The of email clients have images turned off by default. Unless the user takes some initiative, your image-laden newsletter may appear as a blank message. Spam filters also look for email messages of this nature. Therefore, it is possible that the message may end up in the recipient's Spam or Bulk folders instead of their Inbox.
Direct customers/subscribers back to your web site. Emails are a great way to provide quick information and to spark interest. However, you do not want to bog down a customer or their email client (e.g. Outlook, Outlook Express). To take advantage of interested customers, provide links to your web site (or possibly a manufacturer's web site). Be sure that the page you link to fulfills any expectations the link set (e.g. "Check out our specials!" should link to your specials page rather than your home page). By linking to your site you encourage the customer to browse additional pages. This often translates into additional contact, leads and/or sales.
Subject line plays a major role in making sure your email is seen and read. The best email subject lines are short, descriptive and to the point. Avoid splashy or cheesy catch phrases that more often than not are ignored. Avoid words such as 'free,' 'help,' 'percent off' and 'reminder.' Do not repeat the same subject line if you are sending multiple emails out in a month. Open rates of the newsletters often drop dramatically when subject lines are repeated. The month should always be spelled out as well if you include the date in the subject line. Lastly, keep your subject lines under 50 characters including spaces.
Your subject line and email address work together. Regularly sending newsletters from the same email address, with the current date in the content or subject line, will help in preventing your newsletters from being caught as spam. Putting your dealership name in the subject line helps with this as well (sometimes up to a 10% boost in emails opened). This can partially be attributed to the fact that having an email address that matches your dealership name helps keep the email from being caught as spam. Newsletters do not have to be weekly; a monthly or quarterly newsletter is fine. However, consistency always works to your benefit. As a DX1 dealer, we take care of the email address for you. You can feel free to deviate from a regularly formatted subject line for special events or holidays.
Always ask your subscribers to add your newsletter email address to their address book, ‘white list', or ‘safe senders' list. Spam filters are not perfect. In the ever-changing world of technology, having customers add your newsletter's email address into their address book or safe senders list will help guarantee your newsletter's arrival.
Avoid duplicate newsletters. Sending multiple newsletters that are exact copies of each other will be recognized as spam. Change up the text a bit; change up the file name of images if you are going to reuse any. Make sure any info is up to date and accurate based on the date the email is being sent. Be sure to replace any outdated event or specials information if you are working off a copy of a previous newsletter.
Avoid using all capital letters. "ALL CAPS," as it is called, is nice to make text stand out and can be useful in some cases. However, it can cause newsletters to get caught in spam filters. Spammers use all capital letters regularly, especially in the majority of their content. Be sure to use "ALL CAPS" in moderation only. Avoid having large amounts of your content in this format. In graphics or pictures, all capital letters is allowed more often. It should be noted that some spam filters are being modified to have letter and word recognition software that can read the text in images.
Give people a bonus for signing up. As a ‘thank you' to newsletter subscribers, and to ensure they keep reading your newsletters, offer a bonus of some kind, whether it be at sign-up or periodically throughout the year. Printable coupons, coupon codes for online purchases, or information about special events are great incentives. In the Equipment Web Services newsletter program you are able to choose specific newsletters to display on your web site's newsletter page. This is a great way to make sure only your subscribers receive the special coupon(s) or information.
Do not use invalid characters in naming your images. Please do not use %, +, =, ^, and other symbols in your image names. Even dashes are recommended to be ignored. The underscore _ is the only symbol that can be used if you want to put spacing in the name of your image name (e.g. holiday_flyer.jpg). Please avoid using any extra periods in the naming of the file as well (e.g. spring.summer.flyer.jpg). Using any of these symbols in naming your image can cause problems with some email viewers, especially in webmail programs. Spaces in the file name are allowed, but should be avoided if possible. It is generally good practice to avoid having spaces in the names of files used for internet-related purposes.