Email Marketing Services Upgrade Their Interfaces: How Does This Affect You?

Email marketing is one of the easiest ways to reach your customers.

But at the same time, to get the MOST ROI on your campaigns you need to

really pay attention to your reports, subject lines, design and many

other small, but important details.

Campaigner, which powers

Smallbiztechnology.com's email newsletter, Vertical Response and Constant Contact are three

leading email marketing services.

In the past several weeks they've all upgraded their email marketing

services to some degree.

What does this mean for you?

This means that on a regular basis you should take the time to go

through the upgrades so you a) are better familiar with the new

interface and b) know what new features have been rolled out that you

can take advantage of.

Vertical Response's new

features include:

• A new streamlined email creation process: with fewer clicks and a

  faster

• An intuitive and easy to use Email Wizard: with drag and drop

  formatting and inline editing which provides more control over the

  design of your email

• Custom pre-built templates for a variety of industries:

  professionally designed templates are available for easy customization

• Image editing with Picnik: VerticalResponse has integrated with

  Google's world-class image editing app for powerful editing features

• Google Analytics integration: for tracking and reporting on open

  rates and click-throughs on links within emails, so SMBs can see when

  customers are engaging with their emails

• Flexible pricing: Send unlimited emails as low as $10 per month OR a

  pay as you go option, which costs about a penny per email

Campaigners

new features include:

• A new user interface that allows even easier creation of new email

  campaigns and sign-up forms that help small businesses build their

  opt-in mailing lists;

• A redesigned email editor that resembles the interface of

  Microsoft? Word, making it quick to learn and use;

• The ability to import contacts directly from Microsoft Excel;
• A full-screen email editing mode that makes it easier to see the

  overall look of the piece;

• An integrated image library that allows users to drag and drop

  graphics into the email or contacts merge fields;

• A spell check that quickly identifies potential misspellings and

  alternative spellings;

• New formatting tools, including the ability to paste directly from

  Microsoft Word without issues;

• Additional online help, with a searchable help system and

  easy-to-follow "how-to" tutorials built right into the product.