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7 Email Marketing Best Practices

Posted on 30 July 2010. Tags: Best, Email, Marketing, Practices

Email is the most used service on the Internet and, doubtless,
most useful. Many people use the Internet only for checking
their emails. Email marketing can be useful only if done right.
Otherwise, it can get you more harm that benefits. However,
there are things you can do in order to ensure that your email
marketing campaign is going to be successful. In this article we
provide you with 7 email marketing best practices.

Deliverability

Deliverability is probably the most important issue in today’s
email marketing business. There are many spam emails and many
legitimate emails are flagged as spam so they are not delivered.
They are not getting thru ISP spam filters. Good deliverability
ratio is the first step in successful email campaign because if
your emails aren’t delivered then you don’t even have an email
campaign!

In order to ensure that your emails will have good
deliverability you have to choose your email marketing vendors
wisely. You have to check if they are on “Blacklist” or
“Whitelist”. There are different organizations like Spamhaus
project and SpamAssasin that have their own lists which are used
by ISP. If your email service provider is blacklisted your
emails won’t be delivered! Also, you have to ensure that your
domain name isn’t blacklisted. In order to maximize your
deliverability it is recommended that your email service
provider offers Habeas Sender Warranty Email Header.

Using our award-winning Group Mail product, whether it is Personal
Edition or Business Edition you can be sure that your emails
will be delivered because we have a constant cooperation with
ISP.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

Your email newsletter should be CAN-SPAM Compliant. It is
recommended that you require double opt-in subscription so that
your subscribers have to confirm their request to be part of
your email newsletter. Don’t add your subscribers without their
permission and you should avoid adding them manually even if you
have their permission. It is good that they do it using double
opt-in method. Also, avoid using pre-checked subscription boxes.
One of the products in the Group
Metrics software called Opt-In manager will help you to do
this easily.

It is essential that you provide your subscribers with an easy
way to unsubscribe from your email newsletter at any time, when
they want. It is good that you offer one-click unsubscription
process with an unique address. This way there will be much less
requests from your subscribers that you remove them.

CAN-SPAM Law also requires from email publishers that they
include their physical postal address so you should include it,
too. Your have to show your subscribers that you are legitimate
company which have a presence in “offline” world, too.

HTML and plain-text versions

It is essential to offer your visitors to choose if they want to
receive your email newsletter in HTML or plain-text format. It
means that you should regularly send both types. Sending HTML
newsletters have more benefits than plain-text email
newsletters. You can use email tracking only in HTML newsletter
with image embedding, HTML newsletters have better click-thru
ratio because they look like the real web sites. You can hide
long URLs so that they will look professional.

However, some people prefer plain-text versions and reasons are
different. They use email clients that don’t support HTML
emails. Another thing is that HTML newsletter types are larger
than plain-text newsletters. Also, one of the reasons why some
people don’t receive HTML emails is security. In HTML
newsletters some people can embed malicious scripts or use them
for phishing (when they pretend that they are representatives of
one company and when people click on a certain link they are
taken to their web site that is designed almost identically like
original). It is mostly used in financial fraud attempts.

From and Subject fields

Your From and Subject fields are very important for getting
better open ratio and therefore to have successful email
campaign. You have to remember several simple rules.

It is important that your From field be consistent. You have to
choose one name, whether it will be a company name or personal
name and use it constantly. Once you change your From field it
is most likely that your open rates will decline.

Speaking about Subject field, it has to be short and catchy, to
grab attention of your subscribers. Your email has to stand out
in usually overloaded inboxes. It is important that you don’t
shout so instead of

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH…

use

Exclusive Interview with…

It is very good that you make your subject field standardized
and that the title be something related from the content of that
current issue.

For example, if you have a newsletter called Email Articles your
subject line can be something like this:

[Email Articles] How to Improve Your Open Rates, Issue#10,
August 29th, 2005

If your email newsletter has a longer title, for example, Email
Marketing Articles you can use this:

[EMA] How to Improve Your Open Rates, Issue #10, August 29th,
2005

Personalization & Segmentation

Personalization is connected with Subject fields, too. Some
people like to include first names of their subscribers in
subject lines in order to have better open ratio.
Personalization is also very effective when it is used in
editor’s welcome message or in articles.

For example,

Dear !*First_Name*!, welcome to the 10th issue of Email
Marketing Articles.

Powerful email marketing software like Group Mail,
beside standard personalization also has “if-then”
personalization for more advanced users.

Segmentation is the most important part in marketing. “What am I
selling and to whom?” It is not the same to sell your software
to novice users (newbies) or to seasoned users (knowbies). Also,
it is not the same to market your software to small business
companies and corporation. It is good that you make a good
segmentation of your email newsletter. Best way to do that is to
include several additional fields at sign-up process. Of course
this doesn’t mean that you have to ask 15 questions from your
new subscriber because many people leave when they see that
there are many fields to fill. After that, you will make several
email newsletters for each membership type.

With Group Mail 5 (Personal and Business Edition) you can make
unlimited number of lists with unlimited recipients in each.

Timing is everything

Another very important thing in creating successful email
campaign is timing. In almost every email marketing statistics
you will find information about when to email your subscribers.
So studies show that the best time for sending email campaigns
are days from Tuesday to Thursday. However, it doesn’t mean that
someone can’t have successful email campaign sent on Sunday. If
you send your emails in days that are not “prime time” you can
have a chance to avoid competition that will mail their campaign
in prime time. Tuesday-Thursday are generally best days for
mailing because, as you probably know yourself, too, not many
people like Monday (remember that song?). After a good weekend,
Monday is usually reserved for some consultation with the
management about weekly plans and task. Friday is, on the
contrary, favourite day for many people, because they are
planning their weekend. People often come home earlier on Friday
so your email can be buried in their inbox until Monday. And in
Monday, to be deleted with many others (we have already wrote
about Monday). On the weekend people usually don’t work but many
will still check their emails.

Also, you have to decide how often you want to send your email
newsletters. It will depend on your content. If your email
newsletter about latest industry news you can send your
newsletter once a month, because then it won’t be latest news
anymore. If you send a corporate email newsletter with news
about company and useful articles from your area of expertise,
monthly frequency is usually the best one.

You have to make several email campaigns and see which ones get
you best results.

And when we talk about best results the next logical step is
tracking.

Tracking

How do you know if your email marketing campaign was successful?
You have to know how many people opened your emails, what was
your click-thru ratio, your subscribers’ behaviour on your web
site after they had clicked and finally – how many subscribers
purchased your product.

With user-friendly Group Metrics you will be able to do that
and also to make polls to get even better view of your email
campaign

15 Email Marketing Best Practices

Posted on 19 July 2010. Tags: Best, Email, Marketing, Practices

As you may know, most people now spend more time reading their emails than they do surfing the web. Email is one of the most powerful mediums that you can use to talk to visitors, customers and prospects.

In this article I will discuss 15 best practices that you can use everyday in your email marketing activities. Used wisely and consistently, there’s no doubt you’ll see an increased response from your subscribers — whether it be for more feedback, more product/seminar registrations, or even more orders.

1. Avoiding the Spam Filters The majority of large Internet service providers now use rigorous spam protection mechanisms to trap unsolicited email before it gets into their customers inboxes. Spam filters generally “rank” each email by a number of different criteria, and, if that email rates above a certain level (such as 10 spam points), then it is flagged as spam and deleted.
To make sure your emails don’t get flagged as spam — and deleted before they even get to your subscribers — avoid using words such as ‘Free’, ‘$$$’, ‘Save’, ‘Discount’, etc in both the subject line and the content of your email.
2. Maximizing Click-Thru Rates Both web pages and emails can contain a lot of text and graphics, and this sometimes makes it harder to get your subscribers to perform a certain task, such as clicking on a link to see your special offers.
Numerous research papers tell us that the majority of Internet users respond better to a plain, bold, blue text link — such as this — as opposed to a banner or button. So, if you’re going to include links in your emails, make sure they are bold, blue and underlined. This will mean that more subscribers click through, meaning more conversions/sales for you.
3. The Power of Personalization If you were standing in a crowded mall, which of these would get your attention: “HEY, YOU!” or “HEY JOHN” (assuming your name is John). The power of personalization can and should be used in your emails. In-fact, by simply starting your email with “Hi [subscriber_name]” instead of the boring “Hi there”, you can increase both your reading and click-thru rates by up to 650%. Why? Put simply, it’s because your subscribers feel like they already have a relationship with you as you’ve addressed them by their first name.
4. One-Click Unsubscription If you want to grow your mailing list, then there are 2 things that you absolutely must have: a double opt-in process, and a quick way to unsubscribe. In some countries, it’s actually mandatory by law that every email has an unsubscribe link in it. The unsubscribe link should take the recipient directly to a page where they are then removed — courteously — from your mailing list.
5. Signup Confirmation Don’t get accused of spamming — always, and I mean always use a double opt-in confirmation process. Double opt-in means that after your visitor initially enters their email address to subscribe to your list, you should then send them a “confirmation” email. This email should contain a special link back to your email-marketing program, which will then verify that this visitor did indeed sign up to your mailing list.
6. Tuesday / Wednesday = Increased Response Studies conducted by online research analysts have shown that the best days to perform a mail-out to your list are Tuesday and Wednesday, as this is when people are more receptive to communication. This means that they are more likely to read your content and click on links, meaning more sales.
On Mondays, everyone is still recovering from a hectic weekend. On Thursday and Friday, people are already too busy looking forward to the weekend. We’ve actually experimented with this, and received the best results by sending out emails at around 2-3pm (American Pacific Time) on a Wednesday.
7. Repeat Email Communication An auto responder is an email that is scheduled to be sent at a certain time interval after someone subscribes to your mailing list. Auto responders are a great way to automatically follow up with your subscribers or provide them with more information on your products/services.
For example, if you provide a free newsletter, you could setup 3 auto responders for new subscribers: the first is sent 1 hour after they subscribe. It contains a thank you message and a link to get 10% off your newly released eBook.
The second is sent 24 hours after they subscribe, telling them about your community message boards, and the third is sent 72 hours after they subscribe, in which you can offer them a special deal on becoming a paid member of your site.
Auto responders help your subscribers build trust in both your company and your brand, and this can help make it easier when trying to close sales in the future.
8. Consistency is the Key If you’re running a newsletter or frequent email publication, make sure you keep the look and feel consistent from issue to issue. By keeping the look and feel consistent, you help to maintain and strengthen your brand and your image to your subscribers, which again will make it easier to close sales when you need to.
Create a template for your newsletter and whenever you need to create a new issue, use that template as the basis for each issue.
9. On Time, Every Time When sending a regular email to your subscribers, always make sure that it’s sent on the same day, at the same time. For example, every Wednesday at 3pm. Your subscribers will come to “expect” your email to arrive in their inbox on the same day at the same time every week, meaning that they want to read your content and are generally more receptive to any special offers or promotions you may include.
10. The Half-a-Second Subject Line When your email arrives in your subscriber’s inbox, you generally have about half a second to catch their attention with the subject line of your email. After this, they will either delete your email or ignore it. In your subject line, try and specify a benefit that the subscriber can expect by reading your email. For example, instead of using ‘OurSite Newsletter Issue #1′, use ‘OurSite Newsletter: 10 Tips for Financial Freedom’.
11. The Free Bonus Hook-In Free is overused these days, especially on the Internet. However, if you’re looking to grow your subscriber list, then create or source a product of value to your visitors (such as an eBook or discount coupon) and offer it to them for free when they signup for your newsletter.
To make sure they don’t simply type any email address into your subscription form, setup an auto responder to send them the free bonus 1 hour after they subscribe to your newsletter.
12. The Preview Pane Popular email clients such as MS Outlook show a preview of an email when it’s selected in your inbox. Always have some interesting content at the very top of your email, as this is the part that will show in the preview window of your subscribers email program. If it’s interesting enough, then your subscriber will open your email and continue on reading.
13. Link-Click Testing When creating marketing emails, try using different text for both content and links. Also try re-positioning images such as logos and buttons. After sending about 3 different emails, compare the click-thru stats and see which one worked best. Now, when you need to send marketing emails in the future, you know that you will be sending the right mix of content and images that will attract the most click-thrus, and ultimately the most sales.
14. Email-Based Learning Add value to your website, build trust in your visitors, establish your credibility and collect more subscriptions to your mailing list by setting up an email-based learning course. To do this, simply create a series of auto responders (for example, 5) containing unique content. Then, schedule the first one to be sent after 24 hours, the second after 48 hours, etc.
15. Always Sign on the Dotted Line Always include a signature at the bottom of your emails, as it’s one of the easiest ways to attract more traffic to your website. This signature should include your personal details, your company details, and an unsubscribe link. You can use your signature to link back to your website, and even to other products. Here’s a sample signature:
Regards, John Doe. President – Company XYZ. Visit our website at http://www.companyxyz.com Unsubscribe from this newsletter at http://www.companyxyz.com/unsubscribe…

Conclusion – By implementing the 15 best practices described in this article, you can take your email marketing to a whole new level — attracting more subscribers, and building both your brand equity and credibility at the same time.