Author: Franz Malten Buemann

News, sports, entertainment, culture—1440 Media covers all the recent and hot topics trending around the world. Not to mention, they do it daily, and in a totally digestible and impartial way. 
Their neutral tone and email newsletter format keeps it quick and easy for readers to stay up-to-date with the topics they’re most interested in—and brings on a refreshing approach to informational reporting. 
To carry on their mission of delivering the latest updates to readers, 1440 Media relies on Campaign Monitor to get the job done right. From deliverability teams to a dedicated Customer Success Manager, 1440 Media comes together with the Campaign Monitor team to bring these highly anticipated news stories to inboxes daily. 
Stats to brag about: How 1440 Media consistently hits high open rate benchmarks.
When we sat down with co-founders Drew Steigerwald and Tim Huelskamp to get the inside scoop on the 1440 Media success, we were blown away at the mention of their open rate. As any email marketer knows, a consistent 55%+ average open rate doesn’t just occur by luck—it’s the daily work that goes on behind the scenes that allows the team to achieve such impressive stats across all newsletter sends. 
So, what’s the secret behind such mind-blowing engagement rates? Huelskamp says it can be split up into three parts: The product, the account management, and the attention to technicalities. 
The 1440 Media team holds true that developing a lovable product is the first step to proper engagement. Though, creating a newsletter that’s timely, relevant, and interesting (without bogging down the readers too much) isn’t exactly an easy feat, especially with so many competitors. In fact, there’s a lot of time that goes into finding out the right balance between too much and too little information. And that’s not necessarily something the team can figure out on their own—this type of research takes hours of customer feedback to create the ideal product. It also requires asking their audience how they can improve—and why the 1440 newsletter is preferred over many others. 

As for account management, both Huelskamp and Steigerwald agree that far too many email marketers fear letting go of those ghost (or totally unengaged) subscribers. Taking the opposite approach to this fear, the 1440 Media team set up an email marketing program giving new subscribers 14 days (10 messages) to open an email before they become automatically removed from the list. Additionally, the 1440 Media team has a drip campaign set up for those who have temporarily lost interest, helping the team recover subscribers. 

On the technical side of things, deliverability is also a huge factor when it comes to achieving such consistently high open rates. With guidance from the Campaign Monitor deliverability team, 1440 Media can create an internal interface allowing them to maximize their deliverability. Each morning, the 1440 Media team receives an email that gives oversight into the backend of their email marketing program. With this system in place, the team can get ahead of any technical inconsistencies before they become a problem. 
When we asked Steigerwald about any advice he would give to other organizations who are struggling with open rates or engagement, he told us, “You need to get connected with your audience and figure out why people aren’t opening or engaging—because you can do all the work on the backend, but if you’re not delivering what people want, you’ll never improve your offering.” 
Deliverability serves as the backbone of a thriving business.
The 1440 Media team believes that it’s the integrity and quality of the Campaign Monitor platform that makes for such strong deliverability and open rates. Plus, the ability to quickly interact with the Campaign Monitor deliverability team allows the 1440 Media crew to not only take note of issues before they arise, but also have a better understanding of what those issues really mean. 
Steigerwald says, “Deliverability is the lifeblood of our business. I’m really shocked when I hear that other email marketers aren’t focused on it. You can create the best product in the world, but it doesn’t matter if it’s not making it to people’s inboxes.” 
But it’s not just open rates that makes deliverability such a key factor in the success of the 1440 Media email marketing program. Deliverability also plays a crucial role in generating revenue and profit for the company. 
“We sell ads based on how many subscribers open the email. So, a 4-5% increase in open rates [after switching to Campaign Monitor] leads to a 4-5% increase in revenues and profits. Strong deliverability and open rates add wild ROI to the business,” says Huelskamp. 
How 1440 Media found a successful partnership with the Campaign Monitor team.
Quick and personalized access to the Campaign Monitor support team and an assigned Customer Success Manager (CSM) are major selling points for 1440 Media. Because a direct line of communication with trained email marketing professionals helps ensure a more easygoing process for the 1440 team. 
“Despite how critical it is to the business, we don’t have a strong technical background in email sending. So, the ability to have access to experts is absolutely crucial. Campaign Monitor support can help us diagnose any problems and, very explicitly, tell us how to fix those problems,” says Steigerwald. 
When we asked Huelskamp and Steigerwald about their experience working with an assigned CSM, their words were filled with praise. Emily McAnnally is known to the 1440 Media team as more than just a fabulous CRM—she is a superb and valuable resource, who is always there to handle any questions or concerns in a prompt and efficient manner. 

Early on in their days with Campaign Monitor, the team was struggling with segmentation and understanding the basic logic behind the feature. Instead of spending hours finding answers on his own, Steigerwald turned to Emily, who was able to clear up his confusion in a moment’s time. 
“Emily is so proactive. She takes a problem we have and figures it out, but then she is also able to anticipate what we are going to ask next, based on our first problem, and she provides the answer to the next step, too. She truly wants us to succeed as an organization,” says Huelskamp.
Wrap up
We love working with amazing customers like 1440 Media. Watching our customers succeed is why we do what we do. If you want to hear how Campaign Monitor can help your business succeed, talk to one of our experts today.
The post Stats to brag about: How 1440 Media hits high open rates appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

After playing with both Campaign Monitor and MailBuild, I have to say you guys have, hands down, the best user experience of any newsletter service out there.
Gilbert Wilson , Council for a Livable World
How a newsletter can boost business
A regularly scheduled newsletter can have an incredible impact on your overall email marketing strategy, keeping your audience engaged and providing a powerful channel for back-and-forth communication. 
Traditional newsletters were sporadic emails sent to subscribers with new updates on the brand, new products, etc. But brands have become far more sophisticated with their approach to newsletters, and users have become more sophisticated in their expectations for communications. As a result, email newsletters are now sent out for a variety of purposes and come in several formats. 
Take these examples from Campaign Monitor’s client, Girlboss:

Source: Campaign Monitor
In the top example, Girlboss used a very traditional newsletter that is announcing a new addition to their community. Instead of a single group, they are announcing their new “collectives,” which are a selection of various communities catering to the needs of different subscriber segments. 
In the bottom newsletter, they are introducing readers to their new 12-week guide on investing. However, instead of a single email, they are sending out weekly messages on the topics of the week and what their subscribers can expect from the e-course. 
Both examples are creative uses of email newsletters—and both are incredibly effective when sent to the right subscribers. 
Why your brand needs to start using email newsletters
Thanks to the diverse nature of email newsletters, they make for excellent forms of communication between you and your subscribers. Need some convincing? Here are just a few reasons email newsletters are worth adding to your email marketing strategy:

When adequately segmented, they provide a deeper level of personalization to your communications with readers. Remember, 70% of millennials prefer personalized emails over blast communications. 

Email newsletters drive traffic to your website with an average click-through rate of approximately 7%.

83% of B2B marketers use email newsletters as a part of their content marketing strategy.

40% of B2B marketers say email newsletters are the most critical aspect of their content marketing success. 

What makes for a good quality email newsletter?
Looking for a few quick tips on how to create a quality email newsletter for your subscribers? Then consider these key points:
Your consumers only want information they find relevant.
Make sure to check with them regarding their email preferences or consider including an email preference center for them to give you the detail you need. This allows you to send them only the best, most valuable messages. 

Source: Really Good Emails
Design for the reader.
Since many newsletters include updates on products, new launches, or brand updates, you want to make sure you are designing for your readers. This means making it easy to skim through so they can find the information they want without “wasting time” on information they don’t care about.
 
Source: Campaign Monitor
Personalize content as much as possible.
Once you’ve collected valuable subscriber data, such as their name, location, and interests, make sure you are using that information to personalize each piece to the reader. This will increase the likelihood of them clicking on a link or taking some other form of action. 
Scaling up with branded email newsletter templates
Establishing a regular cadence for an ongoing newsletter series can feel like a lot of work. You can make the job more manageable by starting with a flexible newsletter email template that you can easily adjust and adapt as needed. 
A good template will save time and resources, so you can stay focused on crafting a great message instead of worrying about technical and design details. Creating a newsletter with Campaign Monitor’s takes it even further, making it easier than ever to adapt a template to your brand’s colors and art to create something unique, special, and representative of your organization.
Then it’s up to you to decide what kind of content and updates you want to include—a note from company leadership, product news, blog articles and so on. Get creative! It’s what will get subscribers to keep opening and look forward to getting your newsletter.
Wrap up
Email newsletters aren’t the one-off messaging they used to be. With so many ways to spin a newsletter, they can help you boost user activity and help drive traffic to your website. A few quick tips to keep in mind when designing an email newsletter include:

Prioritizing personalization
Designing for your readers
Sending only the most relevant information to each of your subscribers
Using a branded template to easily scale up your messaging

Looking for more tips on getting started with email marketing? Then make sure to check out our collection of excellent get-started resources today!
The post “Hands down, the Best User Experience” appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

HIKI, a newly launched genderless full body sweat brand, was set to reveal their DTC brand in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. Despite the pandemic, HIKI decided to push forward with the launch by shifting its social media marketing launch strategy to suit the times we were living in. But how did they manage to do so?
Read on for a behind-the-scenes look at how HIKI shifted their social media marketing strategy for a COVID-19 era and how they leaned on their community to co-create their products. You’ll hear directly from Tinah Ogalo, Social Media Coordinator at HIKI, and you’ll learn:

Where to find inspiration for creating social media content for a Gen-Z/millennial audience
How to leverage your community to inform your marketing strategy (and to create TikTok content)
How to plan for a successful new brand or product launch on social media
How to stay up to date on social media trends and updates

This post is part of the #BufferBrandSpotlight, a Buffer Social Media series that shines a spotlight on the people that are helping build remarkable brands through social media, community building, content creation, and brand storytelling.
This series was born on Instagram stories, which means you can watch the original interview in our Highlights found on our @buffer Instagram profile.

Who are you?
Hi, I’m Tina w/ an H. I’m the social media coordinator for arfa, a new consumer goods brand house specialising in personal care products. We co-create every product with real people from all over the country (we call them the arfa Collective) because we believe people should have a say in what they put on their bodies. And in return, we make them stakeholders in the business and give them 5% of profits. We currently have two brands that we launched this summer: HIKI, a genderless full body sweat line, and State Of, a skincare and beauty line for menopausal women.
Where do you find inspiration for HIKI’s social media content?
Our HIKI audience is predominantly Gen-Z / millennials, so I look to platforms and topics that those demos are currently responding to most, like pop culture, TikTok, Giphy, and my Instagram explore page. I also am so inspired by our community’s posts about HIKI. They created the brand with us and they’re so invested in its success, so when they post content to their socials about our products, I am always re-posting or coming up with creative ways to showcase their content.
Our HIKI audience is predominantly Gen-Z /millennials, so I look to platforms and topics that those demos are currently responding to most.

View this post on Instagram

Two things we love: Our Anti-Chafe Stick and @theogermaine 😍 A post shared by HIKI (@hiki_foranybody) on Aug 13, 2020 at 9:05am PDT

One example was the ‘Put a Finger Down’ challenge on TikTok. We saw that this was a great way to engage with our community so we created our own version to show them and others that sweating is totally normal. We had our Collective members, Noelle and Gabe participate in the challenge. Fun Fact – that’s our UX Designer, Ian’s, voice. We thought a British accent would be a nice added touch LOL.
How does managing HIKI’s social media account and community look like on a day-to-day basis?
Every morning I check to see what posts I’ve got lined up for the day, and then I go through all of our notifications that I may have missed from the night before. For the rest of the day, I’m working on the content calendar that’s two weeks out, searching for the latest trends, leveraging audience insights, making creative briefs for assets I want to incorporate into the feed, and working closely with our designers to create custom content for each platform.
HIKI was launched in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. How did HIKI shift its marketing launch strategy to suit the times we were living in?
I joined in June, so I wasn’t at arfa for the initial launch, but the team did an amazing job. They had all of these plans for launch, then when COVID hit, people’s lives and priorities shifted of course, as a business ours did as well. It felt counter-intuitive to what we were trying to build – products and brands that put people first – to launch for-profit as though the world hadn’t changed. We also realized sourcing supplies was a big problem for a lot of folks, so we decided to instead give away all of the products we had ready to sell and ship to healthcare personnel, essential workers, and first responders—we ended up giving away 20,000 products, and I am so proud of that.
It felt counter-intuitive to what we were trying to build – products and brands that put people first – to launch for-profit as though the world hadn’t changed.
It also helped us a lot when we officially launched for sale in July, because we had about 300 reviews on the site and had already gotten some amazing feedback from customers that I could use on social. Beyond that, we really leaned on our Collective, the people from all over the country we built the brand with, and micro and nano influencers to get as much vibrant and fun content as possible to push on our organic and paid channels to spread awareness. And it worked! The response to our branding on social accounts has been overwhelmingly positive.
What marketing/social media advice do you have for brands that are pre-launch?
Launches are always hectic (but so fun!), so it’s important to do as much heavy lifting beforehand so you can sit back on launch day and enjoy the show. Build up your asset arsenal so you have lots of social content to choose from in the first few weeks, gift 50-100 influencers in the 20K-100K range to generate buzz, partner with like-minded brands on social giveaways to build up your email list, and do lots of research on relevant hashtags. And definitely have at least a two-week plan so then you can breathe.
Build up your asset arsenal so you have lots of social content to choose from in the first few weeks, gift 50-100 influencers in the 20K-100K range to generate buzz, partner with like-minded brands on social giveaways to build up your email list.
How do you leverage HIKI’s community to inform your marketing strategy?
Our Collective wants us to succeed just as much as we do, getting feedback from them is always great because it’s so inspiring. Creating engaging stories such as polls and questions allows us to see what our community likes and doesn’t like. Right now we know that they’re big fans of product shots and memes. They tell us how they incorporate HIKI into their lives and in turn, helps us share with our community different HIKI Hacks.
Creating engaging stories such as polls and questions allows us to see what our community likes and doesn’t like.
HIKI’s Co-ounders with The Collective membersWhat’s your number one tip for engaging with HIKI’s community?
Be active and listen! Check throughout the day that you’ve answered everyone, pinned tweets, liked comments. Even on the weekends, I check on our page in the morning, midday, and evening. It’s so important to us that our social account feels like a person(because it is! It’s me! :)) and we all are engaging with our feeds regularly, so the same should go for HIKI.
How do you stay up to date on social media/marketing trends?
I am always on the platforms, looking at what interesting new brands are doing and what’s trending. (Side note: I LIVE for TikTok trends). I also listen to podcasts and read social media blogs, like Homemade Social, to stay in the know.
What’s your favorite HIKI product and why?
I love all of our children equally, but if I HAD to pick, I’d say the Body Powder because it smells amazing, is talc-free, and rubs into my skin seamlessly. Besides putting some on my lower back to fight my daily back sweat, I also use it as a setting powder.

View this post on Instagram

Bad news? Talcum powder is harmful and it can be found in many personal care products. Good news? We don’t use talc 😏 A post shared by HIKI (@hiki_foranybody) on Sep 21, 2020 at 8:54am PDT

We hope this interview with Tina w/ an H helps you get started with or double down on your social media efforts. You can follow her journey on Instagram here!
Have any questions for Tinah? Feel free to reply with your questions to the Twitter post below and Tinah or someone from the Buffer team will get to them as soon as possible.

For our second #BufferBrandSpotlight episode, we’re featuring @tinah_ogalo, Social Media Coordinator at @hiki_foranybody, a full body sweat brand that launched while the pandemic was in full swing. Head to our Instagram stories series to hear from Tinah: https://t.co/5QBF0B2ENr pic.twitter.com/f3fS9uRba8— Buffer (@buffer) October 1, 2020

Email marketing is one of the most flexible, versatile, and effective options in the marketing toolkit, able to deliver outstanding results on its own or fit seamlessly into larger strategies. It’s a high-value, accessible service that almost any agency can incorporate into its offerings to attract new clientele, grow your accounts, and make your shop as sticky as possible. 
Best of all for agencies, email ROI is highly attributable, meaning it’s easy for you to show exactly how much revenue you’re bringing in and keeping you an essential part of their marketing program.
Once you’ve added email marketing as part of your agency business services, you can start encouraging your current and potential clients to make use of it. Here are our top 5 ways to encourage your clients to get started with (or refocus on) email marketing.
1. Offer these statistics to prove that email marketing works.
The biggest selling point for email marketing is simply that it works! Email marketing gets business results, and gets them for less cost than other marketing methods.
Explain to your clients some of these highlights:

Emails are a great way to get in closer contact with customers. It doesn’t rely on your customer remembering to visit your site, or seeing a print advertisement. It’s the ultimate 1:1 engagement channel.
You can personalize emails to suit the particular interests of that customer, instead of sending a generic brochure.
You only pay for people you are actually sending to, instead of blasting a message out to the world at large.
It’s easy to scale. Whether you’re just reaching out to a handful of subscribers or engaging a list of millions, email can keep up and grow with your business.

Email marketing is calculated to return $42.00 for every $1 spent in ROI. That’s an incredible ratio.

Once you start delivering results, don’t forget to record your success into compelling stories. Build case studies highlighting results and use them as prime sales collateral.

2. Track the results from email marketing to connect results to specific campaigns.
One of the frustrations with many marketing activities is that it can be hard to tell what works, and what just costs money. When you conduct email marketing with a tool like Campaign Monitor, you can see what works at a glance—and what doesn’t.
Show your clients some of the detailed, in-depth reports you can provide on key email marketing metrics. You might even go further; set up a sample account, and let them click around and see some real reporting.
If something isn’t working, they’ll find out and be able to tweak it immediately, at low cost. This is a potentially huge saver of time and money.
Don’t forget to explain your approach to email marketing testing. Show them how you never stop pushing for better results and have a systematic approach to helping them optimize their campaigns.
3. Manage email marketing with ease.
If your client has tried email marketing in the past, they may have been overwhelmed by unsubscribe requests or bounces coming back to them. Or they might have tried a system that was difficult to learn and frustrating to use. Not all email technology is the same, and some email platforms are more intuitive than others.
You can offer something better: Automated processes that handle all the tedious subscribing, makes sure people can get off the list when they want to, and keeps track of emails that bounce. Ask them how much time they used to spend doing those things, and what they could achieve if they spent that time being creative, innovative, and analytical instead.
If your client or prospect is relatively new to email marketing, it can be intimidating to get started. Use a tool that comes with prebuilt high-performing email templates and an easy drag-and-drop interface. A what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach is far more approachable to these clientele.
4. Emphasize the flexibility of email marketing.
Take some time to think of a few ways your specific client could use email marketing. Propose a few low-risk, high-reward ideas they could use to get started and see results quickly:

Could they feature a different product each week, and offer special prices to frequent buyers? 
Maybe they can have case studies of customers using their service, and can segment their lists to send them to other potential customers in similar industries. 
Could they email customers who have been out of touch for a little while, and ask if they have any suggestions?

Revisiting their triggered emails, like their welcome series or order confirmations, could deliver big gains.

A big promotion centered around an upcoming holiday relevant to their product is an easy way to be creative and help get clients excited about committing before that window of opportunity closes.

You want your clients excited about the possibilities! If you put some effort in first to start them off, they may come up with some even better ideas on their own.
5. Show them a working example of your email marketing services in action.
One final thing you might try would be to include a sample email design with your web designs. A lot of digital marketing can seem theoretical and difficult to visualize. Seeing their brand in action as an email could be much more convincing and inspiring than graphs and slideshows. 
Wrap up
Why not send a sample email to your client, with their own branding on it? P.S. you can do this FREE through Campaign Monitor, and should only take you a few minutes to mock up.
We’d love to hear any comments on other techniques that have worked for you or you plan on trying. Any pitching ideas we’ve missed?
Get powerful, agency-grade email technology your clients can’t resist. Choose the platform designed and built by agencies, for agencies and learn why Campaign Monitor is loved by more than 50,000 agencies around the world. Learn more.
The post 5 Ideas You Can Use When Pitching Email Marketing to Your Clients appeared first on Campaign Monitor.