Blog archive

Finchy!

No, I’m not revelling in my favourite quotes from Ricky Gervais’ The Office, I’m referring to our second Scally car... thanks to one of our lovely business development crew, we have another Scally car, Finchy – named after her kind donor Katie Finch :-)

Gmail Priority Inbox encourages Digital Rapport in Email Marketing

We've been talking  about things like preference centres being rapport building because it gives control to the recipient, well now Gmail has announced the beta launch of 'Priority Inbox' a new feature which gives more control within the inbox itself.  Andy Thorpe takes a look at this new feature and what it means for email marketers.

Capture that data

In this blog I share my thoughts on data capture and how it’s the simple things that can really make a difference.

Feeling the highs and lows of Scally Rally

Ok so where do I start. Well I’ve wanted to do a Scally with Pure360 since I started here just over a year ago as it fit in so well with our character and brand, and let’s face it – it was going to be a very fun marketing campaign.

Continental car troubles and cross-dressing. Buckle up, It's adventure o'clock!

Our entrance into Scally Rally Europe has been a hot topic in the office for a few months now. I hope sharing my thoughts from the past week will give an insight of just how much of an adventure lies ahead...

Pure360 reveals statistics on how weather effects can influence email marketing campaigns

Check out some of the results from our latest study on how weather affects email marketing as we reveal that sunny weather can double effectiveness of campaigns.  

The research has revealed that marketers should consider weather patterns when executing email campaigns, as purchasing power is undeniably linked to the colour of the clouds overhead...

Charity Adoption Email Marketing Strategy

In this blog I’m drawing on my own experiences with the popular ‘Sponsor a child’ or ‘Sponsor an animal’ charity campaigns so I can highlight why email marketing is key to the success of such charity campaigns both now and in the future.

July’s email marketing tips: the best content from around the web

I've been scouring the internet for the freshest news, views and tidbits for our monthly review of email marketing tips...

Managing subscriptions: Key to successful charity email marketing: Part 2

In the first part of this series I looked at getting your content out there and how frequently supporters should and could be contacted.  In Part 2 you can take a look at my tips for ensuring you email people with relevant information that they want to receive and I will also be taking a look at using a preference centre to manage subscriptions. 

Q and As from the Online Retail Strategy Webinar

In the second in our webinar series trainer to the stars, Maria, ran through proven strategies such as welcome programmes, collecting data and retargeting campaigns, that you can implement easily with examples of hem put into practice.

In case you missed out on the webinar the Q and As from the session are right here.

The road to Scally doesn’t always run smoothly

So here we are about to embark on our Scally adventure, well in 6 weeks anyway, and there is still lots to do! Cars, mechanics, insurance, hotels = quite a challenge...

Welcome to the wonderful world of Scally Rally

At Pure360 we love a challenge so when someone suggested we take part in the Scally Rally race across Europe we jumped at the chance...

Roundup of July statistics on email marketing, we love a good stat!

OK, so as an email marketing company there’s no denying it, we’re always obsessed with stats related to the work we do on a day-to-day basis, it certainly helps our own activity...

Content and control: Key to successful charity email marketing: Part 1

In the first part of his two part series on successful charity email marketing, Andy Thorpe looks at the best way to use email to convert interested parties into a loyal fanbase with content and control (or the giving up of it). 

Talking about the weather (ok, & email marketing research) with the BBC

Digital marketers in an analogue world… I talked about this, and the weather - with the BBC. Our recently launched research on whether the weather effects email marketing campaigns was picked up by the BBC and they asked me (as the email marketing product man) to say a few words on their business programme hosted on BBC Radio Scotland. 

Thumbs up to happy, engaged email marketing subscribers

Most people who have Facebook accounts will be familiar with the thumbs up and thumbs down method of rating content. Why not use this in your email marketing? I quickly run through how you can apply this to your email campaigns...

Email Marketing Tips - No.5: Maximizer Software

Welcome back to the latest instalment of Pure360’s fabulous free email marketing tips series. This time, I’m going to be looking at Maximizer Software efforts.  

Zen Desk - Making your support experience better

As one of our valued customers you will already know that we not only try to support any queries or problems you might have but also add value to you each time too.  In order to make the process even easier, we have now implemented a new ticketing system, the Zendesk, which you can access from within your account.

Tips for Effective Email Marketing Templates & Designs

Andy Thorpe, one of our resident email marketing gurus, outlines his top tips for effective email marketing templates and designs that you can incorporate into your next campaign...

Email marketing takeaways from a recent Litmus study

This is the first in what I hope will be an occasional series where I will be trawling email marketing blogs, newsletter and emails, extracting information snippets and then commenting on their meaning for the email marketer. Today I'm looking at what email marketing takeaways I found from a recent Litmus study...

June's best email marketing content from the Web

Abi rounds up of some the best email marketing and email marketing solutions content that we’ve found on the web, and present it for your viewing...

What a response to the Pure360 customer survey!

Thanks to all of our customers who took part in the customer survey last month. Lucky Bridie from Analysys Mason was our Ipad winner and kindly sent over some pics of her newest Apple toy...

DMA Email Customer Lifecycle: Engagement and Retention

Last Tuesday, the Pure360 gang attended part three of the DMA series of email lifecycle marketing seminars, which this time was on Engagement and Customer Retention Strategies. The sun was shining as we all piled into The Wallace Space in Euston to discover a fantastic turn out, with the venue and accompanying breakfast matching the weather – glorious!

Email Marketing Tips - No 4: Rentokil

Welcome to the latest instalment of Pure360’s fabulous free email marketing tips series. This time, I’ll be looking at Rentokil’s B2B “flood response” email.

Pure360's Email Marketing Tips: Apple's Email Marketing deconstructed

Continuing with my email marketing reviews, I take a look at Apple's email marketing - now I love Apple and my iPhone but the best email marketing ever? I don't think so. Check out my short video and see if you agree...

The B2B Email Marketing Strategy Webinar Q&As

There were lots of questions at our B2B Email Marketing Strategy Webinar last week and I'd like to share the answers with you as there were some goodies in there...

Email Marketing Review: DMA Email Lifecycle & ECommerce Expo North

The Pure360 team was up in Manchester last week on a bit of an email marketing solutions tour, taking in two fantastic events: the DMA Email Customer Lifecycle seminar series and ECommerce Expo North. Here’s our big post-trip review, featuring all the sights and sounds of our time up north.

Ecommerce up North – Can they stand up to the South?

As we’re visiting Manchester this week to join hundreds of online retailers at Ecommerce Expo North – I was interested to see how they stacked up against the South in terms of their email marketing.

Outlook 2010, Webmail in browsers, iPhones… Any email marketers got a headache yet?

Whether you are responsible for deploying email marketing campaigns directly, designing for email, or both – you’ll have likely learned the hard way that ‘progress‘ in email technology and standards has been far from flowers and birdsong for email marketers. 

Email Marketing Tips - No 3: Pareto

Getting your email design right will have a massive impact on the success of your campaigns, so often I get an email which has a great subject line but when I look at the content I struggle to decipher what to do next.

Internet World 2010 Digital Marketing Conference Round-up

Another year, another Internet World conference - and Pure360 were right there in the thick of it, taking our email marketing solutions to the attendees of Internet World 2010. This year saw higher temperatures, more expensive catering facilities and more scantily clad booth-girls than ever before.

The Pure360 email marketing tips go visual

Take one team of experts, throw in some email marketing tips and capture it on a big video recorder - what do you get? The birth of visual Pure360 email marketing tips and demands for separate trailers. Check it out...

A stranded marketer’s volcanic ash cloud experience – email fail

You would think that a crisis like the the recent volcanic ash cloud would show us how efficient large companies like the airlines are. Not a chance. Read on for my experience of how they really dealt with their customer communications and a few lessons that i think they could learn to improve their email marketing...

What can email marketing learn from social media channels?

You’re likely to have seen our Blog on ‘How can you use email to increase your brand presence on social networking sites’, now we want to flip that and explore what email can learn from social media channels.

Email Marketing Tips - No 2: r-cubed

Personalisation is often cited by email marketing experts as the ‘panacea’ of email marketing solutions, and being the incredible email marketer that you are, you’ll want to follow this fabulous advice.

The ideal way is to capture as many fields as you possibly can - but then what can you do with them? Let’s avoid email marketing clichés for a minute, please!

Optimise your email marketing with double optin

Why should you be using double optin for your email marketing communications?

When people optin, what they have done is give you a valuable piece of information. You’ll want the optin process to be first stage in a long a fruitful relationship; you can ensure this by implementing double optin. 

Email Marketing and Google Analytics. Let’s all just get along

I doubt many (sane) individuals would argue with my saying that both email marketing services and web analytic packages - such as Google Analytics - are valuable and proven tools for any business looking to drive and measure web traffic.

Yet it's not always happy families between these two trusty allies of the marketer...

Email Marketing Tips - No. 1: The Observer

Welcome to the first in our new Email Marketing Tips series - in which I’ll be looking at some of the many different mailouts we receive on a daily basis and giving my thoughts on how they could be spruced up a bit.   

First up: why oh why can’t the “big guys” get it right?

Ecommerce Solutions: Beating Amazon's Bulk Email Marketing Strategy

Amazon’s on-site data tracking system logs and processes everything you do on its web properties to ensure that you receive the most relevant and targeted product recommendations each time you visit the site.

But can they do the same thing with customer emails?

How did we double our email marketing results?

Ok so I’ve had a sticky note on my pc for over two weeks now, reminding me to share some awesome results we got in an email marketing campaign by making a couple of really simple tweaks.

So here it is finally. The headphones are plugged in and I’m going to get this done...

Would your email pass a checkup?

Do you want to improve your email marketing? Take some time to analyse your email design, making what seems small changes could make a massive difference to the effectiveness of your campaigns. Here's an analysis of one of HSJ's emails...

When hype bites back...A tale of the iPad, Obama and communities

There have been two occasions in the last year in which the Pure360 office saw so many of us being brought together by a phenomenon, causing a few peoples' monitors to gain a magnetic quality, as murmurs and hushes fought it out for audio supremacy as those nearby are drawn into attentive groups by the buzz...

Yep. I'm talking about the live-streamed event.

Email Marketing Trends coming out of 2009

2009 was a good year for email marketing, we came through the recession with little casualties, in fact we found that more marketers than ever are turning to email marketing because of its great ROI and flexibility. Here are some nuggets we took from reviewing 2009 email marketing usage:

If you can't beat a resolution, write your own

In the wave of trends and resolutions that have crossed  my path so far this year, from email marketing to fashion disasters, I've picked my favourites to share with you. I hope you enjoy...

Hold on. Is this music to your ears?

Calling all ears. We commissioned an original track to make callers time on hold to us as lovely as possible, but did we get it right?

The Perfect Christmas Cake Instructions?!

So it's very nearly Christmas and in that faith here is a non-email related blog which should make you giggle. I can certainly relate to the process...

How Online Retailers can get through New Years sales on top

Check out these top ten tips to get through the New Year's sales period on top.

Laundry, man-drawers and Automations

Advanced email marketing tool usability and washing machines. More in common than you'd think

Spammers vs The spam filter

Since the beginning of email, as we know it, spam filters and spammers have been battling it out to gain control over our inboxes.

The fight was on.

What does your email REALLY look like in the inbox?

Commonly marketers and designers are finding that their emails aren't looking the same in the inbox as they did when they were sent. Why is this?

Could 'opt outs' be damaging your reputation?

An 'opt-out' is an opt-out. The recipient just clicks on the link, your email marketing software handles it, end of story ...right? Not necessarily.

Are you a traffic waster?

If you are like most marketers you spend a lot of time "driving traffic" with your online marketing, you review your ad words regularly, talk to your agency about SEO, put your URL on every bit of literature that your company produces, and you may have even considered company tattoos in a bid to increase your exposure.

You manage to increase traffic by the required 20% what next?

How can you use email to increase your brand presence on social networking sites?

When I first threw the term ‘social media’ at the Commercial Director of Pure360, I didn’t expect him to open his arms wide and welcome it into my online marketing plan without a certain amount of justification. I was right, he batted the words ‘lead gen’ right back at me and so our debate began.