Despite following email best practices, there is still a huge gap when it comes to email deliverability and clicked open rates.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to test these strategies with one of my clients in particular who maintains an organic list of just over 8,000 subscribers. Now before I go any further, it’s important to understand the difference between an organic list and a list of people who may have signed up at your event.
Say for example you volunteer for a non-profit organization that holds a 5k race once a year to raise money for your community or your cause. If you have an online registration, most likely people have to enter their email address so that they can get a receipt after paying a fee to enter the race. I’m using this example because this happened to me and it really annoyed me, so I am going under the assumption that it would annoy you too, about as much as a politically charged, recorded telephone call around election time.
I didn’t look carefully at the privacy policy when I signed up for the 5k race, so they either gave or sold my email address to a third party. (I’ll talk more about privacy polices in a different article) but for now, the important takeaway is that the third party who is now sending me email is not using an organic list. Organic means that people actually opt-in out of their own free will. That means, they sign up themselves, on your website; this actually indicates that they want to receive email about your topic. In short, If I didn’t ask for it, I don’t want to see it in my inbox. If you send me email that I didn’t ask for, it will most likely get deleted. The best way to ensure that your email gets read, is to only send email to people who ask to receive it. Here is my list of email best practices:
Update your list regularly
Your email list should be reviewed at least every 6 months. So many businesses have lists that number in the thousands, and they contain people who the business just doesn’t interact with any longer. It’s important to get a funnel strategy in place to segment and either move these folks to a list of something that they do find interesting, or remove them all together.
Remove the people who choose not to engage
If they are not taking any action (meaning if they have not clicked any links after 6-12 months, remove them. Period.
Remove all the invalid or bad addresses
Most email systems such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or iContact will handle the whitelist for you.
NEVER buy or rent an email list from anyone else
This really doesn’t need any additional explanation.
Limit the frequency of emails that you send
If you send something every other day, that is way too much. In fact, even once a week is too much. It’s important to get granular and really determine what your audience wants.
Pay attention to when you send your email based on your topic
Carefully consider your industry and when people are most likely to be looking for the information that you’re about to provide them with. You can schedule the day and time of day that the email gets sent, and with new, automated intelligence (AI) you can even send it based on when a particular recipient is likely to open it. Plan accordingly.
Don’t get caught up in myths about email content
If your list is organic, then your email clients are truly interested in what you have to offer. If they’re not, they will simply unsubscribe! When in doubt, ask them! Use google to create a quick survey that will help you understand what your email recipients really want to see in their inbox. In the next segment, I’ll show you just how to do that.
The absolute cornerstone to the success of your email campaigns is Sender Reputation, in other words, do people know you and trust you?
People need to know you before you email them, if they didn’t ask to get email from you, then I guarantee it’s going to get deleted. So never break the fundamental rule of email marketing, do not send email to anyone who didn’t explicitly ask for it.
Explicit permission
When people share their information with you, make sure they know what they are going to get. permission is only explicit when it is voluntary.
Double opt in
In the United States, internet marketing laws do not require a double opt in like they do in other countries, say, Canada for example. But, it’s always a good idea to send a double opt in link to confirm that people do in fact want to receive information from you. It’s also the surest way to firm up the relationship.
Email subject lines
If you thought that this was the most important thing that gets people to read an email, think again. it’s actually the second most important, the first is Do they KNOW and trust you (i.e.: Your reputation).
Best subject lines
1. How To [enter your topic] or 5 Steps to [enter your topic]
2. How to [enter your topic]
3. You are not alone (high open rates) relates to people who want to belong (make sure it’s related to the rest of your email – i.e.: belong to a whole community)
4. Watch this video
5. Have you seen this?
The psychology of human behavior has always been an ever-present factor for marketers, although it’s just now gaining momentum as one of the important functions of successful digital marketing. What state of digital marketing is your company in? Check out our FREE Download to find out!
