Getting to “send”

A recent project has me thinking about the importance of the process that’s behind the development of every email campaign. There are several important steps that need to be taken before giving the green light to hit the send button on any email. Here’s a high-level look at actions to take and things to consider in the course of developing your next email campaign:

1. Goal of the message: Be it a certain open rate, click-through percentage or sales goal, knowing what you want to achieve is important.
2. Content: Determine what you will include in the message to achieve your goal. It’s possible that your message may need to be tailored to different segments of your audience to help you reach your objective.  It’s smart to send customized messages.
3. List Preparation: Conduct list hygiene after confirming your latest opt-in addresses have been added. If necessary, create an A/B split (for testing) or other list groupings/segments according to the message content(s) being sent.
4. Message creation: Develop an HTML and text-only version of your email. Include profile update link and ways to share the message with friends and social networks. Don’t forget to include CAN-SPAM compliance information, such as your company address and an unsubscribe link. Get necessary message approvals.
5. Web Site/Server: Create landing page(s) for your message and be sure update profile forms are functioning properly. Post images and PDFs that are linked in the message to the server. Add a version of the message to your web site so it can be viewed as a web page.
6. Testing: Spell check, spell check, spell check. (Don’t forget the subject line.) Make sure the links in the message work and confirm that information in the message, such as prices or event dates, match what’s on your web site or landing page. Send test messages to key email clients/domain accounts (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.).
7. Message Scheduling: Check and re-check the time. Make sure the AM or PM is set properly. If your software makes note of time zones, be sure it knows the one you’re in.
8. Post-send monitoring: Monitor bounces and unsubscribes. Take note of any spam complaints. Keep an eye on opens, clicks and web site activity.
9. Reporting: Update reporting spreadsheet and analyze results. Compare to previous messages and target goals.
10. Learnings: This stage could arguably take place at the beginning, too. This is an opportunity to record and analyze past successes (and less-than-successes) and outline a strategy to apply them to future campaigns.

The above can be modified to fit any individual situation, but can serve as a guide for any campaign – from the most basic to one that’s very complex.