Almost 80 percent of consumers receive messages from companies (according to a 2008 L-soft whitepaper). Is your company newsletter following email marketing best practices? If not, you risk the chance of having your email deleted from a potential customer’s inbox before they even open the message.

If you’re thinking about implementing email into your marketing plan, or if you’re simply looking for ways to improve upon your current newsletters, I’ve compiled the key factors of email marketing best practices for quick reference.

The Basics:

• Build a permission based list of recipients.
• Manage the list.
• Define relevant content in the proper format.
• Deliver the message.
• Evaluate the results.

The Specifics:

• The message content should be created according to the results you wish to achieve. What is your ultimate goal? Is it to gain sales? Branding? To increase web site traffic?

• Once you’ve determined what your goals are, consider what format your message will be sent in. Do you plan to build it in html or MIME/Multipart? If you decide to build an html newsletter, format the code so that it’s clean and easy to navigate. This will save you a lot of time in the long run because it will help to prevent formatting errors.

• Avoid spam filters by checking your newsletter for content that could be seen as spam. Most email service providers can automatically check your newsletter for any content that could cause it to be placed in the recipients spam folder.

• Having an intriguing subject line is one of the most important elements of email marketing. Lack of an interesting subject line can cause your message to be left unopened completely and most likely deleted. Successful subject lines include an action phrase plus an incentive for the recipient. An example of a weaker subject line is – SFGate Newsletters: Great news and information. This offers no action phrase or incentive for the recipient. An example of a better-crafted subject line is – Save Big on New Arrivals at The Nest Baby Shop. It entices the recipient to open the message in order to discover what the new arrivals are and how much exactly they can expect to save on these products.

• Include relevant links within your email to accomplish your goal. If you want to drive more site traffic, include links to your web site in the copy of the newsletter. Promoting a sale? Give recipients a link to the special offers and sales page of your company web site. Keeping links relevant helps ensure people take action when they click on it.

• Always implement opt-in and opt-out. This means offering an unsubscribe button within your email so that people can decide to stop receiving messages from your company at any time. It also means offering a newsletter sign-up option on your site. To encourage web site visitors to sign up for your newsletter, offer them something they would not otherwise receive without being a subscriber such as discounts and coupons.

• Spell Check! And that doesn’t just mean running spell check on a computer. Actually take the time to sit down and read the copy slowly to yourself. Then have a colleague do the same to double check. Having a misspelled word in your company newsletter comes off as extremely unprofessional.

• Mind the length of your email. Most people don’t have the time to read a long newsletter, so be cautious of how much content you are including. Having a balance of images and copy makes your message more appealing to the eye and easier to read.

• Be aware of the frequency of your emails. Depending on the industry you’re in, set up a schedule that won’t irritate your recipients but will still keep your company in top-of-mind. For example, don’t send 3 emails a week about real estate market updates when once a month will suffice. This is a quick way to lose a lot of subscribers.

• Make sure your company name is clearly identified in the domain name that appears in the sender line.

• Clearly display your contact info in your newsletter.

photo credit: tamaleaver

Email is even more prevalent today than it was 4 years ago when folks were using their email clients as filing systems. The face and the functionality of email has changed tremendously over the last four years.

While commonplace, the “monthly newsletter” still remains highly popular and organizations are still continuing to move onto a more sophisticated email platform (e.g. they are stopping sending bulk email through Outlook) and looking to understanding how to manage their “lists.” If you are still struggling with making that first step of signing up with a professional email service provider I suggest making the decision quickly and moving quickly.

Your competition most likely has already taken this step and is looking now towards changing up their program and staying current with trends, best practices, and coming up with innovative ways to stay current, relevant and valuable.

If your budget doesn’t afford you with the luxury of hiring a Internet Marketing firm to manage your email:

• Hire an Internet Marketing consultant to help you with your email marketing strategy and get your email marketing program set up so that you can manage it internally.
• Have your Internet marketing consultant help you put a plan in place for managing your company’s reputation both with email recipients and ISPs to ensure your message is getting delivered.
• Your consultant should ask you what available resources you have in-house and determine the best program and available options to achieve your desired outcome / goals.
• Request a plan for testing and optimizing your email campaigns, from template layout to frequency of send. Understanding your audience and how they react to the content they are receiving, how they are receiving it and when they are receiving it can help you develop a set of best practices for your company’s email marketing program.
• Schedule either monthly or quarterly meeting with your Internet marketing consultant to audit your campaigns and progress. Often times they will be able to help you with new ideas to refresh your campaigns with regard to content, segmentation, and building your list.
• Don’t be afraid to ask your email recipients how they want to receive communication, what type of content they would like and how often. You may find that you have two or more distinct groups within your audience and that different messages will encourage further engagement as well as show your recipients that you respect them by providing them with the information they want to receive.

Feel free to give us a call, we are happy to get you started.

image credit: piccadilly

As we rapidly approach March of 2009, what have you done to stay ahead of the recession? How are you shifting your focus, marketing strategies and messaging to adapt to the new state of mind of your customers?

We’re offering up some basic tips on how to market smarter online and in-house:

• Fix the weaknesses. Invest time internally to understanding your weaknesses. Most of the time, when business is good we are too busy to fix those thorns in our sides that often reduce productivity, efficiency and creativity. A great place to start is your Web site. Review Web site statistics to see how people are getting to your site and review your conversion (sales) process online to see if it can be improved with regard to ease-of-use for the user. Understand your Web site’s visibility online, could you be getting streamlining your online efforts to get more targeted traffic and less riffraff?
• Become great at what you are now good at. Don’t change who you are, don’t try to be everything to everyone but focus on your specialty. We always jump at the chance to work with business that have a niche. Niche businesses thrive online because the Internet is the quickest and best way to find a specialty service or unique product. Folks looking for these niche products or services are more likely to engage with you, thus making it more likely to convert them into a sale or customer. The right mix of online marketing strategies coupled with a good online user experience creates a recipe for success.
• Find a way to change your messaging that still coincides with your brand without jeopardizing what you stand for AND find a way to change your messaging that demonstrates to clients the value of your product or service. A niche client of ours was toiling with the idea of adding a less expensive line to her product offering to accommodate for the down economy. Until now she only focused on offering boutique high-end products. In the end she decided this was not best for her company because this was not representative of her brand. She found a way to reach consumers by changing her messaging and providing reasons for why consumers should purchase this type of quality product in a down economy. Sales have continued to increase since November 2008.
• Work with smaller companies who specialize in specific areas like online marketing, specifically PPC management strategies. You’ll find that often times you will get better service, better results, and overall more value from your investment. Understand, especially with PPC management, that this is a “managed media” and not “placed media.” If you are spending less than $100k/month on PPC and your Internet Marketing agency or current service provider is taking a percentage of ad spend then consider that your first red flag. With smaller specialized Internet marketing companies you have a better chance of stretching your dollar and spending less to get more.
• Focus on relationship marketing. First focus on how much you know about your current and past customers. What are their needs and preferences? How can you adjust your product or service to meet their needs now? If you are suffering from a loss of staff, look to initiatives like email marketing, trigger emails and personalized (yet automated) customer service strategies to make a one-to-one connection with your customers. Invest in reviewing your site statistics to gain a basic understanding of what is and isn’t working so that you can make adjustments that will capture the right customer.
• Be innovative. “Why did so many great companies and products come from the Great Depression? While there’s no question that a bad economy makes it tougher to raise capital and launch new products, the reality is that good ideas executed well always have room to succeed. A different way to look at it, a shrinking wallet means that more attention is given to every purchase, and therefore the best customer value equation have a better chance of success during a downturn.” – Idris Mootee, FutureLab Read the post by FutureLab here.