From scheduled plans to email crafts, down to subject line frets, there’s a litany that goes into an email marketing campaign. The specifics may be able to sling-shot you to the next level, but that’s only possible if you follow the best practices and throw the worst in the dumpster. Whether you are the king of DIYs or the strategy magnet, you need to have a keen eye for both sides of the email marketing coin.
Do Segment Your Lists
Sending every single mail to everyone? Stop! Ensure relevance by segmenting your lists. The practice can do well in helping you give the A-game and reach the goal of delivering ideal messages to the right recipients, and at the right times.
Don’t Spam
We’re past the wild west when it comes to email communications. The 2003 CAN-SPAM Act was passed by the Congress to outline email marketing-applicable restrictions. The Federal Trade Commission, saddled with the responsibility of enforcing these laws, outlined a compliance guide for businesses. Using misleading, false, invalid information is prohibited in many regions. You should act accordingly.
Do Monitor Bounce Rates
While monitoring bounce rates as part of general metric analyses to make more informed decisions, you should as well pay close attention to them individually. Why? If your bounce rates are spiked, your domain will be flagged as a bad sender, which can substantially damage your other email marketing efforts and send your online presence down the barnacles drain.
Don’t Send Emails Without Testing
Everyone seems to be guilty of this crime – not caring how the email would look upon prospect or customer reception. There are many checks you need to do and loose ends you need to tie before you finally hit send. Double, even triple check your recipient list before transferring information. Mistakes are inevitable, but sending apology emails often doesn’t really look nice.
Do Track Metrics and Conduct A/B Testing
Here’s a matter of how burn rate and how you can do one better. Paying attentions to the data from previous campaigns and testing improvement hypotheses will help you make A/B testing and find out how well you’ve been doing and where you can improve. In metric terms, ensure monitoring open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate and inbox placement rate. More data will also generally help you capture and analyze for a more strategic sally-forth.
Don’t’ Buy Lists
If you want to crack down your email marketing efforts pretty soon, buying lists is the way. But if you want to keep your strategies alive and active, you should stop looking to get the bang for your buck and go for the real deal – building your own lists. Buying lists can negatively impact domain standing and damage the deliverability of your emails.
Finding out that these aren’t quality lists may not be realizable until your campaigns are already shattering. Be effective by delivering relevant, helpful messages who brand-familiar recipients and information seekers. Bought lists are jam-packed with strangers who you would likely provoke with your incessant emails.
Rules are meant to be broken, but email marketing’s where there’s a huge exception. Play your cards right and watch the numbers go premium!
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