As the world’s largest and most experienced digital marketing agency network, WSI knows a thing or two about email marketing. We answer the most frequently asked email marketing questions by business owners. Let's get started!
How Do I Ensure the Legality of My Email Marketing Subscription?
Before charging head-first into the effective tactic of email marketing, make sure that you comply with the relevant anti-spam and protection of privacy regulations:
- United States: CAN-SPAM Act
- Canada: CASL
- European Union: GDPR
- Australia: Spam Act 2003
Create a privacy policy that explains how customer data is collected, used, protected, and disclosed. Include a checkbox where subscribers have to physically click to agree.
What Do Opt-In and Opt-Out Refer To?
Opt-in is a positive action that gives user consent. It can be through a sign-up form on your website or a specific call to action (CTA) in your email campaigns.
Opt-out lets a user refuse or withdraw consent, usually through a link in every email. To comply with commercial email laws, this option is a legal requirement.
It is best practice and email protocol that people have to opt in; you can't automatically opt them in and ask them to opt-out.
Is an Unsubscribe Message Necessary?
Linking to an unsubscribe page that confirms whether the user really wants to opt-out from your mailing list can also be used to convince the subscriber that they should be on your mailing list.
Opinions are divided on the necessity of this page. But, done correctly, an unsubscribe message offers insight into why readers are unsubscribing while encouraging them to re-engage.
Is a Business Card Enough for Me to Add Someone to an Email List?
There is an option of a “soft opt-in” within the law of some areas if:
- You obtained the email address “in the course of the sale or negotiations for the sale of a product or service”,
- You only market “similar products and services”, and
- The individual is given the chance to refuse or opt out of the marketing when you first collect the details and in every message after that.
To maintain the integrity of your list, include an opt-in box or unsubscribe link. If you're unsure whether you can use soft opt-in, contact your WSI Consultant for more advice.
Can I Buy an Email List from a Reputable Email Scraping Source?
Email scraping uses harvesting bots to obtain lists of email addresses that are then used for bulk email or spam. While it may seem like a fast way to build your subscriber list, it’s not recommended.
Not only is it illegal in some countries, but it is a risky practice that could do tremendous harm to the reputation of your business.
As a Reseller, Can I Treat Leads From Vendors As Opted-in?
Because the requirements for collecting opt-in vary by country and region, it is best to connect with your WSI Consultant to verify this with you.
Is it Okay to Pull Contacts from ZoomInfo?
Pulling contacts from databases like ZoomInfo without permission is risky and can violate email marketing laws.
Would You Recommend Creating an Email List from an Existing Pool of Active Customers?
Creating an email list from your existing pool of active customers is the best way to grow your list, as they have already shown interest in your products or services.
How Do I Integrate Social Media and Email Marketing Campaigns?
Joining social media and email marketing results in a formidable marketing mix. Because they each serve different sections of your target audience, they build on each other and provide a personalized buyer’s journey for your customers:
- Have social links in each of your newsletters urging your email subscribers to follow your social media pages; encourage your social media followers to sign up for your emails.
- Promote giveaways, competitions, and other events on social media by emailing your subscribers.
- Stipulate that entry to the social media giveaway, competition, or event requires email opt-in.
- Develop trust by including social proof from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in your emails.
How Can I Use Social Media to Grow My Email Subscriber List?
Attracting a fan base is easy with social media. However, social media is a tricky environment, and should trends change or you are put in Facebook jail, you risk losing your followers. Rather, use social media to grow your email list:
- Steer social media followers to your opt-in page:
- Include a link to your landing page on your social bio.
- Use the click-to-tweet plugin that navigates to your opt-in page.
- Have a sign-up button at the top of your Facebook Page.
- Use social media to promote your premium, gated content, such as eBooks, templates, online workshops, and video tutorials. Link to a landing page that reveals a taster of the content – the full offering is accessible only after entering an email address.
- Host a Twitter chat that brings together like-minded individuals to discuss specific topics.
- Hold social media competitions or giveaways. Tempt followers with a high-quality image of the prizes, include a catchy hashtag, and link to a landing page where participants submit their email addresses to enter.
- Invite your social media followers to your live-streaming videos and webinars in exchange for their email addresses.
- Invest in social media advertising to quickly generate email leads. Run paid campaigns on Facebook Ads, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, where you offer beneficial content for free in exchange for an email address.
- Capture leads using SlideShare’s built-in lead generation tool.
How Do I Re-Engage an Old Email List?
Fact: the quality of your email list trumps its quantity. But just because a subscriber has disengaged doesn’t mean they are a dead end. Instead, 63% of marketers said re-engagement emails were “very effective”:
- Segment your inactive subscribers.
- Determine the reason users stopped engaging:
- Not enough value for them?
- Boring or repetitive content?
- Too many emails?
- Entice disengaged contacts to return with something of value:
- Surveys or polls that make them feel heard.
- Promo codes or freebies.
- Online contests or events.
- Personalized product recommendations based on previous purchases.
Is There an Automated Way To Allocate Individuals Who Opt-out an Inactive Status?
If you're using an EMS provider (like HubSpot, Sharpspring, VBOUT), then these platforms automatically track opt-outs and remove them from your list.
Connect with your WSI Digital Consultant if you'd like to discuss that further for your business.
How Do I Clean Up and Verify My Email Address List?
To maintain your reputation, improve deliverability, and increase conversions, you want an email list that targets only people who want to receive your emails.
Email scrubbing should be done every six months:
- Segment your list to identify inactive subscribers.
- Determine why they disengaged.
- Reach out to re-engage inactive subscribers.
- Delete inactive subscribers.
How Do I Get Maximum Engagement From My Email Marketing (High-level, Technical People, Premium Clients, B2B?)
- Produce dynamic content that is rich with relevant storytelling, tips, and customer success stories. Most importantly, match your content to your target audience.
- Create strong subject lines - short, descriptive, and intriguing.
- Segment your lists to personalize your emails for targeted connection with your subscribers.
- Schedule emails to boost your opening rate.
Do You Recommend Sending Email Attachments?
Because attachments have been used to transfer viruses and malware, many spam filters block their delivery. The large file size can bounce and/or slow down mass email sends.
What About Adding a Video to an Email?
Videos are an engaging and entertaining method of communicating with your audience. Emails including a video can:
- Increase email click-through rate by 65% and open rates by 19%
- Reduce unsubscribe rate by 75%
- Have a 96% higher click-through rate than those without.
Best Practices for A/B Testing
A/B testing compares different versions of a single email to measure the impact of small changes.
- Avoid results skewed by time-based factors by testing simultaneously.
- The larger the sample, the more accurate the results.
- Remove emotions and respond according to the results.
- Test early and test often for the best results.
- The most accurate results come from testing only one variable at a time.
How Does Viewing an Email In the Previous Pane Affect Analytics?
A marketing email viewed in the preview pane will skew your analytics – but not necessarily always in the same way. It depends on the EMS, preview settings, and email platform.
Overcome the issue by maximizing the impact of the content in the preview pane:
- Strategically arrange text and design elements at the top of your emails.
- Captivate readers by hinting at the rest of the content.
- Keep your email within a width of 600 pixels.
- Insert a table of contents.
What are Drip Campaigns, and What Should I Know?
Email drip campaigns fall under marketing automation. By automatically sending emails that engage and nudge customers in response to their behavior or according to a schedule, the messages are personal and relevant.
To design a drip campaign, establish:
- Triggers are the criteria that a user needs to meet to enter the drip campaign.
- Conditions that initiate sending the next in the series, e.g., a number of days, a specific action. This is determined by the context of your drip campaign, e.g., webinar or gated content.
- Actions refer to the emails, e.g., birthday wishes and cart abandonment.
There are many marketing automation platforms from which to choose. Your WSI Consultant can guide you according to the features and pricing structures that work for you.
Do You Recommend an Email Software Solution?
We work with a few different EMS providers (HubSpot, Sharpspring, VBOUT), but your WSI Consultant can suggest a more tailored recommendation for your business.
Can I Use My Own Domain In The Email Marketing Software?
If you own your own email domain, then you can link that to a service like HubSpot, Sharpspring, or VBOUT and send emails using your domain.
What is the Recommended CRM For Small Businesses?
We leverage SharpSpring and HubSpot CRM systems with our clients.
What Are the Best Practices For Integrating AI Into My Email Marketing Strategy?
Integrating AI into your email marketing strategy can significantly improve campaign effectiveness. Start using AI-powered analytics to understand customer behavior and preferences, allowing you to personalize email content and timing. Implement AI for predictive analysis to forecast trends and optimize email send times for maximum engagement. Use AI-driven segmentation to target specific audience segments with relevant content, enhancing relevance and increasing conversion rates. Automate A/B testing using AI algorithms to refine subject lines, CTAs, and content formats based on real-time data. Continuously analyze results to refine your approach and ensure your email campaigns deliver measurable results. This is where our AI consulting services can help.
Our Digital Marketing Team Can Help You with an Email Marketing Strategy
Contact your knowledgeable WSI Consultant for the best advice about digital marketing and for more answers to your email marketing questions.
