| |
POOR |
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT |
TYPICAL |
BEST PRACTICE |
| Mailing List Growth |
Invitation to register limited to a few of your website's pages |
Invitation to register appears site-wide |
Prominent invitation to register appears sitewide, supported by offline promotion |
Subscriber outreach via: offline promotion, sitewide call-outs, co-registration, sponsored mailings, and exit pop-ups |
| Registration Incentive |
None |
Unrelated to your cause |
Related to your cause |
Related to your cause, and compelling, at a reasonable cost compared to the lifetime value of a new subscriber |
| Subject Line |
Vague or "clever" |
Conveys topic |
Conveys topic and benefit |
Conveys the topic within 15 characters and the benefit within 45 characters |
| Appeal |
No rationale offered for call-to-action |
Appeal focuses on features, not benefits |
Appeals to one motivator: greed, self-esteem, sex, or avoidance of fear |
Appeals to at least two motivators: greed, self-esteem, sex, or avoidance of fear |
| Personalization |
Impersonal |
Personalization limited to name |
Multiple variables personalized; list segmentation and offer based on prior behavior |
Dynamic message assembly based on prior behavior |
| Testimonials |
None |
Wordy |
Concise and motivating |
Concise, motivating, and makes extraordinary claims that you could not say yourself |
| Photographs |
None |
Vaguely related to the cause |
Related to the cause |
Related to the cause and conveys the benefit |
| Split-Cell Testing |
No testing |
Roll-out results reviewed, but no split-cell testing |
Split-cell tests prior to roll-out |
Ceteris paribas split-cell tests prior to roll-out using a minimally-sufficient sample size |
| Optimization |
No testing |
Sporadic or statistically-invalid testing |
Frequent, statistically-valid testing limited to offers and creative approaches |
Frequent, statistically-valid testing improves: offers, creative approaches, mailing list sources, "subject" and "from" lines, landing pages, contact frequency and timing, personalization, and format |
| List Segmentation |
None |
Gaps or duplication |
Demographic |
Behavioral or sequential |
| Success Metrics |
Not measured or not reported |
Ambiguous or unrelated to the call-to-action |
Call-to-action click-thrus |
Call-to-action conversion |
| Email Format |
Text only |
HTML only |
Text or HTML based on subscriber preference and email browser capability |
Text or compatible HTML based on subscriber preference and email browser capability |
| Email Appearance and Function Testing |
Reviewed casually on sender's screen |
All links tested; proofread on-screen and on paper |
Links tested and appearance reviewed on all email browsers used by at least 5% of your subscribers |
Links tested and appearance reviewed on all email browsers, screen resolutions, security settings, platforms, and connection speeds used by at least 5% of your subscribers |
| Inbox Delivery Monitoring |
Reactive |
Reviewed from campaign-level reporting |
Reviewed from domain-level reporting |
Reviewed from domain-level reporting and seed accounts at domains used by at least 5% of your subscribers |
| Bounce Handling |
Not recognized |
Hard bounces removed |
Hard bounces removed; all soft bounces removed |
Hard bounces removed; soft bounces and unresponsive subscribers conditionally removed subject to periodic re-checking |
| Unsubscribe Handling |
Not offered |
Offered but high complaint rate to ISPs and your email server host |
Reliable |
Reliable; unsubscribers suppressed from all future lists regardless of source |
| Blacklisting |
Not monitored; highly vulnerable due to list rental, poor list hygiene, high complaint rate, or shared IP address |
Monitored occasionally; highly vulnerable due to list rental, poor list hygiene, high complaint rate, or shared IP address |
Monitored occasionally; moderately vulnerable due to good list hygiene and double opt-in registration |
Automatic notification of status changes; low vulnerability due to good list hygiene, double opt-in registration, and mailing from dedicated, clean IP addresses |
| Whitelisting and Sender Accreditation |
Not requested |
Whitelisted at a handful of domains |
Whitelisted, authenticated, accredited, and/or certified at every email domain that hosts at least 5% of your subscribers |
Whitelisted, authenticated, accredited, and/or certified at every email domain that hosts at least 5% of your subscribers. Access to emergency troubleshooting due to personal relationships with postmasters at key email domains |
| Spam Law Compliance |
Ignored |
Unnecessarily restrictive interpretation |
Observed |
Observed without impacting response rate |
| Privacy Policy |
Undefined |
Too restrictive |
Permission granted to leverage data for marketing purposes |
Far-reaching permission granted to leverage data for marketing purposes and share data with third-parties |
