The Official Mad Mimi Blog

Yesterday I passed a collection of beautifully bright buildings–it was a children's science center–and I got to thinking about the feeling that those bright colors in the concrete jungle imparted. 

Fast forward to today and, completely unbidden, I remembered how in ancient Greece, those pristine marble statues we so admire, were actually quite colorful. 

Turns out that as children, as adults and as a species, we like bright colors on a plain surface. 

So, here's a simple design tip:

A white inner background and a light gray outer background with some bright colors in your heading and sub-heading is a powerful color scheme. Us humans seem to like it.

Cheers,

Dean

So, you're at a party, refilling on snacks when the guy next to you dives into conversation. There's a moment of hesitation. Do you know this person, or do you introduce yourself? Then he makes a reference–you met at Genevieve's party last winter. Of course! 

Sometimes reminders are helpful :) Think of the same scenario in your inbox. Reminding your readers why they're receiving your emails can set their minds at ease! Particularly if you're an infrequent emailer.

Add a simple "You are receiving this because...." at the top of your promotions. It helps retain readers and prevent mistaken spam reports! Some ISPs will even look for this line as one sign that your email is inbox friendly. So, it helps your delivery all around.

Need to find your Clickthrough Rates? Here's how in Mimi 2:

The overall clickthrough rate for a promotion is that smaller slice of the engaged percentage here:

You want details! I know :) To find the specific click percentage for any single mailing, click the engaged stat and select the mailing on the next page.

You'll find the numbers for views, shares and clicks here. Just click the % button to convert!

Ah, percentages for easy comparision :-)

A new integration! If you've thought about implementing a referral program for your business, Ambassador can help :-) 

The integration links your Ambassador account with Mad Mimi. So, you can easily keep ambassadors updated with your lovely Mimi promotions. Check out the details here!

Yes, Picnik is officially gone. No need to panic! The smart folks at Mashable came up with this list of alternatives: http://mashable.com/2012/04/19/picnik-alternatives/

We also think Aviary is great!

I was looking at two of my favorite musical artists' Facebook feeds today and I noticed one major difference. The first artist's feed appears to be written by an assistant with everything in the 3rd person and more like news bulletins than someone connecting to her fans.

The second artist seemed to write all her posts and news updates herself. Everything was in the first person and imparted pride and love in the news, the songs and the updates. There was personality peppering the posts.

I know which one I prefer to see in my news feed and which one's emails I prefer to read. Hint: It's not the first artist.

By being human in online communication, you remove the mystique and the barriers to interaction. When emailing, it's so easy to inform, add value and connect at the same time and by letting your personality shine through, you make it even easier.

Cheers
Dean

We've said it before, when it comes to great emails, content is key! If you want to increase your view rates and click-through rates–focus on quality content. 

So, what if you're not sure how to start? Check out these examples from Mashable. It all applies to your emails, too! 

So, you've seen the button in Mimi 2, but what exactly can you compare with this tool? I'll show you!

If you're trying to measure the effectiveness of different promotion types, select the promotions you'd like to compare on the right and click the Compare button.

Mimi plots the stats for all selected promotions on a bar graph on the next page. With the promotions below, you're comparing engaged rates. The clicks are that lighter shade of green and the overall engaged is the darker shade of green. This makes viewing clicks for each promotion simple–nice, right?

So, how can you compare those click rates on an even playing field? Select the "View as percentage ratios" button:

Here, we're no longer looking at the number of clicks made on a promotion (as in 10 clicks out of 100) but rather, the percentages. This makes it easy to compare promotions of different sized sends.

Read the rest of this post »

Do you find yourself wondering where to focus marketing efforts beyond your emails? Let the infographic be your guide:

Infographic by MDG Advertising

The title of this book review pulled me in. Yes, it's a book for art teachers, but really a collection of essays on creativity. 

Maybe you're not molding a new generation of artists with your emails each day, but you are working in a creative medium! We can all benefit from thinking about the email space with an artistic perspective.

So, skim the review and contemplate some of the assignments. Then take a new risk in your email :) The creative shift keeps your emails vibrant and who knows, you might even stumble upon your next big idea this way.