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Email Marketing: Commonly asked questions

Published: 1st May 2020
In this video, we’ve compiled a list of the top email marketing questions that we get asked. If you are new to email marketing, then you might find this a handy resource for quick answers to the hot topics and also demystify some of the email marketing terminologies.

  • Do I have to add an unsubscribe link to my mailings?

  • When you send out email marketing, it is a legal requirement that you give your viewers an option to be excluded from further mailings. Here at email blaster, our software auto managed this for you by inserting a link on every email > and deleting anybody who clicks on this link.

  • Why is it important to use a UK email marketing company?

  • If you are a UK business, then it’d handy to have decent support on hand if you need it. It can be really frustrating when you want to ask a quick question and need to wait 24 hours to get a reply as your software supplier is in America.

    GDPR also requires that your contact’s private data is stored within the protection of E.U and UK law. So, if you are using a software supplier base din America, GDPR says that you need to seek the permission of everybody on your list prior to uploading their private data to an American based server

  • Do I have to ask people to opt-in before emailing them

  • Yes, you will need to do this if you are using email marketing software to send your email marketing. Any reputable supplier will ask that you have consent in place prior to sending any emails.

  • What is GDPR?

  • GDPR is the General Data Protection Regulation, it came into place in May 2018. It details the legal responsibilities and liabilities for any company gathering, holding or processing people’s private data. This covers both consumers and businesses.

    It is an E.U law, but since Brexit, it also still applies to UK businesses as we have agreed to still use it.

  • What are ‘legitimate interests’

  • Legitimate interest refers to a section of GDPR. The law says that you can email business without their consent if they have a ‘legitimate interest’ in your products or services.

    So, whilst the law says it is ok to gather business email addresses off of the internet for example - software suppliers such as email blaster will ask that you gain the consent of the address owners prior to emailing them.

  • What is a bounce?

  • A bounce is an email failure, it occurs when your email did not reach it’s destination. These are split into two groups. Hard bounce and a soft bounce. A hard bounce is a permanent failure - this could be that the domain does not exist any more.

    A soft bounce is a temporary failure, this could be that the domain is currently not accepting any emails

  • What is domain verification

  • Domain verification is required if you are using email marketing software to send out your communications. As your emails are effectively being sent via a third party, lots of mail filters will insist on a seal of authenticity being in place before accepting the email.

    This seal of authenticity is domain verification, it involves adding an SPF record and a DKIM signature to your company domain name

  • Can I use purchased lists?

  • You can use purchased lists of business email addresses if all of the recipients have asked to be added to the list and proof of this can be produced if a recipient requests it. Are you are thinking of buying a list, then before parting with any money, put thorough work into finding out how the list was sourced and that an opt-in is in place.

  • Are purchased lists worth using?

  • In a nutshell, no they are not. They are typically not very good quality and the opt-in process can be sketchy, to say the least.

    Here at email blaster we advocate avoiding these - simply because they just don’t work; response rates are low and the addresses are poor quality.

  • How can I get more email addresses?

  • There are a multitude of ways to grow your list of opted in subscribers, these include; opt in forms for your website, social media competitions, asking for the email address of everybody who contacts your business.

  • What is a sender score?

  • Sender score is a credibility score attached to the server sending your email marketing communications. If your bounce rate and spam complaints are high, then this score will be lower. If people are reading and engaging with your emails then your score will be higher.

    A high score increases the chances of your email being delivered to the inbox, a lower score means it could go straight into spam

  • What is double opt-in?

  • Double opt in is the most secure way of asking people to join your mailing list. If they enter their details on your web form, they will then be sent an email to the address they have provided, asking them to confirm their addition to your email list.

    Using this method is fully GDPR compliant and ensures that your list is not polluted by bots entering invalid data into your list.

  • When is the best time to send a campaign
    It used to be that the best times were shortly after lunch on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. In recent years though, this has really changed, we are no longer chain to our desks reading emails on desktop computers.

    Now that were are reading emails on our mobile devices - it means that peak times are much more fluid. Try sending at different times to establish the best times for your company

  • What is A/B testing?

  • A/B testing means sending different variants of your campaign to small sample sections of your database. Whichever variant has the best open rates or conversions can then be sent to the rest of your database. It really takes the guesswork out of your email marketing.

    Different variants could include; subject header line, body text, sending identity or design

  • Can I send out email marketing from my own email address?

  • If you use email marketing software such as email blaster, then your email would be sent via our network of servers but would appear to your viewers as being from you. So, whilst the email is not sent via your address - it will appear as being so,

  • Can I use my Gmail or Hotmail account to send out email marketing?

  • No, you can’t. In order to send out email marketing, you will need your own company domain name that you own. The companies that provide free email addresses such as Gmail or Hotmail will block their addresses from being used to send email marketing

  • What is a good open rate?

  • This really does vary from industry to industry, it is also affected by the quality of your mailing list and how good your email is. As a rule of thumb though an open rate of around 15% or higher is a decent benchmark

  • How can I make sure my email doesn’t end up in the junk?

  • To ensure good inbox placement, there are a few simple rules to follow: verify your sending domain, don’t use spam trigger phrases in your email and don’t send emails to people who have not asked to receive them.

    Following those basic principles will help with great deliverability and will also generate a positive sender score.

  • Can I use video in my email?

  • Pretty much all email readers nowadays still do not support the direct rending of video inside an email, unfortunately, the main players have been slow to add this capability with their email browsers.

    The email blaster software will give you the facility to create a link to a video hosted on YouTube or similar - and render a thumbnail and a link inside your email. This is the most effective way of linking to a video inside your email marketing.

  • Can I see who opened my email?

  • Yes, you can see this information and so much more. Any decent email marketing software such as email blaster will have an analytics suite. This will show you key information in easy to read graphs such as; reads, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes and much more.
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