CommuniGator Guide to email marketing
Guide to email marketing Introduction We all send emails every day whether it be to friends, family or for work purposes; but unlike the one-to-one messages email marketing enables sending one message to a lot of people ranging from hundreds to thousands at a time. There are a number of issues using personal email services like Outlook, Gmail and Hotmail to send out your marketing message, so a provider like CommuniGator is the ideal solution to your email marketing and marketing automation. We will manage the delivery infrastructure and help you avoid the spam filters so you know how your email will look in over 50 email clients and generally do a lot of the necessary (but often dull) work that is critical to getting your email delivered and engaged with. So hopefully this guide will give you a quick overview and reference for your email marketing. 2 Guide to email marketing
How HTML email works Multipart / Alternative MIME format Delivering HTML email Using HTML isn t everyone s skill set, so CommuniGator s what you see is what you get editor allows you to create and edit your email s design without the need to delve in to world of HTML. However if you are au fait with HTML we have added the option to edit the HTML from the editor tool too. This allows you to edit various aspects from one screen, at one time. HTML formatted emails provide you with the ability to be more creative with your design and your message. Sending a plain text email is just that, plain. A HTML email can have colour, size and font changes and images all creating your message. Using an email marketing provider like CommuniGator gives you the opportunity to send HTML and to send via our servers. This allows you to create a designed email and to send to large audiences which isn t really possible through an ordinary email account. Common mistakes There are common mistakes that people make when beginning their email marketing journey. Problems such as: Sending without permission to confusing transactional emails with email marketing Not checking your send audience Not checking your design against spam filter scores CommuniGator Ltd 3
Designing and coding Avoid spam filters Keep your design simple and your content on point to effectively bypass the spam filter and to get good response rates from your audience. Make sure your text comes through clearly and is in a good font. If you have images it is likely these will be blocked by the email host automatically so the text is going to be the only thing which appears initially so make sure it is clear and appealing. You also need to be aware of the dimensions of your email, it is usually encouraged to stay around 600 pixels in width to ensure that your whole email can be seen in the preview pane. There are a few simple techniques which allow you to bypass the spam filters; these include; Not using common phrases, such as; click here, dear, as seen on or attention USING CAPITALS IS ALSO A NO, NO Using lots of!!!!!!! also is good for alerting the spam filter to your message Writing your message in red font is frowned upon Testing your email designs Testing your email design is a very important factor for your campaigns. If you haven t tested your email then there are many things that could go wrong. Check different services and ISP s Use CommuniGator s inbox checker to determine how your email will appear on a variety of platforms. The basic inbox checker will show you how your email will appear on three platforms, whereas the advanced inbox checker will show you fifty two different platforms to cover all bases with the sheer number of different email providers and devices currently on the market. Send tests to friends and co-workers By having fresh eyes scan over your email it is more likely that they ll be able to find any small details in your email such as; typos, broken links and design changes. By having colleague s addresses on different platforms as well you can double check your spam score and design. Spam filter score CommuniGator provides you with a tool in the send test section of the campaign setup allowing you to check your spam filter score and to see what areas it has flagged up as problematic to your send. 4 Guide to email marketing
Measuring performance Open rate Bounces A red herring in the reporting world! Forget about measuring these as they are very unreliable and wholly inaccurate. For example if you have an iphone you are currently opening all your emails! A chart is given in the results section to indicate how many bounces occurred and the percentage of the audience which couldn t be delivered. Tracking your bounces indicates how good your audience data is. Click rate Website traffic A very important statistic for measuring engagement with your email. If people have clicked your call to action it is a clear sign that they are engaging with your content and interested in what you have to offer. Using CommuniGator s GatorLeads gives you a good indication to the performance of your latest campaigns. You can monitor your website traffic, any peaks in website traffic is likely to be correlated to your recent sends especially if you have pointed them to a specific place or product. Unsubscribe rate In your campaign results you are able to monitor how many unsubscribes you have received. This a good statistic to monitor because any spikes in your unsubscribe could indicate change is needed within your email campaigns. CommuniGator Ltd 5
About CommuniGator CommuniGator is one of the leading marketing automation software providers in the UK. Established in 2005, we ve gone through a period of evolution as the marketing landscape has changed. The core platform functionality caters to email marketing with automated welcome series, a HTML editor for designing your emails, templates, responsive design, dynamic groups based on behaviour, integration with the leading CRM platforms, an event management suite, robust reporting and so the list goes on. On the marketing automation side we re able to track prospect activity across the web pages they visit on your website and the email content they consume and take action against. This means you can build up a really detailed profile of who has done what. To read all the juicy details of what the platform offers and how we can help your business jump on over to our website: www.communigator.co.uk Give us a call: +44 (0)1483 411 911 This document and it s contents are proprietary to CommuniGator or its licensors. No part of this document may be copied, reproduced or transmitted to any third party in any form without CommuniGator s prior written consent. Our products and services include: MarketingAutomation I GatorMail I GatorLeads I GatorEvents I GatorDocs GatorSurvey I GatorSocial I GatorData I CRM Integration I Managed Services