E-mail marketing can be a powerful and effective tool to help your business…if executed properly. The success of an e-mail campaign isn’t just based on the design or even the message. Rather, it’s a combination of several critical E-mail Marketing Rules and background components that help you improve deliverability and avoid being flagged as spam.
So, here are some e-mail marketing rules to follow before you hit send:
1. Avoid spam words:
Mail servers and e-mail clients scan the subject lines and content of your e-mail messages. To ensure deliverability, avoid using spam words in your content, especially in the subject line.
2. Use the right techniques for sending to multiple recipients within the same organization:
Sending legitimate messages to multiple recipients within the same organization can be tricky. When these messages arrive in short bursts over a few seconds or minutes, they get tagged as spam. If you find yourself in this situation, try the following:
- If possible, contact the company and inform them of the messages so they may make an exception.
- Throttle your e-mails by sending them over a period of time in multiple bursts.
3. Take a litmus test:
E-mail clients are quirky and content can appear different, depending on which client is displaying it. Before you send your e-mail out to the universe, take some time to run it through Litmus, an awesome e-mail compatibility checker. It lets you preview your e-mails as they’ll appear in different e-mail clients.
4. Don’t forget text e-mails:
Text-only emails are often overlooked when creating and deploying email campaigns. Although you’ll get a better ROI sending HTML emails, it’s important that you create a text version and send it in tandem. Depending on the recipient’s ability to receive such e-mails, the correct format is automatically delivered. Just remember the following for text-only e-mails:
- Hyperlinks and special HTML characters (copyright, trademark) are not supported.
- The default line-break appears 76 characters, so restrict your line-width to conform.
- Include a physical address and an unsubscribe link.
5. Understand bounces:
A bounce actually means that your message was received by a mail server for further handling. This is generally a good thing since it’s the last step before delivery. A bounce indicates that the mail server that received the message has sent it back for one or more reasons.
