‘Best Practices’ Articles

How often should you send to your mailing list? There are two major schools of thought when it comes to determining the correct frequency of mailing.

The first philosophy, and the one which creates the most problems, is to mail very often. The marketers who adopt this strategy typically believe that it’s best to stay at the forefront of their customer’s minds. There are several problems with this type of mailing strategy. Foremost of those problems are over-saturating your list and sending out bad content. Your list members can only handle so many mailings before they begin to find them an annoyance, this, compounded by the unfortunate reality that good content takes time and thought to produce, will create high complaint and unsubscribe rates.

The contrasting theory of frequency is to send very infrequently. This is typically advocated by wary marketers because of the extreme negativity surrounding “spam” sending practices. By sending rarely, marketers have plenty of time to create great content and they don’t run the risk of burning out their lists. On the other hand, research has shown that if you don’t send often enough, your list can go cold. You may miss out on sales that you could have generated if your frequency was slightly higher.

So, as is true in most things, moderation is rewarded. Just how often you need to send is up to you, but for the sake of your marketing efforts, avoid either extreme. A no-brainer way to answer the question of how often to send is to let your list members decide for themselves. You can achieve this by asking them how often they’d like to receive mail when they sign up. Once you have that information, you’ll know how often to send. I do suggest you provide a way for them to change their preference later.

So, here are the take-aways: don’t send too often, but don’t disappear from your customers lives either. Content is king. If you provide your customers with content that they truly want (offers, information, entertainment) you will have more leeway when it comes to frequency. Great content breeds good will and forgiveness from your list members. Last but not least, ask your customers what they want as far as mailing frequency is concerned! It’s easy for you and great for them.

Good luck!

A good newsletter is one of the best ways to stay in touch with your clients. If used correctly, your newsletter can entice customers to come into your store, provide them with valuable information, let them know about a special offer that appeals to them, or just keep your company’s name on the tip of their tongue.

It’s difficult to consistently send out a good newsletter. You want is to promote your own business, but you’re also try to do so while providing valuable and intrusive content. The best kind of advertisement doesn’t seem like an advertisement at all. Achieving this is no simple task.

1. Don’t over do it, don’t force it.

Send your newsletter only as often as you can produce interesting content. Nowhere is it written that you must send a newsletter weekly or monthly. Be self aware enough to realize when you have nothing to say. You’ll start to see recipients unsubscribe left and right if your newsletter becomes boring. It’s a real struggle to regain interest once someone on your list decides your email is boring or unhelpful.

2: Target specific consumer groups.

Create multiple versions of your newsletter based on customer interests. You can gather this information by giving people the ability to designate their own interests on your sign up form. Not only will you be able to use this data to target groups in your newsletter, but it can serve as a small sample of your overall customers interests. Sending multiple newsletters is more work because you may need to produce content for several different newsletters but the result is well worth it.

3: Don’t try to trick your users into signing up for your Newsletter.

Many websites will have the default action of signing up as a user of their site or using their checkout form result in the user signing up for their mailing list unless they opt-out by removing a check from a selection box. This is a common practice that you should avoid. Considering that sending email isn’t free, why waste your money on sending to people who don’t care about what you are sending them? These types of practices increase complaints and can cause you big headaches in the future. Why risk having people click the “spam” button in their email client because you tricked them into signing up for your mailing. Building trust with consumers is far more important than building your mailing list.

4: Include an explicit and easy to follow call to action.

You really can’t expect your customers to give you much of a response if you don’t ask them to. If you want them to do something in response to your email, you have to ask them and then make the action as easy as possible. If you want them to make a comment, give them a simple way to do it. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they are to go through with it (duh). Make your call to action clear. Ditch subtlety in this case, straightforward is the way to go.

Hopefully these tips will help you create and execute a better newsletter. For more email marketing best practices, check out this post.

If it’s your first time conducting an email marketing campaign, the entire process may seem overwhelming. It’s true that there are many factors to consider and a lot of work to be done, however; following a simple set of rules can make email marketing simple and manageable.

The major challenges of email marketing can be conquered relatively easily if you’re dedication to planning and thoughtfulness. You can create a successful email campaign for your organization by adhering to the golden rule and by relying on some common sense methods.

What do I mean by the “golden rule approach”?

I’m referring to the simple idea of sending campaigns that you would want to receive yourself. It’s important to put yourself in the shoes of your recipients, understanding your target market is a crucial component of producing valuable content. The golden rule approach is essentially an exercise in common sense and targeted marketing.

One of the first things that I tell any customer about their email campaign is that they need to be transparent and open with their customers.

We’ve all heard the phrase “honesty is the best policy,” this applies heavily to email marketing. Your main objective must be to let your recipients know why they got the email, what the email is offering, who the email is from, and how they can stop future mailings if they no longer want to receive the email. If you give your customer all of these pieces of information, your campaign will be easily understood and you’ll receive less complaints and unsubscribes.

The success of a campaign is determined by many factors, but the single most important aspect to any email campaign is the quality of your list.

This is one of the most commonly overlooked of all email marketing ideas. You must have a good relationship with your list in order to have a successful campaign. This is the main reason why buying a list is such a bad idea. If you buy a list, you have absolutely no relationship with your recipients. You want to have members on your list who have signed up for your newsletter, who want it, and who have a firm understanding of what to expect from it. Be clear in the sign up form about what you will be sending and how often you will be sending it .

There are many other examples of common sense practices to improve your email campaign, but most questions you will have to answer on your own. Don’t rush an email campaign and always remember to put yourself in your customer’s shoes.

To stay focused on common sense and the golden rule, ask yourself these questions before sending out a campaign. Does it look trust worthy? Does what I’m sending follow what I told recipients I would send when they signed up? Does the mailing live up to its offers or promises? Are the offers or information provided in the mailing relevant and worth while? Ask yourself these questions with each mailing and ensure that you can answer each question with a firm “Yes!” Don’t forget the most important question when using the golden rule approach, how would you feel about receiving your own campaign?

We’ve covered a lot of ways to improve your email campaigns in our numerous blog posts. We get so many questions about best practices and how to improve campaign 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 favorite “Best Practices”.

1. Write great subject lines.

Subject lines are the first things your customer will see and can be the deciding factor in how much attention they give your email. Don’t rush the writing of your subject line. Come up with several different ideas, and chose the one you think would appeal most to your customer. Be honest and avoid the hard sell,  also stay away from SPAM language and your subject line will support your well thought out campaign.

2. Don’t forget the preview pane!

The preview pane is the handy little window that exists in email clients like Outlook and Thunderbird. It 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 through this window. Create your email so that the most important part of your offer or message is visible in the preview pane. This means the top section of your email is very important as would be the case regardless since grabbing your reader’s interest quickly is your primary goal anyway.

3. Avoid SPAM language.

Chances are good that you’ve gotten a SPAM message in your email inbox. Have you ever noticed how they all seem to share the same language? SPAM stoppers have been designed to pick up on this recurring “language of SPAM” by using Bayesian style filters. These filters have been popular for years and use common “SPAM words” to block potential SPAM messages. Actually, it’s fairly complicated and if you’d like you can read more here. The general idea is that avoiding certain words and phrases can make your email more deliverable. We’ve compiled a list of some of the words to avoid in our Email and Spam Blockers FAQ.

4. Make it look good.

Despite the common advice to not “judge a book by its cover”, all people have a tendency to make snap judgments. Bad design can detract from the positives in your email and can ruin your campaigns potential for success. 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 I be comfortable giving my 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.

In the world of bulk email, treating your clients with a respectful and personal touch can be the difference between success and failure. Email has the tendency to be cold and impersonal. If you manage to find a way to break the mold and connect with your recipients, you will give them a refreshingly positive experience that is sure to drive results.

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 own product that they forget about the consumer. If you provide your recipients with something valuable, your campaign will be a success. Blatant solicitation without value is a waste of everyone’s time and your money.

7. Establish your brand.

If you are already producing content that your recipients actually want, the next step is to ensure that they don’t overlook your email. Maintaining cohesive 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 strategy can be crucial to the success of your campaign.

8. Include an offer.

Including an offer is a fantastic way to attract attention. Avoid being misleading at all costs, if the customer feels lied to, you’ve just lost a customer. Exclusive offers are more attractive and have the potential of prompting recipients to forward the email to a friend. Free marketing doesn’t get any better than that!

9. Avoid large images.

Large images give your email a higher probability of tripping SPAM filters and may also ruin your email design. You may want to show off pictures in high resolution 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 your customers to add you to their contact list and, in most email clients, your message’s delivery will be ensured. 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 policies.

Professionals in any field always do their homework. They know more about their 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 policies 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.

“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.