Including the following four tips will help you engage with your recipients better, maintain their trust and get those images displaying.

At the top of your email:

Remind them why they are receiving your email
You are receiving this email...
-Because you are a customer of X.
-Because you signed up to X newsletter.
-Because you are a subscriber to X emails.

This will help the recipient immediately recognise who you are and remind them why they are getting the email.

Use a Viewonline Link to help display blocked and unloaded images
Most mail clients will not display the images on your email, so inserting a viewonline link at the top of your email will help encourage recipients to open up the email in a new web browser page. This will display all the content and images in full.

Try including:
-Problem seeing the images? [viewonline]Click here to view this email in your web browser [/viewonline].
-Images not displaying? [viewonline]View the full email online here [/viewonline].

This will help to get the email opened and avoid recipients possibly ignoring or deleting the email because they’ve been put off by the email looking incomplete.

At the bottom of your email:

Include full company details
Always include your company name, address and contact details at the foot of your email. This will help you build and maintain trust with the recipient. Emails without full company details can look illegitimate and untrust worthy, which could lead to the email being marked as spam.

Make the unsubscribe link easy to find
Avoid burying the unsubscribe link amongst a paragraph of text or changing its colour so that it doesn’t clearly stand out against your email’s background colour. If a recipient is no longer interested in receiving your emails, make it easy for them to locate the unsubscribe link, rather than running the risk of the recipient getting annoyed and marking the email as spam.

Dear customers,

Please note we are currently experiencing a large number of IP address blocks with Hotmail resulting in a high number of emails being bounced.

We are working to resolve these IP address blocks and will report once the situation has improved and emails are getting through to Hotmail recipients again.

Please avoid sending any emails to Hotmail addresses until further notice.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.

Here are the three most common email marketing mistakes and how you can avoid them.

Not having their permission

The most important point first, not having permission. Suite26 is based on permission marketing. This means a recipient must have opted-in to receive emails from you or given you their permission directly, because they are interested in what you have to offer.

Purchasing a data list is definitely a no go area. If a recipient hasn’t given you their direct permission to contact them, they shouldn’t be emailed.  It is more beneficial to contact those people that do want to hear from you, than those that don’t and could report you as a spammer.  Plus those data lists are never as accurate as the vendors will have you believe.

Assuming your customers remember who you are

It’s easy to assume that your customers will remember who you are. However, your customers could be receiving plenty emails from several companies like yours, and so, we recommend that you include a sentence at the top of your emails reminding them who you are and why they are receiving the email from you.

This will immediately help hem indentify you and therefore, your customers may be more inclined to read your email, click the links and respond to your message or offer.

Incorrect links and spelling errors

We would always recommend including links in your email as they ultimately provide a way of tracking the success of your emails, using the click through stats. However, it’s important to use relevant links that the recipient will be interested in viewing and directs them straight to that webpage. Don’t just assume that the reader will navigate their own way to the relevant page from your site’s homepage.

It is very easy to make a spelling mistake in your email, or even type the wrong word completely and not notice it yourself. Always get a second pair of eyes to look over your email.  If possible ask a colleague or friend to read through your campaign and test your links before you send.

When selecting your subject lines always remember: the shorter you keep your subject lines, the more deliveries you’ll receive and the higher open rates you’ll achieve.

Before you send your next campaign, take a look at the link between the length of the subject lines from previous email campaigns and the number of unique opens and total clicks they received.

You should also carefully consider that subject line word choice, word order and recipient awareness are also vital factors in receiving more deliveries and opens.

We recommend that you stick to these points when writing your next subject lines:

1) Keep the subject line as short as possible
2) Avoid using ‘Spammy’ words such as; Urgent, Free, Buy Now and symbols like !!, ££, **
3) Only use longer subject lines when there is considerable reason to do so
4) Whenever you’re unsure, always test your emails.

The number 1 rule to remember when creating your email campaign: simplicity is the key.

When it comes to the design of your email campaign, keep the content and layout simple.  The design of your email is important, from a readability, usability and branding viewpoint, but in the end the design is not the main element that will get you conversions.  Always remember the basics (your subject line, main heading, the width of the email, how it looks in the preview pane, etc.)  Avoid making the email look 'too busy' by not having too many messages or offers on there.

Be original

There’s a good chance that your recipients receive plenty of emails on a daily basis, so you need to distance yours from other emails by being original and different.  Making your email stand out you will help lead to increased attention.  Of course, this doesn’t mean you should forget the basics.

Gain attention

The initial purpose of your email template design is not to impress your recipients, but to grab their attention. Once you have caught their eye, it is the job of your content to do the rest.  Do not let your email design become too excessive: keep to a simple, effective design and make sure your content is visible and engaging.

Remember it’s the copy that sells, not the design.

We have now added a new pricing calculator tool, which will enable you to receive an instant quote for your exact email mailing numbers.

To use the calculator, go to the pricing page on our website, enter your mailing quantity into the first field and then click on the field below to reveal an instant price for the credits you need to purchase.

If you have added any personalisation to your e-mail campaigns (ie name, e-mail, membership number etc) you may wish to preview how the e-mail would be look for a particular user. This is now possible when sending a preview e-mail. 

From the e-mail campaign overview click on the Send Preview link and enter the e-mail address where you want to receive the e-mail or select one of your contact groups as you normally would and click Continue.

There is now a second stage to the send preview process where you will be asked how you want to personalise the preview send.

The default setting will use the details of the recipient(s) of the preview (if they are not in your contacts database any fields in the e-mail will be blank)

The second option is to select a contact at random from your database and use the details for that contact to personalise the preview e-mail.

For the third option you will need to enter the e-mail address of one of your contacts and their details will be used for the personalisation.

This new feature is a great way to ensure that e-mails you have personalised can be tested thoroughly and arrive as expected with your recipients.