With an email checklist, you won't have to bite your nails every time you send out a campaign.<BR>
Email marketing is not for the faint of heart. If there's a problem with an ad campaign or on your website, your face may be red. But if something goes awry with an email campaign, embarrassment may be the least of your problems. In addition to lost revenue, you may reduce your future deliverability and even get in trouble with the law.
In the rush of getting an email campaign out the door, it's easy to overlook crucial elements that can make or break its success.
Make sure your email marketing message looks right before you hit "send." Here are eight basic checkpoints so that no matter how harried you get, your campaign will still look great.
Are you sending to the right list?
If you're sending a targeted offer, be certain you're actually sending it to the right list or segment of your list.
If the email is an invitation to a select event for your top customers, double check that only they get it. Or, if you're offering a special discount, check that recent purchasers won't get the offer and that the "from" name and email addresses are recognizably from your organization.
Many email clients don't show the email address your message is coming from, just the name. So, unless the "from" name is instantly recognizable (Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Oprah), make certain the name is clearly from your company and not from you personally.
Although some email readers only show the name, others (AOL most notably) only show the "from" email address. So make sure that address is friendly and is actually from your organization, not your ESP.
Make sure the "from" address works
Even if you specify different addresses for the "reply to" address or inform recipients not to reply, it's a good idea to check to see what recipients will get if they do reply to the "from" address.
Ideally, it would be to a monitored mailbox, but the volume of "out of office" messages may make this option impractical. If nothing else, respond to messages with an auto responder that tells customers how they can legitimately contact you for common requests.
Some ESPs can filter responses, for example they can unsubscribe in the subject line or remove the address. There are also companies that will monitor and respond to recipient responses to your email campaigns.
Make the subject line accurate, short and compelling
Aim for accuracy because you're trying to engender trust with recipients (aren't you?), but also because the Can-Spam Act of 2003 requires it.
Make it short because many email clients will only show the first 6-8 words of the subject line, and you don't want to lose potential openers because the value of your message is at the end.
Make it compelling, because everyone gets a lot of email nowadays, so why should recipients open your message now, instead of later, tomorrow or whenever they get around to it?
Ensure the message has a text portion. Most ESPs can send your message in a format called multi-part alternative, meaning there are two parts of the message, text and HTML. The email reader will pick which one to display, which is usually the HTML part, while the text part is invisible to most recipients.
So why bother with the text part at all? Spam filters may ding your content if there's no text portion. It's unlikely that a lack of text would be the sole cause for your message to be filtered, but including one is an easy way to improve the odds.
Include a link to read the message outside of email
No matter how much testing you do, there will still be someone out there who can't read your message. Include a "read online" link so that no matter how bad the message looks, recipients can see how it was supposed to look.
Check all images and links
Sounds like a no-brainer, but with image suppression as the norm for many email clients, you might not realize the red "x" remains even when the images are enabled. Make sure you check that images and links work even outside your network.
Many ESPs offer tools that verify that the links in your message go somewhere, but they are no substitute for actually clicking on the link to ensure they not only go to a page but the right page.
If you're using clickthrough tracking, make certain that the redirect is working properly and the data is being recorded.
Include a working unsubscribe link
Just because it looks like a link and like it does something doesn't mean it's getting the job done. The key here is that it has to really stop the recipient from getting more mail from you. Check the backend database if necessary to ensure the recipient status really has been changed.
And make sure the unsubscribe process gives some response indicating that it worked. If it's all unclear, subscribers might click the spam button for added reassurance.
Include a physical address
Another one of those Can-Spam basics is that a physical address assures subscribers that they can contact you somehow, and it shows ISPs you know what you're doing.
View the message through several different email accounts
The trick is to view the message where your customers are. If you are principally a B2C, check AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail at a minimum. If you are B2B, check Outlook 2003/2007, Outlook Express and Lotus Notes.
Check not only the entire message with images enabled but also images disabled, and in the preview screen as well. If you don't have access to some of the readers your customers are using, there are several companies that offer inbox snapshots to help you proof your messages.
This checklist is just the beginning. You'll want to add more checks depending on your production process. With a quality control checklist, you may not be exactly nonchalant, but you won't have to bite your nails every time you send out a campaign.
Wendy Roth is strategic account manager for Lyris Technologies. Read full bio.