Customer Relationship Management is a sure fire way to maintain customer interest in your brand, product, service or organisation. It’s simply more expensive to recruit new customers than it is to grow or cross-sell to existing ones. According to quickOnline, a specialist group of digital presence consultants, it is reassuring to see an increase in the number of companies including newsletter functionality on their websites as part of their CRM programmes. Sadly however, the execution of the electronic newsletters leaves much to be desired as clients search in vain for the unsubscribe link.

“Electronic newsletters are a time and cost effective communication vehicle especially since you have a captive audience or one that has requested the information. When properly executed, these become mini-viral campaigns as recipients forward to friends or are pinballed to your site,” says Francois Botha, managing director of quickOnline, a company dedicated to making online simple and effective.

Botha goes on to say that there are far too many companies out there getting it completely wrong. If you aren’t in a position to use a specialist agency or are but aren’t certain of how to effectively critique work conducted, then read on. Francois Botha exposes the seven deadly sins of email marketing.

Deadly Sin 1: Using a wide or big image at the top of the newsletter before the message body. Some subscribers block images either by choice or by necessity (think dial-up users). Other users only read mail in the preview panel or on mobile devices such as Blackberry – all they’ll see is one big graphic and no text unless they scroll. Now, if your users block images and access mail from a preview pane they’ll see nothing but a blank screen. So, use banners at the top of newsletters sparingly and be aware of where on your mail text begins. Avoid sending out a picture based newsletter at all costs.

Deadly Sin 2: “It is vitally important that you have a complete ‘from address’ in the sender line. Some newsletters that I’ve seen only contain an @ sign. This looks suspicious and also like spam. If the mail doesn’t end up in the junk mail folder, the likelihood of the subscriber treating it like spam is increased,” says Botha. Instead include the publication, company, or brand name in the send line he advises.

Deadly Sin 3: Not supplying a link to a web version of the newsletter. Sometimes the central message relies heavily on an image. Make sure that your subscribers do not miss the point by not downloading images – give them an alternative by directing them to the web or your website. It’s also an effective way of ensuring that your newsletters are archived online.

Deadly Sin 4: A call to action below the fold. “Make sure that your first call to action, or what it is that you want your potential customers to do, is included in bright, easy-to-read font in the top half of your message or as close to the introduction as possible for optimum exposure. Never assume that subscribers will scroll and search to find out what you’d like them to do,” advises Botha.

Deadly Sin 5: Bad copywriting. Invest in a good copywriter to ensure that copy is emotive, succinct, typo and spelling error free and most importantly, grammatically correct. Copywriters worth their salt will ensure that copy is strong enough to stand-alone and will avoid heavy use of capitals and exclamation marks, classic tactics used by spammers. “It also looks old-fashioned and unprofessional. Amateur tactics like this tarnish your brand,” says Botha.

Deadly Sin 6: Readability. “An increasing number of Internet users are accessing their mail via handheld devices. Design needs to be sympathetic to this. We find that easy-to-read fonts on a high contrasting background such as black on white or vice-versa, is most effective and increases the likelihood that your newsletter is actually read.”

Deadly Sin 7: Lack of relevance. It’s no use having an enormous database if half of them are not interested in receiving your news. Ensure that you include easy to find unsubscribe, update details and forward to a friend functionality in all outgoing communications. And, don’t forget to include your company’s contact details for further information .

“In the online realm it is not better to ask forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. Legislation is getting increasingly strict. Email is a powerful tool and can be used effectively to market your company, grow your client base and yes, even make a positive impact on your bottom-line. Just make sure that you enhance your reputation online,” concludes Botha.

quickOnlineCRM