Do’s and don’t’s of an e-mail marketing campaign
Starting an e-mail marketing campaign is easier said than done. The following are tips and advice to make your e-mail marketing campaign a successful one.
First things first, ask permission
Mail that is received in an unsolicited manner have one major effect: it has the uncanny tendency to hurt your very own brand, the campaign that you have begun as well as the reputation of your sender.
Methods that deal with stealth in getting e-mail addresses, though it works initially, ill eventually fail in the long run.
As much as possible, try to use a process in subscribing that involves two stages, this usually means that there is a confirmation required when the address finally goes into the database.
Check your recipients
Usually, it is the ISP that bear the brunt of a lot of e-mail addresses that do not really work. Check the e-mail addresses of those you will be sending out to. Too much bad addresses basically result in the ISP’s blockage of the email sent, or that they simply place the e-mail in their oblivion folder.
Requests that ask that the recipient be unsubscribed must be respected and honored. Complaints about spam must also be immediately addressed.
Clean your list and check it twice
A list that is dirty must be avoided as much as possible. Addresses that are duplicates of other addresses actually hurt the e-mail campaign you want to start with. There is a process called list-hygiene where bad or no-longer-working addresses are junked out thereby reducing the possibility of mails that are undelivered and enables one to spot any problems quickly.
Enable technology that provides authentication
Believe it or not, there are current ISPs that block potential spammers and other senders that have a malicious e-mail intent. E-mails that are unauthenticated are automatically blocked, sent to junk / bulk folders and filtered.
Trust is the key to e-mail marketing campaign
During e-mail registration, try to gather only the necessary and vital information. Any further info you may want or need could be gathered later on once recipients have established enough rapport to trust you.
Trust is important because without it, recipients will most likely not open e-mails or unsubscribe from your e-mail registration, worst they could even file complaints that you are sending them spam mails.
Respect is also the key
Respecting the privacy of all your recipients is not only good business sense, it is also one good way to avoid any ethical problems as well as legal ones. A brief statement on privacy must be included during the process of registration.
Then, you could just as well establish a link of the full policy / privacy statement in your site.
What the recipients want, the recipients get
Simply put, give your e-mail recipients whatever it is they ask. Subscribers really want to have control. If recipients do not get what it is they need, chances are they will go and look for it someplace else.
Personalize, personalize, personalize
It adds a bit of intimacy as well as a bit of freedom when the information received by subscribers are relevant to them. Also, this increases your value to your subscriber as it helps establish how much you want to help them in any way you can through the information you provide.
All in all, an e-mail marketing campaign will work best if both the sender and the recipient will work hand in hand to respect each other’s privacy and establish ethical standards in sending mail and – on the part of the subscriber - receiving them.
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