SEO Hosting Blog

What’s one of the most important things you need to run an email marketing campaign? Recipients for your emails! If you don’t have anybody to send your emails to, well, you can’t exactly run an email marketing campaign now can you?

So, that leads to the next question: How can you build a list of subscribers to send your emails to? You really have two options:

1. You can build your own opt-in email list through a variety of tactics
2. You can buy a list of email addresses from a vendor

A lot of people choose option #2. Why? Because it’s a lot faster and easier than building an email list from scratch. But guess what? Buying an email list is terrible idea. It’s a bad idea that can kill your email marketing efforts.

Why shouldn’t you buy your email list?

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Email marketing success boils down to effectively testing all the different elements of your campaign. By testing different tweaks and variations, you can clearly see what changes improve performance and which ones cause a decline.

But what exactly should you be testing out different versions of in your emails? Here are 6 things to get you started.

1. Subject lines—The subject line is often cited as the most important part of the email. It’s what recipients first see, and it plays a big role in determining whether or not they’ll actually open the email. Test out different subject line variations to find a formula that gets you the highest open rates.
2. Number of links—A lot of studies have been done to see what the ideal number of links is to place inside an email. More seems to be better, but what is too much? You need to test different numbers of links in your emails to see what drives the most traffic and the highest quality of traffic.
3. Link placement—Staying on the subject of links, studies have shown that link placement also affects click-through rates. That means you need to test placing your links in different spots in your message to identify the sweet spots that get the highest number of clicks.
4. Calls to action—The call to action is always important in getting clicks and making sales. Not only do you need to test different offers, but you also need to try changing the wording and location of your calls to action.
5. Personalization—The studies on personalization in emails are so contrary to one another that it’s impossible to know what to believe. That’s why the best thing to do is to test it for yourself. Try personalizing some of your emails to see if it influences performance at all.
6. Overall layout—I think too many marketers tend to overlook the actual design of their emails. Email design is very important and plays a huge role in the effectiveness of your campaign. How the information is presented is just as important as the information itself. So, try different layouts to see what works best for you.

What are some other things you test in your emails? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

So, today is my birthday. And this morning, while I was busy trying to decide whether or not I should work today (I decided to work), I was sifting through my emails and noticed something interesting. I had received a number of “Happy Birthday” messages from various companies whose email lists I’m subscribed to.

So far, I’ve received “Happy Birthday” messages from ING Direct, GoDaddy.com, EA Games, Flying Saucer, Gugliani’s (a Houston-based Italian restaurant), some local golf courses, and a couple of other companies that I’ve now forgotten.

Each of these emails contained a special birthday offer from the company. These ranged from coupons for a certain percentage off my next purchase to free gifts (I get a free pint the next time I go to Flying Saucer!).

All of this got me thinking. I wonder how many companies offer birthday gifts to their subscribers. The messages certainly got my attention because they stood out greatly from the regular commercial emails I’m used to receiving. And I’ve already taken advantage of a few of the special birthday offers I’ve been receiving (I can’t resist a free round of golf!).

But beyond earning my business, these companies helped to further build their relationships with me. The simple act of telling me “Happy Birthday” added a personal touch to their email marketing efforts, and it made me feel like they valued me as a customer.

If you’re interested in sending birthday emails to your subscribers, there are a few things you should do.

• Capture this info at opt-in—Encourage users to put their date of birth in the opt-in form when they sign up for your email list. Let them know they’ll receive a special birthday offer for doing so.
• Personalize your message—While the jury is still out on the effectiveness of personalized commercial emails, there’s no doubt that the birthday email is certainly the right time and place for personalization. Address the birthday recipient by name and wish them a happy birthday.
• Make them an offer they can’t refuse—A birthday offer should be better than the typical offers you send to subscribers week in and week out. It needs to feel like something truly special to the recipient, otherwise they won’t convert.

Do you send birthday offers to your email subscribers?

If you’ve ever subscribed to any email lists before, you’re probably familiar with the concept of the welcome email. This is the email that’s sent to new subscribers to welcome them to the list, confirm that they really did subscribe, share certain information/offers for new subscribers, learn their preferences, and more.

Does your company use email marketing? If so, you should already be sending welcome emails to new subscribers. If you’re not, here are some good reasons to do it.

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One of the main reasons subscribers stop opening emails and unsubscribe from lists is because the content they’re receiving isn’t matched to their preferences. You might be sending them messages on subjects that don’t interest them, or you could just be emailing them more often than they prefer.

That’s why it’s so important that you get to know the preferences of your email subscribers. When you know what they want and act upon it, you can increase open rates, boost response rates, and run a more profitable email marketing campaign.

Many savvy companies have started sending welcome messages to new subscribers with links to a subscriber preferences form. The subscriber can then indicate his or her preferences on a range of different factors, and the marketer can adjust communication accordingly.

If you’re going to implement a subscriber’s preferences tool in your campaign, make sure it includes the following:

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