Email Campaign Definitions and Information

What are Email Permissions?

Although people talk about permission in a variety of ways, it’s something very specific when it comes to email marketing. Permission is express, verifiable consent to receive marketing communication. Express means that when you asked for permission, your question wasn't tied in with another agreement. For example, a separate checkbox for "I would like to receive marketing email from XYZ company" is express and clear.

What is Email Blacklisting?

Some email servers and spam filters reference "blacklists," which are lists of IP addresses of known spammers, or "spam friendly" servers. If an IP address is on the list, they won't let your email through.

If enough people mark your email campaigns as spam, the ISP can blacklist you. When that happens, any message you send to anyone on their network will be blocked. ISPs have different thresholds for blacklisting, but they tend to be very low. A few spam reports could get you blocked. Once you’re on a blacklist, it’s very difficult to get yourself removed.

Spam Filters - What are they?

Spam filters use a lot of different criteria to judge incoming email. Each factor is weighed and added up to assign a spam score, which determines if a campaign will pass through the filter. Passing scores vary depending on the server, so a campaign might pass through some filters but not others.

Spam Filter - How to avoid them?

Spam is a real issue and should be taken seriously by everyone in the email community. For the most part, avoiding spam filters is about staying compliant and understanding how your campaign looks in its entirety. Spam filters use sophisticated algorithms to analyze a lot of email with a long list of criteria to consider. The big takeaway is that if something about your email triggers a spam filter, it will likely take a closer look but generally, your campaign would need to have multiple triggers to get filtered as spam. Always stay in compliance, test your campaigns, and take advantage of our Inbox Preview tool.

What is List Hygiene?

The term used to describe the process of maintaining an e-mail subscriber list. List hygiene includes taking care of unsubscribe requests, removing e-mail addresses that bounce, updating user e-mail addresses, and so on

What are email Rookie Mistakes?

  • Mistake: Not having permission
  • Mistake: Purchasing email lists
  • Mistake: Assuming people want to hear from you
  • Mistake: Sending to a stale list
  • Mistake: Confusing transactional emails with email marketing
  • Mistake: Being in a rush
  • Mistake: Not knowing your audience
  • Mistake: Not understanding spam filters
  • Mistake: Not testing a campaign before sending
  • Mistake: Ignoring your campaign reports

    • More Information can be Found Here

9 Steps to Execute an Email Campaign

Step 1: Strategic Planning Strategic planning is about defining goals and determining KPI’s or key performance indicators or in plain words: how do you measure if your goals has successfully been met?

Step 2: Definition of List Proper collection of database subscribers is so important that it is a good idea to use an email service provider to handle this correctly and seamlessly. It is important to make the opt-in process attractive and not too overwhelming which could repel subscribers. Using a double opt-in will insure that the database is valid and without dud emails.

Step 3: Creative Execution HTML emails are what people want on their desktop, but they may want a simpler text email on their mobile device. There are six main parts of an email.

  • The header is where the reader establishes the source of the newsletter and there is some room for personalization.
  • The subject line is important because it identifies the email purpose and is the first level of engagement and opportunity for attraction. Subject lines are checked by spam filters and need to be tested for viability.
  • A personalized greeting or a catchy one can go a long way.
  • The body is where the content goes. The page should be structured for good visual hierarchy to be easily scanned with clear division of sections. Images are not always displayed in emails so do not put text on the image.
  • The footer is an important place to go with convention and place company contact information and business items like privacy policies and the unsubscribe link. There can also be some additional marketing items here.
  • The unsubscribe link is an important part of commercial emails and the complex of responsible database management. A good practice is to have the subscriber go to a place to manage subscription preferences and perhaps continue on in another mode.

Creating content requires a design approach including a content strategy and tone. Testing for display and deliverability will influence how these elements actually produce.

Step 4: Integration of Campaign with other Channels Marketing does not happen in a vacuum and there should be a connection and integration with other marketing efforts and brand activities. There may be a style guide for the company that can be aligned with. Other marketing tools and promotions can be repurposed and included. An email can link to a custom landing page that relates to the specific newsletter or database segment.

Step 5: Personalization of Message In the world of Big Data, it is possible to know the preferences of the subscriber and to personalize the content in the newsletter. Databases can be segmented across demographics or other data such as purchase history to craft the message for those groups.

Step 6: Deployment The factors that contribute to successful deployment include valuable content, the correct frequency, consistent times, and testing for display and deployment. Email reputation is cultivated and guarded and will determine if the email is regarded as spam.

Step 7: Interaction handling A company should be aware of all email communications that go out from the company in addition to the marketing campaigns. There should be a consistent style and tone story.

Step 8: Report Generation Email tracking systems produce statistics that report a lot of detail on delivery, opens, unsubscribes, pass-ons, click-through and conversions.

Step 9: Analysis of Results The data collected need analysis to use to improve your emails and their delivery. Different emails can be sent out with different subject lines and content and the results can be compared.