7/11/14. Presented by: Overview. Writing effective subject lines Creating good body copy Choosing HTML vs. Plain Text s

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1 Overview Writing effective subject lines Creating good body copy Choosing HTML vs. Plain Text s Presented by: SurveyGizmo Online Academy Reducing spam complaints Managing lists Testing s Writing follow-up s Effective Subject Lines Good subject lines increase response rates! Basic Rules: Limit characters to 50 or less short and concise enough to display on mobile devices Don t over-capitalize Effective Subject Lines What makes someone open an ? Importance (work, financial) Curiosity Interest or personal investment in the topic Emotional hot buttons Identify the sender Describe the content, but don t overpromise 1

2 Effective Subject Lines Remember to: Tell respondents why it matters to them or will bring them value. Know your audience appeal to their current interests, needs and challenges Tips for Good Body Copy Start with a greeting Only personalize the greeting if appropriate Tips for Good Body Copy First sentence should explain value to the reader The body should be as brief as possible Summarize qualifications to avoid disqualifications Survey link no more than 70 characters Tips for Good Body Copy Put a paragraph break before and after the survey link to make it stand out. Ideally the link should include several keywords showing the survey subject. Andrew, Please take a moment to provide us with your suggestions for our online training program. Thank you for your time, your opinion is very important to us. Regards, The SurveyGizmo Training Team 2

3 Tips for Good Body Copy HTML vs. Plain Text s Finish with a kind and sincere signature. Bring in the personality of the brand. Thank the respondent. HTML vs. Plain Text s HTML s may be seen as marketing s Text feels more like a personal as opposed to mass communication Deliverability may drop a bit when using HTML Only use HTML when needed HTML vs. Plain Text s Because there s always an exception Exceptions to this may be: A really talented design team The brand is so powerful that adhering to brand guidelines will get a greater response 3

4 Reducing SPAM Scores Know the applicable laws CAN-SPAM in the United States and is relevant for all commercial messages. FTC site business.ftc.gov Tips to Avoid Spam Filters Have permission to to the address double opt-in is the best standard Identify yourself to the respondent Good subject lines can help here Reducing SPAM Scores SpamAssassin Uses a wide variety of local network tests to identify spam signatures. Assigns a spam score to an . Reducing SPAM Scores What does spam look like? Lots of punctuation or symbols Excessive capitalization Words like free, percent off Subject: COMPUTERS 99% OFF and FREE PHONES!!!! 4

5 Reducing SPAM Scores Check your spam folder It s a treasure trove about what not to do. Track what gets delivered and what does not. List Management: Use a list management system so that you can track which s were sent to which addresses. Don t send more than one survey per month to each respondent. List Management: Schedule survey s to coordinate with other campaigns. Let people know of your privacy policy, and that you will not sell their information to a third party. Make sure that names and company names are correct and stay that way. A typo in a person s name or company name can have a big impact, but not a positive one. 5

6 Add opt in requests to your list quickly! When people opt in to your list, they expect to receive a communication fairly quickly. This will confirm that the address is valid, and your first can set the tone for your ongoing relationship. Tips for Always remove duplicate addresses. Consider removing inactive addresses if they have not responded to attempts to re-engage. Make updates when you are notified of an address that has changed. Respond to unsubscribe requests quickly to avoid offending respondents or possible legal issues. Bounced addresses should be removed, unless the bounce is a temporary. Ex. Overloaded inbox. Tips for A good list is an organized list! Segmenting your list into smaller, specific groups, will allow you to send more effective messaging. If lists are old, confirm the addresses before using them in a campaign. Where d ya get that address? Purchasing lists from anyone other than a panel company is questionable. Don t scrape lists from the web. The listing of an address online does not give permission. 6

7 Collect addresses; don t find or purchase. Offer sign up forms on your web site and blog and build sign up opportunities into other events, like webinar registration, product purchases, or survey completions. Encourage list sign ups via social media. Food for thought: Consider offering the choice of text only or html s, and allowing choice of how often people want to hear from you. If you don t want to allow choice of frequency, let them know how often you ll send messages. Group addresses should be removed from your list, and any addresses with spam. Testing s Schedule time for testing in the project timeline. Look at the in various browsers: Internet Explorer Chrome Firefox Testing s Test the as carefully as the survey itself and engage others to test as well! Don t forget to test on mobile devices! 7

8 Follow-up s Reminder s: Reminder s can be sent to boost participation in a survey, however, only a few should be used. After the first reminder, any successive ones should contain only a few sentences. Testing s Thank You s Thank you s can be set up as well, or you can just use the final survey page for a thank you message. Incentives If you are giving out an incentive for participation, make sure you follow up and get that done relatively quickly after the close of the project. Introduction Components of a good campaign: ü Effective subject line ü Good body ü The right type ü Avoiding markers of spam ü List Management ü Test, Test, Test Thank you for watching! Have questions or comments? Please share your feedback with us below! 8