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Successful Email Campaigns - Part 2

Many factors determine the success of an email campaign and in this Essential Guide we will be sharing the top 10 hints and tips to help you get the most from your e-marketing, courtesy of the Direct Marketing Association.

The focus of any email campaign should be on getting ‘the right message, to the right person, at the right time’. In this edition, we conclude with hints and tips numbers 6-10.

6: The Design/Structure/Layout of the Email

The layout of an email is as important as any other communication. Usually, an email appears in portrait requiring the recipient to browse down the page. Research has suggested that a customer browses their emails before being drawn in to a particular area of interest.

Techniques to assist with this tendency to browse depend on the purpose of the email –

  • Creative and design should take into account restrictions imposed by HTML coding. A design that cannot be coded is counterproductive.
  • Wherever possible use a template to gain production efficiencies and aid customer navigation as they become familiar with the layout over time.
  • Newsletters often benefit from a Table of Contents at the top of an email outlining the copy contained within the communication. The recipient can then review the Table of Contents before clicking on the Table to reach the elements within the email or web site in which they are particularly interested
  • Promotional emails typically use more imagery and highlight the most relevant offer available to the individual at the head of the email.

7: Above the Fold

This is traditionally a direct mail term indicating the copy that falls above the fold of a letter – for direct mail this is nearly always the most compelling part of the offer. For email it can mean one of several things:

  • A) When the email reader is set to ‘auto preview’, the first paragraph of the plain text version of the body copy is visible for each email in the inbox.
  • B) When the email reader is set to display a ‘reading pane’ at the bottom of the screen, the first 100-200 pixels (depending on screen resolution and the user’s preference for the size of the reading pane) from the top of the email are displayed when that email is selected.
  • C) When the email reader is set to display a ‘reading pane’ at the right of the screen, then the first 200-300 pixels (again depending on screen resolution and the user’s preference for the size of the reading pane) from the left of the email are displayed when that email is selected.
  • D) In any case, when the email is opened full screen in either an email reader or a web browser (in the case of web mail), then whatever portion of the email is visible without scrolling (typically the top 500 pixels on a 1024x768 screen).

It is generally accepted that the 3 second rule applies to email, so the most compelling copy or image should appear here to encourage the individual to open the email and read on.

As image blocking becomes increasingly prevalent alt tags should be included in the creative and design thinking. This is also required for accessibility.

A hosted version of each email should be included as a link in both HTML and text versions of all emails. This will ensure as many people as possible have access to the HTML version. Links to the hosted version of emails can generated as much as 5% of the total clicks for that campaign.

8: The Size of the Email

Given the differences in access to the internet, it is sensible to keep emails small to keep download times to a minimum. Despite the increasing prevalence of Broadband it is still a good idea to keep the weight of your HTML emails down as large messages are more likely to get caught in Spam filters. As a guideline messages should not exceed the 60k in total file size.

To reduce the size of the email, various techniques can be employed including not embedding images but serving them from an image server. Large images whether served or embedded can also cause emails to be caught by Spam filters if the message in the HTML has a low word count. Single offer mailings are more likely to suffer this problem than newsletters.

9: Subject line

The subject line should convey a strong call to action – a compelling subject line will draw the recipient into the email in much the same way as headlines on a newspaper entice the reader to look further. It should provide enough information for the recipient to want to know more and encourage the opening of the email.

If you send unsolicited commercial communications, for example, an email advertising your goods or services that is sent to a recipient who has not requested it, you must ensure that recipients are able to identify the email as such as soon as they receive it, either through looking at the subject line header or through wording in the body copy text.

If the email forms part of a regular communication, consider a consistent subject line such as “DMA Weekly Bulletin | 12.02.07”. This will allow the individual to make a rapid association with the content of the email message.

The speed and cost effectiveness of email allows for economic testing of a selection of subject lines. If there are two alternative Subject Lines, take a subset of the data, test the two Subject Lines, check the results (24 hours is normally sufficient), and then roll out the campaign with the most popular subject line. This is called split stream testing.

When preparing subject lines, awareness should be given to filtering software that may determine that your email is spam based upon a set of rules applied to the content of your subject line. Be aware that not all words that trigger Spam filters are as obvious as “hot” or “free”, seemingly innocuous words such as ‘tips’, ‘enter’, ‘sample’, ‘private’, ‘reserved’, ‘products’ and ‘introductory’ could be viewed by filters as “spammy”.

Lastly, keep the subject line to a manageable length with a maximum of 70 characters.

10: Frequency of Communication

Consider frequency of communication as a vital issue for recipients, as this has a direct correlation with the perception of marketing communications as unsolicited email/spam.

The optimum frequency will depend on the relationship between the Data User and the individual and possibly the length of the re-purchasing life-cycle of your product range. A newspaper publisher may deliver a weekly or monthly promotion.

Best practice would be to a) clearly inform people how frequently they will receive emails from you at the point of opt-in and b) give them the option to choose the frequency rate.

A key metric that you should monitor is your opt-out rate. If your opt-out rate is on the increase, the frequency of your emails may be a factor. It would be worth considering a frequency test, or a survey to ask people’s opinion. However, such a survey must not be sent to those individuals who have opted-out of receiving your email marketing.