Email Marketing Best Practices

In these times, when every email signup counts, it might be tempting to take shortcuts to build your list. In fact, you may have already engaged in so-called "gray hat" tactics—practices that aren't illegal, but certainly won't win you any fans or new customers, and may even affect your deliverability. Read more

A bill was introduced in the Canadian Parliament at the end of April titled the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA). This new legislation is the Canadian government's attempt at stemming the tide of unsolicited messages. If you typically send true opt-in messages, you are in good shape. Read more

Everyone is looking for ways to make their dollar stretch a little further. This may mean clipping coupons, eating at home, carpooling or taking a stay-cation (stay at home vacation) this year. When it comes to email, there's an underutilized -- but highly effective -- way to stretch your marketing dollar. Read more

While many of us cooked a Thanksgiving turkey last week there are signs that many retailers have already started cooking the golden goose-the email goose. If these retailers are savvy, they have done some testing and have determined that they are driving incremental orders with these messages. Read more

Above-the-fold The top part of an email or web page that can be seen without scrolling. This is generally more desirable placement because of its visibility. API Application Programming Interface that allows an outside system to have a well defined protocol by which they can access another system's functionality. Read more

Here's an excerpt from SubscriberMail CEO Jordan Ayan's book "The Practical Guide to E-mail Marketing" on email testing. Use this checklist next time you go into a meeting to discuss how to improve your e-mail marketing performance. Step 1: Ask a Question Start the testing process by asking a question. Read more

B-to-b marketers aren't the only ones who make mistakes with their e-mail efforts. We spoke to Jordan Ayan, CEO of e-mail service provider SubscriberMail, about the e-mail marketing mistakes that both major party presidential candidates this year are making-and what you can learn from them. Read more

Every time I speak at a conference, there is usually at least one person who raises their hand, or if there is no time for questions, they come up to me after the program and ask the inevitable question. It is not always the same question, but usually some derivative of, "What is the average ________?" You can fill in the blank with anything from open rate to click rate or delivery. Read more

Rather than dictating the conversation yourself, try to identify how each segment of your audience prefers to be communicated with-then deliver. Are you inadvertently alienating subscribers? Conquering the gauntlet leading to your subscribers' inboxes is a victory in and of itself, but becomes a wasted opportunity if the message is not effectively communicated. Read more

One question has dominated my conversations with clients and in online forums over the past several weeks: "Is my e-mail marketing plan recession-proof?" The answer is that it certainly should be. E-mail marketing is something that companies turned to initially because it was an inexpensive way to reach large numbers of customers. Read more

Your Email Service Provider's clientele can directly impact your email deliverability. You might follow all the rules in your email marketing efforts, but have you ever wondered how the behavior of your Email Service Provider's other clients can adversely affect the deliverability of your emails? Receiving junk mail from disreputable sources is an unfortunate yet expected hazard of owning an email account. Read more

The boss may not like it, or understand it, but the best way to improve email performance could be as simple as (gasp!) decreasing the size of your email list. Subscribing to an email list is easy–so easy in fact, it leads some subscribers to request emails in which they have only a passing interest. Read more

With many consumers blocking images on incoming e-mail, marketers must be prepared to use other means to engage their audiences, according to a new study from SubscriberMail. A 2007 study by the Email Experience Council found that 21% of reviewed e-mails appeared blank when images were turned off. Read more

Maintain relationships you've worked so hard to cultivate "Do you want fries with that?" The concept of up-selling a customer is a tried and true marketing method when someone buys a product or service. When you use email as part of your marketing mix, you can take advantage of this process by using triggered messaging. Read more

By all accounts, the U.S. economy and others around the world are either in recession now or heading for one before 2008 ends. How long it will last and how rough it will get is anybody's guess... Read the full article at Email Insider Read more

You've acquired the email marketing golden ticket: permission to mail a new subscriber. How will you nurture the permission-based relationship you have established? You've acquired the email marketing golden ticket: permission to mail a new subscriber. Read more

This Thanksgiving, rather than just telling your loyal email readers that you're thankful for them, try examining ways that you can show them that you appreciate them and their valuable time. More specifically, think about what you're doing now that may be annoying readers rather than making them thankful for your messages. Read more

Among email marketers whose lists contain significant numbers of 'dead' addresses, there is a question that is often answered incorrectly because of the scale of the task: Should you try to revive consumer relationships that are failing because email has become undeliverable or unresponsive for some reason, or should you simply drop them from future campaigns? Read the full article at TheWiseMarketer. Read more

E-mail marketing's been around a long while, relatively speaking, insofar as online marketing is concerned. It was a white-hot topic two or three years ago, but talk has largely shifted to sexier forms of online marketing: search, video, and all that is Web 2. Read more

A good eNewsletter best practices article by Jordan Ayan, the chairman of Create-It! Inc., a technology consulting firm, as well as the CEO of SubscriberMail (www.subscribermail.com), an e-mail marketing company that provides permission-based marketers with services and tools to develop and deliver e-mail. Read more

There are a lot of metrics to consider when evaluating your campaign performance: open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, ROI, etc. While open rates are only the first layer and are not necessarily the most important, improving your open rates can help improve your other metrics. Read more

If you're wondering how much difference a subject line can make, the answer is "plenty!" A well-crafted subject line can be powerful enough to immediately attract the reader to your message. Still, the subject line's importance is often overlooked. Read more

At first glance, the opt-in techniques you use every day may appear rather cut and dried. For example, either somebody wants to receive your newsletter or they don't. Fact is, the language you use, the support graphics, and the staging techniques you employ can make a huge difference-between being totally ignored and creating an evolving, dynamic relationship that can enhance database precision, enrich dialogue, and help you showcase a larger scope of services. Read more

The key to email success is developing, reviewing and refining a comprehensive email marketing strategy. Over the last months, we've discussed areas to look at and improve upon to get better results, including list segmentation, testing subject lines, creating a winning welcome message, and more. Read more

A new subscriber "opts in" to receive your newsletter. Great. So you respond with a simple "thank you," right? Not exactly. The right welcome message can - and should - do a whole lot more. A recent study reported that 40 percent of American Internet users changed their opinions of brands as a result of information they gathered online. Read more

Recipients will often absently click "This is Spam" if they don't like the content, regardless that they opted in to the list. Focusing on content development is one of the most important things you can do to ensure your email success. Unfortunately it's not as easy as creating an editorial calendar and sticking to it. Read more

The summer months are here and we're half way through the year - a great opportunity for many organizations to review how campaigns and marketing tactics have been performing, and what should be modified for the remainder of the year. We know you're reviewing each message after it goes out to see how it performed versus previously sent emails, but now is a good time to take a step back and review the whole of your email marketing efforts. Read more

Recently, the email marketing industry converged in Boston for the Authentication and Online Trust Summit to discuss email authentication as well as online trust and security. We've compiled a few key updates that every email marketer should know about email authentication. Read more

Recent and upcoming changes from major organizations in the email marketing industry will add a layer of complexity to designing email creative that is effective and displays consistently across all email clients. Keeping up with changes in the email marketing industry is usually no small task. Read more

Being labeled a "spammer" is an email marketer's worst nightmare. You've worked hard growing your list, composing your message, and then - splat, your message is sent into a huge black hole somewhere in email space, and your open and conversion rates sink. Read more

Savvy marketers are looking for a strategy to help deliver more targeted, relevant and actionable messages. They know that more relevant content equals increased response. But they are also looking for a way to accomplish this without creating numerous message variations. Read more

The growing complexity of today's email market has created a deeper need to carefully consider the creative aspects of your email messages. While the need for effective design has always existed in marketing, challenges unique to email require a different look at creative from the perspective of accomplishing specific goals via email. Read more

Savvy marketers are using email marketing in a variety of new and creative ways as a strategic part of their marketing mix. To start your thinking down the right path we present five challenges for your best email marketing efforts yet. Challenge #1: Test at least one metric per email campaign. Read more

Today, up to 20 percent of legitimate commercial email is not being delivered to email boxes. The cost of that undelivered email could be significant for your company or organization. Poor deliverability can result in lost transactions, lack of and inconsistent communication, ineffective marketing and more. Read more

Your company offers a variety of products and services. The product that one customer can't live without is one that another customer has no use for. Or perhaps the key selling point of your service to one prospect is a weak point for a different prospect. Read more

Whether you're sending a promotional email or an email newsletter, your message has specific sales or marketing goals. Most commonly the main goal of your message is to get readers to register for an event or make a purchase, or to build a relationship with readers, which hopefully leads to them making a purchase. Read more

One of the most common questions we are asked is, "How often should I be mailing to my various lists?" The answer to this question is almost always returned with more questions. That's because there is no single answer for determining the right frequency for every organization. Read more

We know you're familiar with the benefits of using email marketing in your arsenal of communications tools. If you haven't heard the buzz surrounding the latest tool for communicating with customers and prospects, you soon will. It's called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), a relatively new technology for publishing that allows readers to seek out content they're interested in rather than it being delivered to them. Read more