Before you disregard this post due to its title, humor me and read through the first paragraph. If you agree, disagree or have something to say; please comment. This post is more for brain food than expertise for you to follow. Understand; there are many “good practices” or “general practices” within the email marketing space, but not all apply to every company’s needs or even the needs of the general email marketing populous. Still reading?
“Best practices”, the phrase, is a bit misleading. It leads one to assume that what’s good or ‘best’ for one is just as good for another – that’s false. My suggestion is to use the general practices of the industry to create a solid foundation for your email program as a beginning. If you’re already waist deep in a program that’s in need of new life, I recommend you remove practices one at a time till you can pin point where the program lacks and apply what’s generally working to fill the void. Sound dumb?
I hope not, it’s not where it ends. From that point, application of the “best practice” for that program is where the difference is made. Defining key indicators and recipient trends will reveal where the real jewels are. That’s your “best practice”; what’s best for your recipients, customers, prospects and partners is the motivation. Finding what they like, react to, spend time/money on and garner value from is your programs “best practice”. Make sense?
Relationship and expectations are what drive email success. It’s in your best interest to not take the short cut and follow a “best practice” that’s not yours.
Viva la Email!
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Scott Hardigree
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I totally agree, best practice is irrelevant and altogether non-existent.
There are very few rules which email marketers should adhere to regarding best practice, and even those rules are sometimes better off broken if it means a higher response rate for your campaign.
What may work for some campaigns from the ‘best practice book of email’ will not work for others.
To determine what works best for you or your clients email marketing efforts in terms of copy , creative, layout, call to action etc. is to TEST TEST TEST.
Testing will return results that are so much more valuable to you than adhering to best practice.
Right on, James! Thanks for the comments.
I view the term best practice from a “conventional wisdom” standpoint – techniques and methodologies that when applied can improve the likelihood of success.
They will only ever improve the likelihood of success (or reduce the likelihood of catastrophe) – and for this reasons I believe they are worthy of consideration – if only to maintain a list of “no-no’s”.
Increasingly, the most important metric is engagement and interaction with your emails.
Work hard to engender trust – and to understand what recipients want, and when they want it – and then deliver it to the best of your ability applying a quality filter to everything you do. (Testing I hear you say)
This seems to sit somewhere between industry general practices and a commitment to differentiation through quality.
Some might say “best practice” – but we are ingnoring that!