8 email marketing checks you MUST make before hitting the send button

1. Are you targeting the right people?

The best data is your own data. These should be your customers or contacts that have previously shown an interest in your products/services and therefore will be interested in your email and what you have to offer. If you are looking to purchase a targeted email list think about your ideal customer. Are they businesses or consumers? Do you want to target contacts within a specific postcode area? Certain interests? A particular Job role? This is one of the most important factors as to whether your email gets read or ignored, so it is vital that you feel the contacts on your list are the most appropriate to receive your email.

---

2. Is the content compelling and error free?

Your email needs to make a good impression. Before writing the email content, you need to decide the primary purpose of the email. This can be to advertise your latest offers, sending a customer survey, a newsletter, service updates.etc. The text of the email should always be concise and incisive – short, sweet and to the point. Bullet points always serve to highlight. Remember that your email is often the first point of contact between you and a potential customer and errors do not impress! Always check grammar and spelling.

 

---

3. Have you got an eye-catching design and will it deliver?

Two columns are easier to read than one continuous scroll. Keep your layouts simple and clear, with imagery that is interesting and relevant. You must keep images to a minimum with at least a 70:30 text to image ratio and slice up any large images to ensure a better delivery. Always include plenty of calls to action and remember that they are most effective above-the-fold as some readers do not always get to the bottom of the email. Ensure your html is well coded, preferably not using a WYSIWYG editor (these tend to create ‘chunky’ code not best suited to email delivery platforms).

 

---

4. Will your design avoid spam filters?

Be aware of Spam trigger words. Spam filters look at a long list of criteria to judge whether or not your email is junk. They will assign points each time they see a spam phrase or word and certain criteria get more points than others. Avoid using phrases like “Click here!”, “Free”, USING CAPS, exclamation points!!!! and others.

 

 

---

5. Do you have the ‘perfect’ subject line?

The subject line is one of the most important factors contributing towards campaign success. This is what triggers your audience to open the email. It needs to be compelling and interesting to your target audience. Avoid the use of obvious spam-trigger words and phrases, do not use capitals letters as this can be considered rude and do not user lots of hyphenation (such as exclamation marks) these are considered pushy and arrogant. The key to a successful subject line is to make it fall in line with what you are offering but leave as much as possible to the imagination.

 

---

6. Have you calculated the best time for broadcast?

Choosing the right time to send a campaign is important to ensure your email is not put to the bottom of the pile, quickly glanced at or even worse, deleted! Broadcasting over lunchtime or on a Monday morning could be a risk, as is sending during busy times. Think about how your audience might spend their typical day and when they might have time to read their emails.

 

 

---

7. Have you tested and tested and tested the email?

Testing is extremely important to ensure your message will be sent and seen exactly as intended. This involves testing the delivery in different email clients and checking images and links are displaying as intended and going to the right places. The golden rule is to check your work, re-check it, find someone else to check it, check it again and then click SEND.

 

 

---

8. Will the campaign performance be measured?

The performance of every campaign should be measured by open, click-through, bounce, delivery, referral and unsubscribe rates. Past results can be used as a reference for future campaigns, showing exactly which parts of a campaign were successful and where improvements could be made. You should always consider following up your email with another campaign, a telephone call if you have telephone numbers or a personal email, for consistency with the potential customer and to keep them interested.

---

 

If you would like any help or guidance on your email marketing or if you are looking for a company to take the hard work out of your email marketing contact our email marketing consultants.