|A Word On E-Mail
A few tips about getting the most out of your e-mail marketing campaigns. No particular order:
1. Avoid all-caps, symbols. Sending messages with “FREE,” “MAKE MILLIONS FROM HOME,” “$$$$,” “!!!!!” and “NEW YORK JOBS” in the subject line are sure ways to get dumped into the spam filter.
2. Personalize. If your message is customized to a specific, correct first name, it’ll be far more effective.
3. Lose the big fonts. Keep your body copy consistent, avoiding big fonts and variances in size.
4. Look informative. Make your e-mail campaigns look like newsletters, even if they’re not. This includes using tables in your HTML code.
5. Weight Watchers, e-mail style. Are your messages too fat? Put them on a diet. Anything over 40K could get you pinched and sitting in the virtual trash bin.
6. Trusted IP address. Stay away from internal IP addresses and use a trusted third party provider like Constant Contact or ExactTarget, who have relationships with large e-mail service providers like AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail. Plus, if your own IP gets banned from an e-mail provider, it could cause major, unnecessary headaches.
7. Consistent ‘From.’ Once you get a ‘From’ address that works, stick with it. Changing who an e-mail is from can set off red flags.
8. “Add us to your address book.” When you send e-mails - particularly the initial “Thanks for joining” message - ask the recipient to add your e-mail to their address book in order to get onto their personal whitelist.
9. Remove bounced addresses. An excessive amount of bounce-backs in your campaign can cause problems. Do your best to keep a clean list.
10. Go text. My experience says to stay away from intricate HTML e-mails and opt for text-only. Also, considering the various pixel widths of e-mail providers, the fact that some (Gmail) are starting to automatically delete images from messages and the growth of mobile, text is a good way to go. At a minimum, make sure your third party solution offers both versions when sending out an e-mail (HTML and text-only).
11. Test, test, test. Whether you call it A-B or “Champ vs. Challenger,” test what layout works best with your audience and keep going with the winner.
12. Get a tune-up. If e-mail is an important part of your marketing strategy, consider getting an annual tune-up. A great service to do so is Email Delivery Audit.com.
Yes, the influence of search, the growing importance of RSS, SMS and ever-maturing spam filters are making e-mai’ls life a little tougher, but it’s still the Web’s No. 1 activity. And if used intelligently, it could be your best friend.
- ACA Talent
1. Avoid all-caps, symbols. Sending messages with “FREE,” “MAKE MILLIONS FROM HOME,” “$$$$,” “!!!!!” and “NEW YORK JOBS” in the subject line are sure ways to get dumped into the spam filter.
2. Personalize. If your message is customized to a specific, correct first name, it’ll be far more effective.
3. Lose the big fonts. Keep your body copy consistent, avoiding big fonts and variances in size.
4. Look informative. Make your e-mail campaigns look like newsletters, even if they’re not. This includes using tables in your HTML code.
5. Weight Watchers, e-mail style. Are your messages too fat? Put them on a diet. Anything over 40K could get you pinched and sitting in the virtual trash bin.
6. Trusted IP address. Stay away from internal IP addresses and use a trusted third party provider like Constant Contact or ExactTarget, who have relationships with large e-mail service providers like AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail. Plus, if your own IP gets banned from an e-mail provider, it could cause major, unnecessary headaches.
7. Consistent ‘From.’ Once you get a ‘From’ address that works, stick with it. Changing who an e-mail is from can set off red flags.
8. “Add us to your address book.” When you send e-mails - particularly the initial “Thanks for joining” message - ask the recipient to add your e-mail to their address book in order to get onto their personal whitelist.
9. Remove bounced addresses. An excessive amount of bounce-backs in your campaign can cause problems. Do your best to keep a clean list.
10. Go text. My experience says to stay away from intricate HTML e-mails and opt for text-only. Also, considering the various pixel widths of e-mail providers, the fact that some (Gmail) are starting to automatically delete images from messages and the growth of mobile, text is a good way to go. At a minimum, make sure your third party solution offers both versions when sending out an e-mail (HTML and text-only).
11. Test, test, test. Whether you call it A-B or “Champ vs. Challenger,” test what layout works best with your audience and keep going with the winner.
12. Get a tune-up. If e-mail is an important part of your marketing strategy, consider getting an annual tune-up. A great service to do so is Email Delivery Audit.com.
Yes, the influence of search, the growing importance of RSS, SMS and ever-maturing spam filters are making e-mai’ls life a little tougher, but it’s still the Web’s No. 1 activity. And if used intelligently, it could be your best friend.
- ACA Talent
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