BRANDED EMAILS - WHAT NEXT?

AUSTRALIAN companies are yet to realise the full marketing potential of branded emails, with the concept heavily used overseas.

While email marketing has been an invaluable tool for many years, the evolution of cloud platforms means email branding knows no limits, according to The Hubb director Brett Hall.

“A lot of companies put their logos in emails or use email marketing programs, but only 30 per cent of business people utilise any sort of branding template. It’s an untapped canvas,” says Hall, an online marketing solutions specialist.

“People are sending countless emails every day but aren’t optimising that space to its maximum potential. It’s not just simple email marketing; these are fully branded emails
that put your products and services in front of your clients.”

Virtual server technology, or cloud computing, has allowed specialised applications to ‘dress up’ emails after users click send.

Hall says the system used by The Hubb compresses the template to around 50kb to minimise the risk of being picked up by spam filters. The full branding only comes through in the first email and not the following correspondence to eliminate bandwidth loading issues.

“Typically businesses would use the same look and feel as their website as this is where the majority of recipients will be taken when they click on your adverts or links on your branded template,” says Hall.

“When a recipient clicks on an advert within your branded template you will also receive an immediate click alert notifying you of who has clicked on what and been taken where on your website.

“The system affords businesses the ability to manage and change their own branded templates and adverts, generate their own reports regarding their branded templates performance and control the messages and promotions they wish to convey to their recipients via their email.”

As technology continues to move away from server-based applications, Hall says South Africa, parts of the US and Europe have embraced branded emails through cloud applications and Australia is now following suit.

The Hubb has exclusive rights to the technology in Australia and New Zealand and is seeking international partners to launch into new export markets.