email marketing notes (2) (2)

Email Marketing 

Copyright M Training 2017 

The Essentials 

By Martin Woodfield 

These course notes are copyright of M Training and can not be shown to anyone who 

hasn't attended the Email Marketing Course with M Training unless written consent has 

been obtained from a director of M Training.


Course Outline 

Core CanSpam rules 

Basic timing rules 

How to build mailing lists 

Segmentation 

Setting objectives and messages 

Subject lines 

From Field 

Crafting your email 

Wire framing the layout 

Structure of the content 

Writing text for email 

Punctuation and tone 

Multivariate testing 

Examples 

Other things to consider 

Images and image editing 

How to use MailChimp

Legal Requirements: CanSpam 

Don’t use false or misleading information 

Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain 

name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated 

the message. 

Don’t use deceptive subject lines 

The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the email 

Identify the message as a promotion 

The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you should disclose clearly and 

conspicuously that your message is an advertisement / promotion (not UK law) 

Tell recipients where you’re located 

Copyright M Training 2017


Legal Requirements: CanSpam 

Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. 

Honour opt-out requests promptly 

Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. 

Even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t 

contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company 

whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends 

the message may be held legally responsible.


Legal requirements: Footer Information 

Provide a contact address 

Provide a method of unsubscribing from marketing emails 

Registered details – see next slide


Legal Requirements: The Companies (Trading 

Disclosures) Regulations 2008 

Limited Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships must provide the following 

information in their footers: 

• Your company's registered name (e.g. XYZ Ltd) 

• Your company registration number; 

• Your place of registration (e.g. Scotland or England & Wales); and 

• Your registered office address

UK Law 

You can ‘cold email’ an unsolicited, direct marketing email to a corporate subscriber. 

The rules are stricter for emails to individuals 


‘Cold call emails are permitted if the email is work-related (e.g. promoting office 

furniture to a facilities manager) but not if it is personal (e.g. promoting family 

holidays to the sales team at a recruitment company). 

Consent can be collected by a third party on your behalf, provided the third party 

makes it clear to the individual that it is proposing to pass his or her details to 

businesses offering the sort of products and services you offer.

UK Law 


Legacy lists can be used if you have used it within the last 12 months and that you collected in 

compliance with the law at the time. 

All emails must 

• make the identity of the sender clear (the sender must not be ‘disguised or concealed’) 

• provide a valid address to which ‘unsubscribe’ messages may be sent. 

For full details refer to the Information Commissioners Office. 

You can be fines up to £5000 for breaches.

UK Law 

Soft Opt Ins 


Their email address was obtained by you in the course of the sale or negotiations 

for the sale of a product or service 

And the direct marketing is in respect of your ‘similar products and services only’ 

The recipient has been given a simple means of refusing your ‘similar products and 

services only’ email 

The individuals are given the opportunity to opt out in every subsequent email to 

them


Timing 

Create a schedule for your emails based on the business objectives and timing 

requirements 

No strict rules on frequency or timing but generally 

- Not more than one a week unless you have something special to say 

- Test different timings as these depend on the nature of the business 

- For business to business send on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday after 10am 

- Check international hours of business

List building – bad practice 

Try Briteverify – 

to help clean the 

email lists 


Purchase list at your own risk. Often they are quite badly out of date. 

MailChimp does not allow you to use purchased lists 

Avoid using lists which are out of date inaccurate and have many inactive email 

addresses 

Minimise complaints or you will get blacklisted 

Don’t use scraping or other techniques to get emails off the web (spam traps)


List building - good practice 

Build lists organically using 

Sign up forms on your website, social media, blogs 

Ask people to join your lists at events, shows, sales meetings, instore 

Use research to identify people and ask them if you can add them 

Give them an incentive for subscribing to your list 

Segmentation 

Critical for focusing messages on benefits that are relevant to the audience 

Minimised opt outs due to poorly targeted campaigns/messages

Email bounces 


Bounced emails affect deliverability to other email addresses 

If you send wrong/dead email addresses, it can affect your ability to get into the 

inbox and can go to junk instead. 

Make sure you keep your lists clean 

(Mailchimp automatically removes “hard bounces”) 

Ensure that the email addresses you collect are correct 

(Double email address entry, opt-in confirmation)


Segmentation 

Can the target audience be segmented into groups with similar needs? 

Task 1: Identify your key customer groups 

This should be ‘Needs based’ or ‘solution based’ not product based


Task 2: For each segment ask yourself 

What do they want? 

If I was one of these customers, 

what would be the most 

significant benefits your product / 

service can offer me/my business? 

Write down your ideas and organise by priority


Setting Objectives? 

Task 3: Brainstorm (ideally with colleagues) 

What do we want to achieve? 

Write down your objectives for your email marketing and organise by priority 

This will form the basis for a schedule of emails


Task 4: Think about your messages for each segment 

What is going to grab their attention? 

What is going to make them act?


Each email should have one key message 

They can have sub messages as well


What do you want the customers to do when they get the email? 

MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM TO DO THIS

Subject Line Best Practice 

Keep subject 

lines to less than 

10 words 

Put the key point 

of the message 

at the start so it 

doesn’t get 

cropped on 

mobile 


It’s OK to use 

emojis in subject 

lines - use them 

sparingly they 

don’t work in all 

email clients. 

Use 

Personalisation if 

you can 

Write at least 

three different 

subject lines and 

then decide 

which one to 

use.


Subject Lines 

Top Email Clients 

Apple Iphone 

Gmail 

Apple ipad 

Google Android 

Outlook 

Yahoo!Mail 

Windows Mail 

Windows Live Mail 

To find the top email clients for your 

lists in MailChimp 

On your Lists Page click Stats 

Scroll to Top email clients

Subject Lines 

Top Email Clients 

Use Segments to target specific Email Clients within your list 

If you have a big list you could consider segmenting by email client. 

This is possible in MailChimp, Campaign Monitor and most large email 

marketing systems. 

In MailChimp, when you create a new Campaign on the Recipients 

step you can choose Group or Segment 

Set the condition that 

Match = any 

Email Client = (Gmail for example) 



Subject Lines 

Good 

Keywords in content 

Uniqueness of content 

Freshness of content 

Specific benefit driven 

Solves a problem 

Credible 

Free Email Marketing Guide: 

Increase open rates by 20% 

OK 

Relevant 

Non spammy 

Credible 

Email Marketing News : Our 

latest tips 

Poor 

Looks like spam 

Not relevant 

Boring 

Nothing in it for the audience 

Not credible 

Grow your business over 100% 

Remember to put the key content keywords at 

the beginning as it is likely that longer subject 

lines will be cropped to 30 to 40 characters on 

phones and in desktop


Subject Lines 

Why? 

5 reasons why you should 

choose SleepCurve baby 

mattresses. 

Benefits led 

Give you and your baby a 

better night’s sleep. 

Targeted Combo 

Mums and Dads - Give your 

baby a better night’s sleep 

Question 

Why do so many parents 

choose a SleepCurve baby 

mattress? 

Testimonial 

Jo James, midwife, 

recommends SleepCurve 

baby mattresses for a 

better night’s sleep. 

Flattery 

The intelligent choice of 

mattress for your baby. 

How to? 

How do you get babies to 

sleep better? 

Intriguing 

We knew you’d like it, mums 

and dads 

Exclusivity 

Special offers only for 

Members of the NCT


Subject Lines 

Task 5: Write some good subject lines for your business 

Relevant - Keywords in content 

Uniqueness of content 

Freshness of content – time sensitive 

Specific benefit driven 

Solves a problem 

Credible 

Emotional drivers 

Exclusivity 

Guilt 

Pleasure 

Value 

Flattery 

Greed 

Time saving 

Fear 

Salvation

From who? 

From 


If you want to send as a person from a company, try using name AND company 

Martin | M Training 

Martin @ M Training 

Martin from M Training 

Consider using a more descripting From name if they don’t know you or your 

company. Eg Email Marketing Trainers 

Consider using a female name – research shows this to be more effective! 

TEST different options

From who? 

emails: 

Use a real person email address – martin@mtraining.co.uk 

rather than info@mtraining.co.uk or sales@ or other generic name. 

It is more likely to get through spam filters. 

Sending through verified domains 


Ask recipients to add you to their address book.


Crafting the email 

Set out the objectives, priorities and 

messages 

Do the initial drafts in Word and sketch 

out layout on paper 

Edit it in Word. Save it as a plain text file. 

Paste it into the email and save 

Preview / Test – send 

to a colleague for 

feedback 

Make any final 

amendments 

Final test and send 

Edit images and upload 

Create graphics to reinforce key points 

Set up html email and plain text version 

Preview and test. Leave overnight.


Wireframe 

Message 1 

Sketch the design in 

blocks 

Prioritise the content 

Include a Call to 

Action for each 

Don’t forget that it is 

likely to be viewed 

with images off 

And bear in mind 

mobile use 

CTA 2 

CTA 1 

Message 2


Wireframe 

Don’t overload them with information. It is more effective to send out a 

few emails with one key message that one email with lots of key 

messages. You only get one subject line. 

Focus on the benefits 

Segment the information at an early stage based on the audience type 

or interest


Wireframe 

Eye flow 

Left to right 

F shape pattern 

Images / faces / human interest



We take in less than 50% of the content on 

screen 

- we skim read 

- we look at images and infographics 

- we look at headings



If they open or preview it you have 5 to 21 seconds 

What do you want them to know in 10 seconds 

How can you help the visitor 

Make the content as relevant as you can to the user 

Segment as soon as possible 

Have a short opening paragraph which explains the offer (ideally in 

no more than 15 words). Put this paragraph in bold / another 

colour 

Make it clear what is in it for them



Average time spent reading an email is 21 seconds 

Around 2% will read all of your email 

Around 20% to 60% of your emails will be read on a mobile first 

Use the ‘pre-header’ to summarise the benefits of reading the email.

Email Content 


- be concise 

- make it easy to scan / skim read 

- use short sentences and paragraphs (Longer paragraphs can be used further 

down in your email) 

- use variation – 1 line paragraphs 

- use of bold / colour on the first paragraphs –’summary lead’ technique 

- avoid long words 

- use an active tone 

- edit hard 

- use images and infographics 

- use links to further content – don’t try and tell them the full story 

- use white space to let the content stand out


Writing the text 

Include a call to action at the top and 

bottom of the email 

Include a call to action (e.g. links) within 

the content

Writing the text 


Use the ‘active’ voice (Use the active verb – the subject is doing something) 

Beautifully designed websites. (active) 

The websites are beautifully designed. (passive) 

We changed the calibration in response to your needs. (active) 

The calibration was changed by us in response to your needs. (passive) 

Our customer wrote a wonderful review. (active) 

A wonderful review was written by our customer. (passive) 

Download the PDF for more information 

More information is available by downloading the PDF 

Use the personal pro nouns – make it friendly



Be positive, encourage click through 

Click here to watch our video of the machine in action. 

Why not watch our video of the machine in action? 

Click here to view 

Our video of the machine in action is available for you to watch. 

Click here to view

Punctuation 

() Parentheses 


Periods and commas go outside the parentheses, 

except for when the parenthetical sentence stands 

alone. 

X We are giving a fantastic discount (£150.) 

We are giving a fantastic discount (£150). 

X 

 

I think you’re one in a minion. (Ha, get it)? 

I think you’re one in a minion. (Ha, get it?)

Punctuation 

Colons 

Colons connect two independent sentences: Capitalise 

the second sentence 

X 

 


Our conclusion was simple: our product had 

performed very well. 

Our conclusion was simple: Our product had 

performed very well.


Punctuation 

Semicolons 

Semicolons connect related sentences. Don’t capitalise 

the second sentence. 

X 

Call us today; We can give you a instant quote. 

 

Call us today; we can give you a instant quote.

Punctuation 

Apostrophes 

X This is not a great use of apostrophe’s. 

 

The word apostrophes is plural. 


Use apostrophes to show possession 

Our customer’s apostrophes – if there is one customer 

Our customers’ apostrophes (or customers’s)- if more than one 

The boss’s apostrophes 

The bosses’ apostrophes (where the plural is made up 

by adding an s or es)

Punctuation 

Abbreviations and Acronyms 

Try not to use them 


Use emoticons sparingly. 

The only one typically 

accepted in business 

email etiquette is the 

standard smiley face :)

Punctuation 


Tone 

• Tone is the most misunderstood aspect of business 

emails. Many emails end up with a far-too-formal tone 

• Some people use way too many exclamations!!!! or 

emoticons. 

• The best approach here is to use friendly language with 

simple punctuation. 

• A simple email with proper punctuation that still conveys 

a friendly tone will get the message over much more 

effectively


Examples 

Notes 

Try saying “thanks.” 

The words enquiry and 

correspondence are too formal. 

Instead of having the customer worry 

about ticket numbers, let them know 

they can just reply to that email to 

update their ticket. 

Personalize it! Send out the email as 

being from a human. Anything other 

than the generic “team”.


Examples 

Notes 

Personalised 

Short simple sentences 

Easy to reply to 

Sent from a human


Examples 

How do you respond?

Notes 

Too formal 

No need for ‘submitting’ 

We can’t respond quickly but 

ask 

Examples 

us another question! 

Not sent from a human 

Notes 

Personalised using the same 

Short simple sentences 

Looks like you are trying your 

best to help 

Easy to reply to 

Sent from a human 



Examples 

Notes 

Bite sized info with clear links 

for more info 

Simple and easy to 

understand 

You still get the message 

without the pictures 

Nice pictures


Examples 

Notes 

One clear offer 


understand 

Good finger sized links 

Clear calls to action


Examples 

Notes 

One clear headline 

3 specific offers 

3 ‘cross sell’ messages 


understand 


Clear calls to action

Notes 

One clear headline 

Range of messages 

Positive 

Easy to understand 


Clear calls to action 

Nice people pictures 




Formatting your email: 

Use simple rounded fonts - 12pt or larger 

Avoid over use of CAPITALS 

Allow for white space 

Left justify 

Use line spacing between paragraphs 

Use bullet points 

Use Shift + Return to put in a new line with no line spacing 

Use pictures 

- see www.shutterstock.com or www.istockphoto.com for low 

cost library images


Personalisation 

Put in auto personalisation for 

Dear ‘First Name’ 


Also put their company name or interest or other personalisation to make the 

message seem more relevant to the recipient 

We think that our solutions will be a perfect fit for ‘Company name’ as has been 

designed for the ‘industry type’ market



Credibility 

Use facts case studies and quotes to demonstrate credibility of the offer 

Use customer reviews 

Put in customer reviews and link to your website customer reviews 

page or social media site or sites like Trip Advisor 

Key words 

Most reader’s eyes scan the text looking for words that interest them. 

Terms and Conditions 

Link to (or preferably put in the footer) the terms of any offer or 

competition. Don’t use “end tomorrow” – put a specific date and time 

as you don’t know when the recipient will open it.

Spam Check 

Use a spam checker to see if your email might be blocked as spam 

1. Minimize use of large fonts, coloured fonts and ALL CAPS, including in your 

signature file. All of these raise your spam score. 

2. Use a specific, descriptive subject. If your subject is something like "urgent 

response needed," your mail looks a scam to the filter. Do not begin the subject 

with "urgent" or "very urgent" and follow with one of these words: confidential, 

assistance, business, attention, reply, response, help. 

3. Do not send attachments with unusual file extensions. These are often blocked. 

4. Send from a real email account and avoid generic emails such as sales@ 

www.mail-tester.com 




Test your emails 

Things to vary 

- Subject lines 

- Headings 

- Offers 

- Image placement 

- Call to action 

- Links 

- Time of day 

- Day of the week 

- Degree of personalisation 

Targeted emails 

personalised to 

subscribers achieve 

better results than 

broadcast emails are 

reduce unsubscribes



Don’t expect your first efforts 

to provide brilliant results. 

The results will get better over 

time as you test and refine 

your emails, messages, offers 

and improve your list


Picture editing 


Photoshop 

Great all round package but expensive and more difficult to learn 

PhotoScape 

A free photo editing tool that is pretty good 

Office Picture Manager 

A free photo editing tool that is pretty good but is not provided with Office 2013 

PowerPoint 

Can be used to edit images. PowerPoint 2010/13 editions - good for cut outs 

GIMP 

A free photoediting tool but can be challenging to learn 

PicMonkey (picmonkey.com) 

A free online editing tool to quickly and easily modify photos and add text


Timing 

Create a schedule for your emails based on the business 

objectives and timing requirements 

B2C timings 

Based on research done by Pure360 

No strict rules on frequency or timing but generally 

- Not more than one a week unless you have something 

special to say 

- B2B send on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday after 

10am 

- B2C see opposite 

- Test different timings as these depend on the nature 

of the business 

- Check international hours of business

Using Images in emails 


Avoid getting blocked 

Because spammers in the past sent out emails with the 

content hidden within an image (spam filters can’t read 

images) you need to be careful not to send out emails that are 

mostly just one large image. 

- Your email should be a combination of text and images 

- Try not to have at more than 50% of the area of an email 

images (including graphics and logos) 

- If you need to put in images at the top to get the impact 

you want from your email you may need to put in more 

text at the bottom of the email – this is a good place to 

remind recipients of the benefits you are offering or 

putting in credentials / testimonials (as text) 

- Generally emails with a reasonable amount of text content 

don’t get blocked because of the image to text ratio.

Using Images in emails 


Avoid getting blocked 

Images are unlikely to get emails blocked unless you: 

• send very large images (blocked due to email size) 

• send an email with one big image with very little 

text 

• send a large image with some very small text 

underneath! 

• label the images with alt text that looks spammy 

• have a very high image to text ratio where there is 

very little text 

At the No1 

Marketing event 

Yes, You’re Invited 

RSVP 

If you are worried – test it. 

Remember that lots of recipients won’t see the images 

to begin with – e.g. on Outlook they will look at the 

preview which will probably have images blocked. On 

many smart phones images are displayed as default.

Creating Images Using PowerPoint 


Inserting a picture 

‣ Insert tab > picture 

‣ Or drag and drop 

‣ I like to put all the images I am going to use into a folder, crop to the 

rough size I want them and drag and drop 

‣ Note: You can change the image icon size



Formatting pictures 

PC - right click on your picture and select Format Picture 

or double click on your picture and the Picture Tools ribbon 

appears 

Go through the options in the format picture options 

Border 

Effects (shadow, reflection , etc. ) 

Size and position 

Picture corrections



Picture Tools Ribbon 

Resizing and Cropping, (aspect ratio), 

Re-colouring, contrast/brightness 

Quick styles 

Artistic effects 

Optimising size – compressing pictures



Removing backgrounds to pictures in PowerPoint 

Removing backgrounds to create ‘cut outs’ 

1 st left on Picture Tools menu 

Make picture large and use Mark areas to remove 

Use Keep areas and Remove Areas to fine tune 

Tip: Best to work with the image large and shrink down to size 

you want when you have finished

Screenshots 


‣ Insert > Screenshots 

Great for grabbing a 

website page or image 

of a PDF, Word doc or 

other PowerPoint slide 

You can crop in and 

make changes as you 

would any other 

picture 

You will need the window open behind 

Or use Screen Clipping 

function (next slide)

Screenshots 


‣ Insert > Screenshots > Screen Clipping 

Great for grabbing a 

section of a website page 

or image or PDF or 

spreadsheet

Printscreen 


‣ Look for PrtSc or Print Screen on your keyboard 

Try doing Print Screen and paste 

into your PowerPoint 

You may have to press Fn or 

another key. 

Tip: To just print the top 

window press Alt Gr & PrtSc

Creating Images 

Using PicMonkey 


Picture Tools Ribbon 

• Resizing and Cropping 

• Re-colouring, 

contrast/brightness 

• Quick styles 

• Artistic effects

Royalty Free Images 


Sourcing images 

Low cost photolibraries 

www.shutterstock.com 

www.istockphoto.com 

Flickr 

Commons licence or ‘no known 

copyright restrictions’ images

PowerPoint Shapes 


‣ Insert > Shapes 

- Insert a shape 

- Use quick styles, or 

- Put in your own styles 

- Put in a picture in the background 

- Put in gradients 

- Type in and format text 

- Add shadows, reflections, glows and 3D 

formats 

Put text onto the shape 

and save as a piture

Buttons 

You can also use PowerPoint Shapes to create buttons for 

your email. 

Right click on your button and ‘Save as picture’ 

Jpeg or png should work. 

Email Us Now 

More details here 


You can link 

buttons to 

email 

addresses, 

your website 

etc

Text on images 


Be careful putting text on images because it’ll be scaled 

down on mobile which could mean it’s illegible 

Desktop 

Mobile


Using MailChimp 

For online guidance click here 

93% of internet consumers believe that email is the best way 

for existing suppliers to communicate with them 

A good offer, clear call to action, at the right time can yield up 

to 60% open rates. Best practice generally results in approx. 

36% opens with 13% click through* MailChimp 2012


info@mtraining.co.uk 0161 226 6032

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