I was poking around today looking for an idea for this blog post and I stumbled on a post by Chris Brogan. (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/inbox/)
Rather than paraphrase what he said I’m going to simply cut and paste a portion of his content simply because I couldn’t agree more and I couldn’t write it any better myself!
The next section in quotes are 5 email marketing tips from Chris Brogan.
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“First, if you’re going to send mail, send it from a real “from” address. It doesn’t have to be from your main address (shouldn’t be, really), but it shouldn’t be from “donotreply@pleasedon’tanyoneemailmehere.com.” If people can reply, they will more often. If you tell me you don’t want people to reply, you’re saying you don’t want a business relationship, and I can’t help you with that.
Second, I’m a much bigger fan of plain text and/or very simple HTML formats over very pretty formatting. People aren’t getting your information based on the fact it looks like a gorgeous web page in their inbox. They want to read it.
Third, I loathe the starting line of “having trouble viewing this? Click here to view it in an inbox.” No letter coming from my mom has ever started that way.
Fourth, keep your letters to sub-500 words. People love brevity. You do.
Fifth, end with one call to action. Ask people for one action per email. That’s the super magic trick. This one tip, executed well, is worth money to you.”
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We do email marketing here at ZinMarketing all day long. We’ve run over 2,700 campaigns (and counting) and I have to tell you he is right on the money on EACH one of these points.
For instance, his point 5 seems counter intuitive and you’ll see LOTS of emails sent by BIG companies that break this rule constantly.
But, it has never failed us in various split tests.
Thanks Chris for the email tips.