Sometimes,  we have told you the importance of simplicity. You must not show all information when you write a newsletter, but show a "more info" or "click here" . Now  we recommend the same idea  in creating an  e-mail marketing campaign .

Typically, in our inbox are a lot of e-mails full of  information. Finally, you do not know exactly what kind of message you just received so you delete it and read the next one.

Our advice: do not get tired. Use a message to say one information only. Probably your company offers many products and services you would like to list but  concentrate on one idea that does not disperse the attention of your recipients. Avoid the noise in your communication.

Remember, you can not bomb all the information about your company in an e-mail. Try  link to your website and interested people will go there to analyze your products and services. Sure they will appreciate it  :-)

When you send an email what you aim for is that it arrives at its destination and that it can be visualised correctly. These aims may seem obvious and are normally taken for granted, however it’s not as easy as it seems. Why?

Besides the actual message you want to send, which consists of the text body, there also exists some elements surrounding this which are responsible for supplying the format and general layout. The content of the messages is in fact HTML code which supplies the necessary information to the email clients so they know how to view it, e.g. bold type, alignment, backgrounds, etc. The effects of this situation are:

• Inbound emails cannot be visualised correctly: the formats aren’t maintained, and
distributions, width, etc are affected.
• Received emails cannot be read.
• If the receiver can’t read the email without first downloading images, then the email
will most likely end up in the deleted folder without even being read.
• It gives an unprofessional image of the company who is sending the email. After
getting one or two emails like this the receiver will black list the company and will,
therefore, stop receiving that company’s emails.
• The content is confused with spam and won’t arrive at its destination.

Keep in mind these in the preparation of your e-communications.  Look for professionals if you think you can not do it alone. Effectiveness of your campaigns will increase considerably. We are sure!

Financial crisis is in everyone's lips these days. Shrinking budgets and lay-offs sprout everywhere. In such times is when your company must invest strongly in communication, whether it is in fact affected by the downturn or not. It's imperative to send out the right message to internal and external stakeholders.

I've been reading this remarkable article from Paul A. Argenti in Financial Times: "How to talk your way through a downturn". I think is very interesting to read and follow it's conclusions. Even in small companies.

Unlike during good times, you have an impatient audience expecting corporate messages. Employees, providers, customers... everyone is anxious to know about your company. Beware of being guilty by association: although your company is in good shape, if you don't communicate in the right way people could think you're in trouble just because the rest of the market is.

Argenti gives a lot of good advice:

• Do not hide
• Gather relevant information and stick to your story
• Communicate early and often
• Centralise communications
• Get inside the media’s head
• Choose communication channels thoughtfully
• Communicate directly with affected constituencies
• Keep the business running
• Keep values and character centre-stage

You can get into detail if you read the full article.

I think that e-mail is a good tool to use for this kind of communication too. The tracking information that you can obtain will be of good value, and you can adapt new messages to the results of the previous ones.

And don't forget that opted-in, planned, and well designed e-mail campaigns are one of your best allies to selling more and staying ahead of your competitors. When crisis strikes, the first reaction is to trim your marketing budget, when you should do the opposite. If customers are buying less you should do more marketing to overcome that tendency. If your competitors are trimming their investment in marketing to cut cost, you should increase it to be more relevant and take a definitive advantage.

Summing up: crisis times are times to invest more in communication in order to give the right messages to everyone and try to sell more. e-mail is your best friend for this.