Does anyone happen to have an old or spare eircom.net email account they would be willing to donate? We are looking to test Toddle with their web based mail client.

And as a long shot we are looking do some tests on the Zimbra email client. Before we install it we are doing a quick shout to see if anyone already it up and running and can donate an account.

Thanks

I am in the process of writing a beginners guide to simple email marketing and i am looking for some personal practical experiences of people trying it in the real world. If you have any stories that you think might inspire others to try it, warn them what not to do or just a simple tip that you find works for you i would love you to share. I cant promise i can include everything in this article but there are many more due over the next year. Every story will be fully attributed (or you can be anonymous if you wish, just email me).

A great example is Jim Brady of Brady wines. He put a small ad in the local paper and front window offering a free wine course by email. He sent out a short email every couple of weeks to each subscriber telling them about wine. He simply used the information cards provided by the wine dealers about what each type of wine and how to identify them. The cards were normally on display in the shop and Jim added a little of his own opinion also. So when the subscribers wanted a good bottle of wine to bring to a friend’s house they knew to go to Jim. Subscribers were armed with the right knowledge to talk about wine over dinner which in turn helped to attract new customers.

An example of what not to do was demonstrated by the The Goldenspider awards who were fined €500 last month for spamming Maryrose of Brightspark.

So what works for you?

Comment [1] | Toddle | 02/01/08 11:39 AM

Anyone who has tried designing an email newsletter knows what a nightmare it is. Standard support in email clients is almost non existent. Think back to when you had to design two different web pages for Netscape and Internet Explorer and then realise that instead of two browsers you have to contend with numerous web and desktop email clients. Each one has different requirements. It is one of the reasons why we built Toddle. Small businesses should not have to worry about this technical issue and be able to get on with talking to their customers instead.
Thankfully the guys over at Freshview, who make the excellent Campaign Monitor and Mailbuild, have started a fantastic campaign to make the job of designers and marketers easier. The Email Standards Project. Read more about it here.

Comment [3] | Toddle | 16/12/07 02:56 PM

If like us you have been so busy getting client work out the door in time for Christmas you have probably completely forgot about the postal deadline to send a Christmas card and thank them for a great year. I would love to say that this year is unique but every year we plan on something a little special and each year get caught out. Well this year we have a secret weapon, Toddle. We have just launched Christmas Wrapping, a new Christmas email newsletter, and will launch a second design later this week. Ready to send just in time before everyone finishes for the holidays. So this year all our clients can go home warm and happy knowing how much we love and appreciate them.

To use the the Christmas designs simply log in to Toddle, click on Change design at the top of the screen and select the Christmas Wrapping Newsletter.
If you are looking for great Christmas imagery IstockPhoto have a great range you can buy from as little as $1. In fact i think your first image is free.
Choose your image and upload to Toddle.

Ryan, Gillian and the team at Carson Systems organised a great event overall and my now bigger/smarter brain thanks you. Most of the talks were excellence and while last year some of the more technical presentations went over my designer head all were very accessible this year.

I will detail the talks in my next post but first let me explain my disappointment.
I attended FOWA last year and came away wowed. It gave me the final drive to stop talking and actually do something about our web app ideas. And we did. I assembled a great development team and we have been working stupid long hours building and designing for a solid year. All while bootstrapping and trying to cover the bills. Its been damn hard but we had a goal. FOWA 07. We had done it too. We had a working beta of our amazing email newsletter app Toddle, organised demonstrations with some key people and plans to rugby tackle anyone else walking by to show them. And then the killer. No Wireless internet access. Telling an excited dev team back home who are texting and asking what the feedback is that it’s a washout is not fun.
Now I don’t blame Ryan for being let down by the supplier (and we should also have had some backup options) but I don’t understand how in a centre full of the brightest minds an alternative could not be found. Or why a call was not put out to the crowd for a bit of help to find a solution. I don’t know the industry players in London but locally here in Ireland there are two suppliers with cheap plug and play wireless boxes you can buy in most electrical shops. Was a few of these not an option in London? I know there was paid BT Openzone access but this was overloaded and unusable for a demo.
So in part it was a pretty frustrating and disappointing experience. I did get to talk to a few people about it and explain what we were doing and their excitement was great to see so my next step is to follow up with them and get some momentum going.

Comment [2] | Business | 24/02/07 02:30 PM