Email marketing is one of the best channels to promote your business and spark audience interest in your product or service. With direct engagement with the clients, better ROI, open rate, audience reach, and many more facilities, email marketing is the first choice for almost 81% businesses. However, to have a safe & successful campaign, marketers have to ensure that they follow and maintain rules strictly. Here are 7 to 15 Must-Follow Rules you need to follow for Safe Email Marketing.
15 Must-Follow Rules for Safe Email Marketing
MailPai helps you find out the 15 unavoidable rules for a successful mail marketing campaign.
Create a Strong List full of Consent
Don’t go for purchased, rented, or scraped email lists. These emails can degrade your deliverability and sender reputation. Instead, use opt-in forms to make sure that subscribers explicitly agree to receive your emails. Indeed, your email list serves as the foundation of your email marketing campaign. It’s important to have an active and effective list rather than a longer but inactive list. You must make sure that your audience wants to hear from you and what you are offering. Moreover, you don’t only ask consent for subscribing to your list, but also make sure that they agree to receive messages from you.
Double Opt-In Consent
There are various options like Single Opt-in, Confirmed Opt-in, Pre-selected Opt-in, Pre-selected Opt-in with Confirmation, Co-registration, etc. Options like single opt-in may seem an easier way to collect subscribers, but could prove fatal for your campaign. Meanwhile, the best practice we can suggest is the double opt-in consent. Why? It clearly verifies subscribers’ identity and reduces typos and fake addresses. How? Because it asks subscribers to confirm their email address by clicking a link in a follow-up email.
Domain Authentication
Do not forget to configure SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance). They prove you as a legitimate sender and prevent you from being flagged as spoofing or spam. In simpler words, it confirms to the mailbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo) that the email is really coming from the purported sender and not from a scammer. They bypass spam filters and protect the reputation of your brand.
Insert a Clear Unsubscribe Link
Email marketing regulations demand that the recipients should find easy ways to unsubscribe whenever they want. Thus, don’t hesitate to insert an easy-to-find unsubscribe option in the footer of your marketing mail. Interestingly, not only do the spam laws (U.S.: CAN-SPAM Act, Europe: GDPR) ask to maintain it, but it will also improve your deliverability rate by preventing deliverability penalties, protect sender reputation, offer legal compliance, and maintain list quality.
Inclusion of Physical Address
Include a valid physical postal address or a registered P.O. Box at the bottom of your emails. This is also mandated by legal compliance frameworks. Advantages include complying with anti-spam laws, building subscriber trust, and protecting your sender reputation. Apart from laws like the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR, it also has compliance with third-party ESP rules. Major ESPs demand comprehensive sender information, and with the physical address mentioned, your emails can bypass the spam folder.
Right Email Frequency
You must determine the right email frequency. Sending too many messages won’t bring you success; instead, it will create subscriber fatigue. That will ultimately result in unsubscription and spam reports. And even if the subscribers themselves don’t do that, the email providers (Yahoo, Gmail), by monitoring your sending and engagement rates with so many emails being unopened, would decrease deliverability. Well, sending fewer than needed won’t be fruitful as well. That’s why you make a balance. When you’re sending emails to a cold list, you need to be more cautious and send fewer emails. But with a more engaged audience, you can send more frequently, but not too much.
Apply A/B Test
This is the process of testing two different versions of an email and estimating which one performs better. Determining parameters includes clicks, opens, conversions, unsubscriptions, and other engagement metrics. This is a simple but very effective way for a safe & successful email marketing campaign. Marketers can test on various aspects, including subject line, call to action, length of the email, and even the time of day, etc.
Audience Segmentation
Use the following characteristics to divide your email contact list or audience: demographics, purchasing behavior, sign-up source, or engagement levels. Recipients and their choices vary from one to another. Keep the similar types in the same group and make segments. It will help you get a good impression and will improve your performance metrics. Generalized sending of the same message to all will just be a waste.
Clear CTA (Call-To-Action)
A clear CTA is a must for a successful campaign. The audience must know what to do, what benefits they can get, and what you are offering to them. Clarify to them what you are asking them to do and how they can do so. It can be: to visit your website, sign up for your newsletter, or make a purchase. Eventually, it will increase CTR, CTOR, and drive Conversions & Revenue.
Say No To Deceptive Subject Lines and Yes To Engaging One
The subject line is the first thing that a recipient sees. Thus, it’s important to make it clear and attention-worthy. Always say no to deceptive or clickbait subject lines. Indeed, the subject line and the header of the mail should represent the actual content/body of the mail as well as the sender’s identity. Usage of strong verbs and keywords can be handy to make people open your mail.
Regular Cleaning of Mail List
An unmaintained list is quite like a cancer cell. Get rid of bounced email addresses, inactive subscribers, and spam traps. Cleaning the list brings in protection to your sender reputation, maintains high inbox deliverability, and decreases marketing costs. Moreover, you will get accurate analytics as well as better engagement and conversions.
Avoid Spam Triggers
Make sure that your mails avoid spam triggers to ensure your emails bypass automated filters and land in subscribers’ inboxes. Once again, your sender reputation, deliverability, return on investment, and brand trust would be at stake if you fail to avoid it. Don’t ignore spam guidelines; otherwise, your IP address or domain might go on the blocklist. Eventually which can prevent you from sending any email.
Compliance with Regional Privacy Laws
Complying with regional privacy laws is a must. Regional privacy laws include GDPR & ePrivacy Directive (PECR) in Europe, CAN-SPAM in the US, and CASL (Canada Anti-Spam Legislation) in Canada. Maintaining these laws will guarantee that you avoid severe legal penalties, improve reputation and performance metrics, as well as build brand trust and consumer loyalty.
Low Spam Complaint Rate
A low spam complaint rate is ideally below 0.1% to 0.3%. Through this parameter, email providers understand that your subscribers find your emails relevant. Hence, your emails don’t go to the spam or junk folder. They successfully land in the mailboxes of recipients. Consent-full & strong subscriber list, targeted content, and subscriber preferences are the key to maintaining a low spam complaint rate.
Quick Act on Unsubscribe Requests & Prioritize Customer Privacy
According to the law demands, ensure the process of the unsubscription or opt-out requests within a strict timeframe. You will get up to 10 days to respond, but immediate responding is the best practice. Marketers must respect customer privacy. In the process, outline your data usage and tracking policies and link that in your email footer. Prevent yourself from sharing or selling subscriber data to 3rd parties.
Overall, use a good email marketing platform to ensure a safe and successful email marketing campaign. It will protect your domain from being blacklisted, guarantee high inbox deliverability, and you will enjoy unlocking powerful automation. MailPai, which is a WordPress Plug-in self-hosted email marketing tool, can be a top choice to guide you.
FAQs
What should be included in every promotional email to comply with regulations?
Don’t forget to include physical business address, clear sender identification, honest subject lines, and prominent unsubscribe options in every promotional email to comply with regulations.
What is the 3-3-3 rule for marketing?
3 key messages, 3 target audiences, and 3 primary marketing channels.
What are the 4 main components of an email?
The 4 main components of an email are the headers, the subject line, the body, and the signature.
What are the 5 C’s of email?
Clear, Concise, Correct, Complete, and Courteous.
What are the three main email protocols?
SMTP handles sending messages. On the other hand, POP3 and IMAP manage retrieving messages from the server. IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is more preferable over POP3.
