What not to do with your email news

Somebody asked me for a list of absolute no-no’s for email marketing:

• NEVER email somebody who has unsubscribed
• Do not send email newsletters from PC based emailers like Outlook - that's not what they were designed for.
• Never resend to hard bounces – wastes money and they are counted as spam by gmail, hotmail et al
• Never make your emails too long and complex. If you are doing peer to peer then you might get away with 20 items, although I would argue you would still be better dividing by subject and sending separate emails, but for donors and supporters 3-5 short stories, tasters to get them to the website.
• Never send without testing - always test the links and proof-read
• Test send to other email browsers (gmail, hotmail, yahoo) to check the design
• Don’t buy lists, they don’t work. Swap stories to get in front of new audiences instead