So you have put long hours in building a lead generation campaign and your email list is finally growing. Before hitting the Submit button for the first time, here are a few facts you should be familiar with.

Should I use HTML or text emails?

HTML emails are generally known to perform better than text-only ones. However, this is not always true and highly depends on your target user base. A highly mobile audience who reads emails on mobile devices will prefer text emails over HTML. Even though this is the 21st century, text-only email clients (like Mutt or Pine) are still popular. The right approach is a bit more complex:

• Always send both in multipart MIME format. Most email clients will choose either format, based on the user’s preferences.
• Allow your recipients to define the preferred format both at signup and later, in a control panel.
• When sending out HTML mails, don’t rely heavily on images, as they might be blocked by the recipient’s email client. Use as much text as possible and provide alternative text descriptions to images.

Can I embed videos in my emails?

Technically, yes you can. But just because you can, doesn't mean that you should. Email clients are known to treat embedded content inconsistently—that is, you will be lucky to find two email clients that will display your video the same way, so it's often best to avoid embedding video content if at all possible. If you really have to point your subscribers to a video, offer them a link and add some visual clues to boost the click-through rate.

How often should I email my subscribers?

Again, this is to be discussed on a case-by-case basis. On a fresh list, you can start with emailing once or twice a week for B2C customers and twice a month for B2B. You can then adjust how often you email from there by analyzing your email statistics.  This can and will vary from one business to another—there are marketers who are doing great with daily sales pitch letters and marketers who email out once per month.

Should I buy an email list?

Generally, no.  Almost all of the email lists that are out there for sale, for rates as low as $50.00 per ten thousand addresses, are harvested by spammers and this is a surefire way to get your IP’s blacklisted by ISP’s. However, renting lists from reputable marketers could be a viable option.

Do I need express permission to mail my customers?

According to the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act, you are only required to have a “pre-existing business relationship” with the recipient of your email. This could technically mean that you are allowed, for example, to send your newsletter to everyone who has put in their email address on your site for whatever reason, like commenting on your Wordpress blog or doing a pre-sales inquiry.

However, this could lead to a high spam complaint rate with hazardous effects on your whole email marketing strategy. The best strategy is to play it safe. Each email capturing form on your site should include a checkbox saying something in the line of “I agree to receive to receive further communication from Your Business Name”. and if possible tie that process to a double-opt in confirmation.