best practices
It is critical to follow best practices for email marketing when sending mass emails.
There’s a four-letter word that will actually destroy any campaign you create: spam. In the last decade, very strict and severe anti-spam laws have been enacted. These laws protect people from receiving excessive spam mail designed to deceive or damage. You must exercise special caution to ensure the label of spam does not eradicate your research and creative marketing efforts in one fell swoop.
Make Sure Your Lists Are Legitimate
The first task is to make sure that you have a legitimate email list and proper email marketing software. You should also make sure that the person in charge of the list is aware of anti-spam laws. They need to handle bounce messages and monitor blacklists so no one places your organization on a list.
Check and double-check your email list. You should run an analysis of your list to verify the source is trust-worthy. The last thing you want is a bogus email list or broken and incomplete emails. You will receive your fair share of bounce backs, and you should work to alleviate them.
A Key Email Marketing Best Practice
Other details raise red flags the minute you incorporate them into a mass email. Avoid these at all costs. The Anti-Spam Act mandates the following:
- • Use of false or misleading information is not allowed. The "To" and "From" fields require accuracy. You should identify the sender of the email appropriately.
- • Subject lines must be clear and honest.
- • Give the recipient the ability to opt-out of future emails. Provide a return email address or a link included for unsubscribing.
- • Identify advertisement emails as ads and include a physical mailing address.
Mass Email Marketing Tips
- • Make sure the targeted list contains recipients interested in receiving information on your subject.
- • Avoid large attachments.
- • Be concise. You are asking for somebody’s time. Information overload creates short attention spans.
- • All caps are a clear indication of spam. Avoid it at all times.
- • Limit the use of bold fonts and multiple colors.
- • Test your email blast before you send out a massive broadcast.
You should grab your audience with a straight forward and compelling subject line. Users are savvy to spam and will spot something fishy with a quick glance. There are spam triggers that will land your email directly in the user’s spam or junk mail folder. One thing to consider is ways to incentivize or give the recipient the feeling of exclusivity. Mass emails are impersonal, so you need to find ways to engage on a personal level.
Follow these steps and take special care when sending mass emails. Your response rate will be higher and your credibility will increase. Our interactive graphs show you how many emails were delivered, how many people opened your email, what percentage clicked, and more. View your list growth over time, see where in the world your subscribers are located, then track engagement by country. Find out what attracts people with SEMSblast's email click-map overlay.
