Friday Corner: Google + Vs Facebook

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3 New Mobile Marketing Case Studies from GraphicMail

We’ve just published 3 new mobile campaign case studies as a proof-of-concept of our innovative tool, which lets you send bulk SMS / Text messages with links to mobile sites.

To showcase the power of this feature, GraphicMail selected two suitable candidates based on our July 2011 call for non-profit organizations to submit mobile marketing proposals, as well as an enterprising student-run fashion start-up.

Have you been reluctant to bring the mobile channel into your marketing mix?

The GraphicMail mobile tools allow you to create SMS messages with links to multimedia mobile pages and sites, while capturing campaign performance and user engagement via forms, polls and survey tools... Just imagine the possibilities!

Want to see how well it really works? Well here’s a quick outline of what our three candidates did:

T-art: Founded as a team in the “50 to infinity” JP Morgan Young Entrepreneurs Showcase; T-art created and competed with a write-on-wipe-off ‘status update’ T-shirt. GraphicMail launched the group's first mobile campaign in unison with Mobile Marketing Week.

GraphicMail ran a weekly mobile campaign with T-art for the duration of the Rugby World Cup to help promote their Springbok Supporter competition. Participants entered by posting a picture of themselves wearing a T-art Springbok supporter shirt with an inspirational ‘status’ message written on it to the T-art Facebook fan page.

TB/HIV Care Association: A non-profit organization which aims to improve TB management by increasing access to Tuberculosis and HIV care, treatment and community support. They developed an acronym, “ACT NOW”, to spread awareness via mobile marketing and help people remember all the symptoms of TB to promote early diagnosis.

MedicAlert: An international medical NPO that launched a project which aims to raise funds to provide healthcare necessities for vulnerable children and orphans. GraphicMail’s mobile marketing tools were used to appeal to subscribers to make a once-off ZAR 200 donation to the project.

“I keep recommending GraphicMail’s wonderful mobile marketing services to new clients of mine. We are all happy with this great product and have listed GraphicMail as a sponsor to our website.” Tina Thiart - Medic Alert

4 Best Practices for Building Your Email List

The mailing list is the most important element in the success of your email marketing campaigns. If you can convert visits to your website and social pages into lasting relationships via email, the chances of retaining customers are much greater.

A permission-based list built by yourself always yields the best results, since you're providing people with content that's relevant and interesting to them.

Here are 4 key principles and practices to help you build a responsive list of addresses:

1) Offer a sign-up form on your website and blog for your email newsletter: The very obvious and most important example of when you have someone’s interest is when he or she visits your website. So feature a html newsletter sign-up form in a prominent position on every page, including text that:

• clearly states that this is a sign-up form for getting email;
• describes the benefits of being a newsletter subscriber; and
• indicates how often email will arrive.

2) Integrate sign-ups with other website interactions: If the ideal time to invite someone to join your list is when they've shown interest in your brand, it makes sense to build a sign-up opportunity into all your online processes. For example, whenever people:

• register for an event or webinar on your website;
• go through the payment process for a product or service; or
• enter an online competition or complete a survey.

3) Encourage sign-ups via social media: Consumers also interact with your company online outside of your website. Encourage social media contacts to sign up for your html newsletter, to provide a more effective channel for direct promotional efforts.

• Send tweet invitations to followers to sign up to see the next publication of your email newsletter;
• embed your email sign-up form on your Facebook page; and
• ensure your social media messages contain information about offers that are only sent to email subscribers. Exclusivity is a powerful incentive to join a list.

4) Work with partners: Find related businesses whose products or services are complementary to yours and ask if they'll add your newsletter to their opt-in form. Do trade offers, adding an extra registration check-box so people can subscribe to your list and your partner's bulk email marketing list at the same time.

GraphicMail Makes a Movie

This morning some of the staff at GraphicMail got up bright and early for the filming of our new Mobile Marketing promotional video.

Everyone was in good spirits and thanks to the professional efforts of our camera crew and the great acting talent that was put on display, it was a fun-filled start to our week.

We can't wait to see the end product!


While our latest feature film is in the post production pipe-line, take a coffee break and watch some of our other most popular email marketing videos.

3 Rules for Writing Stellar Email Subject Lines

Writing the subject line is often the last and most hurried step before sending an email, when it should actually be the other way around. Those first few characters are the doorstep to your emailing success; since it’s all you have to catch the attention of your reader, entice them to open your message and take action.

Your subject line is all your subscribers have to go on until and unless they decide to open your message.

So if you want to be able to leverage your mailing list in the best possible way, you have to learn how to write appealing subject lines:

Rule 1: Know your objective

Since a subject line distills the essence of an email, consider writing it first, as this will keep you from straying off point. Think about what the objective or end goal of your email marketing programs is.

• In most cases your end goal is not necessarily high open rates, but to have subscribers take a specific action. Determine what that one action is and make sure all components of your email, especially the subject line, will highlight a clear path to the objective.

Rule 2: Key information first

It’s important to mention the most significant information first when it comes to both your subject line and the email body copy itself. You only have one opportunity to make a first impression. You need to convey one compelling line that prompts the recipient to both notice and open your email - which is difficult to do.

• If you have an answer about what would make your readers care enough to open your email in 50 characters or less, you probably have your subject line, or something close to it.

Rule 3: Test, test, and test again

Testing subject lines give you better data and ultimately better campaign results. If you’re dealing with a big list of names, run tests to a small group before sending to your full opt-in email list. An A/B test involves splitting a list into two different headlines, without making changes to any other part of the email, to see which had the better result.

• Use the metrics from each segment to determine which subject line delivered the highest open rate or click-through rate. Every email send is unique, so you will need to repeat this testing phase every time you send a message, to consistently identify the higher-performing subject line.

With GraphicMail’s A/B split testing, you can find out what works in your email marketing campaigns.