Email Marketing FAQs

ESP stands for Email Service Provider - a service that enables marketers to send out email marketing campaigns to a list of users.
There are 240 ESPs on the market to choose from. According to Litmus survey the 10 Top based on user popularity are: Salesforce (Pardot), Mailchimp, Oracle, Marketo, Campaign Monitor, IBM, SendGrid, Constant Contact, HubSpot, Adobe. The choice depends on your situation and budget, not every business needs Salesforce for a starter.

• You'll violate the rules of consent under the CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S. or Canada’s Anti-Spam Law and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Sending to random people who haven’t given you permission to email them is against the law. Remember - obtaining permission is fundamental to email marketing success. Do not risk Spam complaints by sending customers emails they didn't ask for.
• Reputable ESPs don't let you send emails to lists you've bought. Why? One customer's ill-gotten email address list can poison the deliverability of the other customers on that shared IP address. Your account might be terminated or legal action might be taken.

• Don't buy, rent or scrape the list from the Internet, use only opted-in list
• Make your unsubscribe link clear, prominent and easy. If your recipients can’t find the unsubscribe link quickly, they will hit Send to Spam big button on their browser. It’s best to politely let them go and maintain their respect for the future.
• Maintain your list properly, remove all hard bounced email addresses from your lists
• Only email to your engaged recipients. Segment out those who have not opened or clicked your emails in the last 6 to 12 months

• Effective subject lines to entice readers to open your email. Subject lines and the “from name” are two of the most important determinants of the opening rate success. Keep in mind the following when creating a subject line: inform, intrigue, invoke action, and uplift brand.
• Responsive design - more than 54% of people now open their email on a mobile device. With this in mind, it’s not only important that your email renders correctly on mobile devices – it’s absolutely essential!
• Frequency - set subscribers expectations on how often thry should expect to get emails. Sending too many emails can result in spam complaints. On the flip side, sending too infrequently may cause your subscribers to forget why they’re getting your emails in the first place.
• Segmentation - group your list and diversify the types of messages your recipients receive, making sure messages are short, to-the-point and relevant to their industry. Marketers who segmented their email list experienced higher open rates and lower unsubscribe rates. Remove subscribers from your list that haven’t opened an email in six months and try sending a re-engagement series to get their attention
• A clear call to action (CTA) using precise, actionable verbiage to attract attention. Your CTA should be prominent and easy to find strategy placed above the fold. Use the first person – Reserve my spot! Get my eBook!

• One quick method to improve your email delivery rates is to incorporate SPF, or the Sender Policy Framework, and DKIM, domain keys identified mail, into your DNS settings. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, use DKIM and SPF authentication as a way to scan incoming emails for Spam or spoofed addresses. Emails that fail authentication are more likely to arrive in a Spam or junk folder. You can check the SPF record of your domain on fraudmarc. Most reputable ESPs like Mailchimp automatically authenticates your campaign with DKIM, and ensures your emails will pass SPF checks.
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is a way to make it easier for email senders and receivers to determine whether or not a given message is legitimately from the sender, and what to do if it isn't. DMARC is only designed to protect against direct domain spoofing. You can check the DMARC record status of your domain on fraudmarc or on dmarcian
• Get familiar with the CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide from the FTC. The CAN-SPAM Act establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
• Be aware of what Spam Filters look for.

Email automation is the ability to send time or action triggered emails to subscribers with relevant information. A trigger is the event that starts an automation email or series. Automation allows you to create targeted emails that are sent when triggered by a specific date, event, or contact's activity. Whether it’s a triggered work flow that helps nurture new leads, birthday greetings that add a personal touch, or automated blog updates that take the legwork out of staying in touch with your audience — email automation makes email marketing more efficient, personalized, and relevant.

• Welcome Series - One of your most impactful triggered email campaigns as it leaves your brand's first impression in the email channel. Make the most of this opportunity by personally engaging each subscriber with content curated to their interests. 20% of overall email revenue.
• Cart Abandonment - Shoppers put products into their shopping carts, go to the checkout page and buy. If they leave during any of these steps, it's called cart abandonment, and sending cart abandonment emails to call them back gives you 8% sales uplift on average. Three out of four shopping carts are abandoned. Respond in real-time to site visitors that abandon without converting and remarket to them with campaigns designed to re-engage them and drive them back to your site for conversion. When someone adds a product to their shopping cart and leaves the checkout process without buying, you need to follow up with them. Statistics show that when shoppers receive an email about their abandoned cart, more than 10% complete their purchase.
• Browse Abandonment – To visitors who have viewed category or product pages without purchasing, sending browse abandonment emails to call them back gives you 3.5% sales uplift on average by driving a purchase. The email is serving as a reminder of items a subscriber was interested in, and tempt them back to buy them.
• Thank You Message - After the sale, you can greatly enhance the customer experience by sending highly-targeted nurturing messages that increase loyalty.

• A segment is defined by the criteria you set (e.g., female contacts in Chicago.) Segments allow you to find and target all contacts you’ve loaded into Marketing Campaigns who meet the criteria you define.
• A list is a curated group of specific contacts you upload that will not change unless you manually add or delete a recipient. Lists are useful if you want to send a campaign to a specific group of recipients at a moment in time, and that group is not defined by shared custom fields or engagement patterns.