Reducing (or just plain eliminating) those HORRIFIC email mistakes!
If you conduct many email campaigns it will eventually happen to you. And, YES…it’s even happened to us—THE EMAIL BLUNDER. You know, the broken link, missing or incorrect text, and/or sent to the wrong list. Then there are the deliverability issues that are now more important than ever, the effectiveness issues for engaging each and every subscriber, and the technical issues of tracking performance in open rates, click through rates, bounces, and more.
With all of these issues, not to mention the very tight timelines we’re under, it is really no wonder why this popular marketing vehicle keeps us sweating bullets…no matter how many times we’ve done it. What we’ve finally learned (the best lessons come from your biggest mistakes!) is that to reduce or eliminate the most horrific of email mistakes, and even better yet, conduct the most effective email campaigns, you need to test the email thoroughly in the following three areas (BEFORE you hit the send button):
Download the Email Campaign Checklist!
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Email Content and Design. In email marketing the most important element is content. You’ve heard it before—content is KING. And, because of that, most of your testing must focus on the email content and design. Online editing and testing can be challenging. We recommend you print out the test email you’ve sent to yourself and follow this checklist both online and in print to ensure you catch any mistakes you may have made in copy, etc. As you test your links, place a checkmark on the printed copy beside each link that is properly working.
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To, From, and Subject Line Content. To get your email opened you must also make sure you handle the external email content correctly. The Subject Line and From Address are the two most important elements to getting your email opened. Tips: 1) Make sure the “from” name is branded and 2) Create a subject line of less than 35 characters if possible, 50 characters maximum. (In fact, studies show a 28% increase in opens when subject line is 35 characters and under.) Finally, regardless of the length, try to write your subject line like a headline and make it benefit focused.
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Delivery Logistics. It’s here where the devil really is in the details. What’s the most critical area here is the handling of hard bounces. You must track them and remove them from future campaigns to keep your list clean and “deliverable.” Also, you have to worry about making sure the HELO matches the SPF record, the system uses a STATIC IP address, and the email has been viewed with Outlook, AOL, Hotmail, & Yahoo. Make sure you regularly monitor your Sender Score from Return Path to ensure your email reputation is where it needs to be.
Knowing these things and getting it right every time are definitely two different things. The best way to cover yourself is to create a checklist and use it every time you send an email. Our Email Campaign Checklist will get you started. It contains over 40 key things we think you should check for, and, is editable so you can add some of your own. It also includes our shortlist of email delivery services and software!
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The Sales and Marketing Toolkits BUNDLED contains:
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Over 60 sales and marketing templates (DOC, XLS, PPT, and PDFs)
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Loads of "how-to" articles and examples
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8 Training sessions (MP3 audio files) for your computer or iPod
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