Email Etiquette

What you should know before pressing that ‘send’ button

Right this very minute you probably have at least a few newsletter campaigns in your inbox that are both helpful, and entertaining. And a few that are utterly annoying and with any luck have already been filtered over to your ‘junk-mail’ box!

In this article I will help you understand the complexities of email marketing, and how to keep on the good side of your subscribers, out of the junk mail filters, and most importantly, how to convert subscribers into clients.

Be Sure that You Have an Excellent Privacy Policy

Most people are incredibly concerned about the amount of spam they receive. Do not buy or sell email lists. Do not send emails to people who didn’t give you permission to send to them. Even if you get people’s email addresses at trade shows, etc., make sure that they have given you permission to send them an occasional email. Disregard for people’s privacy will always end up causing way more harm than good. I’ve helped people produce thousands of campaigns and have scrutinized tons of data and feedback. Many times, the first place a user will go is the the site’s ‘Privacy Policy.’ Having a well written privacy policy creates trust and credibility. You can read more about privacy in ‘Writing a Perfect Privacy Policy.’

Never Send Email Campaigns from Your Own Inbox!

The worse thing that could happen to you and your business is to be identified as a source of SPAM. Servers are constantly being bombarded by spammers attempts to get their junk-mail through servers and to random recipients. It’s actually illegal to spam, and you can visit FTC site for more info on the CAN-SPAM Act. You’d think this would slow down spammers efforts, but it doesn’t. Your ISPs and IT staff etc., have an absolute zero tolerance policy regarding spam. Filters are set up to automatically sense and block these sites the second they are received.

Our problem is that if you send a bulk email to your clients, and that email is accidentally interpreted as spam, there is more than a good chance that your website might be blocked to that whole company. If this happens, even people typing your whole URL into the address bar will just see a ‘404 Site Not Found’ error message, because their internal firewall has blacklisted your email account and domain. — Bad? Oh yes, very bad! That’s why using an email service is imperative.

Why Use an Email Delivery Service?

Email delivery services, are third party companies that go to incredibly great pains to make sure you do not get blacklisted. Any reputable email service is usually a member of the ESPC (Email Service Provider Coalition), which is a cooperative group of industry leader that helps it’s members face the rather difficult issues associated with email marketing. Any service you select should probably be a member of the ESPC.

Email services often try and make sure you are in compliance to CAN-SPAM rules and will quickly ban users who they receive complaints about. The emails you send out affect their reputation as much as yours. Often these services will stop large mailings, until they have verified that all of your subscribers are in fact your users, and that they have opted-in as your subscribers. Opt-In and Double Opt-In are important terms and we’ll delve into this more later.

What to Look for in an Email Delivery Service?

There are hundreds of services out there. Make sure when you are shopping for services, they follow best privacy and email marketing practices. Ensure they proactively work with compliant services, to keep themselves white-listed and keep themselves from being blocked. If their reputation is bad, your emails will not go through to your subscribers. Make sure your delivery providers have fairly decent analytic functions to let you know how successful your campaigns are. For example, how many people opened their email, how many clicked through to your site, etc. Make sure that the system works in conjunction with your CRM (Client Relationship Management) system. Stats don’t mean a whole lot if you aren’t able to create loyal customers.

Price models vary widely, from ‘price per email sent’, to monthly ‘subscription rates’ based on a maximum number you can send per month. If you only expect to send a campaign every other month or so, a per email model is often the better solution. The cost is usually a small set up fee and .02¢ to .04¢ per email, so expect to spend between $25 to $40 per campaign. Monthly subscriptions are generally based on your subscription base. Monthly services generally let you send up to 2000 emails for a $30 dollars per month fee. Here at Rocketroom, we offer both a per send model and a free option that comes with your hosting fees.

Have Clear Goals

A clear call to action and above all, write great content! Even if your subscribers are dedicated fans, they will click that ‘unsubscribe’ button faster than you can say free widget, unless your communication with your client an informative and useful experience. The client is interested in things that are helpful to them. Coupons are great, but also think of things that can make their lives better. If you are a first class gym; for example; create a story on eating right. Create a micro-site that tracks your customers progress and workout schedule. If you are bicycle shop, offer a free tune up with a purchase. Have a ‘featured ride’ that your customers should try. Maybe create a landing page that highlights sights and a great café on the bike route. Having clear goals like this keep your customer interested in you, they pass on the email to their friends and your business blossoms.

Make sure that the titles and graphics are visible and clear. No matter how great your offerings are, if viewers don’t understand what your titles mean, they may not read the story. If they can’t find the button they are supposed to click on they just won’t. So, make sure everything is simple and crystal clear. Make sure you use ALT tags on images so that if the client browser doesn’t support images, people can still read what you have to offer.

Double Check Your Spelling!

One very common method servers use to filter out spam is by searching for those ‘spam’ key-words like ‘free’ or ‘cheap watches,’ etc. Spammers figured out a way around this method though, by misspelling the words. Perhaps you’ve seen a spam message with words like ‘fr33′ or ‘ch3@p wa+che5’? Well, that was easily fixed by not allowing emails through with any misspellings. Avoid using special characters like ‘@,’ ‘&,’ ‘%,’ etc., and never use “smart” quotes. Instead, make sure you use the plain old " inch and ' foot symbols instead.
Email Marketing, Do’s and Do Not’s! by Joseph Steck is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.