Optimizing Holiday Email Marketing

The holiday email marketing season takes the overdrive with the onset of Halloween. Certainly, this isn’t the time to design the marketing program from the scratch. But a small fixes can do the trick to raise the deliverability by a few percent without the need to shift to another completely new program. These fixes won’t take major investment in money or time.

As they say the first impression is the best impression, a very important aspect is to include the brand or company name as the sender and not individual name or email. The “from” line acts as the basis for the readers based on which they recognize and trust the sender. So it is best to use the brand name which is widely used by the readers for recognition. Following it is the subject line. It also plays a major role in the opening of the email. The subject line should not only be irresistible but trustworthy. Many subject line tools are available on the internet which can be of great use. The trick followed by most is to phrase the first twenty eight characters with the most important information. Usually the first twenty eight characters are of high importance to get the message across to the client. Putting the brand name in the from line helps to free up space for the critical information, which is the heart of the message, in the subject line. If the email is send to a mobile, the brand name should be first thing the reader should see. If there is space, special offers will be worth mentioning.  

The email should have a link to the complete information which is posted on the website. The link should redirect the reader to the complete article just by one click. Subscribe and unsubscribe links should be working always and the directions should be displayed promptly. If this isn’t done, it is going against the US email marketers law. The email should also include information about the company’s name, address and other contact information such as telephone, link to web contact page, and email. It is good to have links to other offers and services provided by the company. Effects of the previous offers and customer testimonials can also be included to draw attention.

The email shouldn’t resemble to a print ad which has bright colors within which the information is contained. Although, most of the HTML designers love to design this type of emails, but another fact is that most of the readers would have their block images option activated which will stop the image from downloading and the recipient will not be able to see any part of the message. The email should be broken down into manageable chunks. One large image should be replaced with many smaller images and important information should be placed in a text boxes which will be displayed in spite of the images being displayed or not. Alt tags can also be used to describe the images or the offers contained within it. This information will be displayed if the images do not show up.

Coding and spelling mistakes are a big no-no. If there is, this is a sure sign of a spammer. Miss spelt brand or company name can never be forgiven. It is a good habit to get the entire email proofread by a professional before sending it to the readers. The links should be check individually to see whether they are working or not. Although it is a tedious task, it will save the readers from getting irritated and from losing sales. Past performances shouldn’t be trusted upon and regular checks must be made constantly.

The most important thing is to keep an eye on the competing company and the offers being offered by them. Try to design a better offer and test it on sample readers before committing to the offer. Like every one will be offering free shipping during the holiday season, so try to think of something which will differentiate you from the rest.

The last point to be considered is that because of the overwhelming flow of emails during the festive season, the subscribers can get irritated and complaints may arise. This can be tackled by throttling the frequency of emails. Delivery logs should be read constantly to handle the problem at the proper time.

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Mistakes Made In Email Opt-In Usability

The reader needs motivation in order to subscribe for emails from a company. This is the very first step towards increasing the email opt-in rate. The website should have display the benefits of subscribing. Simple, nondescript boxes inhabit the homepage which say ‘Subscribe to the company’s newsletter’ and nothing more than that. There is lack of reason why the user should sign up unless they already find the content of the website interesting. It is agreed upon by many that the content should be kept basic. But how basic is the question. Lonely sign up boxes are a big no-no. There should at least be a brief promotional line which gives a specific and concrete benefit that would get the reader motivated to fill the box with his email address and click on the sign up button. The promotional matter should answer questions such as ‘Why should the reader sign up for the newsletter?’, ‘What are the solutions being offered by the newsletter?’, and ‘Is the newsletter focused and specific, concentrating on the needs of the reader?’

The same technique is to be used with the type of words and language being used in the promotional copy or more better, on the complete website. The links should be clear and shouldn’t have any empty, vague or generic matter. The content should be able to solve the problem which the reader is looking forward to be solved. The readers must be offered with back issues and sample to give them a good idea about what they can expect from future newsletters they will be receiving.

After the reader signs up, many of them receive a big nothing. They get big blackness and dead silence. The subscriber wants something to happen in his inbox immediately. Therefore, it is a good idea to send a welcome email right away which can include the latest newsletter or sample of the best newsletters. Try to include some email-special offer. At the end of the message tell them they will be expecting such great offers and newsletter in a short while. The new subscriber should feel that he has joined the club and has already received some benefit. He should feel the signing up process worth the effort. The welcome email also does the job of confirming email, which checks for the validity of the email address.

On one hand there are people who have barely any motivating information on their website and on the other there are people who have too much information on their website. The information is not organized and the users are overwhelmed with innumerable choices. If the company has too many things to offer, it should narrow them down by grouping them into categories. On the basis of these categories, the newsletters too must be sent out. The newsletters should have specific content and any new material posted on the website should be posted in just a link and not more than that.

The last thing which puts off the subscriber is asking too many questions. In the sign-up page they are asked for their email address only. Next they are linked to the preference page, followed by twenty more pages. This is a really blown opportunity. Initially, it is good to keep it sweet and short by asking information like first name, last name, and email address. Then send them a confirmation email where they can click the link for making choices. Marketers should know where to draw the line. A box asking just for the email address is a great way of not getting any subscriptions.

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The Biggest Email Brand Killers

One of the biggest mistakes to do is to use email like the electronic version of direct marketing media such as postal mailers, catalogs, radio, television, newspaper inserts and even brochures. A world class brand builder can become a sure fire brand killer in no time if it is treated with ignorance, carelessness, and laziness. The brand killing capability is very much dependant on the email’s relationship with the recipients.   The relationship is more personal because of the intimate relationship between the people and their computer. And because of this intimacy, positive and negative feelings are encourages by the company’s name. No mail is as irritating as junk mail and the penalties for such emails are getting much stiffer. A flood of spam complaints can affect the email program to the extent of shutting it down.  

The email is becoming a personal medium, slowly. The recipient should be made in charge, he should be able to decide from whom he should receive email from, what kind of email he wants to receive and when he can stop receiving those emails. An email program which dose not includes all these conveniences will do severe damage to the company’s or brand’s name.

The first thing to concentrate upon is to remove poor permission practices. If this thing isn’t taken care of, nothing done after that will make up for the loss. In simple words, it is completely wrong to email a commercial message to anyone who hasn’t given the permission to do so. Sometimes, a person is simply signed up for receiving email while registering on the website because of checking boxes in a hurry. Thus, it is important for the registration page to display the privacy policy which says that the registration also includes agreement for receiving emails. And in spite of this, there is a high chance to get large complaints because of the unclear opt-in process. Some companies send emails to a person who has downloaded whitepaper or brochure form the website. It is better for the check box be not checked before hand. The job of checking the box should be left to the visitor.

In spite of taking these precautions sometimes it happen that the recipient will head straight to the report spam button when they do not want to receive email anymore. This happens when the recipient dose not trust the unsubscribe process. The first reason for the loss of trust is because of not sending the message in the desired format: text or HTML. The readers subscribe intrusting the company and when their email program fails to honor their trust, the company has to pay for this. It is very important to give the reader the option to choose from text or HTML format. Usually technical people prefer only text messages where as the teenagers prefer messages in the HTML format.

The content of the email should exactly meet the requested information. If a subscriber has asked for sales announcements then do not send them company news. Similarly, the frequency of email should also be kept in mind. If request has been made to receive a weekly newsletter, do not send bi-weekly newsletters. An occasional exception such as sales bulletins or news can be used sparingly. Customers complain a lot about the pouring of emails during the holiday season. It is better to focus on the quality rather than quantity.


It is not a compulsion that the content of the email look like spam and considered as a spam. If the recipients able to recognize the sender or dose not consider him to authentic, the mail directly goes to the spam folder. Three things should be considered to keep away from this problem. The sender or the subject shouldn’t appear vague. The content should be relevant to the brand name and its products. The unsubscribe procedure should be checked regularly. Failed unsubscribe and repeated requests for unsubscribing not only blocks the email program but also kills the brand name. Along with checking this link, it is highly recommended to check other links as well. Clicking on the link should take directly to the landing page and not on homepage or a ‘Page Not Found’ page. Also, effort must be made in reducing the number of clicks done to achieve a certain action.
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Testing Emails Effectively

The big picture, which is missed by many marketers, about email is that apart from being cheap and quick, it gives the ability to find what works and what does not. It is inexpensive and offers more information to the subscriber than direct mail and the turnaround time is decreased from weeks to hours. Yet, very few marketers invest time and efforts to test drive their eNewsletters and emails. Many of them will question whether the effort made is really worth it. If the order button is shifted from the bottom of the page to the top of the page, where it is more visible, the click through rate goes up by fifty percent. With such results, the effort is worth it. With hundreds and millions of dollars involved in email marketing, money cannot be thrown away like that.

The only way to know about offers and topics which work for the audience is by testing. Testing can be carried out on preferences, emotional triggers, reaction towards subject lines, do they like short or long formats, or do they like text or HTML format. Valuable information about the audience can be learned by variable testing.

Basics of the emails can be started with like the simplest portions of the emails can be formatted. Most of the emails aren’t read because of faulty HTML code. Emails should be tested in different types of email applications like Yahoo or Outlook. By doing this a drastic change can be observed in the overall response rate. Testing should be kept in control. Sometimes marketers get so overwhelmed that they test the whole email at once. If two completely different versions of the same email are send out to different groups, there will be no clue to what actually worked and what didn’t. Therefore it is necessary to pick a single element to be tested at a time and then observe the response of the audience to that particular variable before testing another variable.

Timing is also important when sending out emails for testing. When sending multiple test emails, the time of sending them out should be considered. It is to be seen whether the emails can be sent at the same time, same season, etc. This also includes the testing on more than one variable at a time. According to researches, Wednesday is the best day for getting responses. Other statistics say that at least thirty to fifty responses are required to make a good decision. Some percent of these responses can be confusing, but nearly ninety percent of them will be accurate. The list of elements can be further divided into smaller list and the individual list can be concentrated upon.

Testing doesn’t mean just taking the grade. It means that we should get the grades or results and learn from it. If something is wrong in the email, the correction should be sought out. When the email marketing efforts are put to test, the goal of this testing procedure is to test one or more elements or variables, the results must be analyzed and the lesson learned should be put to application. Otherwise, it is a waste of time and money to test. And when the results are ready, the marketer should know how to apply the new found knowledge.

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Designing for Different Types of Email Audiences

Marketers usually send only one type of message to a strictly targeted list of recipients. But in reality, the email is seen by ten different types of audiences who read the message in ten different ways. Hence, it is important to create a message design which satisfies the needs of majority type of audience as possible, instead of creating a different message for each type of audience.

Things get even more complicated when audience keep shifting. It can happen that the same recipient reads the message with a different perspective from edition to edition, depending on the time or mood constraints. This problem can be solved by understanding the major email audience. Then the design tactics can be designed and the potential of the email being read by everyone can be maximized. There are eight types of audiences: Identifiers, skimmers, readers, HTML readers, text reader, mobile, desk, and searchers.

Identifiers have only one goal. They check from address and subject line to make decision amongst the other emails which have overcrowded their inboxes. They make recognition and delete the rest of the emails which they do not want to read. For such audience great subject lines and clear branding make the greatest impact. Snippet or the top line of the emails is also displayed in the preview pane, so this text is of all importance as it can help to make the difference between reading and deletion. Usually the business people fall into this category who want to clear the inbox after they arrive to the office before the first meeting or when they are waiting for their flight.

Skimmers go beyond from address and subject line by actually opening the email. But they read the email as fast as possible, noticing only headlines, subheadings and calls to action. Then they make the decision whether to delete the email or read it in detail. When the email is being designed, these copy points should be worked upon in order to deliver the central idea and guide the skimmer towards the click through. Skimmers do not even enable images, if they have been blocked. Thus, strong text content should be designed to deliver the content without much focus on the images.

Readers are a little ahead of skimmers. They read from address, subject line and open the email and read few sentences between the headline and call of action so as to learn more about the email topic. This helps them with the click through hurdle. These audience also turn on the images or click on the web version link.

Every email should have both HTML and text version of the message. Since most of the readers now-a-days are using their portable devises for checking emails, here text version will be of more use than the HTML version with images. HTML design dose takes more time, but few more minutes must be devoted to make the text version attractive. Include URLs with text as short and as clear as possible. Easily readable text messages increases the number of clicks by a great percentage.

Email design is encountering new challenge because of the growth of mobile readers. Some PDAs show HTML version correctly, while the others show lines and lines of irritating HTML code. Again, matching the right format with the right reader is important here, but hundred percent is impractical. If an interesting message isn't being displayed properly, mobile readers will save the message to later read it on their laptop or desktop.

Desk readers are the biggest audience for which majority of marketers design emails. This audience is also the one most likely to act on the email. Design strategy used to optimize emails for other audiences will also prove effective for this particular group too. Desk readers can also be skimmers or readers. Therefore, here too, it is important to concentrate on the top line of the email, apart from the subject line.

Searcher audiences start as members of one of the other type of audience. When they see something which they like but cannot deal with it at that time they save it for later. When they have time they want to find the message in a flash. So if the message does not stand out, it will be forgotten about. Again here it is important to design the subject line, top line of email and sender address properly.    

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Guidelines for Growing the Opt-In List

It requires dreadfully hard work to build a robust, responsive and high-quality mailing list. Just flooding thousands of emails to the list of recipients in the database won't do the trick. The truth is that acquiring email addresses is just a small part of the large process of email marketing. It is very important to realize that the company should build an individual relationship with every person behind the email address. If the starting is wrong, every chance for building a rewarding relationship with the subscribers is instantly killed. And on the other side, if the company proves itself worthy to its list of subscribers, then many happy years lie ahead for both the parties.

For list building some key components need to be kept into account like the method of acquiring the email addresses, how new subscribers should be welcomed, and how the relationship is maintained after the opt-in process. Acquiring the list of addresses is the easiest part of list building. But the basic rule here is to take explicit permission from the owner to send emails. Violation of this rule is going against the U.S. CAN-SPAM law regarding commercial email. This also leads to breaking of the relationship with the customer.

Addresses can be collected by online and offline means. Links for email opt-in should be posted on every page of the website, including the registration page and every transactional page. Paid search can be used to reach elevate the position in search engines results. The land up page should include a vivid link to the sign up page. Alliances can be searched who have a similar or a complementary business so to promote one’s company in return of promoting the other company. Incentives such as email only discount and free shipping can be offered to increase the subscription list. If the list is being rented from another organization make sure the list contains subscribers which have given permission. Offline means include collecting email addresses from visitors to the company, trade show or on-site. Email addresses can be asked for in appropriate situations by the customer support employees and telephone sales workers. Links for subscription can be posted in all printed material such as newspapers, flyers, magazines, bags, store signs, customer survey and feedback forms, catalogs, etc.

The next important step is to welcome the new subscriber. Because of the flood of emails filling one’s inbox, it is a tough to make one read the email and trust in it. A welcome message, with appropriate content, helps in building the relationship of trust with the subscriber. In fact, a complete welcome program must be build for this purpose. Welcoming a subscriber actually starts from the website’s registration page. This page should clearly explain the content, benefits and frequency to the subscribers. The opt-in page should be easy to navigate and should not be bothersome with numerous questions to be answered. For start four fields are sufficient: first name, last name, email address and format preferences. The other information can be collected via optional forms. After sign-up a thank you page must pop up immediately. This doses the confirmation job and leads the subscriber to the optional form. Next, a welcome email should be send to the customer. This email will not only build up the initial trust but will also check the validity of the email address. This email should include links to optional forms and the detailed preference page. It can also contain the subscription benefits and sample of the past best newsletters.

The next step of relationship management is the most important and delicate phase because of the personal relationship with every subscriber. If it is not taken care of properly, all the effort taken to collect email addresses for subscription list will be wasted. The subscriber’s preferences must be honored in order to expand the email program. The trends in bounces, inactivity and unsubscribing can be noted by the list statistics. Occasional special offers and surveys can be created for sustaining the interest of the readers. People who haven’t opened the emails for a long time should be concentrated upon, especially. Send follow-up emails and query messages.

Opt-in list building takes lots of time, energy and dedication. Certainly all the effort is worth it in the end, which can be seen by the healthy growth of the mailing list.

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How to Optimize Email Opt-In Pages

To optimize email opt-in pages is amongst the most important jobs to do and is also amongst the most forgotten job. The way the opt-in forms and pages are presented determines the quality of list, rate of growth, and meets the subscriber’s expectations which in turn help in email performance. The very first step towards optimization is to get the people to fill in the opt-in page. Immediately following it is designing the layout of the opt-in page and form.

Making one come to the website is another issue. But once they get to the website, they should be allured into signing-up by making them go to the opt-in page. Firstly, the path to the sign up page must be made easier and clear. Links to sign up page or form must be included on the home page and even on other pages too. Promotional boxes should appear in the areas of side bars. The visitor should not search whether the website offers email newsletters or not. The links to the navigation area should send out clear message. Terms and names which aren't obvious shouldn't be used. Words such as Email Newsletter, Newsletter or e Newsletter are very appropriate.

If there is sufficient space, promote the latest newsletter on your home page by pasting its link. The website should have a ‘Knowledge and Resource Center’ area where extract of articles and archived issues can be placed. This area can then be used to promote sign-ups to the company’s newsletter. It is good to include the subscribe link in the back issues.

Since the purpose of the opt-in page is to make as many readers into subscribers, the design, copy and layout of the opt-in page should be similar to the landing page. The page should be designed with form, copy and images which should reflect confidence, value and trust. Links to samples must be included which can give an idea about the quality of the email to be received upon sign-up. Email’s small screenshot display is optional, but beneficial too. Testimonials from readers to the email publications can be included in pull quote format. The content of the testimonials can be either text or images.  

In today’s world, everything comes for a price. So when a subscriber is giving his valuable email address, he is certainly looking for something in exchange. This is why images and copy should be included on the opt-in page which conveys the basic value of emails to be sent. Subscribers can be given ‘email only special deals’. Any kind of regular incentive goes a long way. Whether it is ‘$2 off the next purchase’ or ‘free white paper’, even discounts can increase conversion.

Extra precaution must be taken by writing short email policy near the submit button. A link to the company’s detailed privacy policy must be included at the end. The frequency, format and content of emails should be clarified and the sign-up process must be confirmed via a welcome email.

Certain details about the opt-in page should also be considered. A right balance needs to be maintained of the information that is collected through the opt-in form or page. Neither too much information must be asked; nor must too little information be asked. The future must be planned from the start. Obviously asking only the email address is very quick; information required for email delivery will be missed. Information which is not required for email delivery and segmentation or personalization should be avoided. If there are too many fields, the not so important ones must be marked as optional. To check syntax errors, a script should be included for that purpose. Two boxes should be present for entering email address twice. This reduces the risk of typing invalid email address. The minimum form fields to be included in the form are first name, last name, email address, and format preference. Optional form field can be based on secondary email address, frequency, preferences and demographics.

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Building Email List Based on Permission

The biggest challenge for email marketers is to build a cost effective list. This is because at least thirty percent of the email addresses change on most lists. Therefore, marketers have to go for a more aggressive approach in order to expand the list and to get more significant investment returns.

Taking permission is the basic key to maintaining a almost constant email list, along with other steps. Permission is certainly not the optional thing. If permission is not taken it means direct landing up as a spam complaint or even greater, breaking the U.S Law for spamming. The sign up form should be featured on every web page. No opportunity should be missed for turning the visitor into a subscriber. Subscription value can be enhanced by adding sample emails, screenshot of an email, testimonials and good copy on the sign up and registration page. To attract more number of subscribers, incentives can be offered upon signing up. The incentives can be as small as white papers and as big as special discounts. Incentives increase the conversion rates to great extent.

Today everything is becoming search engine optimized. Therefore it is the need of the hour to optimize the website in order for the website to land in first hundred search result. The current and archived web pages and newsletters must be optimized for increasing the traffic rate of the website and subscription rate. Search services such as Google AdWords can be made use of, for including subscription link on the landing page and for promotion of the website. Opt-in check boxes must be added on the demo requests, registration forms and white papers. This increases the conversion rates by at least fifty percent.

Very simple method to increase new subscription is by including the ‘Send-to-a-friend’ option. If the current subscribers find an email interesting, there are greater chances that the email be liked by their friends too. And if they like the emails, there is an even greater chance that they will subscribe to receive future emails. Email subscription can also be encouraged by print ads, catalogs, direct mails, radio and television. Employees can be directed to include the ‘Subscribe to the company’s newsletter’ link in their signature lines. The sales employees and customer support can ask customers whether they would like to receive promotional email, in appropriate situations. Sign up forms can be distributed at seminars and public speaking engagements and presentation on newsletters can be given at such locations. Permission can be taken to include opt-in forms in trade show lead generation forms so that booth visitors can subscribe.

If the postal information of the customers is in the database, post cards can be sent to them which ask them to subscribe to newsletters. Sign-ups can be promoted in transactional and confirmation emails. It is optional to include opt in link on receipts of credit card, product registration cards, invoices and warranty.  The company’s email and newsletters can be promoted in other company’s publications. Sites and industry directories can also be used for promotion.  Product shipping boxes are the next important place to include the opt-in form. Many catalogers and retailers even include promotional offers of non-competing companies. Newsletters which have topical articles can be used for press release, along with information such as how to subscribe and content being offered. This option is useful to smaller companies.

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Strategies for Email Marketing

Any marketing to be successful requires a particular strategy to be followed. Hence, email marketing also involves using some strategies. The biggest advantage of using email as a marketing strategy is personalization and segmentation. These advantages are also the most underutilized feature of email marketing, by most the companies. It is very important to make the company’s emails as clear and relevant as possible for every recipient because that particular email is competing with the rest of the emails in the recipient’s inbox. Email can be made relevant by personalizing subject lines, articles, offers, product showcased, and flowing emails depending upon recipient’s action.

Before carrying out an email marketing strategy it is best to send out pre-campaign test to uncover problems before actually implementing the strategy. The test results can be monitored by checking ISP filtering, blacklisting and filtering. The test messages should be sent to different email clients and platforms. The authenticity can be established by the sender of email by adding SPF code in the DNS record. Every email client and platform has a different preview pane and they have different policies for blocking images. To deal with this, the emails need to be redesigned so as to be read easily and rendered properly. The top portion of the email should deliver the maximum possible information. Also creativity should be increased by playing with HTML colors and fonts. Images should be less relied upon as there is greater chance of them getting blocked the email clients or ISPs.

Everything becomes passé over a period of time. A thing which worked few months ago might not work today. Variables such as design, format, copy style, subject line, offers, content types, personalization, product categories, etc., need to be tested constantly.

Email relationship should be paid special attention from the start, because majority of the decline requests comes in the first two months after subscriber’s opt-in. A well organized program must be designed which should engage the subscriber immediately. A welcome message should be sent out instantaneously, followed by current email including the latest offers and promotions. An email can also be sent which offers the best of the past newsletters along with exclusive offers for newcomers. The trust can be build by making things clear such as frequency, proposition, content type, and privacy policies, from the start. Apart from concentrating on new comers it is also important to take care of the long term subscribers. Over a period of time nearly fifty percent of the email list becomes inactive. This happens when the subscribers do not open the company’s emails from a long time. Such subscribers need to be awaken by trying new subject lines, new email formats, and by sending best of newsletters or spicy deals.

Short surveys can be carried out to know about the customer’s requirements and to uncover potential trends.

Instead of focusing on metrics such as click through and open rates, marketers need to focus on end goals such as revenue per mail, conversion rates, whether desired action was taken on time or not, etc. Format style and the type of articles liked by the subscribers must be concentrated upon. Searching option also helps in acquiring customers to a great extent.

The biggest job is to make a working email marketing plan which actually has specific goals, action steps and success metric. The plan should include enough resources and budget. The program needs to be improved often by continuous testing and analysis, by increasing segmentation and personalization, and by including the latest technology.

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