There are a few different ways this can be handled.  Some people feel a frequently asked questions document will help cut back on the email your customers may send.  Also you can hire some helping hands.  By hiring extra people to with emails you can take a little pressure off yourself.

One last method is autoresponders.  Autoresponders act like fax- back systems, filters help your staff control the incoming deluge, and intelligent responders choose the right response and reply without being touched by human hands.  Marketers quickly learned the fax- back quality of this feature and have been using it to great advantage in print, in banner ads, and on their websites.  They gave people the ability to quickly get information back based on which email address they use when they send a blank message.

Sometimes, email is simply returned to the sender either by the email server or software application.  I’m sure you have heard the terms bounced and blocked apply to returned email interchangeably, but the two have some slight differences.  A bounced email happens on a per email basis when an email is returned because of conditions that make a particular email undeliverable.  A blocked email happens on an all-inclusive basis when an email is returned because of characteristics that make a particular type of email unwanted.  The returned email is sometimes comes back with a code that indicates the reason for the block or bounce, and sometimes email is returned with unintelligible code or no code at all.  If you use an email service provider (ESP), you don’t have to read the entire boring HTML.  Most ESPs automatically file bounced and blocked emails into a bounce report.  A bounce report shows the number of your emails that bounced and were blocked as well as the reason for the bounce or block response.

A hard bounce is an email that is returned because a permanent condition makes delivering the email impossible.  When your ESP’s bounce report shows emails delivered to non-existent addresses, your email can’t be delivered to that address no matter what action you take.  Non-existent email addresses are either misspelled or invalid.  You can check your hard-bounce report for obviously misspelled email addresses.  However, most of the time, you can’t tell whether an email address is misspelled or invalid.

There is also a soft bounce.  A soft bounce happens when the delivery of an email is delayed temporarily.  They occur because of technical conditions inherent in the technology that makes email delivery possible.  Examples of a soft bounce are a full mailbox, a server that’s temporarily down, and a software application that can’t accept the email.  If a soft bounce does happen, try resending the email later or simply wait until your next email campaign to see whether the same address still bounces.

Once you have started using this page you can invite members through email.  After that you can send them updates to keep coming back you your page and getting engaged.  Important things to remember is do not put HTML in your messages.  Emails on social networking sites are meant to be personal.  Also write in the first person.  Social networking sites originated to connect people with each other who have similar interests.  Be sure to respond to replies from your social emails within 24 hours.  If you don’t reply within 24 hours you could lose credibility.

With the rise of social networking and social media it is important to incorporate social email into your marketing bag of tricks.  Social networking also has the possibility to increase your email lists once you get connected.

There are three aspects of information you can control in your email headers.  The from line is a line of text that tells the recipient of your email whom the email is from.  Most email applications and email service providers (ESP) allow you to add a line of text to the header of your email to identify yourself.

The from address is the email address that is associated with you as the sender of the email.  Some email programs display your from email address along with your from line, but others display one or the other.

A server address, also known as an internet protocol (IP) address, is a unique number that identifies the server you use to send your email.  Most internet service providers (ISPs) look at your email server address in your header to see whether your server is recognized as a sender of legitimate commercial email or whether your server has been reported as sending unsolicited emails.  If you send email from your own email server or if your email hosting company sends your emails from a server that is unfamiliar to major ISPs, you can change the servers you send your email from by switching to an ESP.

To figure out if your subject lines are working try testing them out.  Send them out by sending different subject lines to a sample of your list to determine which subject line works best.  Seeing which subject line had the most opens helps you determine what subject line to use.

Remember save all valuable content for the body of the email.  The purpose of the subject line is to tell your audience why they are opening up your email.  Stating the immediate benefit of opening the email creates a sense of urgency and tells your audience that your email is important.  Creating a sense of urgency with your text helps to increase viewer opens, but urgency can easily wear off if your subject lines make urgent statements without hinting at the content in your email.

You might also want to add value words to your subject lines.  Value words are words that your audience associates with information that is personally relevant to them.  They also tell your audience that your email contains personalized information rather than general information.  Also working with a theme can help you build up several subject lines in a row.

However you want to avoid subject lines that look like spam.  Subject line mistakes to avoid are excessive punctuation, symbols, words with all capital letters, your recipient’s first name in the subject line, using RE: unless the email is really a response to a pervious email, a blank subject line, and vague subject lines.  By avoiding these use should hopefully avoid the spam box.

First step of what you should do when you inadvertently send out a mistake is ask for details and a copy of the email to be sent to you.  Most of the time the origin of the issue requires needing the header information to track down or solve the problem.  It’s important to note that a forwarded email does not contain this information.

A very important second step is to determine the impact of your error from your email reports.  This can go back to your email provider’s system of an error they made.  After finding out the source of the problem you are going to want to check what the opening rate was.  This will give you an idea of how many people were exposed to the inaccurate information.  The problem with this is potentially a high number of people could lose faith in the client.

Most important is step is to make a recommendation for response.  By not responding you are opening yourself up to criticism.  Some of this criticism can take very public forms such as blogs.  However only reply to recipients that received an error and with a subject line that references the last email.  You want to make sure to reference the last email so you don’t cause a wide spread panic.

Lastly you want to monitor the results of your email response rates, as well as your analytics.  You are going to want to check the opening rate of your response email to the incorrect information.  Some people might be more willing to buy your product or service after you have gone and done your crisis management.

Remember follow these steps and hopefully you can advert a crisis.   Remember not only do you need to take a realistic and methodical approach to handling email mishaps, but you need to have your “ducks in a row” before you send your campaign out.  A good email strategy, strong analytics, and a solid budget will often reap rewards far beyond the implementation of a few emails.

There are three basic ongoing steps to marketing message strategy:

1. Determine your message and the best audience for your message.
2. Deliver your message by using the medium that is best suited for your audience and your message.
3. Evaluate your results and apply your experience, as well as more refined marketing principles, to determine your next message.

Using marketing principles to determine each message and then evaluating each message allows you to begin with a sound message strategy and continue to refine your strategy over time.

Email is a great marketing tool, but you can’t simply communicate any email message multiple times and expect the messages to result in sales.  Make sure your email messages are as concise as possible; people usually scan emails rather than take the time to read every word.

Your messages should include this type of content.  A value proposition is a statement that tells consumers why your products or services are worth paying for.  A good value proposition shows consumers that your products or services solve a problem or fulfill a want or need better than anyone else can.  The problem with value propositions is they rarely entice someone to make an immediate purchase all by themselves.  Most of the time, you’ll need to support your value proposition with additional information to convince buyers to take action.  That is why you need information to back your value proposition.  And lastly one or more calls to action messages should be sent.  A call to action is a statement that asks someone to take a specific type of action in a specific way.  Calling for action is important because people tend to delete emails after they read them if they aren’t told what to do next.

First things first, you do not want to undercut your budget.  You can have the best email results around but lack the ability to grow without the right budget in place.  Worse yet, you could run into real problems with your email campaign and have no way to address them without a budget to support the work.

Secondly, forgetting to design your email database.  Make sure your database supports all entrance and exit points for customers to share information with you.  Make sure it is simple to share this data with all the other databases your company leverages.

Not planning for disasters is disastrous.  At some point in time, we promise you, an email marketing program you are responsible for will go wrong.  It could be the downfall of your program, or it could be a chance to show your customers you are human too and win their loyalty and trust at a higher level than you have ever expected before.

Also not realizing that email is only one element of your multichannel marketing campaign can be hurtful.  Don’t forget TV ads, print ads, online ads, your website, your search, and word of mouth also play key roles.  Respect the role that email plays given the various other elements your marketing team has launched.

Lastly expecting you email marketing efforts to work day one.  Email marketing is difficult.  Now that you have a handle on all the high-level and strategic thoughts you need to consider, in the next chapter you will dive into the tactical elements required for creating success.

For help with your email marketing campaign checkout http://contactmaverick.com/.

The CAN-SPAM Act encourages you to have affirmative consent with your email list subscribers to send them commercial email, but the most professional practice is to use an extra measure of disclosure when asking for permission.

Ask for explicit permission to send email everywhere you collect email addresses.  Whether you have exchanged business cards with prospects in person or collected email addresses through a form on website, make sure you have explicit permission as part of the process.

If you use email list check boxes on website forms, keep each check box cleared as the default.  For example, if you use your website’s shipping form to collect email addresses, require your shoppers to select a check box to add themselves to any non-transactional email lists.  Make sure that the check box also includes a description of the types of emails your shopper is signing up for.

Send a professional welcome letter email to all new email list subscribers.  Make sure that the welcome letter email arrives within 24 hours of the initial subscription request and also include privacy information and a description of the types and frequency of emails that the new subscriber receives.

Send periodic permission reminders to confirm that your email list subscribers are still interested in your emails.  You can send a periodic business letter or include a few sentences at the top of your emails asking your subscribers to confirm their interests.

Remember it is important to adhere to professional standards in your email marketing campaign.

Even if your email doesn’t meet the legal definition of spam, consumers can easily report your email as spam and thus impede your ability to send email in the future.  Now for example, Yahoo! Users can deem your email as spam with a click of a button.  Most internet service providers (ISPs) give their users the spam buttons to use to block suspected spammers.  If your emails are perceived as spam by your audience and you receive too many spam complaints, ISPs will block your email server from sending emails to their users.  It doesn’t take much to be blocked.  It take as few as two spam complaints per 1,000 emails to block your email server temporarily, and higher percentages can result in your server being added to a permanent block list.

Because consumers have control over the spam button, no email marketing strategy is immune to complaints.  Keeping you emails in line with the consumer’s preferences is the best way to ensure that your spam complaints remain below industry tolerances.