HOW TO: Identify key elements of an email campaign

There are three mechanical elements to creating a merge email campaign with Campaign Enterprise software: Connecting to a database list of email addresses; composing a personalized email message; and sending the message to an SMTP server for ultimate delivery.

Creating a good campaign, which maximizes your customer knowledge to its fullest potential, is a different story. Before we get into how to make your campaigns better, let's revisit the elements of a good mass email campaign.

Personalization
Industry experts all agree that a personalized email message is far more effective than an anonymous mass mailing. Whether in the print world or in the electronic mail world, personalization is key. Campaign Enterprise was designed as the first personalized bulk email program in the industry, and has since grown to the extremely flexible and robust program it is today.

Message personalization and permission marketing have always been a part of Arial Software's philosophy, and over the years we have been proved right in our assumption that people don't want email from people they don't expect to send them any. Campaign Enterprise, however, can only use the data that you gather, so the more you know about your customers, the more Campaign Enterprise can help you with your personalized email marketing.

In addition to the email address, you should collect the following information from your customers when they agree to let you email them:

First name
Last name
Company information
Date subscribed
Date and type of any purchases if applicable

Other demographics that might come in handy when designing an email campaign:

Gender
Birthdate or age
Location
Phone/fax numbers
Specific interests like hobbies, books, movies… whatever data that can give you a sense for your customer.

It's best to get as much information as possible up front when the client subscribes for whatever it is you are sending. That way, should something come up in the future, you don't have to continually pester customers for further information.

Privacy
It is imperative that you guarantee the privacy of the data you collect. Your privacy policy should be displayed and easily accessed on your website and should be followed to the letter as part of your marketing strategy. The CAN-SPAM Act actually requires legitimate email marketers to put the statement in the email, or have a link to it along with the company's physical address. It is assumed that spammers would not do this, or if they did, it would make it easier to find them. But how many criminals actually obey the rules? As legitimate marketers, you should follow these guidelines; and, once you put your policy in place, make sure you follow it. Your online reputation is at stake.

Permission
It is also imperative that you get permission from your contact to send them email. The federal CAN-SPAM law allows one unsolicited email however; we feel that no unsolicited emails be sent. By assisting in creating a permission culture, the so-called permission economy can blossom and eradicate spam altogether.

Pertinence
Make sure that you send messages to your clients that pertain to what it is they can expect. If you are going to send out a weekly newsletter on gardening, and they agree to that, don't start sending unrelated third party emails. The content you promise should be what you deliver. That is what your customer expects.

Honor unsubscribe requests
It is imperative for your reputation -- and for CAN-SPAM compliance -- that you immediately honor unsubscribe requests. Federal law allows several days of leeway on the amount of time that can pass before someone is removed, but why not remove them immediately? Campaign Enterprise makes it easy to mark your unsubscribe requests, and filter them from any, or selected future email campaigns.

Stop delivering to expired email addresses
It is a waste of processing time to continually send emails to dead addresses. A good bounce email policy must be adhered to. Not only will this help you keep your lists clean, it can help you deliver email. Some remote mailers can detect how many dead emails you are attempting, and will cut you off if you have too many, assuming that you are spamming.

Campaign Enterprise can also process both hard and soft bounce emails, and allow you to filter those out, or better yet, determine which are truly dead, and delete them forever from your database.

Conclusion
Once you have the technical elements of a personalized email merge campaign completed, your next focus should be these basic elements of an email campaign, a combination of compliance and email best practices.

Creating a successful email campaign which maximizes your customer knowledge begins with identifying and addressing these key components of professional email campaigns. Once these components are addressed to satisfaction, you're ready to move to the next level of optimizing your campaigns.— Arial Software

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