Ten Easy Email Resolutions for 2008

By Dave Dabbah

Be it therefore resolved: 2008 will be the year you either fine-tune your email marketing program or finally kick it into high gear and work out the thorny problems that have been preventing you from getting your highest return possible.

Not sure where to start? Pick one of the 10 easy email resolutions listed below. Each one attacks a common problem area, stumbling block or barrier to better returns. Better yet, you should be able to accomplish each one in a day or so without having to hire specialists, spend part of your budget, or burden your IT people.

1.  Resolved: I will not add an email address to my mailing list unless the owner gives me explicit permission first.

Yes, CAN-SPAM allows US email marketers to send opt-out messages as long as you include a working unsubscribe link. However, you should obey a higher law, the one that says opt-in lists perform better and generate fewer spam complaints and blocks. You might get some results from cold-emailing customers who gave you their email addresses with their orders but didn't outright ask to be added to your list or sending to a rented list with a dicey permission history, but the damage to your sender reputation can haunt you much longer.

2.  Resolved: I will write a new welcome message to help engage my new subscribers right from the start.

Which welcome message makes you feel more excited about joining a new mailing list?

Message A:

Subject line: "Successfully subscribed."

Message copy: "You have successfully subscribed to Newsletter A."

Message B:

Subject line: "Welcome to Newsletter B!"

Message copy: "Thank you for signing up for Newsletter B. Here are the details of your subscription: You signed up on Dec. 31 to receive our weekly newsletter in HTML format. As we stated when you signed up, we will guard your email address and use it only to send the emails you have requested.

"Please tell us a little more about yourself so that we can send you the information you want most by filling out a customer profile; here's the link: http://www.newsletterB.com/ .

"Here's a special offer, just for you, our newest subscriber! Want to review the latest newsletter? Find it here: (link)"

"If you need to contact our staff with questions or concerns, you can reach at the following email addresses and telephone numbers …."

"Finally, if you didn't intend to sign up, you can unsubscribe by clicking this link, and we will remove your name immediately."

On your next lunch break, rewrite your welcome message, or create a new one to be sent out automatically when your subscriber confirms. This engages your newcomers more quickly and restates what the subscriber signed up for, eliminating confusion and making you more trustworthy. It also brings your newcomer up to speed more quickly and invites them into the program immediately, rather than making them wait for your next message.

3.  Resolved: I will cull the deadwood from my mailing list.

Your most active addresses usually are your newest ones. If you don't grab and engage readers right at the beginning, you will see opens and clicks begin to drop off as early as three weeks after opt-in.

You can measure how much of your list is asleep just by looking at the delivery reports on your last couple of campaigns. If your open rate hovers at 20% or less, you've got a lot of hibernators, who are costing you money and contributing nothing to your program. Wake them up by asking them either to resubscribe, update their profiles, or unsubscribe.

However, don't send this message to everyone on your list or you'll irritate your most loyal customers. Instead, create a list segment of all subscribers who haven't opened or clicked for at least six months. Send them a special message and a reminder, and then eliminate anyone who doesn't answer.

4.  Resolved: I will authenticate myself to the domains I send email to.

Authentication means you tell the ISPs that you are authorized to send email from your address or that you own the email address you're using to send them messages. More email receivers want this assurance to cut down on spammers who forge email addresses or hack into other email servers to cover their tracks. Although authentication methods vary by ISP, essentially you insert a unique line of code into your DNS record or email headers. The receiving email server looks for that specific line and passes you if it sees it.

5.  Resolved: I will improve my sender reputation by getting listed on ISP whitelists and feedback loops or becoming an accredited sender.

Along with authentication, ISPs are beginning to rely more on sender reputation when deciding whether to pass your messages or to block or junk-file them. How you handle email determines your reputation. Using only opt-in, acting on spam complaints quickly, keeping your list clean and sending properly formatted messages will give you a good reputation.

You can help keep it shiny by getting on an ISP whitelist or by winning accreditation from third-party agencies, such as Goodmail, Habeas or trustE. Getting whitelisted means your email is more likely to end up in the inbox, but it's not permanent. If you violate the ISPs’ sending rules too often, you'll get kicked off.

If you can't get whitelisted, you can see if the ISP offers feedback loops, which pass along spam complaints from their users. Use the feedback loop to remove addresses that generate spam complaints and to pinpoint sending problems at specific ISPs.

Here are two links to get you started:

AOL: http://postmaster.aol.com/
Yahoo: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/postmaster/
Windows Live: http://postmaster.msn.com/

6.  Resolved: I will test every email function to make sure it works, especially the unsubscribe link.

How long has it been since you tested your subscribe or unsubscribe functions to be sure they work the way they're supposed to? If you're like X% of your fellow marketers who participated in Lyris' unsubscribe survey in fall 2007, you haven't tried it since you set up the program way back when. Take a minute now to subscribe and unsubscribe, change your email address, update a profile page, send a page or email to a friend, and whatever other functions you have that relate to email. Then, test them again once a month, especially if you upgrade your site or change the formatting.

7.  Resolved: I will validate all of my message templates to make sure the images render correctly, the links work, and the message is optimized for mobile readers.

One sure way to get your email blocked at major ISPs is to send HTML messages with bad or broken code. You can validate your code here (link). Have you checked your links lately too? Once you do that, then click every single link in every single template. Resolve any problems immediately. Then, call up your email on a mobile reader, like a cell phone or PDA. Seeing a big blank? Then it’s time to add a few words to the alt tags listed on your images and some descriptive text in the message body so people who don't download images automatically will see what you're talking about.

8.  Resolved: I will review my entire opt-in procedure to remove all barriers to subscribing and make it as visible as possible to new subscribers.

This resolution doesn't ask you to revamp your entire opt-in program. That will take more time than we promised you would have to spend on these. Instead, look through your Web site and your message templates. Can someone sign up for your emails on every page of your site or in any email message you send? Include a link even on transactional emails, because someone who buys from you or requests more information isn't always a subscriber. (Refer to Resolution No. 1 before you add them without an express request.)

9.  Resolved: I will start reading all those delivery reports, even if I'm not exactly sure what all those numbers mean.

Delivery reports, issued by the ListManager software during and after a send, might not appear to be compelling reading unless you're looking for a specific metric. But, they're invaluable if you want to know exactly how well you're delivering your messages. These reports will tell you which addresses did not get your email and why, how many of your messages were sent and how many got delivered. You might also get open, click and conversion reports with them too. Read them individually to assess a single campaign's performance, and then drop the statistics into a spreadsheet and track whether they go up or down or remain level.

10. Resolved: I will find at least one new way to learn what my subscribers want from me or think about my email program.

Yes, you could run a survey. But surveys are inherently flawed if you are depending on people to take them on their own initiative. The population of people returning your surveys might be vastly different from your audience in general and send you down the wrong path.

Instead, find new ways to tap into your customers' thoughts and feelings by seeking feedback in different ways. The unsubscribe is one place to start. What you might see as strictly a technical function – your subscriber asks to get off your list, and your list software removes the address permanently – is actually an excellent source of information.

You can put up a one- or two-question survey on the unsubscribe confirmation page (although the caveats mentioned before about the quality of the information still hold). Or, you can let your unsubscribers know about other options: different mailing lists, frequencies or formats. Tracking what people are telling you, or the actions they're taking, can help you refocus your program to make it more relevant and useful. 

Here's to a successful and profitable 2008!

Dave Dabbah is the Vice President of Marketing for Lyris.

Contact us at editor@lyris.com to share your ideas. We may include it in the next issue of Making Mail Work!