Tips on email lists

[ceetee]

Can anyone experienced give me the low down on email marketing. I have a website that would benefit greatly from gathering subscribers, but I'm just wondering what the pitfalls are.

For example from disgruntled and amnesiac subscribers reporting your domain as a spammer. Is using a third party newsletter service in some way safer?

[swifty7]

Hey!

I look after email marketing for mobiles.co.uk alongside affiliates!

There are so many things to consider when thinking about emails, from how much information you gather, to what you actually put in emails, the time you send them and how often you send them. It is very complex.

But for starting out I would recommend that you set up an opt-in page, once you have captured the name and the email, you can then go on to see what exactly they want emails on, so you can capture more information (the more information you have, the more specific you can be when you email them, its pointless sending someone an email on red cars when they only wanted to see blue cars)

The next step would be to design and test your emails in a number of places especially aol, hotmail, gmail, outlook etc. Make sure you dont use spammy words like free.

Then decide when is best to send the email and on what day, i find mondays are not the best, but i usually try and send around midday to catch the people going on lunch, it depends on your customers entirely.

Then look at your results, and keep testing to see which emails work best.

With regards to being marked as spam, you should ALWAYS include an opt-out link, and just really think about the content of your email. You will always get people marking you as spam, and there isnt much you can do about it, but if the ISP's complain, at least you captured lots of information in the first place to prove you are not spamming and that person did register an interest.

Finally (i think) Opt-Outs should always say 'what do you wish to opt-out of?' give them options of what newsletters and email they want to opt-out of and you will find that many dont fully opt out!

I think thats it from me, and i just went over the basics! yikes! if you need any thing else, let me know

Hannah

Mobiles.co.uk

[stevenm]

Nice advice Hannah, thanks for sharing that.

[jaman_gre]

This is very hlpful for me as well. I appreciate your hard work, Hannah.
To Steve -Visit my UK Affiliate Marketing blog.
wat programme did you use for this blog??
I am thinking of setting up website like freebies in a blog. wat do u think about dat idea.
Let me know plz
regards'
J

[Red]

Some other things you might want to consider to improve your ability to getting into inboxes and avoiding being marked as Spam:

it's best practice to include alongside your unsubscribe/opt-out function, details of who you are and why you are sending them an email - for example "NAME, you are receiving this email as you signed up to receive updates from us. If you could like to unsubcribe, please click here"

Also you should try and encourage your users to white list you - so ask them to add your 'from' address to their address book

Your actual email design will also effect not only what users see but often how it is seen and filtered by ISPS. For example, background images are usually blocked by most ISPs and body tags removed.You also ensure a good balance of images and text as this will help deliverability.

Just a couple of pointers - hope that helps

[swifty7]

Any time!

If you need anything else, or need more questions, just email me!

million pound job offers are also accepted! lol

Hannah.Swift@mobiles.co.uk

[AnnDim]

I saw this on some other forum- I think is useful:

The Scanner - This person will actually open the email, and “read it,” if you call scanning from point to point or running their eyes quickly down your email, looking for something dramatic to stop their scanning eye, actual “reading.”

scan reading emails

Bulleted main points, framed as insightful questions that grab their curiousity, might slow down the scanning some. This particular “reader” wants a general idea of your content and wants it quickly. When you are finished with your email, read your bulleted points to see if they tell the story of your message by themselves. If not, revise them so they do.

The Multi-Tasker - This reader will never focus on the one task right before them, like your email. Their Blackberry, or other mobile toy, is practically superglued to their hand and your email message will be sandwiched between several tasks that demand their attention all at the same time.

multi-taskingCuriosity is your main weapon here once again. Fiddle with your email’s subject line until it asks a riveting question. Don’t be afraid to be a little off-the-wall. You want to stop the multi-tasking and get your reader to put aside their grocery list and endless “To Do” reminders and focus and on your message. Not an easy task.

Once you get a subject line that makes the Multi-Tasker stop and think, “What?” and move on to your actual message, add bullets that maintain the curiousity you stimulated with your subject line.

If you run out of ideas, find another multi-tasker, like a two-year-old child, and ask simple questions about your subject to see which ones grab their attention. Use resources where you find them!

email reading

The Bookworm - This individual will read your message and take the time to consider what you have to say, even to the point of researching the validity of your key points. Do not fluff out your message with meaningless statements. Google is this reader’s best friend.

Adding a link or two at the bottom of your email leading to valid, additional source materials for your key points will be perceived as “added value” to this curious and insightful reader.

mailing list subscriber

The Detective - This reader examines all aspects of your subject line, looking for clues that uncover the topic of your message and examines their opinion of you, the sender. If, after all that, they are interested in what they think you are going to say, they will open your email. If not…click and delete!

The way to grab The Detective’s attention is to create subject lines that inspire curiousity but do not give your entire message away before your email gets opened.

The Graphics Lover - HTML graphics and text that take advantage of the display qualities of this format will many audiences and readers used to reading sales pages with their flaming fonts, bright arrows and other attention-grabbing techniques.

Other readers, though, might not be thrilled to wade through all your “enhancements” to get to the message and will just click and delete before reading what you have to say. Some using mobile readers might not even get your email, if HTML scripts are blocked or are not a format their device will accept. Be careful of this technique.

The Examiner - This person will remind you of the tax man and their habit of saving anything that interests them for use against you later. The Examiner will not only save everything to their hard drive or in email folders so they can read it later, but they will also analyze every statement you make for blatant hype.

Do not deliver your message with the hype that reminds The Examiner of those frenetic used car salesmen that populate late-night TV, or the Internet Marketers that promise $10,000 incomes for 10 minutes work a week…click and delete!

The Computer Chair Commando - This could be your perfect subscriber… the one you want to open your emails and read them. This reader will take the time to research your content or offer by following your links and analyzing the validity of your statements. If they agree with your premise or can find something useful or interesting in your product or service, they will respond to your call to action…which is clicking the “Buy Now” button.

If you can empathise with your subscribers and their email habits, you will be better able to create messages that appeal to their mind-set when they open their emails. If you’re sure about the composition of your list, try asking them what they like or want in the email notices you send out. Use those answers to format your future email campaigns and watch your conversion rates increase.
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