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Tuesday
September 25, 2007

Email Marketing Tips

Filed under: Email

Email marketing is a smart way to entice visitors to come back to shop on your LogoMall web site. The cost of an email campaign is appealing; however, it takes work to get it right. The trick is to effectively deliver a creative, sales inspiring email with a successful open and click-thru rate while complying with CAN-SPAM laws.

A few things to keep in mind when creating your next email campaign…

Get to the Subject
Getting your recipient to even open your email instead of hitting the delete button is a challenge within itself. You want a clear, persuasive, personalized and short subject line. You need to give them a reason to open such as free gift offers, specials, discounts or new products. The other day this email subject grabbed my attention, “Last chance for a free gift w/ purchase at Godiva.com”. For your customers, you could use “Karyn, Save 10% off your holiday order”.

Keep it Simple
Focus on one compelling message to your targeted audience that includes a call to action. For example, during the holiday season, you may want to feature a few holiday gift ideas to spark their interest. Tell them they can save 10% if they order by October 30th.

Watch your load time
Recipients won’t wait long for images to load especially for an advertising email. We suggest that emails are no larger than 100kb and keep the email at around 600 pixels wide so users don’t have to scroll right or left to see the entire ad.

And for the love of email, please don’t send attachments. Your content should be within the email or linked to a web page with the additional info. Savvy recipients will not open email attachments from marketing emails fearing that it may have a virus. Or, virus software programs will block the attachment and the recipient will never see it.

Proof and Test
Nothing makes me click delete faster than a typo in an email. Before you hit send, have a fresh set of eyes review your email. You’ll also want to check how your html email looks on the top email programs such as Outlook, AOL and Yahoo!. It may look great on your desktop but other programs interpret the code differently and your recipient may not be able to view your ad as you have intended.

Abide by CAN-SPAM laws
Not complying with CAN-SPAM could result in you being reported as a “spammer” to an ISP. You could be placed on a spam blocking list jeopardizing the delivery of your email campaign and open your internet business to risk.

All emails must have an unsubscribe option. The standard is to have an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email along with a physical address for your business, where recipients will look for it. If you get a request to unsubscribe from an email, you must remove them from your list within 10 business days.

All recipients must Opt-In to your email list meaning that they need to willingly subscribe to your advertising emails. To build your list, request your customer’s permission through direct marketing, your web site and invoices.

The content and subject of your email can not be misleading or deceptive. Your message should accurately represent your business and what it offers. The “from” address in your email should clearly state who you are. Your customers will be more likely to open your emails if they know who they are from.

To read further on CAN-SPAM, list building and how to implement an effective email campaign, visit www.emaillabs.com/best_practices.