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Email Message Blasts: Best Practices
Based on years of hands-on experience and an understanding of industry
standards, such as the CAN
SPAM Act of 2003, we offer the following recommendations to maximize
your e-mail marketing results. The recommendations are outlined in logical
order, but please review them all, especially the “Technical Do’s and Don’ts”
in Item 6 below.
General: Testing Testing Testing--
As with all direct marketing plans, the key is to test various options,
e.g. email blasts until you identify the best performing list. The advantage
of the email blast is the same for every other direct marketing channel,
the predictability of results after sufficient testing has been done.
1. Plan Ahead--The more time you have to plan your campaign,
the better results. Planning should include an the entire campaign, including
contingencies for various levels of results from initial efforts and any
necessary logistical coordination with your information technology staff.
2. Establish your objectives--Do you want to maximize response
rate, or the number of responses? Are you interested in obtaining a target
number of responses, or maximizing sales or market share of a product or
service? Once you have established and communicated an objective, contact
us, we can help you locate the right prospects.
3. Select your audience--Based on your objectives, target your
list as precisely as possible. Use all available selection criteria to
select the audience to whom your offer will have the most relevance by
include all physicians who fit your target profile.
4. Develop your offer-- An intelligent, compelling offer can
mean the difference between success and failure. It must be simple and
relevant to your target audience. Use just one offer per message, but test
alternatives.
5. Decide on frequency--The secret to a successful product or
service markeitng campaign is not a secret at all. It is frequency and
consistancy. One-time campaigns, whether mail or email are rarely successful.
6. Optimize creative--Keep these points in mind when preparing
your creative: Overall
· Avoid Spam and Junk filter triggers delineated
shown
and linked here.
“From” line
· Do not leave blank.
· Make sure the “From Name” is meaningful and relevant to the
recipient—e.g., company
name, recognizable executive name.
“Subject” line
· Keep subject lines short—no more than 30-40 characters--but
meaningful. Many email service bureaus suggest a maximum of 80 characters.
· Use your organization or brand name.
· Succinctly state the offer in the subject line...but avoid
Spam Filters
· Use personalization.
· Be specific, and consistent with the e-mail’s theme and messaging
– no gimmicks.
· Test alternatives before rolling out to your entire audience.
Message Body
· Copy
-Personalize the salutation and content as appropriate—e.g.,
“Doctor Jones, as a gastroenterologist…”.
-Keep the body of the message clear, concise, clean
and uncluttered. Stress benefits. Use short paragraphs or bullet points.
-Put key words in bold. Underline hyperlinks.
-Follow the “Three Second rule--strive to grab the
recipient’s attention within three seconds of reviewing the document.
-Be sure important messaging is in the first two
inches of the total e-mail content-- “above the fold”—so the recipient
will see the important messaging in a preview screen without scrolling.
Use graphics, but use them judiciously.
-Provide summary copy for longer topics with a link
to the complete content.
-Duplicate important click-through links at the
beginning and end to both test click-through rates (CTR) and provide multiple
opportunities for the recipient to click on the “call to action”.
-Use offer-focused landing pages to facilitate response
and allow recipients to advise you of preferred mode and frequency of future
communications.
-Use an actual person as signatory.
-Include online and offline contact options—e-mail, phone,
fax--and ensure that responses will be properly handled. You must include
a physical mailing address to comply with the federal CAN-SPAM
law.
-Proof carefully, online and via hard copy. Pay particular
attention to contact information—e.g., phone numbers. Test every link.
Art
-Design-- Avoid “reverse type”--white text on dark backgrounds.
Be consistent with corporate branding, color scheme, and creative elements
of other marketing efforts, especially landing pages. Generally, the top
left quadrant is best placement for
logo/branding.
Technical do’s and don’ts
Do
-Provide well-constructed HTML templates (created with an HTML editor)
and plain text layouts. (Word documents can be accommodated but are not
recommended--additional charges may apply because of their limitations).
-Keep e-mail width to 675 pixels maximum or set width to 100%.
-Make sure images load quickly, and keep them to a minimum 72
DPI Maximum. (Biotechmedia.com hosts images unless otherwise advised and
provides a “Click to View HTML version” link in all messages in the event
a recipient cannot view the full content of the e-mail.)
-For objects such as Flash or video, indicate position with
filler images on static background.
-Limit file sizes (65K for HTML, 100K for Flash including pre-loader).
-Keep video less than 30 seconds long and optimize for anticipated
recipient bandwidth. (most computer servers support 28.8kbps thru T1speeds).
-Use numeric codes for special characters (e.g., the copyright
sign Ó).
-Limit multiple, stacked and nested tables to no more than two
levels deep.
-Set up HTML-compatible seeds.
Don’t:
-Use frames.
-Use attachments (alternative: include hyperlinks to Web pages
or hosted objects).
-Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), DIV tags, JavaScript, or
EMBED tags.
-Apply attributes to the BODY tag.
-Leave tags open.
-Format text intended for use as a link.
-Use co-tracking. |
