Email Marketing Best Practices

Question 1

CAN-SPAM Act Requirements (Commercial)

Answer 1

(1) Accurately identify the sender in the header information (from name, reply to email, routing info).
(2) Use a subject line that accurately represents the content of the email.
(3) Identify the message as an advertisement, unless you have express consent (opt-in) from the subscriber.
(4) Include your physical mailing address.
(5) Provide a mechanism to opt out. You cannot require a subscriber to log in or visit more than a single page to unsubscribe. Must include opt-out of all commercial messages.
(6) Honor opt-out requests promptly (not email, sell or transfer emails). You must process an unsubscribe request within 10 days, and your unsubscribe mechanism must be operational for at least 30 days after the mailing.

Question 2

What is the CAN SPAM Act?

Answer 2

rules for commercial email
establishes requirements for commercial messages
gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them
spells out tough penalties for violations

Question 3

What is a transactional message?

Answer 3

An email with the intent to facilitate, complete, or confirm a commercial transaction. Transactional messages may be user-initiated or triggered and will be sent regardless of unsubscribe status (1:1).

Examples:
Order placed confirmation 
Order shipment confirmation
Account termination
Return confirmation

Question 4

CAN-SPAM requirements for transactional emails

Answer 4

(1) Accurately identify the sender in the header information (from name, reply to email, routing info).

Question 5

How to identify an email as commercial or transactional?

Answer 5

SFMC send classification (combination of sender profile and delivery profile)

Question 6

How do you optimize the deliverability of email messages?

Answer 6

(1) Ensure subscribers have opted in
(2) Have a recognizable “From Name” and “Email Address”
(3) Manage cadence of messaging and frequency of content (ideally set expectations on this with the subscriber)
(4) Purge old or inactive emails
(5) Authenticate your email: Domain keys, Sender ID, and SPF Configuration

Question 7

Difference between static content or personalized content?

Answer 7

(1) Static content (text or images) does not change for any reason for all recipients, for example, the company logo at the top of an email or social links at the bottom.
(2) Personalized (or dynamic) content changes based on attributes/values of the recipient (in the DE or list). For example, a person’s name within a text or specific content related to their interests.

Question 8

How can you personalize content?

Answer 8

(1) Personalization strings: Insert subscriber attributes, such as subscriber name, into the subject line, preheader, or content of your email. These can be People or System attributes. Note they are case-insensitive, and should always have a default value set.
(2) Dynamic content: Display content according to rules that you define based on the subscriber’s attributes or data extension field values. Select Subscriber/Send Preview to see how Dynamic Content and AMPscript renders in an email.
(3) AMPscript: Use this scripting language to embed subscriber-specific content within HTML emails, text emails, landing pages, SMS messages, and push notifications from MobilePush.

Dynamic Header/Pre–Header: You can set a rule to change the header/pre-header based on subscriber attributes. E.g. if an individual has a birthday coming up, a rule can be set to say ‘Happy Birthday!’ in the header/pre-header

Question 9

Types of dynamic content

Answer 9

• subject lines (Hey %%Last Name%%)
• salutation (Dear %%First Name%%)
• images (different product image based on customer interests)