• by Jeff Giacchetti , February 22, 2008

Send messages that hook your audience

Do you click with consumers? Or more to the point, are they clicking on you? As online marketers, we are constantly testing new strategies and tactics to achieve our goals more efficiently. Whether we are trying to obtain new customers, increase retention, build awareness or enhance loyalty, e-mail continues to be an effective and reliable weapon in our media arsenal.  

E-mail’s versatility in personalizing and targeting messages is unmatched by any other medium but, like other communication tools, its impact is much greater when used correctly. There are best practices you can employ to combat declining e-mail open rates caused by greater amounts of spam, and increase click-through rates and overall click-to-open rates (CTOR). Since the CTOR expresses click-through rates as a percentage of opened e-mail not delivered, it is a strong gauge of how well your e-mail motivates people. 

Consider your e-mail list the foundation of your campaign. It should be qualified and cleansed (scrubbed against your suppression list), void of hard bounces and, most important, CAN-SPAM compliant. It is very important to take time to make sure that your list is in good shape, otherwise you risk low performance, negative sentiment and may get your e-mail permanently blocked by the service provider.

Once your list is in order, carefully consider your message. Beginning with the subject line, make sure to keep it short, relevant and clear as to what’s inside (keeping it under 50 characters). The subject line is your first and only chance to influence an open. Never personalize in the subject line (first or last names), don’t use flashy/funny terms, symbols or letters entirely in caps (that’s a guaranteed spam folder candidate). Instead, let the person know exactly what your offer is in a clear and defined way. It’s also helpful to stress value, but do not use language that sounds too good to be true. 

It is important that the “from” line establishes what company is sending the e-mail. People should be able to quickly identify the sender. As with the subject line, do not personalize by using someone’s name, but rather state clearly a company name that’s easily recognizable by the target audience. Someone is not going to open an e-mail if that person or company is not familiar to them.

Once the e-mail is opened, it is vital that the content matches the subject line. This connection will perpetuate trust and increase clicks. You should also be sure that a call to action is prominently displayed within the copy. Although some people might view a portion of their e-mail in a preview pane without opening your e-mail, tracking software will record it as an open. In this case, all is not lost if your copy is compelling and positioned correctly. By setting up your copy while keeping these viewable areas in consideration, you can accurately align your call to action accordingly. Thus even a small preview of e-mail copy can still garner a click.  

Finally, make sure that your landing page is optimized to reflect and reinforce the offer that brought the user there. Very often marketers invest time and money into their e-mail list, subject line and content only to have people drop off once they come to the landing page. Synergy between your landing page and e-mail content will go far in guaranteeing that they will take action once there. Also don’t forget to include opt-in request language on your landing page. This allows new users to provide their information and gives you the opportunity to add information that you didn’t already have in your database.

And stop looking over the neighbor’s fence. Be sure that you compare results across your own campaigns with similar objectives to derive the most accurate changes in performance. Trying to meet or beat some kind of “industry average” is a poor way of measuring effectiveness. There are too many variables to consider when comparing e-mail campaign performance. Only focus on your own results.

Jeff Giacchetti is associate media director at EarthQuake Media. (jeff@earthquakemedia.com)