Say No to Spam — Tips for Landing In Your Customer’s Inbox

Spam. It’s a dirty word if you’re a reputable email marketer. But sometimes, due to the unpredictable nature of email domain filters, even your well-intentioned email can land in the the junk folder. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to help avoid this from happening to your campaigns.

Last week, the American Marketing Association hosted a one hour webinar titled “10 Ways to End Crimes Against Spam-anity”. During this webinar, we looked at smart ways to not only improve your emails, but stay out of spam. Here are some key takeaways to consider for your campaigns.

Who are you? Check the fingerprints on your campaign.

When sending email, ensure that it is from a real email address. Even better, use a specific contact or business name when sending and keep it consistent.

The first impression is important.

Your email subject line should relate to your call to action. Some studies say that up to 35% of recipients open based on subject line alone. Try to keep it to 35 characters or less and be honest, and don’t over-sell your audience. Tip: Use a pre-header to extend your subject line for devices that use email previews.

Readability has an impact on performance.

Use a visual hierarchy with clear headers to help your audience skim your email. They should be able to understand the value proposition and call to action in just a few seconds. Also, it needs to be easy to read on any device, especially mobile. Mobile readership typically accounts for 50%+ of your email list in 2015. Think mobile first! Want more email design tips?

Think about the the ‘power of 3’ when composing your email. Many people can only recall 3 points of what they’ve read, so your email message and call to action should focus on the 3 most important points you want your customer to understand.

What’s the call to action?

Likely the most important component to your email is the call to action. What do you want your customer to do after reading the email? Make sure the call to action (only one!) copy is clear and stands out. It should also be placed above the fold on mobile devices. Finally, ensure there are multiple ways/links for your customer to convert, like buttons, text and images.

Writing effective email copy.

Writing compelling email copy isn’t easy. To help, think personas. Who is the ideal person you want to reach? What are they like? What would they respond to? You can also personalize your email easily with merge fields. Teasing additional communications, like a P.S. field, can also be very effective in grabbing your customer’s attention.

Deliverability tips to reach the inbox.

One of the most important things you can do to ensure your email is delivered properly is scrub and curate your lists. If you have an old list, be sure to clean it out before sending. Then, going forward make sure you organically grow your list to ensure you get customers who want to receive your emails.

Are your key performance metrics on the decline? Consider launching a customer re-engagement campaign to win back lost customers. You should also avoid using any paid email lists. Finally, ensure every email you send provides value so your customers don’t unsubscribe.

Watch and learn.

Although nothing is guaranteed, following these tips should help your email stay in your customer’s inbox. If you’d like to review the entire list of tips covered in this webinar, you can watch the full session below. Be sure to check out our other helpful articles on getting the most out of your store’s email program.