If you’re just starting out in the field of email
marketing, there are some ground rules you should be familiar with that a
general marketing background won’t properly equip you for. There are a
number of obstacles in the way of the casual e-mail marketer, including
spam blockers, email filters, federal laws and general lack-of-knowledge
on the part of the marketers themselves.
Often people consider email marketing as being an offshoot of current marketing tactics, just one that happens to have a send button. It is important to remember that email marketing is not just a new form of Sunday flyer, but rather an evolution in the marketing field, and one which comes with some fuzzy technical restrictions and legal limitations. It plays by different rules and is highly competitive, but also can be highly effective and relatively simple to achieve success with.
The CAN-SPAM act, a set of basic rules set out by the U.S. government to help mitigate email spam, has been around now for about five years. Still, at this time many email marketers are not complying properly. Many are simply unaware that these rules apply to them, or of what simple steps they can take to make their email marketing efforts perfectly legal. On top of these troubles, email marketing campaigns are often quickly discarded from inboxes, and even when the truly legitimate messages are opened, they are often not read because of poor design and ineffective writing. From a legal standpoint, the CAN-SPAM Act has four main provisions:
Too often writers are hired for email campaigns, but then approach the work the same way they would writing supermarket flyers or coupons. The wording common in this type of promotion is just the type to land you in hot water with spam filters. Most users have some basic anti-spam filtering built into their email clients, while others are utilizing professional hosted email spam blockers such as Perimetec. While professional solutions may look at advanced metrics beyond keywords, they all start with a simple keyword sweep.
There are some obvious words you don’t likely use in your mailings anyway (adult words, things like Viagra and cialis), but there are also a number of words and phrases that might naturally make their way into your copy.
Be sure to not use words similar to the following: free, opportunity, joke, promo, save, money, price, discount, credit, cheap, weight, offer, act now, one time, winner. Also be sure to not capitalize words in your subject, or use excessive punctuation like exclamation points or question marks. Easy, right??!?!?
There is some intuitive logic behind these stop words triggering spam filters, but a great number of them might be included naturally in your emails or subject lines. It’s always a good idea to read your own work with a critical eye – do any of the phrases in your subject line look commercial, regardless of whether or not it’s a commercial mailing? It’s just as important to not use these words in excess in your email body text. If need be, try to use images for promotional words instead of plain text (and no, don’t name your image save-money-free-promo.jpg).
If you’ve made it into the in-box, the next challenge is getting opened. Be sure that your sent-from address represents your company clearly and doesn’t look like a robot, as this can be an instant red flag for readers. Beyond this the real challenge is writing a compelling subject line for your email that convinces them to open and give it a read.
You have roughly 40-60 characters in which to spin a catchy, effective subject. Rule number one, a classic marketing standby, is to identify yourself as someone who is offering something, not just selling something. Perceived value of an offer is more important than actual value. Appeal to the list you’re hitting – nobody is going to open an email for something they don’t want.
Be specific: people aren’t going to respond to general subject lines. If you’re forced to push a pure sale instead of offering something of value, get right to the point. Instead of saying “Great vacations for less” say, “Fly to Cancun for under six hundred bucks”.
If you are pushing a service offering, highlight the benefit, not the sale. Instead of “Save 25% on our software in September”, try “Save 25% on your operating costs before October”.
Another good approach for increasing open rates on emails is to get the reader curious. In this case it’s very important to know your audience. If you’re pushing vacations, try something like “Five vacations spots you didn’t know you could afford”, or “Secret places in Mexico”. Be sure to back these teasers with solid information, preferably right in your email text itself – use it as a slow lead towards a call to action.
A solid combination of a well-worded subject line free of spammy keywords, an honest email body that addresses the subject, and good call to action items in text itself, could dramatically increase your in-box success rate, your open rate, and your click through rate. After that, it’s all up to the conversion potential of your site and your offer. Good luck!
Often people consider email marketing as being an offshoot of current marketing tactics, just one that happens to have a send button. It is important to remember that email marketing is not just a new form of Sunday flyer, but rather an evolution in the marketing field, and one which comes with some fuzzy technical restrictions and legal limitations. It plays by different rules and is highly competitive, but also can be highly effective and relatively simple to achieve success with.
The CAN-SPAM act, a set of basic rules set out by the U.S. government to help mitigate email spam, has been around now for about five years. Still, at this time many email marketers are not complying properly. Many are simply unaware that these rules apply to them, or of what simple steps they can take to make their email marketing efforts perfectly legal. On top of these troubles, email marketing campaigns are often quickly discarded from inboxes, and even when the truly legitimate messages are opened, they are often not read because of poor design and ineffective writing. From a legal standpoint, the CAN-SPAM Act has four main provisions:
- False and misleading header information is banned
- Deceptive subject lines are prohibited
- Opt-out methods must be clearly provided
- Commercial email must be identified as an advertisement and it must include the sender’s valid physical postal address
- Receivers must be warned of sexually explicit material
Too often writers are hired for email campaigns, but then approach the work the same way they would writing supermarket flyers or coupons. The wording common in this type of promotion is just the type to land you in hot water with spam filters. Most users have some basic anti-spam filtering built into their email clients, while others are utilizing professional hosted email spam blockers such as Perimetec. While professional solutions may look at advanced metrics beyond keywords, they all start with a simple keyword sweep.
There are some obvious words you don’t likely use in your mailings anyway (adult words, things like Viagra and cialis), but there are also a number of words and phrases that might naturally make their way into your copy.
Be sure to not use words similar to the following: free, opportunity, joke, promo, save, money, price, discount, credit, cheap, weight, offer, act now, one time, winner. Also be sure to not capitalize words in your subject, or use excessive punctuation like exclamation points or question marks. Easy, right??!?!?
There is some intuitive logic behind these stop words triggering spam filters, but a great number of them might be included naturally in your emails or subject lines. It’s always a good idea to read your own work with a critical eye – do any of the phrases in your subject line look commercial, regardless of whether or not it’s a commercial mailing? It’s just as important to not use these words in excess in your email body text. If need be, try to use images for promotional words instead of plain text (and no, don’t name your image save-money-free-promo.jpg).
If you’ve made it into the in-box, the next challenge is getting opened. Be sure that your sent-from address represents your company clearly and doesn’t look like a robot, as this can be an instant red flag for readers. Beyond this the real challenge is writing a compelling subject line for your email that convinces them to open and give it a read.
You have roughly 40-60 characters in which to spin a catchy, effective subject. Rule number one, a classic marketing standby, is to identify yourself as someone who is offering something, not just selling something. Perceived value of an offer is more important than actual value. Appeal to the list you’re hitting – nobody is going to open an email for something they don’t want.
Be specific: people aren’t going to respond to general subject lines. If you’re forced to push a pure sale instead of offering something of value, get right to the point. Instead of saying “Great vacations for less” say, “Fly to Cancun for under six hundred bucks”.
If you are pushing a service offering, highlight the benefit, not the sale. Instead of “Save 25% on our software in September”, try “Save 25% on your operating costs before October”.
Another good approach for increasing open rates on emails is to get the reader curious. In this case it’s very important to know your audience. If you’re pushing vacations, try something like “Five vacations spots you didn’t know you could afford”, or “Secret places in Mexico”. Be sure to back these teasers with solid information, preferably right in your email text itself – use it as a slow lead towards a call to action.
A solid combination of a well-worded subject line free of spammy keywords, an honest email body that addresses the subject, and good call to action items in text itself, could dramatically increase your in-box success rate, your open rate, and your click through rate. After that, it’s all up to the conversion potential of your site and your offer. Good luck!
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