The Seven Deadly Email Sins

Written By Eric Piela

Break out the birthday cake, party hats and silly string. Email marketing turns 13 this year. Can you believe it? Gasp, a teenager! While many of us wince at our teen years, they were undoubtedly years of great change, influence, and discovery. Likewise, email adolescence is at a similar maturation crossroad. Improved technology, the introduction of social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and sophistication of spam filters can make email marketing a daunting gauntlet to navigate.

However, email marketing continues to be an extremely effective marketing medium, producing one of the highest returns on marketing investment (ROMI). Additionally, Jupiter research shows that in 2008 over 40% of consumers were influenced by email marketing in both offline and online purchases. One of the biggest mistakes marketers can make is to get wrapped up in trends of today and forget the basics of email marketing. To help keep you grounded in our email upbringing, I've put together a list of seven deadly sins to remember when embarking in email marketing.

SPAM I Am. The first thing to remember are the FTC regulations that govern email marketing - CAN SPAM. Foremost, be a law-abiding citizen and embrace ethical email marketing. Here are the key obligations you need to know:

You must include the physical address of your business
Do not hide your identity (The From Line must appropriately represent you.)
No deceptive subject lines
You must give your recipient the opportunity to opt-out (unsubscribe) from your emails. If they do opt-out, you must comply within 10 days.

Signed. Sealed. Delivered? The bad news is that inbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail are private networks and are not required to deliver your mail. The good news, they want your mail to be delivered and are protecting all of us from malicious and unsolicited email. All of these providers use automated anti-spam techniques to separate good vs. bad mail (which end up undelivered or in a junk folder). To help ensure your email gets delivered, use an email service provider to send out your email, as opposed to your Outlook or personal email account. Likewise, make sure your email list is up-to-date and remove any emails that are old and may bounce (undeliverable) - those automated spam filters watch for bounces and spam button complaints. Worst case scenario, your email IP address gets black-listed. And yes, it's as bad as it sounds.
Design is "Just Fine". So you abide by CAN SPAM and actually get through the spam filters and reach your consumers inbox - now the big question, will they actually read it? Take careful consideration when designing your email. Formatting, HTML vs. Text, and Image usage all affect the "curb appeal" of your email. Studies show that html emails are read more often, however keep in consideration that 30% of readers don't receive html emails (just text) and the 70% that do are using Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, and/or Gmail accounts that by default automatically block html and images (unless you manually choose to display them). Send test emails to a variety of inbox providers to see how each will visually render and be sure to put yourself in the reader's shoes.
Sloppy Copy. Content is key when it comes to email. Give your reader something worth reading. It's common for marketers to toss too much in an email. Testing has proved that picking a single theme and prioritizing increases open and click-through rates (more about these rates in #5). Keep your copy punchy and active and avoid flowery language. People don't read email, they skim email. Therefore, use lots of bullets and verbs. With that said, spam filters look for too many exclamation marks, ALL CAPS, and words like "guaranteed", "free", and "savings." It's ok to use them, but in moderation. (Check out this list of other phrases and words to avoid.)
Measuring the wrong "e-ngrediants". There are six common measurements you should be aware of:

Bounce Rates: Ratio of email delivered vs. not delivered (bounced).
Unsubscribe Rate: Number of recipients that opt out of your email list.
Churn Rate: The rate at which your email addresses become invalid.
Open Rate: A measure of who is "opening" or viewing your email.
Click-through Rate: A measure of who is clicking on links within your email.
Conversion Rate: Number of readers who are filling out web forms via your email.

While these are all important measurements, the real question should be how are you gauging the success of your email marketing? That depends on what you define as success. I most commonly hear of clients using open rate to measure the strength of their email campaign. However, I strongly suggest you refrain from that practice. Open rates are difficult to track, and many times, they're inaccurate due to inbox preview panes, mobile devices, and non-html email. What is the goal of your email? Is there a call-to-action? Measure success by what you want your reader to do or glean from your email.

Permission Omission. While it's not against the law in the United States to email someone who hasn't opted-in for your email, it's most certainly a principle that every marketer should adhere to. Permission based email believes that the only people you should be emailing are those who have asked you to. We've all gotten email we haven't signed up for. They are annoying and we most often hit that spam/junk button in hopes the internet police protect and serve a little better. Give your prospect or client the ability to enroll and opt-in to your corporate emails. You can grow your list by having an enrollment form on your website or a link on your email signature. Drive them to register online via print and direct mail or ask for their permission at tradeshows or a point of sale. Permission based marketing keeps bounce and unsubscribe rates low and open and click-through rates high.
Spray and Pray. Let's face it, consumers (by that I mean everyone, including ourselves) are becomingly increasingly high-maintenance. We want information now and we only want the information that relevant to us. As marketers, we need to respect that philosophy and understand that "spraying and praying" or "batch and blasting", in other words, speaking to all of our prospects and customers the same way, is no longer good enough in our consumer's eyes. Attention spans are diminishing and if you aren't speaking to your reader on a personal level, it's on to the next email. Segment your email list (via demographics, consumer interest, purchase history, etc.) and communicate content relevant to them. Content is still king.