Are you a bit disappointed with your email marketing results? Are you fed up with low open rates and poor engagement statistics?

It just may be the right time for you to contact your email marketing service provider for a refresher on:

• best practices for email design
• subject line techniques
• optimal deployment time
• frequency and theme.

We all get a bit stale from time to time, but by having someone new to look at your email marketing campaigns you can pull yourself out of the rut. You need to start using the best email marketing technology and make sure your campaigns feature the best practices being used by successful email marketers today.

According to the MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Guide carried out last year, of those polled:

• Two-thirds find email more useful / convenient than the telephone.
• A large majority claim that email is by far and away “the best way for companies to communicate with me”.

These findings strike a chord with me as I much prefer to receive emails than telephone calls myself. I would much prefer to be informed about the latest deals a retailer has to offer via a short and concise email campaign rather than having to surf their website for the information. This takes me 30 seconds to read versus five minutes to find it?

Are you able to answer all three of the following IMPORTANT email marketing questions? If you cannot, your email marketing performance isn’t where it could be or where it should be. (The answers are given below if you are really struggling!)

1. When designing your campaign creative, what is the maximum width (in pixels) you should allow in order for all preview panes to render the email correctly?
2. Which of the following subject lines is best if you’d like to avoid landing your masterpiece in the SPAM folder?

• LAST MINUTE SALE. 50% OFF ALL JEANS. CLEARANCE ENDS SATURDAY.

• Want to keep that £40 in your wallet? Shop this week at Gap.

• Save 50% this week at Gap!!!

3. What is the one colour font that you should avoid using?

If you’re finding it tough to answer these questions, you need to call WSIIMS or your email marketing service provider to talk strategy.

Answers: 1. 650 pixels 2. The 2nd subject line is preferred. The 1st has too many Spam-trigger words (sale, clearance) and the 3rd has too many exclamation points. ISPs are now determining where to put your message based on subscriber engagement, but you should still be aware of what works with your subscribers. They might be less likely to act on emails with subject lines that are SPAMMY in nature. 3. Red or any red based hue (some SPAM filters still flag these as dangerous).