Design
• Always use Sotic's best practise design guidelines or better still let us design your ezines for you.

• It might look good but does it read well? Check that the headlines are short and snappy and draw the fans into reading your content.

• Keep the content short and chatty. If you want to say more take the fan through to a clearly defined landing page on your website

Text rather than images
• Many browsers deliver HTML emails without the images. Ensure that your email has predominantly text in the top third so that your message can be viewed in preview panes and on mobile devices prior to downloading images.

• Avoid sending a single image (JPEG file). This will often be viewed as spam by the mail providers and will not be delivered to the recipients

Data
• Segment your data to allow the sending of more targeted emails. The more you can find out about a fan the more you can ensure they only receive communications on things that interest them. This will ensure better response rates and less people unsubscribing from mail they are not interested in.

Call to action
• Targeted emails also mean more targeted calls to action making consumer choice a lot more direct

• Keep to a minimum the number of calls to action within each communication and ensure there is a hierarchy of content/promotions if there is more than one.
Testing

• Test your campaigns on fellow colleagues and through AB testing to ensure that what you receive will work is being met with the same feeling by others. Ten additional minutes to send an AB test email could make a significant difference to the success of a campaign.

Subscriber process
• Put in place a user friendly subscribe process that initially captures email address and basic information rather than asking for a life history at the first point of engagement. As the fan proceeds with the sign up process ensure you ask for them to advise you of their interests so that you can deliver desired communications.

• Provide a user-friendly unsubscribe process and the ability to amend the communications they are signed up for. Something simple like a change of job can mean someone no longer wants or needs to receive information on hospitality events any longer but does want to receive info on ticket promotions.

Tracking
• Ensure all the links contain tracking so that you can monitor the click throughs, trends and ROI from your campaigns

If you need any more advice or assistance with your online marketing, please contact Sarah Griffiths. Email: Sarah@sotic.co.uk or Tel: +44 20 7691 2459