Best practices aren't only for high-sending periods
Yanna-Torry Aspraki ???? ????
Transforming Real Estate with Human Behavior Strategies | CRO | Strategy Architect | Deliverability Specialist
High-sending periods tend to make #emailGeeks talk about best practices a lot more, and we are tired of repeating ourselves
Once September hits we tend to be reminded of how to create warm-up plans, maintain our sender reputation, and ensure we minimize any deliverability issues. There is not much of a point to be sending out a ton of emails that no one receives, right?
In my professional experience, as senders, we tend to forget most best practices during high-sending periods like Black Friday or the Holidays! We are personally bombarded with a ton of emails and we assume if other brands do it, so should we. The more we send the more reach we will get and the more money we will make... right?
We need to keep in mind that best practices are best practices all year round and that our industry/business might not have the same high sending periods as others, if at all. We don't have to imitate what other businesses are doing.
Best practices aren't only for high-sending periods
As senders, we tend to make simple mistakes during high-sending periods like Black Friday which end up affecting us over a long period of time. Let's cover common ones I've encountered with my customers and talk about Best Practices.
1- Sending emails with little to no value
We often feel compelled to send out similar emails to the ones we see in our inboxes. This happens all year round for various holidays or important moments and it makes us feel like we are losing an opportunity to connect and engage.
One of the most important rules of email is ensuring we send valuable emails that subscribers will engage with.
Certain industries or job positions will have a greater need to send a holiday e-card with best wishes by email. It serves to engage by creating stronger one on one relationships. Now imagine Amazon sending its 200 million Prime members an email with only a cute gif wishing them a Merry Christmas. No call-to-action (CTA). No purpose. Just an extra email to delete. Might not be the best use of an email campaign.
Same thing with other high-sending periods. A lawyer probably shouldn't send a campaign with a two-for-one coupon for divorces during Black Friday because they feel the need to connect with their customer base in November. Don't send emails that hold no value to your subscribers and your business. It's just not worth having it connected to your historical reputation.
2- Erratic changes and inconsistency
We have a million and one things we need to do in order for our businesses to run smoothly and be profitable. When it comes to outreach, we need to be consistent. We need to ensure we have goals that we can measure, work on endless marketing ideas, and of course bring them to life.
Being consistent with our email strategies and practices is just as important.
Spam filters learn about you based on the emails they receive from you. The more consistent your strategies, the easier it is for them to trust you, even when you make certain mistakes. So make sure you have the resources you need in order for your email marketing strategies to come to life. If you can't consistently send valuable emails once a week, why not bring it down to two a month? You will have more time to put into creating valuable emails and will ensure you also have the time to monitor your reputation, dive into your statistics or perform other email-related tasks, like list cleaning and targetting.
There is no point in trying to compete in the inbox by using volume as a tactic. Instead, ensure your audience loves to open and read your emails. Have them look for your email in their inbox!
Consistency isn't only about sending patterns, but also includes sending similar content every time related to your industry, ensuring you are not changing ESPs all the time, maintaining list engagement over time, following best practices and so much more!
3- Stale or bad subscriber lists
When it comes to email, high sending periods or not, many of my customers tend to believe they can make more money if they send to more people. I won't pretend to know for every single business if sending to a bigger list is going to yield more ROI. What I am certain of though, is that quality will always trump quantity when it comes to dealing with spam filters and maintaining your sender reputation.
领英推荐
Send your emails to engaged users who are valuable to your business and ROI
I've had the chance to help many customers fix their list-related deliverability issues during high-sending periods. The most common issues were made because:
Be consistent and offer value to people who know you and want to engage with your emails
Consistency in your practices is important, but sending valuable emails to subscribers who want them and will engage with them is a whole lot better if you want spam filters to continue to put your emails in the inbox or tabs. Ask yourself the following questions next time you get excited about a new email campaign you might want to send out:
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Things to read!
- Blog post on Flowmailer | now Spotler by Nick van Dijk
- Blog post on Kickbox by Jennifer Nespola Lantz
- Infographic kept up to date by bimigroup.org
If you have any questions or topics you would like me to cover, let me know! ???