BEST PRACTICE CHEATSHEET

On your marks!
Design a winning email in the next 15 minutes
 Call us on +44 845 337 9170 or visit dotmailer.com

On your marks!
Design a winning email in the
next 15 minutes
Here at dotmailer, we want to empower marketers.

Our software makes it quick and easy to design eye-catching

emails that deliver results, giving you more time to focus on
your overall email marketing strategy. The EasyEditor email
creation tool makes it possible for you to produce all of your
email design in-house, keeping marketing costs in check.
Plus, our reporting technology makes it easier to analyze your
winning campaigns, so your strategy can go from strength
to strength.

Investing in content is futile if the packaging it arrives in is

scuffed, aged, or inconsistent. When executed well, your
email design can go to work for you, communicating the story
of your brand, creating meaningful engagement, and making
a lasting impact. We’ve put together this quick-as-you-like
cheatsheet to help you design a winning email in the next 15
minutes. Let’s go!

Best practice cheatsheet


1. Select the target
Segmentation
dotmailer’s segment builder makes light work of group
targeting. Instantaneously create queries that’ll split your data
into meaningful groups, informing your campaign design and
ensuring it gets sent to the right people.
A piece of cake
For example, we want to send this delicious
birthday incentive email out exclusively to our
high-value customers. We simply create a rule that
segments contacts with a certain minimum yearly
spend value, and further define the segment by
D.O.B. It’s as easy as that.
Best practice cheatsheet
Call us on +44 845 337 9170 or visit dotmailer.com
2. Pick a template
You’ve been given the copy – time to give it the packaging
it deserves. With over 60 html email template designs
to choose from in dotmailer, you can find the perfect fit
for your campaign in seconds. Each template we build
is completely flexible; once selected, you can customize
colors, columns, and content to suit your needs, with no
need to code. Any successful campaigns you create can
be saved to use again. What’s more, all of our templates
are mobile optimized; simply select one that inspires you
and get going!
1min
3min
 Call us on +44 845 337 9170 or visit dotmailer.com

3. Getting off the mark Rope in some emotion

with your subject line
Creating a subject line worthy of your email’s design and
content is a crucial first step. After all, what’s the point
of sending a beautiful email if no-one opens it? We’ve
summarized subject line success in four speedy steps:
Human beings are emotion-oriented (those who disagree are
in denial) and it’s good to keep this in mind when creating
your subject line – after all, it’s your first interaction with
the customer, and nobody likes a cold fish. Whether it be
humorous, high-spirited, or heartwarming, it’s important to
remember that there’s a human at the other end.

Start by signposting
What’s the category of your campaign? Are you welcoming
a new user? Wishing a happy birthday? Chances are, if it’s
worth sending, your customer will be interested in reading.
The subject line is also an opportunity to set the expectation
of what’s inside your email. If you’re offering something
special, your subject line is the place to shout about it;
remember to choose your words carefully, as terms like “sale”
and “discount” can be repetitive.
Top time-saver
Phrasee is a piece of marketing language generation
software that uses artificial intelligence to quantify,
generate and optimize email subject lines.
The data-driven software creates effective subject lines
that are tailored to your brand’s voice – boosting ROI in
record time.

Use what you know

All Unread
Today Intelligent and innovative personalization techniques are
true attention-grabbers. Boost open-rates by pulling in your
Dormify 18:00 > customers’ first names, and look for further opportunities
to maximize relevance within your database; location and
Gift anxiety is so last year
preferred language are good places to start.

Martha 17:51 >

Make a wish...
Why only have cake when you can have it and eat it, hey? Test, test, and test again

Barbour 17:00 > Got a couple of contenders for your subject line? Great!
Enjoy 20% off at our Carnaby Set them up as variations and get feedback reports on the
Street store tomorrow open rate of each one. Split testing allows you to refine your
email marketing strategy as you go, so you can find out what

FAIRX
Surprise! We remembered...
16:30 > makes your audiences tick (in two ticks!)
1
min

Paperchase 16:22 >

Only A Fool Forgets Daddy Cool

Pre-headers
Boost open rates by creating some enticing pre-header
text to appear when your email is viewed in the inbox;
it’s another great way to signpost as it can further
contextualize your winning subject line.
5min

Best practice cheatsheet

 Call us on +44 845 337 9170 or visit dotmailer.com

4. Ready, set, build!

With dotmailer’s EasyEditor, assembling the building blocks
of an email becomes pure child’s play. Want to add a call to
action, or social media buttons? Easy – just select the block
from the side-bar and drag it into place. Then customize each
element to keep it on-brand.

By dragging and dropping your way to the perfectly

presented campaign in minutes, you can now devote more
time to strategizing your email’s design elements. Think about
how the experience of your brand can inform the aesthetics of
your email.

Three key questions to ask yourself are:

1. What does it feel like to engage with my company?

2. What design elements are crucial to keeping my email
on-brand?
3. How can I inject the physical experience of interacting with Hi John! 6 Help

my brand into the email design? Email Dashboard Campaigns Automation Contacts Reporting

Edit your campaign content Create Content Test Contacts Send

Summer campaign [Rename]

Back Preview Test send Utilities Save Save & continue

Build Styles
Link Personalise Arial 14

Building blocks
View in browser Unsubscribe Forward to a friend
Content

Efficient email design with 16three Text

Image
123Product Newsletter 11
December

dotmailer’s launch of 16three has further streamlined the

Image & text

Text & image

EasyEditor tool, providing users with the opportunity to Container

1 column

configure pre-defined styles and templates.

Special Offers &
2 columns
Competitions
3 columns
Cheese triangles airedale
cheeseburger. Swiss rubber cheese
4 columns
goat parmesan stinking bishop goat

What’s more, you can now share your templates with other
Spacers cheese slices fromage. Rubber cheese
edam mascarpone roquefort port-salut
5 pixel spacer parmesan cheesy feet parmesan.

users by placing them in the new Shared Templates folder. 10 pixel spacer Read more ...

Got an amendment to make on the master template?

15 pixel spacer

20 pixel spacer

3
No problem – it’ll automatically update across the board,
Tools

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ensuring consistent branding. Simple, efficient, effective.

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Best practice cheatsheet

 Call us on +44 845 337 9170 or visit dotmailer.com

Here’s one we made earlier:

At dotmailer, we like to back up our claims with strong evidence. We’ve put together some tasty email
designs to show you just how easy our EasyEditor is. And, we’ve included a step-by-step guide to show
you how we did it. Take a look:

a. Pre-header text a b
Make sure to populate this area with text
that’ll engage your audience and force them
to hit ‘Open’.

b. View in browser c
A ‘View in browser’ link is crucial if you don’t
want all of your design efforts to go to waste!

c. Logo Population d
Ensure that your logo appears as one of
the primary visuals; this preserves excellent
brand focus and nurtures your domain
reputation.

d. Hero Image
e
A highly engaging, high-resolution hero
image is a great way to translate the
experience of your brand (and it’s faster than
a thousand words!) Remember to add Alt
text to every image.

e. Greeting f
Personalization provides the perfect
introduction, and shows you’re polite!

f. Offer
Make sure any incentive you’re
communicating is forth-coming, easily
understandable, and presented as an
appealing prospect. Use digits instead of
words for maximum impact.
g
g. Content Population
Drag and drop text boxes and populate
them with clear and engaging content. The
text’s style and tone should be on-brand and
appeal to your addressee. h
h. CTA Button
Clear, tappable, responsive – three things
your CTA needs to be to get results.

Best practice cheatsheet

 Call us on +44 845 337 9170 or visit dotmailer.com

Here’s one we made earlier:

i. Columns
Column-based designs are a great way to
i
quickly secure crisp stylization, and prevent
your email design from becoming too busy.
They also work well on mobile, because the
content blocks are designed to ‘stack’.

j. Dynamic Content
Dynamic content, based on your chosen
data segments, boosts email relevancy and
promotes a personal relationship between
brand and customer.

k. Sign off
A friendly, on-brand sign-off aids retention
and adds that all-important human touch.

l. Multi-channel links
Maximize your multichannel interaction with
relevant social buttons.
j
m. Relevant extra content
Including links to value-add blogs or articles
is a great content marketing tactic; it gives
the reader even more reasons to engage
with the email.

n. Unsubscribe link k
Don’t hold your audience captive; an
unsubscribe link is an essential campaign
element, and must be easy to see.

n
 Call us on +44 845 337 9170 or visit dotmailer.com

5. Ready to review The future’s fast; the

future’s automated
With everything looking fantastic, it’s important to make sure
that your campaign performs with maximum efficiency. We’ve
got your back with this checklist: Automation provides the key to an intelligent and efficient
email marketing strategy. dotmailer’s super-speedy Program
Check your campaign is multi-channel ready
R Builder was designed with time-poor marketers in mind,
allowing you to build multiple automated email programs in
minutes. From welcome emails to re-engagement campaigns,
R Perform a test send to your colleagues, including a
our drag and drop tool makes it easy to visually map out your
mobile test
email campaigns, and create intelligent decisions based on
R Preview any personalization used as an appropriate your data. And with real-time reporting weighing in, you can
contact track how successful your campaigns are proving moment by
moment. It’s fast, it’s thorough, it’s a no-brainer. What are you
Perform a dotmailer spam check
R waiting for?

Generate a plain-text version of your email

R

1
R Run Litmus’ Checklist tool
min
3 min
R Select the address book, segments, or queries to
whom you want to send

Nominate a send time (optimized through dotmailer)

R
R Set your split-test settings
Perform a final review of your settings
R

5
Litmus provides peace of mind
dotmailer’s partner min
Litmus allows you to preview your
10 min

email in 50+ apps and devices, validate that your links,

images, and tracking work properly, and test your email’s
load time.

6.
15min

SEND

Best practice cheatsheet

 Hi John! 6 Help

Email Dashboard Campaigns Automation Contacts Reporting

6
Hi John! 6 Help Hi John! Help

Email Dashboard Campaigns Automation Contacts Reporting

Email Dashboard Campaigns Automation Contacts Reporting

Edit program Reporting Filter: Showing all Date range: 26 Feb 2015 - 02 Apr 2015

Seminar program [Rename]

Edit your campaign content Create Content Test Contacts Send Engagement 270,037 23% Interaction 22,500 37%
Summer campaign [Rename] Back 2 Exit conditions 0 Validation Activate Save
How effective were your campaigns? Save & continue
Unique opens 26 Feb 15 - 02 Apr 15 What did your recipients do? Unique clicks 26 Feb 15 - 02 Apr 15

15k
Back Preview Test send Utilities Save Save & continue 200k

« 12.5k

Build Styles 150k

Link Personalise Arial 14
Actions Start × 10k

Building blocks
View in browser Unsubscribe Forward to a friend 100k
Campaign Start 1 day after 7.5k

Content
SEMINAR_DATE at 08:30 5k
Text 50k

Update contact 2.5k

Image
123ProductSubscription Newsletter 11
December 0k
26 Mar 27 Mar 28 Mar 29 Mar 30 Mar 31 Mar 1 Apr 2 Apr 0k
26 Mar 27 Mar 28 Mar 29 Mar 30 Mar 31 Mar 1 Apr 2 Apr

Image & text

Delay Decision × Decision 387k
× 15k 28.2k
Campaign 5 × 33.5k 55.8k 2.9k 1.2k
Emails opened Forwards to a friend Estimated forwards Social shares Total clicks Page views ROI Replies
Text & image
Delay Contact attended seminar? Completed 2014 success Send ‘Seminar followup -
Container
NO
YES survey? clients’
1 column Decisions Delivery 1.4m 12% Contacts 285,250 15%
Special Offers &
How many recipients did your campaigns reach? Emails sent 26 Feb 15 - 02 Apr 15 How many contacts do you have? Total contacts 26 Feb 15 - 02 Apr 15

2 columns Decision
Competitions NO YES ISP complaints: 17.9%
300k

3 columns Date split Soft bounced: 29.7%

Cheese triangles airedale
cheeseburger. Swiss rubber cheese Campaign × Campaign × End × End × 200k
4 columns
Quantity split
goat parmesan stinking bishop goat
cheese slices fromage. Rubber cheese Send ‘Seminar no-show’ Send ‘Seminar followup - Exit program Exit program
Spacers
edam mascarpone roquefort port-salut clients’
parmesan cheesy feet parmesan.Random split
100k
5 pixel spacer

10 pixel spacer Read more ... End Hard bounced: 10.3%

0k
Unsubscribes: 45.1%
1 Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 4 Mar 5 Mar 6 Mar

15 pixel spacer End

1.9k 659 2.9k 949 3.3k 22 10 25

20 pixel spacer End × Delay ×
Soft bounced Hard bounced Unsubscribes ISP complaints New contacts Engagement score Suitability score Lead score

Tools Exit program Wait 7 days

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