Here’s the key; do it right or it won’t be successful. So what is “done right”? Well let’s take a look, shall we?

Which Flavor?

Broadly speaking, email comes in two flavors; HTML and text. HTML emails are more like a web page. You can include graphics, control font sizes, and dictate placement on the screen. Text emails are plain, ordinary and boring. So why send text at all? Well, some companies block HTML emails by default as do some mail clients (software like Outlook for example). HTML can carry various nefarious and the size of HTML emails can bog down some systems. Depending on how they are set up. Also, different mail clients have different rendering capabilities and will show the page in different ways. Different platforms (Mac or PC) use different rendering engines as the default renderer and this can affect how the email looks when viewed.

So making the choice to send HTML or text is complicated. Outlook and Outlook Express, for example use the Microsoft Word HTML renderer which is far less capable that Internet Explorer. So this method afford you more options, as does something called Multi-Part Mime (here’s a technical description of what that means, if you are interested). This format allows you to send BOTH HMTL and Text and then delivers whichever the recipient is set to allow. This is what I use, and it’s pretty much standard for email marketing across the industry.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still include a, “Having trouble viewing this link? Click here.” message that take the viewer to a web-based version as well. There are dozens of email clients out there and you can’t ensure 100% compliance with any of them.

You Send Me.

Who sends your email is also a factor in the success or failure. By this I mean, do you send it from an online service such as Constant Contact, do you send it from your own server and who is your reply-to sent to? My advice is to use a service. There are several, my favorite is Constant Contact (CC). By using a service you are agreeing to adhere to their terms of service, and Constant Contact is pretty strict, but strict is good. Constant Contact doesn’t want to be blacklisted by Internet Service Providers. Blacklisting means that email coming from them would be bounced or delivered with a SPAM label and likely go directly to your subscriber’s SPAM folders. Not a good thing. So by strictly enforcing the rules, they ensure that everybody’s emails are delivered with the best chance of not seeming to be SPAM. The danger if you are running it through your own server is that your server might very well be blacklisted if you slip up. This means that you’d loose more than access to your mailing list. All your company’s emails could be blocked for certain ISPs, or to certain companies and institutions. Again… not a good thing.

Also, Constant Contact gives me tools to make building and sending HTML emails simple and quick. Scheduling tools, so I can control when emails are sent. Saturday-Monday ranks highest for opens and click-throughs on average. Do your own A/B testing to  determine the best days and times for you. SInce our market is regional (all in the same time zone), I set up our weekly emails to go out on Monday Mornings at 8AM, but I noticed from my tracking stats that I get a significant number of opens again at 7PM, so I’ve segmented by open times and created a second mailing list that sends to that other segment at around 6PM, so check your stats – your milage may vary.

CC also sends multi-part mime emails by default and auto-generate a web page based on your HTML design and allows me to easily include things like forward links, Facebook and Twitter links, etc. All for about $15 a month.

As for the reply-to, i recommend using a real person. Emails back to that person can be sorted so that they don’t become overwhelming, but despite having an unsubscribe link (more on that in a minute) at the bottom of every email, I still get direct requests for removal or comments directly from subscribers. I like this. It gives me a chance to interact with the subscribers and it let’s them know there is a real person on the other end.

Sign Me Up.

Repeat after me — Double Opt-In! This is the gold standard. That means they sign up, are entered into the mailing list system, then a confirmation email is sent back to them to opt-in AGAIN. Double Opt-in. Safe as houses. There should be no chance of you being considered SPAM or them being offended by your email (assuming there’s nothing in your email itself that is offensive).

Can The SPAM, Manage the Bounces

So your going to do double-opt in, your going to use multi-part mime, and your going to optimize your delivery time and maximize your results by including Facebook and Twitter links and a forward button. All good thing. You’re almost there. Now you need a way for people to easily opt-out of your list. This is by Federal law. So we provide a one click link for them to bail on us right in the footer of every message.

Why make it so hard to subscribe and so easy to leave? Simple, the old saying that quantity has a quality all it’s own does not hold true for email marketing. What’s more valuable, having 1000 people who don’t want to hear from you, or 100 who do? Stop thinking in numbers, start thinking in demographic in engagement; and in conversion.

Bounces are another issues you’ll need to contend with. Email can bounce for a couple of reasons; the person has blocked receiving any more email from you; the email is no longer valid. Either way, clean up your bounces right away by moving them to you, “don’t mail” list. Keep your overall list as clean as possible. This will make it more effective and more efficient.