The Challenge
Getting your emails noticed is a challenge. Most everyone receives far too many emails on a daily basis to pay attention to every one. Take note of what grabs your attention and which senders are successful in getting you to read their entire post.
The Solution
I create fast loading optimized images for email blasts and I load them on MY hard drive and link to them from within the Constant Contact portal. This ensures that they will never be “rasterized down” by the library program and appear fuzzy (something they don’t tell you they are doing to conserve space!). It also keeps your costs down, as you will never need to load more than the 5 free images they allow with the basic email package. Once you approve the layout, I will load it up and send you a test, and then schedule your email or leave that to you if you so choose. Below are some pointers to help you use this program wisely.
Get Your First Email FREE!
I recommend Constant Contact for your email program. You can try their program free for up to 60 days and for up to 100 email addresses but I will sweeten that deal even more…if you let me set you up with your free trial account, I will create, load and schedule your first email FREE as well! I will also load your logos properly optimized into your library so that you can try out their templates and create your own email blasts and newsletters if you so choose. I have also created custom newsletter templates for clients who wish copy, edit and send them every month. It is a great way to direct new customers to your website, your facebook page and any other social media you are using.
Tips for Effective Email Marketing
- The purpose of your email is to drive traffic to your landing page, product page or website, so make sure your email has obvious links.
- Make unsubscribing easy. Have clear, easy-to-find unsubscribe links that require minimal action from the user to complete the task of unsubscribing. It may seem counter intuitive to make it easy for a user to leave your mailing list, but the other option is much less appealing. If users get frustrated while trying to figure out how to remove their email from your list, they may start to flag your email as spam. Every user who does this affects your sender reputation.
- Always include “alternate text” if your email consists mainly of one image.
- Do a “spam check” before sending the email. This will help you to avoid being flagged as spam.
- Less is more! Keep your message as short and concise as possible.
- Clean your email list regularly. If your list starts to show a higher percentage of undeliverable email addresses, email providers will flag you as spam.
- Include a “text version” with your email. A number of people do opt to view email as text only, and, increasingly, people are reading text-based email only on mobile phones. So it is wise to piggyback a “text only” version of the email onto your send.
- Send test emails BEFORE sending to your main list.
- Ask users to add you to their contact list! At every opportunity, remind users that they can be assured that they won’t miss out on the valuable information that they love receiving from you if they add your send address to their email contacts list. Including the “share” buttons in your email can help you grow your email list. If you are not pro-active, your list WILL get smaller and some opt out or change their email addresses and forget to notify you.
Take a look!
Below are samples of my work. If you would like to see more on a certain topic, please email me and I will be happy to reply.
