Posted by Rob
Posted on 08-11-2008 under CSS/HTML Markup, Creative Business, Design, Marketing

HTML Mass Email, Eblasts, Email Blasts, Newsletters, Special Offers….

Lots of names, same basic technology.  These days, we see a high level of awareness among our clients of the potential of HTML Mass Email - you know, those nice looking emails you get when you sign up for something (see the image above for a nice example from Circuit City).  A lot of our customers want to integrate HTML emails into their marketing plans, but many are unaware of how to do it, and especially how not to do it.

HTML email is very powerful, and can be a great way to communicate with your customers - send them special offers, product updates, news… the list goes on.  Generally your customers like to stay in the loop, especially if yours is the kind of business that has repeat sales.  However, any sort of email marketing walks a very fine line - you have to make sure that people want your email, that they can get your email, and that they will read your email, and that if they no longer want your email, they can opt out.  So how do you do that?

Note:  I’m not talking about spam here - for this article, we are discussing legitimate email.

1) Make sure that people want your email

In order to send someone a mass email, you need to have their email.  That seems like a pretty basic statement, but it implies a lot.  There are lots of legitimate ways to get emails from people - website response forms, customer information collection at the time of sale or pre-sale, interest lists, etc.  There are also less legitimate ways of getting emails, such as purchasing email lists, or re-purposing a list from one source for another reason.  While there is no law governing how you put together your email list, it is considered an industry ‘Best Practice’ to ask for people’s permission before blasting them with email, or at the very least let them know what you intend to do.

2) Make sure that people can get your email

Making sure people can actually get your email has become one of the more challenging aspects of email marketing in recent years.  Many email servers run very vigilant spam filters, and can be difficult to get past.  Additionally, some email software can only display email text, so if you don’t take this into account, your fancy email will look like a jumbled mess to some people.  There are lots of ways to go about making sure people can get your email, but in our experience, the most cost effective and efficient way is to use a 3rd-party email service, such as Constant Contact or Internet Mail Manager.  These services also offer good tools to manage your mailing list.  As an added bonus, these services will also help you stay in compliance (see step #4), and can do a lot to help protect your domain from being blacklisted as spam.

3) Make sure people will read your email

This is where marketing and tact (two concepts often at odds with each other) come in to play.  If you want people to open your email, you need to have an engaging subject line.  If it’s a newsletter, make sure it’s dated (WidgetCo News December 2008).  If it’s an offer, give people a quick rundown to get them enticed (WidgetCo Presents: Green Widgets 50% off!).  It’s a good idea to put your company name in the subject line, so that people can quickly determine that your email is legitimate, and not spam.  Once you’ve got them to open your email, you need to get them to respond.  All the standard rules of advertising apply in email marketing - Focal points, calls to action, and good page layout and juxtaposition are all very important.

Additionally, I mentioned tact.  Make sure that if you are using email marketing, you aren’t doing it every day (or even twice a week).  People are generally busy, and if you send too many emails, they will start to tune them out after a while.  This can be a difficult balance to strike and is different for every customer base, but if you are tracking response, you should be able to get it figured out with a little trial and error.  Response tracking, by the way, is another nice feature of most 3rd party email services.

4) Let them opt out

This step is actually pretty important for legal resons.  In the United States, we have an interesting law on the books called the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 that provides that you must allow people to unsubscribe from email lists.  If you fail to provide this functionality in your mass emailing, you can run the risk of being sued.  Unsubscribe is also important on a customer-service level - it may be that people like your company, like your products, and signed up for your email, but no longer want the emails you send out.  Do the right thing, preserve your good name, and save the expense of a customer service phone call - make it easy for them to stop getting your emails.  If you are using a 3rd party email service, this functionality is probably handled for you.  If you are managing your list yourself, you must give people a link to submit an email for opt-out.  You are legally obligated to respond to an opt-out request within 10 days.  Amazingly, even with the law on the books, I still encounter mass emails that don’t provide opt out, from companies who really should know better (in fact, I got one today from one of our ‘competitors’ )

Running an email campaign is, as you can see, a good amount of work.  But it is very cheap when compared to other types of mass marketing.  By eliminating printing and mailing costs, and using easily trackable response, you can get great results for a fraction of the cost of bulk snail mail or print advertising.