EMail Marketing "Secrets"
By Tom Ogg

I did a seminar for Travel Weekly’s Virtual Trade Show on HTML email marketing and the response was much stronger than I had expected. I had decided to write the seminar after reading an article in one of the trades about email marketing that was clearly written by someone who had probably never sent an HTML email in his or her life. It was a compilation of marketing ideas that sounded good, but would have left the email marketer with dwindling readership and a damaged reputation. I thought I would share the highlights of the seminar in this month’s article.

HTML email is one of the most effective tools travel agents have to market the excitement and allure of travel with, as it allows the use of vibrant colors, pictures, graphics and all of the presentation elements necessary to spark action on behalf of the recipients. It is easy to use and quite effective. Most important is its ability to create long term relationships with it readers.

While one can run their email list in the email client, the best way is to use one of the email marketing services such as Constant Contact or Netatlantic. Your list should be opt-in / opt-out only and you should never spam clients. Just because they have purchased travel from you and have an email address that they have given you in the transaction doesn’t mean that they have agreed to receive your promotional emails. You may do more harm than good if you send them email without their permission.

Here are some dos and don’ts when operating an effective email campaign.

Only Use Strong Content: Your email campaign, whether it is in the form of a newsletter, flyer or other presentation, should have the strongest, most original content possible. A poorly designed newsletter with strong content will always out produce a superbly designed newsletter with weak content. Remember that when you reach out to your readership to make it unique, interesting and something that they cannot find anywhere else.

Use Honest Subject Lines: Don’t try to fool your client with a catchy subject line to get them to open your email. This is nothing more than bait-and-switch as far as your client is concerned. Make your subject line complete enough so that they can make an informed decision as to whether they are interested in the content, or not. Many supposed email marketing gurus get this wrong. By respecting your reader’s intelligence and time by giving as much disclosure as possible is the way to build relationships. Trick your clients a couple of times and they will be done opening your email, or worse, opting out of your list.

Keep Your Email Simple: Don’t make the mistake of using tons of graphics and pictures. Use only enough to get your point across. Keep your navigation obvious to anyone and don’t use hot spots for navigation. The simpler the format, the better. Make it so that when someone opens your email it looks easy to read and navigate. Avoid multiple fonts and multiple sizes. Clean and simple is the way to go.

Be Consistent: Consistency build relationships and your specific brand. You should be consistent in every aspect of your email marketing campaign. Consistent design, fonts, layout and publishing enables you to achieve maximum effect from your efforts. Fight the desire to change your format and design because you may be bored with it. Stay consistent and watch the results start to flow in.

Don’t Spam or Copy: This is a mistake every new email marketer makes when developing their campaign. Don’t add recipients to your list who have not requested to be on it. Don ot copy another email format or content. You should be original in every aspect of your campaign and it should reflect the message you are trying to convey.

Don’t Over-Market Your Email List: Just because someone has joined your list, it doesn’t give you license to over-market to them. Sending too many emails is worse than not sending any at all and is likely to result in people fleeing your list like it was the plague. Keep each and every message that you send focused and important.

Don’t Waste Your Reader’s Time: Nothing can damage your brand more than wasting your reader’s time. Sending irrelevant information, using technology like Flash, video or audio tracks where the reader may have to download a plug-in to view it will result in the reader’s immediate reaction by either closing the email, or worse, opting off your list.

KISS: We all know what this means. The simpler the email that you send, the better. Avoid complex layouts and use tables to create your email. Optimize all images and graphics so that the total size of your email does not exceed 75k. The simpler the design and layout, the better, as your reader will be able to instantly open your email and absorb its content. 

By following these common sense ideas faithfully, you will be rewarded with a robust distribution of your email campaign and loyal readership.