Any reputable online marketing firm will tell you that successful email advertising is one of the best ways to make your company, product, or service more visible online.  Millions of emails are sent daily, marketing a wide variety of products and services.  For this reason, outstanding email ad design is critical.  In designing your ad you will want to follow guidelines common to any good marketing piece, but you must also optimize your ad to perform in the email marketing environment.

Here are 10 “Do’s” and “Dont’s” for creating a successful email ad:

DO compose the ad using a combination of HTML and text
The use of graphics will draw the reader’s attention better than text alone.  It also allows for brand recognition through the use of a company logo and images of products.  The inclusion of text will help the SPAM score as well as to allow the recipients to read the portion of the email, should their ESP automatically block images.

DON’T feel that you need to close every sale with your email ad
Studies have shown that email ads that are too busy, offer too many choices, and present too much of a “hard sell” perform less effectively.  The primary purpose of your email ad is to get people to click and visit your website or landing page.  That is where the selling should take place.

DO keep the ad clear, concise and specific
This will keep the reader’s attention.  Create a great header to “hook” the reader.  Include three to five details about the product or service in the body of the advertisement.  Finally, be sure to have a call to action such as “Visit our Website.”  The temptation can be to want to tell your reader everything about your product, service, or company in the email.  But, as stated above, long ads often overwhelm the reader and have lower response rates.

DO maintain a greater text-to-image ratio
A ratio of approximately 65% text to 35% images is optimal.  If you include too many images your ad may be identified as spam by a reader’s spam filter.  It is essential to maintain that balance to avoid the pitfalls of using too much text or too many images.

DON’T include the bulk of your message inside the images
Recipient’s who have their email program set to automatically block images will not see the text of your ad if you do this.  By placing the text outside the images, recipients will see your message even if they don’t automatically see your images.

DO include a description of the images you use in the “alternative text” field
This means that, in the event that the images do not automatically display, the recipient will see a description of each image which might entice him or her to display the images.  For example, a furniture company may put a picture in their ad of a dining room set and have the alt text field read, “Mahogany dining set half off.”

DO keep your ad dimensions to 600×600
This allows most recipients to view your entire ad without having to scroll down thereby increasing the chance for a full read.

DO keep the file size and image resolution reasonable
We recommend a file size of 80kb (no larger than 200kb) and resolution of 72 DPI or 80% quality.  These numbers optimize the time it takes for the email to load (a key factor in whether or not it is read) while not sacrificing too much in quality.

DON’T use words, characters, or stylistic cues that will attract attention from spam filters
This will possibly keep your ad from being delivered to the recipient’s inbox.  Here are some things to avoid:  lots of font colors, large font sizes, all caps, excessive punctuation.  Also, trigger phrases like “risk-free” or “Click Here” should be avoided.  (You can find a more extensive list of these here).

DO run the source code of the final copy of your ad through a Spam Check program
A good example is spamcheck.sitesell.com. This free program will give your ad a score based on common spam flags.  It will help you to refine your ad, reducing the likelihood of it getting caught in a spam filter.  We do not recommend sending an ad with a score over 1.9.

Remember, the perfectly designed advertisement is only perfect if it is relevant to the recipients of the e-mail marketing list to which it’s sent.  If this all seems a bit overwhelming and some of the terminology is foreign to you, don’t be alarmed.  We’re here to help if you have questions.  Additionally, please check out our other articles on subjects like finding a reputable online marketing firm and what to look for in an e-mail marketing list.

Okay, so we’ve talked about email marketing mistakes and lead generation mistakes.  Let’s take a look at some common online marketing mistakes.  Clearly a broad topic, this is a mere sampling of many possibilities, but my hope here is that these will keep you from a few of the biggies – those mistakes which seem to plague many who venture into the online marketing world for the first time.  I would urge you to contact us with questions about any of these mistakes.

Lack of analytics
Generally this is a result of one of two things.  The marketer either neglects to set up analytics (on a website, for example), or worse, simply refuses to make use of analytics that are already in place!  Today the online marketer has at his or her disposal a wide variety of analytics tools and software.  The range of things one can accomplish through analytics is invaluable; statistical tracking, revenue tracking, forecasting, communication, and goal setting are a few examples of analytics tools which can help streamline online business efforts.  Do not talk yourself out of using analytics because you are intimidated by the thought of having to learn how to use any particular analytics software.  The investment of time will more than pay for itself.  (If you need help with this, please do not hesitate to contact us – we would love to help!)

“All I need is a website, right?”
It may be laziness, lack of understanding of the online marketing world, or the intimidation factor mentioned above, but all too often we encounter successful business owners for whom this mentality is a reality.  Do not fall into the trap of believing that tossing a website up online will automatically earn you business.  It’s true that many times the first question you get asked about your business is, “What’s your website address?”  It’s an assumption that you have one.  That said, when they hit that site, if it is outdated, unattractive, difficult to navigate, or just doesn’t have well-conceived content, the visitor will leave as quickly as they came.  You don’t need to spend a fortune on your website.  But, keep in mind that most first-time visitors will base their impression of your company’s competence and professionalism on how they view your website.

Misusing SEO
Search engine optimization is often overlooked or overused.  When designing, maintaining, and improving your website, effective use of SEO is essential to an established and effective web presence.  If you find yourself reciting the mantra from the previous session, the importance of SEO has eluded you.  Content tailored to the search engines is the way you’ll improve your ranking, so do not overlook it.  That said, make sure that your content is conducive to your audience, and do not spend so much time/money on SEO that you neglect your other marketing duties.

Lack of planning
The Other IBM – Catapult – TV Ad
IBM put this commercial together several years back which reminds me of the approach of many companies new to online marketing.  When in doubt, spend money.  This is less common in the current economy than it may have been five years ago, but this attitude is an example of how many online marketers try to resolve a lack of planning.  Doing market research, setting goals, developing a marketing strategy, and contingency planning are all part of succeeding in the online business world.  You wouldn’t walk into a business meeting with a prospective client without having done your homework on their business model, their market share, how you can best meet their business needs, etc…  Yet many set up a website, visible to everyone across the globe, without giving any thought to their online strategy.  Don’t make this mistake!

Lack of flexibility
The world of online marketing is constantly changing.  The search engines are always updating their algorithms, new online communication media are popping up, terminology is shifting, and what’s hot today may be old tomorrow.  Be willing to adapt your marketing strategy!  This doesn’t mean that you have to revamp your website every couple of days, but you should keep abreast of effective marketing techniques and what is working for other businesses online.

The topics here cover a lot more ground than we have time to really unpack in this article.  This is merely an overview of the various ways they can manifest themselves, and there can certainly be a great deal more to these mistakes.  I hope that the illustrations provided give you a good overall picture of what to avoid.  As I’ve done several times throughout this piece, I’d urge you to contact us if the online marketing process seems too daunting, if you have any questions about these or other topics, or if you’ve made any of these mistakes with your marketing.  It’s never too late to right the ship and to make your business thrive, and we’d love to help!

I think we can all agree that having goals is good.  It gives you something to shoot for; something to achieve that will likely stretch your limits and cause you to challenge yourself.  Setting smaller goals that are more easily attainable in order to build confidence and momentum can go a long way to the more lofty achievements.  And of course, your strategy is what helps you achieve those goals, so the two go hand in hand, so to speak.

Okay, let’s get down to what email marketing goals and strategies may look like.  It is important to have expectations for any email campaign, as well as a clear purpose for why the campaign is going out, but this is particularly important when you are just beginning or are emailing any list of individuals who do not know you, your company, or your message.  In large part, your goals will depend upon your purposes for the email campaign, and ultimately what strategy you employ to reach those goals.  For example:

Is the campaign for branding?
Are you sending your email campaign in order to generate awareness of and draw attention to your brand?  If so, your strategy might be to send a large volume of email, and to do this on a fairly regular basis.  Studies have shown that individuals are more likely to take some kind of action if they recognize a brand and are accustomed to seeing the name, logo, etc…  Of course, you must always be cognizant of over saturating your audience with email messages.

For a branding campaign, monitoring the email deliverability and the number of recipients who opened your email is important.  You can bet that if they opened it, they took a look at the content.  So, hopefully you had a clear, concise, and catchy message (more about email content here), with your name and/or logo readily visible.

Is your goal to drive traffic to your website?
Like a branding campaign, volume is key with any email campaign intended primarily to drive traffic to your website.  Also, like a branding campaign, deliverability and opens are important factors in analyzing the email campaign results, but here click-through’s are equally important.  If the goal is to make sure that the individuals see your website content, it is essential that they click on your email ad.  For this, your strategy must be a bit different.  The recipient must click for this campaign’s goal to be reached, so having a clear call to action is imperative.  A clear and large, “Visit our website to learn more!” is a good example.

Are you looking to get sign-up’s or to make sales?
A sign-up could be for anything: an email newsletter, a mailing list, a petition, etc…  Of course, a sale speaks for itself.  All of the other elements are important:  deliverability, click-through ratio, a clear call to action, but we’ve added a new piece of strategy into the equation.  Although the sale itself should take place on your website and NOT in your email ad, the strategy to drive the recipient to the website must be a bit different than in the case of simply driving traffic.  You want to offer the recipient a glimpse of what is available, so that when he or she reaches your site interest is piqued for that product or service.

For this particular email marketing campaign in which you are looking for the recipient to take action, a high volume mailing is likely not the best strategy right out of the gate.  This is where split-testing can be a very useful strategy as well.  You will want to do as much testing as possible to be sure that the most effective email ad, list, etc… is being utilized.  Ultimately, this is more easily quantifiable because you will be able to count those actions (sign-up’s or sales) to see how the campaign performed, but it is still important to look at every element.  If you receive a much higher number of opens on a particular test, but the number of clicks goes down, you know it’s time to look at the email ad.

It is important to note that with any of the goals mentioned above, a crucial part of your strategy must be your email list.  Targeting the correct audience is one of the most important ways to ensure that you are not wasting time and money emailing individuals who have no interest in your message.

In examining improved email deliverability last time, we discussed the importance of using seed emails, using a proven email template, and maintaining clean lists and IP’s.  If you missed the first part of this series, you can find it here.

This time, we’ll focus a bit more on the email itself, as well as keeping track of statistics.  So, on to the final four:

Use a combination of text and HTML
Most SPAM filters and content filters these days are very selective with regard to which emails get through.  Emails which are heavy on graphics often trigger these filters.  Does that mean that you can never send an email with images or other graphics?  No!  But, including a mixture of text and graphics/images will allow these filters to “see” the email’s text and having that text-to-image ratio will increase the likelihood of successful Inbox delivery.  Designing your email ad with images separate from text will also allow recipients whose email client automatically blocks images the ability to read the body of the email.

Watch for SPAM phrases
To go along with the point above, SPAM filters love to grab emails which include certain words or phrases which are commonly associated with SPAM.  Regardless of whether they are used in a From or Subject line, in the body of the email ad, or as text behind an image, if these words or phrases are in the email then the SPAM filters will find.  Your email ad will be on its way to the cyber dump.

For a list of words and phrases to avoid in email marketing please visit here.

Keep/Monitor stats/delivery reports
This is the best way to know how your email marketing campaigns are doing with regard to deliverability.  Of course, gauging response rates is very important as well, but unless you are carefully monitoring your analytics reports, you will never know the true response rates for your email marketing campaigns.  For example, suppose that you have mailed two campaigns asking recipients to sign up for your newsletter.  For each campaign, you have received 10 sign-ups.  You are disappointed because you needed 12 to make it feasible to continue with the email marketing campaign, so you are thinking of scrapping your email advertisement altogether and trying something new.  What if you discovered that you were only achieving 30% email deliverability because of the use of a few SPAM phrases?  What if you could get that deliverability percentage up to 70%?  What about 90%?  Closely studying your statistics and analytics will give you the information you need to improve your campaigns and achieve greater ROI for each email campaign.

Use an experienced and reputable email marketing service
There are a great many email marketing companies out there.  When interviewing (yes, you should interview and ask specific questions – it is your money!) a company for your email marketing campaigns, there are certain questions…  Do they offer any type of service guarantee?  Do they own the email deployment software or do they resell another company’s service?  These are a few of the questions you should ask.  A good email marketing company should have happy clients and a reputation of integrity.

For more on questions to ask, please visit here.

One of the most common mistakes made by business owners and companies making their first foray into online marketing is to give up on email marketing too quickly because of less-than-stellar results.  There are a great many factors that go into successful email marketing, and if the appropriate time and care is taken, email marketing can be a very powerful marketing tool for any growing business.

One of the first keys to successful email marketing is deliverability, i.e. the number of emails that are successfully delivered to recipients’ Inboxes.  (For more online marketing terminology, please visit our Glossary here.)

In this first part, we have outlined four of eight ways to improve your email’s deliverability:

Test your messages first via seed emails
The use of seed emails is extremely important to testing deliverability.  These email addresses should be from various email service providers (ESP’s) so that you are able to monitor which messages make it to inboxes.  SPAM filters these days are more and more selective, but using seed emails to test will allow you to determine which messages, code structures, etc… have the highest deliverability rate.

Use an email template that you know works
This seems obvious, right?  Yes, but it requires testing, which is something many first time email marketers are not expecting.  Unfortunately, it is not as easy as putting together an ad and hitting “Send.”  This step falls right in line with the seed email addresses, and taking the time to perform this testing will pay dividends in your email marketing efforts down the road.

Make sure your list is clean
Another apparent no-brainer, but the list cleaning process is often overlooked.  It is extremely important, not just for optimal email deliverability in the short term, but also to maintain IP reputation.  So, of course, old and outdated addresses which are no longer deliverable must be removed, but also be sure to maintain an updated suppression list as well as a list of individuals who tend to complain.

Make sure your IP’s are clean
As addressed above, this is essential.  As an IP’s reputation is damaged, your deliverability will suffer.  List hygiene and a current suppression list will go a long way toward ensuring clean IP’s.  Additionally, removing opt-out’s immediately and addressing complaints promptly will contribute to a good emailing reputation.

For more tips on improving email deliverability, keep an eye on ThriveMG.com!

Coming up with an effective and successful e-mail marketing campaign requires the perfection of three main parts of the e-mail: the from line, the subject line, and the ad itself.  Your time spent creating an effective campaign can be made more productive by the use of some persuasive techniques.

In the from line of the e-mail, you want to establish your credibility.  You can do this by using your company name.  This creates a sense of trustworthiness on your part, and will encourage a higher open rate.  Once you have established your credibility, you can draw on Monroe’s Motivated Sequence to help with the rest.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a five step process of persuasion:
1. Attention: present a problem, make an offer, or use legitimate statistics to gain your audience’s interest
2. Need: convince your recipients that a specific action must be taken to solve the problem/accept the offer
3. Satisfaction: tell your audience how your product or service can help
4. Visualization: show what will happen if they accept your offer, and what will happen if they do not
5. Action: tell the recipients exactly how to accept your offer or buy your product/service

Relating this to your e-mail marketing campaign. . .

The subject line of your e-mail is where you get the recipient’s attention.  Without losing your credibility, you should make an offer or present an interesting idea to your audience.  If advertising beauty products, a subject line that says “Get rid of wrinkles now – $25 worth of free products” would be more effective than a subject line that just said “beauty secrets.”  Knowing what subject lines to use and not use, can help raise your open rate.  Once you have settled on something that will make people want to learn more, you can move on to creating the ad itself.

This motivated sequence is meant to get people to take a specific action, which is what you’re trying to achieve with your campaign.  You should briefly show your audience they have a need that your product or service can satisfy.  Then you need to show what the effects will be if they accept your business, and what the effects will be if they do not.  Again, in the case of a campaign for cosmetics, this step could be achieved with a before and after photo.

Finally, you need to incite the recipient to take action.  The better your call to action is, the higher click-through rate you will have.  To do this you need to clearly explain to your audience how to attain your product or service, and where they can go to find out more information about it.  You could include a link that says “Click here now to receive your offer” so that there should be no confusion on the recipients’ end about what to do next.  Therefore, your audience will go to your website or landing page, and your campaign will have a higher rate of success.

A common question of first time email marketers is whether they should opt for List Rental or List Purchase. This article will outline the major differences between the two, as well as lay out some facts for both options.

List Rental

The main thing to keep in mind here is that the records will not be yours to keep, and you will most likely not have direct access to the actual data at all. You are simply paying for the right to use the data source’s targeted lists to complete your email campaigns, but at no time will you actually own any data.

This is a good option for those new to email marketing who may just be testing the waters. But rental is also a good option for the seasoned, frequent email marketer who would like to avoid the necessary labor involved with owning and maintaining the data itself.

Prices for List Rental should include strategy assistance, the use of the records in your campaign, the actual delivery of the email blast, and statistical tracking. At Thrive, we provide all of these services. Learn more about List Rental.

Facts about List Rental
1. You are not responsible for the deployment or logistics of your email campaign. The email service provider takes care of that for you.
2. No investment for data. Pay as you go with no long-term commitment. You do not need to maintain a mailing platform with IPs with good reputations, reporting and CAN-SPAM compliance.
3. Suppression/opt-out lists are managed for you. You are not required to do the work of collecting unsubscribes and cleaning your list of hard bounces. This should also be managed for you by your email service provider.

Thrive’s 3% Open Rate Guarantee
In addition to everything mentioned above, Thrive offers a 3% Open Rate Guarantee on all of our email campaigns. If your campaign does not achieve at least a 3% open rate, we will rerun it at no additional cost until it does.

List Purchase

Purchasing records is a different process. While some companies, like Thrive, will email campaigns to purchased lists as an additional service, the purchase of a list is a separate process from the mailing or deployment. List purchase involves the actual transfer of ownership of the data itself.

This is a good option for individuals who intend to email the same targeted list long-term, or who may use additional data fields for other forms of marketing such as Direct mail, Fax and Telemarketing. While the purchasing of records may be a larger initial investment, the decreased cost of sending email campaigns to these records yourself (rather than continually renting the data) will eventually make up the difference and pay for itself.

Prices for list purchase should include the actual list of records, including all fields of data available for each record.

Facts about List Purchase
1. You are responsible for the deployment, logistics, and optimization of your e-mail campaign. However, if you do not have the bandwidth or software necessary to send a large blast while staying compliant with commercial e-mailing laws, or if you are unsure of how to optimize your campaign so that you reach more in-boxes, you can hire an email service provider to send your campaign for you.
2. While some companies (like Thrive) will supply you with a suppression list after campaign completions, you are ultimately responsible for the maintenance of your purchased list. Because the data is now in your hands, the cleanliness and updating of that list is your responsibility.

Thrive’s 95% Email Accuracy Guarantee
Thrive offers a 95% Email Accuracy Guarantee. If you mail to your entire purchased list within 30 days of purchase, and you receive more than 5% hard bounces from the mailing, we will happily replace those records, provide you with a prorated refund, or a credit towards another purchase.

If you have any questions…
About which option is right for your marketing goals, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our friendly and helpful Marketing Strategists:

Call Toll-free – 866.673.7004
or Email us at inquiries@thrivemg.com

The Rundown on Campaign Stats

What stats should you be tracking to measure campaign performance?
The answer to this question can vary depending on your ultimate marketing goals. Success can take on different meanings for different people. Here we will provide you with a list of what we consider to be the most basic and important campaign tracking analytics.

Open Rate
The Open Rate represents the number of campaign emails opened divided by the total number of emails sent out. If your open rate is low, it could be either a deliverability issue or something like an ineffective subject line.

At Thrive, not only will we consult with you to create the most effective subject lines, but we also have a 3% Open Rate guarantee on all of our campaigns. If your campaign doesn’t achieve the guaranteed Open Rate, we will rerun the campaign at no extra cost until it does.

Click-Thru’s
This metric represents the number of people who actually clicked on a link in the ad itself after opening the email. If this number is low, consider revising your ad or making the offer more desirable. Often times, you simply need a clearer call-to-action. Read our other blog post about Good vs. Bad Campaign examples.

Unsubscribes
This one is important. You or the company sending out your email must collect this information. This is the first step in remaining compliant with current SPAM laws. There must be a way for recipients of every email you send out to opt out of your future mailings. Once you collect that information, you have 10 days to remove them from your mailing list. You should never send email to that address again – unless, of course, they opt back in at a future date.

At Thrive, we manage this list for every client at no extra cost. We make your suppression list available for download at the conclusion of every campaign.

Bouncebacks
There are two types of Bouncebacks – hard bounces and soft bounces.
Hard Bounces are failures due to email addresses or domains that no longer exist. This can be caused by a few things – people changing email addresses, closing accounts, changing jobs, etc… These should be removed from your mailing list as to not negatively affect deliverability rates. Read our post about keeping good list hygiene [link to Keeping Good Hygiene]

Soft Bounces can be caused by any number of things – a full inbox, ISP server issues, auto-replies, and deferrals. A soft bounce indicates an issue on the recipient’s end. This does not necessarily mean that the address does not exist.

While these basic metrics can tell you a lot about the results of your campaign, it’s important to keep in mind that these are just numbers unless you know what to do with them. If you have a low open rate, look into your deliverability or work on improving your subject lines. If your click thru’s are suffering, work on improving your email ad. More than average unsubscribes? Consider the frequency of your emails as well as the content contained therein.

If you would like to learn more about what these stats mean and how to use them to improve your email marketing campaigns, contact a Thrive Marketing Strategist by:

Calling Toll-Free – 866.673.7004
or Emailing us at inquiries@thrivemg.com

Best Practices: List Hygiene

How to keep your lists clean and up-to-date
Very few practices in email marketing are as important as keeping your data clean and up-to-date. Without clean, valid data, you cannot expect the good results that everyone desires.

So how can you make sure you (and your data source) are doing everything possible to maintain a good list? The following are the most basic steps we take for every client here at Thrive Marketing:

1. Maintain your Opt-out / Suppression List
- This is vital to remaining compliant with the CAN/SPAM act
- Be sure to give the recipient the option to opt-out in every email you send
- Remove every opt-out from your company’s mailing list within 10 days of the request.
At Thrive Marketing, we will supply you with your suppression list at the completion of every campaign for no extra charge.

2. Bounce Backs/ Failures
- Monitor and record your hard bounces (email address or domain no longer exist) so that you can remove them from future mailings.
- Add these to your Master List of Failures; these records should never be mailed to again.
- At Thrive, we clean our lists weekly and will never mail to or sell records that are on our Master List of Failures

3. Add new records regularly
- At Thrive Marketing, we add new records to our database daily. Over 1 million Consumer records and 250,000 Business records are added every week. It’s important to keep a steady flow of new and relevant high-quality data to utilize for your email marketing campaigns.

Why is it important?
At the most basic level, the answer is simple – it will save you a lot of headaches. Having clean data will allow you to rest easy in the fact that you are mailing to the best, and most responsive, list possible. A cleaned list will improve your deliverability rates and will also keep your reputation intact with ISPs. ISPs will actually block your emails if they see you are sending emails to a lot of non-existent addresses.

Before you start your next email marketing campaign, make sure you and your data source are practicing good list hygiene. It can be the difference between a successful and a failed campaign.

Creating a successful email marketing campaign involves many aspects: choosing the right from line, subject lines, list selection, and including a well-designed ad.

Below is an example of a bad campaign as well as a good campaign. We hope it will teach you a thing or two about email marketing. But keep in mind that when you use Thrive’s email marketing services, you have access to your own personal Email Marketing Consultant who will guide you through the entire process, giving you recommendations to ensure that your campaign gets the best possible result.

Bad Ad:

Good Ad: