Creating your first email

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Whether you’ve decided to send out information-based messages or product / service promotions, there are a few common characteristics to a good email.

• Keep the content concise, relevant and easily understandable
• Ensure that the content is truly of interest to your audience
• When possible, provide special deals, discounts, insider information that isn’t readily available to the general public (eg: your site visitors)
• Spel; chek the comtent and, if possible, use the two-person method of proofreading (One reads, the other checks. Don’t forget to include punctuation). The rule here is that if you made the typo, odds are, you won’t catch it when you proofread by yourself. If you’re a hermit like me, have your computer read it back to you, if your machine has that capability.

After you’ve written the content and are doing the happy dance, it’s time to craft a stellar subject line. Subject line writing is an art form and discipline unto itself. Many email marketers say they spend as much or more time on the subject line as they do on the entire message.

Here’s an insight from email service MailerMailer via Clickz.com that certainly warrants some testing:

A lot of e-mailers hesitate to use personalization in subject lines for fear of looking spammy. That’s a legitimate concern. But according to MailerMailer’s survey of 270 million e-mail messages from 3,136 in 22 industries from January to June 2007, personalization can dramatically increase open rates.

It’s challenging enough to condense a marketing message into 45 characters, the typical length of an e-mail inbox. But MailerMailer metrics show that even this length may be too long. The company found open rates are 5.1% higher for subject lines under 35 characters and that Click Thru Rates (CTRs) for e-mail with shorter subject lines are 1.7 points better.

Here are some additional tips to consider:

• Don’t try to sell the content with the subject line, though. Simple tell what it’s about.
• Don’t use all caps. It’s seen as yelling.
• Avoid common spam words such as “free,”discount,” “save,” and multiple dollar signs ($$$$), especially with exclamation points ($$$!!!!!!). And for goodness sake, unless you’re Pfizer, don’t use anything like, “Viagra.”

When it comes to subject lines, test, test and test some more. This is where those tracking reports come in handy. Use them to learn which subject line had the best open rates.

Here’s a link to a study of best and worst open rates for various subject lines on MailChimp.

When possible, include customer reviews, client testimonials and other third party endorsements. Consumers and business buyers are placing more and more emphasis on peer and third party reviews and comments.

Remember to include your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking links in your emails. A sidebar is handy for this. When possible, use opportunities to educate your subscribers with reasons why they should share your content.

Most email services offer personalization within the body of the message. Take advantage of it. Research has shown that personalized messages pull better than generic ones. So, consider starting off your message with, “Dear [first name].”

Now that you have a well-researched, spell checked, meaty message with a compelling subject line, it’s time to schedule it for delivery. What’s the best day and time to send your emails? That, dear reader, is a topic that has agonized email marketers for years. Early on, the best practice was to send on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The rationale was that on Mondays people were getting over the weekend and rushed to get their week in order. On the flip side, Fridays were bad because people were slowing down in anticipation of the weekend. Weekends were out all together, especially for B2B marketers, because folks were off doing the weekend thing.

As more research was conducted, better metrics were available and marketers had gained more experience, things changed a bit. Sundays started to show promise for open rates. The problem is, however, the research shows that the best days and times keeps changing. Plus, this stuff is based on “average” lists. Your guess is as good as mine as to what an “average” list is.

Each year, MailerMailer.com puts together an excellent report on all things email marketing . Their June, 2009 report showed that, although weekends and the beginning of the week outperform the other days, Monday is the clear winner having both the highest open rate and click rate. The report has a boat load of other useful info and insights. You can download the pdf here.

Also, it’s worth noting that a 2009 study by AOL Research Corporation indicated 34% of U.S. Internet users check their email “throughout the day,” while 23% prefer to read their messages “as soon as they wake up,” and others indicated email was top of mind right when getting home from work, during lunch and right before bed.

While this research is useful, to a degree, you’ll want to do your own based on your email marketing reports. Over the course of time (and not too much, at that), and based on your subscribers, you’ll be able to identify the best days and time of day for sending your messages.

That brings us to my next topic – Understanding and using email marketing statistics, metrics and reporting. Watch for it soon.

Please note: I am not an affiliate for any of the services mentioned in this series. Links are provided simply for your reference and convenience.