25 Essentials for Exceptional Email Campaigns
Load and send? Batch and blast? Those direct marketing
concepts are ancient history in the modern email environment.
Today’s email marketers must navigate their way
through a complicated landscape of shifting customer expectations,
challenging new technologies, evolving government
regulations and other issues old-school direct marketers never
had to face.
To help you face these challenges head on, we’ve compiled a
handy list of 25 essentials you can employ that will greatly
improve your email marketing initiatives. While 25 may sound
extensive, keep in mind that missing any one of these can
affect your ROI, secure your position on blacklists, or damage
your reputation with clients and prospects. And while many
of the essentials on this list seem obvious, the list itself serves
as a good reminder of the many nuts and bolts mechanics that
you should maintain in order to keep your email campaigns
performing at their highest levels.
1. Permission is not optional
When you send unsolicited email, you hurt your brand, your
campaign and your sender reputation. Don’t use “stealth”
methods to collect email addresses such as pre-checked boxes
on site registration forms. Use a proper, two-stage opt-in
process that requires confirmation before the address goes into
your database. Ask subscribers who have been on your list for
more than 12 months if they want to continue receiving your
email and retain all the permission data on each subscriber.
2. Manage your sender reputation
Don’t get on an ISP’s bad side by sending too many emails
too often or by generating a high number of spam complaints.
ISPs will block your emails, shunt them to oblivion in the bulk
folder and won’t bother to tell you what you did wrong. Here
are some valuable tips for managing your sender reputation:
• Honor unsubscribe requests within the ten-day window
dictated by CAN-SPAM laws.
• Stay off blacklists by monitoring, resolving and learning
from spam complaints. If you’re delivering relevant
content in formats that recipients want, you’ll minimize
those complaints.
• Use a double opt-in process and unique IP address.
• Check out the freehttp://excelvab.blogspot.comContentChecker™ for Email and
Deliverability Do’s and Don’ts Guide to help you with
your efforts.
3. Clean and analyze mailing lists
A “dirty” list – one with too many unsolicited, incorrect,
out-of-date or duplicated addresses – hurts your campaign
performance and your company’s delivery and sender
reputation. “List hygiene” means cleaning out bad addresses,
which reduces undeliverable emails and helps you spot problems
fast. Review your list to see who hasn’t opened or clicked
for the last six months. Provide them with a compelling offer
to re-engage. If that doesn’t work, try changing the frequency
with which you contact them to test if that makes an impact
in how they engage with you.
4. Be prepared for churn
While good email marketing will keep your list engaged, the
reality is that you need to continually use opt-in strategies to
keep it viable. Not only should you have subscriber retention
programs in place, but you’ll also need acquisition programs
5. Focus on list quality over list size
Growing your mailing list is important, but don’t do it at the
expense of quality. While it may look impressive to have a
large list, quality names should be your highest priority. Make
sure your company has defined its target audience and focus
your efforts on adding names that fit this target. You may not
have a large number of names in your database, but careful
targeting will mean you have a list of high-value prospects and
customers that result in higher response rates and greater success.
6. With opt-ins, establish and build trust
An opt-in is a statement of faith from your subscriber.
Respect that by asking only for the most necessary information at
registration. If all you really need is a name and email address,
ask only for that. If you need a bit more – say city or state
if your product isn’t available everywhere or size of business
for routing leads – ask for that as well. To keep from scaring
prospects away, keep the request for data to a minimum. You
can always use subsequent email campaigns to qualify and fill
in more detailed information.
7. Respect recipients’ privacy
Respecting the privacy of your email recipients and subscribers
is a good business practice and will also help you avoid legal
and ethical problems. Include a short, simple email privacy
statement within your opt-in form and link it to the full policy
statement on your Website. Define your contact strategy, the
format in which you’ll share content and if you can, give the
subscriber options on format and frequency. Adhere to the
policy and make sure that if you change it, you give your subscribers
an opportunity to opt-in again.
8. Give recipients what they want and need
Your subscribers expect control. If you don’t give them what
they want, they’ll go elsewhere. Let them decide the email
format (text or HTML), contact frequency and content
preferences, if they’d like to receive additional information
beyond what they opted-in for. Then segment your lists to
reflect those choices. It’s always more effective to contact
someone on their schedule and under their terms and get a
higher response rate than to try to force a schedule or terms on
an unwilling recipient and risk their unsubscribe.
9. Design for the Inbox
Poor design and improper formatting frustrate users. If they
can’t easily navigate your email or find the information they
want at a glance, your messages will fall flat. Your email has
to stand out in a crowded Inbox. Here are some tips for
designing for the inbox and optimizing deliverability:
• Be sure to test sample messages to see what performs.
• Put your company name in the “from” line for fast
recognition.
• Add a “grabber” subject line – 50 characters or less.
• Use teaser text and HTML colors and layout rather than
an image so readers can get an immediate “preview” of
your email even if images are disabled.
• Put the important content – the offer, call to action,
newsletter contents etc. – at the top of the email for
immediate viewing. You only have seconds to make your
case, so make the most them.
Read our free Email Design No-No’s for Non-Designers
Guide for more ideas.
10. Check your email mechanics
Don’t forget to check your email mechanics on a regular
basis. Some of the best campaigns fail because simple items like
response links, the unsubscribe process, co-registration or
images fail. It takes time, but each email execution is
valuable. Don’t frustrate your subscribers or waste your money
by sending out an email that doesn’t have its most basic items
working.
One of the best and simplest methods for making sure that the
mechanics of each and every email campaign are optimized is
11. Test for correct rendering of emails on all email clients
HTML emails – with pictures, colors and graphics – can look
or function very differently when viewed in different email
clients. Here are a few ways to test for the correct rendering of
your email messages across numerous clients before deploying
your campaign:
• Send a sample email to an account with each of the major
providers – such as AOL, Earthlink, Gmail and Yahoo!
– to spot bad links, poor rendering or other formatting
issues.
• Do the same for any email client that allows the receiver
to use a preview pane or review without images – such as
Outlook 2007.
• Use an email service provider that helps you see how your
email is rendered across clients.
• Design the header of your email to provide the
desired outcome regardless of email client. For instance,
if you know that there’s a good chance your image-rich
header will not be viewable in most email clients, use an
Alt Tag that “sells” the idea or offer your image header is
conveying.
See the Email Design No-No’s for Non-Designers Guide for
more information.
12. Test for delivery and spam filters
Emails that are well targeted with great creative and compelling
offers don’t do your company any good unless they’re
actually delivered. Test your content against spam filters
and see how many of your emails are blocked. If you aren’t
pleased with the results, optimize your email for Inbox delivery
by creating good headers (as above), writing content that
doesn’t look like spam and cultivating good ISP relations. If
your current email solution doesn’t have a component to help
you avoid spam filters, consider finding a solution that will
analyze and determine the deliverability of your content. For
starters, use the freehttp://excelvab.blogspot.comContentChecker™ for Email to help
you determine if your content is going to cause your email
message to get hung up in spam filters.
13. Provide administrative functions in each email
Give subscribers the tools they need to manage their subscriptions,
contact you, forward information to others and get
more information, right in the email. Reputable email marketers
respect their customers’ time and include this information
in a clearly marked section, usually at the end of each email.
Don’t make them hunt for it.
14. Test something every time
Testing is a classic way for direct marketers to refine their
efforts to get the best results. If each of your email campaigns
doesn’t include a testing component, you’re missing out on an
opportunity to improve your ROI. Some elements you may
want to test include:
• Subject lines
• Offers
• Deployment date or time
• A new list, or segment your existing list to compare one
segment against another
Your results will provide new ideas for more effective
campaigns and help you get rid of offers, lists or creative that
aren’t working.
15. Define your email value proposition (EVP)
Without a clear value proposition, your email won’t hit your
recipient’s “internal Inbox” – the barometer in the mind of
each recipient that tells them whether your email message is
worth their time. Give your subscribers clear reasons to open
16. Segment lists for better results
Use the information you collected when your subscribers
opted-in to divide your list into relevant segments, and then
deliver distinct, targeted messages to each of those segments.
Beyond that, you may also want to segment your lists based on
email and Web behavior such as which links recipients clicked
on or what actions they’ve taken on your Website. Doing so
will make your outgoing emails more meaningful to your subscribers,
which results in improved response and conversion
rates. Segmenting also helps you understand results and trends
based on demographics and other audience-specific factors.
17. Personalize for greater relevance
Personalization uses recipients’ own information to create
highly relevant and valuable email messages. This is more than
putting a recipient’s name on the top of the email – it’s about
creating content that specifically addresses the recipient’s
behavior and interests such as buying history, hobbies,
geographic location, format etc.
18. Be prepared for mobile devices and social media
The reality in today’s wired environment is that your email
messages will be viewed on mobile devices – and your
carefully designed HTML email will look like gibberish on
most of them. This is particularly true in business-to-business
marketing. Be aware of this and design your email messages
accordingly. Or offer subscribers a mobile version. For information
on executing email on mobile devices, see the Mobile
Marketing How-to Guide, which was developed for email
marketers.
Social media is another powerful tool on the rise. On its
own, it can be used to message to your target much like email
marketing, but by combining social media and email marketing,
you have the opportunity to gain exponential response and
ROI. Define your social media strategy, determine your social
media vehicles (LinkedIn, Twitter etc.) and, as part of your
execution plan, leverage your coverage in the social sphere to
feed your email initiatives. You’ll not only gain further reach,
but also engage prospects and customers in a more meaningful
dialog. For a practical guide to combining social media and
email, see the Social Media Marketing How-To Guide.
19. Integrate email into your complete marketing mix
Email marketing works best when part of an integrated
marketing plan. You’ll get a higher ROI when you incorporate
email into your complete marketing mix including PPC,
social media marketing, mobile, traditional direct mail,
telemarketing and trade shows. For instance:
• Design keyword-rich landing pages that will help with
your SEO efforts, fulfill the offer within your email
campaign and provide deeper information into the
product or service you’re offering.
• Promote newsletter content across multiple marketing
touch points and post email information to your Website.
• Use social media to increase opt-ins to your email list.
• Remember mobile marketing. Consider using your email
to promote a mobile campaign or offering your email to
those who are already subscribed to your mobile alerts.
20. Deliver value continuously
Subscibers’ needs change over time. Your emails will compete
with new and changing sources of content or offers that will
affect your value proposition. Survey your recipients occasionally
to learn their needs and interests and pay close attention to the
response metrics that indicate whether your emails are getting
stale. Analyze each deployment for revealing statistics on factors
such as subject line, offer, links clicked, segmenting etc.
By soliciting feedback, watching trends and staying in touch
with the needs of your subscriber base you can re-tool your
email campaigns to deliver consistent value while staying true
to your EVP and the expectations you established with your
subscribers.
21. Focus on goals, not process metrics
Email campaign success should not be measured by counting
open and click-through rates alone. Instead, establish objectives
before each campaign and then measure performance
against them. Metrics like number of transactions, demos
initiated or white papers downloaded as a direct result of your
email campaign are generally better markers of success than
clicks or delivered emails. These measurable, goal-focused
metrics will tell you if your email program is successful or
needs refinement.
22. Use advanced automation
The simple “load and send” method of deploying emails
doesn’t work anymore. You need to employ a whole range of
advanced technologies – behavioral segmentation, detailed
reporting, API database integration, dynamic content,
triggers and more – to drive improved results and ROI of email
campaigns in today’s marketing environment. For example,
use triggers to send specific content to recipients based on
their unique email actions.
Review every available report from your email marketing
tool to gain the most robust picture possible. Choose an
email marketing tool with strong analytics and a full suite of
services. Then learn how to use them and put them to good
use.
23. Tie into Web analytics
You may think that your Web analytics aren’t related to your
email campaigns, but think again. The truth is, tying the two
together can mean much more successful email initiatives.
For instance, when determining the best content to offer in
your email message, take a look at the content most viewed
or downloaded on your Website. Check out landing pages
or shopping cart abandonment stats to determine how to
overcome these issues with email. Make sure you don’t silo
analytics from other important areas when you’re working on
email campaigns. All of this information used together can
provide better and more robust ROI tracking, more effective
targeting of prospects and much more. See the Web Analytics
Wizard Guide for more information on this topic.
24. Allocate necessary resources
Many companies started using email marketing because
it was more cost-effective than postal mail, but that’s all
different now. The landscape – from ISP relations to
technological innovation and government regulations –
is more complex than ever. Your organizations must allocate
adequate budgets, resources and know-how to do the job right
and achieve your ROI goals. Educate your team and key
stakeholders about the resoures you need and make sure that
your email solution provider has a full range of services in list
management, content development, delivery and analytics.
25. Know the laws affecting email marketing, and comply
In the U.S., email marketers must follow email and privacy
statutes in 36 states and also comply with CAN-SPAM, the
federal email law. In addition, the E.U., Asia and Australia
have their own anti-spam laws, as do most countries with
an email presence. Adhering to these laws is critical – the
consequences of breaking them can be dire. At a minimum
be sure to:
• Have an attorney with appropriate expertise review your
email and privacy policies.
• Audit your practices across all departments that manage
email (not just marketing) and train everyone to follow
correct procedures.
• Conduct regular audits of your privacy policies and email
practices to assure that you are in compliance with all current
laws and best practices.
Key Takeaways and Tools
It takes a commitment to develop strong, targeted email
campaigns that foster excellent customer relationships
and achieve high ROI. The 25 essentials in this guide are
cornerstones to delivering maximum ROI from your email
marketing efforts. You can also find a treasure chest of free
guides, tools, webcasts and best practices in thehttp://excelvab.blogspot.comResource
Center to help you navigate the complex world of email
marketing.
Lyris HQ™ can be your partner in email marketing and
integrated online marketing success. We’ve taken the onlinemarketing
tools you already rely upon – email marketing,
deliverability tools, content cration, Web analytics, search
marketing, social media marketing and mobile marketing
– and combined them into a world-class integrated
marketing suite. For more information onhttp://excelvab.blogspot.comsolutions, visit
http://excelvab.blogspot.com
Lyris HQ provides a single online marketing platform for
the integrated products today’s digital marketer needs: email
marketing deliverability tools, content creation, Web analytics,
search marketing and mobile marketing.
