with us to help support our every growing customer base of small businesses.

The Astonish Partner scheme operates inn 2 main ways – 

1) As an Astonish Certified Partner you will have your own unique partner portal, this will allow you to add accounts for your customers and set up and send email campaigns on their behalf. 

2) All Astonish Certified Partners will be listed on our website and advertised to our client base who are always looking for help with their email campaigns. You will also be able to display our ‘Certified Astonish Partner’ badge on your website. 

Email Marketing just got easier.