Most marketers incorporate email as an important part of their marketing channel on a daily basis. Besides being a great communication tool, it gives companies a perfect way to reach out and help build relationships with prospects. When was the last time you stepped through the basics to make sure that your deployments process was the best and most effective it could be?
Join Raz Ahmad, Email Support Engineer at Pardot, for a step-by-step look through best practices and tips in:
- Sending your first email
- Launching the first email deployment
- Incorporating email best practices after the deployment and beyond
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6. First Thing’s First…
• Preparing for your first mass email send
– Know the laws and policies
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Know the Laws and Policies
• CAN-SPAM lays out broad guidelines for email marketing in US
• Some states have additional regulations
• Many service providers have polices that are more strict than
Federal and State laws
– PERMISSION is often required by service providers
• Anti-Spam organizations work to fight unsolicited email
– They are not enforcing government laws
– Each organization has their own approach to fighting unsolicited email
– Marketing to opted-in prospects is the best way to avoid spam issues
• Make sure your domain isn’t blacklisted by any Anti-Spam organizations
8. Next…
• Preparing for your first mass email send
– Know the Laws and Policies
– Set up mail authentication
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Set Up Mail Authentication
• Mail Authentication refers to technologies that help receiving mail servers verify
the integrity of an email
– Sender validation
– Content validation
• Two main flavors exist
– Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
• Allows receiving mail servers to verify that sending mail server is authorized to send email on behalf of a domain
– DomainKey Identified Mail (DKIM)
• Allows receiving mail servers to verify that a message has not been tampered during transport
• Mail Authentication is very beneficial for email sent via 3rd party services
11. Let’s Set Things Up
• Making your first email deployment
– Know your list
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Know Your List
• How were the prospects sourced?
• When was the last time the list was used for an email send?
• What were the hard bounce and spam complaint rates for the list?
• Have prospects that hard bounced been removed from the list?
• Have prospects that unsubscribed been removed from the list?
13. Content is Key
• Making your first email deployment
– Know your list
– Send relevant content
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• Send the prospect the content that they agreed to receive
• Avoid common Subject line mistakes
– Overly emotional tone
– Excessive punctuation
– Mentions of free giveaways, contests, etc.
• Select your “sent from” address carefully
– It’s best if the email appears to be from a person
– Avoid generic sent from aliases, e.g. info@, sales@
– Make sure the sent from address will be familiar to recipients
• Avoid linking to sites outside the “sent from” address’s domain
– Avoid URL shorteners
• Balance image/text ratio
Send Relevant Content
15. Hi, it’s nice to meet you!
• Making your first email deployment
– Know your list
– Send relevant content
– Introduce yourself to new prospects
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Introduce Yourself to New Prospects
• If you’re emailing a list for the first time, let prospects know. . .
– Who you are
– What kind of mail you’ll be sending
– Frequency of email
– How you obtained their email address
– How to change their subscription preferences
17. Let It Flow
• Making your first email deployment
– Know your list
– Send relevant content
– Introduce yourself to new prospects
– Ramp up your sending volume
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Ramp Up Your Sending Volume
• Email reputation must be earned through good sends
• Start off with a small sending volume and increase volume gradually
– Maximum delivery rates will take time to achieve
19. Awesomeness Achieved
• Making your first email deployment
– Know your list
– Send relevant content
– Introduce yourself to new prospects
– Ramp up your sending volume
– Characteristics of a good first send
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Characteristics of a good first send
• SPF & DomainKey/DKIM have been setup for your chosen sending domain
• Prospect list contains opted in and recently engaged recipients
• Content is relevant, easy to read, and not misleading
• Email is compliant with CAN-SPAM and your email service’s policies
• Sending volume is controlled and ramped up over time
22. Hey, I know you!
• Pressing “send” and beyond
– Establish consistent sending patterns
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Establish Consistent Sending Patterns
• Once you’ve ramped up your sending volume . . .
– Avoid sharp increases in sending volume
– Plan to gradually phase in large sending volume increases
• Sharp increases sending volume are suspicious because . . .
– They are frequently related to hostile takeover of a mail server by spammers
– Correlate strongly to use of purchased or scraped lists
• Consistent sending makes it easier to track engagement
– The same email sent on a Monday versus a Friday will have different engagement
– Sudden changes in volume can result in delivery issues that make comparison difficult
24. Send and Assess
• Pressing “send” and beyond
– Establish consistent sending patterns
– Track email stats
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Track Email Stats
• Key stats:
– Open Rate
– Click-through Rate
– Bounce Rate
– Unsubscribe Rate
– Spam Complaint Rate
• Stats can be affected by:
– Changes in prospect source
– Time of year
– Updates to spam filters
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Maintain Your Lists
• Promptly remove prospects that hard bounce, unsubscribe, or issue
a spam complaint
• Ask your prospects to update their subscription preferences once a year
– Phase out prospects that have not engaged with you for a year
– Frequent senders should do this twice a year
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You Can Do It!!
• Preparing for your first mass email send
– Know the Laws and Policies
– Setup Mail Authentication
• Making your first email deployment
– Know Your List
– Send Relevant Content
– Introduce Yourself to New Prospects
– Ramp Up Your Sending Volume
• Pressing “send” and beyond
– Establish Consistent Sending Patterns
– Track Email Stats
– Maintain Your Lists