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Not that long ago, e-mail marketing seemed to be the perfect answer for the technology-savvy executive wanting to develop personal, ongoing relationships with customers and potential clients. It’s direct. It’s quick. It’s cost-effective.
But now…
Spam and spam filters have changed the landscape. E-mail clients give users more control over which e-mails to read and allow them to block images in e-mail messages. Add to the hurdles the range of machines people use to read their e-mail, from desktop computers to laptops to handheld devices. Plus, everyone seems to have suddenly discovered e-mail marketing. There are potholes everywhere.
Getting e-mail messages delivered, read, and acted upon has become a much greater challenge than ever. On the bright side, e-mail still offers many attractive benefits. An anticipated and relevant e-mail keeps your company top-of-mind, and helps you build your brand and relationships with your customers at a very reasonable cost.
What can you do to give your e-mail message the best chance of being seen and read? Take a good look at your e-mail implementation strategy and adopt some of these best practices. Here are a few tips to consider.
1. Build a solid e-mail list. E-mail marketing is referred to as permission e-mail marketing for a good reason: Your recipients must have given you explicit permission to contact them by e-mail. The bright side? They expect and look forward to receiving your messages. A solid e-mail list offers a strong delivery rate, and high open and click-through rates. Sending messages to people who have not asked to receive your communications at best dilutes your brand and at worst makes your company look like a spammer. Build a solid e-mail list by giving your target audiences good reasons to become subscribers, such as offering them a good, relevant incentive, by inviting consumers at check-out to sign up, by strategically placing attractive invitations in your Web sites, and by creatively and actively promoting opportunities to become subscribers.
2. Pass the scan test. The two most important items people look at when deciding whether to skip or to read an e-mail are sender information and the subject line. Providing the full name and e-mail address of the sender helps the recipients know that the message comes from someone they know. What about the subject line? There are a few angles you can use. Consider what makes your offer most compelling from your reader’s perspective, and highlight that in the subject line. Include an action item to instill a sense of urgency. Or make it short and business-like, much like a business memo. If your recipients read your e-mail using a hand-held device, bear in mind only the first few words will be visible. Be sure those few words carry the weight they are meant to.
3. Think objectives first. What is the key objective of your message? Is the message intended to offer tips and resources? Or is it a transaction message intended to persuade the recipients to make a purchase? Your call-to-action is one of the most crucial elements – position your request strategically and prominently. And be sure your Web site has carefully planned for it. Answering this question will help you design the e-mail message so you can get the most salient points across in the preview panel and overcome the image blocking test described below.
4. Overcome the preview panel and image blocking test. Recent user surveys suggest that 7 out of 10 e-mail users use a preview panel to scan their messages. More than 60% of e-mail users use e-mail clients such as Outlook or Lotus Notes that block images by default. Place your offer or your most important content, or its teaser, at the top of your message so it is visible and prominent in the small preview panel of your reader’s e-mail. Avoid placing at the top a big image that will prevent your readers from seeing your message.
5. Watch out for bad designs, poor copy and broken codes. If the HTML codes of your e-mail message are broken or incorrectly formatted, it can trigger spam filters to mark it as spam. E-mail messages that use complex layouts such as nested tables may not display correctly in your reader’s computer. Images embedded in the message increase load time and may not display properly. Review your text to be sure it doesn’t include words and phases that sound like spam. It’s a smart practice to offer a text message either on its own or as an alternative. Bear in mind many users choose to read text messages instead of HTML messages.
6. Strategically plan the next steps. Now that your message has been read, what do you want your reader to do next? Be sure your reader’s next click reinforces your message, and is a logical next step to act on your persuasion. For example, if you convince your readers to make a purchase, be sure the landing page they click to offers the next step in the buying process.
By playing to the strength of your e-mail and avoiding the potholes, your message will speak volumes – and your audience will be listening!
Copyright Eva Chiu and InfoAdvantage.
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