The ClickMail Marketer Maximizing your email marketing ROI   January 2012 | Vol. 5 - No.1

Choosing an ESP Tip: Deliverability You need the maximum number of emails delivered to inboxes so that subscribers can open and click for the maximum ROI. Everything related to deliverability and reputation must be optimized. Make sure your ESP manages and monitors deliverability appropriately on their end. Learn more » ESP White Paper 2011 Guide to Choosing an Email Service Provider  Download  Did you know? "When Subscribers are no longer interested in a company's permission emails, the typical action of 67% of subscribers in to click the unsubscribe link." - ExactTarget "The Social Break-Up" (2011) Upcoming Events February 7-10, 2012 MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2012 Las Vegas, NV More Information » February 27-March 1, 2012 eTail 2012 Palm Desert, CA More Information » Not already subscribed? Subscribe here   Don’t Click That Button! 3 Ways to Minimize Spam Flagging “Don’t unsubscribe; just flag it as spam,” he said over my shoulder as I bemoaned yet another unwanted email in my inbox. But it wasn’t spam, rather email from a company I no longer wanted to hear from. I didn’t want to be unfair by flagging the email as spam—and thereby hurting the company’s sending reputation—so I went through the laborious unsubscribing process instead. I am not the typical email recipient, however. Most people will take the easy way out, flagging an email as spam to make it go away. They don’t realize the ramifications of their actions, only the fastest and easiest solution: the Spam button! This is the mindset you’re up against, that of the hurried consumer looking to do email triage as quickly as possible, even if that means flagging your legitimate emails as spam. And those spam reports do much more than block your emails: They work against your sending reputation and ultimately hurt your email deliverability rate. For that reason, you must do everything in your power to minimize spam reports, even as a bona fide email marketer sending to a permission-based, in-house email list. Here are four tips to keep your emails from the fate of that knee-jerk reaction. 1) Manage expectations from the start Both on your signup page and in your welcome email, be upfront about the frequency of your emails, so subscribers know what to expect. That way, if you’re sending daily emails and that’s what you promised, they won’t be caught off guard and click that Spam button on day three because they expected monthly emails. Better yet, offer a Preference Center and give subscribers the ultimate control over your email frequency. Also be upfront about the kind of content they can expect to receive from you. They’ll subscribe expecting who knows what unless you tell them otherwise. If they go into the relationship thinking you’re going to send articles, but coupons are all they get, they’ll think that’s spam for sure. On the flip side, if you say it’s coupons, you’ll only have subscribers who want to receive that kind of content…and they’ll be happy to hear from you when you deliver what you promised. 2) Get through the first three hurdles Remember that people decide whether or not to open your email by looking first at the From name (do I know this person?), second at the Subject line (am I interested in this email?) and third at the Preview Pane (am I intrigued enough to open this?). Also think of these three hurdles as hurdles against being flagged as spam when you: • Use a recognizable From name • Avoid spammy sounding Subject lines • Make your Preview Pane interesting, keeping in mind most email clients have images turned off by default so words will matter Pay attention to these three, and you’ll not only minimize your spam reports, but also increase your open rates. (Read more about these stages.) 3. Make the Unsubscribe easy to find and do If someone wants to unsubscribe, make it easy to do so. Make the Unsubscribe link obvious, not because you want to encourage dropouts, but rather to get someone to click there instead of on the Spam button. Consumers will take the path of least resistance. If they don’t want to hear from you, they don’t want to hear from you. Period. So make unsubscribing the easy way out so that’s the route they choose. Then make sure the unsubscribe process is painless. If they get to the Unsubscribe page and must enter an email and password in order to opt out, there’s a chance they’ll simply return to the inbox and click Spam instead. (Read more about unsubscribe best practices.) Chances are the Spam button will remain a threat to legitimate email marketers everywhere, especially as inboxes get ever more cluttered. Protect yourself from the negative impact of a subscriber’s behavior by diminishing the chances of the Spam button being the option they choose by following these three tips.   Visit our Blog for up to date industry information and tips from the email experts

About ClickMail Marketing ClickMail helps clients maximize ROI from their email marketing by staying on top of all the moving parts that make up email, from deliverability issues to content to landing pages … even integration with CRM systems. Learn more about ClickMail at: www.clickmailmarketing.com

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