‘Best Practices’ Articles

In our many blog posts we’ve covered a lot of ways to improve your email campaigns. We get so many questions about best practices and how to improve results that we thought that we’d gather up all of our best practices tips and put them in one place. Here is a list of our most important “Best Practices”.

1. Write great subject lines.

This is the first rule of email marketing. Subject lines are the first things your customer sees and the deciding factor in how much attention they give your email. Don’t hurry writing your subject line, come up with several different ideas and chose the one you think would appeal to your customer most. Be honest in your subject and avoid the hard sell and SPAM language.

2. Don’t forget the preview pane!

The preview pane is that handy little window in email clients like Outlook and Thunderbird that shows a preview of the email before it is actually “opened”. It’s so useful in fact, that many people read their emails almost exclusively in this manor. Create your email so that the most important part of your offer or message is visible in this window. Which means, the top section of your email is most important. This would be the case regardless since grabbing your reader’s interest is your primary goal anyway.

3. Avoid SPAM language.

Chances are you’ve gotten SPAM before in your email inbox but have you ever notice how they all seem share the same language? SPAM filters have been designed to pick up on this recurring “language of SPAM” by using Bayesian style filters. These types of filters have been popular for years and use common “SPAM words” to filter messages. Actually it’s a lot more complicate than that and you can read more here, but the general idea is that avoiding certain words and phrases can make your email more deliverable. We’ve compiled a list of some of those words in our Email and Spam Blockers FAQ.

4. Make it look good.

Anyone who sees your email campaign is going to judge it based on how it looks. You might do everything else right but if you have a bad design, you can ruin any potential for success your campaign may have had. Not every email needs to be a work of art but take some time and objectively view your email. Ask yourself, “Does it look like SPAM? Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this company?” Make your campaign look professional and your clients will be more apt to click your links and buy your products.

5. Treat your recipients like real people.

There are many ways to appeal to your audience and no one way is best, but in the world of bulk email, treating your clients with a respectful, personal touch can be the difference between success and a failure. Email can be notoriously cold and impersonal, if you find a way to break that mold and connect with your recipients, you will give them a refreshing surprise that they are sure to respond to.

6. Focus on meaningful content.

Find out what your customers want and give it to them. Too many marketers get so wrapped up in their product that they forget about the consumer. If you provide your recipients with something valuable, your campaign will be a success. Blatant solicitation is a waste of everyone’s time.

7. Establish your brand.

Assuming you are already producing content that your recipients actually want, the next step is to ensure that they don’t overlook your email. Maintaining similar design and messaging will make your email familiar and allow your recipients to pick your email out of a crowd. If they have a high traffic inbox, this can be crucial to the success of your campaign.

8. Include an offer.

Including an offer can be a fantastic way to attract attention but also has the potential to be gimmicky. Don’t bother with this unless you think your customer will get legitimate value from the offer you are providing. Avoid being misleading at all costs. Exclusive offers can be more attractive and have the potential of prompting recipients to forward your email to a friend if they find it to be an exceptional value. Free marketing doesn’t get any better than that!

9. Avoid large images.

Large images can give your email a higher probability of tripping SPAM filters and may also ruin your email design. Along with the fact that many email clients block images by default, you have plenty of good reasons not to include large images in your message. You may want to show off their pictures in full detail but an email is not the place to do it. Include a thumbnail of the image and have it link to the full sized image hosted elsewhere.

10. Ask to be on their list.

There is no better way to ensure that your future emails don’t wind up in a willing recipients SPAM folder than just asking nicely. Ask them to add you to their contacts list and, in most email clients, your messages will be ensured delivery. You can include this request in your first campaign or in all of your campaigns.

11. Know and follow CAN-SPAM regulations.

This one is simple, CAN-SPAM regulations are the law and if you break them you could find yourself with a hefty fine and a nasty mark on your reputation. Avoid these problems by understanding the regulations before starting any email campaign.

12. Study major email providers policy.

Professionals in any field always do their homework. They know more about the topic than anyone else and they use that knowledge to their advantage. If you want to be a pro in the email marketing world you need to know the policy’s of the major email providers. You wouldn’t ship goods somewhere without knowing the docking regulations of the port, so don’t be uninformed of the rules and regulations of companies like Yahoo!, Google, or Microsoft.

Many email marketers choose to use image-based emails to create a seamless and professional look for their email campaigns despite the fact that quite a few email clients block images automatically. You can do this too, IF you know the right way to do it!

The main thing you have to accept when sending an image-based email campaign is that your images WILL get blocked by a majority of email clients. Your customers can choose to accept these images later, but on initial receipt the images will be blocked. If you understand that fact and its implications and you still want to use this tactic, by all means proceed.

When you decide to send an image-based email, a great way to ensure that your customers get your message, even when your images are blocked, is by including alternative text. Including alternative text for images is always a good practice but becomes especially important when there is no other content for your recipients to see. Alternate text will show up when an image is blocked so that your customer will at least be able to read a small part of your message. This text can assure them that the email is from a trusted source and they might be more likely to view the images after reading it.

With the Admail.net system it is extremely simple to provide alternative text for your images. All you need to do is include your alternative text in the “Image Description” when you add the image to your message in Email Builder. If you are going to use HTML code to construct your email, you probably already know that you can include alternative text through the “alt” tag included with your image.

Another way to keep your image-based emails manageable is to avoid using one large image file. It is more prudent to slice the image into several pieces and then construct the image out of these pieces. Why is this a commonly followed practice? For two reasons: Primarily because it makes the message more likely to be viewed. Several small files provide an opportunity to include more alternate text and it reduces the chance of tripping spam filters. Secondly, slicing allows you to make each individual section of your image a clickable link. Which means if you have one section that is your logo, you can make it a link to your website’s front page, and if you have a section that is a product, you can make it a link to a page for that product. Remember, image map code does not work in most email browsers. At Admail we encourage best practices like this, that is why our default image upload size is 40kbs or less per image.

Slicing an image is a fairly simple process that can be carried out by your company’s graphic designer or anyone who is competent with photo editing software. You can also do it online here: http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/is/ When you use this tool make sure you uncheck the boxes that say enable links and mouse over effect unless you are an advance user. After making any changes on this page, including unchecking the boxes you must click the “process” button for the changes to take effect. Once you have made your changes, click download. You’ll be prompted to download a zip file which will contain your slices.

Now that you have a sliced piece of artwork that you would like to send, how do you turn it into an email? The best way to handle imaged-based email creation is to have an experienced website designer or someone very familiar with HTML create a simple layout and then import it into our system. Another possibility is to modify a template for your needs. Simply insert the images in the arrangement you would like them to be. We suggest that you use as few slices as possible to keep this manageable. Slicing the image in half is usually enough. Through our own testing we found that anything over four slices begins to get pretty complicated. In order to get images to lay flush against one another, you may need to change individual image alignment. When you have one image above another you’ll see that you’ll have a space between the two. Simply align the image on top with the alignment of “bottom”, you do this by click the image and then click the image button, you’ll then  and this should solve your problem.

If you are unfamiliar with the more advanced editing features of Email Builder 2.0, we highly suggest that you experiment with the system. By right-clicking on the layout view of the template you can access a host of options that let your modify the template. You can copy sections and you can split them into additional columns. Padding changes can be made by right clicking and choosing the modify option in the drop down. After a little experimentation you should have a firm grasp on the layout editor, if not, you’re welcome to call us and we’ll be more than happy to walk you through it!

A great example of alternative text and slicing done right.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” This phrase has been used for years to highlight the value of a good visual image. A phrase that has led many marketers to believe more pictures = better content.

One of the most difficult ideas for new email marketers to understand is that email doesn’t function like traditional medias. There are a number of unique rules and standards that only apply in email marketing. If you decide to step into the realm of email marketing, be prepared to throw some of your old rules out the window and to adopt some strange new ones.

In a series of posts, I am going to address several of the rules and issues that arise in email marketing, especially the ones that throw inexperienced email marketers for a loop.

Today, I want to focus on the misuse of pictures in email marketing. Many new marketers want to fill their emails with many large, impressive images. In the worst case some email marketers make their entire email one large image. The reason people fall victim to this taboo is because they are tempted by the possibility of making a beautiful and technical layouts with photoshop or illustrator. The major downside to doing this is, most of your recipients won’t even see the image. Almost all modern email programs  have a default setting to block images. It’s true, users can choose to allow images after opening the email, but at first glance, if your message is one large picture, your customer will see nothing but a blank page and a “pictures have been blocked” message. This will not make a good impression and will most likely wound your email campaign, possibly fatally.

Another common misstep is loading an email up with images that have massive files sizes. Not only can this put a strain on your email system, but it can also trigger your recipient’s spam filters. Of course you want your clients to see the best quality image you can provide and you may want to show off a beautiful product, but I highly suggest providing a properly re-sized thumbnail that links off to the larger image file hosted elsewhere. This keeps your email file size low and allows you to create concise and attractive layouts. Believe me, this will save you a lot of hassle and will make your emails much more manageable and effective.

As I continue with this series of posts I will discuss a variety of topics directed toward new email marketers, including posts like: Simple HTML Code Every Email Marketer Should Know, Understanding Open Rates, and Long Live The King: A Focus On Content.

Picture this: You spend hours laboriously crafting the perfect email, one that you know your clients will love. You send it out, excitement engulfing you as you imagine how great the response will be. But as the results trickle in, they aren’t quite what you were expecting.

Could it be that your customer never received your email at all, or that it merely went overlooked? Below I’ve outlined two simple but powerful rules to ensure that your hard work isn’t wasted and to increase your email readership.

Get on their list. Ask your customers to put you on their contact list or in their address book.

You want to make sure your emails stay out of the spam folder. The increasingly variable nature of spam filters, and the fact that they are often user defined, makes this a particularly challenging task. There is really only one strategy that ensures that everyone who wants your emails always gets them, and that is to always send your email from the same email address and to ask your recipients to add your sending address to their contact list or address books. Mail sent from a known contacts is always put into the inbox. We suggest you use a simple text email to send new users this request along with an option to opt-out if they are no longer interested.

Use branding in your emails, and that doesn’t stop at including your logo.

Become an expert on your company’s brand and then make sure it is clearly displayed in all the emails you send. By consistently using the same address (as suggested above) your recipients will recognize your message, but if they are quickly scrolling through their inbox, branding can ensure your email is a familiar and trusted sight. While the content of your email, such as pictures and copy, is important, the subject line is the most crucial. It will be the first thing your readers see, and possibly the only thing unless you make a good impression in the subject line. Your opt in customers trusted you and found value in your product, so they will be more apt to open an email if they know it’s from you. This will separate your message from spam and other generic communication.

There are many rules that can be applied to sending marketing emails, but as always the most important is to provide your customer with true value. If the content of your email doesn’t give your customer something they want, the above strategies won’t be able to save you! These strategies simply give your message a chance to be read, its up to you to give your readers something worth paying attention to and acting on.

Visit our website (http://www.admail.net) to sign up for a free 30-day trial, or call us at 800-479-6233

The most dreaded word in the email marketing industry is “SPAM”. No tech word invites more universal hatred than this simple, but very dirty, four letter word.

If an email you send is deemed spam, it will most likely never get across to your clients. Perhaps even worse, if your message does reach their inbox, it will be an annoyance. Once your email address makes its way into a spam folder, it’s very hard to reach that potential customer ever again. Sending spam damages your company’s reputation and is against the law.

Below are guidelines taken from the Federal Trade Commission that you can follow to keep your emails in the inbox and your business out of trouble.

“Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, so non-compliance can be costly. But following the law isn’t complicated. Here’s a rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements:

1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible”

(Information re-posted from the Federal Trade Commission at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm)

At Admail.net we take these, and many other regulations, into account to maximize the deliverability of your emails and keep you out of spam folders. More importantly we do our best to ensure your messages follow all CAN-SPAM regulations to keep you out of trouble.

Visit our website (http://www.admail.net) to sign up for a free 30-day trial, or call us at 800-479-6233