Are you effectively capturing email consent from customers and prospects? Is your marketing campaign targeting effectively? Is your team aware of how ISPs classify email senders as spammers? Do you maintain a clean list?
These are important questions to ask if you rely on email to generate leads and revenue. Here are four suggestions to consider.
- Respond immediately to new subscribers
- Be selective in obtaining email addresses
- Understand the fundamentals of delivery
- Maintain good list hygiene to avoid being blacklisted
-
Respond immediately to new subscribers
When customers opt-in to receive email from your company, respond immediately—ideally within minutes, but no later than an hour. A timely welcome response is critical because customers move on to other tasks and, if the response is delayed, they may forget they opted in—and you’ll miss out on an opportunity to engage.
-
Be selective in obtaining email addresses
There is no excuse for sending emails to customers who have not explicitly requested to receive them. Pre-filling boxes for passive consent is no longer acceptable, and buying email lists is never a good idea. Privacy is a must.
So, before you send your email campaign, make sure your list contains only genuine opt-ins (don’t buy lists!) and that every address is valid. Even opt-in lists can contain email addresses with syntax errors, and using lists with errors can get your company blacklisted as spam.
-
Understand the fundamentals of delivery
Deliverability has been the subject of entire books. While an exhaustive list of email marketing best practices is beyond the scope of a single article, understanding the fundamentals of delivery is critical. Develop a thorough understanding of industry best practices and stay current, as the email environment is constantly changing.
Expert advice from deliverability professionals is an excellent way to ensure compliance with federal and international laws, as well as alignment with customer expectations and best practices in reputation management. By partnering with an email deliverability expert and following their advice, you can maximize the impact of your campaigns.
-
Maintain good list hygiene to avoid being blacklisted
Some marketers believe a longer list is better, so they are reluctant to cull email addresses. That’s not true; bad addresses can sabotage a campaign’s success.
Exclude inactive contacts and invalid addresses with expert assistance. It’s also critical to honor unsubscribe requests and allow users to change their addresses. Subscribers can unsubscribe and re-opt-in to receive direct email at a new address, but you loses all of their valuable data.