Emailcenter

There are some very simple but important techniques to help open rates. People often forget about the ‘From’ address, subject line and other attributes until the last few minutes before it has to be sent. This feature looks at how tweaking a few areas can help you improve your email marketing effectiveness.

The ‘From’ Address
Much is written about the subject line being the most important factor in getting your email campaigns opened. The ‘From’ field though is the first thing people see and therefore as important as the subject line.

This can be set to anything you want and not just a person’s name. Beware however as getting it wrong can cause you to look like Spam.

Our general advice is listed below:

However if you find open rates are falling then try changing the address. By keeping the address the same recipients will think that it is the same email again and again giving them no incentive to open it.

Some people use campaign specific addresses that inspire intrigue. Our advice is be careful – this is the exact technique spammers use and recipients will treat your email in the same way.

Subject lines

Our general guidelines are:

Remember the recipient is scanning through the inbox to see what they can delete as much as open so think about how you can make the subject line as relevant as possible to them.

SPAM filters

The best way to avoid SPAM filters is to think about SPAM you receive and the sort of techniques they use.

Avoid things like

Although these might be relevant to your product such as a special giveaway or a new credit card you are launching, filters are designed to weed these out.

Instead think about new ways of phrasing these such as removing the exclamation mark or using the term “eighteen years old”.

Timing

The time of sending the email is particularly important with B2B emails more than consumer.

Here are our suggestions for optimum response:

B2B – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10am or 3pm
There is also a theory that Friday afternoon is becoming a good time, as people tend to spend this clearing their inbox. Avoid Mondays where possible.

B2C - Consumers obviously have more time to check their email at evenings and weekends. The importance of when it arrives is not as great.

Test your campaigns!
All the rules above are rough guides. Your target customers however are unique to you and will respond to different things.

The best way to find out what works for your target market is to test a sample with varying factors such as subject lines.

Software such as Maxemail makes this easy for you. Simply decide what number or percentage you would like to include in each sample and Maxemail will randomly select the sample. You can repeat this process as many times as you like and Maxemail will remember which email addresses have already been sent the campaign. The detailed tracking reports will then give you guidance on what areas worked best in each sample.

Summary
Most people will get so involved in the design of the main body of the email that these little tweaks will get forgotten. Our advice is when developing your email campaign you build in specific time at the start to first of all come up with a selection of from addresses and subject lines that could appeal and then time at the end of the design process to test your email with the different variants.

If you would like help with any of these matters when designing your campaign feel free to call us for advice on 01327 350921.