We’ve all gotten them. We’ve all been guilty at one time or another of sending them. I’m talking about the “Dreaded Thread” — long email threads. Those long emails with tons of headers or emails that don’t make sense without reading every email in the thread. It’s time to break the habit, clean up those emails and help the reader understand the message you are sending.
The “Dreaded Threads” come in two basic categories:
Lately when talking to clients about their email marketing, it’s all about list size. Most clients feel the size of their lists directly reflect on the success of their email campaigns. Bigger is better, or is it? I still experience a lack of understanding from clients on what opt-in means and what are “best practices”. Questions arise such as: Does quality of the list impact success? What about deliverability? So, let’s take a step back and discuss how email lists are generated before we discuss size, quality or deliverability.
Generating lists via different opt-in methods
No Opt-in
The most unscrupulous method for building lists is known as “email harvesting”. Harvested lists are created either by manually or automatically collecting email addresses from forums, chat rooms, websites or being automatically generated using a method called “dictionary attacking”. In 2003, the CAN-SPAM Act was passed to help curb the amount of SPAM. Part of the CAN-SPAM Act put strict penalties on people who collect email address by using harvesting methods. The act also required marketers to include unsubscribe links, physical addresses, clear subject headings, and legitimate “To” and “From” addresses. To avoid being prosecuted and keep their email from being banned, the email marketing community had to make significant changes to comply.
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As an advocate of email marketing, we are firm believers this medium is not only here to stay, but an integral part of any marketing campaign. Email deployments are important for marketing any product, service or brand.
One large drawback of email marketing is the typically short length of time that the emails circulate. Once deployed, the emails are will get a high number of click-thrus and conversions, however, it tends to drop off quickly. Marketeers have been using many techniques to improve the success of their email campaigns, but the use social media platforms is increasing and helping improve the life of email campaigns, messaging and brand awareness.
The concept of leveraging social media platforms and implementing it can be extremely beneficial to your email deployments. Traditionally, email campaigns are deployed to a specific group of targeted individuals. Using social media will help spread your message through different channels reaching more people, therefore increasing overall goals and results.
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