Sending out an email marketing campaign involves many tasks and it can be overwhelming for new users. Seasoned users may be more experienced but often they may feel something is amiss when hitting that send button because email marketing is the only channel that is irreversible, once send and that is the end of the story. Below is a check list which aims to minimize errors and pitfalls while sending an email marketing campaign.
Permissible Mailing List
It is important to inform your recipients that you will be sending them email messages such as promotion, newsletter, offers and announcement frequently before your email marketing campaign. Their email addresses should be obtained through legal means. If they have given you permission to go ahead then they will form part of your permissible mailing list otherwise please do not email them anything as this is considered as unsolicited email aka spam email.
- Do not use Free Email Account as From Email Address
Make sure you provide a proper and correct email address, preferably using your own domain name (e.g. marketing@yourdomain.com) when you are sending out the email messages so that your recipients will recognize you instantly. Do not use free email account like yahoo, gmail or hotmail email account as some of these are either regarded as spam by some anti-spam software or your email will end up in your recipients’ trash or junk box. - Subject Title
Most senders like to capitalize the text in the subject title as many of them have the impressions that capitalized texts attract attention. However this is not the case as capitalized texts are hard to read and it only attracts spam detection software. Captalized subject title and other special characters like !#@<> will be filtered out by spam software and the email will end up in the junk folder rather than in the inbox. Next, it is important to create a compelling subject title to entice recipients to open your email. A compelling subject title will not only improve your open rate but also increase the conversion rate. An effective subject title should not be more than 50 characters, including spaces and should highlights the benefits and solutions clearly, for example, “Top 10 ways to reduce your financial burdens”, “5 Effective Ways to Generate More Leads” or create an urgency for immediate response – “15% Special Lunch Discount – Only for Today.” - Alternate Version
It is a good practice to provide an alternative plain-text version besides your html email messages because not all email clients support html messages. However, hyperlinks in the plain-text email are not trackable in some email systems hence providing an alternate link to a html page in a browser will be a better choice. You can include a line at the top of your email message such as “If you cannot see this email, please click here to view in your browser.” Doing so will help you to keep your beautiful images and design while at the same time be trackable by the email marketing system. - Images
Use images sparingly, some email marketing system set a limit on the number of images used in one email message for security reasons. In addition, an image-heavy email message will trigger spam detection software and will be blocked by it. Hence optimize your images and provide alternate text description for the images to make the email message still readable even when the images are blocked. - Spam Check
Use spam checker, which is found in the email marketing system, to anaylse your spam level before sending out your email messages. The spam checker will provide a report and offer suggestions to fix your email messages. A spam-free email message will have a higher success rate when reaching your recipients’ inbox.
The above are some of the key items to check for before sending out your email marketing campaign, it is advisable you consider the above items before sending out your email. This is to optimize your email marketing effort and result.