On Wednesday,March 31, 2010, I enjoyed attending a Constant Contact workshop by Pamela Adams and sponsored by Ladies Who Launch.  I ended up winning the book – yeah for me!  I have already been utilizing Constant Contact as a tool for both Virtual Harvest and other clients.  I would like to share with you some of the best practices and tips that I notated, which will enable me to even more effectively conduct email marketing.

1.    Avoid spamming – There are implied and explicit permissions.  You want to be careful to comply with the laws. Constant Contact helps you to stay in compliance with unsubscribe and removal options.  If a domain categorizes you as spam, your email address can be blocked from even everyday communication.  For instance, AOL could block you from emailing any of their users. For more details about the Can’t Spam Act, go to http://www.FTC.gov/Spam.

2.   Share your knowledge & expertise– Equate emails to magazines as your audience will put up with ads for the exchange of information.  It is helpful to collect content and information throughout the month or in between your distributions.  You may also consider serializing your high interest topics. Be sure to set yourself up as an expert in the industry and share the current trends and resources in your industry. 

3.   Don’t put full articles in your emails– Avoid lengthy articles or link your article to the full article on another site like your blog site or another online location. 

4.   Schedule distributions appropriately– Understand when your recipients will review their emails.  Most businesses experience the best results between Tuesday and Wednesday during the hours of 10am-3pm.  This avoids the start of the week and day rush deletes.  Constant Contact makes it easy to compose the emails in advance at your convenience and customize your schedule.  Do what works and be consistent as they will come to expect and anticipate your email, which is a challenge for me as I get sidetracked with client work.  Along with establishing consistency,determine your frequency.  Monthly is usually best depending on your content, but no less than quarterly.

5.   Short& sweet, but specific “From” & “Subject” lines – Statistics show that 60% of people open emails based upon the “From” line while 30% of people open emails based upon the “Subject” line.  Do your recipients recognize your name or your company name?  What email address do they trust?  You can set your reply address to any email you prefer.  It is best to limit your subject line to 45 characters or less. Get creative.  Customize against spam messages.  Add numbers to increase attention.  Formulate action statements about them.  Focus on benefits rather than just the features.  Avoid the use of the word “FREE” and other emphasis characters as they get caught up in spam filters.

6.   Effectively use the white space –Utilize the white space for calls to action and advertising.  Make sure the banner is not too high.  Do not distribute graphic only emails.  Understand the concept of “before the scroll”as what the reader sees as content to entice to scroll down.  What is the email about for them to further interact and read your email?

7.   Embed video – Perhaps the most valuable tip I learned during the workshop was how to embed video.  The use of YouTube is on the rise and more people are utilizing video to communicate to their customer base.  Link to the location online to avoid the video being stripped from the email and also to track the views.  Capture and save the image.  Download a play button, insert over the image as a watermark, and resave it.  Copy the video address online.  Upload and insert the image to your desired place within the email.  Make the image clickable and paste the link.   Voila! You have embedded a video!