CREATIVE TIPS
The purpose of any campaign or program is to craft a compelling message to maximize response. What is the critical value that your publication brings to the reader? The heart of this falls to the creative of the text or HTML.
Subject Line: Clearly this is the most important part of any email in terms of whether someone will open it or not. It is the most important part of the email - period. It is the first message about your offer to peak interest. It should have relevancy to what someone will find in the text or HTML. Limit it to 40 characters, as many browsers will not accommodate a long subject line and will cut it off. A cut off subject line means a less effective first strike. Avoid words that will get caught in Spam filters such as FREE, RE: and ADV:. Leverage your brand if it is well known, as it can help to lift response. As the most essential part of the communication, think long and hard about the subject line. Sometimes the most simple of tasks can be the hardest.
Testing: Despite the fact that direct response has been around since Fred and Wilma received their first piece of Stone Age mail, this is a new medium and experimentation is key. Test every aspect of the details of this medium - short vs. long copy, number of URLs and their locations, subject lines, day, time of day, offer, personalization, simple vs. complex formatting, design, color, text vs. HTML vs. Streaming media. Test, test, test.
Know Your Audience: The voice of the content sets the tone for whether a person will read on, pass-along or delete the message. Don't be too aggressive and salesy as people are turned-off by this. Put yourself in their place and ask yourself what would compel you to subscribe or buy your product. You get a great deal of email yourself: what appeals to you and what does not? You are your own best critic - listen to your own voice and instincts.
Content: Start right out in the first sentence or headline with information that gets immediate attention. What is the offer and why should they buy. The top third of the email is the most widely read, so make this section the most important. Open with a benefit-oriented headline or a strong first paragraph. Give them a reason to read on. You have less than a minute to capture their interest - don't waste their time. Keep the body copy short, tight and well formatted for readability. Follow it immediately with a URL to click-through for more information. That way, if they don't want to continue to read, you still give them a direction to head in. And don't sell multiple products in one message - keep it uncomplicated and direct. Make the total look simple and easy to read. It should also follow the same consistent message and design elements that you have created for all your other marketing collateral for your brand.
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Call to Action: Be detailed and specific on how you want them to respond. Give them every option  - an individual's email address, an 800 number, a real human with a real direct line, a URL for registration. Always create a limited time offer. Email does not have the shelf life that direct mail does. You have to bring the customer in quickly, so it is best to include the call to action above the first fold and repeated at the bottom. If there are any specific details on how to respond, make them clear and prominent.
Then make sure that all people concerned with the response are poised and ready to work
with the lead.
CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS TIPS
Before You Pull the Trigger: One important luxury of an email campaign is that you can send a message to your test cells before you send the real thing. This allows you and your associates to see it as it will be viewed by your prospects before they do. You can then review and tweak such things as image loading, personalization/key code sequencing and general creative look and feel. It is crucial that you signify in some way that this particular message is a test, so all of those on the seed list know it's not the real thing.
Equally as important, you can set up test email accounts at the major ISPs to determine if there are any issues specific to a particular email client. Be sure to click all links. If you are sending HTML, make certain a text backup strategy is in place for those who cannot receive it. Some email list vendors even offer a Filter Analysis Report during the testing stage to rate your creative's likelihood of being blocked by spam filtration software.
What to Watch: Immediately after the campaign has been sent, you should receive a delivery report from the vendor. This will tell you if there were any issues during the transmission of the campaign. Next it's time to watch the responses come in via your vendor's tracking report (and possibly a third party's as well). This report should differentiate between the cells and the variables within each cell.
Key variables include:
- Open rate (HTML only) - A poor open rate may be indicative of a weak From/Subject line.
- Click Through Rate (CTR) - A poor CTR may be indicative of a weak call to action. You should also be able to determine which links were clicked the most.
- Pass-along Clicks - These are clicks that were generated from recipients outside of your test cell (most likely due to forwarding). This is important, as pass-alongs can be encouraged but not accurately predicted.
- Cell Segments - Within each cell, you should be able to compare performance between lists, From and Subject lines, offers, long/short creative, day/time of day, creative formats (HTML vs. text) and more.
It's crucial to match up cell performance to backend data. In other words, it's quite possible that your best performing cell didn't yield the most orders/signups. You should also track other activity that was generated by the campaign. Perhaps the prospect didn't like the offer in question, but did take advantage of another one elsewhere on your site. Finally, know that this process is never complete and that the email marketing landscape is changing rapidly.Only through thorough testing and prompt rollouts can you be
assured of success.
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