We all get bombarded by spam emails, no matter how high we set our security, no matter how many captcha codes we use, they still get through. In our haste to delete these annoying emails, we get in to the habit of surfing through subject lines and binning those emails that seem spammy.

And here lies your opportunity to get through to your target market. If you have recently conducted an email marketing campaign and found that your results are very poor, it may be something as simple as you subject heading that has either been blocked by email security software, or has simply been deleted because it sounded much like the rest of the emails that the recipient didn’t want.

Creating strong subject lines that gets to the point and gains a positive response from the recipient is a very important marketing skill to have.

The best source of inspiration is your very own inbox. For one day only, whilst dealing with your spam, pay attention to the ones that make you hesitate before you delete them, what is it about the subject line that made you hover over the delete button, rather than hit the digital shredder?

Some great tricks that emails have been using recently in email subject lines has been the use of familiarity tactics – ‘Re: Can you send me that email again please’ ‘Fw: This may have been sent to me by mistake’. Although being proper shady tactics, they do give you the impression that the email has come from someone that you know, and gives you an indication of the direction email marketing firms are taking. Using generic social media type subject lines ‘Dave suggested you might like our website’ – we all know at least 5 Dave’s so that one seems to work as well.

However, the best subject lines are the ones that not only get an email opened, but also continue the message with a genuine offer and message. The best email marketing firms are people like PLAY.com or Amazon.co.uk, which can email you based on the items you have recently been searching for, making the content and email highly relevant to you. This is the same approach you must take with you email marketing, make it relevant to season, product, current affairs – anything that ties in with what’s going around in general media to your product or service.

How quick would you open an email received over the last few days if it read ‘Snow tyres fitted outside your house for FREE – anywhere in the UK’ yes you might have to pay for the tyres but you would certainly have a look at what was on offer. Or maybe even ‘We will come and grit your drive for just £1’ – ‘Learn how the professionals wrap Christmas gifts’ – ‘Perfect Roast Turkey recipe’ – ‘Christmas party dresses for under £20’ etc... The point of the exercise being not getting your email deleted and driving traffic to your website, special offer and making the phone ring.

Find out more about email marketing, call Sizzle Media today on 0161 820 8577

Businesses are always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to promote their business in today’s tough climate. Those businesses that have been around the block a few times will be investing heavily during the recession to promote their brands - whilst smaller competitors fizzle out. There are many promotional devices that companies use for brand promotion such as leaflets, websites, email marketing, text message marketing and so on, but one product that seems to deliver the message on a number of levels are Media Mats, which are simply floor mats that carry your organisations promotional messages.

These durable Media mats can be used to advertise special offers, display your company’s logo or to simply welcome people to your premises with a friendly greeting, reinforcing your brand as they enter and leave. Restaurants and bars have been using these products effectively to promote offers in their establishments with the use of bar runners and media mats.

The surface of these Media mats can be printed to very high standard in a variety of colours and can be used as large floor based promotional devices. Some products such as coir mats are hand-made and the colours available are limited to a few dozen. However promotional mats and media mats can be directly printed on and can carry highly striking images that are only limited by your imagination.

Create Mats have recently commissioned a simple CMS website developed by Sizzle Media; to offer highly competitive pricing on Media mats. Working exclusively with some of the largest mat manufacturers in the world, Create Mats are able to offer any kind of media mat at probably the most competitive prices in the UK.

Sizzle Media were commissioned to develop a web projects that was simple to maintain and cut out all the jargon, to offer people searching for Media mats a one stop service for their media mat requirements.

You can check out their amazing pricing yourself by calling 01706 436 102, you may even get a discount if you mention Sizzle Media!

It's finally here: NOISE 5 - the latest edition of the world-renowned series of design books by our friends at the Attik. As far as big design studio monographs go, the Noise series has a huge international following and each issue has become a collectors' edition.

Self-published with only a 3000 limited run, each book has cost over £200 to produce, resulting in a visual feast of experimental design and extensive print techniques. The book showcases over 250 pages of stunning design, using 9 different kinds of paper stocks and over 40 print finishes including hot foils, scratch-off inks, hi-build gloss varnishes, embossing and heat sensitive inks, and the result is a very tactile and very beautiful piece of work.

This book has been 3 years in the making so you can imagine that it's very hot property for those lucky enough to pre-order a copy. But since we're not just any old web design studio, no, Sizzle Media are one of the very few privileged enough to get a complimentary copy well before the book hits the stores!

Having pored over it since its arrival, we absolutely love it. It really is a work of art and has everything a designer could wish for and more. It's absolutely saturated with creativity and you genuinely sense the attention and effort that has gone in to the production – not to mention it cost a small fortune to produce!

Overall it’s a landmark piece of work by the Attik and a highly recommended purchase for any print or web designer when it does eventually hit the book stores.

Thanks to the Attik for our copy :)