The next tip in our “Ways to Increase Your Response Rates” series is to not obfuscate your links. Huh? That’s what I said, too. Simply put, if you have any control whatsoever on the way the URL that you’re linking to, reads, make it simple. Still wondering what I’m talking about? Here’s an example:

BAD: “http://www.xyzsite.com/newsletter/2008/e/a/article/sales2.asp”
BETTER: “http://www.xyzsite.com/Money-Saving-Coupon”

The concept is simple. Actually, the concept is simplicity. If you use URL’s that are long and deep, your reader’s eyes will tend to skip over the URL, because it looks like a jumbled mess. Instead, use something that is short and sweet, with clear benefits that will help reinforce the value of what’s on the other side of the link (Remember our article two weeks ago about enticing the reader?).

Now here’s something: What if you don’t have control of your site structure (the URL)? Here’s a simple way to bypass it: go to bit.ly and create a URL that points to the URL you actually want. A side benefit: bit.ly will actually track the people who visit your links. But you don’t need that, when you consider Online Outbox’s statistics, do you?

The CAN SPAM Act, which took effect January 1, 2004, stipulated that all commercial emails that are sent in the United States meet certain requirements. On July 7, 2008, Congress updated the law to clarify some of the ambiguities in the initial law and refine a few points.

The law applies to commercial bulk email, not to individual or transactional
messages, such as a receipt for an online sale. So, if you send an email newsletter or any other form of bulk email communication, be sure to follow these key rules. If you don’t, you are breaking the law and could potentially be sued in federal court.

Three tips for keeping it legal below:

The sender is responsible for unsubscribing email recipients who opt-out. The company, brand, or employee name that appears in the “From” field of the email message is the “sender.” This is important to note if you are running ads for other companies. Just remember, if you are identified as the sender, you must provide email recipients with an opt-out link and ensure that they are removed from list.

When you are conducting “forward-to-a-friend” email marketing campaigns, or if you offer something in exchange for forwarding a commercial message, be sure to also follow the Act’s requirements.

If you’re an Online Outbox customer, you don’t really need to concern yourself with this. We’re handling it all for you, automatically, with every message you send.

Do not alter the Internet headers of the message.
An Internet header is a block of information that a properly configured email server tacks on automatically to identify the Internet Protocol (IP) address of where a message originated and a few other technical details.

Again, Online Outbox customers needn’t worry. We keep things above board to maintain strict compliance with email laws, and to keep your deliverability rate high.

No misleading subject lines.
If your subject line reads “Wine Country Event Registration Now Open” but your message content is about the latest male enhancement drug, you are clearly trying to trick your recipients into opening your message. Just keep your message and subject line consistent. This is a good practice regardless of its legal implications.

Whether you’re using Online Outbox, another email service provider, or blasting out thousands of emails from Outlook Express (not a good idea, by the way!), you, as the email sender, have full control of your content, so you do have an active part in following this rule. However, when you’re acting in the best interest of your readership, you act in the best interest of yourself as well. A willing subscriber will typically continue to be so. A reader who is tricked into opening your email with misleading subjects is likely to delete your message, unsubscribe from your email campaigns, or even submit a complaint of abuse.

More tips for keeping your email campaigns legal are coming in our next edition!

A recent survey conducted by Prospective Marketing found 76% of people who signed up to receive a company’s email newsletter were motivated to do so by a special offer or savings, leaving 24% signing up for the specific reason of getting production information. In other words, offering incentives works.

If you sell a product or service but are not enticing prospects to subscribe to your email newsletter with some sort of offer, you’re missing a significant opportunity to grow your list of subscribers. And chances are, your competition is already doing so.

Rather than simply posting product information on your web site, offer discounts, freebies or other incentives for visitors to subscribe. You’ll have a captive audience, captivated.

Woody Allen said that 80% of success was simply showing up. Many great ideas never make it past the drawing board. But the great ideas that are actually implemented are the ones that are remembered.

Once you’ve started your email campaign, stick with it! Your content will be good some weeks. Other weeks, you’ll be scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel. Occasionally, your email will go out late. Some will be short. You won’t be as proud of some, but stick with it. As you grow in your ability to produce valuable content on a timely manner, your emails will gradually become something that your readers are looking for every time.

This concludes our six-week series. Stay tuned next week for a new set of ideas to make your marketing campaigns truly productive.

Rather than starting from scratch each time you write your message, start with a template that is complementary to your brand. Use a custom template, if appropriate, or select from one of the hundreds of built-in templates available in Online Outbox.

The key is systemization. If you start with the same basic format each time, and your content is all that changes, then you’ll save lots of time working on your newsletter, and you’ll be able to spend more of your time optimizing your content.

When determining the frequency which with you distribute your messages, you should consider two things: 1) your audience’s ability to appreciate each message, and 2) your team’s ability to keep up with the ongoing workload of writing each message.

If your audience is typically busy, don’t distribute a message every day. If your team can’t maintain consistency in sending a meaningful message each week, try every other.

Keep in mind when scheduling that consistency is crucial. Your audience should expect your message on a timely basis. You can schedule your messages to begin distribution at a specific time.

Also, remember that there are natural optimal moments for a person to receive and appreciate a message. Some industries are inundated on Monday mornings with problems or orders from the weekend. Typically, not a good day to distribute. Better days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Building on the your target audience, and your purpose in contacting them, it’s now time to craft your message. Your purpose will drive your content.

For instance, if your purpose is to get readers to your web site, you should offer some “teaser” content: maybe it’s a headline, or the first three lines of a recent article on your site. Something that will grab the reader’s attention, and entice them to take further action. Then follow that teaser with a link to a specific page with that entire article. If, rather, your purpose in contacting your readership is to sell product, your content will need to be crafted in that direction.

The concept is not difficult to grasp, but starting with an analysis of your audience and your purpose will make crafting your message much more direct, and the more direct your messaging, the greater the impact of your marketing.

Determine Your Purpose. After becoming familiar with your audience (see our last post), you’ll want to nail down your purpose for writing. Whittle your purpose down to one goal: Entice the reader to visit your web site. Buy something advertised in your email. Heighten community impact. Make your group aware of certain news or events. Your purpose may be completely unique, but you need to know what it is, in order to market effectively.

This post is a continuation from my thought last week: that while the typical salesperson gives up too soon, his prospect is typically ready to buy tomorrow (80%, to put a number to it). The magic number is 7 impressions. It takes the typical person 7 impressions before they buy.

Granted, none of us are typical. But I suppose the stats apply to the median of the whole at large.

The point I’d like to make here is that you can’t send an email blast and expect your prospects to come running. I advocate pushing your products and services to the same contact over a period of several months. Don’t just send the same message each week. Change it up. Highlight different features. Create targeted landing pages on your web site that will convert better than just sending prospects to your home page. Keep it simple, but over a month or two, your target client should have a good idea of what it is you sell, and what it could do for them.

Then they still won’t buy. But one day, when they come across a need that specifically relates to them, your product or service will be fresh in their mind.

Yet another juicy piece of data that affects your deliverability rate is the percentage of emails you’re sending that, for some reason or other, are coming back as undeliverable. You’ll need to be proactive about 1) ensuring that you’re adding contacts with valid email addresses, that have given you permission to contact them — hence, the term permission-email marketing remains valid, and 2) correcting or removing addresses that are bouncing.

Online Outbox automatically processes bounced emails for you, and holds those email addresses at bay after three bounces. However, you can curb high bounce rates by keeping an eye on your deliverability rates as well. Bounce rates that are above 20% may impact your deliverability and your ISP reputation with the SpamCops, meaning future emails, marketing or otherwise, will be much more susceptible to being moved into a Junk Mailbox, or even blocked entirely.