7 steps to achieve email dominance
Before you start to send bulk email let’s look at some rules and some tricks.
The rules vary depending on where you live.
The rules are different for some African and Asian countries because they
can’t get caught, but you can.
The rule of thumb is you must gather email addresses by legitimate means.
The old double Opt-in rule has been relaxed but you really are not allowed to harvest emails.
Does buying a list get around that?
It must do in many cases but my general understanding is that if you
have a client list that in say Hairdressers and you want to send them Property
details you may be technically in breach. It is done and done regularly so there is a loophole in the system.
What can you expect when you send bulk emails?
First of all not everyone will read or open your mail, in fact, depending on your industry this could be around 22% of all sent emails opened.
Now you can read an email without opening it and some mobile opens are not reported so it is a guide only.
The bad one is Spam reports.
This can get you banned or in trouble but again it is not accurate. I had a spam click the other day with “ I never signed up for this message”.
The person had been getting emails every month from me for a year and opened them all and then has a bad Hair day. Spare me, please.
If you have your list right this will be a rarity but monitor it carefully.
Then we have Unsubscribe.
This is done for all the reasons in the world and you can never know why.
I know that every now and then I clear out my emails by sender and subject.
It is my thing for the day and to limit the number that I receive each day.
It is better to have an unsubscribe than a did not open, one shows action the other contempt or something akin to that.
Finally the important one, the click rate.
These are the action takers, the buyers, the customers that want more information.
Follow them, call them they are hot to trot so go weave some magic and get a
return on your money.
What is a good percentage? From 0 to 100 depending on what you ask.
What else is important
Number one is the design.
It should be done for a mobile phone to open the mail. A percentage of all emails will go to a mobile and this percentage grows daily.
I just sent an email to a retail base and nearly 20% went to mobiles.
The answer to this is testing to a mobile as well as to a desktop.
I have not regularly done this because it did not enter my thick head.
I just sent myself a test and all is OK. Phew.
The subject line is the next issue.
One option is to try an a/b option to see which one works best.
Then there is the heading.
Everyone wants a good heading.
I use Coschedule.com email heading tool. It is free you just need to log in and scroll down the page
Finally, the most important issue is who the message is from.
More messages are clicked out because they don’t know or like you.
You will do it yourself, run down your emails and click those names not on top of mind at the moment and hit quit.
That is the best reason for using an email series where you introduce your self first before you sell anything.
Numbers
Your numbers are unique to you. There are so many variables that we can not provide a solid target to achieve.
What we can provide is the opportunity to improve the numbers by making small changes.
If you sent 10, 000 emails increasing the open rate by just 1% is another 100.
Play with all the numbers and try to achieve better rates right through that will affect your performance.
In conclusion, I still email every day, it still works if you follow the few basic rules. It is cheap and you contact a lot for little.
All this and more is available at Wealthy Affiliate free training
Peter Hanley
