One of the most important factors in whether or not a recipient will respond to an email campaign is how relevant the content is.

We’ve discussed how busy the in-box is before on this blog and the bottom line is that recipients don’t have time for emails with no value. I know what you’re saying … ‘but all my emails have value! How dare you!’ Of course they have value, but value has to be weighed against perception. For example say my list has 1,000 people on it. And say that 300 of them would like to get updates about new product features, 200 would like to get all the company press releases and 200 would like to get special offers. Assuming no overlap between categories that’s 70% of my list with a strong preference on what they would like to receive. If the general newsletter that I send out has a piece here and a piece there of all that information I risk alienating those subscribers who would prefer a more focused newsletter. This is especially true given what we know about how busy the in-box can get. Don’t rely on recipients scrolling to the bottom of the message to read about the upcoming product upgrades. If that’s all they want to read they’ll be put off by having to look for it. Eventually they stop perceiving the email as valuable and they’ll opt-out.

So what to do?

The simple solution is to add a table of contents to the top of the email. Something that the recipients will see in the preview pane. Each of the entries should be a link that they can click on to jump to a story in the newsletter. So…recipient opens mail, recipient sees TOC, recipient clicks on their choice…happy recipient.

One of the best practices you can establish to insure the best delivery rate and best response to your email campaigns is consistent sending habits.

Consistent sending habits means sending the same content at the same time to about the same number of people.

In other words, if you’re sending a newsletter to 500 users, send it at the same time, on the same day, week after week.

Why are consisting sending habits so important? Two reasons, ISP perception and user perception. You always want users to stay engaged with your email campaigns, sending them the same content at the same time helps them to recognize your email and enhances your reputation with them. Same goes for ISPs, especially the large consumer ISPs. If they see you sending the same content to the same people at the same time it only does good things to your reputation.

Consider the following two campaigns.

Campaign A is sent to 5,000 recipients every Tuesday at 8:30am
Campaign B is sent to 5,000 recipients when the marketing guy gets around to it. Sometimes Friday at 10pm, sometimes Wednesday at 3am, sometimes every third week, sometimes when the moon is full.

Which looks more legitimate? Without opening the email which would you expect to have more valuable content?

Want to increase recipient engagement and response? Normalize your campaigns.

Every once in a while a client will ask me, ‘What’s up with the text-only version? Do I have to do it?’

The short answer is no, it’s optional, but why wouldn’t you?

A ‘text-only’ version of your mail helps insure that you’re reaching as much of your audience as possible. While it’s true that the great majority of email programs display HTML messages with no problems here are two great reasons to create a text-only version of your message: BlackBerries and Recipient Preference.

How many people do you know using BlackBerries (or other smart phones)? The standard mail program on a BlackBerry only displays text emails, no HTML. It will process the HTML email you send but the display will be way, way off. However, if you provide the text only version the BlackBerry will use that instead, making your message much easier to read for your recipient. Most BlackBerries can enhance the text mail by turning any URLs it finds into active links.

Did you know that recipient’s can change their email format preference? It’s true. They can choose from HTML, Text-Only or HTML/Text by visiting their preference center. Of course, if a recipient sets their format preference to “Text” and you don’t create a text only version of your mails, they get nothing.

In short, the ‘text-only’ version of your mail, while optional, is a great way to insure that you’re reaching as much of your audience as you can.

Text Only FAQs

If I make a text-only version of my email do my recipients get two mails?
NO. The text-only version of the mail and the HTML portion are bundled together as a multi-part message. If a recipient has requested only text messages they will receive the text version. If the recipient has indicated no preference the multi-part message will be delivered and their email program will determine the best version to display.

Can I add personalization to the text-only mails?
YES. You can add list personalization when composing the text only version.

Can I track links in the text version?
YES. Link tracking is handled in much the same way as in the HTML version. The only catch is that you have to include the full URL in the text version for proper tracking to occur. For example, if I want to track a link to reachmail.net, the text http://www.reachmail.net has to appear in the text version, www.reachmail.net will not be tracked.

Where do I setup the text version?
The text version of a mail is added in the edit mailing process just like the HTML version. The text step comes immediately after the HTML link tracking screen.

Questions? As always I can be reached at dnielsen@reachmail.com