Working With Email Service Provider And Important Factors Of A Mail

Working With Email Service Provider And Important Factors Of A Mail:

An email service provider (ESP) is a partner who can help manage your email

design and send. For bigger organisations it often makes sense to either

purchase your own software and server, or partner with one. This is especially

true if you are sending more than 50 emails at a time. Most ESPs are do-ityourself

services that do not manage or strategise your campaign, but will give

you the tools you need to manage it yourself. MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com)

is one example of an email service provider that can manage the email send for

you from start to finish. Founded in 2000, the tool provides tracking, support,

functionality for managing subscriber lists and email templates.

There are some important questions to ask when choosing an email service

provider.

• How easy is it to use? This is important if you are managing the campaigns yourself.

• Can one upload and migrate the contact list? It’s important that you own your lists.

• Is the process self-service or managed?

• How does the reporting work?

• What is their deliverability like?

• Are they endorsed by email and deliverability authorities, like ReturnPath or Trust-e?

• Do they adhere to best practices for direct marketing?

Getting Started

1. Growing a database

Running a successful email campaign requires that a business has a genuine

opt-in database. This database, the list of subscribers who have agreed to

allow a company to send them emails with marketing messages, is the most

valuable asset of an email campaign.

Permission must be explicitly given by all people to whom emails are sent.

Companies that abuse this can put their reputation in jeopardy, and in many

countries, legal action can be taken against companies that send unsolicited

bulk email – also known as spam.

Growing this database, while keeping it targeted, is a key factor in any email

campaign.

The database need only have one entry – the prospect’s email – but the

following should also be considered:

• Name, surname and title

• Date permission granted

• Source of permission

• Gender

• Country

• Telephone number

• Date of birth

• Frequency (how often they’d like to hear from you)

Fields such as name, surname and title should be separated in your database.

You should also gather date of birth as opposed to a prospect’s age – it ensures

your database can stay up to date!

However, don’t be tempted to ask for more information than required. The

more information a marketer can gather, the better she can customise her

marketing messages. However, the more information a prospect is required to

give, the less likely a sign up will occur. Further information can be requested

over a period of time.

There are a myriad of ways to attract prospects to opt-in to a database. An email

sign-up form on a company website is vital. Visitors to a website have already

expressed an interest in a company by clicking through the website – this is an

opportunity to develop that interest further. Following the same principle, any

other properties where newsletter sign up can be promoted should be taken

advantage of. Consider a sign up form on your company blog, email signatures,

Facebook page or perhaps mention it during any presentations your staff may

deliver.

Sign-up forms best practice:

• Put the sign-up form where it can be seen – above the fold and

on every page.

• State your anti-spam stance explicitly, and be clear about how

you value subscribers’ privacy.

• Use a clear Call to Action.

• Tell subscribers what they will get, and how often they will get

it. Include a benefit statement.

• Ensure the email address is correct by checking the syntax.

• Test to see what works best!

Every interaction can be used to ask permission to send emails.

• Offer something valuable for free, and ask if they would sign

up to your newsletter at the same time (e.g. white paper, gift

voucher, music track).

• Add a subscribe box to the checkout process of your retail site.

• Use interactions at trade shows to ask for email addresses.

• Ask for email addresses in-store

• Call out your email campaign on your social media networks, and

link through to your subscription form

2. Creative Execution

Emails can be created and viewed as HTML or as text emails. Sometimes

HTML emails are rendered as text emails.

Text emails are the plain ones – text only, as the name suggests. If you use a

Windows operating system, and you open Notepad and type there, you will be

creating a text file. These emails are smaller, and plainer. As these are text

only, the copy really counts here.

HTML emails are the emails with more complex design. These emails can

contain images, different fonts and hyperlinks. It’s probably what you’ve had in

mind throughout this chapter when we referred to email marketing.

Given that HTML emails are likely to take longer to download and use up more

bandwidth, you should give your subscribers the choice of how they would like

to view your email – in plain text or HTML.

Parts of an email

Preheader

The preheader is a line or two of text displayed above your email header. Most

commonly, it’s the line of text that will redirect you to “View online”. With

more and more people viewing emails on mobile phones, the preheader is

also the ideal space to redirect to the mobile version of your email. If and

where possible, try including your Call to Action in the preheader. This could

be difficult, given the limited space. However it does ensure that every recipient

(even those who don’t necessarily open the email, but only view the preheader

within the preview pane or inbox) will still be exposed to it.

Header

This has the “to”, “from” and “reply to” fields. These are also opportunities to

build a relationship through creating a perception of familiarity. In other words,

the reader needs to perceive that the newsletter is somewhat unique and sent

personally by the publisher. Using a personalised company email address (e.g.

trevor@companyname.com) for the “reply” field creates familiarity and buildstrust with the reader. The “from” address should also include the organisation’sname. A meaningless “from” address which the reader cannot identify onlyserves to confuse the origin of the newsletter.

Subject Line

The subject line could be the most important part of an email! Subject lines

aid the reader in identifying the email, and also entice the reader to open it.

The subject line is also scrutinised by spam filters, and so you should avoid

using characters, i.e. #2$%&^^%### or !!!!!. Consistent subject lines, using

the name of the company and the newsletter edition, can build familiarity and

help readers to sort their inbox. As with everything online, testing different

subject lines will lead marketers to the formula that works for them.

Personalised Greeting

With a database that has the capability to store readers’ names, it is possible

to personalise the greeting of the email. “Hi Kim Morgan” can elicit far better

responses than “Dear Valued Customer”, but it is possible to create a greeting

with personality without personalising it. Occasionally, the subject line can be

personalised as well to boost responses.

Body

This is where the content of the email goes. Don’t be tempted to use too many

images: it can increase the size of the email, and it can obscure text when

images do not load. Be sure that text is not on the image, but rather can be read

without an image being loaded.

Footer

A standard footer for emails helps to build consistency, and is the customary

place to keep the contact details of the company sending the email. At the very

least, this should include the name and contact email of the company. It can

also include the privacy policy of the sender. One way to grow the email list is

add a “forward to a friend” link in the footer. The most important part of the

footer is a clear unsubscribe link. Some ESPs offer you the ability to also place

social media sharing buttons and links in the footer, allowing subscribers to

also share your email on their social media networks.

Unsubscribe Link

It is mandatory to have an unsubscribe link on all commercial emails. Interactive

emails are best constructed with lightweight HTML capability allowing the

email to open quickly. This helps to capture the user’s attention before he/she

moves on. The structure must allow readers to scan and navigate the email

easily. The length of paragraphs, emphasis through bolding and colours as

well as sectioning information with bullets and borders all contribute to a wellstructured

email.