Email Marketing FAQ
How do I build a list of contacts?
You should never send out bulk emails without permission from the recipients as this will be classed as spam, so it is important to build your own list of ‘opt in’ contacts by asking people to sign up for newsletters and further mailings from you when they visit your website, complete orders with you or contact you with further questions. A successful email marketing campaign relies on the quality of your contact list, so it is far better to have 500 addresses of people who have shown an interest in your website and online business, rather than 5,000 random addresses where you cannot guarantee the recipients will be interested in your products or services and even open your email.
How many subscribers can I have to my email marketing campaigns?
This will depend on your individual email marketing service, but most providers allow you an unlimited number of subscribers, and then suggest you sub-divide this list into different groups so that you can carry out targeted campaigns, which are statically more successful then just emailing everyone on your list with the same generic email.
Is spam illegal?
Unsolicited email marketing does come under the banner of spam mail, and this is a nuisance form of online communication that can account for as much as 60% of all email traffic. Governments have become concerned about the volume of spam mail in recent years, and the fact it often contains viruses, malware and fraudulent scams, and so many counties such as the US and EU have introduced legislation against spam. For example in the EU the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 states that it is illegal to send out unsolicited emails, and there have been a number of high profile cases in both Europe and the US where heavy spammers have been prosecuted with both prison sentences and fines. Therefore it is important that you build your email contacts list responsibly and only send out bulk mailings to those recipients who have ‘opted in’ and also include a section in your email which gives your contacts the option to ‘opt out’ again if they decide they do not wish to receive mailings from you in the future.
Do I need to know HTML to set up email marketing campaigns?
Most email marketing services provide you with a number of choices when it comes to creating your email marketing campaigns, and provide pre-built HTML templates which provide easy ‘drag and drop’ builders so even those with little experience in HTML can set up professional looking email campaigns with interactive media such as audio and video clips and hyperlinks. You should be prepared to send out both text only and HTML format emails, as some recipients may only be willing to accept emails from you in plain text, or their ISP’s and email clients may block certain images as part of security procedures.
What results can I expect from my email marketing campaign?
The success of your email marketing campaign will depend on the quality of your list and marketing strategies, but you can expect on average for around 27.5% of your emails to be opened and read by the recipients, and if you offer ‘click through’ hyperlinks you can expect from the average campaign to achieve a click through rate of around 7.2%. Don’t forget that one of the main benefits of email marketing is that it is much cheaper and faster than paper based direct mail and print campaigns, and also provides you with the ability to easily target specific demographic groups, and you can generate immediate results if your recipients are already online.
How can I create messages that can be read by PDA users?
Most mobile devices with web access such as smart phones and PDAs are unable to read HTML format properly, so you should target these recipients with text-only versions of your newsletters and emails.
What are ALT Tags used for?
ALT tags are an essential feature in email marketing campaigns, as if they are set up correctly (maximum of ten short words that describe the image or specifying the action you require) then they can prevent email clients from automatically blocking images imbedded in your email send outs.
When are the best times to send out email campaigns?
You could offer your subscribers a way to specify which time of day they would most like to receive communications from you via email when they first subscribe to your contacts list, or you could conduct a mini focus group survey by just contacting a small number of your existing subscribers and find out when they would prefer to receive emails, then apply this to the rest of the group list. One other way is to segment your list into time zones, and schedule email campaigns to be sent out early evening or times when you think it is most likely your recipients will be online.
What are whitelists?
Whitelists are set up to allow email communications from specific senders to pass through the spam filters without any problems, and many ISPs have their own internal whitelists, and you can apply to companies like BondedSender (www.bondedsender.com) which provide outsourced whitelists for many leading ISPs. Once you have been certified by BondedSender or a similar organization you will automatically be added to all of the ISP whitelists related to their services. Personal inboxes can also be set up with whitelists, so you should remind your subscribers to add you to their whitelists for all future communications.
What should I put in the subject line?
It is important to get the subject line right as this is one of the key triggers for spam filters on inboxes and will also be the first part of the message that the recipient will read, so it needs a good ‘hook’. Make sure you personalize the message as much as possible, so if you are sending details about an offer be specific about what it is such as ‘Great Savings on all Women’s Clothing this Week’ or ‘Save up to 70% in the Online Winter Sale’ and also make sure the ‘from’ line lists your company or brand name, as this will tell your subscribers who the email is from so that they don’t just automatically deleted it.