Commonly Asked Email Marketing Questions

Here are some commonly asked questions answered by eShoutz.com.

1. What is a good open or click-through rate?
Open and click-through rates vary for all email marketers, and results depend on the subject line, the relevancy of the content and the offers included in the newsletter. Industry average for open rates is between 15% and 20%.

2. How do I get my email newsletter past spam filters?
Avoid using lots of exclamation marks in both the subject line and within the content of your email. Also, avoid spam words such as 'free!', 'click here', 'discount' and 'satisfaction guaranteed'.

Also, check your email campaign with the eShoutz spam checker tool. The spam checker will highlight any issues you have with your newsletter so that you can correct them before sending to your address books.

3. Do I really need to send a text version of my email campaign?
Including a text version when sending your email campaigns can help reduce spam scores. There may also be recipients within your address books that cannot open html emails. It does not usually take long to create a text version of your email so it is advised that you do it each time you create your html version.

4. Why do I need a web-based version of the html email?
Including a link in your html email to a web-based version means that if recipients cannot view the newsletter correctly they can simply click on the link and see the content in full. Some recipients may have the images disabled and not actually know how to switch them back on again. A link makes it easy for them to view the html.

When you create a html email campaign in eShoutz, a copy is automatically stored as a web-based version. One click of a button enters a 'view html' link into your email so there's no need for uploading your newsletter onto servers, all the hard work is done for you!

5. What day of the week is best to send email marketing campaigns, and at what time?
This depends on the types of recipients you are sending to. If you are sending to business email addresses of people who work in offices, you are not likely to get a good open rate if you send on a Friday evening or weekend. Office staff clear out their inboxes on a monday morning when they have accumulated a number of emails. This may include yours.

Try sending campaigns on different days and at different times of the day. You may see consistent results, you may also find that it doesn't actually matter when you send your email newsletters.

6. How do I make sure that I don't get blacklisted?
Don't send email campaigns which may be mistaken as spam. It is also advisable to have a unique URL and 'from address'. This means that if any other email marketers using the same software as you get blacklisted they will not have any affect on your campaigns.

eShoutz provides a unique URL and 'from address' service which means that you can reduce the risk of being blacklisted by any other users of eShoutz. You can also build brand awareness by having a branded 'from address'.

Another way of preventing being blacklisted is ensuring that all of your email addresses within your address books are opted in. Only use email addresses of people who have expressed that they wish to receive email newsletter from you.

7. Most importantly, what is the most important thing for me to remember to achieve a successful email marketing campaign?
We suggest that you make your email newsletters relevant to your recipients. Just because email marketing is a cheap way of communicating with potential and existing customers, it doesn't mean that you should bombard them with emails that they wouldn't want to recieve. Tailor your emails to what they want using the eShoutz dynamic content tool and ensure that the offers you are sending are competitive or appealing.

For more information about eShoutz email marketing, visit the website at eShoutz.com.