Email Marketing 101
Table of Contents
As of 2022 we use Constant Contact for all of our mass emailing. (e-newsletter subscribers, media, advisers, alumni, etc) You can find the login for Constant Contact on the Membership Clipperz.is account.
To see introductory materials for Constant Contact visit these links:
- https://www.constantcontact.com/guides/making-sense-of-online-marketing?&cc=GOO-239684&pn=search&gclid=CjwKCAjwjaWoBhAmEiwAXz8DBee6GD1XPDlSzkawSZwKlss11hVgVkvm5Od3tWO0_cuolrn-i3ADnhoCiwkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
- https://knowledgebase.constantcontact.com/email-digital-marketing?lang=en_US
In order to avoid account review/suspension
- Each campaign/email is allotted 1 spam complain per 1,000 recipients
Maintaining Contact Lists
- Make sure contacts are recent, collected/emailed (not bounced back) within last 18 months
- This also helps maintain a low bounce rate
- For temporary contact lists (non repeated/one time use) - delete contact list after sending
Users Opting Out of Services
- Majority report (July 2023) shows most opt out due to (I didn’t sign up to receive email)
- We need to set an expectation on the website/elsewhere on how often/what kind of email they receive from us
- When we receive people’s emails, do we ask them/provide an opt-in option for additional emailing?
- How and when are we collecting emails? (To avoid potentially sending spam)
Save the contact's sign-up date
- Contacts who subscribed over a year ago are statistically more likely to lose interest or report your email as spam. Consider cleaning your lists regularly to reduce this risk.
- Encourage contacts to update their information - Using the Update Profile Form, encourage contacts to update their personal information. Having the correct information stored will reduce the likelihood of your contacts reporting your emails as spam.
Avoiding Spam Filters and Complaints
- Subject Line
- Short to avoid spam filters (no more than 45 characters)
- Maintain an up to date contact list
Bounce Type - What it means, what they suggest to fix it)
Non-Existent
These bounces happen when the contact's ISP says that an email address doesn't exist. It's like the post office saying there's no one with that name in the building.
How to Fix Non-Exsistent:
- Double-check these email addresses for obvious typos.
- If possible, get in touch with the contact to see if they have a new email address.
- After fixing the issues, try sending to them again.
- If the address continues to bounce, remove it from your lists.
- If you know the address is correct, it's likely bouncing for a different reason, or we may be interpreting the bounce incorrectly and it belongs in a different category, like "blocked" or "undeliverable." Please contact our Support Team to troubleshoot.
When an email address repeatedly bounces as "Non-existent" across any Constant Contact account, we categorize it as "Suspended."
How to fix suspended:
- Because repeatedly sending to the same non-existent address can negatively impact deliverability for yourself and all of our customers, Constant Contact doesn't attempt to send to any Suspended addresses. We recommend that you remove them from your list.
