Successful Email Marketing The top 20 dos and don ts
2 Kinds of Mail Plain text (no formatting at all) HTML (includes formatting and pictures)
1. Keep your copy brief People have busy schedules and crammed inboxes. If your message is too long, it may never be read
2. Don t just forward
3. Offer an online version Just in case you have not covered all the bases in all the different email clients
4. Don't send an attachment Give people a link and let them download things. Let them choose to download. Save your own bandwidth and time.
5. Test your mail Different email programs treat mail differently. At least test in:
6. Don t rely on attachments Attachments should be an enhancement. Your message should be in the mail body.
7. Measure to Manage Track open rates Track click-through rates
8. Don't spam people Even if your message is not legally spam, your recipient may think it is and mark it as such. Remember the axiom of value.
8.1 Data Protection Laws Spot the difference
8.2 Email Marketing - SPAM LAW You and a Guest are invited to dine with An Taoiseach at Government Buildings as a Party fund raising event for a special fee of 50. Message is signed by An Taoiseach s Secretary, has an address, telephone number and RSVP email address. A photo of An Taoiseach is included No unsubscribe facility is provided.
Email Marketing - SPAM LAW You are invited to pay a visit to the latest on-line gaming arcade and will be given a credit of $50 on arrival. There is no signature or contact information on the message A photo of a scantily clad person holding an advertising sign for the arcade is included. An unsubscribe facility is provided (but it probably doesn t work) No Difference. They are both breaking the Law. Neither has received explicit permission from you to send you a commercial email.
8.3 Governing Spam Law The provisions of Statutory Instrument 535of 2003 [European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 2003] took effect on November 6th 2003 CONSUMER LAW (B2C) If your email is commercialand you don t have explicit, auditable permissionfrom the receiver to receive your email, then you are spamming. BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Your unsolicited commercial email is legal unless you have failed to remove a recipient from your list who has so requested
9. Don t Just use Website Copy Website copy is relatively verbose Email should be more personal, shorter, more direct.
10. Opt in / Opt out Make it easy & obvious Respond quickly
11. Don't send too much mail Low frequency but regular communications
12. KISS Fancy (formatted) emails are written in HTML. Keep HTML simple Use tables for structure Code like it s 1995
13. MS Word ist Verboten Don t use Word as your email editor. Or it will lead to trouble for you and your audience
14. The Subject Line is King The subject may be all that is ever read. That s your elevator pitch. Keep it short.
15. Images Do not send as an attachment Include a reference to images on a web server
16. Proof read Once you press send, you can t take it back! A simple typo can create the wrong impression.
17. Consistency of Voice If repurposing text, make sure that the voice is consistent throughout the message. Don't refer to "I" here and "he" there when referring to the same person!
18. Personalise If you can, personalise your communication Do a targetted mail merge through specialist software
19. Make sure your data is good When personalising mails, make sure your data exists for each value that is being personalised.
20. Test, refine, adapt Do A/B testing Monitor your click-throughs and open rates Track trends Refine your Email design process accordingly.
Further reading Campaign Monitor http://www.campaignmonitor.com/ Mailchimp http://www.mailchimp.com/ Constant Contact http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp Vertical Response http://www.verticalresponse.com/ Newsweaver http://www.newsweaver.ie/
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