Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing - Haymarket

16 FUNDAMENTALS DM News • E-Mail Marketing Guide 2007
Open up and say “Aaaah”
BY DAVE DABBAH
When it comes to your health, they say prevention is the best
cure. What about your e-mail marketing program? Is it getting
enough exercise? Following are some guidelines to help keep
your program in top condition.
Examine the opt-in process. Test the process from the user’s
point of view. Make sure each link sends users to the right place.
Count the clicks. The fewer clicks required (ideally fewer than
four), the more likely the user will complete the process.
Monitor your mailboxes. While it’s great to automate as much as
possible in any e-mail marketing program, good customer service
requires human interaction. Make sure you monitor all incoming
mailboxes. Despite your best efforts to direct customers elsewhere,
many will still hit reply, sending opt-outs, complaints and comments
to unmanaged mailboxes.
Run the right tests. To ensure your e-mail messages are viewed
as intended, test messages across multiple platforms and e-mail
clients — from Macs to BlackBerries and Outlook to Gmail. Thirdparty
e-mail service providers may even offer automatic testing.
Nurture the new; respect the old. New subscribers’ interest tends
to fade after the first two weeks, so it’s important to find ways to
keep them clicking. It’s just as important to treat those who unsubscribe
with the same respect. Confirm the action in a follow-up
ESSENTIAL GUIDE
e-mail or on the landing page. Include a link to a short exit survey
and directions on how to re-subscribe.
CAN-SPAM, the US law regulating commercial e-mail, requires a
working Web-based unsubscribe mechanism in every message. Make
sure yours works. Failure to operate could lead to serious fines.
Beware of blocked images and preview panes. Blocked images
and preview panes became a concern for e-mail marketers last
year when key e-mail providers added the latter to their service,
allowing readers to view a portion of the message before deciding
whether to open or delete it. That
means your template has to catch
them in a whole new way.
Designs should maximize the top
two-to-four inches. Use HTML
fonts and colors to your advantage,
and don’t rely on images
that may ultimately be blocked.
Review message frequency. Do
more messages increase your ROI
or just alienate your subscribers?
Dave Dabbah
Lyris Technologies
The best way to determine if your
e-mail schedule is working for you
is by testing it. Turn a monthly
schedule into a bi-weekly one for a few months and watch for positive
indicators — opens, clicks, conversions, sales — as well as negative