Marketing 101

Welcome to ETS Marketing 101. Whether it’s your first time creating a newsletter or you’re a seasoned pro, make sure to review our tips and rules below for optimizing your email campaign!

Make sure your email is in line with your brand

It’s important that your email represents your business. This is your direct outreach to your customer, and they should be able to differentiate between the many emails they get and recognize your business each time.

• Use the same logo/brand imagery and colors.
• Keep writing style consistent with your brand image and customer base.

When to send your email

There are many studies and opinions on what the optimal day and time to send out your newsletter. Remember, you know your customers best, so think about their behavioral patterns, and what applies to them. For example, if you are a bar advertising your weekend specials, you shouldn’t send your email out on a Monday morning. An office supply store though, would do well sending at the beginning of the week.

There are a few general rules of thumb to follow, most of which are common sense.

• Sending emails prior to lunch often garners more opens as people tend catch up on their emails during lunch.
• Don’t send emails at the end of the day when people are rushing to finish their work and get home.
• Don’t send emails on holidays when people are likely to leave their inbox unchecked.

Personalizing and segmenting your email

Personalization works differently for everyone. It’s important to keep the following in mind:

• If put in the subject header (“David, check out this great special!”) it can resemble spam.
• Only use personalization if you are positive that your customer information is complete and up to date. Don’t risk losing a customer with a misspelled or incorrect name.

Segmentation and targeting are some of the best assets you have in your marketing arsenal. Make sure your emails are applicable to the people receiving them. Even simple segmentation such as gender or age can help make your email marketing more effective.

The From field

It’s important that the “from” field always has your company name so that your customer recognizes where the email is coming from. While putting your individual name may seem more personal, there’s a good chance your customer won’t recognize it in their inbox and will either delete it or report the email as spam.

The Subject Line

The subject line is incredibly important as it oftentimes determines whether your email is opened. Keep these factors in mind when writing your subject line: The key when creating your subject line is to make sure it will entice the customer to open your email. A few rules with subject lines:

• Keep it short and sweet: Subject lines should be between 40 and 50 characters, as anything over that amount will not be displayed in the inbox by most ISPs.
• The subject line should always be relevant to the content that is inside, as you don’t want your customers to feel tricked or misled (intentionally misleading customers with a subject line is also illegal according to CAN-SPAM Act).
• Avoid overuse of the word free– it will look like junk mail.
• Do not use all caps or large amounts of punctuation (no “!!!!!!”). This will also make it appear to be junk mail and may result in blocking by spam filters.

Getting your email delivered

At ETS we take every step possible to ensure that your emails get through to each and every contact by working with ISPs to optimize deliverability. Ultimately, you are responsible for the content of your message, which can also determine whether your email is delivered.

Stay CAN-SPAM compliant.
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets rules for commercial email. A few rules to keep in mind while creating your email:

• All header information must be accurate and identifiable
• Subject lines must reflect the content of the email
• Your valid physical postal address must be included on the message
• You must direct recipients as to how they can unsubscribe from your email list.

Your Content

You don’t just want people to open your email, you want them to read it. In order to make your message easily read:

• Keep formats clean and simple
• Use short paragraphs and bullet points so that your email is easily scanned
• Make sure important information is separated so that it stands out
• Keep emails to 600 pixels in order to fit on most screens
• Include alternate text as sometimes ISPs do not default to show images
• A call to action should always be at the top of your email
• Logos/brand images should be on the top left to for maximum visibility and recognition

Remember, your email content should add value to the customer, whether by a special offer or unique information that is of importance to them and their interests.

Test, Test, Test

The best way to optimize campaign effectiveness is to know your customers. Test results by varying sending times and days, subject lines, and incentives. Once you gauge your customers’ behavior you’ll be able to tailor an email marketing plan that works for you.