Are there rules when you want to put your two cents in this Discussion List?

Discussion Lists are based on a group of people of like interests, using email to “discuss” their interests among one another. They are online communities without boundaries. Unlike the traditional announcement list, the discussion list facilitates two-way communication among its members as members can read all posts to the list and can reply to the topic at hand.

Internet etiquette for email discussion lists covers acceptable online behavior for group communication: from ones manners to one’s action. In fact, members or subscribers of most discussion lists expect fellow members to follow some sort of standard set of rules, rules that have been established by the Internet Community and rules that have been established by the list they joined.

Rules are in place to keep things orderly: the greater the number of unrelated subscribers participating in a discussion list, the greater the potential for an online disagreement. An unmoderated lively discussion group representing different points of view can turn ugly; therefore, rules of acceptable behavior should ask members to:

Be Polite to your fellow list members.
Read the FAQ and rules of this list: know the procedure to post before you put your two cents in.
Review the list archives (if available); so you know what’s been covered as list members typically do not like to rehash old issues.
Refrain from being a “me too” poster.
Be careful using auto responders, a discussion list doesn’t need to be flooded with “I’m on vacation” each time a new message posts to the list.
Trim your replies.

Remember

List members do not have to reside in the United States; they could be from any country. Therefore, do not assume everyone will have the same reference point as you do, such as using the name of a popular TV show to make a point, comparison or idea.

Actual List Rules pertaining to a specific list you join are most likely different from List to List. A typical set of list specific rules may read like this:

Don’t assume all rules for all lists are the same.
Do not post off topic, keep your posts (questions, comments or answers) relevant to the current subject of the discussion group.
Do not reply to an off topic post.
When you are unavailable for several days, suspend your account or consider unsubscribing temporarily, from the list.
Sometime it really does make more sense to contact someone directly rather than post in public.
When you write to the list by selecting reply, wear the list editor hat. A Discussion list response email (reply) will copy everything that was included from the previous person or people. Before you post to the group, remove all text unrelated to your response. This includes minimizing quotations to read only the necessary text. Remove the multiple, unrelated footer. This will avoid posting “long duplicated text” especially if your comment is only one line afterward.
Posting a longer than usual message? Warn the readers with a statement at the top of the mail message. Example: WARNING: LONG MESSAGE.
If you MUST cross post messages to multiple groups, include the name of the groups at the top of the mail message with an apology for any duplication.
Follow the Golden Rule: post to others as you would have others post to you. Resist all temptations to provoke an angry response also called “flaming” other list members.
Occasionally subscribers to the list who are not familiar with proper netiquette will submit requests to SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE directly to the list itself. Be tolerant of this activity, and possibly provide some useful advice as opposed to being critical.
Other people on the list are not interested in your desire to be added or deleted.
Any requests regarding administrative tasks such as being added or removed from a list should be made to the appropriate area, not the list itself. Using the unsubscribe link is preferable for example, however
Putting in your two cents
if you must email these types of requests they should be sent to the following address,xxx@lyris.dundee.net, not to the list itself.

Email discussion list services is an effective, timely communication solution, for any group of people, any time, no matter their age, status, title, location, online now or later. And when you follow the rules the conversations flow smoothly.

Are there rules when you want to put your two cents in this Discussion List? Read More »

Pardon me; can you pass your email without all the trimmings?

Discussion Lists / Pat

Pardon me; can you pass your email without all the trimmings?

On a properly configured discussion list an unsubscribe footer is always included; usually at the bottom of the post. The unsubscribe footer is unique to each user and should never be included in a reply.

Need to trim

List members who are unaware of proper list etiquette may respond to a discussion list post by merely replying, inadvertently copying all the previous footers in the said discussion thread. Therefore, the List Admin should educate their discussion list subscribers to trim their replies as a courtesy to the other subscribers. In other words users should be trimming replies of extraneous text that is not relevant to the message topic…including the footer.

Take the case of a list member who decided to unsubscribe herself from the discussion list she on. She replied to the post she was reading by asking how to unsubscribe from the list. She either did not see the unsubscribe footer, did not trust it, or wanted everyone to know she wanted to leave. AND in her reply to the list, she did not trim off the previous footers, (or her own). Her reply post therefore, contained her unique unsubscribe link and unique unsubscribe email address.

Apparently, several people on the list clicked on her unique unsubscribe link on her behalf—to remove her from the list. Each time the link was clicked on, the system would change her status to ‘needs-goodbye’, then send her the goodbye letter, and then change her status to ‘unsub’. The member complained that the program was in a loop. Common discussion list etiquette (aka Netiquette), if followed, would have prevented this from happening.

This bad habit will not only annoy experienced list users, but can also cause confusion and/or be used to cause mischief (malicious unsubscribes). If a List Admin allows this to go on, it can also lead to declining membership via people unsubscribing because of the ‘noise level’ of the list.

Users should be taught (encouraged) to use the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each message if they want to be removed from a discussion list, as sending remove requests to a discussion list is common and not unexpected. When such a public request is made the List Admin should just quietly remove the member. In this case, the subscriber failing to trim her reply, allowing other subscribers to also attempt to remove her, compounded the issue.

Here are a few good links to sites with Netiquette guidelines and advice. You may want to glean from these and create your own Netiquette guide for your clients.

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1855
(old advice, but still relevant and the official RFC on the subject)

https://lifehacker.com/basic-etiquette-for-email-lists-and-forums-5473859

Need a discussion list hosted? Discussion List Services ideal for group projects and collaboration, both in and out of the office.

Pardon me; can you pass your email without all the trimmings? Read More »

The Email Puzzle

Email Marketing / Pat

The Email Puzzle

Are you puzzled why Email marketing is still around?

It’s not going away anytime soon because it’s an industry within itself. Think of what it’s produced:

Email Service Providers (ESP) – in-house , onsite, 3^rd party
Experts – in everything from deliverability and sender reputation, to content placement
College certificates and degrees
E- books and white papers
Webinars
Reference materials
Blogs
Guidelines
Rules and Regulations
SPAMMERS and SPAM watchdogs and a host of other ancillary industries who offer services from email appendage to whitelisting.

There are email professionals, consultants, statisticians and guest speakers. There’s online advertisers using banner ads and sponsorships while spending hundreds of dollars for ad placement with Google and Yahoo. There’s post card mailings and magazine ads and those who spend thousands of dollars on radio and TV commercials.

Entire associations exist because of email marketing, such as MAAWG and The Email Experience Council offering advice and expertise.

Then there are companies that offer to rent or sell lists. You can market your new list yourself with OTC software or hire a professional to manage it for you. AND there’s established company’ working against that practice

The entire industry for the most part speaks in the new language of email, using words and phrases such as segments, Transactional, Asynchronous Bounce and Domain Key.

Web development has its own part too by integrating web visitor stats with email campaigns, generating detailed reports and graphs that hire experts read and interpret. And don’t forget about the content writers and graphic designers.

And that’s just scratching the surface: There’s so much more to add..

The Email Puzzle Read More »

Quick Tips For This Month Only; The First 50 People Reading This Email Marketing Blog Will Learn The Four Key Elements For Incoming Lead Generation.

Quick Tips / Pat

Quick Tips For This Month Only; The First 50 People Reading This Email Marketing Blog Will Learn The Four Key Elements For Incoming Lead Generation.

Got your attention!

You’re reading this! That’s great considering I only used two of

Key Elements

the four key elements in my title.

Imagine the response I would get if I used all four key elements for incoming lead generation!

Imagine the response you would get by using all four key elements, which by the way are:

Number 1 – The Offer; everyone likes an offer and the more valuable the offer the better the response. Offers come in many forms, eBooks, coupons, demonstrations to free consultations and online webinars.

The best way to create seductive offers:

Make your offer scarce – something that is available to a selective few
Limit the time (this week only)
Limit the Quantity (only 20 seats left for the webinar)
Limit the time and the Quantity (the first 50 people who respond to this email will receive a 50% discount, while supply lasts)
There is strength in numbers: advertise how many people are participating in your webinar, your blog, your conference or your email list (10 million subscribers can’t be wrong)

Have an amazing download offer? Be wary of what you title it. With a little A/B testing you might discover that people really do judge a book by its cover. Which white paper title would you find more appealing: “7 totally got to have it now email marketing tips” or “Email Productivity”?

And just like the whitepaper title, you may find less response to your marketing emails when you use words such as scalable, next generation and ground breaking; familiar over used meaningless terms and phrases.

Number 2 – The Call to Action or the CTA can be implied or explicit. Call to Actions have common expressions which include action words such as “Click here”, “Download Now” , “join today” or “Order” Place your Call to Action in an area that is immediately viewable by your subscriber; Better yet, put your CTA in two places, top and middle of your email or webpage.

Create a little color contrast to highlight your CTA
Connect your Call to Action to a specific landing page that is relevant to your offer
Promoting more than one CTA in your newsletter, link each to its own specifically designed landing page

Number 3 – The Landing Page the webpage where your subscriber will land after they perform your Call to Action. Such as clicking on the “Join Here” link.

Along with your offer, encourage your visitor to share this great deal with their friends
Your landing page, also known as the “Lead Capture Page” is the place where you convert your visitors into leads. Consider researching the components of an effective Landing page to get optimal results

Number 4 – The Form

In exchange for your offer, typically on your landing page, use a form to collect relevant contact information from your website visitor.

They filled out the form, you collected their contact information
Don’t go nuts and ask for tons of information: the less fields someone has to fill in the more likely you will glean more conversions
Don’t forget to say Thank you, and of course take that opportunity to promote more great offers

Can you see how this all ties together? ALWAYS include a Call to Action, as any solicitation is incomplete and ineffective without one.

Today and tomorrow only, the first 25 people who sign up for our list hosting services, will receive a 50% discount off their first months invoice. Don’t delay, order today. (Add in the comment section of the order form, “I want my discount”)

Quick Tips For This Month Only; The First 50 People Reading This Email Marketing Blog Will Learn The Four Key Elements For Incoming Lead Generation. Read More »

How Many YAHOO Email Subscribers Will You Lose?

Announcement Lists / Pat

How Many YAHOO Email Subscribers Will You Lose?

In June, Yahoo announced their plans to recycle all of their inactive Yahoo ID’s (Yahoo email accounts) starting on July 15^th. If you have not logged into your Yahoo account for at least a year, and want to keep your Yahoo ID active, simply log into your Yahoo account by July 15 2013.

Bounced mail in all forms

July 15 2013 starts the 30-day end date, when theoretically:

1. All inactive Yahoo email accounts will hard bounce any email sent to them.

2. Yahoo will unsubscribe inactive accounts “from commercial emails such as newsletters and email alerts.”

3. During this time you can sign up for an inactive Yahoo email ID, however you need to wait until August 15 2013 the drop-dead date for completion, when, according to Yahoo, it will be revealed if you actually got the Yahoo ID you asked for.

Rumor has it that recycling these inactive Yahoo accounts can lead to potential:

1. Mass identify thief: My email back up on Amazon.com is a yahoo account, forwards to my main email. I only got the Yahoo ID email because Amazon wanted a secondary email address. I haven’t purchased anything from Amazon for a long while, and gee, I forgot about the account until recently when I checked my credit card statement. I tried to log on I can’t: someone else has my old Yahoo ID and apparently, now my credit card information too.

2. Increase reports of SPAM: The “NEW” pat@yahoo.com didn’t subscribe to your list they certainly didn’t opt-in.

3. Hacking made easy: Yahoo is everywhere: Using a Yahoo ID for your “professional” website is a bad idea, especially since no one emails you at that address; customers and prospects always call you or send their inquiries to a different department. The Yahoo ID attached to your site, just sat dormant and now it doesn’t even belong to you – you can remove it from your website and business cards now.

4. Deception: Your former company insisted that everyone get Yahoo ID for company email. You left a year ago, you never deleted your Yahoo account, and the former company has your Yahoo ID as active in their email system. So happens the new owner of your Yahoo ID is in the same industry and realizes that they can receive their competitor’s announcements and newsletters.

5. False hope: and what about all those people who falsify their online ID’s with Yahoo, they just wanted to download a white paper, here comes more potential spam.

6. Trapped! Many ISPs are known to turn dormant email accounts into SPAM TRAPS.

Those are just rumors…right?

Solution: Well the obvious is to sign into your Yahoo account before July 15, if you still want it.

As an Email Marketer:

1. Review your Yahoo member lists
2. Consider a re engagement plan for those inactive ID’s.- concentrate on those who have not opened their email in the past 45 to 60 days with 2 or 3 sends.
3. Review bounces so you know what to expect.
4. Continue to delete those hard bounces and always practice good email maintenance at all times.

And for the rumors, I suppose we’ll all have to wait and see what happens.

How Many YAHOO Email Subscribers Will You Lose? Read More »

You Can Lead a Subscriber to Water (often) but you Can’t Make Him Drink (or in this case open your email)

Email Marketing / Pat

You Can Lead a Subscriber to Water (often) but you Can’t Make Him Drink (or in this case open your email)

As an email marketer, do you walk that fine line of optimal sending frequency? Should you increase the rate of your email campaigns or should you send your email campaigns out less often? Can you teach an old dog-new tricks, because, just like working with the dog, the only way you’re going to know if a sending frequency change works in your favor, is by trying it.

When it comes to an increase in mailing frequency, do you believe having more is better and actually merrier; or do you believe that having too much of a good thing is really a bad thing?

Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

On the other hand, will any change in mailing frequency upset the apple cart? Will you be forgotten, out of sight out of mind, if you mail less? Will your newsletters be missed or will a decrease in mailings get your subscribers attention as absence makes the heart grow fonder, or does it?

Should you increase your mailing frequency, hoping to engage your subscribers more often? But then again, if everything appears to be working well why change it. After all, you don’t want to kill the goose that laid the olden egg by upsetting your happy subscribers who seems totally satisfied with the amount of email they receive from you. In this case it may not be prudent to change your email frequency, not without consulting your subscribers, first.

Is sending large volumes of email really an ends to a mean (more subscriber engagement, higher ROI?) Frequency Balance(tm) is the key factor here, between how often you want to mail compared to how often your recipients want your email. And why do you want to mail more often – because you have something to share?

Something urgent, something new, something relevant, something borrowed (list?) something blue?

Or are you increasing your mailing frequency because:

You have a sponsorship deadline and you need bigger numbers?
Your reports indicate the more email opens, the more money.
This is the only list you have to send to and have so much to say.
You want to engage your customers more, encourage them to visit your website, follow a link etc.

Sounds logical, increase your mailing frequency, increase your customer engagement. However some email marketers have noticed, at times, there is an adverse effect on subscriber engagement; when you email too much, it declines.

On the other hand, barring Results not Typical, several email marketers have noted an increase in subscriber engagement when they increase the mailing frequency.

What’s a marketer to do?

Do your own research; compare the numbers between sending frequency and engagements per campaign and see if you notice an engagement decline or an increase.

Make sure you’re using a healthy list and:

Be Consistent when you measure your results.
Adjust your mailing frequency base on engagement ratios (currently 2 X a week out of 7 day, increase to 3X a week out of 7 days).
Segment your list from highly engaged customers who interact with your product to segments comprised of those with less interest.

And test, test, test, the frequency and the type of content you’re planning on sending.

Your content should continually engage your customers:

Provide them with an offer that instigates your email recipient to interact with your offer.
Let you subscribers provide you with information about their mailing preferences in content and engagement.
Occasionally ask your email subscribers for comments and opinions.
Don’t forget to set your recipients expectations, what they are going to receive from you, with a Welcome letter.
Appropriate targeting and segmentation will grow the value of your email message, which in the long run, drives engagement.
Don’t spill the beans all on the first page, have your copy give them a reason to click to read more.

Contact Dundee Email Services to learn more.

You Can Lead a Subscriber to Water (often) but you Can’t Make Him Drink (or in this case open your email) Read More »

Don’t let your Email Promotions “go to the dogs”

Quick Tips / Pat

Don’t let your Email Promotions “go to the dogs”

Email newsletter QUICK TIPS

3 quick tips to maximize the benefits of any email campaign.

1. Create an email-marketing program that is predominantly an educational tool but also – operates both as a member acquisition method and loyalty plan.

it’s a dog’s life

2. Use features like triggered mailings, allow the software to decide which email follow-up to send to the subscriber.

3. Personalize text and language, using merge tags, easy done Lyris ListManager dynamic content tool.

Email list hosting solutions with Dundee Internet.
CREATE * SHARE * GROW

“Dundee email list hosting, the best thing that we could have used.
We get fantastic service!”
Suzanne K, Wellesley College

Don’t let your Email Promotions “go to the dogs” Read More »

Converse with Discussion Lists to Keep A Head

Discussion Lists / Pat

Converse with Discussion Lists to Keep A Head

“Statistically speaking there is research that supports the fact that list subscribers worldwide, in comparison to the largest online communities such as FaceBook far outnumber all social network users”

The first computer Chat System was introduced in 1974. Did you know that CompuServe offered the first online chat room (a CB Simulator) in 1980? Chat allowed real time conversations to take place between many computer users; so popular at its inception, 30 years later it’s still widely used. It seems people enjoy real-time online conversations, and spontaneous discussions having the option to “chat” under an alias name and avatar.

Unlike Chat, forums have been around about 10 years longer, evolving from the computerize bulletin board (BBS) which has an interesting ongoing history in itself. Forums can be considered a messaging system for a community. When someone posts a message in a forum their message is normally posted under a specific “Forum Topic”. Messages can then be viewed at a future date, read, skipped or answered. Some forums, like Chat rooms email the ongoing conversations to their members: pretty handy.

Both Chat rooms and forums normally focus on a central theme such as a hobby or a like interest such as hiking. If allowed, Chat room conversations can go into many directions while forums are a bit more structured. For example, typical forum discussion (i.e. yahoo groups) allows members to select a topic they wish to read and respond to.

Similar to the forum is the discussion list, used extensively throughout the internet. Organizations, such as IBM Rational Software has a SQA User group discussion list that requires ongoing searchable-recorded conversations; part of the discussion list structure. This makes the discussion list more suited for their needs and more appealing than a forum because it could be that:

There’s only so much time in a day.
Aside from the learning curves as different forums have dissimilar settings, quirks and rules, forums require you to go to a specific place to log in.
What are you looking for; new topics, new posts or your posts?
Newbies posting more frequently than the season members on subjects that have been covered.
Some forums are not as spam free as they believe they are.

The truth is most of us would rather receive information in our inbox rather than go find it. Discussion list subscribers seem to prefer receiving email rather than frequenting a URL, login and search for new conversations or information.

They aren’t lazy they’re just practical and saving time.

Discussion lists can be used by everyone. They support the exchange of ideas and cooperation among people who can be:

Young or old
Savvy or not
Dial up user or broadband consumer
Mobile or Touch Screen
Reading Online or reading off line
Traveling or sitting at home

Discussion lists are regularly used to foster community-building efforts, share information within an organization and facilitate conversation with customers. They are an inexpensive yet priceless marketing tool. They are an excellent way of meeting goals because they easily handle:

Everyday tasks
Scheduling
Notifications
Group participation
Feedback

Discussion List Features allow them to be:

Straight forward and simple
Complex running sophisticated applications
Private with expiration dates on membership
Administrated by one, many or no one.
Public or not, set up as a private online community forum
Searchable by archives using the subject, date or author
Flexible, where the list administrator can allow users to set their own preferences
Customized and branded
An easy way to integrate subscriber information with other platforms

Keep a Head with Discussion list

What’s out there?

There’s free discussion list hosting using ad supported platforms. However free usually means you’ll be advertising for their vendors and partners. Running banner ads regardless of where they are placed on the web page or in the email you’re reading, distract from messages, are unprofessional and in most cases appear as if your group is recommending the advertiser. Free means you cannot customize the look of your forums, nor have total list control over your members, and there is virtually no support for substantial integration with other platforms.

Then there are paid hosting plans. Before deciding which to use, consider the features and benefits you need, and will need for future growth. Consider all your requirements; do you need a branded discussion list, more than one list, several or one administrator, training for your staff, custom html skins, survey capabilities, searchable archives, moderated, secure from hackers, 24/7 support and total control of your members? If so, try a no cost no obligation evaluation list with Dundee Internet Services, and start talking.

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4 Quick Tips that Test the Success of your Opt-in Process

Email Lists / Pat

4 Quick Tips that Test the Success of your Opt-in Process

Can your web visitors find your ‘subscribe to our mailing list’ offer or is that invitation unused because it’s unseen?

You know you have web traffic, customers buy items, prospects ask questions and the contact page is active, however these visitors are not signing up for your newsletter. Why is that? Examine your web traffic with a web analytic program for answers.

Unseen invitation to subscribe

Web analytics, (try) such as Google Analytics, will not only show you the different entry points visitors use to land on your website pages but will show you the pages most visited. For example, here at Dundee Internet our services and tutorial pages are our most popular ones. Our visitors go directly to these pages from backlinks, search engines and referrals; most of the time they never visit our homepage.

What you need to consider then, is your invitation to subscribe-to your list on every page on your website or at least the most popular landing pages?

Where is this invitation located? On the top of the pages or all the way at the bottom of the pages where a visitor may never see?

2. Clarity and Consent equals Confidence in you (trust)

Have you ever filled out a request to download a whitepaper and within the signup process there is a check box that is pre-checked for you, to receive emails solicitations from them. You have to uncheck the box or you’re on their mailing list. Wouldn’t you rather have the option of checking the box yourself if you’re interested in joining their mailing list? And if you agree you should have that option, you also will agree that active consent, giving permission, has a trust factor that the pre-check box does not? In the world of email best practices, a pre-checked box is giving permission.

Be up front and ask the customer to join your list with an action that they control,: this is the best course of action. When they check that box and confirm their email address they become a willing opt-in, confirmed subscriber.

3. Do you appear to be trustworthy, relevant, and personal?

Every campaign you send has a goal: increased website traffic, more referrals to more sales. However, most likely everyone is not interested in everything you send. Wouldn’t it be great for both parties to have a measure of control, which would benefit both the sender and subscriber?

Control the email environment with a subscriber preference page. As the email marketer, it stands to reason the more you know about your subscriber the more control you have: you control the content, while the ultimate relevancy of that email is controlled by the subscriber (read or trash). Using a preference page is a win-win situation.

After someone confirms to your list, offer a preference page, as a prelude to your mailings. The preference page or member profile form in Lyris ListManager, could allow list members to see and edit what information you are using using for them: the email address, lists subscribed to, any additional demographic information, the type of format they prefer to the frequency of email sent to them. You’re then in the position to send emails that are trustworthy, relevant, and personal

4. Do you follow-up with a hardy Welcome?

After someone subscribes to your email newsletter or announcement list acknowledge their new membership with a timely, well thought out welcome letter; to thank your new member for joining, set their future expectations by explaining the purpose of your email list and most importantly – to start a subscriber relationship with them.

In summary remember to keep your opt-in procedure easy to do, simple to follow. Stick to best practices. Keep the preference page short and simple, with an open invitation for your subscribers to update it when needed, and watch your email subscriber list grow.

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Using the right Email Marketing tools with the wrong results?

Email Marketing / Pat

Using the right Email Marketing tools with the wrong results?

When an email marketer wears the hat of a list subscriber his or her perspective change, especially using email marketing tools

Depending on where you sit an email marketer will take on the role of an email recipient some point during the day. Designing, sending and tracking email campaigns require a certain skill set, fine-tuned with experience. Opening and reading email is somewhat easier. No special skill is required other than logging into your email program.

Here are 10 examples of Subscriber versus Marketer

1. Subscriber Perspective: I hate it when my email address is added to an email list I didn’t sign up for. I may have inadvertently given my permission for these solicitous emails, by checking that little box to agree to “your” terms and conditions; but really, was I supposed to read all that? I hate any email that remotely resembles SPAM.

An Email Marketer may reason: From my website alone, I collected several thousand email addresses for my company email list. When someone opts into my list from my website, they must agree to my online terms and conditions, by putting a check in a box. My terms and conditions state email addresses may be shared, rented or sold. I am not an email broker by trade, but this potential revenue stream is difficult to pass up.

Acceptable Action: even though your privacy policy (welcome letter or small print on the bottom of your screen) indicates that by signing up for your list, the subscriber is giving you permission to ‘sell’ or rent their email address to others, doesn’t mean they really agree. If selling email addresses is part of your marketing plan, make it very clear this is what you’re doing.

2. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving unwanted emails (aka SPAM) especially emails from lists I know I unsubscribed from. If I find one more newsletter in my in-box from your company, there goes any relationship I may have had with you.

An Email Marketer may reason: I started sending email campaigns to email addresses that have been purchased, swapped, borrowed, revived from an old old list, or taken off email headers by adding these people to my list from the visible cc’s. I even add back those addresses that had unsubscribed the way I see it, the more the merrier (Better).

Acceptable Action: Make it a point to mail only to opt-in (permission-based) email addresses, then follow common sense email guidelines such as always use the same “from address” when you mail to a particular list, and so on. Honor unsubscribes. For whatever reason, they left. They might be back, but probably will not if you give them a hard time when they want to leave.

3. Subscriber Perspective: I hate opening ill-fitting HTML email on my mobile device. It’s so annoying when an email requires constant scrolling just to read one sentence, accompanied by huge graphics that take many seconds to load. Worse yet, it’s near to impossible to easily click on one of the links I won’t, because the links are laid out too close together, it’s easier for me to just delete the message and move on to the next one.

An Email Marketer may reason: Our Company doesn’t have a set email-marketing plan, believing that most email is read on desktop and laptop computers. Our email campaigns are normally composed of several paragraphs, typically loaded with carefully selected graphics and include several links to our website.

Suggestion: Optimize your mobile message with a single column template and do not embed text in the images. Include a descriptive alt text for all your graphics (in case they do not want to download them), and limit the number of clickable links in your message, position the ones you include for finger action. Do not send complicated and wordy content. Keep it short: keep it simple. Grab their attention with a well thought out subject line, as mobile devices usually display 64 characters or less.

4. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving an email with syntax in the place of my name. Your email starts with Dear [firstname, lastname] making the appearance of the message unprofessional and somewhat sloppy. What else did you get wrong, should I even bother reading this?

An Email Marketer may reason: I personalized 200,000 email addresses for this upcoming marketing campaign. I tested but didn’t catch the fact that my ESP (email service provider) doesn’t fully support dynamic tags. Consequentially: some recipients received an email from me delivered with Dear [firstname, lastname] instead of Dear Patricia.

Suggestion: Work with your ESP [READER] to set up an applicable default text for those occasions where “Filler text” would appear. With Dundee Internet, you can use most tags in all parts of your message including the body, subject, header, footer and documents such as the welcome letter. If a field is blank, the merge tag will simply be removed and can be replaced by nothing, or conditional content set up for a default text.

5. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving an email that looks like the other 100 emails I receive each morning: they all go in the trash.

An Email Marketer may reason: My last campaign worked like a charm. Today I am rushed to get out this week’s special so I’m reusing the Subject Line from my last mailing. Better yet, I am just going to say BIG SALE in the Subject Line and leave it at that.

Suggestion: Make it a point to add relevance to your email Subject Line, make it interesting and relevant enough to open. Consider using a call to action subject, targeted specifically to the recipient.

6. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving emails with no contact information, especially an email that includes a great offer because I know I’ll have questions.

An Email Marketer may reason: My new newsletter template only contains a link to my order form. I did not want to spend a lot of time on this so I decided to leave off the contact information, besides who scrolls all the way to the bottom of an email anyway?

Action to take: Comply with CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email. Bottom line: include contact information in your email.

7. Subscriber Perspective: I hate receiving an email that has spelling and grammar errors.

An Email Marketer may reason: using the right tools with the wrong results. The spell checker works as designed, but human error accidentally changed a misspelled word to a misplaced word: in all applicable places my email now reads manger instead of manager. And I didn’t catch the error.

Suggestion: Always use a spell checker. Lyris ListManager, (for the past several years), offers a built-in spell checker for content before you send it out. In addition, engage another person to proofread your content for an error besides spelling. Check for understanding, presentation, and flow before you hit that send key.

8. Subscriber Perspective: I hate spam. I vaguely recall receiving an email from this company several months ago but I really forgot who they are. I think it was spam that I got last time. Not going to open this email: how did I ever get on this list?

An Email Marketer may reason: I don’t mail on a regular schedule, I’m too busy. Besides, I send out great information when I do mail so my subscribers will be looking for my next email. Sometimes I mail twice a month and maybe six months later I send another campaign.

Suggestion: Be consistent, create a mailing schedule and stick to it.

9. Subscriber Perspective: I hate when my inbox gets overwhelmed with nonsense emails; this time if the content is of no interest, I’ll just mark theses emails Junk to keep them out of my inbox. If I had more time I would open each one and unsubscribe, but earmarking them Junk is so much faster.

An Email Marketer may reason: I’m mailing on a schedule but I need an in-between email piece. Our lawn sale ends in a few days and management wants a discount coupon for grass seed emailed: I know more than 50% of our audience are apartment dwellers but they might have friends who can really use this coupon.

Suggestion: These are your subscribes, they signed up for your list with the expectations you set. Make sure you give them what they signed up for. Most likely you have taken time to collect some data intelligence; such as their zip code and other user demographics. Armed with the right data points your email-marketing piece can be written just for them. Here at Dundee Internet, our list can use the power of conditional content; easily create unique, one-to-one emails tailored to the exact needs and interests of your recipients without having to create or send more than one message.

10. Subscriber Perspective: I hate the fact that unsubscribing from your list is difficult. I did scroll down to the bottom of your email and at first, I did not find an unsubscribe link; it’s there, but the font is the same color as the footer background and it’s so tiny I can hardly make it out. At least you don’t have an unsubscribe link that is misleading such as “why am I getting these emails”

An Email Marketer may reason: These are my subscribers who believe our content is valuable, why would anyone want to leave. Besides I need to keep the subscribers number up for ROI purposes.

Acceptable Action: Make the option to unsubscribe simple to do; if your recipient wants to leave, they will take the time to scan your email, find the link and be removed from your mailing list. You decide how they leave the unsubscribe center, annoyed or satisfied.

Of course, there are more examples; mailing too often, not including a call to action, duplicate emails, not testing before sending. I know you can think of several examples. Feel free to share them here.

Using the right Email Marketing tools with the wrong results? Read More »