With the world of email marketing spinning out of control I set up this email marketing video tutorial after I realized it was out of control. The Inbox Dilemma helped my open rates with simple techniques that work.
Email marketing like anything is one of those things that can be used in the properly and the results will be favorable or abused and can cause consequences.
View the complete video tutorial that goes along with the guide at http://winwithfred.com/favorite-products/email-marketing-video-tutorial/
Please visit www.winwithfred.com for more practical marketing information.
Thanks for looking!
Open rate pitfall reading edition and referance guide
1.
In
Box
Dilemma
Fail
Proof
Ways
of
getting
in
the
in
box
2. Inbox
Dilemma
Printable
version
OPEN
RATE
PITFALL
• Thanks for subscribing, here’s your free gift... That’s
where so many like myself started and that is where the
free fall began. It is well and good that you thanked
your new subscriber but did you direct them the right
way. You see, I was a subscriber to my own email list
and found my emails in the spam box...I was like, it’s all
Awebers fault I thought, but it really wasn’t. You see,
some things are out of your control, but there is a huge
question we forget to ask our brand new subscriber...
• Thank you for subscribing, please add me to your
contacts so you will continue to get our valuable emails
and we wont end up in your pile of junk mail.
• Rule of thumb is when they go to my thank you page I
ask them to do just that, and when they get my first
follow-up I do the same. Your not only directing them
the right direction your become a VIP in their contact
list. Just remember, you can lose that VIP status if you
start hammering them with garbage so keep it relevant.
— Fact is, if you don’t ask them the odds of you ending up
in the Spam box do up dramatically.
In
Box
Dilemma
By
Frederick
Owen
Jr.
www.winwithfred.com
3. EMAIL
FORMAT
Subject Line
• Keep the subject line less then 49 characters, reason
being, it is likely going to get cut off in their user preview
depending on who they have their email through. Also,
don’t go too short because that can trigger some bad
results.
• keep the punctuation down to a bare minimum, there is
no need to give blast them with exclamation points or
crazy dollar signs, cause that is a good way of getting
kicked straight out of the inbox.
• Eliminate the “CAPS” - Do not hit your subject line with
a ton of Capital Letters, it will not get you through a lot
of the SPAM Filters.
• Test your subject lines, split test them. Make them
relevant to your email content. A very cool tool I came
across is called the Free Subject Line Checker, it
grades your subject line based upon thousands of
emails submitted.
• Don’t copy other peers emails, it is okay to get different
ideas from different avenues but if you copy it looks
sloppy and just doesn’t sit well with fellow marketers.
Be an innovator of your craft, and you will stand out.
4. Email Body
• The email body is one of the hardest things for an email
marketer because so many times they get caught up in
the long, drawn out emails. The first sentence or 2 have
the most impact.
• Don’t copy other peers emails, it is okay to get different
ideas from different avenues but if you copy it looks
sloppy and just doesn’t sit well with fellow marketers,
Be an innovator of your craft.
• Keep it Relevant to the subject line and to the point .
Don’t be sneaky and try to lure someone into just
clicking on the email with some off the wall verbiage.
One thing you need to always remember is why did
they sign up for your email newsletter in the first place?
If you promise them training, give them training. Once
someone sees that you are legitimately there to help
them they will be looking forward to your emails and will
trust you.
• Always use your real name or business name, if they
find out that your not who you are prepare for the
unsubscribe.
• When sending an email message make sure the offer is
relevant to the target audience!
In
Box
Dilemma
By
Frederick
Owen
Jr.
www.winwithfred.com
5. Recommendations for Avoiding Spam Filters
Industry experts estimate between 10 and 20 percent of
permissioned email messages do not arrive in the inbox as
intended because the receiving ISP incorrectly identified the
message as spam. This presents a problem for marketers
because revenue is lost and campaign results are
inaccurate.
Message Guidelines
You may wish to follow these guidelines when designing a
message. Please remember that these are general rules and
do not provide a 100% guarantee that a filter will not tag your
message.
Message Length
Keep the message short and to the point (about one page
maximum in length). The additional details of a message
should be provided on a hyperlinked web page.
Key Selling Points
Use bullet points to illustrate the key selling points, which will
tell the user why they should respond to the call-to-action.
Images
Use ALT tags in the HTML code for each image used in the
HTML design. Minimize graphics and images to logos,
photos of products, or situational photos that support the
message and appeal to the target audience visually.
6. To Share or not to Share?
Include share buttons for one or more social marketing sites.
This will enhance credibility and help your campaign to go
“viral.” If I get an email that really grabs me I share it, so the
goal for you is to want someone to share the love. Sharing =
More Prospects. Social media is so powerful that there is
really no reason to not take advantage of the many benefits
it has to offer.
Should I use P.S.
This is one thing I have realized it is very beneficial to use,
because next to the Subject line this is one of the most
widely looked at areas in the email. Now remember, you still
have to keep it relevant and use a lot of the tips above.
The p.s. or even p.p.s. gives you another chance to reaffirm
your call to action or even put another offer on the table with
a different link. You just want to make sure that you are not
bombarding your subscribers with offer after offer and no
substance.
If you don’t explain your product or opportunity you are
losing a major chance of generating a sale, but
remember...you want them craving for more.
Your message will get deleted and you will not build any
trust with your subscriber, and that in turn will result in
wasted time and wasted sales.
The thing is the email structure and content will reflect your
sales, hands down
In
Box
Dilemma
By
Frederick
Owen
Jr.
www.winwithfred.com
7. The links
How many links should I have in my email?
That is a good question, it really depends on what you are
offering. Rule of thumb is to have
2 to 5 links, but make sure they are relevant to the email.
If they are in the right position of the email, they will get
clicked.
Note: I personally only like to use 3 at the most.
8. DOES
FONT
REALLY
MATTER?
It sure does, and here are the reasons why?
You should only use universally available fonts Arial,
Verdana, Tahoma, or Times New Roman.
Any other fonts will resort to a default font if the recipient
doesn’t have it installed on their computer. Minimize the
number of fonts, sizes, and colors for an overall more
efficient look and design.
If you have different sizes and different fonts it can create a
very messy, unprofessional looking email.
•
•
•
•
Arial
Veranda
Tahoma
Times New Roman
Note: You can use others fonts if you wish but I have had the
best luck with these.
In
Box
Dilemma
By
Frederick
Owen
Jr.
www.winwithfred.com
9.
CALL
TO
ACTION,
DO
YOU
HAVE
IT
Always remember why your sending the email,
of course to make money, but how are you
going to present it.
A few key pointers to remember
The Product or opportunity
1.What will it do for them?
2.Tell them why they need to this now!
3.Tell them what they need to do after they hit
the page. "after they watch the video instruct
them on how to take advantage of this amazing
opportunity. You want them
to know more...so they want to click on the link
to find out more about your product or
opportunity. Try to make it in a story format, like
something going on in the world or a personal
thing that you have been dealing with. The goal
is to incorporate your story with your product.
Remember, practice makes perfect.
Don’t be a car salesman, Hype is overrated,
pretend like your writing to a friend. Do not
sound desperate either. build trust. Once trust
is built you have a customer for life, and that is
priceless.
10. GET
YOUR
MOBILE
ON
Consider
designing
a
template
that
will
render
in
a
mobile
device.
According
to
21st
Century
Marketer,
32%
of
U.S.
mobile
email
users
age
18
or
older
with
an
Internet-‐enabled
phone
check
personal
email
via
a
mobile
device
between
one
and
three
times
daily.
And
that
percentage
is
growing
every
year.
Capitalize
on
this
statistic
and
increase
your
open
and
click
rate.
Marketers
must
follow
new
email
best
practices
to
ensure
emails
are
easy
to
read
on
a
mobile
device,
or
the
opportunity
to
market
to
a
prospect
may
be
lost.
In
2012,
The
Radicati
Group
put
out
a
report
that
states
that
the
total
number
of
worldwide
email
accounts
are
expected
to
increase
from
3.3.
billion
accounts
to
over
4.3
billion
accounts
by
2016,
730
million
of
these
accounts
access
email
via
mobile
or
tablet
devices.
In
Box
Dilemma
By
Frederick
Owen
Jr.
www.winwithfred.com
11. TO
MUCH
TECH
CAN
WRECK
YOUR
CAMPAIGN
Use HTML software such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage or
Adobe GoLive to create the HTML. Do not use word
processors or publishing software that isn’t specifically
created for website or email production. ImageReady or
Fireworks can be used in some instances, along with HTML
software, if used properly.
The email itself should not include Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS), JavaScript, Submission Forms, Layers or Rich Media
(Flash movies, animation etc). These cause deliverability
issues that can affect the campaign responses, hinder
deliverability for future campaigns, and render incorrectly in
many email ISPs.
Use basic HTML tags for the coding. If your HTML software
uses CSS for formatting, adjust the preferences to apply
formatting as basic HTML tags only. If absolutely necessary,
inline style sheets are an acceptable substitute for CSS.
Do not use comments in the HTML code of your email as
they can potentially trigger spam flagging.
Provide a hyperlink to a related website or at least an email
address that the recipient can contact if there is not a
website available.
Keep the width of the HTML message under 650 pixels to
ensure the design is not cut off in the recipient’s preview
panel. This eliminates the need for scrolling horizontally to
see the whole design.
12. (continued)
Keep the message size under 50KB for consumer emails
and under 75KB for business emails to optimize download
time and deliverability.
MORE
HELPFUL
TACTICLE
TECH
TIPS
Whenever possible, minimize the use of images in the
design to avoid potential problems. The more images there
are, the more time it takes for a recipient to download the
email. If a recipient’s Internet speed is slow, your images
may just be an obstacle to viewing.
The higher the ratio of image-to-text area in an HTML, the
higher the SPAM score. We recommend that no more than
33% of the design area be images or graphics, and the rest
should be formatted text.
Many recipients have images disabled in their email account
on any emails from unknown senders. They won’t see any
information that is in the images unless they choose to
download them. If you have formatted text in the HTML, the
recipient can at least read the text part of the email. After
being able to read the text and discover what the message
is, they will be more likely to allow the images to download
and act on the offer.
Remember that text within any images needs to be a larger
size. When images are optimized or compressed to reduce
file size and maximize download speed for email, the text
tends to blur a bit, and will need to be larger to be legible.
In
Box
Dilemma
By
Frederick
Owen
Jr.
www.winwithfred.com
13. (continued)
You can check this before sending but it’s better to know this
up front than to have to redesign the images after the fact.
Do not use background images that are not supported
across all email clients. Test your content rendering with
Return Path and Pivotal Veracity to provide campaign
preview reporting on a given offer. This type of reporting will
provide a real-time snapshot of how the email content is
rendering across all major ISPs and mobile devices (with
both images on and off).
14. EXTRA
INFO
In
Box
Dilemma
By
Frederick
Owen
Jr.
www.winwithfred.com
15. RESOURCE
GUIDE
• Sender score – Check your IP Address score for free https://www.senderscore.org/
• Subject Line Checker – Checks your subject line and
grades it. There is also an app for your phone as well.
http://www.subjectline.com
• Return Path – An excellent resource for any Marketer
or business. You can get your IP address certified. Plus
it has many other very cool tools.
http://www.returnpath.com
• Email Grader – a very cool and free tool to use to grade
your email’s and take your campaigns to the next level.
http://www.email.grader.com/
• Email Spam test – Another tool to make sure your
emails stay out of the junk pile.
http://www.emailspamtest.com
• Litmus email testing – another really cool tool to use,
they also have paid plans as well to go even deeper
into your emailing - https://litmus.com/email-testing
• Campaign Monitor Free HTML email template builder http://www.campaignmonitor.com/templates/
• Mobile Marketing Association
http://www.mmaglobal.com
• Mobile Search Magazine –
http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk
• Mobile Marketing Watch –
http://mobilemarketingwatch.com
• Mashable – http://www.mashable.com/category/mobile
• Mobile Search Marketing –
http://www.mobilesearchmarketing.com
• Mobile Marketing Forum –
http://mobilemarketingforum.com
16. • Get Response – One of the top 5 email Marketing auto
responders. http://www.getresponse.com
• Mobivity – http://www.blog.mobivity.com
• arpReach - The all-new Auto Response Plus – Drive up
email delivery with no monthly fee. http://arpreach.com/
• Drive up email delivery no monthly fees.
• Aweber - #1 choice for affiliate Marketers.
http://www.aweber.com
In
Box
Dilemma
By
Frederick
Owen
Jr.
www.winwithfred.com