What Not To Do In Email Marketing

October 21st, 2009

Posted: Oct 17th, 2009

1. Avoid sending emails, or using data that doesn't have the recipient's name in it - personalising emails guarantees much higher response rates.

2. Don't send emails without your company details on (luckily mi|emailer does this for you automatically)

3. Avoid using lots of code - complex tables etc, and images with not enough text as this increases your spam score.

4. Don't attach files - always host the files or information on your site when you can't include it in the body text of the email.

5. Never send an email without sending it to yourself first. This not only ensures that the images and formatting display properly, but also gives you a final chance to proof read it.

6. Avoid "hard-selling" by using aggressively coloured or formatted text - Red capitals are a no-no.

7. Don't use www. for links in your emails; always use http://www.

8. Avoid sending new email templates that you haven't sent to a sample of your colleagues and friends first. This allows you to ensure that the email will display properly in different browsers and email clients and is particularly important for those who use the likes of dreamweaver to create.

9. Never send an email that doesn't have an unsubscribe link (luckily mi|emailer does this for you and automatically removes the person from your list for you).

10. Avoid words that could increase the spam score of your emails such as: SAVE, ££££, SPECIAL OFFER, DISCOUNT, etc - you can check which words outlook flags as spam here.

contact details:

When sending mails from mi|emailer you are given the following fields to complete which help to build trust from the recipient:

1. Display Email From: This is the ideal place to put your name or company name (company name is added by default) so that the recipient can easily see who or where the email is from.

2. Email Address From: This is where you would put the address of the person who would deal with enquiries, or a perform a role such as fred@mycompany.biz or sales@mycompany.biz - any replies will go to this address.

3. Email Subject: This is arguably the single most important thing to get right. Get it right and everyone will want to open your email. Get it wrong and recipient's won't be inspired to open your email or use the wrong words and mail clients will mark your message as spam. Keep it short, snappy, and targetted.

personalisation:

By using mi|emailer's "field codes" feature, you can insert a field code into an email that pulls data for (say: salutation and surname) from your mailing list so you can address your emails: "Dear Mr Smith" by writing text as "Dear ##salutation## ##surname##" and adding the salutation and surname headings to the relevent column in your mailing lists.

layout:

1. The generally approved optimal width for an email is 600pixels

2. Using a 600px wide table to layout your email will help format it uniformly

3. Avoid very complex tables which increase your html-to-text ratio and your spam score

4. If you have enough text to get a low spam score; when it comes to content: less is often more

5. Make sure you have clear calls-to-action that entice people to click and visit your site

6. Remove barriers - try to link to the relevant page on your site, not the home page

7. Don't be afraid to repeat the same link more than once within your email, or use multiple links

8. Create landing pages on your site which are designed to catch and direct traffic from your emails

9. Avoid exaggerated punctuation, capital letters or otherwise "ramming your message home"

10. If your site supports it; append multiple links going to the same page with a ? then a number, word or letter which then allows you to track which buttons get clicked the most etc.eg:
www.mysite.com/products/widget-b.htm?Buttton2

You can then track see which are the most popular buttons and decide if colour, wording, graphics, or the position on the page has the most effect on your click-through rates in your marketing emails.