Email Marketing and Text SMS Marketing-The Do's and Don'ts of Email Marketing

The do's and don'ts of email marketing stem from a mix of direct marketing principles, technical issues related to email, and email etiquette.

The Do's

~Do ALWAYS use confirmed opt-in and provide easy opt-out and try to get the reason they are leaving you. Yes, we're saying it again and again because it's so important. And don't forget to use the confirmation email for an offer (preferably a free offer).

~Do use a service to check the layout in the email reader that your participants use. That probably means testing in Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Lotus Notes, Mac Mail, Entourage, and Eudora. There are services to do this for you. You'll want to periodically update your list of email readers as new readers come on the market.

~Do make call-to-actions (CtAs) prominent and locate them within the upper half of the layout. In a larger email, you may have multiple CtAs scattered through the email. Folds tend to be about 300 to 400 pixels south of your top border. But check into an email service.

~Do use the subject line to get attention and show you aren't spam. Email recipients tend to look closely at the initial, or top, content and then skip through the remaining layout; keep this in mind.

~Do use a consistent send-from address so you don't have to fight through spam filters again and again.

~Do make sure that content can be seen easily; many readers will scroll through the email in a small preview window. Make sure that a two-inch window holds brand and main CtA.

~Do design a text-only version that is easily read with HTML turned off, or on a mobile.

~Do add a hosted version of the email, so that is the images are stripped the subscriber can click through and see the entire email as an image.

~Do mix 'n' match. Keep the look and feel of all your emails consistent, but fit the email to it's purpose. Postcard emails for simple brief announcements; email newsletters of summaries that intrigued recipients can click on for more-in-depth, website information; catalog emails for product descriptions; E-press releases to the media.

~Do test on a small list first. Stuff-ups on a small scale are always preferable to their large-scale versions!

The Don'ts

~Don't forget to get consumers to opt-in at the stage when you are doing initial customer acquisition. Many companies, even today, capture email addresses but fail to get permission at the same time.

~Don't be petrified of using images, but have a healthy respect for the challenges of rendering and file sizes.

~Don't have CtAs only in an image format: Some recipients will have images turned off, or will not use HTML, or will make their read decision based on what they see in the preview pane. If your CtA is in image only, part of your audience won't know what they're missing!

~Don't use large copy blocks. Break up paragraphs with bullet points, highlight key information; remember you're writing copy, not corporate memos (and hey-corporate memos don't have to be boring either!).

~Don't forget data collection: Every time you provide something to a customer, try to obtain a little information about them. Data collection can be disguised as a quiz, or as something needed to provide the customer with a benefit (for example, a horoscope, or personality test).

~Don't be long-winded; get the best in first. The strongest message and links should lead at the top.

~Don't hound consumers; if they don't reply, especially after a few attempts, it's clear they don't want to do so. NEVER hound them! This is a critical element of good email conduct.

For more Tips and/or Information on a Marketing Solution for all your businesses needs, please check out this website: Pure Internet Marketing