Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) has always had wire frame templates that many of our customers have utilized, customizing each content box to match their brand. Other Email Service Providers (ESP) such as Campaign Monitor, have predesigned templates with a drag and drop interface where most of the formatting is already applied. The downside is you’re limited to what is available in the template. Most often, this means colors, font, layout and even a branded header and footer. Could it be possible to have the best of both worlds? You bet — as long as you have someone familiar with the template language of the ESP.

Lexington Podiatry is a podiatry practice that breaks the mold from others. It was only fitting that they do the same with their email campaigns and eliminate the “canned” format sent by their colleagues. RootedELM has worked closely with Elise Menold Hinchman, Marketing Director, to create a series of WYSIWYG templates uniquely theirs. Ever since, Elise has been able to create an email campaign from an email template and then edit the content without having to know or learn HTML.

The SFMC is in the process of releasing their new Content Builder which introduces an improved drag and drop user interface. Lexington Podiatry has been a part of the beta program since it was announced almost two years ago. With the launch of their new online store, Elise wanted to develop an eCommerce template. Using a variety of eCommerce email campaigns as inspiration, RootedELM developed a template that Elise could use. Unfortunately with new technology, there has been a few hiccups along the way.

Using Litmus as a rendering and coding tool, we were able to troubleshoot additional code applied by SFMC to the eCommerce email campaign when our formatted content boxes were added, throwing off the design and expectation. To get around this, we’ve reformatted each drag & drop content box once incorporated into the email campaign by editing the HTML to match what we intended within the template.

“Testing has been difficult,” admits Elise. “I think we all know what we want to see, for example, the image to be centered — but in this particular case it just hasn’t worked out.”

We’ve found quirks here and there — some related to learning the new user interface, but mostly testing what works and what doesn’t. That is the key to anything. Sometimes there is no better way to learn a new program or software than to troubleshoot.

SFMC has made improvements since we started using Content Builder. Elise launches her first eCommerce email today (July 8th). As far as making it easy for Elise to utilize this template for future campaigns, she will simply make a copy of this tested campaign and edit each content box using the WYSIWYG editor. We look forward to monitoring her results and continuous enhancements by SFMC.

The solution to this problem is in the original email design code. Many emails, including those from large, national companies, embed text as images within the email. How can you tell? Pull up the next marketing email that lands in your inbox; hover your mouse over a group of text. If you can copy and paste that text, it is real text; if the text moves together as an image would when you grab it, then it’s an image.

Why is real text better for email design?

It can be seen in the email even when the images are not loading or are turned off, allowing your audience to see your message regardless.

Your emails will upload faster, and they will upload every time on every device, which leads to a higher response rate.

Your customers are less likely to become frustrated because coupon codes or other vital text can be copied and pasted when needed.

At RootedELM, we want to provide the highest quality email design for our customers. We code emails with text and we use Litmus, an email preview, analytics and spam filtering tool, to test how the email will render on different email providers (for example Gmail, Outlook, iPhone, etc). We provide fallback fonts in the font stack in the code, so if a certain platform can’t find the correct font, it will still render in a similar and attractive way.

Check out the examples below to see how real text makes a huge difference in email design:

In this example, designed by RootedELM, special fonts are shown as actual text which will show up even when the images do not load. The ability to read the text means customer still receives the message even when images do not load. In addition, adding background color blocks to the code where images should load makes the viewer more likely to reload or turn on images.

In this final example from a national retailer, text was designed as images and is not seen when images do not load. We are left viewing a bunch of white space and having no idea what this email is about. There is no incentive to try to load the images and the email will likely be deleted because it frustrates the receiver.

The bottom line is: the best email design includes actual text on key messages so you never miss the opportunity to engage with your subscriber — even with images off.

———-

We are always looking for ways to provide the highest level of email design to our customers. At the end of August, our own Jason Meeker attended #TEDC15 The Litmus Email Design Conference in Boston to gain even more insight. He just couldn’t get enough, so this weekend, he travels to London to take part in The Litmus Email Design Conference there, too! Follow along this Monday on Twitter as Jason tweets away more terrific tips and information straight from the conference. We’ll be re-tweeting his most important musings @RootedELM.

Marketing Cloud’s New UI

Resources

Current state of Email Client Marketshare
Litmus: Going Responsive with limited resources
ExactTarget Email Swipe File

Within the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, Lisa Wester, CEO & Founder, explored Playbooks and set a Customer Anniversary campaign in motion.  Jason Meeker, Strategic Partner & Lead Developer, spent time discussing upcoming changes to email rendering – specifically with Gmail – and why responsive design is so important.

Gmail’s changes to the Promotions Tab

Make sure your emails take advantage of Gmail’s forthcoming grid view in the Promotions Tab. You will want to create an appropriate image that is 580px by 400px and add the code below prior to your email’s closingtag:

If you have a Google Plus account you can replace the large letter icon with your company’s avatar. To get the code to achieve that and learn more about Google’s implementation check out the Google Developer page about this upcoming feature.

ExactTarget Resources

ExactTarget Help Portal
ExactTarget Design Blog
ExactTarget Email Design Toolkit
ExactTarget Email Design Board at Pinterest

General Resources

Current state of Email Client Marketshare
Litmus: Going Responsive with limited resources
The Science of Email Report (PDF 2.5MB)
The email design review
The Best of Email Inspiration Gallery

Journey of collaboration and the sharing of data across all departments in 2014

Sales teams and marketing departments will be on a journey to collaborate, find purpose with and share data across departments to increase sales, meet the demands of the company and connect on a 1:1 basis with the audience. Long gone will be silos of disparate data and instead we will further enter into the world of cloud-based data sharing and sales automation.

Journey to develop relevant, truthful, constant and sharable content in 2014

The self-educated buyer will be on a journey to research the best solution to fit their needs. It will be essential that companies are pro-active in original content-creation and develop a content management strategy with multiple touch points across multiple channels – including the ability to share relevant information across social media channels by the entire sales team. Each moment of connection will be more meaningful and concise through the use of video, info graphics, online seminars and / or presentations.

Journey of customer engagement in 2014

The marketing department will further develop the lead nurturing journey and / or the customer purchase journey adapting to audience behavior; gathering deeper insight and qualifying prospects over time – reducing the sales cycle, making the sales call more powerful and relevant for the entire sales team.

Journey of in-depth listening in 2014

Listening to the voice of the customer through all channels (sales, social, online, call-center, support, primary research, etc.) will be a necessary journey for all departments of the company to forecast sales, forecast trends, hire the right people and identify areas for improvement.

Journey of the mobile experience in 2014

Everything will be mobile. The buyer uses their mobile device to read email, subscribe to email, visit websites, shop online, make recommendations and engage through applications. If you’re not mobile, it’s time to start this journey. According to the latest statistics by Litmus, the Apple iPhone holds the #1 spot with email client marketshare http://emailclientmarketshare.com/.

The following resources have lent insight to RootedELM’s journey. Check them out:

• The Invisible Sale by Tom Martin

• Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans and Followers by Jeffrey K. Rohrs

• “A Never Ending Journey” American Marketing Association, Marketing Insights Fall 2013

• “The Five SuperPowers of Marketing” Harvard Business Review

This post is modified from a guest post by Lisa Wester – Chief Engagement Officer, RootedELM for our client OptifiNow.  OptifiNow is a Software as a Service (SaaS) that helps sales teams engage with their customers though an integrated marketing communications platform.

Career Builder actually crossed the stage as the winner but the Hyde Park logo was front-and-center during the announcement.  Although this is the fourth award* that my team has been recognized as a finalist, I’ve never been disappointed.  It’s truly an honor to have the collaboration of our team and the confidence afforded by our client to have a project to share through an award application.  We all win.

The Award Process

Applying for an award allows reflection and a deep dive into where we started and where we are today.  It measures success and affords an opportunity to compare our work against others.  It validates our intuition and analytic interpretation to refine the customer engagement strategy and campaign design.  I love it and just going through the process is rewarding.

The ExactTarget Power of One Award application focused on the responsive design coding for proper rendering on all devices and the creativity, using animation, of RootedELM Strategic Partner Jason Meeker.  Working closely with the Interactive Marketing Director at Hyde Park Jewelers, Molly Wojcik, Jason designed and developed an engaging Valentine’s Day series.  Even better, these campaigns resulted in a significant increase in online sales, exceeding their goal.

Our Work with Hyde Park

We invite you to read more in our previous blog post about the Hyde Park Jeweler Valentine’s Day campaign series along with a featured inspiration blog post written and shared by Litmus titled A Heart-y Dose of Responsive Design, Animation and Clever ALT Text from Hyde Park Jewelers.

We haven’t stopped there – in collaboration with Molly, we’ve created many beautiful and engaging campaigns for Hyde Park Jewelers since, and the holiday season is right around the corner.  Having the ability to promote and display exquisite jewelery to their permission-based audience is a joy and playful job to have.  I only wish I could afford more of the beautiful pieces!

Our Accomplishments as Award Finalists

• 2013 ExactTarget Power of One for Design for Hyde Park Jewelers
• 2012 Colloquy Awards Finalist for the Travel & Hospitality Industry for BHG Rewards featuring BHG University
• 2010 ExactTarget Subscribers’ Rule Award for BHG Rewards
• 2010 Colloquy Awards Finalist for the Travel & Hospitality Industry for BHG Rewards

The few seconds you spend converting your content from a Word document to text format before importing into ExactTarget will save you hours of frustration. We’ve created a quick reference here on how to easily convert text:

Copying from a Word Document in Windows

1. Open the Word document file

2. Go to File > Save As

3. Choose “Plain Text (.txt)” from the “Save as Type” or “Format”

4. Open the “Plain Text (.txt)” file in Notepad

5. Select all copy using your cursor or CTRL + A

6. Copy the selected content using your cursor or CTRL + C

7. Paste copied content from Notepad into ExactTarget

Copying from a Word Document in OS X

1. Open the Word document file

2. Copy text you would like to convert

3. Open TextEdit and paste copied text onto a blank document

4. Select “Format” from the menu bar

5. Select “Make Plain Text”

6. Paste copied content from TextEdit into ExactTarget

As always, if you have any questions give us a call at 859-552-5528 or email. We love hearing from you!

“We take a multi-tiered approach when planning for campaigns leading up to Hallmark holidays,” says Molly. “Our audience is our number one priority, so we strive to keep them top of mind when planning frequency and content.”

Valentine’s Campaign

Valentine’s Day tends to have a much shorter lead-time in terms of messaging (as opposed to Christmas, which builds up for a month or more), so Hyde Park typically begins messaging about 2 weeks out, and tries not to exceed 3 emails per week. “The immediacy and precise timing of email makes it the perfect tool for the gift-giving messaging that we are pushing,” says Molly.

“We take a lot of inspiration from other marketers out there as well, both within and outside our industry. For instance, during the December holiday season, we noticed a trend of category-based emails, so we decided to try this for a Valentine’s Day campaign, focusing on earrings,” says Molly. Using the subject line,  “Make Her Smile from Ear to Ear,” the ad focused on one category and helped take some of the guess work out of gift-giving. Hyde Park saw an immediate reaction after the email send, selling one of the pairs of earrings over the phone within an hour of deployment.

Design

Design of the emails is a collaborative effort. Working with RootedELM, Molly likes to keep the design of the emails clean and simple. “We are a luxury brand, so we never want to compromise our reputation as a fashion-forward, high-end retailer,” she says. “At the same time, we like to add some playful elements into our design concepts, whether it be through the use of clever copywriting, animation techniques or creative use of some of our jewelry imagery (i.e. heart shape using jewelry images).”

Sweet Success

Success of the campaign is measured in conversions, including opens, clicks, phone calls and store visits. “Since we have a high entry price-point, many of our clients prefer to shop in-store or over the phone with one of their sales associates that they have worked with in the past – they like the personal contact,” explains Molly. “It’s not an exact science, but just like in the story of the customer calling and ordering the earrings after seeing the email, it’s always a great feeling to see a campaign work – from concept to transaction.”

Molly credits the collaboration with RootedELM for the success of her latest campaigns, which feature design consistency across messaging and implementing best practices for placement of design elements. “We are light years ahead of where we were last year in terms of our email marketing,” she says. “This year, our campaigns have been well-thought out with a purpose in mind, and I believe the execution has been fantastic! I’m thrilled with how far we’ve come in such a short time and I’m excited to keep growing in this area!”