Let’s begin with the most important information first. Here is what we feel are the ten most important tips for anyone managing the email marketing process.

1. Only send emails to persons who have requested to receive them.
2. Only include content relevant to the type of content the person has requested.
3. Be consistent with your sending frequency. Pick a schedule, whether it is weekly, biweekly, or monthly and as often as you can stick to that schedule.
4. In most cases it is best to send business to business emails Tuesday through Thursday. We’ve found that the best times of the day to send are just after the start of the day around 9:30am or just after lunch around 1:30pm. It is best to avoid sending business to business emails after 4pm or on weekends.
5. In most cases it is best to send business to consumer emails either between 5pm and 8pm Tuesday through Thursday or between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.
6. To improve deliverability, add a message at the top of your emails that says something like: “To ensure receipt of our emails, please add something@yourcompany.com to your Address Book.”
7. Make the From Name for your messages either your company name or the name of a person at your company. Once you choose a From Name, keep it consistent. During the split second decision subscribers make whether to open your email, the most important factor in their decision is whether the From Name is familiar to them.
8. Be sure to include both a plain text and an HTML version of your newsletter. Our System will automatically detect which subscribers can view the HTML message and which can only see the plain text message. If you don’t include a plain text message, around 5% of your recipients will see a message with nothing in it.
9. Don’t use all caps or multiple exclamation marks within your subject line or body. Doing this will trigger spam filters.
10. Build your list at every opportunity you have. If you have a retail location, add a point-of-sale sign-up form. At conferences or events, bring a paper sign-up form or have a laptop with a sign-up form set up and available for interested parties. Finally, add your newsletter signup form to every page on your web site. You can use the signup form generator within our system to automatically generate the code you need.

What good is sending an email if it doesn’t get opened??? Today I’d like to share an article on how to maximize your open rates by writing really good subject lines. Enjoy!

For most people, a majority of emails received are junk email. As a result, each of us has developed a little ritual we follow when checking our email. Initially, most people look first at the subject lines to determine whether to read a message. Today, however, studies have shown that recipients glance at the “From” field to see if they recognize the sender’s name or email address. Then, only if they recognize the From Name do they look at the “Subject” field to see if it’s of interest to them. This is why we recommend using a From Name that is either your organization’s name or a well known person within your organization—and to keep that name consistent with every mailing.

Regarding subject lines, we have found a good strategy to be having one part of the subject line be consistent, and the other be variable. This way recipients can recognize your newsletter when it comes in as well as get a small taste as to what type of information might be featured for that issue.

Some examples of bad subject lines are:

The PermissionBased Email Marketing Monthly for September, 1 2005 from [YourCompany]

This subject line is simply too long. We recommend keeping subject lines between 20 and 50 characters whenever possible. This 84 character subject line is likely to get cut off in most email clients and could cause the message to have a higher chance of being blocked by a content based spam filter.

[FNAME]’S ENTREPRENEURS CHRONICLE FOR SEPTEMBER

This subject line is in all caps, which will increase the change the message will get blocked by content based spam filters.

Garden Tips

This subject line doesn’t provide any information as to what the message is about. We would recommend adding at least what month the message is for.

OxyPowder Special – Save £10 Today Only Buy Now!!!!

This subject line includes both a pound sign (£) and multiple exclamation points. Both of these things would cause the message to have a higher chance of being blocked by a content based spam filter.

Here’s is a revised version of each of these subject lines:

• PermissionBased Email Marketing Monthly for September

• Geraint’s Entrepreneuers’ Chronicle for March

• Garden Tips Monthly – Are Year Round Orchids Possible?

• OxyPowder Special: 15% Off

By following these tips on From Names and Subject Lines you can maximize the chance of your message being opened by your recipients.