Email marketing is one of the best ways a company can market to a specific audience, generate new consumers and leads, and even implement retention strategies. However, no marketing campaign no matter how effective exists in a vacuum without the need for pre-launch testing. From potentially embarrassing typos to misaligned images, and links that don’t function, or even the biggest disaster of all an email that won’t render properly on a mobile device. Testing campaigns is essential to prevent reduced open and click rates, let alone significantly decreasing an entire campaign’s success. But your email campaign won’t have to go through this. Enter a seed list. A seed list is a group of internal senders, marketing team members, executives, and anyone else who, should this email go out in-house, would like to receive it. They get the test email before the actual campaign email goes out. A seed list allows email marketers one last opportunity to get the campaign right before it goes live, as sending to an internal team can highlight actionable items that must be corrected before going out to customers. A seed list can ensure a company’s email gets into the customer’s inbox and shows up on their screens properly and states all that needs to be said.
Ensuring Email Deliverability and Avoiding Spam Filters
Perhaps the biggest challenge in email marketing is getting your email delivered. Email providers filter and determine whether you land in someone’s inbox or promotions tab or, worse, the spam folder. They make these determinations based on your sender reputation, the language of your subject lines, the formatting of your email, etc. A seed list enables email deliverability testing before the actual send. For example, a business can create a seed list of their email addresses. If they attempt an email blast to this seed list of their own, and the email lands in spam or promotions, they know to adjust the subject line before the actual blast. Alternatively, they can adjust the body to avoid trigger words or make adjustments in sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records). Furthermore, deliverability testing learns which email clients Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc. receive the communication. Thus, there are no filtering concerns on the company’s side, and the company can modify the content structure to ensure it doesn’t hit the spam folder of its target audience.
Verifying Email Formatting Across Devices and Clients
In addition, your reader might be reading your email from a different device, which makes email appearance even more crucial. That is, what appears correctly and well-formatted on a desktop may be askew or even to a more extreme degree on a tablet or phone. Even something as basic as dark mode, different resolutions, different email clients, and rendering can all affect how your communication is seen by the recipient. A seed list allows companies to test what their emails will look like across devices and email clients before their campaign launches. If, for example, an email displays properly in one client but is askew in another, the marketing team can reposition and reorganize certain things or adjust the image-to-text ratio to guarantee that all end users have the same experience. This is especially true in a culture where so many check email from their phones and tablets. The seed list ensures a cross-check and prevention of unintentional mistakes. Sometimes images get shrunk when they shouldn’t, buttons become non-clickable, and fonts are so small they’re unreadable, so it’s best to ensure that the mobile version is not accidentally uploaded as the desktop version.
Testing Subject Lines and Preheader Text for Higher Engagement
Emails are opened by the subject line and preheader text; if someone doesn’t want to read an email based on the first two impressions, they’ll never open it. Higher open rates can be causally related to a compelling subject line and good preheader text giving readers a better idea of what’s underneath. The opportunity to experiment and entice consumer interest increases. In addition, marketers can experiment with subject lines with a seed list to see what works and what doesn’t. If the seed list creates a differential open rate from a seed list of fifteen for two subject lines, the company can use the data to determine which one is more effective for the official release. Also, with seed list testing, the preheader text renders as well so that whatever it is, it will match with the subject line so the reader doesn’t get some weird, auto-generated ellipsis cut off. It’s the nuances that either make someone want to open an email or swear they’ll never want to look at it again.
Identifying and Fixing Broken Links Before Launch
What essentially makes or breaks an email campaign is what happens afterward. If people are supposed to register for a webinar, go to a landing page, or keep it easy and purchase something, the email CTA must function as such. If links are broken or go to the wrong page, if an email is inadvertently sent or if tracking codes are missing, it’s a disappointing experience afterward and the email campaign fails. Thus, with a seed list, the opportunity is to check every single link from the email before it goes to the master list. This way, senior executives can ensure all hyperlinks go to where they should, all UTM tracking codes are inputted where they should for future reporting, and that the CTA buttons appear and can be clicked. When these issues are ironed out before a campaign goes live, clients aren’t frustrated, conversions aren’t lost, and engagement opportunities aren’t overlooked. In addition, email campaign analytics are reliable because marketers can truly track client engagement.
Monitoring Spam Triggers and Improving Sender Reputation
Users hate spam, too. Even though there are spam filters so that users never have to see unsolicited mail. Of course, sometimes legitimate marketing mail gets filtered, too. But with artificial intelligence predicting what goes where based upon language and structure and sending trends, these companies do their best in the end to receive a proper sender score. Therefore, a seed list allows them to see if it goes to spam or can be avoided before going out to a larger mailing population. For example, if it goes to spam immediately, use all caps, trigger words and images versus words too much. In addition, a good sender reputation is more than avoiding the spam folder. It’s consistent sending, proper list segmentation, and following general email etiquette. For example, assessing one’s campaigns on a seed list can help adjust one’s strategy to stay in ESPs’ good graces and gain deliverability assurance.
Ensuring Brand Consistency and Compliance
Your branding consistency is key. Every email should operate as a branded touchpoint because it’s already been/will be received as one. The seed list allows the internal team to preview the emails before they go live and ensures branding consistency logos, fonts, colors, and overall branding efforts messaging. But it’s not just branding that necessitates this review because legal and industry regulations need to be followed. For example, GDPR and CAN-SPAM require unsubscribe links, privacy policies, and disclaimers. Thus, sending a test email to a seed list ensures that all necessary (or voluntary additions) are there, so come time to actually send it to the entire list, there are no compliance issues. Furthermore, the review allows the marketing team to find typos, misaligned subject lines versus body text, or even unnecessary, outdated information that shouldn’t go out but exists in the first draft anyway, before the customer sees it, enhancing the brand’s professionalism.
Gathering Internal Feedback Before Public Release
Another advantage of a seed list is for non-technical testing as an internal review process. For example, companies who send emails to their marketing team’s email, the executives’ email, or anyone else on the inside who would receive such communication, can see if the email succeeds for its intended purpose to the extent that it would be worthy of a send to the general population. Those on the inside who are not part of the email marketing solutions team have a different perspective and may receive behind-the-scenes copy or graphics that would confuse the average person. This feedback makes the email even more successful with edits for the public.
Conclusion
An email marketing campaign is ineffective without at least a seed list. A seed list allows a company to assess deliverability, design, subject lines, working links, and the ability to drive click-throughs in a controlled environment. The more a company can guarantee that its correspondence lands in the inboxes of its subscribers, that it reads properly on tablet vs. phone vs. desktop, and that it inspires engagement or, at the very least, link clicking, the better an email marketing campaign will be positioned for successful ROI. With inboxes overflowing more and more every day, the only way for a brand to stay one step ahead of the pack is to be able to test and tweak their campaign before broadcasting to the masses. A seed list for an email marketing campaign guarantees brand control, improved email analytics, and a more intimate connection with the desired community.