We're All Capable of Email Greatness....

But like this young man you need to put in some time and effort, often without the acclaim you deserve

And that time and effort means making sure that you dot the i's and cross the t's.

I came across a useful checklist from Jordie van Rijn, a specialist email marketing consultant, that should help you get your email send in order before hitting the send button and ultimately finding your greatness

Here are some of the checks...

Text and Content

All default template content is replaced, like old pre-headers and alt-tags 

The text is re-read, not scanned, to correct grammar and style mistakes 

Short sentences and clear, jargon free text is used to make it easy digestible  

Focus 

All links are clearly identifiable as links 

Your brand is easily recognisable by the from name and email address 

Analytics and Reporting 

All subscribers’ behaviour is measured, both in the email as beyond the click through 

Write down your expectations about the results of your email 

Your subscribers list 

The campaign is sent to the recipients who are interested in your messages 

The list is up-to-date. New opt-ins are added, unsubscribes and inactives removed 

All fields used for dynamic content and personalisation are filled or alternatives presented 

Action oriented 

It’s clear what the readers are supposed to do 

The landing page is even more actionable than the email 

Functional Testing 

All links in the email are clicked, including linked images. They lead to the right pages 

All personalisation and dynamic content works as expected 

The email is optimised for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets 

Strong subject lines 

Your email has a magnetic “I want to open this now” type subject line 

You re-wrote the subject line in at least 15 ways to come up with the best one 

All subject lines will be tested 

The first 45 / 50 characters of the subject line are made to count 

The offer and content match the subject line 

Necessary Elements 

The email has a clear and functional Unsubscribe or preference centre link 

A plain-text version of the email is made, checked and optimised 

A link to view the email online is included 

Social sharing and connecting is promoted if applicable 

Value added email

The email has a great offer and / or killer content 

Insights from earlier campaigns have been used to improve the email 

The offer explains what’s in it for them  

You have provided a way for subscribers to contact you 

Images and Design 

Subscribers with images turned off can make sense of the email and act on it 

Alt-text is used for important images 

The images support the text and main message of the email 

Scheduling 

The email is sent at the time the email it is most likely to be read 


Perhaps not everything is there for everyone but it's a great start.

The complete checklist can be downloaded here on Jordie's website

Keeping the Flame Alive

So how do we keep email subscribers engaged?

My view is that we can't really focus on the business as usual aspects of our email programmes, but look at the whole subscriber experience.

So we are talking about

Lighting that Flame
Keeping the Flame Alive
Last Minute Relighting

Lighting the Flame - The Sign Up

It always pays to start as you mean to go on. The sign up provides the launch pad for the rest of the programmes. It's important to manage customers expectations from here on on.

Key tips include
 1.Make It Easy to find and do 

2.Provide one newsletter subscription page including information about all  newsletters

3.Clearly state when users have navigated to the newsletter sign-up process

4.Don’t pre-select any newsletters for users

5.In multi-step processes, let users know how many steps remain

6.Explain the ‘value proposition’ – what’s in it for me?

7.Manage expectations – what will I get when and how often?

8.Have a clear privacy policy

9.Use incentives - but  be transparent

10.Send a confirmation email, or maybe even the last newsletter

I think this is also a real opportunity to get some information from subscribers as to what other channels they might like to receive information through. And don't just stop at Social channels. I've been working recently with clients where mobile and direct mail are still playing a strong part in the mix for certain segments


Keeping the Flame Alive - Relevance

When we talk about 'inactives'. We need to be careful as to what the definition is we are using. This definition will vary from Client to ESP to ISP. Reminding me of the old adage

''there are lies, damned lies , and email metrics''

Some of the key take outs included

 - They were never ever going to be active. Beware email addresses that were acquired as a result of a competition or a prize draw.

 -  They never got your emails in the first place. Data hygiene is an issue. Use of double entry of email addresses and some data tidying behind the scenes can pay high dividends. As can looking at Inbox Delivery. Return Path believe that only 81% of permissionable actually hit the inbox.

- Nothing lasts forever. There will always be subscribers who out grow what you have to offer. People move on and in true old school marketing speak you will need to pour more subscribers in the top end to cope with the leaky bucket. Of course you can minimize those losses by keeping relevance up by understanding the value of delivering

a - the right content
b - at the right time
c - optimised messages for the relevant device
d - context specific messages


 Last Minute Re-lighting - The Unsubscribe

The time to say goodbye will come - but that doesn't mean giving up without something up your sleeve

Some tips include

1.Provide a way to unsubscribe directly via the website

2.On the un-subscribe page, list the user’s email address and current newsletters, 

3.And a simple way to unsubscribe from any or all newsletters.

4.Provide a separate process for unsubscribing.

5.Offer users an option to change frequency as an alternative to unsubscribing

6.Provide a confirmation screen verifying unsubscription

7.On the confirmation page, list other ways to receive updates eg: through social or a blog

8.Ask for feedback about why they are unsubscribing

9.Send only one email confirmation to users after they unsubscribe

10.Unsubscribe users immediately.

But a good point to bear in mind is that if deliverability isn't an issue with you and neither is CPM - do you really need to take these subscribers off the list?

-----

In the words of someone famous

“  we didn’t improve one thing by one hundred percent 

we improved one hundred things by one per cent.”

There is no magic bullet. As with most eCRM, it's all about improving step by step.

Content is a summary of my presentation at the DMA Email Event on Winback in November 2011

Where do I sign up?

I was reading with interest a blog exchange on emailcritic.com between Marco Marini, the CEO of ClickMail Marketing and Jordie van Rijn, an independent email marketing consultant at EmailMonday and editor of Emailvendorselection.com.


They were essentially discussing the value of the sign up box to grow your lists organically using your website. As it picked up on some themes I talked about in ‘Why should I sign up to your newsletter’ on my blog, I thought I would share my Top 10 for the sign up process.


1. Make It Easy to find and do – ideally above the fold Top Right, but it’s worth testing this.
2. Provide only one newsletter subscription page that includes information about all available email newsletters
3. Clearly state when users have navigated to the newsletter sign-up process
4. Don’t pre-select any newsletters for users unless they have clicked on a link that named a specific newsletter
5. In multi-step processes, let users know how many steps remain
6. Explain the ‘value proposition’ – what’s in it for me?
7. Manage expectations – what will I get when and how often?
8. Have a clear Privacy Policy and if you use incentives - be transparent
9. Send a confirmation email, or maybe even the last newsletter – but tell the subscriber to look out for it
10. On the confirmation page / email get subscribers to add you to the contacts list!


Any other contenders ?