Suite26 allows you to personalise the subject line and content of your email marketing campaign with data pulled from your contacts database.  This will help to project a more personal and friendlier image for your email marketing campaign and help encourage recipients to open the email.

The majority of the contact data fields and any custom fields you setup within Suite26 can be inserted into either the subject line, email content or both.

How to Personalise your subject lines:

If, for example, you wanted to add the recipient's first name to your subject line you would place the following piece of code into your campaign details: {FIELD($firstname)}

Simply follow these steps to add personalisation to the subject line:

-Go into your email campaign
-Click on Edit Primary Content
-Scroll down to Insert Field

-Click on the dropdown menu and select your required data field (e.g. First Name)
-Click on Insert
-Highlight the code and copy it

-Come out of the edit primary content screen
-Click on Edit Campaign details
-Click on the Subject line field and paste in the code.

You can now enjoy a personal one-2-one training session and demonstration on Suite26 without even having to leave your desk, via a free online webinar.

If you need some help getting started or simply want to be guided through Suite26 step-by-step, just give us a call and we'll arrange a date and time to do it that's convenient for you. We can even do it there and then if you'd prefer.

How to book your free webinar demonstration:

1. Call 0845 313 0912 or email enquiries@26.co.uk and tell us when you'd like to do it
2. We'll email you an invite with clear instructions on how to join the webinar
3. Once you're in, just sit back, relax and let us do the rest. We'll show you how to make the most of Suite26 and improve your email marketing.

You'll learn how to:

• Create and send a personalised email campaign in minutes, including adding logos, images and links
• Import and edit your own customised email template
• Track, follow up and improve on your campaign performance
• Import your email lists into Suite26 with ease
• Set-up a subscribe form for your website to collect email addresses and build your database
• Create additional users and clients for your account
• And much more...

When it comes to email marketing, no business can be too small.  No matter how many customers or members you have, businesses of all sizes can benefit from using email marketing.

Size doesn’t matter.  Whether you’re an SME, a small-growing business or just one man and his dog, we understand that the thought of using any online marketing activities, let alone email marketing might be a daunting one.  You may have concerns about a lack of email addresses or on how to create a professional looking email.  That’s where Suite26 can help.

Here are 5 simple steps to you help build your email list, engage with your customers and follow up on your campaign results.

1. List building by collecting email addresses

The quickest and most effective way of collecting valid email addresses from customers who are interested in your products or services is to provide an email opt-in subscribe form on your website so that customers can sign-up to receive your newsletters or promotional offers.  The other way is to get your employees to actively ask customers for their email addresses at every point of contact, whether it’s by phone, face-to-face or online.

2. Understand your customers and carefully plan your email messages

First you need to understand your customer base and consider how they can benefit from X, Y or Z news or offers. What do they see as value?  If you plan to send a regular email newsletter, make sure it’s newsworthy and of interest to the reader.  Separate your customers into specific groups depending on their interests, location, purchasing amounts and more.  Then send targeted emails that specifically relate to their needs and interests.  Also consider the best day(s) and time(s) to send your emails, giving them the best chance of being read.

3. Creating your email template

Create an email campaign that will grab the readers' attention, engage them and get them to respond e.g. sign-up, contribute, trial or buy.  Use a professional looking, properly designed HTML email template as it can be the difference between inbox or junk folder delivery.  Having a custom-built email template designed for you can give your messages a professional look and feel each time you send, helping your customers to instantly recognise your brand and help increase traffic straight to your website.

4. Write content that will engage customers

When it comes to writing your content remember these key points:

• Keep it simple – both your subject line and your message

• Decide what the objective is for the email - what do you want the customer to do next?

• Use clear, well placed call-to-action buttons or words that will direct recipients through to a specific webpage

• Carefully consider your opening paragraph as this is what will initially be seen by customers in their email program’s preview panel.  You must be able to grab their attention in a few seconds and make them want to open it and read on.  Personalising the email with the recipient’s name can help achieve this.

• Always use fresh and interesting new content on each and every send

• Make sure there’s good ratio between text and images.  Too many images and not enough text can make the email look like spam to Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo email filters

5. Understand your results and what to do next

Unlike other marketing activities, email marketing provides results and a return on your investment.  After sending your campaign you’ll immediately receive stats showing who’s opened your email, who’s clicked through to your website and much more.  You’ll then be able to determine which customers are interested by how many times they’ve read your email and exactly how interested they are by the number of times they’ve clicked, and what links they’ve clicked on.  With this information you can plan to follow up with another email specifically targeting these interested customers.

Have You Started Email Marketing Yet?

So if you’re a small business still unsure whether to start using email marketing, simply follow the steps above and you'll have no problems at all.  With a little effort at the beginning, you’ll soon see that email marketing works, not to mention it has one of the best Return-On-Investments of all marketing activities.  So don’t be put off, give us call on 0845 313 0912 and we’re happily have a chat about your requirements.  We’re here to help you get your email marketing underway.

You can now have Suite26 training at your office. Call 0845 313 0911 to book your session.

From the comfort and convenience of your own office you can now become an expert in the art of email marketing with Suite26.

Master how to:

• Import your contacts with ease

• Create and send targeted and personalised email campaigns in minutes

• Import your own customised template, logos, links and more to personalise your messages

• Track, follow-up and improve on your campaign performance

• Collect email addresses and build your database from your website

• And much more...

We guarantee you'll be able to create and send HTML emails, track responses and measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns to your customers. See firsthand how easy it is to use Suite26 to expand your business.

Call Ricky or Mark on 0845 313 0911 or email enquiries@26.co.uk to book or find out more about your One-2-One training session.

After the huge success of the last training seminars back in September, our in-house training sessions are back by popular demand. So we're inviting all customers to our Harlow offices to attend:

Free Suite26 Training Seminars
Every Wednesday throughout February 2010.

We've put together another jam-packed, interactive seminar, which teaches you everything you need to know to grow your business using email marketing.

It doesn't matter whether you're a complete novice or have some experience of email marketing, as we show you how Suite26 makes it quick and easy to:

• Manage multiple email marketing campaigns
• Create and send professional looking, personalised HTML emails with images and logos
• Import your existing contact lists and create targeted customer groups
• Track and analyse individual customer responses
• Measure and improve on your campaign performance.

Your seminar includes:

• Helpful How-To Guides
• 250 FREE email credits + 250 if you book early
• A Free Lunch

Venue: Unit 2, 6 West Road, Harlow, Essex, CM20 2DU

Dates: Every Wednesday throughout February 2010

Running times: 11am - 2pm

Check out the full range of benefits you get when you attend a Suite26 training seminar.

Call 0845 313 0911 today to book your free place or to find out more about these seminars. Don't delay, book by Friday 8th January and receive 250 FREE extra credits.

Please feel free to invite anyone else you know that is looking to use email marketing to help develop their business.

If you have added any personalisation to your e-mail campaigns (ie name, e-mail, membership number etc) you may wish to preview how the e-mail would be look for a particular user. This is now possible when sending a preview e-mail. 

From the e-mail campaign overview click on the Send Preview link and enter the e-mail address where you want to receive the e-mail or select one of your contact groups as you normally would and click Continue.

There is now a second stage to the send preview process where you will be asked how you want to personalise the preview send.

The default setting will use the details of the recipient(s) of the preview (if they are not in your contacts database any fields in the e-mail will be blank)

The second option is to select a contact at random from your database and use the details for that contact to personalise the preview e-mail.

For the third option you will need to enter the e-mail address of one of your contacts and their details will be used for the personalisation.

This new feature is a great way to ensure that e-mails you have personalised can be tested thoroughly and arrive as expected with your recipients.