Category Archives: Email Marketing

Email marketing posts show you how to build your email list, and starting email marketing campaigns without your own list. There are details on some common errors, what you can do to avoid them, and how to fix  mistakes you’ve already made.

There are also posts on how to measure your email marketing results, and what metrics really matter. You may think the list size is the most important thing (but it isn’t).  Getting a high rate of unsubscribes, bounces, and spam reports? Find out what to do about it.

Find out what your response rate should be and how yours compares to your industry counterparts.

Plus, posts on easy ways to improve your email design to improve readability and increase your click through rates (a metric that does matter).  There are also posts with tips on how to write subject lines that sell. Since the subject line is the first thing your readers will see, it’s important to get that right!

Email Marketing Best Practices: The Truth About CAN-SPAM

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spam with bacon

Once, the name of a cheap lunch meat, spam has now become synonymous with unwanted advertising. In order to fight this, the US Congress and the FCC passed CAN-SPAM laws, designed to help consumers manage their email inboxes, and stop unwanted email.

The original law, signed in 2003, was called: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003 (or CAN-SPAM. The legislation was later modified in 2008.

The act regulates commercial email messages, which is an email message meant primarily to promote or advertise a product or service. It can be e-books, jeans, flowers, anything.

CAN-SPAM is really opt-out, not  opt-in.

It does not require opt-in (explicit permission to send emails). In fact, before CAN-SPAM, many marketers (at least the reputable ones) worked very hard to get permission before sending emails.

There was a raging debate (still is) over whether single opt-in (sign up and you’re on the list) or double opt-in (a two-step process requiring that you first sign up and then confirm it) was required.

What the email law mostly does is focus on rules for opting-out (removing yourself from email lists).

It does not require opt-in (explicit permission to send emails). In fact, before CAN-SPAM, many marketers (at least the reputable ones) worked very hard to get permission before sending emails.

There was a raging debate (still is) over whether single opt-in (sign up and you’re on the list) or double opt-in (a two-step process requiring that you first sign up and then confirm it) was required.

What the email law mostly does is focus on rules for opting-out (removing yourself from email lists).

email marketing best practices and can-spam rules

Here’s what CAN-SPAM does require you to do.

You must:

  • Include a visible, working method to unsubscribe (opt-out).
  • Remove names from your list within 10 days of receiving the request.
  • Maintain an opt-out (suppression) list. In other words, once people opt-out, you may not mail to them again (except to confirm the op-out), either directly or indirectly.
  • Accurate “from” and header fields (you can’t conceal where the message came from, or spoof someone else)
  • The subject lines must be relevant and can’t be deceptive
  • The message must include a legitimate physical address (this can be a street address or a P.O. Box).
  • Remove people for free. You cannot charge a fee or ask for any information other than an email address to process the opt-out request.
  • Make it easy to opt-out.  There should only be a single step, either an email reply message saying “unsubscribe” or “remove” or a visit to a single web page.You cannot require people to login to their accounts.
  • If more than one company is sending a message, one of them must take responsibility for complying with the rules.
  • Follow the rules whether the sender is a single individual, a corporation, or several corporations or businesses.
  • Remove people who ask from your list, and from the lists of any of your business subsidiaries or marketing partners. If someone opts out from messages from The Gap, and The Gap shares its list or does a co-promotion with Banana Republic, they have to make sure you don’t get that email either unless you say otherwise.

You can allow subscribers to adjust their preferences (removal from newsletter A, but not newsletter B), or offer them less frequent emails.

Transactional messages (such as confirming your order, or acknowledging receipt of an email) are exempt, as are emails to existing customers (unless they opt-out, or specifically say “stop”!)

Best way to email your prospects

A web designer on LinkedIn just asked if it was OK for a client to send a new email newsletter to a list of potential prospects.

During her initial meeting with the client, she correctly told them that reputable email marketing services require opt-ins.

After the meeting, she did more checking and found, to her surprise, that opt-in is not required by CAN-SPAM.

She wanted to know if there was an ethical way to send unsolicited email to a list. Or was that a really bad idea.

CAN-SPAM encourages more spam

She’s right. It’s technically legal to send emails without permission, under CAN-SPAM.

In fact, CAN-SPAM actually encourages more spam. Before the law was passed, marketers worked very hard to get permission to contact people via email.

There was a great deal of debate over whether single opt-in (just enter your email address) or double opt-in (type your address, and confirm it) was required.

Technically right doesn’t mean ethically correct

So, it’s technically OK, as long as you include your physical address, provide an opt-out link, and use a real email address.

It may not legally be spam, but the people who get it will perceive it that way. Your message is more likely to get bounced, blacklisted, or stuck in spam filters.

One reason for using AWeber or Mail Chimp, is because they have a high delivery rate, are a recognized legitimate mailer, and will also manage opt-outs, bounces, etc.

And, before you send email to any list, make sure you know where it came from. Did you “buy” it (the quality is probably poor, and the names scraped from contact information on the Internet, or build it yourself? Were those names collected recently? If they’re from the design conference you went to in 2008, they’re no good. Those people have forgotten about you. If you email them, they will probably think it’s spam.

Image: brownpau

P.S. My free ebook “Email Marketing Made Easy” has lots more tips about email done right. You can download it here. No registration needed.

Build a Qualified Opt-in Email List for Free

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build your email list for free
Image by Cornell University Library via Flickr

I recently I got not one but two emails from people I never heard of.

They were offering me the opportunity to buy targeted opt-in email marketing lists.  They bragged about their high profile, Fortune 500 clients.

Is this a joke?

Do I want to buy their lists?  No, NO, and NO!

You shouldn’t either.

Why you shouldn’t buy email lists

It’s tempting to go out and buy a list from InfoUSA or other vendors that promise thousands or millions (!) of addresses at low rates — (and you own the list).

Sounds good, right? It’s a mistake. The list is probably scraped from website contact information, pulled from directories, or gathered on the sly from pre-checked boxes sneakily added to signup forms.

The permission to contact is questionable, and the data is probably old. You’re likely to be spending time (and money) sending messages that will never reach anyone.

Email costs less than snail mail, but high bounce rates and poor deliverability will not endear you to your email service provider.  And, there are costs in time and effort to develop, write, format, and send the email (since many email providers charge by the size of your list).

What about renting a list?

This can work under certain conditions.  However, high quality rented email lists (particularly business to business lists) tend to be very expensive.

They start at about $100 per thousand names and go up to $300 per thousand names. Be careful about which lists you use and how often you use them.

Build a qualified opt-in email list for free

The best way to build an email list is to grow it organically, starting from scratch.

1. Add a signup offer to your blog. Put them in several different places so readers will see them when they start reading, and while they browse.  Don’t just add the offer, include  a report, an analysis, or some other valuable information in return for signing up.

For instance, if you’re a web site designer, offer a booklet called, “10 Things Your Web Designer Doesn’t Want You to Know.” Or, “Has Your Web Designer Made These Common Web Design Mistakes?” A video editor might offer, “5 Strategies to Minimize Your Video Production Costs.”

Or, create an automated e-mail course. Once you set it up, the messages will be sent out automatically to anyone who signs up.

If you’re stuck for a topic, think about some common questions your customers ask you, or problems you frequently solve and write a guide on how to fix them.

2. Join relevant forums and groups.  Be helpful, not annoying.  Mention the ebook or guide, when it’s useful and appropriate.  Add the link to your signature, profile page, or about page on those sites.

Don’t yell at people, connect with them.  They’re people, not targets. Stop shouting and start listening, then ask them for permission to listen to you.

3. Use social media. If you’re on Twitter or Facebook or other social networking sites, tell your friends and followers about your new newsletter. Don’t spam them with continuous tweets, but share tidbits, relevant quotes, or other information that will raise their interest. Then give them the opportunity to subscribe.

4. Start with the people you already know.  Send an email to current clients or prospects and tell them about your new newsletter. Talk about all the great information they’ll get, the kinds of topics you are going to cover, and include a link to sign up.

Offer them the opportunity to get in first, before anyone else.

5. Hold webinars or Google Hangouts on Air.  This can be a continuing series that you host, or regular guest appearances on others’ events. Give viewers the opportunity to sign up (add a link to the presentation, or ask your host to include one). Make the link simple and easy to remember!

6. Borrow an existing audience.  First, find a newsletter or blog your potential and current clients already read. If they accept guest posts, offer to write one.  If they have a newsletter, see if you can sponsor it or advertise.

Even better, if you have a partner or vendor with a similar audience, ask if you can write an article for their newsletter with a special offer for their readers (make it an exclusive).

Once you have built your own email list, see if you can swap offers: you include their offer in your newsletter and vice versa.

7. Run pay-per-click ads, a Facebook campaign, or ads on LinkedIn. Ads aren’t free, but they are much cheaper than buying thousands of email names. Use AdWords to find people while they’re actively searching for something. Or, get them on LInkedIn or Facebook when they’re networking or relaxing. If your book or guide answers a question your audience is struggling with, they’ll want to read it. Make sure to send them to a targeted landing page, not your home page.

The important thing is to approach building your email list from the perspective of being helpful, not pushy.  Give your readers, viewers, and followers solutions to their problems (not yours).

Focus on building trust first, sales later.

 

How to Get More From Your Email Marketing

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Find out how to avoid common email marketing mistakes, get some marketing tips from your spam folder, and learn how to write emails that make more money.

Avoid These Seven Email Marketing Mistakes These common goofs can wreck your email marketing campaigns (sometimes before you even start).  Find out how to avoid them.

Email Writing Tips from Spammers Think about it, there are millions of email messages sent each day, much of it spam.  They stay in business, so they must have some ideas worth stealing.

15 Tips For Writing Emails That Make Money Want to earn more from your email marketing?  Here are fifteen ways to get higher open rates, better conversions, and more readers.

Build a Qualified Email List for Free. Of course, you can’t do much email marketing until you build a list. Find out how to do that, without spending a fortune (or making the mistake of buying lists).

 

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The Wrong Way to Run an Email Opt-Out

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spam_spam_spamA few months ago, I received a new newsletter from a publication I’d unsubscribed to long ago. I clicked on the unsubscribe link, but it wasn’t on the list of their publications (!).

So, I opted out of everything that was. Then, to make sure, I sent them an email asking to be removed from all their lists.

I got a reply back asking which newsletters I didn’t want.

I sent an email back saying, “Well I don’t want any of them. Suppress me!”

Then another reply, “From which lists?”

All of them!

The response to this was, “Well, we have 30 different lists, which one did you want to be removed from? And which did you originally subscribe to?”

I sent back, “I have no idea. I don’t remember, just take me off all of them!”

At this point, I was getting annoyed. Shouldn’t they have a universal opt-out? Doesn’t the FTC have rules about this?

It took 4 hours, 10 emails back and forth, and a little bit of luck (finding my account number) to get everything stopped and block my email address!!

If you have an email newsletter (and you should) you need to follow a few simple rules (they didn’t).

Here they are:

1) Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand.

2) Give a return email address or another easy online method to allow people to tell you what they want.

3) You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you.

4) Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.

5) You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request.

Full text of the rules here:

ftc email rules

Photo: Arnold Inuyaki

 

Free Gift: Email Made Easy E-book

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email marketing made easy
It’s a mini-ebook called “Email Marketing Made Easy.” It’s full of tips to help you get more people to open, read, and respond to your emails.

It’s absolutely free. No sign-up or registration required. I released it to my newsletter readers a few days ago, and I’m now making it public. There will be more to come.

Feel free to read it, share it, and pass it along. Just don’t sell it or change it.

Here’s the link:

Email Marketing Made Easy