How to Ensure Email Doesn't Harm Your Brand

Email marketing is still a highly effective and commonly used way to connect with customers, but it's important to use it thoughtfully to avoid damaging your brand's reputation.

In February we looked at how Google and Yahoos inbox updates would effect volume senders.

Add to this the need to ensure your email marketing efforts build customer trust and support your brand image is vital to optimising customer experience (CX) as well as increased loyalty and LTV.

As I explored in my last article (here), pressures often determine a volume-based, inbox first approach, but at Zeta we take an active approach to ensuring our customers maximise their returns by implementing the following step consistently.

Obtain Consent

It’s obvious and is some regions it’s even a legal requirement so always ensure that recipients have given explicit consent to receive emails from you. This means implementing clear opt-in mechanisms on your website and purchase path, such as subscription forms or non-prefilled checkbox. This step is crucial to avoid spam complaints, domain reputation and ensures that your emails reach an interested audience. By obtaining consent, you establish a foundation of trust with your recipients.

Provide Clear Unsubscribe Options

Each email you send should have a clear, easy-to-find unsubscribe link, allowing recipients to opt out of future emails if they choose. This is not only a best practice but also a legal requirement in many regions. An accessible and easy unsubscribe option helps maintain a positive relationship with your audience, even if they decide to stop receiving your emails.

Respect Privacy and Data Protection Laws

As mentioned above, compliance with privacy and data protection laws, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe or the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States, is vital. Ensure that you have a privacy policy that outlines with transparency how you collect, use, and protect customer data. Failure to comply with these laws can lead to fines and damage to your brand's reputation.

Send Relevant and Valuable Content

To keep recipients engaged and interested, focus on sending content that is relevant and valuable. Avoid excessive promotional messaging, and instead, offer information that benefits your audience, such as industry insights, tips, or exclusive offers. This approach helps you maintain a positive connection with your recipients.

Avoid Over-Sending

Finding the right balance in email frequency is key to preventing email fatigue. If you send emails too frequently, you risk annoying your recipients, leading to unsubscribes or spam complaints. Establish a reasonable sending schedule based on industry standards and audience preferences to ensure your emails are welcome and mix up you send cadences, better still employ a strategy that utilises customer engagement as the core driver to your communications.

Use Personalisation and Segmentation

Personalisation significantly improves email engagement. Address recipients by name and tailor your content based on their preferences or behaviour. Additionally, segment your audience to send targeted emails that resonate with specific groups. This approach makes your emails more relevant and increases the likelihood of a positive response. Importantly recognise that once a segment is created, customers behaviour will change, at Zeta we help our customer build complex customer journey dynamically, meaning when customers behaviours change, so does the experience and often the segment.

Ensure Professional Design and Copywriting

Your emails should reflect the professionalism of your brand. Use a clean and visually appealing design that aligns with your brand identity. Ensure your copy is error-free and well-written, avoiding typos or unclear messaging. A polished presentation enhances your brand's credibility and encourages engagement.

Test and Optimise

A/B tests and multi variant testing allows you to experiment with different email elements, such as subject lines, send times, or content, to understand what works best for your audience. This data-driven approach helps you optimize your email campaigns for maximum effectiveness and ensures you're sending emails that resonate with your recipients.

Monitor Engagement and Feedback

Make sure you are regularly monitoring email metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns. Also having a platform that supports an omnichannel approach will also help you understand how your customers are interacting with your brand and can help you adjust your email communication accordingly. Additionally, listen to any customer feedback and address any concerns or complaints promptly. By paying attention to these metrics, you can continually improve your email marketing strategy and maintain a positive brand image.

All the above also requires the right partner, at Zeta we’re proud of our market leading ESP, but also our insights and strategy teams whose world revolves around maximising opportunity and adoption for all our customers.