Articles & Reports

Getting permission to send someone an email is probably the toughest, yet one of the most important, things you can do. Why is it so tough? Because you have to gain your potential recipient’s trust, that’s why. They need to feel comfortable that you won’t abuse their valuable and personal information.

Testing can be an important part of your email marketing strategy. A simple tweak in your email campaign could squeeze in some additional clicks, opens or even added revenue! Here are some ideas for each part of this rule that can hopefully help you garner better results.

Generally speaking, it’s good to have options. But occasionally, having too many alternatives can be a curse, not a blessing. When searching for an Email Service Provider (ESP), there’s no shortage of choices, but selecting the right ESP from a staggering array of candidates can be a daunting task. Here is a list of criteria you may want to start with when deciding who to choose an online Email Service Provider.

Use opt-in form instructions

Provide clear, step-by-step directions that indicate how subscribers can guarantee delivery of your emails straight to their inboxes. After registrants complete an opt-in form on your website and click “submit”, direct them to a page which suggests they add your email address to their address books. Then, to make the process nearly foolproof – and keep people from abandoning the task in frustration - provide specific instructions for each of the major ISPs (AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail etc.)

At VerticalResponse, we get this question all the time, should it be twice per month, twice per week, once per quarter? The truth is that we don’t have a perfect answer to this question. What we do know is that it all depends on the relationship you’ve built with your recipients.

Over-mailing your recipients is a very effective way to lose subscribers! A bored or annoyed recipient is one step away from becoming an unsubscribe and you really don’t want to alienate your subscribers.