Let’s face it, successful email marketing is hard and there are a lot of nuances that go into doing it right. Here to demystify email marketing and guide you to peak conversion rates is Casey Stanton, the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey shares great advice for anyone using email marketing as a channel including why they need a separate domain for emailing “Yellow Light" contacts, what’s required for a successful multi-part email campaign, and how marketers can improve their email delivery rates with one simple question.
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It’s vital to protect the primary domain of your rational clients if you ever want to have any measure of success with using email as a channel. Spammy practices can get your domain blocklisted by your own email tool and by the recipient’s email provider.
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The two biggest email and spam-related regulations that senders need to be aware of are CAN-SPAM and GDPR. CAN-SPAM applies to emails sent from or to email addresses in the US. GDPR applies to those in the European Union.
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For “Yellow Light” contacts with a higher risk of unsubscribing or reporting your email as spam, it’s safer to send emails to them from a separate domain and email. This protects the reputation of your fractional client’s company website and emails.
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To set up a separate email for “Yellow Light” contacts, you’ll want another domain that is at least a week old. For example adding company.co if you have company.com. Set up a 301 redirect so any traffic to that website is sent to your actual website and add UTMs.
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The first email you send to a list is crucial. Know what outcome you want and build a multi-part email series to accomplish that. Multi-part email series should range from 3-5 emails with each successive email filtering out those that have taken the action.
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Write emails as if it’s to your mom. People are more likely to engage with casual emails that are entertaining and enjoyable to read, rather than boring and dry corporate emails loaded with logos, links, and images.
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Consider timing and frequency when sending emails, ideally sending between 10am-3pm ET on Tuesdays-Thursdays for most businesses. This impacts email open rates, so it's important to choose the right time to send your emails for your niche.
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By asking recipients to reply to your emails, you can improve inbox deliverability and avoid being marked as spam.