With the growth in the number do it yourself (DIY) email services, marketers may be tempted to consider saving a few dollars by using a DIY service to send emails. Our advice? Don’t do it! The world of high frequency email blasting is a minefield and missteps are hazardous.
What you should expect from your Email Service Provider (ESP):
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Stay in touch with the ever-changing CAN-SPAM rules and other regulations. Carefully monitor your emails so that they do not jeopardize your reputation and ultimately your deliverability, as a result of failing to follow FTC and ISP guidelines.
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Stay in touch with the ever-changing best practices in email marketing. The ISPs change rules; the mindset and expectation of customers are not static.
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Provide a dedicated IP address so a tarnished reputation from another mailer using the same IP address cannot harm your reputation.
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Establish a feedback loop to address and correct spam accusations. Work with the individual ISPs as needed to improve deliverability.
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Advise on subject lines and content to improve deliverability.
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Provide deliverability measurements along with recommendations to improve deliverability.
At CLI, our approach is to provide a dedicated Email Campaign Manager to personally monitor email campaigns. With a trained and experienced expert monitoring your email program, deliverability problems will be noticed AND RESOLVED within minutes, not days later when the results of the email turn out to be disappointing.
The recommended general approach is to provide teasing snippets of lightly veiled self-serving info about techniques, success stories, best practices and benchmarks. Copy should be conversational and short. The objective is not to provide a full white paper, but rather to give readers enough info so that they want more.