Newsletters

Sending out emails to people with information about your offers or services can be a great way to increase your sales and to interact with your consumer, without having to send out hard mailings by post that can be very time consuming and expensive. Seamless Fusion offers a service to send out such information on your behalf, so if you would like to know more do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Below are a few tips regarding things to think about when considering whether to run an email marketing campaign.

Before you start

1. It should be noted that the saying 'you have to tell someone 7 times before they buy' is still true. There is little point sending out a single e-mailer to your list and then not following it up with more. Customers need to learn to trust you, be reminded of your existence and learn more about you before they will engage.
2. If you can, use your own house-list that you have built up to send the emailers to. This will always produce better results than purchasing any data lists from data-houses.
3. Sending from a purchased list can sometimes create up to 20% bounce rates and a <1% click thru/engagement rate.
4. Rates of engagement vary from emailer to emailer and from industry sector to industry sector. There is no set statistic regarding expected click thru rates for a particular email. For example it will depend on whether you are sending to a business or consumer list, the kind of mailing you are sending and how relevant it is to your audience.
5. Segmenting your list and testing different subject lines and different designs can be a very useful way of seeing what works for your customer. Also trying to test at different times of day and on different days of the week can be insightful.
6. If you are going to use purchased data, it needs to be kept fresh and up to date. This may involve sending it back to the data house to get it 'cleaned' every 4-6 months.
7. Our email marketing system does not calculate 'open rates' due to the results being so badly skewed by 'reading panes' that many email browsers use these days.
8. Ensure that you have got a suitable address to use for the 'from' address and the 'reply to' address on your emailers.
   1. It should be noted that by law this email address has to be 'real' and relevant to the company that is sending the emailer.
   2. If it is a personal email and you are sending to a large list, you will very likely get 'out of office' replies and similar emails into the inbox associated with the 'from' address and 'reply to' address (these should be kept the same). You will either need to filter these emails into an extra folder, or create a new inbox that is not used on a day-to-day basis by one person.
   3. The emails may need to be checked however as some people may have requested to unsubscribe by clicking 'reply' – rather than going through the official 'unsubscribe' channels. If people do this they are NOT automatically removed from the database and we will need to be informed of these people so they do not receive further emails.

Email body

1. Start with a strong headline. Your headline is the first thing customers will see when they click open your email and this can determine if a person reads on. To do this try stepping into the shoes of the customer, and think about the most compelling reason they would have to buy a product or service from you. Appeal to their emotions or other needs they may have.
2. Personalise your email. If you have their first name, use it. Our system will automatically personalise emails for you providing we have the relevant names.
3. Where possible address the customer in the second person, that way you are unconsciously letting them know that they are the important ones and can encourage engagement.
4. People are time poor so keep it short. Try to create your first paragraph as a "mini-telegraph” for your message with a link to your web site, so you encourage the busier readers to continue down the emailer.
5. Provide strong 'calls to action' in the copy.
6. Offer an incentive to engage with the newsletter – everyone likes getting something for free!
7. Avoid using words that are 'spam triggers' where possible in the body text (those triggers as seen below) and also avoid using words containing all CAPITALS.
8. Ensure that you have a link at the top of the email so that people can view it in a regular browser if they are struggling to read the email. It is likely to read similar to 'If you cannot view this email, please click here'.
9. If suitable, it can be beneficial to add a sentence that reads similar to 'to ensure our emails keep coming through to you, please add our email address to your address book'. This can help prevent the emails going into people's junk boxes in the future – and helps to show you are a legitimate emailer.

Subject line

1. There are a large number of words and punctuation marks to avoid using in subject lines. Some may seem more obvious than others. Things avoid include:
   Help
   Reminder
   % off
   Free
   !
   Opportunity
   Compare
   Amazing
   Promise You
   Satisfaction Guaranteed
   Click Here
   Call now!
   Subscribe
   Discount!
   " "
   £
   Offer
   One time
   Order Now
   Please Read
   Don't Delete
   Save up to
   Time limited
   Visit our web site
   While Supplies last
   Why pay more?
   Any words related to medical care, sex, pornography and debt should also be avoided
2. Avoid using words that are made up of all capital letters (eg OPEN THIS EMAIL NOW)
3. Try to keep the subject line to a maximum of 50 characters if possible
4. Don't include telephone numbers in subject lines