What you Should Know About List Building
Make sure people understand the opt-in message and that way you can avoid potential Unsubscribes. If you are sending marketing messages to people who have specifically requested them, then you are on the way to building a powerful list. That way, every customer is a special customer and be reassured that a smaller targeted list is better than a huge random list.
There will always be Unsubscribers however, so make sure your link takes the recipient directly to the Unsubscribe page where they will be courteously removed from your mailing list, effective immediately. Nothing enrages a person more than to go to the trouble of Unsubscribing and then to have your unwanted messages turning up for days and weeks afterwards.
People will click the Junk Mail button before even opening when using an email address that looks like spam. People open emails in first place when they know who the sender is. And don't bother to personalize the subject line - as according to email marketing statistics, this does not significantly increase results. Jupiter Research (2006) said that putting the recipient's name in the subject line increases the open rate by as much as 10%, but this has been overdone since and today can be a signal of sophisticated spam.
Personalized messages in the body of the email can be effective however, as it shows the reader that you think the specific message or offer meets the person's needs. You will want to capitalize on this by giving subscribers a way to reach you and ask questions, send comments or let you know if something on the website is not working. Keeping their email address updated is vital to establishing credibility and keeping a good relationship with your list members.
Avoid emailing images that are meant to be downloaded from the web as these are automatically blocked by most software programs and do not nest scripts in your HTML message. Also avoid using capital letters in the subject line and spam-popular words such as Free, $$$, Discount, Save or Money. These emails will be deleted by spam filters before they even reach recipients.
Avoid having your emails blocked by checking your mail provider rules. Most server providers prevent spam by requiring that you do not send too many emails in a short period of time. You won't be able to send more that 1000 emails with GoDaddy for example. You want to keep your email delivery rate as high as possible instead of ending up in junk or spam folders which people rarely check. Avoid these basic mistakes and you are on your way to a successful email marketing and list building campaign.
There will always be Unsubscribers however, so make sure your link takes the recipient directly to the Unsubscribe page where they will be courteously removed from your mailing list, effective immediately. Nothing enrages a person more than to go to the trouble of Unsubscribing and then to have your unwanted messages turning up for days and weeks afterwards.
People will click the Junk Mail button before even opening when using an email address that looks like spam. People open emails in first place when they know who the sender is. And don't bother to personalize the subject line - as according to email marketing statistics, this does not significantly increase results. Jupiter Research (2006) said that putting the recipient's name in the subject line increases the open rate by as much as 10%, but this has been overdone since and today can be a signal of sophisticated spam.
Personalized messages in the body of the email can be effective however, as it shows the reader that you think the specific message or offer meets the person's needs. You will want to capitalize on this by giving subscribers a way to reach you and ask questions, send comments or let you know if something on the website is not working. Keeping their email address updated is vital to establishing credibility and keeping a good relationship with your list members.
Avoid emailing images that are meant to be downloaded from the web as these are automatically blocked by most software programs and do not nest scripts in your HTML message. Also avoid using capital letters in the subject line and spam-popular words such as Free, $$$, Discount, Save or Money. These emails will be deleted by spam filters before they even reach recipients.
Avoid having your emails blocked by checking your mail provider rules. Most server providers prevent spam by requiring that you do not send too many emails in a short period of time. You won't be able to send more that 1000 emails with GoDaddy for example. You want to keep your email delivery rate as high as possible instead of ending up in junk or spam folders which people rarely check. Avoid these basic mistakes and you are on your way to a successful email marketing and list building campaign.