Essentials to Effective Email Marketing

With so much spam being circulated and people going to great lengths to eliminate it, many questions are being raised about the effictiveness of email campaigns.


In a recent roundtable study by MarketingProfs (www.marketingprofs.com), email marketing continues to be one of the most successful and cost-effective methods of growing your business. If you are embracing email as an important marketing tool, here are some tips to make sure your readers receive your valuable offers.

• Go for quality over quantity. Start with a good list and know your recipients. If you’re trying to obtain new customers, manage your list well to ensure your recipients are quality prospects. 
• Identify yourself and your business clearly. It is in violation of spam laws to omit or mislead your recipients as to who is sending the message.
• Be a good writer. Put in the time or hire a professional to write your creative copy. Compose your subject line carefully.
• Use your “real estate” wisely. The effectiveness of your subject line and first sentence determine whether recipients will continue to read your message. Put your offer “above the fold” so readers don’t have to scroll down to determine the value of your message.
• Be personal. Greet your readers by their first name or Mr./Ms. as you would in an individual letter.
• Have a concise call to action. Your primary objective is to prompt a response, so give plenty of information to act upon.
• Use short and distinct links back to your website. URLs that wrap may cause problems for some readers. A unique link (www.mysite.com/offer) that exists only for your particular offer allows you to track activity.
• Text vs. HTML. If possible, allow your readers to choose. HTML messages to text-only recipients will give them a message filled with unformatted web code. Also, avoid using too many images. Email and spam filters often block images, so designs that communicate only through graphics will not be seen.
• Offer an online version. For recipient’s who may not be able to read the entire message or in it’s intended format, create an online version of your message and make sure to include a link at the top in plain text to read the full message online.
• Turn one reader into more. Offer easy methods to forward and share your message with friends and associates.
• Provide a way to opt out. Spam laws require you give your recipients a method to be removed from future solicitations.
• Be consistent in design. Create a design template that you can modify each mailing campaign to give your readers a consistent and familiar look.
• Is it “stamp worthy”? The misconception that email is free can cause us to be lax in quality and substance. Ask yourself if your message is valid and offers value to your recipients.

If your message does not reach your recipient’s Inbox, none of the above matters. When your message is ready to launch, test your message using several popular spam filters. Your marketing professional or a service such as “Return Path” (www.returnpath.net) can assist you in evaluating your message’s spam “score” or likelihood of being blocked, so you can make adjustments before pressing that send button.