If you are getting into, or have on going Email Marketing Campaigns or Newsletters, here are just a few things that you might want to keep in mind.

Do’s

1. Set expectations for when people join your list.

The worst thing you could do is set the expectation you will only be sending out a monthly newsletter, and then start sending out emails on different topics on a weekly basis. This is a quick way to deter people from remaining on your list. Focus on letting them know how often you will be sending emails, the types of emails to expect (monthly newsletters, weekly offers), and what the topic will be focusing on.

2. List Management.

Setting up separate lists and groups allows you to effectively get information into the right mailboxes for the best return on investment. By setting up two different lists, one for a Monthly newsletter and one for weekly offers, you are putting the choice back into your customer’s hands and those who want the offers are going to be more engaged.

Another part of List Management is to track your engagement results. Someone who is not opening your emails is eventually going to unsubscribe, or worse, report your email as spam, which can have a lasting impact. By monitoring and disabling users who aren’t opening your emails say after 90 days, you reduce the risk of them flagging you as spam, and have more valuable data on who is actually interested in your newsletters.

3. Make sure your emails have calls to action.

You are sending out these newsletters so make sure you are getting your message in there, and that you know what you want your users to do so you can track the performance. Sometimes you just need to get important information out there, but having a dull email that doesn’t engage your users into action will quickly lag behind your competitors.

Don’ts

1. Don’t use purchased, rented or scraped lists.

This might seem like a good idea to get started, but the reality is that this can be a detrimental choice. These users did NOT actually sign up to hear from you, and for many email campaign systems, it’s against the terms of use. Lastly, in the world of ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) you’ve effectively set yourself up to be seen as a spammer. Focus on growing your list organically, offer a discount/promotion for signing up, or show people the value of what your email will bring to them. With the right message and plan, your truly list will grow and your campaign will succeed.

2. Don’t just toss your emails together.

Poor planning or creation of your email campaign and assets will quickly find your emails in the junk box or spam filter of many email clients.

• Sloppy code (extra tags or broken tags)
• Poorly written email subject lines
• Be careful with your content, copying and pasting something from the web could embed a script which may look like phishing to the SPAM filters. Likewise, if your copy looks like you trying to collect someone’s information the results will be the same.
• We’ve all seen those spam emails, make sure yours isn’t one of them. Email providers such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Outlook etc. are constantly updating their algorithms to intuitively protect their user’s inboxes from being innedated with spam. The last thing you want is to have your emails bulked to the junk folder.

3. Remove from list.

If someone asks to be removed from your email list, don’t send them more email, and make sure you aren’t putting their email back into your subscribe list from an external source such as a spreadsheet. Similar to the ‘Do Not Call’ lists used by call centers, if a subscriber says stop make sure you don’t send them another email. Having a list management system will definitely help you avoid that type of mistake.