As we've already discussed, open rates aren't necessarily the best indicator of a successful email campaign.  However, they are still important, so here are some tips on improving your open rates, which of course can lead to higher click-through rates!

Our friends at Campaign Monitor have again put together some invaluable information on email marketing design guidelines for 2008.  They cover off relevancy, design, coding and much more in a comprehensive article I'd highly recommend you read if email marketing is key to your success. 

The release of Outlook 2007 was a hot topic about 18 months ago with regards to HTML email design.  Unfortunately, the changes implemented by Microsoft were not an advancement, they were a step backwards in terms of how HTML is rendered (viewed) in Outlook 2007.  Here's some useful information to consider if you're marketing to Outlook users.

The voiceREACH voice broadcasting service has some very sophisticated technology built into it which enables it to determine if it is talking with a live person, or an answering machine.  This can be really useful if you want to send different messages to live people and answering machines.  Understanding how this technology works will help you get better results on your future voice broadcast campaigns.

Using your letterhead with bing couldn't be easier.  All you need is a soft copy (eg. PDF or Word Doc) and you can send mail on your letterhead within seconds.  Here's how it works...

Our voiceREACH service is extensively used in the management of accounts receivables as it provides a host of benefits to companies with large numbers of customers.  An essential consideration when planning a voiceREACH accounts receivables campaign is - how many call backs and transfers can your office handle at any time?

The cost of sending mail using bing is already very low, however a new feature of the EasyPost Mailroom software (Version 4.2.0) has made it even cheaper by consolidating your mail!

There are many metrics to consider when evaluating your email campaigns performance - open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, ROI etc.  While open rates are normally the first stat to be reviewed, they aren't necessarily the most important - however, improving your open rates can help improve your other metrics.

voiceREACH voice broadcasting is ideal for automatically notifying your customers of important information such outstanding invoices or accounts, last minute event information, membership reminders and system outages.  If these outbound calls are going to result in people wanting to talk to your company, then you need to ensure you pace the delivery of the automated calls according to your ability to handle the inbound call traffic.

As a follow up to our "Planning a Successful Webinar" entry, we have added a new link for you to review. Premiere Global Services offers the following brochure to assist you in developing a great webinar.  This is a very helpful worksheet which outlines what you need to consider, the various jobs required to pull off a brilliant webinar, and step by step guide to help you plan your event.

Web Conferencing (or Webinars) can be a rich multimedia experience for collaborating on projects and holding meetings with participants located far and wide geographically. The virtual audience can be unnerving for some though, so how do you ensure your next conference is a success...

Premiere Global Services have recently been updating their corporate website and service access websites and I understand this has caused some confusion for some of our customers.  Here is a list of all services (faxREACH, Fax2Mail, smsREACH, voiceREACH, messageREACH & MyPortal) websites so that you can quickly find the page you need in order to login and send your messages.

Many of us have either attended a physical conference or even attempted to organise one. Premiere Global Services offers you a suite of services to take the stress out of the organisation and the pain out of the cost. Virtual Conferences are the answer...

bing enables you to send postal mail quickly and easily, however when you want to do a large mail merge with a document that is a large file (perhaps because of lots of pictures), here's a little tip that can make it much quicker and easier!

 As globalisation influences the way we conduct our day-to-day business it's good to know that we can conduct teleconferences with colleagues located around the world. Premiere offers customers toll free numbers for the following locations:

Recording a teleconference can be a great way to keep important conversations and meetings in your permanent records. Premiere offers you an easy solution to record your teleconferences straight to CD.

Sending postal mail is an essential part of business.  Even with the adoption of electronic channels, some communications are still best sent by post.  Calculating the “real” cost of sending postal mail for your company can be difficult – here is some information on how to do that.  Once you’ve calculated your “total cost of mail”, then you can easily evaluate the benefits of using an outsourced mail service such as bing. 

Using Microsoft Word to create and develop your email content makes perfect sense.  It allows you to edit and fine tune your content in an application you're comfortable with before putting the final copy into your email for delivery.  There's just one minor detail many people overlook which causes them much frustration!

Choosing a partner to outsource your postal mail to is a decision that needs careful consideration.  Making the wrong choice can have long term repercussions for your company.  In order to select the best possible mail partner for your company, you need all the facts and information to make an informed decision that will work long term.  Here is a checklist we recommend you use to evaluate any potential mail partners - how do they stack up? 

There are two ways that you can quickly and easily record a voiceREACH voice broadcasting message - either by calling our 1800 number service, or by using the sound recorder software on your computer.  Either way is quick and easy and enables you to send a message out in a few minutes.  Here are some tips on recording your message using our 1800 number service.

The internet has had a huge impact on the way we all work, and more specifically, email.  Communicating with others is now very easy, and almost instant.  Not only that, but it doesn't even require us to get out of our chair.  What if good old snail mail was that easy?

Recording a voiceREACH message is very easy and can be done in a few minutes.  It can be done either on your computer, in a sound studio, or by calling our recording centre and following the automated prompts.

Several of our clients use our fax broadcasting service, faxREACH for sending out marketing materials to their suppliers, customers or partners.  Fax is often the only way to reach businesses, especially if they are industrial or not web focussed - in these instances, fax is ideal. 

My clients often ask me how to reduce the chances of their emails getting caught in spam filters.  As spam filters are getting more and more advanced, it is really important that you keep your html emails up to date in terms of design and content so that you don't have this problem.  Here are some tips on how to make sure this doesn't happen to your email marketing efforts!

Many of our faxREACH and Fax2Mail customers have trouble with PDF documents.  Here are some ways to ensure you don't have problems with PDF documents.