SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Opt In Email
How To Achieve Success With Your Opt-in Email List
In today’s Internet marketing commerce,
you have to navigate your way through a complicated landscape
of customer expectations, challenging technology, government
regulations, and other issues old-school direct marketers
never had to face. One of the most important ethics
of Internet marketing is to get permission from the recipient
before
you ever begin sending marketing emails. When you send unsolicited
email, you hurt your business, campaign and your reputation.
Do not even consider using stealth methods to collect email
addresses. Use a double opt-in method for processing subscriptions
that requires confirmation before the address goes into your
database.
One way to get on the bad side of and Internet Service Providers
bad side is to send a large amount of emails frequently and
to invalid email addresses. Another way is to generate too
many spam complaints. If you operate in this fashion, the
result will be that your Internet Service Provider will block
your emails, move them to oblivion in the bulk folder and
will not tell you what you did wrong. The best way to avoid
landing on a blacklist is to respect unsubscribe requests
immediately, monitor and resolve spam complaints, and use
a double opt-in process and unique IP address if you do not
already. If you have a list that has addresses that are incorrect
or duplicated, you will be wasting precious time and effort
in your email campaigns. You want to clean your target lists
on a regular basis to keep your reputation in good standing.
Another way to stay on the good side of both the Internet
Service Providers and your recipients is to utilize methods
that allow email from recognized senders but block spammers
and malicious senders. Some of these methods include whitelisting,
SPF Classic, SenderID and DomainKeys. You can contact your
email service provider to find out which methods they support.
When you are developing your list, ask
only for the most essential information at registration. Send only what you
say you will, when and how often you specified at registration.
Without trust, recipients are less likely to open or act
on your emails and more likely to unsubscribe or file spam
charges. It is also important to include a small, straightforward
email privacy statement within your opt-in form and link
it to the full policy statement on your Web site. Your subscribers
expect control. If you do not give them what they want, they
will go somewhere else. Use the information you gather at
sign-up to divide your list into appropriate sections and
deliver targeted messages. Better yet segment based on email
and Web behavior such as which links recipients clicked on
or what actions they have taken on your Web site. That will
increase your performance and make your communications more
important to your recipients. Segmenting also helps you understand
performance and tendencies based on demographics and segments.
Your
email has to stand out in a crowded inbox. Consider placing your company name
in the “from” line for fast detection.
Add a “grabber” subject line. Design the top of your email
to be preview pane and "disabled images" friendly.
Use teaser text and HTML colors and layout instead of an
image so readers can get an instant "preview" of
your email even if images are disabled. As a final point,
put the important content – the offer, the call to action,
newsletter contents – up at the top for immediate viewing.
You have just a few of seconds to make your case so do not
waste them. Feeble designs and improper format frustrates
users. If they cannot navigate your email easily or find
the information they want they will opt out or delete you
every time. Worse, they can hit the “Report Spam” button
and hope that makes you go away. Use the recipients’ own
information to create highly relevant messages. This will
boost your value. Top-quality email service providers allow
you to personalize right to the recipient level, with email
that recognizes each one by name, buying history, content,
format, etc. Recipients’ needs change over time. Your emails
will compete with new and changing sources of content or
offers that will affect your value proposition. Survey your
recipients occasionally on their needs and interests. Make
it easy for them to change their subscription preferences.
Analyze each send for revealing statistics on factors such
as results according to subject line, offer, links clicked,
and even segmenting.
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