Email Tales From the Trenches
Two savvy email marketers share some of the tips, tricks, and war stories that come with the territory.
Two savvy email marketers share some of the tips, tricks, and war stories that come with the territory.
I love email marketing. I really love email marketers. To generalize, they have thick skin, don’t get nearly as much credit as they should, and drive their business forward with crucial communications that can move the needle on key business goals. Two of my most popular columns ever in more than a decade of writing about email have been about and in celebration of email marketing pros.
This is an ode to them and I hope these honest stories from two email stars inspire you – or at least make you not feel alone as you are about to press the send button on that next campaign.
Heather Frank of insurance giant Aflac (disclosure: a BrightWave client) provided some really insightful and honest insight into what many email marketers may find to be similar on many fronts.
Jessica DeLap, digital producer at Total Wine & More, a large and fast-growing national beverage retailer, shares some secrets, including the added pressure that comes along with sending alcohol-related content.
When my manager told me that we were now going to be responsible for sending our own emails, I was terrified. I thought of all the things that could go wrong. What if I sent the wrong email? What if I sent the right email to the incorrect people? This is a big one in my business, because we have a lot of legalities that differ by state, so a mistake could not only mean customer service complaints, it could mean legal issues!
I was nervous when I first started sending emails. I would set the email up to send, check it repeatedly to make sure that I had the right email and all links were correct. Then when the emails started coming in, I would check every link on them to assuage my worst fears. This led to a lot of wasted time. It’s something that gets better as you become more comfortable with the send button.
What makes it easier for me is that we have a few safeguards in place to ensure that mistakes don’t happen. We have someone else on the team check our email, because another set of eyes always helps. Our data has to be QA’d by our manager to ensure that we are indeed sending the email to the right people. We set up the email to send 15 minutes in advance and then check the pending sends to make sure everything is correct. When the email deploys successfully, and you see great open rates and revenue that makes the stress worth it.
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, mistakes do occur. There are different degrees of mistakes, with many requiring immediate attention. Depending on the mistake, you should ask your ESP to fix it (sometimes possible), contact your customer service department, and/or send a retraction email. Learn from it, move on, and don’t make the same mistake twice!
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Thanks to these email champs for sharing some tips and experiences. Email marketers need to stick together. What are your best and worst memories of sending an email campaign?
Image via Shutterstock.