The Importance of a Seed List in Email Marketing in 2019

With the advancement in technology and the competition in the online marketplace, marketing has become essential for every business. One of the best ways to stand out against the competitors is through the use of seed email list marketing.

So what is Seed Email Marketing?

In gardening, when we do the first planting in the early spring, it’s to prepare for the big push of summer planting. Likewise, a seed list is a beginning. It’s a list of email addresses that is a cross-section of your demographics and client base. It’s the trial list that you send an email to before the actual big campaign push where you send an email out to everyone.

A seed list is vital; it affords you the possibility of testing the email across different clients, platforms, and devices. And if there’s an ‘oops’ or a chance to revise and make it better, you have the opportunity without sullying your possibilities.

What are the Goals of Seed Email Lists?

• First one is basic mechanics. You want the email to land in your target audience’s inbox with all the ease of a ballerina on pointe. You want to be able to see how the email functions across various browsers, ISPs, and even device types.

• Second, your target audience, those people that you want to do business with, to take action on your email, so make sure you remember to include a call to action.

• Third, figure out how you can do it better and make the numbers and metric pop. (Do you need a better headline? A firmer call to action? or is the description confusing?) Now you can revise.

What are the Benefits of Seed Emails?

One of the most important things: Your reputation. There’s always the horrid possibly of a bad typo, or something you missed that can be misconstrued. Not that you want to offend anyone, but accidents happen.

• the office cat tap dances across the keys and adds a few intangible words
• spell check rearranges a word, and the meaning is less than kind and less than professional
• accidentally you call the client the wrong name or refer to the wrong event 
• The missing word. When we type, we sometimes assume we actually typed it one way, but through a slip, we miss a word, a critical word. 

What is IP warming

IP Warming can be a challenge. You send too many emails to one Email Service Provider and an automated gnome, ISP filters, will shout from the highest cyber hills “Spam Alert.” and your precious message will be dumped into the spam box. IP warming is the gradual increase in the volume of mail sent from a dedicated IP address. This is done on a predetermined schedule so those cyber-alert gnomes will remain sleeping. This gradual and gentle establishes your address with ISPs (Internet Service Providers) as a legitimate email sender, not a rogue and evil spammer. Check out our Free IP Warming Planner.

How you can improve IP Reputation

There’s your business reputation and your IP reputation. They are a little bit different. You can regain your business reputation, but a bad IP reputation can put you out of business, quickly.

Send small batches

Start any email campaign by sending small batches of emails, testing the waters not only for a response but ISP filters. 

Use a dedicated domain for Email Marketing

 If you are big and a regular email marketer, register a separate domain or use a sub-domain. Use it only for email marketing activity.

Mail Delivery Reports

You need email metrics such as unsubscribes and spam reports. Stick to a consistent send schedule. IP rejection can occur when you send random and erratic broadcasts. Spiked activity isn’t good. Maintain a consistent email sending schedule. MailRush.io will automatically sense any warning from the remote SMTP servers adjusting it’s delivery algorithm to prevent spam issues.

Use a double opt-in or confirmed opt-in

The single opt-in where a user agrees to receive an email with the check of one box or to leave the pre-checked box checked sounds great. The downside is that it can generate spam complaints. Spam complaints can incite an ISP to block a server because of only a few spam reports. A double opt-in also called a confirmed opt-in, which double confirm a mailing list subscription. 

Check your IP Reputation

There are free tools online to check your IP Reputation. Tools like Cisco Talos will provide you a way to track the estimated Reputation of a domain and IP.

Check feedback loops

Most major ISPs provide Complaint Feedback Loops or FBLs. Services like Google Postmaster tools can get you insights about your IP reputation, Domain reputation and Spam Complaints from user using Gmail and G Suite Services.

Mailing List Hygiene

People change emails. Regularly go through your list to cull out addresses that are no longer used. A lot of bounced email can get those ISP spam filter to toss you like yesterday’s salad. Too many bounces and you have a bad reputation. Keep it very low. List hygiene is important.

Filter contest entry email signups and bad addresses

If you use contest or giveaway to gain email subscribers, be wary. People will try to win by entering multiple times using bogus email addresses. So, check the list before adding it to your subscriber list.

With a bit of spit, polish, and attention to details, you can have a winning email marketing campaign, simply ‘seed’ it first.