Email Best Practices – Top 25 Tips to Follow

The following e-mail tips represent e-mail best practices that we use when we send e-mail based marketing campaigns on behalf of our client:

• Avoid Spam Filters
  Avoid certain trigger words like “dear”, “no”, “free”, “$$$”, “once”, and “Discount”. Also, spam filters often flag heavily promotional lines like “Important Message,” “Unlimited Access,” “Guaranteed” and even “Hi!” as junk. Avoid ALL CAPS, “$$$” and “!!!” as well. These words and many other phrases add points that your ISP calculates toward SPAM. Also, bolded words, big fonts, and content to image ratio plays a factor in your email. Watch for these red flags when creating your emails, as each one factors into a point system that your ISP filters look at when judging if email is SPAM or not.


• Maximize Click-Thru Rates
  a. Recipients respond better to a plain, bold, blue text link
  b. 2006, the most common range for B-to-C open rates for 2004 and 2005 was 30% - 39% , while the B-to-B range was 10 % - 29%.


• 3. The Power of Personalization
  By simply starting your email with "Hi [subscriber_name]" instead of the boring "Hi there", you can increase both your reading and click-thru rates by up to 650%. Why? Put simply, it's because your subscribers feel like they already have a relationship with you as you've addressed them by their first name.


• 4. Signup Confirmation
  a. Double opt-in means that after your visitor initially enters their email address to subscribe to your list, you should then send them a "confirmation" email. This email should contain a special link back to your email-marketing program, which will then verify that this visitor did indeed sign up to your mailing list.
  b. One-Click un-subscription. It should be easy to unsubscribe.


• Tuesday / Wednesday = Increased Response
  On Mondays, everyone is still recovering from a hectic weekend. On Thursday and Friday, people are already too busy looking forward to the weekend. The best results were seen by sending out emails at around 2-3pm (American Pacific Time) on a Wednesday.


• 6. Repeat Email Communication
  An auto responder is an email that is scheduled to be sent at a certain time interval after someone subscribes to your mailing list. Auto responders are a great way to automatically follow up with your subscribers or provide them with more information on your products/services.


• 7. Consistency is the Key
  Create a template for your newsletter and whenever you need to create a new issue, use that template as the basis for each issue. A consistent theme or template allows readers to recognize your newsletter which decreases the deletion rate.


• 8. On Time, Every Time
  When sending a regular email to your subscribers, always make sure that it's sent on the same day, at the same time. For example, every Wednesday at 3pm. Your subscribers will come to "expect" your email to arrive in their inbox on the same day at the same time every week


• 9. The Half-a-Second Subject Line
  a. When your email arrives in your subscriber’s inbox, you generally have about half a second to catch their attention with the subject line of your email. After this, they will either delete your email or ignore it. In your subject line, try and specify a benefit that the subscriber can expect by reading your email.
  b. Keep “Subject” lines short and benefit-driven (and beware spam filters). One of the biggest mistakes online marketers make is the “never-ending subject line.” Keep them to 35 characters at most (including spaces) because most people do not maximize their browsers, and many now read these lines on mobile devices.


• 10. The Free Bonus Hook-In
  If you're looking to grow your subscriber list, create or source a product of value to your visitors (such as an eBook or discount coupon) and offer it to them for free when they signup for your newsletter.


• 11. Interesting Content Should be at the Top
  Popular email clients such as MS Outlook show a preview of an email when it's selected in your inbox. Always have some interesting content at the very top of your email


• 12. Link-Click Testing (Content Vs. Images)
  After sending about 3 different emails, compare the click-thru stats and see which one worked best. Now, when you need to send marketing emails in the future, you know that you will be sending the right mix of content and images that will attract the most click-thrus, and ultimately the most sales.


• 13. Email-Based Learning
  Add value to your website, build trust in your visitors, establish your credibility and collect more subscriptions to your mailing list by setting up an email-based learning course.


• 14. Always Sign on the Dotted Line
  Always include a signature at the bottom of your emails, as it's one of the easiest ways to attract more traffic to your website. This signature should include your personal details, your company details, and an unsubscribe link


• 15. Deliver what you say you will—not much more, and not much less.
  a. If you tell list members that you’re going to send them a monthly text email with noncommercial content, don’t send them weekly HTML messages with sales offers. Follow through with what you promised. And if you ask for personal information or preferences—for example, text or HTML email format—make sure you actually use it (in this example, send each group their requested format). If list members get something markedly different from what they expected, they’ll likely be surprised, frustrated, or disappointed, and you’ll miss your chance to build trust. In fact, you might even move the opposite direction and harm your organization’s reputation.
  b. Also note that exceeding expectations isn’t the only pitfall. If you’ve promised anything on a regular basis—certain content, delivery frequency, etc.—and then deliver less than that, you may also jeopardize your customer relationships. Anticipation of and interest in your next mailing may drop, or recipients may altogether forget that they’d heard from you previously. If you intend to send a monthly mailing, and then take a six-month break, be prepared for a surprised audience.


• 16. Keeps your list clean.
  Clean lists are delivered faster, because the list server doesn't spend time retrying bad addresses. And if you use an Email Service Provider that charges based on your membership, clean lists mean lower hosting bills because you aren't sending messages to recipients who don't exist.


• 17. Maintain Good ISP Relations
  By maintaining a list comprised of legitimate addresses, most of your mail will be delivered successfully. If you send large quantities of mail to invalid addresses, ISPs or other email providers may blacklist you and block all of your mail.


• 18. Make Sure Your Emails aren’t Blocked
  There is a two part answer to blocked emails. The first is to prevent the problem and the second is a way to remedy the problem. First of all, to keep up with the heavier enforcement of CAN SPAM rules, it is in your best interest to have your recipient add your email to their address book. By doing this, it will ensure that they will receive your emails despite increased SPAM enforcement by the ISP filters. One way to aid this addition to their address book is by providing them with a link that shows your recipients how they can add you on whatever email service they have. An example of this is seen in this webpage that I have attached to the emails that I send out: Preventing Blocked Emails. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add hotel-jukebox@email.firebirdmarketing.com to your address book. We even suggest that you provide a simple tutorial to walk the reader through the e-mail address book setup associated with their ISP


• 19. Make Sure You have Enough Text in your email
  a. When Creating an html email, make sure that your most important message is in words on the html itself, and not in the image. This is very important because many people don’t receive the images, and will only see the text of your message. Also, in emails such as MS Outlook, you have to click to receive pictures, and many people don’t take the time to do that if they don’t see a reason. This also goes back to the idea of keeping an important message at the top of the email to give your recipients a clue of what message you are trying to send this. This important message at the top should be text.


• 20. Make Your Emails Visually Exciting
  The power of html enables the creator to add visual excitement to their message. Images and creative font can appeal to your recipients, attracting them to read on and pay more attention to your email, above a regular text email. Keep in mind, though, overdoing this advantage can lead to busy emails that are over the top and can lead to triggering SPAM filters. It is important to know the power of html, while at the same time, respecting the power that SPAM filters have over big images, big fonts, bold text, etc. Make your emails visually appealing, but know the limit of the filters you are sending to. There are many good sites out there that can test your email, and provide a SPAM rating, citing what will trigger the SPAM filters. This is something to look into for anyone using images and big lettering in their emails.


• 21. Use an honest “From” line to engender trust.
  Remember when marketers gave phony names to make e-mail recipients think that a communication was coming from an individual (versus a company)? That’s dead. If a company is offering a product or service, then that company needs to state its identity. Don’t hide it. Studies show that up to 30 percent of e-mails are discarded because recipients do not know whom the e-mails are from. And keep the “From” consistent throughout a campaign


• 22. Never underestimate the value of personalization.
  Every instance of personalization in an e-mail lifts response. Even if the data only allow greeting the recipient by name (instead of “customer” or “friend”), do it. But if customizing a communication based on the recipient’s location, size of business or job title is possible, it may net higher response.


• 23. Keep key messages and links “above the fold.”
  Many e-mail recipients read from the preview pane to decide “do I continue?” If critical links or cogent reasons to read on are not visible, it’s over. The above-the-fold region (the area visible before being forced to scroll) varies from computer to computer, but it loosely comprises an average 1.5 paragraphs of real estate.


• 24. Avoid Flash animation and videos.
  Many e-mail recipients will be unable to see them. If the e-mail is a launching pad to a landing page, microsite or general Web site, as most are, save those applications until the recipient gets there.


• 25. Keep e-mails in the same aesthetic family as the other marketing tactics employed. If an e-mail is part of a wider campaign that includes direct mail and/or other media, ensure that the tactics look similar. Proper brand integration sparks familiarity, which leads to additional short- and long-term response.