A Checklist for Targeted Email Advertising

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If you believe the research, targeted email advertising is hot:

83% of surveyed marketing executives worldwide used email, ahead of display ads, paid search and online video. - The McKinsey Quarterly (2007)

80% of Marketers Report Email Is Strongest Performing Media Buy Ahead of Search and Display. - Datran Media, “Marketing & Media Survey” (2008)

If you want to get the biggest bang for your email advertising bucks, you have to avoid the pitfalls.

If you want to make the most of your email marketing, here’s a simple checklist of ways to boost your results. It covers:

• Rendering
• Landing Pages
• Tracking
• Creative/Merchandising
• Deliverability/Sender Reputation Management
• User Experience
• Testing

Each section is designed you can print it out or bookmark this page and review it before you send out an email.

Checklist for Better Email Marketing

Rendering

If people can’t see or read what you’re trying to say, you’re emails will be ineffective.  Popular email programs like Hotmail and Gmail turn off images by default.   Even if images render, they may appear distorted in one program vs. another.

__ Renders properly in different programs - Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Thunderbird, etc.

__ Images render as expected in different providers - AOL, Hotmail, etc.

__ Copy is visible without images

__ Calls to action appear in text

__ Includes a link to view the email online, e.g. “Can see this email?  Click here to view it online.”

Landing pages

Make the email to website transition seamless.  It seems like an obvious recommendation, but by verifying that what people see when they get to your site is what they expect, you can avoid careless mistakes.

__ All product image and text links go to product pages

__ “Click here to see…” links go to relevant category and subcategory pages

__ Header and other navigational links function (ex: Men’s Tops, etc.)

__ Theme or landing pages work as expected and match the look and feel of the email.

Tracking

Double check to make sure you’re setup to track all of the results you need to draw actionable conclusions.

__ Enable and test open tracking through your email service provider

__ All links include site side analytics tags in the destination URLs

__ Links are tagged individually, so you can distinguish popularity and influence of individual email content

__ All special offers in the email, such as coupon codes, are unique

Creative\Merchandising

Every brand’s look and feel is different, but there are some universal rules.

__ Ensure key messages and calls to action appear “above the fold”

__ Use strong and specific calls-to-action

__ Verify that featured items are available to order

__ Make sure it’s obvious what’s clickable (e.g. use a button or blue underlined link)

__ Check that all links function properly

Deliverability/Sender Reputation Management

We live in a spam world and you don’t want to be labeled a spammer.  The CAN-SPAM law spells out your legal obligations, but these pointers should get you far enough in not annoying your customers:

__ Offer a simple, one click way to unsubscribe

__ Send emails from a recognized and trusted email address.  Avoid changing it.

__ Request to add email@yoursitenamehere.com to their “Safe Senders” list (this will also help with rendering)

__ Include a physical address

__ Run the email through a tool’s spam review and any internal spam filters; edit accordingly

__ Link to your privacy policy

__ Scrub your email list of unsubscribes and hard bounces regularly

User Experience

Relevance rules the day.  If you want users to keep giving your their permission to email them, make them want to open your emails.

__ Segment the email list to make the email more relevant, when possible.  For example, sending different emails to people who have only purchased Men’s clothes vs. only purchased Women’s clothes.

__ Ensure that users haven’t received too many emails in one month

__ Match email to user preferences expressed during signup (requires an email signup page)

__ Personalize your email if you have the available data, e.g. “Dear Alex, …”

__ Include a link that says “If you have trouble viewing the newsletter below, click here” at the top of each email. It should take you to a properly rendered, online version of the email

Testing

If you plan to run a test, please keep these things in mind.  While there are sophisticated tools out there that let you do more advanced A/B and multivariate email testing, most retailers are probably using a simpler email provider.  In which case, you’ll want to keep these tips in mind:

__ Test only 1 element at a time, holding all other elements (such as time of day) the same

__ Have both a control and test version

__ Ensure your sample sizes meet statistical minimums (dependent up on the metric measured and anticipated response rate)

That’s not everything you need to do for targeted email advertising, but it’s a start.  You can address many of these points with a good seed list - a list of internal customers who preview your email before it’s sent out.  How do you improve your email marketing?

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