Set and Deliver to Your Opt-In Email List’s Expectations
In today’s Internet marketing commerce, you have to navigate your way through a complicated landscape of customer expectations, challenging technology, government regulations, and other issues old-school direct marketers never had to face. One of the most important ethics of Internet marketing is to get permission from the recipient before you ever begin sending marketing emails. When you send unsolicited email, you hurt your business, campaign and your reputation. Do not even consider using stealth methods to collect email addresses. Use a double opt-in method for processing subscriptions that requires confirmation before the address goes into your database.
One way to get on the bad side of and Internet Service Providers bad side is to send a large amount of emails frequently and to invalid email addresses. Another way is to generate too many spam complaints. If you operate in this fashion, the result will be that your Internet Service Provider will block your emails, move them to oblivion in the bulk folder and will not tell you what you did wrong. The best way to avoid landing on a blacklist is to respect unsubscribe requests immediately, monitor and resolve spam complaints, and use a double opt-in process and unique IP address if you do not already. If you have a list that has addresses that are incorrect or duplicated, you will be wasting precious time and effort in your email campaigns. You want to clean your target lists on a regular basis to keep your reputation in good standing. Another way to stay on the good side of both the Internet Service Providers and your recipients is to utilize methods that allow email from recognized senders but block spammers and malicious senders. Some of these methods include whitelisting, SPF Classic, SenderID and DomainKeys. You can contact your email service provider to find out which methods they support.
When you are developing your list, ask only for the most essential information at registration. Send only what you say you will, when and how often you specified at registration. Without trust, recipients are less likely to open or act on your emails and more likely to unsubscribe or file spam charges. It is also important to include a small, straightforward email privacy statement within your opt-in form and link it to the full policy statement on your Web site. Your subscribers expect control. If you do not give them what they want, they will go somewhere else. Use the information you gather at sign-up to divide your list into appropriate sections and deliver targeted messages. Better yet segment based on email and Web behavior such as which links recipients clicked on or what actions they have taken on your Web site. That will increase your performance and make your communications more important to your recipients. Segmenting also helps you understand performance and tendencies based on demographics and segments.
Your email has to stand out in a crowded inbox. Consider placing your company name in the “from” line for fast detection. Add a “grabber” subject line. Design the top of your email to be preview pane and “disabled images” friendly. Use teaser text and HTML colors and layout instead of an image so readers can get an instant “preview” of your email even if images are disabled. As a final point, put the important content - the offer, the call to action, newsletter contents - up at the top for immediate viewing. You have just a few of seconds to make your case so do not waste them. Feeble designs and improper format frustrates users. If they cannot navigate your email easily or find the information they want they will opt out or delete you every time. Worse, they can hit the “Report Spam” button and hope that makes you go away. Use the recipients’ own information to create highly relevant messages. This will boost your value. Top-quality email service providers allow you to personalize right to the recipient level, with email that recognizes each one by name, buying history, content, format, etc. Recipients’ needs change over time. Your emails will compete with new and changing sources of content or offers that will affect your value proposition. Survey your recipients occasionally on their needs and interests. Make it easy for them to change their subscription preferences. Analyze each send for revealing statistics on factors such as results according to subject line, offer, links clicked, and even segmenting.
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