5 tips about how to market products with email newsletters

Email marketing, for example by using newsletters, is a very fast and cost-effective way to market your products and services. You can achieve some really impressive results with emails; you just have to make sure to do it right. Below we offer you five quick tips that can easily help you to create a successful email marketing strategy and achieve the best possible results:

1. Plan your email marketing strategy
To make your email marketing successful, you need a well prepared strategy. Get the right message to your customer at the right time. How to do it?  Plan your email dispatches carefully in advance. Where do you start? The easiest way is to set and divide your email marketing strategy into three parts:

Inform with email
The first step is to inform your customers about the products and services you offer. Try to do it in an objective way, simply explain what your products do and who can benefit from them. That is not always obvious, especially for new customers, so you have to “teach” your customers about your products. Here, an email newsletter with information and tips about your products can be an excellent way to do this. You can add links to your website for more detailed information or a PDF document with a product presentation.

Remember, the first step is about informing, not selling. Provide your contact details so customers can get in touch with you if they need more information or want to order something.

Market with email
The next step is to promote and market your products with the help of email. It requires a long-term perspective.The goal is to highlight the benefits that your products offer and to strengthen your brand and company name towards your customers.

A newsletter sent by email is an excellent method to do so. You can complete your newsletter with a targeted email promotion, primarily aimed at those who have shown some interest in your products before. You will achieve the best results if you adjust your targeted email promotion for every customer group. Your goal is to make your readers curious to seek more information or to contact you, even though they won’t be buying directly. Make them click on to your website where you can highlight the benefits of your products even more.

Sell with email
The ultimate goal is selling. So how do you optimize your sales letters and get your customers to buy directly? Well, it won’t work without the first two steps. Your customers need to have a good knowledge of your products and the benefits they offer. If you have done your homework with the first two steps, now it’s time to strike. Send a sales email and aim for a direct purchase decision. Don’t forget to make it as easy as possible for your customers to order.

2. Optimize your email marketing costs
Costs are of great importance for any business and email marketing in no exception. You need to face the question how much money and time you can invest in your email marketing. Here comes the big advantage of email marketing compared to other marketing forms; its low costs. Email dispatch is free and newsletter creation cost is totally up to you. With a good email marketing tool you can achieve impressive results with no need for spending hours on it.

Well designed newsletter templates give you the possibility to quickly create your own professionally looking newsletters at low costs. Moreover, you can easily customize them after your needs. A newsletter template created by a web consultant exactly the way you want it can also be a good investment. A well made newsletter template is easy to reuse by replacing images and text every time you need a new newsletter.

3. Make sure to have correct email addresses
E-mail addresses change frequently so you need to update your mailing list regularly. A good tip that makes a difference is to use personal email addresses such as “john.smith@samlogic.com” instead of “info@samlogic.com“. It increases the chance of getting your email to the right person. Last but not least, avoid email duplicates. Getting the same email several times can be very annoying. Use an email program that finds and eliminates the duplicates for you.

4. Best timing for your email dispatch
Time your email dispatch so that your customers can read your newsletter undisturbed. The best timing for receiving emails for B2B (business to business) clients is within office hours. E-mails sent on weekends and at night most likely disappear in the email overload popping up every morning in your customers’ inbox. Monday mornings are extra overwhelming so try to avoid them.

Mondays in general are not the best days for sending out newsletters due to heavy work load. Fridays’ dispatches on the other hand should be done in the morning as Friday is often a shorter workday.

Plan international dispatches to foreign customers in other time zones so that they are received during office hours. An email program/service with an automatic build-in email dispatch at a predefined time can help you with this (i.e. you can choose an exact time for your email dispatch or set a specific time zone for every contact).

5. Marketing emails and newsletters frequency
Sending out marketing emails too often puts you at risk of making your customers tired of it and signing out from it, or even blocking you as a sender. To avoid this, don’t send your emails to the same customer too often. On the other hand, too sporadic email dispatches may be a cause of missing an important business opportunity. The key is to find a balance for your email dispatches. A regular monthly newsletter completed with emails with more detailed information about new products plus an annual email promotion can be an appropriate email marketing strategy.

It is difficult to set a general email marketing periodicity since the recommendation varies from branch to branch. For branches with quick development and constant changes it is important to receive fresh news frequently. Less frequent email dispatches are more appropriate for branches with slower innovation pace. To achieve the best results, combine email marketing with other forms of marketing channels such as Facebook and Twitter.

See also these articles
> How to create a newsletter that increase sales
> Free Newsletter Templates for Email Marketing
> Sending Newsletters via E-mail (21 Advantages)

Visual Installer: How to create a Windows Installer style of project

In Visual Installer you can use two design types for your installation projects: Visual Installer style and Windows Installer style. The following video on YouTube shows how to create a project of Windows Installer type:

When the video has started you can click on the YouTube logotype ( ) in the video window to view the video in a larger size and better resolution.

More tip videos
More tip videos for Visual Installer are available on our YouTube channel:
> SamLogic Software on YouTube

15 tips that reduce the spam score for your newsletter

Stop spam!Making a legitimate newsletter pass trough all spam filters can be tricky today. The spam filters are very sensitive and sometimes they make mistakes. The result of this is that also newsletters that receivers subscribe on and really want to read can be stopped by a spam filter; either by a spam filter on a server or by a spam filter on a client computer.

15 tips
We have published an article on our website that contains 15 useful tips that help to minimize the risk that legitimate newsletters are stopped by spam filters. If you use our email tool SamLogic MultiMailer, or another email software or service to send newsletter to your customers, we recommend you to read the following article:

> How to reduce spam score for your newsletters

How to create a menu interface with 3 columns with buttons

It is easy to create a menu interface with 2 columns with buttons in CD-Menu Creator. You only need to select the Double Columns option in the Buttons tab in CD-Menu Creator´s editor, and add your buttons. Then you will have a menu interface with two columns with buttons. If you click here you can see an example of such a menu.

But what about a menu interface with 3 columns with buttons? Can this be easily done? Well, some more work is needed, but it is quite easy also. The tip below shows how to create a menu interface with 3 columns with buttons:

1. Start the CD-Menu Creator editor.
2. Open the Buttons tab.
3. Select Left in the Placement frame.

Buttons: Placement - Left

4. Open the Buttons (text) tab.
5. Click on the Add Button button.
6. Enter “Alfa” (or other text) in the Text (button) text box.
7. Click OK.
8. Click on the Add Button button again.
9. Enter “Beta” (or other text) in the Text (button) text box.
10. Click on the Options button.
11. Open the Position tab.
12. Select the Next free (horizontal/vertical) position option.

Next free position

13. Click OK, and OK again.
14. Now select the button with the text “Beta” in the button list.
15. Click on the Copy Button button and click on Yes in the message box that is shown.
16. Repeat this process until you have 6 buttons in the list.
17. Double click on button 3, 4, 5 and 6 and enter “Gamma”, “Delta”, “Epsilon” and “Zeta” (or other text) so every button have a unique text.

6 buttons

We have now created a menu interface with 6 buttons. To make the buttons appear in 3 columns you need to adjust the button width and the menu window width, so 3 buttons fits in one row without problem. You can for example enter the following dimensions:

1. Open the Buttons tab.
2. Enter “160” at Width (this sets the button width).
3. Open the Window tab.
4. Enter “553” at Width (this sets the window width).

You can now preview the menu window (click on the Preview button). The menu window should look like this:

Menu with 3 columns of buttons

Instead of entering a width manually at step 4 above, you can click on the Size button and use the mouse to resize the menu window so it will have a proper width. The buttons will draw itself automatically when you adjust the menu windows width, and you can adjust the menu width until 3 columns with buttons are drawn and the distance between the rightmost button and the right border is ok.

Window dimensions

When you select the Next free (horizontal/vertical) position option (see step 12 above) this button will be drawn in the first free area to the right of the previous added button (see figure 1 below). If there is no free area to the right, the button is drawn on the next row instead (see figure 2 below).

Figure 1 and 2

More tips
More tips about how to use CD-Menu Creator is available on our tips & tricks page for the tool.

Can I set a unique text color for a button in a menu interface?

In the Buttons tab in the CD-Menu Creator editor you can set a text color for all texts that are displayed on buttons in a menu interface. But the color that you set in the Buttons tab will be the same for all buttons. Sometimes it can be useful to set another text color for specific button, but is it possible with CD-Menu Creator?
Buttons
The answer is yes. You can set a unique text color (and also a unique background color) for every button in a menu if you want that. In the following step-by-step tip that we have published on our website we explain how to do this:

> Tip: Unique text colors for buttons

How do I change language for my setup dialog boxes?

The default language for setup dialog boxes, information messages and error messages in the Visual Installer setup tool is English, but you can use another language if you want. You can change language by choosing the Special – Language menu item in Visual Installer’s editor (see the picture below):

Special - Language

All standard texts are stored in separate language files. An English and German language file is included as default, but it is easy to add your own language file to Visual Installer and use it for your localized installations.

New language file

The tip below shows how to do this:

> Create installations in different languages

The language file only contains standard texts. With standard text we mean texts that are the same regardless of project; for example texts for navigation buttons, and information and error messages. When you enter project specific texts, for example about a specific software, these texts are stored together with the project file (.VIP file). In the following tip we show how to add and change project specific texts:

> Setup Dialog Boxes – How to choose, add text & change image

See also
> A German language file is now included in Visual Installer

How to check bitness for an .EXE, .DLL or .OCX file

An .EXE file, a .DLL file and a .OCX file (and some other binary file types) can be compiled as a 32 bit file or a 64 bit file. In many cases you can find out whether the file is 32 bit or 64 bit by using one of the following methods:

• Check the filename of the binary file. Does it have a “64” at the end of the filename (like “mydll64.dll”)? Then it is very likely a 64 bit file.

• Right-click on the file in Windows Explorer, choose Properties, open the Details tab and examine if bitness information is included here. Sometimes it is.

• Is the file located in a 64 bit folder? Then it is very likely a 64 bit file (read more about 64 bit folders in this article on our website).

• The following tip works only for EXE files. When the program file is run, open Windows Task manager and open the Processes tab. Look after the filename for the program. If you find the text “*32” after the filename, it is 32 bit file. Otherwise it is a 64 bit file.

Another method – Check file bitness using Visual Installer’s editor
If none of the methods above work for you, there is another method you can use instead. You can use the Visual Installer editor to check bitness for a file. Follow the steps below to check bitness for a file via Visual Installer’s editor:

1. Start Visual Installer.
2. Add the file that you want to examine to Visual Installer’s file list.
3. Right-click on the file in Visual Installer’s file list.
4. Choose the Show file information menu item in the menu that is shown.

5. Check the information to the right of the Bitness field in the File information window.
    The text will be “32 bit” or “64 bit”.

If the text is “32 bit” to the right of the Bitness field, the file is compiled for 32 bit. If the text is “64 bit” to the right of the Bitness field, the file is compiled for 64 bit. The picture below shows an example for a 32 bit file.

And the picture below shows an example for a 64 bit file.

Use correct destination folders for binary files
Different folders are used in Windows depending of a binary file is a 32 bit or 64 bit. For a file that will be installed to Windows system folder it is very important to put the file in correct system folder, otherwise the file will not be found by the software. For a file that will be installed to Windows program files folder it is recommended to put the file in a program files folder intended for the same bitness. However, the software may work if you put a file in wrong program files folder, if the software is aware of this and can handle the situation.

See also
> Blog: How Visual Installer handles 64 bit folders in Windows
> Tip: How to install a 64 bit program
> Article: The ‘Program Files (x86)’ and ‘SysWOW64’ folders explained

Visual Installer: How to password protect an installation

In Visual Installer you can protect an installation from unauthorized use in two ways: you can protect it with an license key or you can protect it with a password. License key protection and password protection works in a similar way, but there are differences. Below we explain some of the differences:

– When a user enters a license key, all characters that are entered are also shown on the screen. But if the user enters a password, only stars (*) are shown on the screen. Nobody can look on the screen and see which characters are entered.

– Passwords are case sensitive. License keys are not. So if you specify a password like “Orange“, only “Orange” will be accepted. Not “orange” or “ORANGE“. However, if you specify a license key as “Orange“, the user can enter “Orange“, “orange” or “ORANGE“. All three will be accepted by the setup program.

– Only one unique password can be specified for a specific installation. But if you use license keys, you can specify more than one key. In fact, you can specify thousands of unique license keys, if needed.

How to password protect an installation
Below we will show how to password protect an installation:

1. Start Visual Installer, and open an existing project or create a new one.

2. Open the Dialog boxes tab.

The Dialog boxes tab

3. Select the Password option in the Dialog boxes tab.

The Password option

4. Click on the “…” button to the right of the Password option.

5. Enter a password in the Password text box in the Password dialog box.

The Password dialog box

6. Click OK to close the Password dialog box.

You can now create an installation and run it. The Password setup dialog box (see the picture below) will be shown in the setup wizard when you run the installation, and you can not continue the installation until you enter the correct password.

The Password setup dialog box

More tips
More tips for Visual Installer are available on this web page.

Visual Installer: How to change registration order during setup

When you install files using Visual Installer, files are normally registered in the order that they appear in the file list. But sometimes this may create a problem, if one file is dependent of another file, and they are registered in the wrong order. To handle a situation like this there is an option in Visual Installer that allows you to register files in a particular order.

If you want to specify in which order files should be registered, you can choose the List – Register files menu item.

The Register files dialog box is then shown (see the picture below). In this dialog box you can specify the registration order by entering one file path per line. Each line must contain an installation path to every file that you want to have registered in another order than the default order. You can use variables in the file path (for example: %SYSDIR\MyDLL1.dll).

Line 1 is registered first. Then line 2. Then Line 3. Then line 4. Etc.

All files that you specify in the Register files dialog box are registered before any file in the file list is registered. So the list in Register files dialog box is handled first.

More information
Additional information is available in Visual Installer’s Help documentation. Click on the Help button in the Register files dialog box to obtain more information.

More tips
More tips for Visual Installer are available on this web page.

How do I create a system with multiple menus in CD-Menu Creator?

It is very easy to create a single menu window with CD-Menu Creator. Normally you can create such a menu interface in just minutes. But sometimes a single menu window is not enough. Sometimes you also need some sub menu windows with additional buttons, because all of the buttons that you want to add will not fit in a single menu window. The buttons are too many.

This situation can also be handled with CD-Menu Creator. With CD-Menu Creator you can create a menu system with many menu windows. For example, a main menu and some sub menus. You can create so many levels with menu windows that you want, but usually only 2 or 3 levels with menu windows are necessary.

We have published two detailed tips on our web site that show how to create a menu system that contains a main menu and some sub menus. The first tip shows how to create a menu system with two levels of menus. The second tip shows how to create a menu system with 3 levels of menus (a system like in the picture below).

3 levels with menus

Read more on this page:
> Tip: How to create multiple menus on a CD or DVD

See also:
> Tips and Tricks for CD-Menu Creator