Posted December 17, 2006
- Include a small taster of your email’s content in the subject line. Don’t mislead the recipient into opening your mail - this will most likely lead to your address being swiftly added to the ‘blocked senders’ list and a new reputation as a ’spammer’.
- Always offer an unsubscribe link - LiveWire Campaign makes it easy for the recipient to unsubscribe by automatically adding a link to the bottom of your mails. Don’t try to remove it. You’ll get spam complaints and get blocked from the LiveWire Campaign system.
- Avoid Manic Monday and Frantic Friday - don’t underestimate the timing of your email - statistics indicate that recipients are more receptive to offers at midday midweek. Just before lunch is often a good time. Recipients’ are more likely to browse their emails while they eat their sandwich!
- Your user may not have the very latest PC capable of revealing cutting-edge graphics, so keep them to a minimum and keep file sizes small by processing them first in a good paint package before uploading them to LiveWire. Remember to make links within the email relevant and easily navigated.
- Limit the number of emails you send - inundating inboxes can be frustrating to the reader and inevitably end in deletion. Try to limit yourself to 1 per week/fortnight/month. The more frequent and persistent your emails are - the more likely it is that recipients will unsubscribe.
- Always include contact details and links to your website- obvious but easily forgotten!
- Don’t make your emails too long. Nobody is going to read a novel that arrives in their inbox! Create links back to your website for supporting information instead. Remember, you’re trying to find out who’s interested in your offer and relevant click-throughs will tell you.
- Use your newsletter to carry out market research - an ideal market, receptive to your information, product and offers is ideal. Relevant information is more likely to get read.
- Use the name of the recipient in the body of the email - LiveWire Campaign enables you to do this easily and personalisation will help your open rates.
- Test, test, test - make small changes to your mails and check the results in Analyser. Small tweaks can make a big difference to your results. Test your campaigns to small groups before sending to your final list.
