At Digital we help web publishers achieve more: more engaged readers, more enticing content, more advertising sales. We’ve been doing this since 2000 and have delivered training in more than 20 countries. Whether you’re a newcomer or experienced internet publisher, the Digital Training Academy is a great way to boost your knowledge and skills, helping you and your team get the most from your sites and their energy. We hope you'll enjoy your Digital Training Academy, and also that you'll instantly be able to achieve more in your firm. This learning programme includes online lessons before and after the face-to-face parts of your Digital Training Academy, and there's also an opportunity for direct tuition in your Digital Classroom.

Now take a moment to find out how your Digital Training Academy works

Digital Email Marketing Academy

Getting your email to cut through is a big challenge for marketers. But by stepping back from thinking just about email deliverability and spam filters, marketers can change their whole responsiveness by boosting how email really works in their campaigns. We explore best practice in email marketing, what drives audiences and responsiveness, and what the key issues are for creating stronger and more powerful email marketing plans. How can you use the subject line? Who should you send it from? And why having permission to email does not always mean having the persons real permission for the mails you’re sending.

Here is the place you can discuss issues with your tutor and other Academy participants.

Do you have questions for your tutor? Is there something that was not clear in your Digital Training Academy? Is there a new point you would like to make? Are there any new issues that you have discovered now you are applying your knowledge? Use this space to make your comments and to ask your questions. Give your comment a short title to make it easier for other students to scan, or include the title of the Academy Lesson your question relates to (if there is one). The classroom is open for three weeks following your Academy.

Here are a few examples of how the email open rates vary between sectors. It’s a report by email specialists MailChimp and it gives an indication of what to expect in any given email campaign. This is useful background but remember the success of your own campaigns will rely on the quality of your list, the value of the information you send and the skill in writing subjectlines and overcoming delivery issues.

Continue reading "Email open rates by sector" »

Use the name of your brand within the subject line to boost relevancy and authenticity. Remember that emails that are not opened can still have a positive brand impact so use this opportunity to boost recall and front of mind awareness.

Make it simple and instantly easy to understand. Make your subject lines ‘decodable’ so in the instant someone opens their email they can understand what the offer is about.

Use email as the gateway to deeper messaging, offers and data capture within your website. Take the customer to exactly the right page within a single click; apply a deep link strategy to everything you do.

For retailers using email with customers think about what to do with the customer who doesn’t click. Try create a second mailing with a new subject line; mail this to a sample of people who didn’t open the first and look for uplift and sales response. Let your findings govern your email strategy.

Avoid ‘one size fits all’ email marketing messages, but actively harness ‘one template fits all’ approaches. Use standardised templates to boost the efficiency of your email production and the ease of reading and interpreting among regular receivers of your communications. Find simple mechanics such as swapping story hierarchy or photos to talk appropriately with different target segments.

Never send emails from ‘info@company.com’. The from field defines the trust a customer has in the relationship with a brand so look for meaningful ‘senders’. Consider brand icons, senior directors or celebrity endorsers.

Avoid sending emails from a box that is never checked or preventing consumer replies from being heard. Not listening to customers speaks volumes about a firm’s attitude and is certain to provoke customers discontent with your products into greater depths of despair.

In times of huge economic and technical change, knowledge becomes a critical success factor. Alongside the training and development services available in the Digital Training Academy, we created a series of research tools and papers you can download and share with your team. These are complimentary to all members of the Digital Training Academy.

Digital Intelligence | Digital Insight Reports | Digital Thought Leaders | Digital Book Club | Digital Jargon Buster | Digital's Articles | Digital's Events

Share knowledge and learning from other internet training courses we’ve run. These online classrooms are the most relevant to your training programme for digital skills.

• Digital Media Sales Academy
• Digital Media Planning Academy
• Digital Web 2.0 Academy
• Digital Blogging Academy
• Digital Search Academy

Knowledge and training are critical for online marketers. Get it right and the internet becomes the most powerful marketing tool there's ever been, but getting it right is not straight forward. That's why I helped set up the Internet Advertising Bureau in 1997, and why I moved on from being its Chief Executive in 2005 to set up the Digital Training Academy. Thousands of marketers need to learn these new skills, so what the Digital Training Academy does is bring together senior industry figures to help them get there. Our team has been training marketers since 2001, and now through the forty academy courses, we have great ways to get your team on the fast track.

If you'd like some more background about some of the things I've done in the internet marketing and publishing industries then there's a biography in our press centre.