Back to Basics: Before You Mail

You've got your email content, you've got your list. You're ready to launch your first campaign, right?

Absolutely not! Sending the message is one of the last things you would do.

Have you worked out your email strategy? How often will you send messages? Do all of your forms work? Are your messages likely to trigger spam filters somewhere along the way?

If you send before you can answer these and other questions with confidence, your email program might crash and burn before it can gain altitude.

Your Email Pre-Launch Checklist

This list of questions has two parts: Strategy and Technology.

Strategic Questions

1. Promotional vs. editorial email?

What kind of messages will you send? Promotional message (intended to acquire customers) focus on the offer: a sale, a download, a registration. Editorial messages also can sell but mainly retain customers with news, tips and advice. They also have a little longer shelf life than promotional messages.

2. How often will you send email?

The best way is to create a schedule and stick to it. This way, your subscribers will know how often to receive email, and it reduces the chance that you'll overwhelm them with too much email.

Sending too much email, by the way, is one of the top reasons people unsubscribe from email or click the "report spam" button.

Be sure, too, to see how much email your recipients could be getting from other departments within your company, other corporate divisions, or even your close competitors. Schedule your email campaigns so they don't compete or clash with other messages. Use the sender and subject lines to make sure your emails don't get confused with this other email, such as online bills or transaction reports.

3. Create an editorial calendar.

Plan out what kind of content your email messages will have. This is crucial if you send editorial content, to avoid last-minute scrambles for content and to think of useful article topics for your readers.

But, it's also important if you send mainly promotional messages, so that you have time to write the most compelling copy you can, to be sure you have the right product images, that you are emailing the right correct offer, and even to test it to see which offer, subject line or image will get the most action,

4. What day of the week will you send?

Don't believe all the studies that say one day is better to send than the others. Test your own audience to see which day works best. Look at your opt-in reports and see what day and time people most often sign up for your emails, then see how that day and time compare to another.

5. Who's your audience?

It's always easier to write copy when you can picture your typical reader. Is he or she younger or older? Student, business professional, housewife, avid hobbyist? That will help you choose content and define the look and writing style.

An email message for a financial-services company is going to sound much different from one that promotes athletic shoes for teenage boys, and both of those will be much different from a newsletter for knitting enthusiasts.

6. Are you promoting your email program aggressively?

Sprinkle opt-in invitations all over your Web site. You never know what page someone is land on; so, be ready for them with an invitation on every page.

Don't limit yourself to your Web site! Promote your email program in transactional messages such as order confirmations, in online and print bill statements, even on package stuffers, print ads, TV commercials … any place someone could come across your company and want to know more.

Also, tell them what's in it for them if they subscribe. "Sign up for email=only deal and find out about special sales before anyone else" is more compelling than "Sign up for email."

Technical Questions

So much for the planning stage. Now, you have to make sure all systems are go before you hit "send" on your campaign:

1. Do all forms and links work?

Test every form and link associated with your email program, from the opt-in link on your homepage to the landing-page and the unsubscribe link in your email messages.

2. Does the landing page synch with the email message?

Your landing page needs to go live even before you send your message so it's ready for the first person who clicks through to it. Check these critical factors:

1. The link takes the reader to the right page, not the homepage or an error page.
2. The page shows the right offer or article
3. You include links to opt-in, preference or contact pages

3. Did you test your email template?

Always test it before going live. Look for problems in these areas:

1. Broken code
2. Problems rendering in different platforms (PC vs. Mac vs. mobile) in different browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox) and in different email clients (Web mail, Outlook/Eudora/Lotus Notes)
3. Potential spam triggers

4. Have you authenticated the IP address you plan to use to send email?

An ISP uses authentication to verify your identity as an email sender. It helps block fraudulent email that forges its identity or hijacks someone else's server or IP address to send messages. If you can't verify your identity, the ISP can block your email, route it to the junk folder or add a message warning that the  sender is unverified. 

Enlist your IT department or email service provider to help you with this, because it involves inserting code into your DNS record or message headers (the code that appears at the top of each email. Ask if you are authenticated for SenderID Framework, Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or DomainKeys.

5. Is your domain set up correctly?

Here's a fast, free and easy way to find out. Type your domain name into the blank at http://www.dnsstuff.com/. You'll find out quickly if you have errors to correct. It will also tell you if your domain name has been reported on any blacklists. If it has, get those cleared up immediately, because ISPs use blacklists, both their own and third-party lists maintained by anti-spam groups, to block unwanted email.

6. Is your IP address on any whitelists?

These are the opposite of blacklists. Senders who can meet an ISP's strict rules for sending commercial email will see better delivery rates. As with authentication, your IT department or ESP might manage this for you, but you should know how they operate. Caution: Whitelists are hard to get onto but easy to fall off of; so, you have to monitor your delivery reports from the ISPs to find and resolve problems quickly.

7. What is your sender email address and name?

Some email clients show the sender address, while others show a sender name. Always use a sending email address and sender name your readers will recognize instantly. Usually, this is the company or brand name, or the newsletter name: "XYZ Company News" instead of "JoeBlow@xyz.com". Because some clients will show the email address, put your company, brand or newsletter name in the email address: "XYZCompanyNews@xyz.com."

8. Set up a reply-to address and monitor its inbox.

This will be different from your regular feedback email address and your sending email address. It helps you manage readers who send you comments, complaints and unsubscribe requests by hitting "reply" even though you clearly tell them not to. You don't have to publicize this address. Just monitor its inbox for live replies and deal with them immediately.

9. Start sending slowly!

Got a new IP address? Send your first emails in small batches. Sending too much email from an IP address that ISPs don't recognize can make you look like a spammer. Once you have shown yourself to be a good sender, you can increase the volume.

10. Did you test your message?

Before you send your campaign out into the world, send yourself a test message. This shows you if you overlooked coding or content errors, bad links or other problems. It takes just a couple minutes and can save you hours of repair or bad feelings from recipients.

The Last Question: How Will You Measure Success?

This question comes after you answer all the other questions about your email program before you send. Email gives you a whole spectrum of things to measure: open rate, click rate, conversion, forward to a friend, clicks to conversion, number of clicks on the message, number of clicks to your landing page. Decide what you really want to know and then choose the metric that fits best.

Kath Pay is Marketing Director of Ezemail, an innovative company that provides comprehensive email marketing solutions. For more information on how easily email marketing can be implemented, please contact Kath at kath@ezemail.com.

©Kath Pay 2008