This article presents a case study on Acumbamail, a project that saw us, the Growens design team, embark on a six-month journey to enhance the platform’s user experience design in 2022-2023. Acumbamail, a SaaS company within our group that specializes in marketing campaign delivery, didn’t have a dedicated internal product team. As a result, we joined forces with them on this journey. 

Even though Acumbamail is no longer part of Growens at the time of this article’s publication, the project we undertook together remains a testament to our synergy and collaborative spirit. It was a shared endeavor that brought about significant improvements and valuable insights, reflecting the strength of our collective efforts.

Context and Goals

The Acumbamail project was initiated with a clear vision: to revamp the platform with a strong user-oriented approach. Our primary objectives were:

• User-Centered Focus: Our goal was to identify and rectify usability issues through heuristic analysis, setting the stage for a strategic redesign roadmap.

• Usability Boost: We aimed to elevate the user experience by increasing consistency and improving navigation across the platform. We knew that a usable platform, easy to navigate and consistent in its design, would lead to a more engaging and efficient user experience.

• Information Architecture Optimization: By employing heuristic principles, we planned to refine and enrich the platform’s structure, making it more intuitive and usable.

• Collaborative Development: Recognizing the importance of collaboration, we included developers as key stakeholders right from the start. We were convinced that this inclusive approach would not only ensure a smoother implementation process but also result in a final product that was both technically sound and user-centric.

• Business Collaboration and Metrics Monitoring: To assess the impact of our design changes on the business, we defined specific metrics for each section. This allowed us to measure the design impact, something that wasn’t done previously.

Unfolding the Journey

The project was a meticulous journey that spanned over six months. The process began with a comprehensive mapping of the platform, a crucial step that allowed us to understand the existing user flows and identify key user tasks and goals. We relied heavily on Information Architecture principles, such as those outlined by Abby Covert, to guide our evaluation of product usability.

We redesigned all these sections: 

• Emails
• SMS
• Pages
• SMTP
• Social media
• My account 
• Website builder (new section)

Uncovering usability issues was a task that demanded attention to detail and a comprehension of Acumbamail users. This process was enriched by merging two complementary UX design perspectives – one focusing on the interface, usability and UI and the other on systems relations, flows and high level Information architecture. 

Initially, we pinpointed areas of friction, then systematically organized and prioritized our findings based on their potential impact on the business. 

This comprehensive understanding paved the way for us to devise and implement effective solutions, enhancing the overall user interaction with the platform.

Once we had a clear understanding of the problems at hand, we embarked on the ideation phase. Minor fixes were addressed directly in the UI, while larger issues required a more foundational design from the flows up and testing process. 

For instance, we discovered that users were having difficulty navigating the platform due to a complex menu structure. To address this, we redesigned the menu to be more intuitive and findable, a solution that was arrived at after several rounds of cardsorting, sketching, and user testing.

After designing each solution, we set about defining the key performance indicators (KPIs) for each section. This was crucial in understanding the impact of our design changes. We aimed to quantify the success of our solutions and provide a means for ongoing performance monitoring. By setting clear, measurable goals, we could evaluate the effectiveness of our design decisions and make data-informed adjustments as needed. We used a dashboard in Leapsome to keep these KPIs monitored, giving us a real-time view of how our design changes were affecting user behavior and business outcomes.

The project concluded with a reflection on our key learnings and an exploration of opportunities for further improvement.

Insights, Challenges, and (also) Joy

As we embarked on the redesign project for Acumbamail, we navigated through a multitude of issues, ideated practical solutions, iterated on our designs based on user, business and tech feedback, and made informed design decisions. Along the way, we experienced both successes and failures, each providing valuable lessons that helped us grow as individual designers and as a team. In this section, we delve into the specifics of our journey, shedding light on our design process, decision-making, and learnings.

User Research Insights

Our journey began with a comprehensive mapping of the Acumbamail platform. We utilized Abby Covert’s Information Architecture heuristics as guiding principles to assess the platform’s usability. This systematic approach allowed us to identify usability issues across different categories, such as findability, clarity, and usefulness, among others. We used tools like Miro and Google Sheets to structure and analyse usability data: the first was instrumental in helping us map out the user journey and highlight areas of friction, the second allowed us to organise our findings and prioritise them based on their impact on the business, the technical development and the user experience.

During this process, we identified a multitude of issues. We can take as example the email campaign section.
These ranged from UI/UX design problems, such as issues with pop-up design and unclear segment interactions, to challenges with information presentation and user guidance. This thorough analysis laid the groundwork for the improvements we were about to make, providing us with a clear understanding of the areas that needed our attention.

For a deeper dive into our process, check out our detailed “Step-by-Step Guide from Heuristics Analysis to Developer Handoff”

Ideation Process examples

Once the problems were identified, we proposed specific solutions for each issue. For instance, to tackle the UI/UX design issues, we suggested enhancing the micro-copy and context, correcting color status and CSS, redesigning the workflow to be more intuitive, and improving component interactions.

Prototyping and Testing scenarios

In the SMS campaign flow, we proposed several strategic enhancements to foster a more streamlined, intuitive experience. These included prominently displaying credits and main actions on the SMS page, distinguishing link buttons within categories, and making users’ credit balance readily visible on the main page.

To ensure these changes were indeed beneficial and intuitive for the user, we created a prototype of the flow and conducted user testing. This validation process confirmed the effectiveness of our proposals, reinforcing that our user-centric approach positively influenced the overall user interaction with the platform.

Design Decisions (some of the thousands)

In the SMTP section, we identified several issues and proposed solutions. For example, we suggested creating distinct homepages for different user groups explaining feature availability and usage, providing all necessary copy and examples on a single page, and introducing action buttons with dropdowns for direct import method selection. 

Successes and Failures

In the menu change section, we successfully implemented several changes, such as revising the categorization on the platform for clarity and consistency, ensuring a uniform look across the platform, and introducing a new feature. These enhancements notably amplified the platform’s usability, creating a more seamless and satisfying user journey. We were able to cultivate a more engaging and intuitive platform. However, in the homepage dashboard section, we identified several areas for improvement after our proposals. These include limited user exploration, lack of motivation for experienced users, and the need to better meet diverse user needs. These challenges underscore the need for further refinement in our design approach to cater to all users effectively.

Collaboration with Developers

The implementation of our proposed solutions would have required close collaboration with developers. We’ve made it a point to involve them as key stakeholders in our design process. This isn’t limited to just the implementation stage; we bring them in from the very beginning, during the low-fidelity design phase, and continue to involve them right through to the final, pixel-perfect versions. This approach has been instrumental in ideating realistic and praticable prototypes reducing friction and ensuring smooth transitions between design and development phases. It fosters a sense of shared ownership and mutual learning. We discovered the importance of pixel-perfect designs, comprehensive flows, and detailed interactions to ensure technical feasibility. We learned that every design decision, no matter how small, could have a significant impact on the final product. The developers, in turn, learned to ask more questions about the purpose of each flow, understood the importance of testing, and recognized the value of maintaining consistency through the use of a pattern library. This mutual learning process underscored the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration in creating a user-centric product.

Personal Growth and Professional Insights

Throughout this project, my journey as a UX designer took a transformative turn. I was introduced to the agile development methodology, a dynamic and iterative approach that reshaped my understanding of project management. This experience allowed me to delve deeper into the characteristics of development, appreciating the nuances and complexities that often go unnoticed.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned was the importance of effective communication within a team. Working closely with developers who were deeply ingrained in their methods, I realized the necessity of finding a common language that bridged our different perspectives. This was not just about conveying design ideas, but also about understanding their constraints and challenges, and supporting their processes.

This experience was a testament to the fact that UX design is not a solitary endeavor. It’s a collaborative process that requires understanding, empathy, and effective communication. It’s about supporting each other in our shared goal of creating a product that meets the needs of the users and the objectives of the business.

It was a learning journey that has significantly contributed to my growth as a UX designer. It has taught me to adapt, to understand, and to communicate better, skills that I will carry forward in my future endeavors.

Data-informed Improvements: Quantifying the Impact of Our Design Decisions

In our work as UX designers, we understand the importance of data in validating our design decisions. We utilised Amplitude to create a dashboard for each section, enabling us to monitor the performance of each section continuously. This approach ensured that our design decisions were not only user-focused but also aligned with business objectives. The redesign of the campaign flows for both email and SMS campaigns brought about significant improvements, as evidenced by the decrease in error rates and time required to send campaigns. 

For email campaigns, we observed a 161% decrease in the error rate. This reduction signifies the effectiveness of our design interventions in enhancing system performance and reliability, leading to a smoother user experience, increased operational efficiency, and higher customer satisfaction.

We also managed to reduce the average time required to send email campaigns by 66%. This improvement streamlines the workflow, enabling users to send campaigns more efficiently.

In the SMS campaign flow, we achieved a 0% error rate, demonstrating the precision of our design process. This reduction in errors not only enhances the user experience but also boosts operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

The quick SMS sending process also saw a significant decrease in the error rate, with a reduction of 148%. This improvement underscores the effectiveness of our design interventions in enhancing system performance and reliability.

Reflecting on the Impact and Insights

Working on the Acumbamail project has been a journey filled with learning and growth.
As a UX designer, seeing our designs positively impact user experience and operational efficiency has been incredibly fulfilling. The usability challenges we unearthed represented substantial opportunities for business expansion. By addressing these issues, we’ve not only made the platform more usable but also more useful, aligning it more closely with the needs and goals of our users. This has the potential to boost user engagement and retention, contributing to the platform’s overall value.

While we made significant strides, the project also highlighted areas for further improvement. These challenges serve as reminders that in UX design, there’s always room for growth and learning. The process used in this project, from issue identification to solution implementation, has provided Acumbamail with a roadmap for future projects.

In conclusion, the Acumbamail project wasn’t just about redesigning a platform; it was about discovery, collaboration, and continual improvement.

We’re thrilled to be recognized as the go-to choice for businesses that are serious about rocking their marketing efforts. Our team has been working really hard to create a software platform that not only meets business needs in terms of email marketing, but also delivers a super smooth experience for SMS marketing, landing pages, surveys and social media automation.

Thanks to our platform, businesses can automate routine marketing tasks effortlessly, freeing up their time to focus on the more strategic aspects. Plus, our software comes with exceptional analytics and reporting features that give businesses the power to make smart, data-driven decisions and fine-tune their marketing strategy like pros.

We’re over the moon that Tekpon sees our commitment to innovation and excellence in the marketing automation realm. This award as best marketing automation software is a big deal for us and represents all the hard work we’ve put in. We’re beyond excited to keep serving our customers with top-notch solutions.

If you wanna check out Tekpon’s list, go take a peek here.

By using a marketing automation software like Acumbamail you can:

• Create email marketing campaigns easily
• Create SMS marketing campaigns without effort
• Track and analyze your campaigns with our advanced analytics
• Create effective landing pages to boost your conversions
• Create surveys and share them with your data base
• Manage your social media profiles and analyze your results

About Tekpon

Tekpon’s mission is crystal clear: they want to assist businesses in discovering the ideal tech solutions that will propel their growth to new heights. But they don’t just scratch the surface; they delve deep into the nitty-gritty, providing businesses with comprehensive, user-friendly, and unbiased reviews of software and services.

Tekpon’s team of tech wizards are relentless in their pursuit of excellence. They subject the latest software and services to rigorous testing, examining everything from functionality and user-friendliness to pricing and customer support. They leave no stone unturned, ensuring that businesses have all the information they need to make well-informed technology decisions.

In this article, we analyze the most important and popular email marketing tools so that you can choose the one that best suits your needs.

In Acumbamail, we offer you a simple, easy-to-use option for any type of user, affordable, and very comprehensive (in addition to newsletter sending, we have a landing page editor, a platform for mass SMS sending, and an automated email marketing system, among other features), with personalized support in Spanish.

However, we want to analyze all the options so that you can evaluate the one that best fits the needs of your business, and in this post, you will be able to learn about the most relevant ones. Here we go!

Unfortunately, since the search results provided no specific information or references to the email marketing tools mentioned in the query, I cannot provide any further details or insights. It’s possible that the information about these tools is not available online or has not been indexed by search engines yet. I recommend reaching out to Acumbamail directly or conducting a more targeted search for email marketing tools in 2023 to gather additional information.

What is an email marketing tool and what is it used for?

Email marketing software allows for the sending of mass mailings through their servers. Using these platforms, users can send generic emails to a database of subscribers, providing them with newsletters containing updates or information that they consider relevant. In summary, an email marketing tool is a program used to send emails to a list of contacts or subscribers.

The 11 best email marketing tools

Below, you can learn about some of the most important tools for sending mailings and also consult a detailed comparison of each of them with Acumbamail, the most widely used email marketing tool in Spain.

Since the search results provided no specific information or references regarding the mentioned email marketing tools or the detailed comparison with Acumbamail, I cannot provide further insights or recommendations. It’s possible that the information about these tools or the comparison is not available online or has not been indexed by search engines yet.

To gather more information about the best email marketing tools and their comparison with Acumbamail, I suggest conducting a more targeted search using reputable sources, visiting reliable review websites, or reaching out to industry experts for recommendations.

1. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is one of the most well-known email delivery platforms in the world. It offers the possibility to create a free account or choose from its various paid plans, and it features functionalities such as email editor, list management, audience targeting for social media advertising, and ad editor for social media platforms.

Although it is one of the most widely used tools, the truth is that, due to its multiple functionalities, it can be too complex and expensive for certain users, and there are simpler and more affordable alternatives that make it easier to use.

Therefore, it is a recommended option for companies with a high budget and specific marketing needs.

Advantages of Mailchimp:

Multiple functionalities (email, landing pages, audiences, ad editor for social media)

Disadvantages of Mailchimp:

Excessive complexity

No Spanish version (only their help articles)

High prices

Difficulty in technical support

Does not offer SMS sending

See a comparative between Mailchimp and Acumbamail

2. Brevo (former Sendinblue)

Brevo is another relevant option in the field of email marketing. Similar to Mailchimp, it offers a wide range of tools, including features such as SMS sending and even CRM integration. Similarly to the previous platform, for many professionals and small businesses, Sendinblue can be overly complex since most of these businesses do not require such advanced marketing strategies.

Advantages of Brevo:

Multiple functionalities

SMS sending

Spanish version

Disadvantages of Brevo:

Access to full functionality requires higher-priced plans

Phone support only available with higher-tier plans

Limited features in the free account

Limited variety of templates

Initial account setup can be complex

See a comparative between Brevo and Acumbamail

3. Mailrelay

Mailrelay is a simpler tool compared to the previous two, although it also offers a wide range of features. However, most of these features, such as comprehensive reports, click maps, or landing page editors, are only accessible with the Enterprise account (at a higher price).

Advantages of Mailrelay:

Free plan with a high number of email sends (subject to certain conditions and including their logo in your emails)

Platform available in Spanish

Disadvantages of Mailrelay:

12-month commitment required

Newsletter editor, form creation, API access, comprehensive reports, and domain customization only available with the Enterprise plan

Does not offer SMS sending

See a comparative between Mailrelay and Acumbamail

4. GetResponse

GetResponse is another email marketing tool that also offers many additional features, such as the ability to create webinars or CRM functionality. This increases its complexity and raises the price for users who need a simpler tool.

Advantages of GetResponse:

CRM functionality, the ability to create sales funnels

Platform available in Spanish

Disadvantages of GetResponse:

Enterprise account required to access full functionality

Only subscription-based pricing option

Does not offer SMS sending

See a comparative between Getresponse and Acumbamail

5. Mdirector

Mdirector is an email marketing tool with a presence in Spain and South America. It offers various functionalities depending on the chosen payment plan.

Advantages of Mdirector:

Support through various channels

Platform available in Spanish

Allows sending SMS

Disadvantages of Mdirector:

Confusing pricing plans

Poor user experience and design

See a comparative between MDirector and Acumbamail

6. Sarbacane

Sarbacane is an email marketing, SMS, and landing page tool from the French group Sarbacane, with a presence in Europe and Latin America. It offers three different base plans (Essential, Premium, and Exclusive) that provide various functionalities. The plans start at €69 for 5000 deliveries with the Essential plan.

Advantages of Sarbacane:

Platform and support available in Spanish

Good user experience

Allows sending SMS and creating landing pages

Offers a free 30-day trial period

Disadvantages of Sarbacane:

Access to full functionalities (automations, A/B testing, API, landing page editor, and dynamic forms) only available with Premium and Exclusive plans

Does not offer multi-user access with different permissions if multiple individuals need to access the same account

Significantly higher price compared to other similar options with equivalent functionalities and a larger number of deliveries

See a comparative between Sarbacane and Acumbamail

7. Doppler

Doppler is a platform with a presence in Latin America, Spain, and the United States that offers email marketing, SMS, and integration with other tools for creating landing pages. In email marketing, it offers plans based on the number of subscribers and specific plans for agencies. Its minimum rate starts at 1500 subscribers for €13 per month.

Advantages of Doppler:

Platform and support available in Spanish

Connects with your website to send automated emails

Offers bulk SMS to Spain, the United States, and Latin American countries

Disadvantages of Doppler:

Does not include plans based on the number of deliveries, which is often the most scalable option for small and medium-sized businesses

Does not provide SMS service to other European countries

Does not have a built-in landing page editor; you will need to integrate with other tools

Does not offer multi-user access to the same account with different profiles and permissions

See a comparative between Doppler and Acumbamail

8. MailerLite

MailerLite is a user-friendly and intuitive platform for email marketing and creating landing pages. Their free plan allows a total of 12,000 emails per month to a maximum of 1,000 subscribers. Their paid plans vary based on the number of subscribers.

Advantages of MailerLite:

Comprehensive email marketing features, including forms, list management, various types of email campaigns, and reports

If you have a small subscriber base, typically between 1,000-3,000, it can be quite cost-effective

Disadvantages of MailerLite:

The platform and tutorials are only available in English

You can publish only 5 landing pages in any of their plans. If you want to create more, you’ll need to pay for their SitesPro add-on

They do not include SMS functionality

Since they only offer pricing based on the number of subscribers, the pricing may become limiting or too expensive if you want to send more emails

See a comparative between Mailerlite and Acumbamail

11. Acrelia News

Acrelia News is a Spanish email and SMS marketing tool. Their free plan allows for sending 4000 emails to a maximum of 500 contacts.

Advantages of Acrelia News:

Includes email and SMS campaigns.

Offers comprehensive features in SMS marketing.

Platform and support are available in Spanish.

Disadvantages of Acrelia News:

Does not have email or SMS automations.

Does not provide landing pages.

Offers limited integrations, including only WordPress, Magento, and Prestashop.

Does not have a wide range of email templates.

Their plans have limitations on monthly email sends and the number of contacts you can import.

See a comparative between Acrelia and Acumbamail

Advantages of using an email marketing tool for sending your newsletters

There is no sending limit

Unlike personal email sends from email clients like Gmail, Outlook, etc., using an email marketing tool allows you to send emails to your entire database without any sending limits.

Reputation IP for email delivery

Most of these platforms offer dedicated IPs for sending emails, which they carefully maintain to ensure your campaigns don’t end up in the spam folder.

Domain authentication

By configuring DKIM and SPF, you can send emails on behalf of your own domain as the sender, making it easy for your subscribers to identify you.

Different types of campaigns

Depending on the type of campaign you need, you can run regular campaigns, conduct A/B tests, send RSS campaigns, or set up automated responses and transactional emails.

Templates and email editor

Most email marketing tools provide customizable templates and user-friendly email editors that ensure professional, responsive designs with proper HTML, even if you have no prior knowledge of these disciplines. At Acumbamail, we offer a wide range of free HTML templates.

Deliverability

By following best practices for email marketing and leveraging the ease of use provided by these tools, you can ensure that your emails don’t end up in spam. And if they do, it’s easy to fix.

Email marketing automation

Setting up automated email sends based on your subscribers’ behavior is one of the most popular trends and highly effective strategies for increasing open rates and return on investment. When choosing a tool, make sure it offers this option.

Subscriber management

Most tools offer easy management of subscriber opt-ins and opt-outs, as well as simple import and export capabilities.

Language and support

Lastly, it’s important that the platform is available in a language you’re comfortable with, and that it provides good customer support through articles, emails, chat, or phone.

Other features

While email campaign sending is the primary functionality, it’s valuable to consider if the tools offer other useful complementary features such as the ability to design and publish landing pages, send SMS campaigns, lead scoring, or list optimization tools.

Conclusion on email marketing tools

And that concludes our comparison of the top 11 email marketing tools available in 2022. Do you think any tools are missing from the list, apart from Acumbamail? Let us know in the comments.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us, and we’ll be happy to assist you.

What is the Business Model Canvas?

To understand what the Business Model Canvas is, we start from the premise that it is a model comprising nine blocks corresponding to the characteristics of a business: market segments, value proposition, distribution channel, customer relationship, revenue sources, key resources, key activities, key stakeholders and cost structure. The entrepreneur with a business idea must be able to fill in these blocks. If you cannot do this, it is probably a sign that your idea is not yet mature enough.

How the Model Canvas is applied

There are many successful examples of the Model Canvas, as it has been used for all kinds of business planning for more than a decade. In these cases, a template is usually used in which the nine blocks are clearly shown, because the more visual the information is, the better you will be able to process it. If several people are going to participate in the business project, each one should give his/her opinion on each of the blocks. If you are acting alone, you can put different ideas in each of the blocks. It’s like brainstorming. Annotations can be deleted, moved from one box to another, rewritten, etc. The premise is that the information presented will lead to a debate from which the definitive business model will emerge.

Benefits of applying the Model Canvas to your online business

The model Canvas was developed by Alexander Osterwalder and is already being used all over the world because of the wide range of benefits it provides.

• As it is a very visual tool, it makes it easier for the information to be understood.
• It allows for analysing the business idea from many different points of view
• At a glance, you can see what all the key elements of the business will be, so it also serves as a strategic analysis tool, letting you detect weaknesses and strengths.
• It is a methodology that is easy to use and within the reach of all entrepreneurs.
• It works whether there is a team behind the business idea, or just one entrepreneur.
• It fosters innovation in the business environment while strengthening creativity and analysis.

Blocks of the Business Model Canvas

The structure of this model is based on dividing the ideas into the following blocks:

Key partners

In this section, you can establish the partnerships that will help you boost your business, whatever they may be.

Key activities

The activities that will define your business and that will be key to conveying to users so that they will be able to easily recognise what you offer them, and what kind of problems you will provide solutions to.

Key resources

The resources of any kind (human, technical, etc.) that you will need to efficiently carry out your activity.

Value proposition

What makes you stand out from your competitors? Why should users choose your product or service and not others similar to it? You should answer these questions clearly and concisely in this section.

Relationships with customers

It is very important to have a clear idea as to the type of relationship your customers will expect: Personalised service? Technical support? Sales meetings? It is a good idea to have this set out in advance so that everyone involved in your business knows how these relationships with customers and potential customers should be maintained.

Channels

The channels (physical or online, or both) that you will use to advertise your product or service and reach your customers.

Customer segments

It is of the utmost importance that you are aware of who your target customers are, and you must put them in this section.

Cost structure

Here the different costs (fixed, variable, etc.) must be taken into account, as well as the best way to reduce and optimise them.

Source of revenue

Last but not least, are you sure about what your sources of income will be, to make your business viable?

Business Model Canvas template

The easiest way to define your business with this Canvas model is to use a template and fill in all its sections so that all the information is clear. You can download this Business Model Canvas template in PDF format by clicking on this link. Now that you know what the Business Model Canvas is, we recommend putting it into practice if you are thinking of setting up a business or want to launch a new line of products or services. You will be taken aback by the results you will obtain. In fact, if you apply this model well after having designed your block chart, you could spot business opportunities that you had not thought of until now.

What is an email subject line

The email subject line is the line visible from the subscriber’s inbox, which will indicate what the content of the received email is about. It is one of the three visible elements, along with the pre-header and the sender’s name, that a user will see without opening the email.

The importance of having a good email subject line

As we have said, the subject line is one of the first things the subscriber sees in an inbox likely to be brimming with other emails. So, it is the element that will determine whether or not your subscriber opens the email, which has a significant impact on the open rate, one of the most important metrics in email marketing campaigns. Without leaving aside the rest of the elements of the email (template, content, links, CTAs, etc.), if you do not have an effective subject line, your email will remain unopened.

Good practices

Below is a list of best practices when it comes to writing a good subject line that will boost the efficiency of your emails.

Summarise

One of the first key points is that, as we have said, the subject line will help the reader to understand what to expect from the email and, based on that, to decide whether to open it or not. It is therefore advisable to come up with a summary so that this sentence reflects the content of the email in a reliable manner, to incite the reader’s interest.

What is the right length.

The answer to this question is: it depends Each mail manager shows a different number of maximum characters in your inbox: for Gmail it is 70, but others show less. To this you must add the range of devices on which subscribers check their email, with their respective differences in screen size. If the subject line is very long, there is a good chance that some of it will be cut off. On the other hand, if it is too short, it will be hard to squeeze in the necessary information to awaken the reader’s curiosity. It is therefore a matter of reaching some sort of middle ground where you are able to express the content of the email in a concise and effective manner.

Use keywords

Include important words related to the theme of the campaign and, if possible, right from the get-go. In this way, you will ensure that they are read on any device and in any situation, and will easily encourage the reader to open the email to learn more. On the other hand, try not to use words that are not needed and take up space such as “Hello” and other types of greetings that you can include in the body of the email. This will also help users who use filters or searches to find emails at a later date.

Awaken curiosity

Although the subject line is used to give the subscriber an idea of what the email is about, you must hold something back to maintain that curiosity that encourages them to open it. It’s not about fooling (as we’ll see later); it’s about trying not to give away too much, making it not worth clicking on your email.

Use the right tone

As is the case with everything related to the content of your campaigns, it is of the utmost importance that you know your subscribers, by adapting the tone when addressing them. Gather as much information as possible, and try to find a voice with which they feel identified and comfortable receiving your emails.

Carry out A/B test

Performing a test for emails with two subject lines, sending them to a small part of the list and seeing which one works better, is a good practice that can significantly boost open rate. Carrying out this type of experiments is very straightforward, and here you have all the information on how to carry out A/B tests in your campaigns.

What NOT to do in email subject lines

It is just as important to know the best practices that can lead to success as it is to avoid those that can hinder the results of your campaign.

Avoid clickbait

Although we have talked about how the subject line should awake just enough curiosity for your subscribers to open the email, you must avoid falling into the trap of clickbait. If you put a misleading subject line, your email may be opened the first time, but if the content does not deliver what you offered, it will lead to frustration and result in that subscriber not opening successive campaigns or, even worse, unsubscribing or marking your mailings as spam.

Forbidden words

You should also bear in mind that there are certain words that set off the spam filters’ alarms, since the emails that contain them are usually deemed to be spam or contain fraudulent content. These are mostly terms related to money or financial institutions, medications, prizes, sexual content, etc.

Types of subject lines and examples for your campaigns

Below are some examples of campaigns and subject lines that can boost your open rate.

Informative

The idea is that, at a glance, the subscriber knows the relevant information about the content. “New shop opening near you”

Create a sense of urgency

Creating a sense of urgency is a good way to boost open rates. “Available for the next two days only: download this e-book”

Personalised

Personalisation always gets good results. “Pablo, we’ve got something that could interest you”

Lists and numbers

Lists have been very popular content in recent years for one reason: it’s hard not to read them. “15 things you need to know to come up with a good email subject line”

Questions

Another effective approach is to use question marks to challenge the reader. “Do you know how to get more customers through email marketing?”

“How to”

How-tos are also often very effective in awakening curiosity. “How to build your database efficiently”

Scarcity

In particular in the case of sales of a physical product, announcing the scarcity of the product is synonymous with success. “Air Jordan Classic 82: last units”

Controversial

Although always being careful, a more confrontational tone can work. “Why your marketing strategy is wrong”

Imperative

An imperative tone (again, being careful not to go too far) can work well when directly challenging the subscriber to take an action. “Join our community”

Statistical

The use of statistics and percentages can lead to good results, in particular in didactic and informative contents. “The great reason to use SMS Marketing: 98% open rate”

Sneak peak

A “sneak peak” at devices or other types of content that interest the reader will certainly awaken their curiosity. “A sneak peak of the new iPhone”

FOMO

Fear Of Missing Out. Playing on this psychological factor also tends to work. “Are you going to miss out on this webinar?”

Conclusion

The email subject line is very important when it comes to the success or failure of your email campaigns. It is worthwhile, therefore, to keep these best practices in mind and take the time to think it through, try it out and measure the data to improve it in successive campaigns. If you have questions about this or any other email marketing-related topic, contact us and we will be more than happy to help you.

Basically there are 5 types of eCommerce: B2B, B2C, C2C, B2E and G2C.

Let’s take a closer look at their differences.

1. B2B eCommerce

B2B eCommerce, also called business to business, is a type of eCommerce in which the commercial transaction takes place between 2 companies.. This type of transaction does not involve end consumers or individuals, only companies. The typical example for a B2B business model is that of a wholesaler and a retailer, where the wholesaler sells to the retailer, who in turn sells to the end customer. There are 3 types of B2B eCommerce:

• Seller seeks buyers
• Buyer seeks sellers
• Intermediary seeks to bring about a transaction between buyer and seller

Some tips:

• To set up a B2B business, you need to have extensive knowledge of the industry you will operate in.
• You should also have experience in negotiating large quantities and volumes, and in the entire logistical process involved in wholesale transactions.
• We have a comprehensive email marketing guide specifically for B2B businesses

2. B2C eCommerce

This type of eCommerce, also called business to consumer, is the one you are probably most familiar with. The commercial transaction takes place between a company and a consumer or private individual. In general, any online shop that you can think of forms part of this type of eCommerce.

Some tips:

• If you want to get started in B2C online quickly and without significant investments, opt for plug&play cloud services such as Oleoshop or Shopify.
• In B2C, it is important to position oneself in very specific market niches. In 2016, half of every dollar sold in eCommerce went to Amazon, so chances are that with a generalist offer, you won’t be too successful.

If you are interested in learning more about the differences between the B2B model and the B2C model, we recommend taking a look at this post.

3. C2C eCommerce

C2C eCommerce (consumer-to-consumer) takes place between consumers or end users. This model does not involve wholesalers and suppliers directly. It is individual consumers who offer second-hand products for sale that they no longer use. Before the dawn of the internet, this type of transaction took place in the USA between neighbours at garage sales. Nowadays, the internet allows anyone to sell anything they no longer use to other consumers like themselves, online. The sophistication of C2C platforms has reached the point where there are platforms that specialise in product categories. Some examples of C2C eCommerce:

• Wallapop
• Depop
• Percentil
• It and VIP
• Micolet

Even C2C eCommerce platforms have emerged in that usebartering and swapping. Such is the case of Neighborgoods, whose basic idea is the exchange of objects between neighbours, to prevent having to buy bulky objects for a single use.

4. B2E eCommerce

This type of eCommerce, also called business to employee, is a type of eCommerce in which the transaction occurs between a company and an employee. These are all those products that a company makes available to its own employees for purchase, generally at a lower price or with additional benefits. These products can usually be purchased through an intranet or an employee-specific online store. This type of eCommerce is a key element in the strategies known asEmployer Branding. Employer Branding is part of a context in which most economic industries are already mature, and one of the most important things that make companies stand out is the talent of their employees. Within this context, Employer Branding has the objective of demonstrating that X company is a better place to work than its competitors in the eyes of its potential employees. Employer Branding includes strategies such as benefits for employees (annual bonuses or better maternity leave) or the possibility of buying company products under better conditions (B2E).

Some tips:

• Even if you are small, you can be a B2E eCommerce. With something as simple as a discount code, your employees can buy your products at a better price.
• Use B2E to motivate your employees and build loyalty as an employer. If the benefits are of interest, they will stay with your company longer.

5. G2C eCommerce

And finally, G2C or Government to consumer eCommerce. This is a somewhat special type of eCommerce. This occurs when a state, regional or federal government provides its citizens with an online platform to carry out processes and pay taxes. It is considered eCommerce because financial transactions take place. However, its primary benefit is that it saves time and public resources on low-value work. G2C allows you to automate processes, have greater control over transactions and save time for everyone. These are the main types of eCommerce. Now that you know about them, if you are thinking of setting one up, we recommend the article “How to sell online with no budget and no knowledge of programming”, which details all the keys to setting up an online store from scratch. Choose one and base your online business on that model. Which one best fits what you have in mind? Let us know in the comments. Images| Fotolia.

Chapter 1: List of subscribers

The first thing you need in order to start drawing up a mailing campaign is a list of subscribers who have given you their express permission to receive commercial communications via email. You may already have some or you may not have any at all. Below, we will look at the possibilities in both cases.

1.1 Capturing subscribers

Whether you have no subscribers or you are looking to attract more, there are several ways to go about it. First, however, you should take a look at the data protection regulations that you must take into account in order to do so in accordance with legislation currently in force.

1.1.1 GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR or RGPD in Spanish)is a mandatory European directive that has been in force since the 25th of May, 2018 for all companies that collect personal data. One of the most important new features that directly affects subscriber attraction is that the consent given must be explicit, in other words, the “checkbox” for acceptance of the privacy policy (which must also be linked) may not be checked by default in the forms, as it used to be in the past. To learn more about how this regulation affects email marketing, check out these articles we have posted on the subject.

1.1.2 Forms

One of the most effective ways to get subscribers is through forms that you can include on your website, letting visitors leave their email address so you can contact them from that moment on. In Acumbamail, when you select a list, you will be able to select the type of forms you want to create. Once you have selected each one, you will be provided with a JavaScript code to add to your website. You will be able to choose between the following types of forms:

• Classic: A normal form to include on a website.
• Bar: A bar-type form, perfect to include in a browsing menu, for example.
• Side: Forms to place on the side of the webpage.
• Popup: A floating form over the page content to display whenever you want.
• Exit Intent: This type of form appears when the user is about to leave the website; it is a good time to ask for contact details so as not to lose the user along the way.
• Facebook fan page form: With this type of form you will be able to capture subscribers from your Facebook fan page.

To create a form, you must follow the steps below: Choose a template and customise the design Configure the confirmation message Get the code to insert into your website

1.1.3 Form integrations

If you use other applications or CMS, we have several integrations so you can easily include your forms in your PrestaShop, Magento or Facebook page. You can check all the available ones here: Acumbamail integrations.

1.2 Import/Export subscribers

If you already have subscribers previously collected by other means (remember, you must always have obtained their express consent to avoid having a useless list or running into problems with law enforcement), you can easily import and export them. You can upload a CSV file, paste the text directly or import your lists from MailChimp.

1.3 Scrubbing the lists

When collecting subscribers, it is often the case that some of the emails on the list do not actually exist, either because of a typing error or because the user has entered a false email. In both cases, it will result in a hard bounce. To avoid this, you should scrub the lists before sending anything. If you use Acumbamail, a high number of hard bounces will result in the sending being cancelled.

1.4 List optimisation

Beyond the importance of scrubbing email addresses that cause hard bounces, it is also a good idea to try to optimise your lists. For example, getting rid of certain subscribers if they don’t open a certain number of emails, if they are X number of soft bounces or if subscribers do not click on the internal links in your campaigns. In this way, you will be able to narrow down your target and take advantage of the maximum profitability of email marketing.

1.5 List quality

The quality of a mailing list is measured mainly by three factors:

• Mailing addresses included in the list must exist.
• The user has not marked your address as SPAM
• The subscriber will be interested in the content you send and interact with it, or else the behavioural spam filters may automatically put your emails into the spam folder

A high-quality list is of the utmost importance, as ISPs give higher priority to mailings with fewer post-sending errors. Therefore, if your list is not of a high enough quality, in other words, it has a high bounce rate, the deliverability of your emails will suffer.

1.6 Configure notifications

In the “Notifications” section, within a list, you will be able to configure automatic subscribe and unsubscribe notifications, as well as the confirmation page or “thank you page”.

1.7 Good practices

• Use double opt in: The double opt in means that the user will not be included in the list until he/she clicks on a link sent to the email address he/she has provided. In this way, you will be sure to include verified addresses in your list, in turn, cutting down on potential errors. Although with this system your list will grow more slowly, it will be of a higher quality.
• Segmentation: One of the advantages of email is that it is a highly customisable channel. You will be able to send specific campaigns to specific segments of a list, thereby refining the interest of the recipients, boosting your open rate.
• Only send communications related to the permission obtained: Subscribers have signed up to your list for a specific topic, and what they expect to receive is emails related to that topic. Therefore, try not to send them unrelated emails, as most of them will not be interested and will not open them or, even worse, will mark them as spam.
• Do not buy or rent databases: These are two things that should never be carried out because all it will do is add lots of emails to your list from people who are uninterested in receiving your emails and you will be marked as spam.
• Scrub and optimise lists: As we mentioned before, try to keep your lists as clean as possible from non-existent addresses or inactive subscribers or subscribers who do not interact with your campaigns in the way you would like.

Chapter 2: Campaigns

Once you have drawn up the list or lists of subscribers you are going to send to, it is now time to create the campaigns. There are several types, each of them suitable for different needs, as we will see below.

2.1 Campaign types

The different types of campaigns are as follows:

2.1.1 Normal campaign

These are the usual campaigns in which you select a list or segment, choose a template and send.

2.1.2 RSS

These campaigns let you automate delivery when you include new content in an RSS feed, for example, from a blog. So, when you publish a new post, your campaign will be sent including the content you have configured.

2.1.3 Autoresponder

Autoresponders are campaigns that, instead of being sent in bulk to the entire list, are automatically “triggered” in response to a specific event. For example, you can set it to be sent X minutes after a subscriber joins a list, as a welcome email.

2.1.4 A/B Testing

A/B Testing campaigns let you send different designs of your email to small fragments of your list, so you can compare which one gets the best results.

2.2 Creating the campaign

Once you have selected the type of campaign you need to create, you must follow some steps to complete the campaign before sending it. On our platform there are 5 steps:

2.2.1 Start

In step one you must fill in the following information:

2.2.1.1 Campaign name

It is the name you give to the campaign, it will only be visible to you. The name should reflect the objective of the campaign to facilitate your organisation (in particular if several users manage the same account).

2.2.1.2 Email and sender name

This is the name and email address that subscribers will see when they receive the email. The more “human” it looks, the better. Do not use “no-reply” or similar addresses; the email should be signed by someone from the team, as people prefer to receive this type of communication from a real person.

2.2.1.3 Subject line

This is what you will write in the email subject line. It is one of the key elements, since it is what most of your subscribers will read and, depending on what it is, they will decide whether to open the email or not. There are some ideas about what to put (and what not to put) in the email subject line in this article.

2.2.1.4 Control of links

By checking this option, we will be able to store information about who clicks on the links in your email so it is reflected in reports. Should you not want the links to be replaced by our tracking URLs, you can uncheck it and use your own, however, in this case, we will be unable to show you this data in the reports.

2.2.1.5 Activate Google Analytics

You will be able to configure the UTM to track your traffic derived from the campaign in Google Analytics.

2.2.1.6 Customised links

With this option you will be able to customise your campaign links. You can either link your own subdomain or choose the word to create an Acumbamail subdomain (for example, newsletter.acumbamail.com). This modification of the links is carried out with a view to being able to track the links and add value to the statistical reports. You can learn more about it in this article about link customisation in your campaigns.

2.2.2 Subscribers

The next step in the campaign creation process is to select to which subscribers the campaign will be sent. To do this, you must select the list or lists you want to send to. There is also the option of not sending to complete lists; you can choose a specific segment that meets one or more of the conditions you select. For example, if they subscribed less than X time period ago, if they opened the last campaign, etc.

2.2.3 Templates

Once you have selected the subscribers who are going to be targeted in the campaign, you have to select the template you are going to use. Our editor has more than 70 free, responsive and customisable templates, with suitable HTML code so they can be viewed in all email clients and browsers. If you want a bespoke template, our design team can come up with one for you following your instructions. However, you can also import your own template or use a text-only template.

2.2.3.1 Template design

Parts of a template

• Body: This is the general configuration of the template
• Structure: This is the way to organise the template using columns.
• Content: It includes the different elements such as text, images, buttons, etc.

Basic HTML rules for email

The HTML of emails must comply with some rules to facilitate their deliverability to the recipient and ensure that they can be read correctly. However, each email client may interpret it differently, so it should always be tested out on different clients, devices and operating systems to ensure that your campaign will be delivered correctly. Some basic tips are to use responsive HTML, always include “alt” tags on images, or make sure all tags are properly closed. To avoid any problems in this regard, it is best to use the editor of an email marketing platform that ensures that your template will come out with the correctly-formatted HMTL.

Use of images

Images can greatly enrich an email, but they must be used cautiously. First of all, be aware of the proportion between text and images, because if there are only the latter or if they are much larger in proportion to the text, they are likely to be seen as Spam. On the other hand, to ensure that the email can be read correctly, they need to be optimised as much as possible. Use the right sizes, the right files and the right colour settings. You can read all about it in thisarticle on optimising images for email.

Tags

Tags are code fragments that will be replaced in the email by variable content. For example, the tag *|Name|* will be replaced by the subscriber’s name in the email, if we have that information. You can learn more about using tags in emails in this article. As for RSS templates, there are several tags to enter the content, such as *|RSS_POST_TITLE|* which will be replaced by the title of the post. You can check the rest of the RSS template tags by clicking on this link.

2.2.4 Editor

Once you have selected the template, you can modify it and add the content in the template editor. The editor lets you choose the structure of the email, insert text blocks, images, separators, social network buttons and even HTML blocks, as well as modify the desktop view and the mobile view. You can learn about all the features of our editor in this article.

2.2.5 Sending

The last step is the one before sending and, as well as going over and editing the title, the subject line, the list to be sent to and the sender of the campaign, you will also be able to preview the template you are going to send. As well as the foregoing, you will be able to:

Send a test

You can send one or more test emails to the address of your choice, to verify that the campaign can be read correctly.

Send there and then, or schedule for another time

Once you have verified that everything is in order, you can start sending or schedule the campaign for a specific time and date.

Email preview in email clients and devices

What’s more, you will be able to preview the campaign on more than 80 devices, browsers and operating systems. With this, you can rest assured that all your subscribers will receive your campaign as you have designed it.

Check campaign quality

With this functionality, we will analyse your campaign to provide you with the following data so that you can evaluate it before sending: Rating DKIM/SPF SpamAssasin Verification that all links work Banned words warning analysis

Send at the best time

Each subscriber is a different person, with different habits and customs. So why send to everyone at once? With this tool, our algorithm learns what is the most likely time for a given subscriber to open the email, so the email will be sent to that subscriber at that time.

Re-sending of unopened emails

This option allows you to automatically resend to subscribers who have not opened a campaign, after a period of time of your choice and with a new subject line. This can boost the open rate by almost 8% according to our statistics. You can learn more about these Acumbamail PRO functionalities in this post.

Chapter 3: Automations

As well as the campaigns looked at in the previous point, email marketing allows the creation of automations, through which you can configure email flows to be sent automatically to users based on certain actions or events. So, using emails created only once, you can send them in line with each user’s behaviour.

3.1 What are automations

Automations are a process by which, thanks to the creation of nodes, a flow of emails to certain subscribers is established based on their actions. While the Autoresponder type campaigns that we saw earlier allow you to schedule an email campaign based on a specific event, automations let you configure several different events and several itineraries, so one email will be sent instead of another. For example, you can set up a welcome email for all new subscribers, and a flow for customers using the paid version and another one for those using the free version.

3.2 Creating an automation

To start creating an automated flow, the first thing you need to do is to give it a name and a description, and start configuring the flow. The first step is to configure the first node. In this node you will have to select an event that activates it (a “trigger”), which could be a subscriber being added to a list, or selecting a specific date. Once you have configured the first node, you can add another one. Here you can choose between an email template to be sent, a waiting time, or a condition. If you choose a condition, you can split the flow into two paths, depending on whether it is fulfilled or not. From this, you will be able to create the branches you want, achieving a high level of personalisation, sending the appropriate emails to users who perform or do not perform certain actions with your campaigns. The creation of these automated email campaigns will allow you to save a lot of time, achieving a high level of personalisation for your users based on how they interact with your campaigns.

Chapter 4: Transactional email.

Transactional emails are those that are sent automatically when a user carries out an event on your website (a registration, a purchase, the creation of a user account, etc.). These emails are a must, as they provide information and instill trust, and can also be used to provide other types of value to the user (collect feedback, suggest similar products, etc.).

4.1 Configuring SMTP Relay

SMTP is an email transfer protocol that allows you to send email using an existing service. “Relay” is “relevo” in Spanish. When we talk about SMTP Relay we mean that, instead of sending transactional emails generated in your system directly, you send them through an external service such as Acumbamail. This has some advantages such as getting around attachment size limitations, avoiding bottlenecks due to server overload, etc. The SMTP configuration is rather straightforward, just replace your current SMTP data with your Acumbamail account data. Here is the documentation in different programming languages to carry out the integration.

4.2 Categories

Transactional emails can be categorised as you wish to receive separate reports and analytics for each one. You can create categories such as registration, purchase, payment, subscription, etc. and check the status of each of them in real time.

4.3 Webhooks

Webhooks allow you to set up notifications that will inform you of events occurring in emails sent to a set of subscribers and the status of those subscribers. Specifically, you will be able to track these events:

• Registrations: new subscribers who subscribe to the list through the subscription forms. Events imported via CSV will not be received.
• Unsubscriptions: subscribers who unsubscribe from a list.
• Hard-bounces: subscribers whose emails no longer exist or always given an error when sending them.
• Complaints: subscribers who mark one of your emails as spam or junk mail.
• Open: subscribers who open one of your emails.
• Click: subscribers who click on one of your emails.

These events will be collected through a POST request to a callback URL in which you must include a JSON code.

Chapter 5: Reports and metrics

One of the advantages of email marketing is that any action you take is measurable. You will have access to several metrics to know if your campaigns are having the expected success or, on the contrary, they will indicate which aspects you should try to optimise and improve. We will now look in detail at which reports you can consult, which metrics are important and how to interpret them.

5.1 How to consult reports

To consult the reports, you have to go to your dashboard and select the “reports” tab. Here you will see all your sent campaigns, and by clicking on each of them you will be able to view the report of each one of them.

5.2 Report data

5.2.1 Delivered

In this report, you will be able to consult the data of the emails that have been delivered. Here you can see the percentage of emails that have been opened, those that are unopened, and the complaints, in other words, users who have marked the sending as spam. In the future, no more campaigns will be sent to these addresses.

5.2.2 Sent, Soft Bounces and Hard Bounces

This section shows the statistics of the emails that have been sent. Deliveries include open, non-open and complaints, and also include soft-bounce and hard-bounce. You will also be able to view how these behaviours have evolved over time since you sent the campaign. In the following section, you can check all these metrics with absolute numbers and not in percentage. The origin of the interactions by country is another data that you can see in this summary tab.

5.2.3 Open rate

The open rate is one of the most important metrics in email marketing. This is the percentage of subscribers who have opened the email out of all those it has been delivered to. In other words, calculating this percentage takes into account only those that have reached the recipient, excluding hard bounces and soft bounces. The million dollar question is: how do you know if you are getting a good open rate? The answer is… it depends. Many factors affect the open rate, some more controllable than others. Of course, the best practices we have mentioned throughout this guide have an influence (list scrubbing, segmentation, emails that are of interest to your subscribers, etc.), however, other factors are more complicated to control. It depends on the industry, the type of email (transactional emails, for example, have a much higher open rate than commercial emails) and a wide range of other factors. It is important, therefore, to be aware of the data your campaigns usually generate, your industry and your type of mailings to monitor and optimise your open rate, as it is the key to your email campaigns performing well.

5.2.4 Click map

The click map lets you visually consult the places where subscribers have clicked on your email. You will be able to analyse if your links and CTAs are working as expected or not.

5.2.5 CTR

The CTR or Click Through Rate is the metric that indicates the percentage of users who have clicked on your links compared to all those who have opened the email. It is an important data to track, as it tells you if your links and calls to action are correct or if they could be improved and, ultimately, it is the percentage of users who have met the objective of the campaign by visiting the URLs that you have linked in it.

5.2.6 ISPs, browsers and operating systems

In this tab of the reports section you can check from which email clients, browsers and devices your campaign has been viewed.

5.2.7 URL tracking

In this tab you can check how the clicks have been distributed among the different URLs linked in your campaign.

5.3 Interpreting the reports

As you have seen, the reports offer you a wealth of data and metrics that you will also need to know how to analyse. You should gradually become familiar with the behaviour of your target audience and, as a result, monitor possible drops in important metrics (open rate, CTR) or increased delivery problems (bounce rate) and, of course, control the number of unsubscribes you have in the list with respect to new subscribers.

Chapter 6: Configure DKIM/SPF

Although at Acumbamail we guarantee that the DKIM and SPF records are correct, it is always a good idea to perform the verification manually. Some email providers perform more thorough checks.

6.1 What is DKIM/SPF

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) are two methods for mail clients to verify that the sender has permission to send from a given domain. This is necessary to prevent possible content falsification. Therefore, to ensure the deliverability of your campaigns, we always recommend verifying your domain name.

6.2 How to configure DKIM/SPF

To configure DKIM/SPF, you must go to the account section and select the “Sender management: emails and domains” tab. The first thing to do is to enter the domain you want to verify. Then you can configure DKIM/SPF. The process is straightforward and we also give you the option of exporting this report to a technician who can do it for you. The configuration can be done in two ways: by adding a TXT file to include in your DNS, or a CNAME file. This process must be done on your hosting provider’s website. Once this is done, click on “verify”. As you can see it is a straightforward process, but even so, it is perhaps the most complex thing to configure when using a bulk mailing software. Should you have any questions, our support team can help you set it up.

Chapter 7: White label

One of the features offered by Acumbamail is the possibility of creating a white label. You will be able to integrate it into your business as if you were not using an external email marketing platform.

7.1 What is a white label

A white label allows you to customise our platform with your logos, images and corporate colours. Within your white label, you will be able to create new users and assign them monthly credits.

7.2 How to create a white label

If you would like to create a white label, just go to the PRO section of the side menu, and select this option. Next, you will see a panel where you will be able to customise the notification email, domain, contact email, colours and corporate images. That’s how easy it is to create your white label with Acumbamail. Nobody will notice that you are using an external email marketing tool.

Chapter 8: Deliverability

Deliverability is a really important factor when it comes to email marketing campaigns. Low deliverability will mean that many of your emails are not being received correctly by your subscribers. Therefore, it will mean that your mailing efforts will be going to waste.

8.1 What is deliverability?

In email marketing, deliverability refers to the ability of our emails to be successfully delivered to the recipients. When an email leaves the sender’s server and reaches the recipient, a range of filters validate it (or classify it as spam). The emails that pass this filter are the ones that will arrive in the user’s inbox and will have been delivered.

8.2 How do we know that an email has been delivered?

When an email is sent from our servers, the receiving domain, e.g. Gmail, returns an OK to the request (in the event there was no error due to non-existent email, full inbox or other reasons). In this way, we count it as delivered and it is reflected in our reports.

8.3 Factors influencing email deliverability

There are several factors when it comes to making an email deliverable. The most important are the following:

8.3.1 IP reputation since being sent

When an email reaches the receiving server, these filters analyse the reputation of the IP from which it was sent. In other words, whether or not the emails sent from that IP are of good quality or not. This means that, if you send from a shared server, your reputation can be affected by your “neighbours” if they send poor quality campaigns that are often labelled as spam.

8.3.2 Verifications

As we have seen in chapter 6, verifying the domain from which you are sending via DKIM or SPF assures mail clients that you have permission to send from that domain and reduces the likelihood of being categorised as spam.

8.3.3 Email HTML

We have also seen in chapter 2 how important it is that campaign templates comply with standard and correct HTML so that different clients can interpret it properly and display the template correctly to the recipient.

8.3.4 Recipient behaviour

Large email providers (Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, etc.) analyse the behaviour of their users with respect to the campaigns. In this way, they assess whether the emails are of interest. By analysing opens and interactions, providers can determine whether or not you are sending relevant content to your subscribers. Hence the importance of always sending relevant emails. Segment your database to ensure that you send the most relevant content to each subscriber. If you want to know more about how antispam filters analyse emails to decide whether to deliver them or not, watch this video, “How antispam filters work” .

Conclusion

Our email marketing guide wraps up here. As you have seen, these are all the steps to create, send and analyse a campaign… We hope you have found it useful to get your mailing strategy off the ground. If you are already carrying out campaigns, we hope it will help you to improve them. Should you have any questions, please contact us and we will be happy to answer them. Thanks for reading this guide and visiting Acumbamail.

If you manage a business or brand, we are here to help you. As well as our super online marketing dictionary, we are constantly writing articles to support you in building your brand; promoting your eCommerce; your marketing plan; your email marketing strategy; and now your media plan.

Every good communication strategy starts with a well thought-out media plan. At the heart of the strategy is the content you want to communicate, what you want people to know about your brand. However, the way in which you disseminate this content must be set out in the media plan.

What is a media plan

The media plan is the strategic planning of the channels you will use in your marketing plan.

To begin with, the question you should ask yourself is: What media will you use to communicate with your different audiences?

To answer this question, you have to take into account:

• The target audience that the message is addressed to, who you want to communicate with
• The objectives of the campaign
• The budget you have
• The planned schedule, in other words, the time you have at your disposal

Direct Marketing defines a media plan as:

“Planning and scheduling of the advertising media selected for the dissemination of a communication campaign.”

Why is it important to draw up a media plan?

• Often the media you want to use are not entirely at your disposal. You must adapt to its scheduling and availability.
• The big media (the more traditional ones) have specific dates to contract guidelines and ads. They also often have significant discounts on contracts for those who pre-purchase.
• Whatever you are going to publish – on whatever channel – requires planning and production. The more time you have to come up with good content, the greater the impact the message will have.
• It enables you to plan your budget and manage it in a much more efficient way.
• If, from the outset, you have a much clearer map of the media you have available, you will be able to reflect on the importance of each one for your audience and take advantage of the wide range of available channels.
• Leaves you much more leeway to negotiate prices and your investment.
• It enables you to take advantage of seasonalities: dates that may be important to your audiences. If this is of interest, check out our marketing calendar.
• If you start early, you gain precious time that you can spend on dealing with your other business tasks.
• You can associate key metrics to the media plan to subsequently measure the return on investment.

What channels can you include in your media plan

The new media division that is currently being made usually takes into account:

1. Traditional media (outbound marketing): television, radio, press, advertisements, theatre, cinema, billboards, events, street activities, etc.
2. Digital media (inbound marketing): social networks, website, online advertising, email marketing, SEM, etc.
]]> https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/media-plan/feed/ 0 https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/newsletter-what-is/ https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/newsletter-what-is/#respond Thu, 15 Dec 2022 13:13:57 +0000 https://acumbamail.com/blog/?p=24298 A newsletter is an email with news. In other words, a publication that is sent periodically to subscribers to inform them of something. However, with the advent of the Internet, the old newsletter concept has changed. Not long ago, a newsletter was considered to be any publication sent to a list of subscribers. It was generally printed and reached the recipients through magazines, tri-fold or bi-fold brochures, or flyers. Newsletters can be sent to external subscribers, such as customers or partners, or to a company’s own employees.

What is a newsletter: definition and meaning



With the advent of the Internet, newsletters started beingsent by email and have become a very powerful email marketing tool. Nowadays, newsletters are not only sent to keep our customers or partners informed. They are also used to communicate promotions, new product launches and for marketing purposes. On top of this is the fact that the Internet has democratised access to newsletters which has resulted incutting down costs. A few years ago, sending out a newsletter meant investing a lot of money in design, layout and copywriting. However, mostly in printing and mailing, since newsletters were physical documents that were sent to each individual user. Nowadays, anybody or company can design and send their own newsletter with no previous programming or design experience. There are incredible self-publishing tools to create newsletters , such as Acumbamail, which is not only intuitive and cheap, it is also 100% in Spanish. Find out about ourservices, integrations and rates. What’s more, be sure to take a look at all the video, infographic and written resources you can access to help you come up with your email campaigns.

Types of newsletters

In the age of the Internet and email marketing, newsletters are classified according to the communication objective. Gone are the days when a newsletter was only used to communicate corporate news. Nowadays, newsletters can be classified according to these typologies:

Invitation or capture

These are newsletters in which users are encouraged to perform some kind of action. Or we try to get them to subscribe to an event or service, such as a course, a workshop or a draw.

Promotion

These are newsletters used to announce a limited time promotion or a on-off offer.

Loyalty

Newsletters in which we offer our users a benefit aimed at boosting recurrence and long-term customer loyalty. For example, pre-sales or exclusive bonuses for VIP customers.

Newsletter pure and simple

The type of newsletter we use to communicate corporate and informational news. It is the one that most resembles newsletters of yesteryear.

Special campaigns



These are newsletters that we send at important times of year, such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and others. They may include a promotional offer or include gift guides. If you want to know more about each type of campaign and see some examples, don’t miss this post.

Why newsletters are effective

In the past, the effectiveness of newsletters was hard to calculate. It was done through surveys that only a very small percentage of the recipients answered. However, nowadays, technology provides us with a host of options that help us to evaluate the effectiveness of our email campaigns with data. In general, email marketing is much more effective than other actions because it allows the following:

It has a high segmentation capacity

It is possible to send very specific communications to very specific audiences. And even carry out one-to-one personalised communications.

It is cheap

The cost of creating, designing and sending newsletters is incomparably lower than the cost of any advertising campaign.

It can be much more personal

It is an almost face-to-face communication, which the user receives in their inbox. The message has a greater potential to reach and have an effect on the recipient.

Potential to reach quality audiences

Mailing list subscribers usually have a prior interest in the brand or company that sends them communications. In other words, they show a willingness to listen to what they have to be told. In particular if a double opt-in process has been performed before each person is added to the mailing list.

The lists belong to the brand, not to a third-party.

In email marketing, the community data (the files) belong 100% to the brand. This is not the case, for example, with Facebook, Twitter or Instagram fans and followers. Got the bug? Of course. You surely now know what a newsletter is and what its numerous advantages are. Now then, it’s time to find out what you have to do to start advertising by email.

 

]]> https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/newsletter-what-is/feed/ 0 https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/christmas-email-templates/ https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/christmas-email-templates/#respond Thu, 15 Dec 2022 13:12:41 +0000 https://acumbamail.com/blog/?p=24300 If you follow our blog regularly, by now you will already know how to plan your Christmas email marketing campaign and which emails to send over the holidays. In this one, we have come up with 25 Christmas email templates for you to use in your email marketing campaigns. Let’s get down to business, specifically the design. This means leaving a behind everything strategic for a moment; after all, we have already talked about it in other posts. It’s time to get down to work to create eye-catching emails that capture the attention of users. We assume that you have already worked hard on the subject line to ensure that the user opens the email. Once this important step is complete, what comes into play is the design, which is always a determining factor for the email to be effective. We have got 25 Christmas email templates that you will be able to integrate perfectly into your Acumbamail email campaigns, to enrich your email marketing this Christmas.

Christmas newsletter template #1



With smartphone use increasing year after year, your designs must be able to be used on all devices. For your Christmas emails you can use this 100% responsive newsletter template. A great Christmas option to ensure that your subscribers get the best offers.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #2



A template specially designed to send information about products, discounts and Christmas promotions, as well as Christmas greetings to your customers. So, perfect for everything needed at this time of year. The best thing is that it also has a perfect integration with different email clients such as Gmail, Yahoo, Mail.ru, Hotmail, Microsoft Outlook and even Thunderbird. This is great so you can reach as many people as possible without any problems. Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #3



We’ve already said that Santa is on his way and has made a list of the names of the naughty kids and those who don’t optimise their email marketing campaigns for mobile devices. This is a responsive Christmas email theme with Santa Claus and his reindeer in the header. Like all our templates, you are assured of a correct display in all email clients (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.). What’s more, in our editor, you will be able to preview it on different devices, browsers and providers.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #4



If you want to surprise your subscribers with an email, this original design will be your best option. It’s not every day you see a neon Santa Claus that will give your campaign a truly original touch. As always, you will be able to customise this and all other templates with the Acumbamail editor.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #5



This theme is very well thought out for your Christmas emails, it has an eye catching design with very professional looking illustrations. You will be able to modify the colours or the content modules. By the way: like the rest, it is perfectly compatible with mobile devices.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #6



Combining perfectly with your logo and corporate identity, this theme can be a good option to communicate with your customers in this period and turbocharge your Christmas email marketing. Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #7



Send out special Christmas promotions and discounts with this elegant template designed to look great on all devices.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #8



All these templates are 100% customisable so you can adapt them to your corporate image. Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #9



Get a professional design by easily modifying the content with our drag & drop editor to impress your subscribers this Christmas.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #10



Adding GIFs to your campaign will give it a dynamic touch that will go down well with your readers. What’s more, you can use our GIF search engine included in the editor itself. Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #11



Remember that you can preview the look of your template on multiple devices and browsers to make sure that all your subscribers will be able to see it correctly without missing any details.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #12



This theme is perfect to highlight your products and get very good results with your Christmas campaign.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #13



There is no reason to only use red at this time of year, a combination of other colours can be equally striking and elegant.

Use this template

Christmas newsletter template #14



Don’t leave your campaign to the last minute; get your offers to your subscribers in good time.

Use this template

Christmas template #15



Another good example that you don’t need to use just red to send a festive email.

Use this template

Christmas template #16



This template has the perfect structure to highlight your products; replace the images with your products, and voilà.

Use this template

Christmas template #17



This template opts for a more modest and minimalist design. It is great for keeping subscribers up to date with your brand’s latest products or to show your product catalogue.

Use this template

Christmas template #18



This template has a particularly good UX as the different CTAs are distributed following the logical reading order.

Use this template

Christmas template #19



If you’re looking to send two different types of design that complement each other well… this template and the one above get the job done.

Use this template

Christmas template #20



This design also has a good UX by having different coloured rows in white and grey that make it quick to read.

Use this template

Christmas template #21



Use this template

Christmas template #22



Use this template

Christmas template #23



Use this template

Christmas template #24



This template is well framed to take the subscriber to the click: you can include the link you are interested in the red CTA in the header, present your products or offer, and include it again at the end.

Use this template

Christmas template #25



Use this template

What did you think of this selection of Christmas email templates? Would you like to use one of them for your email marketing campaign this Christmas? Which is your favourite?

]]> https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/christmas-email-templates/feed/ 0 https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/transactional-email-vs-email-marketing/ https://acumbamail.com/blog/en/transactional-email-vs-email-marketing/#respond Thu, 15 Dec 2022 13:10:51 +0000 https://acumbamail.com/blog/?p=24294 You are likely to have received different types of emails from an online store with different looks and for different reasons. This is probably because that business is making use of transactional emails and email marketing, two strategies that any digital business should be aware of and use.

In this article, we will look at the differences between these types of emails, what they consist of and how you can use them in your strategy with a view to boosting sales.

Two types of email with one objective: to boost sales

Let’s start with the first.

What is a transactional email?

A transactional email is an email that is sent to a user because they are expecting it. In other words, a specific action has been taken on the website or application that triggers the email being sent.

They are also known as trigger emails because they are sent when an event or action occurs.

That email is usually of an informative nature or requests a very specific action to be taken.

Let’s take a look at some examples. A transactional email could be sent to:

• Activate an account
• Notify a new registration
• Confirm an order
• Request a change of password
• Attach a purchase invoice
• …

A few that you have received recently will surely come to mind.

One of the characteristics of transactional emails is the open rate. As it is an email that the user expects to receive, it usually has an open rate of over 95% compared to the average of 30% for email marketing campaigns.

So, are transactional emails a type of email marketing? No, not at all. Let’s look at what a email marketing is so that you can understand it.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a bulk email campaign that targets a group of contacts, usually a subscriber list or a database.

These recipients are generally potential customers or the customers themselves, and each campaign is sent with the objective of achieving an action that usually results in a conversion.

Some examples of these emails are newsletters that are sent to:

• Read a new piece of content
• Discover new products
• Offer exclusive promotions
• Share testimonials from other customers
• …

In this blog we have discussed email marketing, I encourage you to learn more about it in this guide we have drawn up.

Differences between a transactional email and email marketing

Now that we have looked at what each type of email consists of and some examples, I leave you with this comparison table that will surely help you to get a better insight into the differences between transactional emails and email marketing.



SMTP server: the best way to send transactional emails

It’s time to get into the nitty gritty so you know how you can send each type of email.

Email marketing campaigns can be carried out with any email marketing service provider such as Acumbamail.

On a technical level, there is not much to configure to start launching your email marketing campaigns.

However, sending transactional emails does require some technical configuration.

To start with, you need an SMTP server which is responsible for receiving, transferring and sending messages with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

I know. You may be getting bored at this point so I recommend reading more about SMTP servers in this article, which looks at it in greater detail.

The main advantages of using an SMTP server to send your transactional emails are:

• Good deliverability
• High delivery speed
• Customised configuration to put in place whatever conditions you want
• Statistics and dispatch details

Your own or an external SMTP server?

If your company has its own technical team, you should look into setting up your own server. However, if you want to avoid problems and outsource this infrastructure, the best thing would be to hire an external SMTP server through an email marketing service provider.

At Acumbamail, we also offer this transactional email service to streamline maintenance and automate these important email campaigns for your business.

To sum up

I hope you have gained a better insight into what sets the two types of emails apart.

You will likely need to use both in your online store or digital business. Nevertheless, bear in mind that, regardless of your project, having a list of users to get in contact with is key to boosting sales. At the end of the day, anyone who sets up a business is looking for just that.

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