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In the last of our 12 month series of articles breaking down the different aspects of running a successful email campaign we put together a final checklist to make sure you get the most from your email marketing campaign .

The dos and don'ts of email marketing

Before you launch your new email marketing campaign, make sure you run a few key checks:

• Run the Spam Check in PureResponse to give yourself the best chance of being received. If you have any content that is likely to get you marked as spam, you'll be wasting your time.
  
• Make sure you haven't included any sexual innuendo. Key words and phrases will see you picked up as spam and blocked or seen as such by the recipient and deleted.
  
• Have you aimed your campaign squarely at a specific segment? If you're not in tune with your audience, you'll be deleted.
  
• Have you identified yourself clearly? This is now a legal requirement.
  
• Have you checked your spelling? Bad spellung and bad grammer!!! makes you look totally unprofessional and erodes your credibility.
  
• Are your customers able to opt in and out without fuss?
  
• Are there any large files in the email, eg graphics and rich media? An email which takes a long time to download and blocks someone's system is not going to endear your company to clients.
  
• Is it interactive? If not, why not? This is a great way to bring click-through traffic to your homepage.
  
• Are you using rich media? If so, how many users on your mailing list can open it. Have you included links to download the relevant media player?
  
• Timing. Question the relevance of your mailing, is it of use to the recipient and can you make it seem more immediate by linking it to a current event?