Mass mailings are a great way to stay in touch with your customers — and to contact prospective customers. You can use them to increase awareness of your brand, products and services. A good mailer should build some rapport, deliver a compelling reason to call later, and prepare the recipient for your follow-up.
But in the age of spam and email inboxes being flooded with different types of communication, all vying for attention, how do you make sure your mass mailing floats to the top instead of being drowned out or swept away? In part one, I'll share with you some tips we use at Odoo to help you keep your mass mailing out of the spam folder and to make sure it's actually read.
1. Pick a Goal And Focus In
Be specific about why you're sending the mass mailing out. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to sell something? Are you making an announcement? Maybe you have a promotion? Or it could be that you just want to remind people that you exist. Pick whatever your end goal is and really aim for it. Don't try to cover too much. If you do, the message gets long and confusing and, ultimately, no one wants to read a rambling email.
3. Wham, Bam, No Spam!
Just like in back in the olden days, people can still shoot the messenger if they don't like what they hear. How could they kill you? With the spam box. Getting labelled as spam will definitely harm your reputation. The key embracing spam filters. It sounds strange to embrace something that could keep you from reaching your readers, but remember if you get it right and others don't, spam filters could make you one of a special few to get into the inbox. You start off as an internet virgin and have to build your reputation with spam filters - showing them readers do have interest in you. The filters will check your history, average opening rage, content, CTR (click through rate) and the number of spam reports about you.
Avoid the following:
- the words - 'free', 'guarantee', 'spam' and other words or phrases you usually see in spam emails (like ones about sex and medication, you know the ones I mean...)
- using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
- no 'from' address
- over-using punctuation !!!???
Just because I've said to avoid 'free' doesn't mean you shouldn't offer something. Everyone likes to feel like they are getting a bargain or a special offer exclusively for them. However, people may worried they are being scammed so only offer something for nothing if you have a strong reputation.
You can get the spam filter to love you if you:
- make your content relevant - make sure your mailing does what you say it does
- make it easy for readers to unsubscribe. You might be thinking - what? I want people to stay not go. But it's better cut the cord and have a happy break up than readers getting fed up and marking your emails as spam.
In part two, I'll tell you how to make all this hard work pay off - that is making sure recipients actually open and read your emails.
For now, why not have a go at creating your mass mailing following these steps using our free demo.
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Easy rules for doing effective mass mailing 1/2