Recently I have been working on reviewing email templates.

There is one item that continously struck me about this particular set of emails. It was the way they all ended on a negative note. I am not sure if they realized that this is what they have been doing.

The first item in the footer of their newsletter was all about how to unsubscribe and how easy it was.

While I know that it is important to include an opt-out method in a newsletter, I do not believe this should be the first or only item in the footer. It gives the impression of now that you read the newsletter we know you'd like to unsubscribe, so just click here now!

I have since suggested that the focus should be on how if they enjoyed this newsletter they may want to see what other newsletters were avaiable and how easy it is to subscribe for those. And then added another line afterwards about where to click to unsubscribe (without the enthusiam - just the how-to).

This of course also brings me to welcome emails. The welcome email is (as in thanks for subscribing) is yor first email to your customer, so put some effort into it. It can be argued that no one reads these, but first impressions are important and it can be an easy and quick way to highlight some key areas on your site and also a good way to drive traffic back to it. Length is important as well, so you don't want to it be too long either. You also want to remind your customers of some key items (e.g. adding you to their white list, forward/tell your friend, etc.)

And don't let the unsubscribe message be the key or focal point of the email.

Think positive!

This article was posted in Marketing Sherpa on November 4. This article has limited access until Nov. 14.  So please read it quickly!

It's a great example of the amount of time and thought that is required to continuously have a successful email list and campaigns.

Article:

"EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:
How Intrawest Resorts Get 2-3 Times Higher Response Rates to House List Emailings

This article was written today, again from ClickZ. It focuses on email campaigns - the first and last email you send someone. (When someone subscribes and when someone may want to unsubscribe.) The exit strategies are what I found most interesting.

Of course I do wonder how many people track and monitor their email lists and implement these strategies.

Excerpt:

"Last week, my amazing co-columnist Jeanne Jennings wrote about retention e-mail marketing tactics gone bad. In her column, she questions whether continuing to send e-mail that gets absolutely no response is an example of persistence or of arrogance. She points out this type of effort has serious implications; it could be the future cause of spam complaints.

For me, Jeanne's column was perfectly timed. When it published, I was at a high-tech business-to-business (B2B) workshop speaking about e-mail marketing best practices. On my list of the top five strategic elements to drive successful e-mail, my number one item is all about designing entrance and exit strategies.

Many people forget e-mail isn't brand new to recipients. This sounds like a strange statement to make, but think about it. How many times do you receive e-mail messages from a company for a few months, and each starts out as if they were the first e-mail the company ever sent to you?

And how many times have you not opened, read, or clicked on an e-mail for months, yet the messages keep coming to your inbox?"

More...

This article comes from ClickZ on October 26, 2005. In it they talk about the importance of an email headers and how often they are overlooked.

Excerpt:

"As e-mail marketers, we spend a majority of our time creating e-mail bodies. However, the most important part of a message may be something outside the creative process: the e-mail header, those generally hidden lines of code at the top of each message.

Now that the e-mail industry is using authentication, reputation, and accreditation, the e-mail header plays a critical role in an ISP's decision to block or deliver a message. Most of us, though, let our IT departments or e-mail service providers (ESPs) worry about the header.

With our basic walkthrough, you can interpret what the header tells you about message delivery. We'll also provide a couple reasons fiddling with some list software settings can actually hurt deliverability."

More...

What Will That E-mail Audit Turn Up?
› › ›   E-Mail Delivery

BY Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald | September 28, 2005

Put your e-mail program through an e-mail audit or self-assessment, such as third-party certification, and you'll probably turn up problems with your list acquisition, disclosure policies, bounce management, or subscriber consent. All these can affect delivery.

That's what major certification and authentication agencies, such as Habeas and TRUSTe, say they see most often when evaluating clients' e-mail policies and procedures.

These firms use audits to track down and correct any weaknesses or holes in an e-mail program.

Read more for the four most common ones they find.

Today eMarketer had an interesting article on phishing. There are seems to be a number of articles on phishing these days. Phishing is being discussed as the new online concern for 2005. In this article the discuss the results of a survey by Cyota (an anti-fraud provider for financial institutions). According to Cyota, "the number of bank accountholders who have received phishing emails grew to 50% in November 2004 from 25% in April 2004".

Another interesting phishing article published recently discussed how phishers will not limit themselves to individual identity theft, but steaking organizational credentials as well.

I have put together a short list of how individuals can protect themselves from phishers.

Prevention Tips:

1. Do not respond to unsolicited emails that ask for any personal information regardless of how urgent the request appears. Legitimate companies do not ask for personal or sensitive information in this format. If you are concerned about your account – contact the company directly using an email address or phone number you know is legitimate.
2. Do not email any personal or financial information. If you initiate a purchase online, look for indicators that the site is secure. E.g. a lock icon, a url that begins with “https:” (the “s” stands for secure)
3. Review your credit card and bank statements as you receive them to ensure that everything is correct.
4. Get spam and anti-virus protection and keep it up to date. Some email defense services/products on the market can detect phishing emails (through the same methods as detecting spam) and filter them out of inbound email - stopping them from  entering your inbox.
5. Report anything suspicious. Contact the legitimate company in the suspect email using an email address or phone number that you know is correct.

Today I read an article in eMarketer:

In early Q4 2004, the e-tailing group signed up with 100 retail companies to receive e-mail marketing. The e-commerce consulting firm found that 65 of these 100 merchants sent e-mails between November 22 and November 26, 2004, the period right before Thanksgiving. Read more...

I am an big fan of email as long as it is done well. Businesses I feel have to be careful when doing email promotions. They want to make sure that they are not perceived as spam and they d\shouldn't bombard their customers with emails either. Plus good common practices such as emailing only those who have opted in (permission based) should be emailed, they should have a clear way to unsubscribe and really, the message should be pertinent and enticing to your custome, otherwise they won't want to read any future emails you send them.

At any rate, read the article. It provides some info on types of emails that consumers (in the US) consider to be spam.