Despite the rise of social media and the abundance of alternate traffic source channels, did you know that e-mail marketing remains one of the most effective and rewarding methods of promotion?
Indeed, a good email marketing campaign can reach some sky-high returns on investment (ROI).
For instance, the CrakRevenue mailing team reaches between 500% and 1000% ROI on quite a few of their campaigns on a daily basis.
However, to be THAT effective, these mailing campaigns need to be managed the right way and can't be considered or ever thought of as “Spam.”
Here’s how to achieve this!
Build a Legit Mailing List
First of all - if you don’t want your emails to fall into the “spam” category - it is to your benefit to begin building a legitimate, bonafide mailing list—and sooner, rather than later.
The main concept: to only send mailings to those who expressly consented and/or opted-in.
How to do it: by incorporating a “mail catcher” onto your site.
Once people begin entering their email and begin expressing interest in receiving communications from you—one surefire way to ensure their interest and dramatically decrease the spam complaints—is to use a double opt-in process.
Double opt-in (DOI) is recommended for a number of reasons, but the main one is… it prevents anyone from entering ANYONE's email (be it malicious intent or an honest mistake).
DOI confirms that the address entered belongs to the person who entered it.
And let’s not forget about list segmentation... (segmenting by user interest/language).
Read more about how to build a legit mailing list here.
Write E-Mails That Generate Clicks
When it comes to email marketing techniques and writing efficient emails, there's plenty of guides and tips out there.
The AIDA model is probably one of the most popular marketing formulas and acronyms around. AIDA applies to email marketing on all levels and definitely moonlights as a communications model for mailers and true email marketers.
But why stop there? Here’s another little writing formula we cherish at CrakRevenue:
- Step 1: Choose a catchy Title.
- Step 2: Identify the problem.
- Step 3: Present a solution.
- Step 4: Show proof.
- Step 5: Make the benefits known
- Step 6: Use testimonials (optional).
- Step 7: Show the exact content of the offer (optional).
- Step 8: Reassure the reader.
- Step 9: Introduce tacit emergency (optional).
However, even the most attractive email won’t generate conversions if it is ending up in the spam folder. Stay clear of common spam words aka trigger words.
Indeed, Webmail providers are on the lookout for “spammy” subject lines; known triggers.
If your subject line contains one of these words... well, let's put it this way: your email isn't likely to be seen as intended.
Fortunately for you, most of these words have been identified.
Here’s an extensive list of spam trigger words you can learn to avoid:
- Hubspot’s Ultimate List Of Email SPAM Trigger Words
- The Top 100 Spam Trigger Words and Phrases to Avoid by Leadformix
Read more about writing efficient e-mails here.
Design Efficient Templates
Once your email is written, you’ll need to display it in a well organized and professional template if you want to generate serious conversions.
Here are some tips that will lead you in the right direction to crafting that perfect template that actually sells:
- Choose neutral, solid colors, that compliment one another (that aren’t likely to strain anyone’s eyes.)
- Choose wisely between single and multi-column layouts depending on your goal.
- ALWAYS leave a prime spot for the call-to-action.
- Build your template with good HTML structure.
- Make sure that your template is responsive.
- Design templates that resemble the landing page you’re sending users to.
Read more about template designing here.
Making Sure Your Emails Get Delivered
With all the effort you’re putting into these emails, you’d think your message would get delivered straight to the intended inbox without a hitch, right?
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
Yes, even if you follow all of the aforementioned Mailing tips to the T—the fact of the matter is—there’s still a slight chance that your email will end up where you don’t want it.
Why?
Well, first off, adult’s a whole different ball game.
When adult-oriented products or links are involved, the deck is already stacked against us.
Therefore, on top of all the previously covered elements you may have worked on... there are still a few more things you’ll want to check before sending that first email out.
1- Make Sure That Your Email Is Compatible with All the Major Email Providers
As all email clients are different, this runs the risk of the mail service not displaying your email as intended. But with tools like Email on acid, you can check how your email appears in all the major inboxes (Gmail, MSN, Yahoo, etc.).
2- Check Your Spam Score
To check your Spam Score, all you have to do is paste the contents of an email — or more precisely, the full headers and content of the email in the spam checker box of a tool like Postmark, for example.
The closer your score is to 0, the better the chance of an email being received by a user without issue.
3- Check Your IP Address
Sometimes, IP address can get blacklisted for sending too many emails. Having said that, there's a tool called SenderScore that allows you to check the reputation and trustworthiness of any email sender’s IP address.
Protip: Any "Sender Score" above 80 is fantastic.
Does your IP address have a bad reputation? Find out!
Read more about how to monitor your mailer’s score here.
Escape from the Blacklist
Ending up on a blacklist isn't the most pleasant thing in the world, but fortunately for you, there's ways to handle the complaints against through Feedback Loops through all the major email providers.
Here’s the gist of a Feedback loop:
With a Feedback loop, you’ll be notified each time a user reports your email as spam and - therefore - you’ll be able to manage your sender score at the top.
However, if the worst happens and you do get blacklisted, don’t lose all hope: there might still be a way out.
Indeed, most major email providers allow you to fill out a form to get your case reviewed.
Read more about how go from blacklisted to whitelisted here.
Email Like a Boss
If you follow most of the tips and guidance mentioned above, you should be able to reach your target and deliver your message.
At this point, your main focus should be on split testing your templates and optimizing your...
- Open rate
- Click-through rate
- Unsubscription rate
- Hard & Soft Bounce rate
- Number of Complaints
- Most clicked areas
Always remember that it takes time to gain a satisfactory level of confidence in your email’s potential for conversion. Keep at it!
Keep sending and optimizing your campaigns and never forget that in the end, it’s actually the number of sales that counts…
We wish you all the best in all of your Mailing pursuits!
