Email Marketing Best Practices
To create a successful and effective HTML email marketing campaign follow the best practices, techniques and tools below. Also, view my email marketing campaign goals, methods, and links to my newsletter and postcard below. For more email marketing resources visit the Findability Resources page and look under the ‘email marketing’ category.
The following best practices will ensure your web email campaign gets to your target audience and generates a high ROI for your business.
1. The CAN-SPAM Act that defines the rules for commercial email campaigns in order to protect the consumers and those who follow the guidelines for an effective campaign.
The CAN-SPAM Act highlights are listed below:
a. You cannot use misleading headings or subject lines that do not pertain to your content.
b. You must identify the message as an advertisement.
c. You must provide contact information for you and / or your business.
d. You must provide an opt-out or unsubscribe method.
2. Use an email campaign organizer like MailChimp, Constant Contact, to keep track of information, lists, and other campaign information.
3. Place eye-catching information ‘above the fold. This content should include logo or branding, headlines, and content that will capture users and that they will want to read more.
4. Always include consistent and recognizable brand call-outs, contact information from your company.
5. Allow users to subscribe first before you send emails and use a subscription confirmation through their email to tell the users that you want to verify that they opted-in for receiving information from your company.
6. Include an ‘unsubscribe’ link within the email and follow up on opt-out requests within 10 days (made easier with email marketing campaign tools). Make the unsubscribe process as simple and user-friendly as possible with a one-click process. Also provide a link option to add the company info to the users contact book so emails don’t get placed in spam.
7. Provide useful and unique content within an email campaign. Users want more than the information normally distributed to the public, so give subscribers additional features or benefits and incentives for subscribing.
8. Include personalization in emails (again, made easier using an email campaign tool) that establishes a relationship with your readers. It is best to not only personalize in a general sense with an opening, but also use segments of your audience to send them specific newsletters and postcards that appeal to their tastes and to what they have enjoyed reading or browsing in the past. Also, provide a signature at the bottom of your emails, along with company information that can link back to your website. Company transparency is important to gain trust with users and to remind them who is sending them emails.
9. For best results and increased responses to an email campaign, send out email newsletters and postcards on Tuesday or Wednesday. This technique is based on studies and research analysis that people are most receptive to communication at this point in the week and will more likely read your content and click on links.
10. If your newsletter is scheduled for every day, week, or month, and your users are expecting up-to-date information, your email campaign must go out every time and must be on time. Any lag in communication with your audience can create lost subscribers.
11. Test different versions of you email marketing campaign among your audience. These versions could include links versus call-outs, different layouts, or different imagery. Track the different responses to these campaigns to learn more about what your audience is looking for in an email and to learn the best practices your user expects.
12. Use Google Analytics to measure the success of you campaign and find faults in order to update and change your campaign, creating an efficient and successful marketing venture.
Resources:
Dave Sparks ‘10 Definitive Tips for Writing Captivating Emails’ Six Revisions
CAN-SPAM Act
Email Marketing Campaign Project // Goals and Methods
Pecha Kucha Night in Charleston, SC is a creative collaboration of presenters from the area who speak to an audience about their ideas on design, architecture, and other creative forms. Each speaker talks to the audience for about 6 minutes and 40 seconds revealing 20 frames or images shown for 20 seconds, before the next presenter. This quick format, show-and-tell style conversation then leads to thinking, drinking, and social networking between all the creative minds in Charleston. An intriguing part of the Pecha Kucha night is that the location is not revealed until 3 days before the event. Using this intrigue and the limited availability of tickets, the email campaign is focused on highlighting the anticipation and semi-exclusivity of the event.
In my email campaign, I envisioned the following goals and implemented the following methods.
Campaign Goals
- Attract attendees with speakers and creative attraction
- Increase event attendance
- Gain sponsors for Pecha Kucha events
Methods
- Provide many links and callouts for users to buy tickets
- Intrigue people with mystery location and with interesting speakers and presenters
- Create a social buzz in Charleston using website blog and other social networks
- Offer subscribers advance access to ticket sales
- Provide additional information to keep subscribers informed about special events and creative happenings in Charleston
To keep abreast of the innovative ideas of the area, website visitors would be encouraged to subscribe to Pecha Kucha newsletter. Once users have subscribed, the newsletters detail the next presenters at the forum, as well as any interesting creative happenings in Charleston. The newsletters also detail date of the event and provide access to purchase tickets. Users are provided the incentive to advanced ticket sales when they subscribe to newsletters. The Pecha Kucha email postcard highlights and reveals the mystery location three days before the event. The postcard also reiterates the presenters, the time, and event name so subscribers will be excited to attend.
Based on email best practices, the Pecha Kucha email campaign also includes an unsubscribe link, plain text version, a link to view in the web browser, a link to forward to friends, a link to the Pecha Kucha Charleston website, as well as a link to add the contact info to their address book. Giving users the control to handle their email subscription makes them more likely to trust and continue to read your emails, as well as to follow up on any calls to action.
Below are links to my email campaign:
Pecha Kucha Charleston, SC Email Newsletter
Pecha Kucha Charleston, SC Email Postcard