Salesforce Marketing Cloud - Email Marketing Best Practices 

Email Marketing is not just sending an email message to the clients or prospects. It is about sending the right messages at the right time and to the right audiences. Most marketers will be experts in writing email content, not in their deliverability. In this blog, we will explore essential email best practices that help to create effective and engaging email campaigns. We learn compliance to avoid risks and build more trust. How to effectively use Einstein to personalize the recommendation for the prospects and keep them more engaged. We will also cover the reporting, tracking and strategy that you need to know. Let's jump in.

Sender Authentication Packages (SAP) 

Before you get to start creating the email campaigns, make sure you have got the sender profile setup. What you will use to run an email campaign. What comes with a Sender Authentication Package? Marketing Cloud only makes DNS (Domain Name Changes) changes that are required for SAP setup within the Marketing Cloud. This policy applies to what is required for any other SAP to use. If the domain needs to be purchased, you must purchase it. SAP uses four main tools to confirm your email messages as timely and relevant communications. 

1. Private dedicated domains 

2. Custom account branding 

3. Dedicated IP address 

4. Custom domains for Cloud Pages 

5. Reply Mail Management (RMM) 

How to setup a sender profile? You can set the sender profiles in two ways 

• Through email builder--> Email Studio > Admin > Sender Profiles 

• Through Setup --> Setup > Users > From Address Management 

Initial Setup

As an initial setup, we need to Create Sender Profile, Delivery Profiles, and Send Classifications. 

Create Sender Profiles: A sender profile standardizes the FROM name and email address you use for email sending.

Delivery Profiles: The sender profile includes the FROM information for your send; the delivery profile includes some important message for each send.

Send Classifications: A send classification is a template that combines a sender profile, a delivery profile (how/where it goes, IP/headers/footers) and a CAN-SPAM classification into a single, reusable setting for email sends, ensuring compliance, consistency, and control over sender identity and delivery rules for different types of messages like promotion vs order confirmation. 

CAN-SPAM classification determines if the email is commercial (promotional) or transactional (Password resets, order updates), which dictates different compliance rules, like including physical addresses and opt-out links. Why is it important?

1. Compliance: Helps meet legal requirements like CAN-SPAM by enforcing necessary elements like unsubscribe links and physical addresses.

2. Consistency: Ensures all the email (all the marketing emails) use the same sender info and profiles.

3. Deliverability: Controls sender reputation by managing which IP and domain are used for different message types. Improving inbox placement.

4. Efficiency: Act as a template, preventing the user from having to manually enter these details every single send, reducing errors.

How does it work? When you create an email to send, you select a pre-defined Send Classification, and Marketing cloud automatically applies the associated Sender Profile, Delivery Profile and Commercial or Transactional Rules, streamlining the process and maintaining the standards.

Create an Effective Email

1. Before you send, create the subject lines and don’t ignore the preheaders.

2. Many brands, due to lack of knowledge internally, may miss the preheaders, but this is a great space to finish telling your story and categorizing whether the message is transactional or a commercial message.

3. Make emails relevant using personalized, dynamic content utilizing AMPScript or dynamic content blocks, for example.

4. Think like a subscriber, while personalization is important to be thoughtful to get good engagement.

5. Craft effective Call to Action (CTA links) which can be text (highlighted text) or buttons.

6. Make the subject lines + don’t ignore the preheader.

Create effective subject lines: Make it fun or simply informative. You want the audience to come back.

Create Effective Preheaders: Supports the subject line, test different preheader lengths and how they appear on different devices, and limits the preheader to 100 characters.

Make emails relevant using personalized, dynamic content: Not just using a content builder, but thinking about what will get your audience engaged. What is the message value proportion? 

Methods to Acquire New Subscribers

Subscribers will consent to these marketing methods through Mobile, Websites, Single Opt-in versus Double Opt-in, Sales and customer service calls, and in-store promotions.

Compare Your Options: Which industry are you in or what industry is your client in? No matter what method is chosen, you need to gain the trust in your newly acquired subscribers, making sure you communicate in a timely manner. 

Methods for Engagement

1. Keep your customers happy: All interactions are memorable, make it count. 

2. Don’t force it:  Newsletter resurgence is coming out of quality writing. 

3. Offer incentives: Make them excited without "!" or "?" Points. 

4. Make a good first impression: How does the email look like? 

5. Plan the contents carefully: Example use, Welcome series and use Einstein recommendation 

6. Personalize It: Read your data first and have a good data policy behind it. 

Compliance

CAN-SPAM -> Control of Assault Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2001. Enforced by the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S.  

1. Accurately identify the sender in the header information. 

2. Use a subject line that accurately represents the content of the email. 

3. Identify the message as an advertisement if it is a commercial email. 

4. Include your physical email address. 

5. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Process an unsubscribe request within 10 days and keep your unsubscribe mechanism operational for at least 30 days after the mailing. 

6. Provide an opt-out. You cannot require a subscriber to log in or visit more than a single page to unsubscribe.  

Depending on where you have located, marketing activities could be subject to different regulations, such as CCPA (For California residents), GDPR (for European residents), and CASL (For Canada residents) or even something else, but we will focus majorly on CAN-SPAM compliance. Marketing cloud provides the following tools below so that if you need to utilize them, you can create your compliance plan based on this principle.

1. Consent Management: Ensure that you obtain consent for all marketing activities, prevent tracking + profiling of contacts who request that action. 

2. Data Deletion:  Helps you remove the contact and their personal information from a marketing cloud when a contact or data subject requests that action. 

3. Data Portability: Helps you provide a copy of contact information to contact anyone who requests that action.

4. Restriction of Processing: Helps you prevent processing of contact data for legal reasons. 

Available in a wide range of apps and several APIs, and it can be used in various ways, but consult the legal team first.

We can directly control the compliance settings in Email Studio Setup: Avoid delays in standing up email campaigns while adhering to CAN-SPAM Laws or equivalent local regulations. Administrator can now set up Profile Link Check, Physical Address Check, and Unsubscribe Link Check by business unit. Previously, customers called support to have these options disabled. Where is this?  It is in Email Studio. How can I make this edit? Admins on a platform can enable or disable the respective compliance check in Email Studio Setup by going to the Email Optional Features section.

GDPR Compliance

This is specifically applicable for European regions.

1. Privacy as a Fundamental Right: Law went into effect in 2018 and is far stricter than many throughout the world. Principles surrounding this are below since this was created it inspired other countries and even US states. 

2. Emphasizes the following: Purpose Limitation, Data Minimization, Accuracy, Data Deletion, Security, & Fairness and Transparency.

Email Deliverability

Get Consent: Email list capture process and recommendation on Opt-in method. 

1. Use Branding: Email From address branding. 

2. Use email subject line branding and optimization 

3. Avoid common word + phrase targeted by spam filters* (Avoid using bunch of different pages in an email, It will set up the email to add inside the spam folder) 

4. Get consent again: List hygiene with services and doing good content 

5. ISP compliance: By doing good IP warm-ups and not hitting your lists 

6. Volume filter avoidance: SMTP log filtering to proactively detect blocking 

Note: Avoid usage of certain word listed below in your email --> Scams, Gimmicks, Schemes, Promises, Free gifts. Also, avoid Links to sketchy websites, messages in ALL CAPS, colorful and different sized fonts, broken HTML code and Email without an unsubscribe button.

Marketing Cloud Einstein

Type of Einstein You’ll Need to Know 

1. Einstein Send Time and Frequency Optimization: Used in Journey Builder, Automation Studio and leverage the Engagement data. 

2. Einstein Copy Insights: For email subject lines, we use this. Example Universal use cases and useful in any scenario. 

3. Einstein Content Selection: Works in Content Builder leveraging your assets using rules you set up using attributes. Example Simpler commercial real estate site. 

4. Einstein Email and Web Recommendation: Define key Einstein Recommendations terms and attributes. Example Ecommerce site. 

5. Einstein Messaging Insights: Alerts you to changes in your marketing performance no matter where you are in the marketing Cloud 

6. Engagement Scoring: Predicts consumer engagement with email and Mobile Push messaging. 

Deliverability Threats & Authentication

• Phishing: Phishing us impersonating a trustworthy source to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details. 

• Spoofing: Spoofing is falsifying information in an email message; for example, using a fake “From” address. 

• Email Authentication: Email authentication i a process that confirms an email is not forged and is from the organization who owns the provided domain name. This process allows an ISP to block known spammers as well as to approve email from reputable domains. This process varies by ISP, with some ISPs being stricter than others. 

• Sender Authentication Package (SAP): AN SAP is purchased from Salesforce and includes a collection of products, including a private domain with link and image wrapping, a dedicated IP address, and reply mail management (RMM) 

• Security Socket Layers (SSL): SSL encrypts communications between networks, allowing sensitive information such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and login credentials to be transmitted securely. While not related directly to email deliverability, SSL (HTTPS) links are considered best practice and are often required by large retailers and corporations. Not having SSL on landing pages and clickable URLs can negatively impact deliverability. 

SSL Setup

1. Purchase SSL SKUs for your Marketing Cloud Account 

2. Certificates can be issued in two ways  

3. Marketing Cloud purchases the SSL certificate on your behalf via DigiCert 

4. Provide your own certificate (Not supported on image subdomains) 

5. Secure your domain.

Which domains should be secured by SSL? 

1. Cloud subdomains serve pages from CloudPages Landing pages product.

2. Click subdomains are used to generate subscriber specific click tracking.

3. View subdomains are used to generate ‘View in Browser’ links when the %%view_email_url%% personalization string is called.

4. Image subdomains serve images and related assets stored in Content Builder.

Reporting and Strategy

1. In the email builder, we can track the sends, bounces, opens, clicks, unsubscribes and so on in the individual emails.

2. Know when an a-hoc campaign is not the right call and when to automate an email campaign.

3. Know what data points and clues are to make your next campaign like more engagement with one CTA vs another CTA when an A/B test has been run.

4. Know how to segment your audience and when is the right time for you to make a query or use the user interface. 

Conclusion

I hope you will follow the above-explained best practices in your Email Marketing journey and I hope you grow more in this journey. Follow us for more updates on Marketing cloud. Stay tune!