Usability is one often overlooked area within email marketing messages. But isn't this one of the mission critical points of email marketing? By reviewing all aspects of your emails from the user side, you can gauge the basics of what is and what isn't working from a functionality standpoint.
 |
Jeff Hilimire, President of Spunlogic, offers up these usability instructions: |
There are several key usability issues that can impact the results of your email campaigns. In order to address usability issues, you must first understand the way that people use email.
Email users want their information quick, brief and easy to read. Resist the urge to try and communicate too much information in your emails. Companies often will put as much content in an email as they possibly can, which only frustrates the user.
- Stick to a few main points and a few secondary points.
- Be as brief as possible with your content. Bullet points and small paragraphs work best.
- Linking to your website for the full content not only improves the usability of your emails but also encourages users to explore your website further.
- Large images will also distract users from the real purpose of your email, so don't overcomplicate the issue.
Stick with clean, user-friendly emails and you can be sure to receive better results in 2006.
If content is king on websites, then relevance is king in email. If the user does not find your email relevant as they are reading it, then it is bound for the junk or trash folder.
- Keep in mind that relevance is established immediately from the Sender's email address.
- Review your campaigns to make sure the user can recognize who the Sender is and that you have used a consistent email address throughout the year. A good rule of thumb is to stick with your company name as the Sender.
- You should also review your subject lines to see if they are helping to establish relevance with the user.
- If you have set up tracking in your emails, go back and review what subject lines worked the best and which ones were not as effective.
- If you haven't set up tracking, then make that your first goal of 2006!
For more on relevance, see Bill Nussey's Relevance: the Most Important Target
As President, Jeff Hilimire leads the Spunlogic team with his passion for interactive marketing and experience built on a long track record of client successes. Since co-founding Spunlogic in 1998, he has seen it mature from a small agency to one that many Fortune 500 and 1000 companies seek for its marketing expertise and fresh approach. Under his direction, Spunlogic has been recognized for a number of awards including three national awards from the prestigious Web Marketing Association, as well as gold and silver AMYs from the Atlanta Chapter of the American Marketing Association.
Hilimire's background includes spearheading and developing interactive marketing campaigns for companies including InterContinental Hotels Group, Cox Enterprises, Anheuser Busch, Honey Baked Ham and Georgia Pacific. His expertise in strategy and business processes has also landed him on the Boards of the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association, the American Marketing Association's New Media Special Interest Group and Brand Atlanta, a marketing campaign created to distinguish what makes the city unique.