25 Rules Great Email Marketers Follow

This post is by Clint Watson, former art gallery owner and founder of BoldBrush, known for FASO Artist Websites, the leading provider of professional artist websites, the $38,000+ BoldBrush Painting Competition and the free daily art marketing newsletter, FineArtViews. As a self-proclaimed “art fanatic”, Clint delights that BoldBrush’s downtown San Antonio, Texas office is full of original art, as is his home office which he shares with his two feline assistants Kiara and Lilly. You can connect with Clint on Twitter, Facebook or his personal blog at clintavo.com.

25 Rules that Great Email Marketers Follow

1.   DO Write each email with one goal and one call to action
2.   DO Optimize each email for reading on mobile
3.   DO Preview every email
4.   DON’T send more than one newsletter  a day
5.   DON’T  use too many images – 1 or 2 is best
6.   DON’T  send giant walls of text
7.   DON’T send from your personal email account – use an Email Service Provider such as ArtfulMail, ConvertKit or Mailchimp
8.   DON’T hard sell in every email – ask for small micro-commitments in most emails, only occasionally ask for a big sale
9.   DO Clean non-engaged subscribers off of your list
10. DO send at least monthly – any less and your list will go cold.  Weekly is even better.

11.  DON’T ever put the whole newsletter in an image

12.  DON’T send the content as an attachment
13.  DON’T use any attachments
14.  DO Segment your lists by at least buyers, non buyers, artists, and collectors
15.  DO Make it easy to unsubscribe
16.  DON’T wait to start. Start a newsletter as soon as you have one subscriber
17.  DO write compelling subject lines.
18.  DON’T write spammy subject lines with all caps, exclamation points and the word free
19.  DO tell people how often you send newsletters when they subscribe. If you don’t know how often you’ll send then say that up front.
20. DON’T fear people unsubscribing.  List decay is normal.
21.  DO send from a real mailbox.  Don’t use a “no-reply” box.  If people respond to you, then they should be communicating directly with you.
22. DON’T send from a gmail, yahoo, aol, outlook or other big ISP account.
23. DO send from a mailbox on your domain.  This builds your domain authority (and isolates you from bad actors on shared domains).  FASO ArtfulMail makes this super easy.
24.  DON’T purchase a list
25.  DO cross market with other artists

Utilize these 25 rules as a checklist to ensure that your email campaigns are professional, beautiful and help you sell your art.

For my latest thoughts on art marketing, art sales ideas, and insider announcements about new FASO features we are working on and releasing, you should Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  That’s where I publish ideas and opportunities in real time.  Be the first to know.

Until next time, please remember that Fortune Favors the Bold Brush.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson

BoldBrush/FASO Founder & Art Fanatic

PS – Are there practices you follow that should be included in this list?  Please leave a comment or reply to our email to let us know and we’ll add it.