R O A D M A PR O A D M A P

· Introduction ·As a business owner, you’re pulled in multiple directions every day. You’re

planning budgets, setting business goals and keeping your customers

satisfied. There’s constantly changing technology to keep up with. And

(unless you’re turning away customers) you’re also spending time and

energy on growing and evolving your business.

Marketing is one of the many ways to keep your name in front of past and

prospective clients, and the truth is almost all of us could do more on

this front. Typical ways to market your services include email, web (SEO),

ads (online, print, yellow pages), social media, direct mail and specialty

advertising like calendars, magnets, etc. But which is the best for you?

In this guide, we’ll talk about email marketing and why it is one of the

most cost-effective, high return-on-investment channels you can

capitalize on. Email marketing is still the top method for sharing content

online and has the largest potential to positively impact your bottom line.

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E M A I L M A R K E T I N G R O A D M A P

· Table of Contents ·Getting Started ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

7 Benefits of Email Marketing ................................................................................................................................. 6

SECTION I: BEST PRACTICES ................................................................................................................................. 8

The elements of an effective email ................................................................................................................. 9

5-Step Checklist to Writing Good Content .................................................................................................. 12

Design best practices ........................................................................................................................................ 13

The nitty-gritty: creating a consistent schedule and when you should send ...................................... 15

How to build an email list ................................................................................................................................ 16

Why you should take advantage of email automation ............................................................................. 20

SECTION II: WHAT TO AVOID ............................................................................................................................... 21

Don’t spam ......................................................................................................................................................... 22

Words, phrases and other things to avoid ................................................................................................... 23

Why you shouldn’t send email “blasts” ........................................................................................................ 25

SECTION III: MEASUREMENT ................................................................................................................................ 26

Email deliverability ............................................................................................................................................. 27

Inbox rates ........................................................................................................................................................... 28

Bounce rates ...................................................................................................................................................... 29

Unsubscribes ..................................................................................................................................................... 30

Open rates ........................................................................................................................................................... 31

Click-through rate ............................................................................................................................................ 32

Spam reports ..................................................................................................................................................... 32

Hacks to Increase Open Rates ........................................................................................................................ 33

SECTION IV: THE NEXT STEP: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS, IMPROVING YOUR BOTTOM LINE ........ 37

How to build relationships using email marketing .................................................................................... 38

How to use email to increase customer retention .................................................................................... 40

How to use email for referrals ........................................................................................................................ 41

CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................... 42

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· Getting Started · 1 What is email marketing?

In many ways, email marketing is an online form of direct marketing – a way of reaching many current,

past and potential customers at once. Rather than sending letters, catalogs or listings to homes, these

communications are sent to inboxes.

The primary advantage of email over direct mail is that you can track and measure your success. You

can see how many of your emails were delivered, opened, if links were clicked and if anyone took

action (such as buying, referring a friend, etc.).

2 Types of email marketing

The format and approach you take with your email marketing could vary depending on your audience,

your industry and your goals. Here are some of the common types of email marketing.

PRODUCT OR CATALOG: These emails focus on specific products/services or a suite of them.

NEWSLETTERS: Sent on a consistent schedule, newsletters can cover many areas. Emails for our

customers follow the newsletter format, and they contain industry-adjacent, helpful information. They

are meant to keep you top of mind with your customers.

CAMPAIGNS: This could include sales or time-sensitive information. Political campaigns and

nonprofits use these often for fundraising, voting and other events (like galas or industry parties) that

run for specific periods of time (even if those deadlines are self-created).

NURTURING: Regular emails that are sent to prospects pre-sale. Typically sent more frequently than

other types of emails, they encourage a prospect to take steps to eventually become your customer.

DAY-TO-DAY DETAILS/TRANSACTIONAL: These are usually automated and include emails that

confirm purchases, provide reminders for renewals or remind customers to update a method of

payment. May also include regular thanks or appreciation for business transactions.

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3 How is email marketing valuable?

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective, high return-on-investment channels you can

capitalize on. Consider the fact that 91 percent of global email users (2.4 billion people) check their

inbox at least daily. Email has a huge potential to help your bottom line. Here are just a few stats to

show the value of email marketing.

According to Econsultancy’s 2014 Email Industry Marketing Census, email was ranked as the number

1 channel for ROI, over SEO, content marketing, paid search, direct marketing and a total of eight

other channels.

On average, companies attribute 23% of their total sales to email marketing.

For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on email marketing investment.

–EmailExpert “[Infographic] 10 Must Know Email Marketing Stats 2014” (2014)

Email marketing has an ROI of 4,300%.

60% of marketers agree email marketing is producing ROI for their organization. 32% believe it will

eventually produce ROI.

– MarketingSherpa “Email Marketing Benchmark Survey” (2013)

54% of organizations generate 20% or more of overall revenue through email marketing.

– DMA “National Client Email Report” (2013)

64% of decision-makers read their email via mobile devices.

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7 B E N E F I T S O F E M A I L M A R K E T I N G

What advantages does email marketing offer compared to other forms of marketing? With just a small budget, email marketing can help you focus on your target audience, find new customers and retain them. You can also test messages, measure your results and adjust as necessary – something that is more challenging to do with other forms of marketing.

1 Reach the Right Audience

The biggest advantage of email marketing may be that it allows you to communicate with your target audience right in their homes. People are liable to ignore billboards, throw away print direct mail and turn the page without even glancing at newspaper ads (and does anyone do anything other than recycle Yellow Pages?). These same people are more likely to pay attention to an innovative, creative and effective email and eventually to end up becoming customers.

2 Tracking the Success Metrics

As a business owner, it’s helpful to know what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. By tracking metrics, you can make the necessary adjustments to improve your products and services. With email marketing software, it becomes easy to gather such data by tracking open and click-through rates and conversions. It’s much harder, and often impossible, to track a direct mail piece.

3 Word of Mouth

Word of mouth remains one the most powerfully effective marketing tools. Email marketing puts that tool at your disposal. Recipients can forward emails to their friends and families, especially when it’s worth their while and strong calls to action are used.

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4 A Low-Cost Effort

Email marketing is one of the most affordable marketing tools and also often takes less time than printed pieces (no mailing time!).

5 Personalization

Most print marketing requires a one-size-fits-all approach. Email marketing (depending on the service you use) may allow you to personalize all communications, not only with name but in some cases with purchasing or behavior history as well (whether someone took a quiz, answered a survey or took some other form of action).

6 Impulse Shopping (and Forwarding)

Email marketing is incredibly useful for taking advantage of impulse shopping. With a compelling call to action incorporated into the emails, you can encourage impulse sales and contact – it’s easy for recipients to respond to your message. They don’t even have to leave their couch!

7 Drives Organic Traffic

Your emails will remind readers about your blog or website. When you send emails, your readers will go to your site to read more. And people who have signed up to receive your emails are more engaged with you. So they are more likely to “like” social posts or forward your emails. The more social shares your content has, the higher you will rank and the more organic traffic you’ll receive.

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I N T H I S S E C T I O N , W E ’ L L T A L K A B O U T T H E P R A C T I C E S Y O U S H O U L D

F O L L O W I N Y O U R E M A I L M A R K E T I N G I N C L U D I N G :

1 The elements of an effective email

2 Design best practices

3 The nitty-gritty

4 How to build an email list

5 Why you should take advantage of email automation

S E C T I O N I

· Best Practices ·S E C T I O N I

· Best Practices ·

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1 The elements of an effective email

Making your email stand out in an inbox is both a science and an art. To motivate people to open, read and

act on your emails you need to master these email elements: subject lines, content and calls to action (CTAs).

S U B J E C T L I N E S

You have three-four seconds to grab someone’s attention. That’s how long it takes for them to decide

whether or not they’ll open your email. One of the major factors in that decision is your subject line.

Here are a few guidelines to help you write effective ones.

• Be informative and brief so your audience can easily scan their inbox. Make sure to convey

something important, valuable or timely.

• Create intrigue to prompt your audience to open the email.

• Build trust by making sure the content matches the subject line.

• Fifty characters is generally a good, safe rule of thumb to follow. However, people have seen great

success with subject lines over 70 characters and less than 49, so once you have been sending

emails for long enough to have a baseline, experiment on occasion.

• Other tactics that work well in subject lines include asking questions, indicating a numbered list

and personalization.

• The best email subject lines tend to be specific, short and compelling. Set expectations up front

and let the email content do the rest.

• Avoid using spam trigger words but feel free to experiment (with caution).

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As technology continues to change, so should your strategy when writing subject lines, since what

works one year might not perform as well the next year. Some research says subject line length is

important, while some insists it doesn’t matter. Some say you should avoid spam trigger words, but

others say you can use them cautiously if you already have a good email reputation.

It’s good to understand the rules. However, since there’s no clear consensus, testing something out of

the norm on occasion might surprise you with a great open rate.

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C O N T E N T

If you’re not writing something that your audience cares about, you won’t get their attention. Email

content should be directly tied to the subject line and written in a short, consistent way that makes

your message quickly readable and easily digested.

Good content should focus on your customers. Find out what problems they have and write about

them. Learn about their habits and hobbies and pair your expertise with content that will strike a chord

with them. Make sure that what you write is serving their interests, not your own agenda. Here are a

few content tips:

• Be relevant and share information that is not directly about you or your business, but topically

adjacent. For instance, a real estate agent could send emails about updates that add value to a

home. A loan officer could share good resources for how to prevent identity theft to maintain

good credit.

• Show restraint in your desire to “sell” or “pitch” to your email lists. Rather, showcase your expertise

on interesting topics and brand yourself professionally.

• Maintain a regular cadence of emails. Sending six a week is a bad approach and will burn you out,

too. Sending an email four times a year isn’t enough. We send emails twice per month and find

this to be the ideal schedule (for our customers) for delivering the best results.

C A L L S T O A C T I O N

The emails you send to your customers have two goals: the first is to keep you top of mind with

interesting, engaging content. The second is to help you get more business. Calls to action can be as

simple (and clear) as: Download a Free Demo, Sign Up, or Start for Free.

Calls to action are how you will encourage readers to become customers. As you’re writing your

content, always think about what you want your reader to do. Each email should have a goal. For

instance, your email might include the first paragraph or two of something you’ve written, and the

CTA encourages people to “read the entire article” on your site. Or, you might be running a contest,

and your CTA tells people to “visit my Facebook page to enter.” Whatever your goal, make sure your

readers can take an action to help you achieve it.

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Each email is not necessarily about an immediate sale. At OutboundEngine, our customers’ email

newsletters include calls to action like: refer a friend, get in touch or share this email so that those who

are ready to call upon you for your services have an easy way to do so.

We include CTAs in an unobtrusive way by having them blend into the design. I want to stress that

these CTAs are not the point of each email. They are an element that is always there so recipients

always know how they can get in touch when they’re ready.

When creating your call to action, decide:

• What do you want the email recipient to do?

• Are you making your call to action clear enough that a person quickly scanning your email will

understand what action they’re supposed to take?

• What’s in it for them?

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5-S TEP CHECKLIS T TO WRITING GOOD CONTENT

1 Define StrategyGive your newsletters a purpose. Define your strengths and use them to your advantage.

• Make a list of things that you’re an expert in, professionally and personally.

• Ask yourself what you want your subscribers to know you for.

2 Build PersonasFigure out what characteristics make up your subscriber base and create content for them.

• Estimate your subscriber demographics.

• Make a list of things that get them excited (including posts or newsletters that have been

successful in the past).

• Compile a list of your customers’ activities and hobbies.

3 Identify ProblemsThey know you for your profession; give them a reason to stay in touch with you for your

expertise and advice.

• Make a list of questions that you’re asked most often (they may or may not relate directly

to your profession).

• From those questions, make a list of answers.

• Take their problems and break up the answers into different newsletter ideas.

• Organize these ideas in a calendar so you have newsletters for the whole year.

4 Create SolutionsUse your expertise and your customers’ problems to create newsletters that hit the sweet

spot. Be their go-to resource.

• Start answering those questions and problems in short email newsletters.

• Make them readable, understandable, actionable and shareable.

5 Assess ContentBefore sending, double-check your work.

• Is the email all about you or your business?

• Does it help solve a problem or entertain your customers?

• Is this what you want to be known for?

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2 Design best practices

Your content may be great, but if the design fails to draw the audience in or makes it too difficult for

them to read or act on the CTA, then no one will respond the way you’d like them to. Email clients

have different requirements than web browsers, so HTML emails need to be designed and coded

according to different standards. Here are a few best practices to ensure that your campaign looks

great for each and every one of your recipients.

M A K E I T M O B I L E F R I E N D L Y

There are three different strategies for mobile design: scalable, fluid and responsive.

Scalable design works well on both desktop and mobile without relying on code to make

adjustments. This is usually the easiest strategy to implement. It includes large, touch-friendly calls

to action; large text that is easily readable on all screen sizes; and a simple (usually a single column)

layout that works on all screens.

Fluid design uses sizes based on percentages to make tables and images adjust to the viewers’ screen

size. This approach works better for text-heavy emails.

Responsive design uses CSS media queries to adjust the size of images, text, buttons and, in some

cases, will provide different content depending on whether the viewer is reading on desktop or

mobile. This approach provides the most flexibility but also requires the most technical knowledge.

I N C L U D E A T E X T - O N L Y V E R S I O N

Your email service provider should provide the functionality to include a separate text-only version,

which will be automatically sent to recipients who can’t view HTML emails. Also, many email clients

will block images so if your text is embedded within in, your recipients may not see the words without

a text-only version. You can also give your recipients the option to see your email in a web browser in

case they can’t or don’t want to view your message in their email client.

F A V O R A C L E A N , S I M P L E D E S I G N

Single columns helps with content hierarchy (what the reader should look at in what order) and also

works for viewers who may be reading on a smaller screen.

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M A K E I T F U N C T I O N A L

Don’t go beyond 600 pixels wide, and stick to web-safe fonts. Stay away from JavaScript, attachments

and background images.

A L W A Y S S P E C I F Y

Font families, image sizes, table and cell sizes, and colors (including background colors) all need to be

specified.

M A K E I T E F F E C T I V E

When you use images, make sure to find ones that are relevant and attractive. Keep your branding

front and center, and make sure your main point – your headline – is “above the fold,” to use an old

newspaper term, meaning recipients don’t have to scroll down to see it.

T E S T , T H E N T E S T A G A I N

Try out your email in as many email clients, browsers and operating systems (including mobile) as

possible. This means opening, checking links and combing for errors many times over. You can also

purchase a subscription to a service (such as Litmus) that will do much of this work for you.

P U T A B U T T O N O N I T

Buttons are a great way to highlight important information and, in particular, calls to action. Use

vibrant colors to create contrast so your button/CTA will stand out. One caveat: Since many email

clients will block images, if your CTA is only available embedded in an image, your recipients may not

see it. Make sure your CTA is visible to everyone. See this free calls-to-action generator for only one

possible source of buttons for your site.

It’s hard to overstate how critical mobile is.The numbers have varied a bit over 2014, but most stats show that almost half of all

emails are opened on a mobile device. This percentage is only expected to grow. Make

sure you’re ready for a mobile world since most people will read your messages on one

of these devices.

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3 The nitty-gritty: creating a consistent schedule and when you should send

B E C O N S I S T E N T

First of all, you need a consistent schedule. Evaluate your priorities and obligations to determine what

you can reasonably commit to. The optimal frequency to contact your customers is one to four times

a month. (At OutboundEngine, our clients see great results with a twice-a-month schedule.)

Essentially, you can keep increasing your send frequency as much as you want, but be conscious of your

open and unsubscribe rates. When your engagement starts to decline, you know you’ve taken it too far.

Whatever frequency you decide, be consistent. Let your customers know what to expect. Don’t send

emails weekly one month, then once the following month. People are creatures of habit and like to

know what to expect.

E F F E C T I V E S E N D T I M E S A N D D A Y S

When should I send my emails? This is one of the most frequently asked questions and one of the

most debated. Ask 10 people what the most effective send times and dates are, and you’ll get 10

different answers. Even trusted sources have differing opinions on the topic based on their data sets:

• Kissmetrics says early mornings and weekends … but also says those days/times are also the most

likely to get you unsubscribes and bounces.

• Experian’s benchmark study says that 8 p.m. to midnight is optimal.

• Wordstream thinks that Thursday from 8-9 a.m. is best.

• MailChimp says that Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. are the

surefire winners.

Needless to say, there are many right answers to this question. If you’re looking for a fairly safe bet, try

Wednesday afternoons around 2 p.m. However, every person, recipient and email list is different. Try

different days and times and find what works best for your audience.

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4 How to build an email list

Before you can market to someone with email, you have to have email addresses to market to. Building

an email list can seem challenging at first. But don’t let the task intimidate you. It gets easier and easier

until it becomes second nature. Here are a few tips to get you started (or to add to your current efforts).

S E N D T O P E O P L E W H O H A V E O P T E D I N

You should send emails only to people who have opted in to receive communication from you,

meaning that they’ve signed up deliberately and know what they’re agreeing to. We do not recommend

buying lists or using lead-generation services due to the CAN-SPAM Act (more on this later).

P A S T A N D P R O S P E C T I V E C U S T O M E R S

If you already have a database, great! That is your starting point. If not, compile the emails of your past

customers, prospects and anyone else you would regularly communicate with like friends, family and

professional contacts. Make sure you communicate with them so they agree to being on your list!

Y O U R W E B S I T E

This is low-hanging fruit. Make sure you’re using high-visibility and high-traffic pages to ask people to

opt in for your emails. Forms should be straightforward so people know what they’re signing up for

and what they can expect.

Limit sidebars, avoid long scrolls and text-heavy distractions to really draw attention to your form.

Experiment with calls to action to see which work better and increase your conversion rate. Also make

sure, no matter what form you use, that a visitor can still navigate your site easily.

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P O P U P S

Mentioning popups and popovers is usually met with skepticism, groans and eye rolls. But they can be

effective. There are plenty of examples out there showing impressive email list growth results from popups.

The key to popup success is that it has to be something worthwhile for the person you just

interrupted. While the end result might be self-serving, the means to that end need to be beneficial for

both parties involved.

Our favorite plugin for WordPress at the moment is OptinMonster. It’s easy to install, easy to configure,

connects to most email tools and can be customized to fit your needs. There are many other options too.

Q U I Z Z E S , S U R V E Y S A N D C O N T E S T S

Quizzes are hot right now! BuzzSumo did an analysis of top posts shared over an eight-month period

this year, and eight out of the top 10 most shared articles were quizzes! You could also host an online

contest. People get a chance to win a prize in return for giving you their email address.

Similar to other email gathering options, make sure that you’re giving your audience a genuine incentive.

Don’t snag someone’s email address and then only spam them with sales pitches. That’s just bad marketing.

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M A X I M I Z E Y O U R S O C I A L M E D I A

You may have a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter (or all of them). Keep in mind that while

you might prefer one social network, that doesn’t mean all of your clients share your preferences.

Build profiles in as many platforms as you can, and post often on the ones where your audience

spends the most time. Be sure to advertise yourself frequently and fully by encouraging people to opt

in to your email marketing campaign, and tell them what they will gain by doing so. Did you know you

can easily export contacts from any email and most social media platforms? Chances are, you have

been building a contact list without even knowing it.

Add your social media accounts to your email signature and make sure your email address and website

are prominent on all of your social media accounts. That way you will maximize your reach with your

customers in as many places as possible.

L I N K E D I N

In particular, your LinkedIn connections are a goldmine of email addresses for your database.

Even if you have these contacts in your database already, it’s always a good idea to export updated

information (people can change email addresses, change jobs, etc.). LinkedIn is likely to offer more

relevant contacts than other social media networks because most of those people are connected with

you professionally versus personally.

LinkedIn has made it easy to export emails into your database, too. They’ve documented the whole

process here.

G O P A P E R L E S S

Use email as much as possible as your go-to correspondence. Not only is this method efficient and

convenient, it puts you in the position of collecting email addresses from the get go.

E M P O W E R T H E C L I P B O A R D

Make it a regular practice to have a clipboard (or smartphone with a notepad) at networking events,

trade shows or in the waiting area of your office. This tried and true method is a great way to

encourage people to join your mailing list. Again, be sure to let them know exactly what they stand to

gain! Whether you are offering market tips, promotional contests, discounts, or just to stay in touch.

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G E T B Y W I T H A L I T T L E H E L P F R O M Y O U R F R I E N D S

Don’t be afraid to include the people close to you in your marketing efforts, but do let them know

beforehand exactly what you are trying to achieve. You will soon see the power of word of mouth. By

including friends and family in your email marketing efforts, you are offering content for them to share

when they encounter someone who would benefit from what you have to offer.

B E C O M E A N I N T E R N E T E D U C A T O R

Don’t underestimate the power of your industry awareness. Offer webinars, chime in on forums, hold

seminars, etc. This is an excellent way to put forth something valuable, build relationships and, you

guessed it, expand your email contact list!

U S E T H E P O W E R O F T H E A S K

Take the time to go through your contacts. If you are missing an email address, call and get one! Let

your clients know you are sending out a newsletter, and explain how it will benefit them.

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5 Why you should take advantage of email automation

When someone uses the term “email automation,” this generally refers to sending relevant emails

out on a timeline of your choosing, scheduling them in advance so you don’t have to sit there

hitting “send.”

Examples include welcome emails that are automatically generated and sent to anyone who signs up

for your newsletter, a thank you email after a business transaction, or a renewal reminder. Another

example could include regular newsletters. While you may write and create these newsletters in

advance, automation allows you to schedule and send them whenever you choose.

Email automation builds customer relationships by combining the power of customer data, great

content and software. It allows you to have continued presence in your clients’ and prospects’ inboxes

without having to do all of the work yourself (or at least being able to schedule it for a time that is

more convenient for you).

When you’ve set up an automated email campaign, you don’t think about when you should send the

next email because you’ve already scheduled it, which gives you more time to focus on other aspects

of your business.

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Section 1 shares best practices; in other

words, what you want to do with your

email marketing. This section tells you

what you don’t want to do.

S E C T I O N I I

· What to Avoid ·S E C T I O N I I

· What to Avoid ·

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1 Don’t spam

Spam is junk mail – unsolicited, unwanted and often a scam. That’s why email providers work hard

to keep those annoying emails out of your inbox and most likely undelivered. But as any experienced

email marketer knows, being reported as spam is both worrisome and inevitable.

You should email people you personally know (or who have opted in to receive your communications).

We don’t recommend buying lists because there are laws in place to protect people from receiving

certain types of unsolicited communications.

S P A M R E P O R T S

A spam report is when someone reports an email that you sent to them as spam. While that individual

might think all that happens is that the email gets moved to the spam folder, it actually has a greater

impact than that. Most major email services will start blocking the IP address sending those emails if

they receive more than a handful of complaints. This has a direct impact on your email deliverability

and your ability to send any emails, not just emails to the account that reported you as spam.

C A N - S P A M A C T

This 2003 federal law outlines the rule of commercial emailing. Short for “Controlling the Assault

of Non-Solicited Pornographic and Marketing Act,” this law sets up the requirements that all email

marketers must follow and establishes the consequences for not following the law. If you’re sending

emails for commercial use, you have to:

• Include an unsubscribe method.

• Actually unsubscribe someone when they request it, and do it in a timely manner.

• Include a physical address.

While not explicitly banned, sending to people who have not opted in is discouraged.

Remember two things:

• You don’t have to be a spammer to be reported for spamming.

• If you send email newsletters long enough, it’s bound to happen eventually.

As long as you’re legitimately obtaining email addresses from your actual customers and clients (not

purchased lists) and staying CAN-SPAM compliant, you’ll have no trouble keeping this number low.

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2 Words, phrases and other things to avoid

There are common characters, phrases and practices that will likely trigger spam filters and thus

prevent you from getting into inboxes. Some estimates claim that spam filters may block somewhere

from 10 to 20 percent of emails from your subscribers’ inboxes.

We mentioned above (in the subject lines section) that you can experiment, cautiously, with some of

these words. Recent research suggests that spam filters may be more aware of context than in the

past. Just make sure you measure your campaigns so you can adjust future emails if these words do

negatively impact your results.

Spam filters may be triggered:

• By using all caps, extra punctuation (like ?!?! or !!!) or special characters.

• By not having a text-only version available.

• If there is extra code, such as code pulled from Microsoft Word or codes from things like Google

analytics.

• If your recipients have marked you as spam too often, this could work against you with future

emails.

• If there are too many images or one large image with little or no text. There should be a balance

between image and text.

Your email will likely go to the spam folder if …

• The first eight characters of your email address are digits

• From contains “sales@”

• From contains “success.”

• From contains “success@”

• From contains “mail@”

• From contains “@public”

• From contains “@savvy”

• From contains “profits@”

Who is receiving your emails? You’ll be spam when…

• To contains “friend@”

• To contains “public@”

• To contains “success@”

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You’ll go to the spam folder if your email subject line contains…

• “advertisement”

• “$$”

• “!” AND “$”

• “!” AND “free”

You’ll also risk triggering spam filters if your email body text contains…

• Pretty much anything having to do with money, like “cash,” “money back,” “make more money,”

“extra income,” etc.

• “cards accepted”

• “removal instructions”

• “000”

• “!!” AND Body contains “$”

• “Dear friend”

• “for free?”

• “for free!”

• “Guarantee” AND “satisfaction” OR “absolute”

• “more info” AND “visit” AND “$”

• “SPECIAL PROMOTION”

• “one-time mail”

• “order today”

• “order now!”

• “money-back guarantee”

• “100% satisfied”

• “mlm”

• “@mlm”

• “///////////////”

• “check or money order”

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3 Why you shouldn’t send email “blasts”

A “blast” is an email that is all about that company, most (or all) of the time. In other words, a constant

sales pitch. Most customers will tune out this message, if they bother to open your email at all.

Think of email marketing as a conversation. You want to talk with your customers, not to them, and

you want to invite feedback. Whether someone takes the time to respond to your newsletter, takes

action on something you sent, or unsubscribes, take the time to listen to your customers’ feedback

and adjust your marketing accordingly. An email blast is a monologue, not a conversation.

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S E C T I O N I I I

· Measurement ·S E C T I O N I I I

· Measurement ·

O N E O F T H E M A I N B E N E F I T S O F E M A I L M A R K E T I N G I S T H A T

Y O U C A N T R A C K A N D M E A S U R E Y O U R R E S U L T S . T H E R E A R E

S E V E N F A C T O R S M A R K E T E R S S H O U L D M O N I T O R T O G E T T H E

B E S T , M O S T S U C C E S S F U L O U T C O M E S F O R T H E I R E F F O R T S :

1 Email deliverability

2 Inbox rates

3 Bounce rates

4 Unsubscribes

5 Open rates

6 Click-through rates

7 Spam reports

S E C T I O N I I I

· Measurement ·

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1 Email deliverability

Having someone’s email address doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to deliver an email into their

inbox. Email deliverability (or acceptance rate) is the success rate an email marketer has in getting an

email delivered to a person’s email address. It is the percentage of emails that are delivered, divided by

the number of emails that are sent. So if you send an email newsletter to 500 of your past and present

clients and 450 are delivered, then your deliverability rate would be 90 percent.

Arguably, deliverability is the most important metric. If an email isn’t delivered, there is no email

marketing.

W H A T F A C T O R S C A N I M P A C T E M A I L D E L I V E R A B I L I T Y ?

Email continues to evolve. In the ‘90s, if you sent an email to someone, that message was delivered

to their inbox. Then spam filters were introduced to combat too many unwanted emails. Spam filters

work to protect your inbox from unwanted solicitations, especially those looking to exploit your

personal information.

Over the years, additional layers of security have been added. Some people use personal filters to keep

unwanted emails from their inbox. The automated filters your email service provides have improved to

remove poorly formatted email that may appear to be spam.

Even today, changes to email services like Gmail (inbox tabs and priority inboxes) continue to challenge

email marketers with good intentions. The ultimate goal is to get people to open your email, but

there is a lot of work that has to take place before that can happen. Regulations and practices change

regularly, so it’s important to keep up-to-date so your email marketing continues to be effective.

I P A D D R E S S R E P U T A T I O N

IP addresses develop reputations. Major Internet service providers (ISPs) get used to receiving traffic

that is viewed as non-spamming, and if your emails are not reported as spam, your IP address is

considered safe. Without this reputation, emails would never be accepted by the servers. You need to

worry about this only if many people report you as spam.

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2 Inbox rates

A good deliverability rate ensures that various email servers accept the emails you send. The inbox rate

(or inboxing rate) is the measure of how many of those emails are sent to the inbox (as opposed to the

spam folder or bounced).

The simple way to calculate this is the number of emails that reach the inbox divided by the number of

emails that were sent. This number does not include the emails that are sent to the spam or bulk folder.

High deliverability is important, but getting those delivered emails to appear in the inbox is imperative.

And with the introduction of more intelligent inboxes like Gmail’s Priority Inbox and tabs features, the

email recipient is playing an increased role in highlighting which emails are more important to them

than others. In other words, the more a recipient opens an email from a specific sender, the higher

future emails from that sender will rank in their inbox.

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3 Bounce rates

The bounce rate metric is defined as the number of emails that are rejected by the receiving server.

While the deliverability rate (or acceptance rate) counts the number of emails that the receiving server

does accept, the bounce rate counts the emails that are returned to you. High email bounce rates will

negatively impact the sender so it’s important to keep this rate low.

Email bounces fall into two categories: hard bounce and soft bounce.

A hard bounce is the more severe of the two bounce types and means that the email is completely

undeliverable. If this bounce occurs, it is generally a good idea to remove the email from your list. If an

email is hard bounced, it’s typically for one of three reasons:

• Email address/recipient does not exist (this could be the result of a typo).

• Domain the email was set to does not exist.

• The receiving server has permanently blocked delivery.

A soft bounce indicates a temporary issue. After attempting delivery to an email address over a few

days, it will finally be marked as a soft bounce. Soft bounces can occur for any number of reasons and

a few are more common than others:

• Server or mailbox is full.

• The server handling the recipient email is down.

• Email is too large to be delivered.

When a bounce does happen, it’s important to analyze why emails were unable to be delivered. You

may need to remove emails from your list, reduce the size of your emails or consider other factors to

decrease your bounce rate.

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4 Unsubscribes

Email unsubscribes are people who request to stop receiving your emails. People will unsubscribe for

any number of reasons, but many unsubscribes are due to issues from the sender. Uninteresting or

irrelevant content and poor formatting are among the top reasons why people unsubscribe from emails.

When putting together a future email campaign, it’s always good to analyze your past unsubscribes

in order to help you avoid more in the future. Depending on the size of your email list, seeing a few

unsubscribes every so often is fine. But if one email campaign has more unsubscribes than others, it’s

good to figure out why.

What did you do differently that time compared to other campaigns? Did you change the send date?

Was the content too provocative or too boring? Are the people who unsubscribed new or have they

been long-time readers? These are all good questions to ask and should be part of your review process.

Remember, the option to unsubscribe is required by law. “A visible, operable unsubscribe

mechanism” must be present in emails sent in bulk. Meaning that in every bulk send, you have to

include a working link to easily allow someone to unsubscribe.

If you’re sending valuable content at an acceptable frequency, rest assured you’ll keep your recipients

happy and your unsubscribe rates low.

You can have awesome email newsletters, full of engaging and entertaining content, successfully

land that email in someone’s inbox and get them to open it, too. But if someone, for whatever reason,

simply doesn’t want to get your emails anymore, it’s always in your best interest to make it easy for

them to unsubscribe. Otherwise they may report you as spam.

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5 Open rates

By definition, the open rate is the measure of how many people opened the emails that ended up in

inboxes. This is one of the more important metrics for email marketers because it directly correlates

with how successful campaigns are performing. Open rates are also the most direct way to evaluate

the performance of your subject line.

Calculating open rates: There are two different calculations for open rates. The disingenuous way is

by taking the number of times an email is opened (which can be multiple times from one person) and

then dividing it by the number of emails sent. Calculating open rates this way will inflate the end result

and give an invalid measure.

The more accurate way to calculate open rate percentage is to take the number of times an email is

opened (once per person at most) and divide that by the number of emails sent.

Why open rates are important: A good open rate is always something to aim for. It means your

subject lines are working well.

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6 Click-through rate

The click-through rate is how many people clicked on links in your emails. Were there certain links

that were clicked on more than others? Did you see a rise in traffic to your site? Were there more

contacts initiated, referrals, etc.? These are all good things to keep an eye on after you have sent an

email campaign, especially if website clicks are the goal of your email campaign. It also shows you that

your content and design are working as they should.

7 Spam reports

It’s important to measure spam reports because:

• If you see a sharp increase in the number of people reporting you as spam, most major email

services will start blocking your IP address for all emails you try to send.

• A sudden increase in spam reports could also mean your unsubscribe link is too hard to find or

perhaps missing altogether.

• Seeing an increase in spam reports might indicate you’re sending too frequently, or that your

content is missing the mark.

• You may also need to check your subject lines and content to make sure your wording, formatting

or other factors are not triggering spam filters.

As email marketing continues to evolve, the only way to keep up is to continually adapt and change

as well. However, without monitoring and measuring the success of your email campaigns, you won’t

know or understand how to modify your approach if things aren’t working.

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H A C K S T O I N C R E A S E O P E N R A T E S

Here are nine simple hacks to get people to open your emails.

Hack #1 Switch Your “from” Name

Look at any message in your inbox and you’ll see three things: sender name, subject line and

message preview. That’s not a whole lot to work with, so you need to make every character count.

When you send emails to your past clients and potential customers, what do they look

like when they get there? Are they coming from your company name or your own name?

Hubspot discovered that emails coming from a person have both a higher open rate and

click-through rate compared to emails sent from the company name.

Hack #2 Get Personal

Personalizing email subject lines with the recipient’s name is old news, but there’s a reason

it’s so common: it truly does work. Marketing Sherpa did a case study in which they A/B

tested seven different email campaigns. For example:

Email A: 6 Steps to Building Long-Lasting Client Relationships

Email B: [First Name], 6 Steps to Building Long-Lasting Client Relationships

The results were impressive. Email B, the one with the personalized email subject lines, had

17.36% higher average click-through rates on all seven of the A/B tests they did.

Hack #3 Know Your Length Limits

50 characters (or fewer) is the general rule of thumb for subject line length. While you can,

of course, use more, 50 has been proven to be the sweet spot for character count. Be aware

that a lot of mobile email tools cut off subject lines at 25 characters, so make them count!

Still not convinced? Just know this: 66 percent of all emails are now opened on mobile devices.

It’s crucial that you know how to craft the perfect email subject line for every context.

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Hack #4 Stop Using 4-Letter Words

The “4-letter word” equivalents in the world of email marketing are words like free, help,

percent off and reminder. Other no-no words include cash, quote and save. Using these

words in your subject line can easily trigger a spam filter, which means your email will end

up in junk mail folders instead of inboxes.

But if you’re a risk taker, Hubspot has been doing some work recently that suggests that spam

filters might be more contextually aware than they used to be. In one of their tests, they tried a

subject line with “free” as the first word. They had the email come from a person and reported

not seeing any deliverability issues. They conclude that you should “be wary of spam trigger

words. Don’t avoid them completely, but use them in a way that is non-spammy.”

Hack #5 Preheader Tweaks

When you see an email in your inbox, the subject line and accompanying text that fill up

that line are known as the preheader. The actual length varies by email client, but as an

example, Gmail gives you 100 characters to work with. In other words, if your subject line is

particularly long, you can forget about any preview text from the email showing up.

To use this to your advantage, first, make sure that you’re keeping your subject line at

50 characters maximum. This gives you 50 characters to make a compelling case for the

viewer to open your email. Make sure the subject line flows logically into the first lines of

the email, too. You want everything to tell a story and prompt your reader to want to know

more. Use calls to action to help trigger this response.

Hack #6 Forget About the “Best Days/Times” to Send Emails

There’s really no such thing as the “best” time to send emails. If that were the case,

everyone in the world would use that day and time and, in turn, cause that magical

combination to become the worst time to send emails.

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The hack here is to find industry trends and use that information as a good starting point to

begin experimenting. I found this collection of studies on the best times to send email, and

while they all have differing results, there were a few consistent trends. Email open rates

drop off on the weekends; emails sent Tuesday through Thursday will get the best open rates

(but will also compete with the highest volume of emails sent); and early morning/late night

sends have some interesting levels of engagement.

But my favorite quote for this hack comes from a guy named DJ Waldow:

“I’ve read a lot of ‘research’ on the best day/time to send. Some people

never send on Sunday because nobody checks email on the weekend. I

know several people who have found a ton of success sending on Sunday.

I’ve also heard Wednesday mid-morning is the best time. Here’s the deal.

Your audience is not my audience. You have to test to find the optimal day

and time for YOUR audience.”

The only way to find the ideal send time for your audience is to test a variety of day/time

combinations until you find a winner.

Hack #7 Make a Long-Term Content Investment

You’ve enticed someone to open your email. You’ve grabbed their attention (temporarily) and

you simply cannot afford to blow it. Did you know that bad content is a top reason why people

unsubscribe from emails? Twenty-five percent, in fact. Just because you can get them in the

door doesn’t mean you’ll be able to get them to stay. Your content has to be worth their time

and not a bait and switch.

Good content isn’t a bad thing to invest in. On the surface, the business benefits lead to brand

loyalty and increased referral business. And from the standpoint of hacking your emails, the

more often people open your emails, the higher they’ll rank in that person’s inbox. This is

what’s known as your inbox credibility.

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Hack #8 Be Negative

Why do you think tabloid magazines do so well? Or why it’s so easy to get sucked into

Buzzfeed or news outlets for hours, almost by accident? It’s because they are the kings of

controversy. Don’t be afraid to get a little negative with your preheader text.

For example, I sent this email to a group of our newsletter subscribers and tried two different

Subject lines. Guess which one had the higher open rate?

Version A: 5 Content Marketing Tips to Help Your Business

Version B: 5 Content Marketing Mistakes (and Why They Hurt Your Business)

Both subject lines led readers to the same post, but version B, the one that had a little bit of

negativity, was the clear winner.

Hack #9 Numbered Lists

Numbered lists let you know from the start that you can easily skim the headers and quickly

consume the content in a few seconds. We’re wired to like classification systems, things that

are organized like stories, and knowing the quantified length of something before we begin

reading. The New Yorker described this best, saying, “In the current media environment,

a list is perfectly designed for our brain. We are drawn to it intuitively, we process it more

efficiently and we retain it with little effort.”

We don’t suggest you mash up all nine of these email hacks into one big experiment. However,

you should experiment. First and foremost, make sure that your email content is locked down.

If you’re not getting people to read your emails, then there’s no point in sending. After that,

give some thought to when you send your emails and build out a schedule to test various days

and times. And lastly, when you’re crafting your preheader text, always keep a 100-character

count in mind and spread that evenly across the subject line and the first line of email copy.

These hacks are all designed to take advantage of how the human brain works. And while

that might be enough to capture your reader’s attention in three to four seconds, you are still

a human, and they are too. Your emails need to maintain that human quality of a personal

email that can be felt by both the sender and recipient. Be genuine.

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S E C T I O N I V

· The Next Step ·

Building Relationships, Improving Your Bottom Line

S E C T I O N I V

· The Next Step ·

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1 How to build relationships using email marketing

There are many email marketing strategies, whether your audience is consumers or other businesses.

At OutboundEngine we focus on B2C, and we advocate a strategy of helping, not selling, to your

customers, at least most of the time.

Many of our clients work in industries with long sales cycles like real estate, mortgage and insurance,

to name a few. In industries like these, bombarding your customers with messages about buying new

homes, financing and updating their policies – especially if they have recently taken these actions with

you – becomes annoying and repetitive and could trigger unsubscribes.

In industries with long sales cycles, the majority of your customers are not likely to be in the market

for your services at any given time. Thus, you use email marketing to keep in touch and to help them

until they are ready to do business again. You build trust with them by providing regular, helpful

information. For instance, a real estate agent might send an email about conducting a home energy

audit to save on utilities. A loan officer could share information on free money-management websites.

This approach keeps your business in front of clients, in a non-obtrusive way. Then, when that person

is ready to do business again, or refer a friend, your name is top of mind.

Here are a few tips for nurturing relationships with email:

P E R S O N A L I Z A T I O N : With email marketing, personalization is extremely helpful. This can

include personalized salutations or noted client information within the body. Also, make sure the

message applies to the client’s situation (for instance, not sending a renewal notice to a customer who

just renewed).

C O M M U N I C A T E W I T H T H E M , N O T T O T H E M : Use a conversational tone. Just

because you’re sending an email to a large audience, it doesn’t mean you can’t write it like you’re

talking to a single person. Customers want to be communicated with, not to. Think of it as a dialogue

instead of a monologue.

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B E W E L C O M I N G : If all someone means to you is just another name on an email list, then the

emails you send will be received as such. This has a lot to do with the content that you’re sending to

someone. If all you have to say to your email list involves you or your business, that’s not really inviting

someone to have a conversation with you. You wouldn’t simply walk up to someone and ask them for

business. Make your emails inviting.

K E E P I T B R I E F : Why send a lengthy newsletter when a few paragraphs and sentences will do? Of

course, there will be some emails that are longer than others, but make sure the length is appropriate

to the message. If they’re longer, make it easy for readers to find what they want and get to the point.

M A K E E M A I L S R E L E V A N T A N D P R O V I D E V A L U E : When someone signs up to get

your emails, they want you to communicate something of value. Make the email worth their time.

Plus, you already know your customers, and you probably know their interests and needs. Your emails

should reflect this rather than being simply self-promotional.

B E C O N S I S T E N T B U T N O T A N N O Y I N G : Finding the right cadence for your emails is

definitely important. You want to keep your brand in front of your audience. Just don’t overdo it.

The whole idea behind building relationships through email is that the payoff doesn’t have to be right

then and there. Just sending an email doesn’t necessarily result in instant business. And that’s fine!

These effective communication practices help you build these relationships over time, increasing

loyalty, and nurturing prospects to become even more valuable over time. More importantly, they’ll

become voluntary marketers, recommending you to others.

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2 How to use email to increase customer retention

Your clients are your most valuable assets, but many business owners do a poor job of customer

retention, specifically through email marketing. They rely too much on the phone to ring or focus

on one event/strategy (like a holiday card) to keep those relationships alive. That’s where email

marketing can help.

Here are three ways that email marketing can help customer retention in your small business:

K E E P I N G Y O U T O P O F M I N D : Regular emails are key to maintaining your name and

brand recognition with clients. The next time a customer is looking to do business, you don’t want

them struggling to remember your name or trying to remember where they put your card.

M A I N T A I N I N G A C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H C U S T O M E R S , Y E A R - R O U N D :

Email marketing that is timely and relevant to seasonal trends can act as a friendly reminder. Maybe

it’s summer and you can create a checklist for planning a road trip or put together a quick guide

on the best wine bars in your area. As long as it’s helpful and not about you, you’re good to go!

Either way, the more you can converse with your client base, instead of market to them, them more

they’re going to appreciate hearing from you.

P U T A F R I E N D L Y F A C E O N Y O U R B U S I N E S S : Whether you’re a loan officer, realtor

or insurance agent, it may be some time before your client needs to contact you again. In the

meantime, doesn’t it make sense to be a professional, trusted friend to your clients? Think of it as a

way to make your customers continually happy to have done business with you.

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3 How to use email for referrals

Email marketing is often underused for referrals. While you might be spending marketing dollars on

buying new lead lists, sending out direct mail pieces, or even handing out branded products at local

events, you’re already sitting on a treasure trove of referral gold: your existing customers.

Email is a direct line of communication to your existing customers and potential prospects. Not

everyone is looking to buy from you right this instant, but when they are, whoever is top of mind is

most likely going to get a phone call. That’s why email is so powerful. Stay in front of the people who

will send you referrals in a good way (not through annoying spam) and they’ll help your business grow.

We also advocate the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the time, you provide helpful information to build

trust. Then, with the other 20 percent, you can ask for referrals or another action that benefits you.

For instance:

R U N A R E F E R R A L C O N T E S T: Don’t abuse this option, but definitely reward customers who

send referrals your way. You could do something small like a $20 gift card for every referral sent your

way. Or you could be more practical about it financially and make it into a contest. Buy something

everyone wants, like an iPad Air or a $500 Amazon gift card. Run a referral email contest one to four

times a year where every referral someone sends you, they get an entry into the drawing.

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· Conclusion ·Email marketing can be an extremely useful, efficient and low-cost

tool to help you promote your business. By helping, not selling, to your

customers, you become a trusted resource. Eventually, you can call on

this trust to occasionally ask for something that helps your business,

like referrals. You will also maintain brand awareness and likely increase

customer retention.

Just remember to measure your efforts. Without metrics, you won’t be

able to learn what’s working and what you need to tweak to improve.

Good luck!( A N D H A P P Y M O T O R I N G )

200 East 6th Street, Suite 207 | Austin, TX 78701

Phone: 512.782.9983 | Email: info@outboundengine.com