When it comes to sending what counts to your subscribers, it’s good to develop habits that’ll make sure your email program is constantly turned up to 11.
And while we’re happy to turn it up for you, it’s as they say: You can give a man a doughnut or 12, and he’ll eat for a day. But teach a man to use a fryer, and he’ll feast like a king until a heart attack tragically ends his life in his forties.
4. Utilize Responsive Design
You’ve probably never heard us talk about this before, but you really need to be on top of this whole “responsive design” thing. Ever have a kid give you a sheet a paper that’s just a mess of colors — like all they did was hold four crayons in each hand and go to town? Then you have to put it on your refrigerator because it’d be mean if you didn’t — all the while, your contempt for receiving such things grows?
Nailed it.
We’ve all been there. But, see, that child thinks they’ve given you something great to look at and you can’t fault them for that. Or, really, you can but that’d be kind of jerky of you. Anyway, your subscribers can fault you for putting together something really pretty that looks like a mess when they open it up on their mobile device. Why?
Because you didn’t take the time to make sure your email was compatible with various devices and software that your subscribers might be using. Get on it.
3. Test!
So how do you know your work of art won’t infuriate the masses? You test it. We recommend doing a Litmus test to get the most thorough and helpful results.
Essentially the Litmus test will take the email you’ve put together and test it across the spectrum of devices and OS’s. Now you’ll know if your funny picture of an emo llama will show up perfectly on desktop and mobile devices, or whether it’ll be pinched or stretched out. Or if it’ll even display on Gmail and Angelfire accounts. Is Angelfire still a thing?
With background offerings like this, we sure hope so.
And the rabbit hole goes deeper, Alice. Litmus tests your links to make sure they’re working, and even shows you where clicking it will take you. Don’t automatically assume that because the URL looks right, that it’ll take your subscribers where you want them to go.
2. Test! (A Different Test!)
What? More testing? Yes, more testing. We talked a little about A/B testing here, but the more you know the better. Knowledge is power, right?
We mentioned that you should be running A/B tests on titles — and that’s really kind of underselling the concept. Our bad. Here’s a picture of an adorable puppy to make up for it:
Pictured: adorableness.
OK, so now that we’re square, let’s make sure we’re clear on what we should be testing. Like we mentioned, A/B testing allows you to test what you’d like to do against what you’re going to do and we do this by sending out to different segments of subscribers. So, for instance, if your current format is text-heavy and involves lots of pictures of kittens but you think a more image-heavy approach using baby sloths will resonate better, go ahead and start testing for that. Play around with your backgrounds and button colors. Will be people take you up on weekly gatherings for punch and pie or lox and bagels?
The variables you use can be endless, and should be — the more you can hone what you’re sending to subscribers, the better.
1. Clean Your List Regularly
Like an overflowing laundry hamper that’s starting to smell funky, an email list full of unengaged subscribers can be unsightly and make your mother think twice about letting you leave the house. (Yeah, she knows you’ve been wearing your underwear two days in a row by turning it inside out.) It’s also good to be aware of hard bounces. While most ESPs suppress them automatically, it’s good practice to check and make sure that yours does — and if it doesn’t, clean them out!
Let’s address that first point real quick, since it’s a pretty simple concept: The more you let those types of addresses overtake your subscriber list, the more work you’ll have to do to clean them all out. Keeping on top of that regularly will allow you to focus more on the subscribers that matter.
But aside from creating more work for you if you let it build up too much, those addresses do something even more sinister: They can hurt your relationship with ISPs. After all, you can create absolutely awesome emails but if you keep sending them to bad addresses, ISPs are going to start questioning your validity as a functioning human being and just might start directing your emails to spam boxes.
Do your laundry. Don’t get caught re-wearing dirty undies.
This guy is probs re-wearing yesterday’s undies. Def needs a new belt buckle.
Also check out It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Inactive Subscribers and What You Can Learn From Hard Bounces.