Today will be sweet and simple. Here are 5 things to never do in email marketing. And when I say, "never," I'm freaking serious. Bend or break at your own risk.
1. Don't tell someone to follow you on Twitter or Facebook but then fail to provide a link to these pages you speak so highly of. This goes for all links. Test them. Make sure they work.
2. Purchased lists are the devil. Avoid them like E. coli. They destroy your credibility and integrity, and worse, you end up with a bunch of angry subscribers and a raging attrition rate. Not. Worth. Your. Money.
3. NEVER USE ALL CAPS. -- It's annoying and it always feels like you're yelling. Making something all caps doesn't ensure that the subscriber is going to read your email any more than if it were in a normal case.
4. Don't complicate the sign up or unsubscribe process. A complex sign up form is like punching someone in the face for wanting to come talk to you about your product/service. And a three step unsubscribe process is like kicking them after you've punched them in the face. (Plus, it's not CAN-SPAM compliant.) And cease and desist signing people up to your email program for the sole reason they purchased something from you. At least tell them that by submitting their order they will be added to the email program, and then give them the option to decline your generous offer.
5. Stop writing novels for content. No one has time to read it all. Point your subscribers to your website/blog/article so they can read if they'd like. Give your subscriber an action to take. Not only will your subscribers thank you for being direct and to the point, you can use their clicks as a metric to gauge success.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Email Overload: How many is too many?
Today, I want to cover the frequently asked yet not so easy to answer topic of how many emails are too many? The short answer (in question form): How many times in a row can you listen to a mediocre song? How about your favorite song? If my witty analogy just confused you further, never fear. I won't leave you in the dark. Keep reading.
Long answer: Proper frequency can be determined by two factors. 1) Activity of a particular subscriber, and 2) relevancy of content to this particular subscriber. I'm talking about segmentation, people. Sending a daily email to your entire list will appeal to some, but turn off most. Are you having trouble growing your list organically? Are you losing 'em faster than you're bringing 'em in? Then you may suffer from Too-frequent-itis. This disease is more common than you think. It seems easy, right? Hey, these people signed up to receive my emails. They want to know about our soup del giorno or the latest polish color of our VP's toenails.
A delicious restaurant here in San Diego called The Wine Vault & Bistro has caught the bug. And to top it off, their emails are all text and super wordy, so it's hard to find the info I really want. So far, I've received 10 emails in the month of September, and here we are with a week and a half to go in October, and I already have 8 more. Here's a picture of my flooded inbox (filtered):
You'll notice their subject lines are often similar indicating they are sending many messages about one event. So maybe I wouldn't mind this high frequency if I wasn't so overwhelmed when I actually open the email (highly unlikely). Here's what I mean. Don't say I didn't warn you:
Long answer: Proper frequency can be determined by two factors. 1) Activity of a particular subscriber, and 2) relevancy of content to this particular subscriber. I'm talking about segmentation, people. Sending a daily email to your entire list will appeal to some, but turn off most. Are you having trouble growing your list organically? Are you losing 'em faster than you're bringing 'em in? Then you may suffer from Too-frequent-itis. This disease is more common than you think. It seems easy, right? Hey, these people signed up to receive my emails. They want to know about our soup del giorno or the latest polish color of our VP's toenails.
A delicious restaurant here in San Diego called The Wine Vault & Bistro has caught the bug. And to top it off, their emails are all text and super wordy, so it's hard to find the info I really want. So far, I've received 10 emails in the month of September, and here we are with a week and a half to go in October, and I already have 8 more. Here's a picture of my flooded inbox (filtered):
You'll notice their subject lines are often similar indicating they are sending many messages about one event. So maybe I wouldn't mind this high frequency if I wasn't so overwhelmed when I actually open the email (highly unlikely). Here's what I mean. Don't say I didn't warn you:
Most of "War & Peace" here can be found on the website. I don't have time to hunt and scan for dates, times, and menu options. I want instant gratification and I'm sure I'm not alone. So what's to stop me from unsubscribing and just checking the events calendar every so often?
Tips for WV&B:
1) Work on your subject lines
2) Use links to your website vs. displaying all your website's content on every email
3) And for crying out loud, do some segmentation. Get a preference center. Ask your subscribers what they care about and send them what they want. I guarantee a bigger return on your investment.
For the record, I'm working on a new post that discusses how not everyone can afford fancy graphics and pretty pictures for their email, but there is a way to send your long winded ramblings (a.k.a. blog content) via email and it doesn't involve copy and paste.
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