At his New Rules of Email Marketing webinar, DJ Waldow told his audience to forget what they have read about email marketing.
Instead, the co-author of “The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing,” says the only rules to adhere to are the ones that work best for you.
“Best practices are those that are best for your audience,” DJ says. “Test to see what works best.”
Here are six of DJ’s top email marketing rules to break from his webinar:
Breakable rule 1. Only compelling subject lines get opens
Catchy subject lines never hurt, but this rule misses the truth about email marketing. “If you haven’t earned your subscribers’ trust, they won’t open email regardless of subject line,” DJ says.
Once you gain, confirm and grow your subscribers’ trust, you can write weak subject lines and people will still read your messages.
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Breakable rule 2. Never use ‘free’ or capital letters in subject lines
Many reputable companies use ‘free’ in subject lines and land in inboxes.
Don’t believe that’s a myth? Compare your inbox and spam folder. If it’s anything like DJ’s, you will receive a number of emails using “free” or capital letters in the subject line in your inbox. You will also find many spam emails without the word free.
“Today, it’s based on your domain reputation,” DJ says.
Using free in a subject line can be quite lucrative as King Arthur Flour discovered. Though its “Ends Thursday: Free Shipping” subject line had fewer opens than its “Hawaiian Pizza – the secret’s in the crust…” subject line, the subject line with “free” had a 386 percent higher sales rate.
Breakable rule 3. Keep subject lines short
As the number of subject line characters increase, the open rate tends to dip. However, as the characters increase, so to does the click-to-open rate.
The theory behind this, DJ says, is a longer subject line reveals more of the content of the email.
With sending email to a subscriber base who largely use small screens and mobile devices, DJ recommends mixing things up with longer and shorter subject lines. Groupon, for example, has had email subject lines with only four characters and others with 421.
Breakable rule 4. Keep your unsubscribe link inconspicuous
If people do not want your content, make it easy for them to get off the list, says DJ.
Though not the prettiest email template, Publishers Clearing House emails produce results.
Breakable rule 5. Never send ugly emails
Publishers Clearing House used an email template that even they thought looked… less than beautiful. They kept using it, however, because it delivered stellar metrics like 99.2 percent inbox placement, 40 percent inbox placement and 87 percent click-to-open rate.
(Click-to-open rate is the number of people who opened an email and clicked on at least one line.)
Breakable rule 6. Always use double opt-in
Salespeople often abide by the rule that once someone says yes, you stop asking questions. It’s the same with email marketing, DJ says. Get an opt-in and send a thank you, but don’t force them to click another link.
Undeniable Truth! Be human
A successful email campaign delivers timely, targeted, valuable human emails to people who want it.
“People forget that when we write an email we’re actually writing to other humans,” DJ says. “Speak human in your email communications.”
As an example, he cites an email from MarketingProfs that advertised an opportunity to save $400 on a forum registration. After announcing the deal, the email has the following lines: “Just think of what that extra money could go toward instead—half of an iPad2, a new business casual outfit for Boston or a round of top-shelf drinks at the hotel bar (oh wait, I guess I’d be the one to benefit from that).”
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