In fact, there was a study done by DoubleClick that found 49% of consumers say spam is “email from a company I have done business with but that comes too often.” So, just because someone subscribes to your list doesn’t mean they won’t think you’re a spammer.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because my inbox has been going crazy the past couple of weeks. Why? Because Mother’s Day is just around the corner. We all know that billions of dollars are spent by consumers each Mothers Day. So, it makes sense that companies are frantically trying to outdo one another so they can get their grubby little hands on my hard-earned dollars, but things have gone way too far.

Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, and From You Flowers are 3 email lists that I’m on because I bought various gifts for my girlfriend and my mom several months ago. The first 2 companies already email way too often as it is, regardless if there’s a holiday coming up or not. Not a day goes by that I don’t get an email from at least one of them…usually both. The only reasons I haven’t unsubscribed yet are because I always just delete the message without opening it and I’m also interested in email marketing, so it’s fun to see how some companies approach it.

But now that Mother’s Day is almost here all 3 companies have stepped up the frequency of their emails. I agree that it’s a good tactic to do this when you have a time-sensitive message, but there’s a thin line between urging me to get my mom something nice and pestering me every hour with another “last minute sale” that I need to take advantage of before it’s too late.

That’s the danger of emailing too often. What motivation does someone have to take action if they know you’re going to be emailing them with another offer (usually a better offer) the next day? It’s like the story of the boy who cried wolf. Sooner or later, people just stop paying attention to you when you’re constantly screaming at them.

By the way, I didn’t make a Mother’s Day purchase from any of these companies. Instead, I’m taking my mom out to dinner, and I’m making a donation to her favorite charity under her name.

Today, I asked myself “Why do I delete so many emails without opening them?” As I sat back and thought of the answer, a few reasons came to mind. I thought I’d share them with you as these are things you should be aware of when emailing your customers. By understanding these reasons and avoiding common mistakes, you can increase your email open rates and get a higher ROI on your email marketing campaign.

• The company emails too often—There are some companies that send me emails literally every single day. Every day, there’s a new sale. This sale is bigger than the last, and I have to act now if I want to get a good deal. Needless to say, after a few days of being on this email list, I stopped opening any of the messages. They were all the same, and no sale seemed any better or different from all the other ones. Don’t be a pest by emailing your subscribers too often. You’ll annoy them, and they’ll stop reading your messages.
• The subject line doesn’t offer a reason to open it—My inbox is constantly working. I get a lot of emails, so if you want me to pay attention to your marketing, you’d better have a strong subject line that grabs my attention and reels me in. Check out these 5 tips for improving your email subject lines.
• I’m too busy to read it—It seems like a lot of companies send me emails during the middle of the work day when I’m at my very busiest. If I’m in the middle of working and answering work-related emails, the chances of me stopping to read an email about a sale on shoes is pretty slim. And it looks like I’m not alone. According to these statistics, emails sent on the weekends and at 8:00AM during the week have the highest open rates. You have to get to your subscribers before they get caught up in their busy days.
• It’s from a company I don’t recognize—Gmail does a pretty good job of separating spam, but occasionally, I’ll still get emails from companies I know I didn’t sign up for. Never spam people. It’s a surefire way to kill your email marketing campaign. Instead, follow these email marketing best practice rules.

What are some of the reasons you don’t open emails? Share your experiences. It could help others create more effective email marketing campaigns.

So, what can you do to improve your email subject lines? Here are 5 easy tips to get you started.

1. Keep it short—According to research from MailerMailer, emails with shorter subject lines significantly outperformed those with longer subject lines. There are a couple reasons for that. First, the average email carrier only displays 38 to 47 characters in the subject line. So, if your subject line is too long, some of it won’t even show up. Second, your readers are in a hurry. You need to give them as much information as possible in the fewest words as possible. Always edit your subject lines for brevity.
2. Brand it—A lot of people used to think that including the brand name in the subject line wasted too much precious real estate. Turns out they were wrong. According to a Silverpop study, subject lines with brand names in them were shared more often than those with just offers. And Marketing Sherpa’s study says that branded subject lines are among the most opened emails.
3. Make an offer—Discount offers and free product offers are 2 of the top 3 most-opened email subject lines. Subscribers love a good deal. Your offer needs to be strong enough to grab their attention and clear and concise enough to easily fit into the subject line. Like they say in The Godfather, “make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Just make sure you don’t include spammy words in your offer as this will cause your message to get blocked.
4. Don’t personalize—Another myth is that personalizing emails causes them to get opened more often. Turns out the opposite is true. Here’s another stat to consider:

• Emails that had only the subject line personalized (12.4% Open Rate & 1.7% CTR) did worse than those with no personalization at all (13.5% Open Rate & 2.7% CTR). -MailerMailer

     5.  Never stop testing—Every email marketing campaign is different. A tactic that works for one company may not work for you. The only way to find out what works best for you is to test different subject lines. Try running different formats alongside each other to see which gets better open rates and more click-throughs. Never stop testing!

Do you test different subject lines in your email marketing campaign? Has it helped you get more opens and conversions?

2010 is poised to be the year that email marketing and social networking become inextricably linked to each other. Savvy marketers know that leveraging social media can help spread their messages further than ever before, creating a viral effect that results in increased brand awareness and more sales.

Don’t believe that social email marketing is important or useful? Here are a few stats from Email Stat Center to consider:

• 20% of Facebook, MySpace and/or Twitter users have posted or shared something from permission email to their social account(s) via a “share” option. – Merkle , “View from the Social Inbox” (2010)
• 32% say they’d share promotional email offers with members inside a social network and open emails from others. – PMN and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’(IDM) Lab (2009)
• 51% of respondents report having clicked “forward to a friend” links in marketing email, but 38% have never seen these links. – Epsilon (2007)

I could go on, but you get the point. So, if you’re creating a social email campaign, what do you need to do to guarantee success?

1. Make email content easy to share—Include one-click share buttons for all the major social networks right there in your email. This allows readers to quickly share your message with their entire community.  
2. Let the community know about your newsletters—Any time you send out a new email, post about it on your social networks. Include a tease about what’s in the email, and offer opt-in links so followers can sign up.
3. Know who’s on your list—Your email list is more than a bunch of random email addresses. Each address represents a person with a certain amount of influence and the potential to spread your message. Get to know your subscribers.

Is your email campaign socialized?

1. Never, under any circumstances, spam others (learn about the CAN-SPAM Act)

2. Give your readers options for unsubscribing

3. Have a plan. Don’t just randomly send email blasts.

4. Focus on creating benefit-driven subject lines

5. Keep subject lines under 50 characters so they aren’t cut off

6. Avoid using spammy words in your subject lines

7. Tailor your message to the preview pane by placing the most important info up top

8. Track your results (delivery rates, open rates, click throughs, conversions, etc.)

9. Don’t try to do too much within a single email

10. Link to highly-targeted landing pages

11. Don’t email too often as it can upset customers and cause them to ignore you

12. Always deliver on the promise of your subject line

13. Let subscribers update their contact info quickly and easily

14. Use clear, powerful calls to action throughout the email copy

15. Test different subject lines, copy length, and calls to action to find the winning formula

16. Make sure your email copy is easy to scan

17. Keep any images small for fast loading

18. Try to build relationships with your subscribers

19. Don’t buy your email list

20. Don’t sell your email list to others

21. Send confirmation messages when someone subscribes to your email list

22. Your success depends on the quality of your email list

23. Never stop building your email list

Which email marketing rules would you add to this list? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Check out other posts in the “23 Rules” series”:

23 Copywriting Rules to Live By

23 Blogging Rules to Follow

23 Web Design Rules to Follow

Subject Line #1: Save 15% on Your Order!!! Deal Ends at Midnight!!!

Subject Line #2: 15% OFF ALL ORDERS PLACED BY MIDNIGHT!

Subject Line #3: Re: Saving money on my car insurance

Subject Link #4: VICODIN for 25% off Retail Price

Subject Line #5: Make Millions with This Hot Stock Tip!

What’s wrong with these subject lines?

Think you know why these subject lines could get flagged as spam? Check out the answers below to see if you’re right.

Subject Line #1: Save 15% on Your Order!!! Deal Ends at Midnight!!!

The problem with this subject line is its excessive punctuation. In general, exclamation points are a cheap trick to try to stir up some excitement, but it’s okay to use one in your subject line. However, using six exclamation points is unacceptable, and it will land you in the spam folder more times than not.

Subject Line #2: 15% OFF ALL ORDERS PLACED BY MIDNIGHT!

Using all caps is another surefire way to get flagged as a spammer. I’ve seen some companies use all caps on just one or two words in the subject line to place emphasis on it, but that’s not a good idea either. Never use all caps in your subject line. It’s like holding up a sign that says “THIS MESSAGE IS SPAM!!!”

Subject Line #3: Re: Saving money on my car insurance

I’ve noticed a surplus of emails in my spam folder with “Re:” subject lines. It’s a trick used by spammers to make you think the message is a reply to an email you sent them. Never use a “Re:” subject line in your email marketing campaign.

Subject Link #4: VICODIN for 25% off Retail Price

This subject line actually suffers from two problems:

1. Vicodin is written in all caps

2. Selling drugs, supplements, etc. reeks of spam, and such messages will almost always get flagged

Subject Line #5: Make Millions with This Hot Stock Tip!

If you put the phrase “make millions” in your subject line, you might as well not even bother sending out your message because it will get flagged as spam. You can’t make ridiculous, too-good-to-be-true claims in your subject lines because that’s exactly what spammers do.

Did you spot all of the mistakes?

Make no mistake. Now is a great time for email marketing. But if you don’t approach holiday marketing correctly, you could miss out on some big opportunities.

That’s why I’ve come up with this list of holiday email marketing mistakes to avoid. Feel free to add to this list by leaving a comment.

1. Emailing way too often—It’s only natural to increase the frequency of your emails during the holiday season. After all, this is when customers are most interested in making purchases, and for many companies, the holiday season can make or break their entire year. While there’s nothing wrong with ramping up your email campaign during the holidays, you have to be careful not to overdo it. Remember, other companies are increasing the number of emails they send too, so consumers’ inboxes are exploding. Sending too many emails could cause the subscriber to unsubscribe rather than buy.
2. Sending multiple messages in a single email—We get it. You offer a lot of great products and services. That doesn’t mean you need to detail all of them in a single email. Trying to send multiple messages in a single email confuses the reader, and it causes all of the key messages to get drowned out. Keep it as simple as possible, and separate your messages across multiple emails.
3. Not getting to the point—Remember earlier when I said your readers’ inboxes are exploding with holiday offers from other companies? This means they have even less time than normal to read your email. So, don’t waste time in your email. Get straight to the point. Place your most important offer above the fold so that your readers see it as soon as they open your email. Keep it short and simple.
4. Not playing up the holiday theme—It sounds like common sense, but when you’re launching a holiday email marketing campaign, you need to play up the holiday theme. This means emphasizing that your offers are “holiday offers” or “Christmas offers.” It also means changing the design of your messages to get readers in the holiday spirit. Ignoring this will make your emails seem like all the other ones you send throughout the year. Now is the time of the year for them to be special.
5. Treating the subject line as an afterthought—I’ll say it one more time: Your readers are getting more emails than they can handle right now. They won’t read every single marketing message they receive. That’s why you need to focus on crafting irresistible subject lines that beg to be clicked. Check out these tips for writing effective email marketing subject lines.

Which holiday email marketing mistakes would you add to this list? Share your thoughts in the replies.

1. Include signup links in your email signature—If you’re like me, you send a lot of emails back and forth with your clients and leads. Chances are, a few of these people you email aren’t subscribers to your email list. That’s why you should include a signup link in your email signature. Briefly describe a benefit of signing up (e.g. Save 15% off your next order when you subscribe to my monthly newsletter).
2. Send direct mail offers that require email signup—If direct mail is a part of your marketing plan, you should try to get some of the people on your direct mail list to become email subscribers. A simple way to do this is to include a special offer in your direct mail pieces that requires customers signup for your email list to take advantage of the offer. Make sure the offer is compelling enough to warrant the reader walking over to their computer, signing up for your email list, and making the purchase.
3. Post signup links in blog posts—Do you blog regularly? Include signup links for your email list in each of your posts. It can be placed at either the top or bottom of your posts. If your blog content is interesting and compelling, your readers will probably be interested in seeing what your emails say too.
4. Use article marketing—Not only is article marketing a good way to build back links and to increase your search engine presence, but it can also be effective for gaining more email subscribers. Most article directories allow you to include about 4 links in your articles and author box. Make one of those links a link for signing up for your email list.
5. Place newsletter samples of your website—Another way to entice visitors to signup for your email list is to give them a taste of what they’re missing. Archive past newsletters or excerpts on your website. If your visitors enjoy the limited content they can view here, they might feel compelled to signup for your email list.

Do you have any additional tips for building an email list? Leave a comment with your advice.

Unfortunately, not everyone who clicks your email links is going to take action. That’s okay. There is still quite a bit of valuable information you can learn from those clicks…if you have the right analytics setup and are willing to take the time to follow up with those clickers.

Here are just a few things you can do to get more from your click-through data.

•    Send a follow-up offer—If someone clicks a link but doesn’t take action when they reach your landing page, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a serious buyer. It could just mean the offer wasn’t right for them or they’re just taking a little more time to consider making the purchase. Don’t just let these inactive clickers slip away so easily. Send them a follow-up offer. Make the follow-up offer more compelling than the first one. This could be labeled as a “second chance” or “last chance” offer to really increase the offer’s importance and time-sensitivity.

•    Ask clickers why they didn’t take action—No click should go unnoticed. For anyone who clicks and doesn’t take action, send them a short survey that will help you determine why they didn’t take action. The survey could have a few simple options for why they didn’t take action, such as:
1.    The price was too high
2.    The website didn’t have the information I was looking for
3.    I’m taking time to shop around

The point is you want to pinpoint what it is about your links and landing pages that is preventing clickers from taking action. This will allow you to modify them in the future so that they receive the best conversion rate possible.

•    Create links that reveal more information about clicker—Too many email marketers use generic links like “Click here to learn more about our bikes.” The thing is, this doesn’t really tell you anything about your clickers. Instead, you can use action-oriented links with messages that glean information about those clicking. Going back to the bike example, you could have a link that says “Do you have young kids who love to bike? Check out our latest safety tips for kids biking” Then, whoever clicks that link, you can determine they have kids who bike, and in the future, you can market kids biking products to them.

How do you track the success of your email marketing campaign? Share your tips in the replies!

Now, that being said, I tend to come from the school of thought that says “the shorter, the better.” That isn’t to say every email you send out should be 300 words or less, but the main point is to make sure you aren’t just rambling aimlessly. If you can effectively get the same point across in 300 words rather than 700, then by all means, write a 300 word message.

Remember, online users tend to scan content rather than fully read it. In fact, a study by Email Labs found that the average person spends just 15-20 seconds on average reading an email. So, if you’re sending 2000 word emails that aren’t getting any click-throughs, it’s probably because your readers are overwhelmed by the length of your message and they just aren’t making it to your offer.

Of course, if your email message does need to be a bit longer, that’s okay. There are a few things you can do to still solicit action on longer messages (e.g. financial industry marketing messages which require more information for consumer to make decision).

•    Keep the content easy-to-scan—As I mentioned earlier, people tend to scan content online rather than read it word for word. So, design your emails accordingly. This means using short paragraphs, plenty of white space, and relevant images to create a flow that’s easy on the eyes.

•    Eliminate distractions—Every email you send out should have a specific purpose. Whether it’s to get an instant sale or to solicit feedback from your subscribers, everything in your email message should contribute to helping you achieve this goal. That’s why you need to eliminate any distractions that prevent readers from taking the action you desire. Large company logos that take up space, irrelevant images, and non-essential information need to be ditched to keep your readers on track.

•    Focus on the main message—This goes hand-in-hand with the previous tip. Keep your messages tightly focused so that your readers understand exactly what you want them to do. Use a powerful subject line that tells the reader exactly what the email is about, and tighten your copy up to drill that message home.

•    Include several call to action links throughout—Whether you use long or short copy, don’t just include a single call to action link buried at the bottom of your email. A study by Silverpop found that 6 to 10 links within an email generates the highest number of clicks.

What length tends to produce the best results in your email marketing campaign? Share your experiences in the replies.