Email Faux Pas Free on Friday webcast slides.

1. “Avoiding Email
Faux Pas”
Adrienne Bartlett | VP, Education

2. Avoiding Email Faux Pas
Does Email Still Matter?

3. Email Marketing
“Email marketing at the
moment is kind of a
mess.”
Robert Fleming, eMarketing Association

4. Email Marketing
How did we get here?

5. Book Recommendation #1
“Why People Email
So Badly and
How to Do It
Better”
Featured on Today and The Colbert Report

6. Wisdom From Send
Email:
• “Took over our world in about a
decade”
• “Hardest written medium of all”
• We’re still struggling to integrate
• “We’re using it and overusing it
and misusing it”

7. Wisdom From Send
“The Unique Character of Email”
• No tone
• No reaction
• Used both formally and informally
• Very fast
• “Has vastly increased the amount
of writing expected of us
all” (including people whose jobs
never used to require writing skills)

8. Avoiding Email Faux Pas
The “False Steps”

9. Email Marketing Faux Pas 1
Poor List Hygiene
• Unsubscribes should be managed to
keep you CAN-SPAM compliant
• Clean your database of hard bounces
after each campaign
• Monitor soft bounces
• Keep an eye on your unsubscribe rate
• Take a close(r) look at purchased lists
Source: Email Experience Council

10. Email Marketing Faux Pas 2
“Sloppy Copy”
• Avoid funky MS Word characters
• Check your spelling. No, really.
• Read your message -- don’t skim
(their/they’re, missing words, etc.)
• Print it out and read it on paper?
• Get a second opinion
Source: Email Experience Council

11. Book Recommendation #2
“Simplicity is
about
subtracting the
obvious, and
adding the
meaningful.”

12. “Red Sharpie Rule”
Which
words can
you delete?

14. Email Marketing Faux Pas 3
Competing Links
“Unless it's a newsletter, most
emails should be single subject
with a single call to action.”
Source: Email Experience Council

15. Email Marketing Faux Pas 4
Cold Call-to-Action
• Text format (don’t forget many images are
suppressed by default)
• Keep it “above the fold”
• Top 1/3 and left-most areas most valuable
real estate
• Support with minimal graphics
Source: Email Experience Council

16. Email Marketing Faux Pas 5
Bad Subject Lines
• Approx. 7 words or 35 characters (use
your judgement)
• Don’t repeat your school’s name
• Key words first
• Avoid “SPAM-like” qualities
Source: Email Experience Council

17. Email Marketing Faux Pas
What gets you flagged?
• Percent of Capital Letters
• Repeating Capital Letters
• Gaps (s*t*y*l*e)
• Repetition of Letters
• Special Character Flag: Overuse of
special characters (e.g., & $ # @ ( )[ ] !)
• Punctuation Flag: Too much punctuation
• First Character Flag/First Word Flag
(words like "Free", "hey", "Sale" etc.)
Source: Email Experience Council

18. Email Marketing Faux Pas 6
Clumsy Coding
• Set pixel width to 600 (prevents the need to
scroll to the right)
• Don’t create as one big image
• Readable if images don’t render?
• Consider a “view online” feature
• Check your links! (again and again and again...)
Source: Email Experience Council

19. Email Marketing Faux Pas 7
Insufficient Testing
• Links
• Rendering of images
• Final copy-check
• Different browsers

20. Real-World Example;)

21. Email Marketing Faux Pas 8
Lacking Mobility
“Email marketers are just
beginning to come to
grips with things like the
iPad and Android and
they really have to...”
Robert Fleming, eMarketing Association

22. Going Mobile
Tips for optimizing your email
campaigns on mobile devices:
1. Keep it plain
(plain text or very limited HTML)
2. Keep it short
3. Be very careful with images

23. Other Email Faux Pas
• Incorrect use of Bcc
• ALL CAPS
• Obnoxious font size
• Too much HTML
• Excessive forwarding
(FW:FW:FW:)
• “Reply All”

24. “Reply All”

25. Words to Send By...
“8 Deadly Sins of
Email”

26. The Email That... 1
Is unbelievably vague.
(“Remember to do
that thing.”)

27. The Email That... 2
Insults you.
(“HOW CAN YOU
NOT HAVE DONE
THAT THING?!!!!”)

28. The Email That... 3
Puts you in jail.
(“Please tell them
that I asked you to
sell that thing
when it hit $70.”)

29. The Email That... 4
Is cowardly.
(“Here’s the thing:
you’re being let
go.”)

30. The Email That... 5
Won’t go away.
(Re: Re: Re: Re:
Re: Re: that thing.)

31. The Email That... 6
Is so sarcastic you have to
get up from your desk.
(“Smooth move on
that thing. Really
smooth.”)

32. The Email That... 7
Is too casual.
(“Hiya! Any word
on that admissions
thing?”)

33. The Email That... 8
Is inappropriate.
(“Want to come to
my hotel room to
discuss that thing?”)

34. Email Faux Pas
When all else fails...
APOLOGIZE!

35. Do I Need to Apologize?
Definitely...
• Misstated date or time
• Broken Links
• Major rendering problems
• Wrong segments or recipients
• Server problems caused website issues

36. Do I Need to Apologize?
Maybe...
• Personalization glitches
• Minor coding issues
• Egregious spelling and grammar issues

37. Do I Need to Apologize?
Let these go...
• Minor typos
• Missing secondary images
• Slight rendering issues
• Broken ancillary links (not the CTA)

38. Adrienne’s “8 Simple Rules” for Apology Emails
1. Send it ASAP (but be careful!)
2. Make the subject line clear
3. Consider plain-text
4. Keep it short
5. Be cautious about humor
6. Who should it come from?
7. No excuses, just fix the problem
8. No mistakes in the apology email;)

39. Best Practices for Apology Emails

40. Best Practices for Apology Emails

41. Do I Need to Apologize?
Is this an opportunity to (humbly)
connect with readers, be human
and reinforce your original
message?

42. Do I Need to Apologize?
In our experience, most times
the apology email gets more
attention, interaction and
response than the original
message.

43. Is Email Most Effective?
Or should I pick up the phone?
Walk across the office?
Make an appointment, etc.?

44. Bottom Line
Think before you send:
“What is this
email saying
about me?”

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46. “Tour Guides Matter”
March 18
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