In these challenging economic times, retailers began their advertising push early, slashed prices and increased their email marketing to get customers in the door.

Like all forms of advertising, email can either make or break shopper loyalty. Let’s take a look what makes a successful email campaign.

The most important thing about email is your compliance with CANSPAM.

Here’s a checklist:

Deliverables & CAN-SPAM Compliance Checklist

• Valid From Line (indicates Advertiser or Advertiser’s domain)
• Valid Subject Line (must not be deceptive or misleading)
• HTML Creative - (must not be deceptive or misleading) keep your file small- 40K max
• Text backup (must not be deceptive or misleading)
• Unique Tracking Link
• Unsubscribe Link (make it simple for the user to unsubscribe)
• Unsubscribe Physical Address (must be an active mailing address that is monitored regularly)
• Suppression File (full list of email addresses that have opted out of receiving offers)
• Reflective of content & value. Benefit/call-to-action-oriented
• Avoid the use of one or more explanation points
• Avoid the use of all CAPS.
• Keep the subject line short - 40 characters recommended. Typically, shorter subject lines produce higher open rates.

The second part of a successful email is the creative you choose and the landing page you send your traffic too. Remember, most email networks will not let you make a purchase or download directly from your email so you have to send the traffic to a dedicated page in your site “landing page”. Here you’ll want to have a clean, easy to read, quick way to buy and the details of your product or service.

Creative

• Keep it clean & simple. Make sure the creative is scanable - utilize the “3 Second Rule” (the user understands what the offer is within 3 seconds).
• Keep critical call-to-action above the fold. Avoid the need to scroll down.
• Clickable creative, clickable images, clickable action words (such as Order now/Visit here).- Make it as easy as possible for the user to get to the landing page. If the user has to search for where to click, they may forgo any action at all.
• Create a sense of urgency within the message to help increase conversions, such as “limited time only”.
• Make it easy for the recipient to read the email by utilizing bullets and visual markers.
• Use both HTML & text to maximize deliverability.
• Avoid use of spam-flagging words such as “free” & “click” in the text (unless embedded in an image).
• Always include some text in the HTML. Avoid the use of all CAPS (unless embedded in an image).
• Avoid Flash/Java and heavy file sizes.

Email is a great way to keep in touch with your customers, and if you do it right you can maximize traffic and make your site that much more “sticky”. If you are buying traffic from a list agency, make sure they follow all the CANSPAM compliance guidelines, make sure you ask them to send you some example emails, and be wary of any low cost CPM’s. Remember, you always get what you pay for, even in email traffic.

Good Luck and Happy Selling!

Sean Hendrickson
shendrickson@digitalriver.com