When I work with Act users with either Swiftpage E-Marketing or Act E-Marketing I like to point out that there are two separate but equal processes:
- Composing and sending an e-blast
- Reporting on the results
If you are sending an E-mail blast in Act to more than 50 contacts I strongly recommend that you use an ESP (email service provider) so that you can measure your result. Using either Swiftpage E-Marketing or Act E-Marketing means that those results can be accessed directly from your Act database.
No matter what ESP you are using you’ll want to measure the open rate (that is, the percentage of people who actually looked at your mailing) for each of your e-marketing campaigns. You’ll want to aim for an open rate of somewhere between 20 and 40 percent.
Here are a few hints to help you achieve that goal:
- Concentrate on the words you choose. The subject line makes the first impression on your email audience so avoid selling language and gimmicks. More importantly, keep subject lines succinct; six to ten words subject lines generally have the highest open rate.
- Be aware of spam filtering. Spam filters do not like to see too many CAPITAL LETTERS, exclamation points, or key spam words such as ‘free’ ‘click now’ ‘help’ and ‘donate’ as spam. People want to be told information not sold information.
- Consider what time you are going to distribute to your customers. Email browsing increases when people come in to work and start their day or later in the day before they head home. Lunch times and post-work day times have lower rates because people are away from the office. Be aware of time zone differences to make sure emails are arriving at the desired time; a staggered release may be appropriate to accommodate a variety of time zones.
- Decide what day is best for your target audience. Weekdays have better open rates than weekends, and mid-week Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be less hectic than Mondays and Fridays.
- Make sure you include links to Twitter, Facebook, or other social media to stay connected. Your customers may prefer to engage with you in a way other than e-mail.
- Don’t depend heavily on images. Different web browsers and e-mail platforms will not always process images so caption them with descriptions that inform readers of what they may be unable to see.
Contact me for more information on Act E-Marketing or Swiftpage E-Marketing. The Act Consultants at Tech Benders are always there to help!
