Mad Mimi Blog
For Artists, Musicians and Other People Who Saved The World
May 12 2008
By now everyone knows that email marketing is a part of our lives and as much as us left brained folk hate to deal with marketing strategies lets face it: NO ONE is better qualified to do creative design than those that create as a way of breathing and living. Another fact you need to own up to is our love of sharing. Sharing our ideas, our creations, our unique empathetic concepts of art that change the lives of those who experience it. What every artist needs, other than skill and dedication, is visibility!Theatre groups, bands, artists all utilize mailing lists as a way to let their audiences know that they are here, there or anywhere. While there is no absolute way to get every single person on your list to show up and support you every time, you can certainly increase your chances of being noticed with Mad Mimi.
Some tips:
1. Your audience signed up. They want and expect to hear from you but they do not want to be spammed by you.
2. Simplicity is eye catching. You’ll be better off with a streamlined design. Don’t overwhelm your audience with either info or images. A great subject line and a concise email win people over. Who has time to wade through cluttered emails? You don’t and nor do your audience members.
3. Utilize images. Add some images but see above. Don’t overwhelm. Do however make them clickable. An image that is clickable encourages your audience to follow you to your website where you can let ‘em have it with all you have to offer. They’ll spend time wandering around and not feel like they where clubbed over the head and dragged there.
4. Think personal email not mass marketing. Make your promotion something you’d like to receive not something you wish your spam filter caught.
5. Simplicity again. This helps your email actually get through to your audience’s inbox. Simple does not mean your promotion can’t be stylish and awesome. It just means that you’re less likely to waste hours on the promotion and less likely to end up in the spam box. That means you have more time for what you want to do. Art!
6. Personality. Bring it!
So email, update and inform your audience and do it beautifully. I’d say good luck but that won’t be necessary.
Mad Mimi Launches A Little Color Revamp
15:26
Pink is nice, but we dicided to try some green. Over the last few days, we’ve done several deployments and there may have been cases of content loss. Although nothing has been reported, rolling out a deployment while users are active can result in some hiccups.
Other then that, we’re rolling out some authentication enhancements later today, as well as an itntergration with Campfire Chat that will allow users to get immediate access to us without needing to wait for an email response or pick up the phone.
A very smooth ride.
Mad Mimi is humming.
Apr 18 2008
With over 250 new accounts in a single day, Mad Mimi’s servers are humming. Thanks to Rob and Bradley for impeccable support and great server management. We love Railsmachine.
A Mad Mimi Screenshot
We're flattered by what Ajaxian had to say about Mimi
Apr 17 2008
Ajaxian: When I hear “email marketing” I can’t help but think spam, but it is a legit tool too, and the latest tool in the pack is Mad Mimi.
Mad Mimi launched this week and consists of “state-of-the-art UI design makes for layouts that are easier to create -– and easier to read – than emails generated by Constant Contact, Emma and others, who rely on rigid templates and cluttered,
dated layouts.”
Mad Mimi’s “modules-based” interface allows users to add picture and text fields, drag them around and add captions, links and dividers. Embedded constraints gently guide the layout, keeping the “designer” from getting into trouble, but providing more plasticity than templates.
The result: a fluid, flexible user interface, and clean, fashionable “Mimi-generated” promotions that represent a fresh approach to email marketing – at a subscription price that trumps the competition.
When I saw that Tobie Langel was on the team, I had to check it out. When you give it a spin you will be able to add images, and then use them to build out your email. There are some really nice subtle features such as the undo support.
Why do they Opt-Out?
11:19
Don’t feel defeated when people unsubscribe. There are usually reasons why, and ways to make improvements:
Problem: You send too many—or too few—messages. When recipients feel a bit overwhelmed by the pitches in their inbox, they may decide it’s easier to deal with none at all. Or if you hardly ever touch base with customers, they may wonder why—or if—they ever opted in.
Solution: Make your messages newsworthy, honest, concise and simple. A nice way to avoid the above frustration of overwhelmed recipients is to start off you promotions with small bits of relevant info, rather than a mile-long scroll down message that’s content-heavy. Keep it light, light-hearted and simple. That will result in your emails being less burdonsome, and set the stage for slowly increasing content that you readers will have warmed up to.
Problem: Your content isn’t compelling. Unless your message is relevant and interesting, don’t hit send. It’s quite obvious that people don’t want to receive email for the sake of filling their inboxes.
Solution: Make a rule of thumb to always think of yourself as the recipient of your email. That’ll help put things in perspective. It’s hard at the beginning to get yourself to do this authentically, but it gets easier - until you’ll see… it eventually just clicks. Also, your subject line should rock. It should tell the recipient about what they’re going to find in the email (make sure it’s phrased in a way that they’ll perceive it as being relevant) and not who the email is from, or excusively what the email is promoting.
Problem: Your relationship has changed. Customers return products; they cancel services; they move into new industries. Simply put, your messages might no longer address their needs.
Solution: Keep your creative content fresh, different and enticing. By keeping the copy fun, the design clean and creative, you can get your recipients to remain on your lists even though your product or event or service may no longer be relevant to them. If you keep your emails alive rather than making each one a bland regurgatation of the last, your readers will stay.
Problem: They change their email address, or use an alternative method of receiving messages. If you offer RSS, for instance, don’t be surprised if recipients unsubscribe from email campaigns.
Solution: It’s not you; it’s tech.
The bottom line: Understanding what causes a number of people to exit, teaches us something valuable about our subscribers who stick around.
Bob. Not “the Bob” but none-the-less.
Getting loud with the subject line
Apr 8 2008
Way too many otherwise creative people are too often content with the most unexciting of subject lines - or even worse, the same unvarying subject line for every email promotion they send. I suppose the hope is that people who didn’t open the promotion last time, will open it this time. Advice: this is the most efficient way to lower read-rates and increase opt-outs.
Bob sends out an email about his gathering every month, a couple days before the event. Bob always puts “Bob’s Gathering” in the subject line, and sends the email. Titles like “Bob’s Monthly Gathering” could definitely be improved. Bob has a monthly gathering that meets - well, monthly. Now, gatherings are great, and so are months. But if Bob wants to get a few more reads, he should put something more colorful in the subject line, like “This Week’s Gathering: How Good Are Your Promotions?” Now, we’re intrigued. Nice work, Bob. Now watch your open-rate improve.