Our compliance and deliverability team is pretty busy dealing with the dark side of email marketing, but from time-to-time they do find time to share their thoughts. These are their stories.
Quick check, do you follow best practices when it comes to email marketing and deliverability?
Did you pause? Are you not sure? Well not to worry. We are here to help.
If you said yes with 100% conviction, that is awesome, keep doing what you do.
This week, we have compiled a list of questions you should ask yourself to make sure you are following best practices to ensure optimal delivery.
So but on your "truth hat", look yourself in the mirror and answer these questions as best you can. The payoff is a major improvement to your entire email marketing process, which means better delievery, more opens and more action from readers.
1. Do you ask permission before you send email?
- Do you use a newsletter signup form?
- Do you email anyone who signs up for anything?
- Do you respect a users 'marketing settings', or collect them?
For more, please read, Improving Open Rates for Email Marketing Campaigns.
2. Do you set expectations for what a user is going to receive from you?
- Do you tell users what they are going to get?
- Do you tell users how often they can expect messages from you?
- Do you ask for input on what they want to receive?
For more, please read, Getting Engaged With Subscribers Becoming a Must.
3. Do you remove users quickly when they ask?
- Do you use an automated removal method?
- Have you checked to make sure that your removal methods are working?
For more, please read, Compliance 101 - Clean Your Email Marketing Lists.
4. Do you remove inactive email addresses (Hard Bounces) from your lists?
- Does your email system capture these automatically?
- Do you remove users when you get the non-delivery status notification?
For more, please read, Compliance 101: Why Inactive Subscribers Damage Your Email Marketing Power.
5. Is your unsubscribe link/email easy to find?
- Is the unsubscribe method presented in a clear, consistent section of your message?
- Do you include list-unsubscribe headers?
For more, please read, Difference Between Reporting As Spam vs. Unsubscribe.
Time To Review
Did you answer with a "no" to many of the questions above? If so, it is time to start turning them into a "yes" so you can grow your business with email marketing.
As a SimplyCast client. we are already making sure that questions 3, 4 and 5 are covered. See, we are looking out for you. Not a SimplyCast user? Sign up for a fully functional account and send 30,000 emails to 2,000 contacts every month - free.
For more tips and answers when it comes to compliance and deliverability, take a look at our FAQ or older blog posts.
