There’s a whole lot more to an email campaign than simply designing a nice looking template, uploading a list and then pressing send.
Testing is key and that’s why you should always go back to basics and use an email campaign checklist.
Ticking off the all too easy to forget tasks as you go helps with checking everything is configured correctly, things are being done properly and means you’re far less likely to overlook something that could turn into a big issue once email delivery has started.
What we’ve got here is by no means a complete list of everything needed to create the perfect email campaign every time, but it will get you started in the right direction and the best thing to do is use it as a basis for creating a process that’s customised to your own requirements.
Designing for everyone
More than 50% of people open emails using a mobile device and the rest use a whole load of different applications.
Emails might look different depending on the device or application people use so it makes complete sense to consider using responsive design and always test everything out with Litmus.
From address
It’s critical that you follow best practice when selecting the domain(s) to use for sending email campaigns.
Getting everything setup correctly should help you avoid unnecessary soft bounces and it’s also the starting point for building good sender reputation.
Configuring sending domains is not a complicated thing but there are considerations you need to be aware of and this handy guide is well worth a read…
Subject lines
One short line of text can sometimes make or break an email campaign.
It doesn’t have to be that way though and with the right approach you’ll find it easy to avoid the obvious mistakes and to write subject lines that produce good results.
There’s not necessarily one killer subject line for each email campaign you send but there are definitely things to avoid!
Handling complaints
People don’t always call or email you to complain and sometimes they don’t even opt-out when they’re no longer interested in your email campaigns.
In most email services users can click a link to mark an email as ‘Junk’. When that happens a complaint notification is generated to let the senderof the email campaign know that there has been a user complaint.
You only receive these notifications if firstly, you’ve enrolled on all of the available Feedback Loops and secondly, the DNS set-up for your sending domain is correct.
Feedback loops can help you turn complaints into a positive in relation to sender reputation so make sure you’re not over looking this massively important part of becoming a better email marketer.
List hygiene
It’s never about the size of a list, it’s about how responsive the users on the list are.
However you look at it always remember that you also need permission. That’s explicit permission where a person has requested information relating to something.
Good list hygiene is key to improving response rates and can also help stop old unresponsive email addresses from turning into Spam traps into your lists over-time.
Issues after pressing send
If you notice something hasn’t quite gone to plan after you’ve pressed ‘Send’ it may not always be a disaster.
Instiller (as i’m sure some other solutions have too) has a number of features that enable you to ‘fix’ issues on-the-fly and reduce any negative impact on your sender reputation and brand.
Create your own process
We’re all trying to help each other become better marketers and with all of the smart tech available these days being better probably comes down to the approach you take.
Hopefully all of the above will have given you ideas about how you can improve your email campaign management processes and if you want a little more inspiration check out these handy guides from the Email Monks: