Email Checklist Series
Email marketing is full of little details—little details that if missed can create major problems or lost opportunities. To help marketers keep track of all these fine points, the Email Experience Council's Member Roundtables have created a series of email checklists on a variety of topics:
The email checklists currently available include:
● Code QA Testing Checklist
● Email Design Checklist
● Landing Page Checklist
● Welcome Email Checklist
You can find all of those checklists in the Whitepaper Room under the "Checklists" tag.
And the roundtables are working on checklists about A/B testing and annual reviews, so keep an eye out for those soon.
Code QA Testing Checklist
Created by the Email Design Roundtable
The Code QA Testing Checklist shows you what to check to make sure your email looks and acts exactly how you intended. It covers what to check in your HTML and text files. Compare your code against this checklist before sending.
During a discussion of the checklist among Email Design Roundtable members, Brent Shroyer of Listrak said, "When you put together a web page, you can always go back and fix it later. But in an email you only have one shot. You have to be perfect. The importance of a checklist is critical for email more so than any other online effort, since it is once and done."
For more from that discussion, read Email Design Checklists Save the Day: Avoiding Common Pitfalls on the Email Experience Blog.
To download this checklist, visit the Whitepaper Room and look under the "Checklists" tag.
Email Design Checklist
Created by the Email Design Roundtable
The Email Design Checklist shows you what to check to maximize your email creative’s performance. It covers everything from the subject line to the footer. Compare each of your designs against this checklist before approval and coding.
During a discussion of the checklist among Email Design Roundtable members, Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon said, "One essential that often gets missed is that the primary link shows up just below the preview pane, so it’s not visible without scrolling. Oh, I think to myself, ouch! If they had just looked at it and moved it up 30 pixels, it would improve response so much!"
For more from that discussion, read Email Design Checklists Save the Day: Avoiding Common Pitfalls on the Email Experience Blog.
To download this checklist, visit the Whitepaper Room and look under the "Checklists" tag.
Landing Page Checklist
Created by the Email Design Roundtable
The Landing Page Checklist shows you what to check to maximize the user experience and your bottom line with landing pages. It covers everything from the layout and headline to calls-to-action and forms. Follow this checklist and the effort could pay off big time.
During a discussion of the checklist among Email Design Roundtable members, Megan Walsh of Williams-Sonoma said, “Email is not just about driving traffic to the site—it’s about being a gateway to conversion. Whether the desired outcome is a purchase, a download, or simply creating a consistent experience that might drive a repeat visit, optimizing landing pages is an often forgotten, yet crucially important step in delivering results from email.”
For more about landing pages and this checklist, read Always Have Smooth Landings with the Landing Page Checklist on the Email Experience Blog.
To download this checklist, visit the Whitepaper Room and look under the "Checklists" tag.
Welcome Email Checklist
Created by the Email Design Roundtable
The Welcome Email Checklist shows you what elements to include and to consider for a high impact welcome email. Compare your welcome email design against this checklist before approval.
During a discussion of the checklist among Email Design Roundtable members, Chad White of the Email Experience Council said, "The best advice I ever heard about welcome emails was: 'Give them a reason to save the welcome email.' Hopefully this checklist will help marketers achieve that goal."
For more from that discussion, read Put Your Welcome Message to Work with the Welcome Message Checklist on the Email Experience Blog.
To download this checklist, visit the Whitepaper Room and look under the "Checklists" tag.
Statistics
Only 9% of those surveyed preferred getting marketing messages via SMS (text) instead of email.
—ExactTarget, 2008 Channel Preference Survey
65% of the demographic between the ages of 18 to 34, the age demographic most comfortable with IM, SMS and emerging communications methods, will favor email to communicate with businesses in five years.
—Habeas, 2008 study of consumer attitudes towards email and online interaction with businesses
70% of companies asked for more than an email address at sign-up.
—Return Path, Great Email Experiences - Is Your Brand Relationship Worthy
Email ad spending will jump to $677 million in 2011, from $492 million in 2008.
—eMarketer, Social Media and E-Mail Spending to Rise
Emails from 23% of the retailers reviewed in this study were completely unintelligible in an inbox environment—and there were some significant shades of gray among the 77% that were intelligible because of lackluster HTML text and alt tag usage.
—Email Experience Council, Retail Email Rendering Benchmark Study
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