What do you usually do when you write an email? Do you think of your readers? It’s charm to your subscribers? What about sending the email? Have you considered the number of inactive and active subscribers? What about your email list’s hygiene? Of course, you do! You spend so much time in constructing a compelling email, that will surely capture your reader’s attention.
Worries like these are only natural because you want to achieve your goal—to connect and interact with your subscribers to earn their trust. And eventually, have them buy your product or service.
Among the known tactics in the industry:
- Website and Blogging
- Paid Search (PPC)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Social Media
- Content
- E-Commerce
- SMS
Email Marketing is the most competent one when it comes to digital marketing. This has been proven by Marketing Charts. They conducted a research last September 2014 which states that Email Marketing is the most effective marketing tactic, especially in Singapore. According to statistics, Singapore has the highest internet penetration percentage in Southeast Asia. And this means, people from the country are most likely to open emails that are sent to them.
This explains why email creation is essential for your email campaign.
Let’s say you have an email campaign to launch. The marketing automation software already running, you’ve got your mailing list ready, but your email is still on the oven. With the campaign launching around the corner, you quickly wrote an email so that you could make it on the deadline. You didn’t even bother checking. The results were a huge disappointment. People didn’t even open the mail you sent. The campaign was a flop.
Emails contain the very message you want to convey to your subscribers. And if not done well, your efforts in creating the email will be going to waste.
How am I going to assess if my email is ready to be sent out?
Here is a short checklist before sending your email:
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Interesting subject line
Think of your subject line as the face of your email. It is the first thing. Your subscriber is going to see. It predetermines the open rate of your email. A survey from Litmus and Fluent says that 34% of the respondents depended on an email’s subject line with it comes to opening an email. If your subject line is too bland, chances are, your email is never going to be read. Or if you think spammy looking subject lines and words such as:
- Cheap
- Affordable
- Amazing stuff
- $$$
- Save $
- Free Leads
- Free Preview
Will get your reader’s interest, you’re wrong. It might send your email to the spam folder instead. Why? Spam filters rate the emails you send, and such words might trigger the filter. Changing the track of your email from the inbox to the spam folder.
Find out more about spam triggering words here.
You should also consider the readability of your subject line on different devices (Mobile Phones, Tablet, and Personal Computers). You want to make sure your full subject line is seen in all of the devices.
Bonus Tip: Check your subject line first. If you were the receiver, would you open your mail? If you cannot asses yourself, try asking someone you know. Would they open your email if you have such subject line?
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No broken links
Your email is molded according to your defined goal. And this goal involves clicking and tapping on a link. Say, you want your reader to sign up for your webinar. You decide to build an email campaign revolving around that goal. With that in mind, you strategically placed the link to the webinar at the center-end of your email.
Now, what would happen if the link that you sent along with the email doesn’t work? Can you achieve your goal? No right?
This is why it is essential for you to check double the links placed in your email. Make sure it’s not broken. It should also have the right tracking tool so you can monitor the clicks you get.
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No broken images
Some images get blocked by mailing clients, which is why you should check the photos on your email. Does the subscriber’s mailing client allow pictures? If not, you need to guide your reader throughout the message—with or without the photos.
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ALT Text: On
For the cause that some images get blocked by mailing clients, ALT Text also known as Alternative Text should be present. This way, even if the image cannot be seen, your reader will find out what your picture is about.
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Double-check templates
Admit it. You may have (or have not) used Email Templates in your email campaigns. You want to make sure, the emails in which you used templates are double checked. You don’t want to embarrass yourself in the presence of your subscriber.
Ensure that your email doesn’t have an ‘Insert Text Here’ or ‘lorem ipsum’ written in any part of your email. This kind of mistake often leads to losing your subscriber’s trust.
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No grammatical errors, spelling errors, and typographical errors
Nobody’s perfect. This is why you should double check the content of your email. People can be judgemental, and you don’t know whether or not your subscriber is a ‘grammar nazi’. Read and reread your work, make sure that there are no Typographical, Spelling or Grammatical Errors in your email. Because just like the Templates, it may lead to a loss of your subscriber’s trust—it may be the cause for losing a subscriber.
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Sounds natural
People want to interact with people, and if your email sounds robotic, they’re going to think you’re a robot. And if they do—you can say goodbye to them. Use the data you have collected from them to personalize their email.
Ever wonder why Google changes their logo during your birthdays? This is because they are personalizing it. Same goes with your subscriber. Personalizing your email draws you closer to your subscriber.
Final thoughts:
Email Hygiene does not only involve cleaning up your mailing list. It includes cleaning up any mess you find the email you’re making. Make sure you check your email using the checklist written above.
Ananya Nigam
Kasturi Patra
Vanhishikha Bhargava
