From ITC Agent Conference 2015... How can you grow your contact list? What's the best way to improve deliverability and engagement? How can you make social media part of your email marketing strategy? If you've been stressing about email marketing, you're not alone! These are real digital agency marketing challenges agents face every day. In this course, you will learn tried and tested email marketing best practices, tips, and tricks to find your email marketing success.

1. Email Marketing Best
Practices
Generating Leads and Nurturing
Relationships
Jennifer Fitzsimmons
Product Manager for AgencyBuzz

2. “The reports of my
death have been
greatly exaggerated.”
-- Mark Twain and Email Marketing

3. Why is Email Marketing Like
Keith Richards?
• Has outlived all of the new digital marketing trends
reported to be it’s replacement
• Makes money consistently… a lot of it
• Gets better with age
• Rocks stats higher than other communication
platforms
• Moves forward and never collects moss, just like a
Rolling Stone should

4. So, Jennifer, I’m in. What
should I be doing to make
the most of my email
marketing efforts?
I’m very excited to tell you. Too excited some may
say. Let’s jump in.

5. Your From Name
Yes, the from name is first. It’s that important!
• Is your from line easily recognizable and trustworthy
to your audience?
• Your from name should include the AGENT the
mailing is from and the AGENCY you’re sending
from
• When setting up where your campaigns are coming
from, consider who your audience will best receive
the message from.
• Using a friendly from name will encourage feedback
and interaction (replies, quotes, and follow-
through… OH MY!)

6. Encourage Replies and
Follow Through
• Email marketing is a great way to get information to your
audience, but it’s also an awesome way to encourage regular
feedback from your clients.
• NEVER use a no-reply@insuranceagency.com email because it
turns what should be a two-way communication channel into
your clients getting frustrated and eliminates the opportunity
for feedback.
• Make sure someone is actually monitoring the mailbox daily
for responses – more if you’re in the middle of a campaign.
• CAN-SPAM legislation even dictates that your from and reply-
to address “must be accurate and identify the person or
business who initiated the message.”

7. Optimize Your Subject Line
• Keep subject lines to 50 characters or less
• Personalize if possible
• Be useful and specific
• Use timely topics and create a sense of urgency
• Avoid using promotional or spammy language by being
straightforward about your message
• Use split testing to perfect your subject lines

8. Take Advantage of Pre-
Header Space
• You only have 3-4 seconds to grab their attention,
sometimes subject lines aren’t enough.
• You commonly have 100 characters of pre-header
space to work with, depending on the email service
provider.
• Get creative and, of course, test your results to
perfect a formula for your agency.

9. Relevant Content is King
• Consistent, relevant content is the key to grabbing
and keeping your subscribers attention, decreasing
the likelihood of your email being ignored or
deleted.
• 25% of people unsubscribe from permission-based
emails due to irrelevant content.
• Create a balance of value and frequency, avoid
over-sending promotions, and plan carefully to
prevent mindless emails clogging the inboxes of
your clients.

10. Calls to Action
• Create a clear hierarchy of content.
• Your calls to action should stand out from all other
graphics and the most important call to action/content
should be first and the main attraction of your email.
• Use variation of color, language, or size in calls to action
to clearly identify which is most important.
• Use many types of CTAs for the best chance of
interaction.
• Test CTA location, type and content of graphics to
ensure you’re getting the most out of your email
marketing efforts.

11. Optimize for Images-Off
Viewing
• It can be hard to decipher a message when images
are disabled on the recipient end.
• Use ALT text, styled ALT text, background colors,
image slicing, and live text.
• Start simply and test what your emails look like
with images off.

12. Emails That Work
Everywhere
• Enlarge fonts: 16px content and 22px headlines
• Use a clear call to action: Minimum size of 44 x 44 px
• Use a simple layout: One-column is the easiest format
for mobile
• Streamline content: Be short, sweet and get to the
point
• Know your scale: Trim emails to 550 px for best mobile
results

13. Don’t Forget Landing Pages
• Don’t let the experience end in their inbox,
create a landing page to maximize the
results of your campaigns.
• Your email is the appetizer; your landing
page is the main course.
• Your landing page should be
complementary to your email. If the email is
amazing but the landing page falls flat, you
could still lose a contact’s interest.

14. Test. Test It Again. And Once
More.
• Even the most carefully crafted mailing may not
render the same when it’s actually delivered. You
have little control over that because it’s up to the
recipient mail client, but you can see it coming and
prevent embarrassing mistakes by testing each
mailing in the most commonly used ESPs.
• Testing is also helpful when you’re looking at click-
through and open rates, and how you can increase
engagement for your agency.
• Test everything, always. No exceptions. It’s that
simple.

15. More Tips of the Trade
• Gmail has a size limit of 102kb
on all received mailings –
that’s just the code, not
including images. Simplify the
HTML or the content of your
message to prevent clipping.
• Use JPGs and GIFs in email
when possible since some
email clients won’t support
PNG files, and they are
generally smaller in size.
• Embedded video is coming,
but it’s not perfected yet. The
easiest way to include a video
in email is to have an image of
the playback hyperlinked to
the video.
• Stay on top of your data! Keep
contacts up to date and treat
your data like the precious
treasure it is.
• Automate what you can. It will
save you time, and because it’s
automatic, you may get better
results.
• Wait three days to check your
stats for the most accurate
results.
• NEVER PURCHASE EMAIL
LISTS!

16. Thank You
Don’t forget to fill out your surveys!