Strategies for Email Marketing

Any marketing to be successful requires a particular strategy to be followed. Hence, email marketing also involves using some strategies. The biggest advantage of using email as a marketing strategy is personalization and segmentation. These advantages are also the most underutilized feature of email marketing, by most the companies. It is very important to make the company’s emails as clear and relevant as possible for every recipient because that particular email is competing with the rest of the emails in the recipient’s inbox. Email can be made relevant by personalizing subject lines, articles, offers, product showcased, and flowing emails depending upon recipient’s action.

Before carrying out an email marketing strategy it is best to send out pre-campaign test to uncover problems before actually implementing the strategy. The test results can be monitored by checking ISP filtering, blacklisting and filtering. The test messages should be sent to different email clients and platforms. The authenticity can be established by the sender of email by adding SPF code in the DNS record. Every email client and platform has a different preview pane and they have different policies for blocking images. To deal with this, the emails need to be redesigned so as to be read easily and rendered properly. The top portion of the email should deliver the maximum possible information. Also creativity should be increased by playing with HTML colors and fonts. Images should be less relied upon as there is greater chance of them getting blocked the email clients or ISPs.

Everything becomes passé over a period of time. A thing which worked few months ago might not work today. Variables such as design, format, copy style, subject line, offers, content types, personalization, product categories, etc., need to be tested constantly.

Email relationship should be paid special attention from the start, because majority of the decline requests comes in the first two months after subscriber’s opt-in. A well organized program must be designed which should engage the subscriber immediately. A welcome message should be sent out instantaneously, followed by current email including the latest offers and promotions. An email can also be sent which offers the best of the past newsletters along with exclusive offers for newcomers. The trust can be build by making things clear such as frequency, proposition, content type, and privacy policies, from the start. Apart from concentrating on new comers it is also important to take care of the long term subscribers. Over a period of time nearly fifty percent of the email list becomes inactive. This happens when the subscribers do not open the company’s emails from a long time. Such subscribers need to be awaken by trying new subject lines, new email formats, and by sending best of newsletters or spicy deals.

Short surveys can be carried out to know about the customer’s requirements and to uncover potential trends.

Instead of focusing on metrics such as click through and open rates, marketers need to focus on end goals such as revenue per mail, conversion rates, whether desired action was taken on time or not, etc. Format style and the type of articles liked by the subscribers must be concentrated upon. Searching option also helps in acquiring customers to a great extent.

The biggest job is to make a working email marketing plan which actually has specific goals, action steps and success metric. The plan should include enough resources and budget. The program needs to be improved often by continuous testing and analysis, by increasing segmentation and personalization, and by including the latest technology. Read more...

Future of Email Deliverability

The biggest boost to email deliverability is the growth of transparency since the internet bubble burst in the millennium. It took away much uncertainity associated with email marketing. Address spoofing was absent then and spam undermined the recipient’s confidence in email marketing. In transparency means the person at the other side goes according to the claims he make. Now the identity has to be proved through out the delivery chain. Authentication systems used by ISPs have been developed to check the validity of the authorized sender and then either pass along the email or block it.

Few authorization systems work invisibly while others display a visible notice in a message form. Authentication, though, hasn’t solved the phishing and spam problem, but transparency fostered by it makes the legitimate senders more vivid. Previously there were closed systems which have become open now to email senders because of introduction of transparency by reputed vendors. The IP address of the sender can be known instantly and there are websites which can show how the email pattern of a particular sender is reflected to the world.

Things are easier for the email sender too, as they can check whether their email has been delivered or not with the help of email broadcasting solutions which have incorporated delivery monitors in their systems. Emailers who follow the best practices policies being offered by vendors, ISPs, and email industry trade groups have greatest rate of email message delivery. These policies include delivery volume, email bounces, opt-in practices, address management, IP address integrity and content trigger. According to these policies, transparency is also meant for the emailer’s personal program. The subscription process of the sender explains why the sender is is signing up, type of emails he will receive and how the unsubscription process is carried out. Depending upon the trustworthy atmosphere created by these policies, the ISP separates emails which have to be delivered, blocked and filtered.

If messages are being send to major ISPs, the sender must watch and study spam complaints, reply to emails, and bounced emails more carefully. Permission emailers who are willing to work within the requirements of the ISP, showed how content filters which were simple and server settings which were restrictive blocked requested emails which were both transactional messages and commercial messages.

In 2003, email receiver and senders gathered to share their concerns and air their grievances. From there aroused industry working groups who tackle fraud issues and email spam. Now ISPs are also identifying and trusting emails which are sent by clients of systems of third party authentication, email certification agencies and reputed vendors which take the guarantee of the email sender’s legitimacy. The regular server lever filters now let’s go the guaranteed email which is being delivered to the desired inbox, as requested. In both email delivery and sending, transparency has helped in dealing with the uncertainty and mysteries which prevented the marketers from effectively utilizing the email and the marketing associated with it.

Now it is very easy to come out the darkness and know whether your email has been delivered or not, with the help of transparency. If it is not delivered, the notification message can be checked for details and the mistake can be taken care of so that the message gets delivered in the future. Read more...