Patrick Griffin - 20/25 - RocketResponder

Why Your Emails Keep Going To Spam Part One

March 3, 2014March 22, 2015 Patrick Griffin Leave a comment

Emails Keep Going To Spam

I’m not sure if this is a rant or not, but this keeps on happening with customers at RocketResponder. I’m here to answer why your emails keep going to spam.

Almost every day we’ll get customers asking about emails being marked as spam. It’s true, if we have bad reputation your emails won’t get delivered. But for the most part it’s up to you.

Don’t send spam! It sounds simple enough, but if you are sending spammy content of course it will get filtered. Every person who has asked why their emails ended up in spam is sending emails that I would consider spam if I got one.

Obviously their list subscribed so hey they want the emails, but the primary filters are looking at overall email quality, if they see you look like spam, they’ll think it’s spam.
Click Not Spam!! This again sounds simple, but the people asking say they always go to spam. Especially with Gmail, secondary filters learn what the end user sees as spam or not spam. So if you see an email is in spam, and aren’t clicking not spam, it thinks it was right that the email was spam. Its the same reason if you don’t mark an email as spam you’ll start to get more spam going to your inbox. It’s also the same reason that when I subscribe to these user’s lists, I get it to inbox while they still get it to spam!

Watch out for Part Two of this blog post next time where we continue our look at how you can avoid genuine emails getting marked as spam.

Via: TimLinden.com

Email subject lines – another six real life examples

February 28, 2014March 22, 2015 Patrick Griffin 2 Comments

Email marketing tips and tricks

Email marketing tips and tricks: At RocketResponder we know how important email subject lines are, which is why we want you to give them some careful thought.

Here is another selection of real-life email subject lines and some thoughts about how effective they actually were:

I am giving away $100 just to join a free program! – Ok well it does sound a bit too good to be true but it is also rather intriguing at the same time. I would have most certainly opened this to see what it was all about. Good subject line.
Hi there Patrick – Take a look at this – Personal, informal, engaging and with just a hint of mystery. “Take a look at what?” I am asking. Now I am curious enough to open the email and find out more. It works. Excellent subject line.
DR.CLIX !!!! D0ctor that treat dead traffic the right way..000h yeah!! – Ok so I know what Dr Clix is but if I didn’t then this subject line would be totally confusing. I also hate the way that the sender uses zeroes instead of the letter “o.” It does have me thinking “What is the right way to treat dead traffic?” and also “What does the term ‘dead traffic’ even mean? However as I don’t expect to get the answers in the email I wouldn’t open it.
How I Went From 0 to 150 Leads in 30 Minutes.. – Apart from the fact that the ellipsis (…) is a series of three dots and not two, this is almost perfect. Yes of course I want to know how you did what you say you did. Opened. Success. Well done.
goldline – Seriously? That’s really it. Without context this is just a random word. It does not make me think of anything. Woeful. Deleted already.
Launched in 2013 with custom script – Probably just a bit too random and meaningless for my liking. I really can’t be bothered to open it to find what launched in 2013 with a custom script. Failed. Deleted.

Look out for another selection of email subject lines next month.

Add The Fun Factor To Your Emails To Boost Open Rates

February 26, 2014March 22, 2015 Patrick Griffin Leave a comment

Boost Open Rates

Most email these days tends to be rather boring, well at least the contents of my inbox is rather dull. We want to add the fun factor to your emails to boost open rates.

This is because a lot of business users – such as those who use RocketResponder – want to get a message across and do nothing more or less than that.

It is a perfectly acceptable approach to sending email but it is not the only method.

Another approach you could try is to make your emails fun and entertaining.

Don’t be afraid to inject a bit or humor into your email marketing efforts.

Perhaps you recently heard a joke you would like to share with your subscribers (but you might want to keep the really rude ones to yourself at the risk of offending people.)?

If you do videos in your marketing and have made a mistake, including an outtake video of how you messed up can be interesting, it also serves to reinforce the fact that you are just human too and make the same mistakes as the people on your list.

You could tell a funny story about something which happened to you and also don’t be afraid to ask your subscribers to tell you stories of their own.

Adding humor and encouraging interaction with your list should boost your open rates. Give it a go and see what happens…oh and let us know how you get on.

What A First Time Visitor May Think Of Your Website

February 24, 2014March 22, 2015 Patrick Griffin Leave a comment

Email marketing and websites

Email marketing and websites: When using an email service like RocketResponder you may very well be sending your subscribers links to your website.

Although it is your website – in the sense that you contol the content and pay the bills to keep it on line – it is really your visitors’ website.

They are the people who use it, navigate through the pages, read the content, click the links, buy the goods…or take one quick look and depart in a hurry.

You might encourage people to join your list from (among other things) an opt in form on your website so you want to ensure that the look and feel of your website makes them want to opt in.

Equally they may have joined your list from some of your other promotional efforts and be visiting your site for the first time so, once again, you want to ensure the site does not want to make them unsubscribe.

Here are some things a first time visitor may feel about your site:

I really like it here – this is exactly what I want
Oh dear, this does not look good at all, it is all so confusing
I am sure what I want is in here somewhere, but where do I find it
I would not feel comfortable giving my personal details away on this site
I am totally at home here. The site is bookmarked already.

Examine your site from the point of view of someone visiting for the first time.

Try and put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself how you would feel.

This may throw up some changes you could make to make your site seem more inviting and trustworthy.

If these issues arise then deal with them promptly.

How to Harness The Emotions Of Your Subscribers

February 21, 2014March 22, 2015 Patrick Griffin Leave a comment

Email marketing and emotions

Email marketing and emotions: We are creatures driven by our emotions.

Emotions help us to bond with others, can influence the decisions we make in our every day lives and you want to appeal to the emotions of your subscribers.

We have already seen how you can use RocketResponder emails to communicate with those who have subscribed to your list.

You will get the best results from your emails (and from the content you put on your website and every advert you place) if you can appeal to people’s emotions.

But choose the emotions you wish to trigger carefully…get the wrong ones and you will get the opposite of what you have in mind.

Here are some emotions you want to avoid triggering…

boredom – if you send out dull emails then you will send your subscribers into a coma and they will never want to listen to anything you have to say ever again.
distrust – if you make promises you fail to deliver on or promote programs which don’t live up to the hype surrounding them then you will lose the trust of your list and once that happens it is almost impossible to recover.
anger – it is very easy to make your subscribers angry by misjudging their needs and requirements. Bombarding them with marketing emails every day is one way to really make them angry with you.

Here are some emotions you really want to trigger…

empathy – you want to build up a rapport with your list. People want to know that you are “just like them” and not some distant person looking down on them from your ivory tower.
desire – there is so much out there which we want to have but which we do not really need to have. Your job is to make people feel an overwhelming desire to want to have the goods or services you provide above the goods or services of everybody else targeting them in your niche.
passion – get your subscribers passionate by showing how passionate you are. This passion will make itself known by more return visits to your website, more of your emails getting opened and more of your offers being bought.