Are YOU a Spammer? Email Etiquette 101   

1. Make sure you honor unsubscribe requests within the ten-day window dictated by Can-Spam laws.
2. Focus on list quality over list size. Growing your mailing list is important, but don't do it at the expense of quality. Careful targeting will mean you have a list of high-value prospects and customers that result in higher response rate and greater success.
3. Respecting the privacy of your email recipients is a good business practice and will also help you avoid legal and ethical problems.
4. Give your subscribers clear reasons to open your email message every time.
5. Email campaigns should not be measured by counting opens and click-through rates alone. Instead, establish objectives before each campaign and then measure performance against them.
6. You may not think that your Web analytics are related to your email campaigns but you'd be wrong. When determining the best content to offer in your email, take a look at the content most viewed on your website. When used together you are more effectively targeting your prospects and it can provide a better result.

Here are some basic do's and don'ts:

• Every email should include a Subject Line. I know your saying Duh? You'd be surprised how many emails are sent without one.
• You have 3 - 5 seconds to get across an idea in the Subject Line. The Subject Line should talk about whatever your "call to action" is within your email. It should peak the brides interest to want to read further. Make your Subject Line short, sweet and to the point. Limit yourself to 50 characters or less.
• Do not use all capital letters, excessive punctuations or symbols in your Subject Line. This will trigger spam filters. If possible avoid using punctuations all together as it is unnecessary and uses up valuable space in your Subject Line.  
• Misleading Subject Lines designed to "trick you into opening the email" are the number one reason an email is deleted. Computer viruses and unwanted spam are designed to do just that - "trick you."
• Avoid words in your Subject Line like: Free, guaranteed, credit card, discount,etc.
• Make sure your content concentrates on how it will directly benefit your viewer.

• The best emails are 60% information and 40% promotion. This is important enough to be repeated here.
• The most important information to the viewer should appear in the top 1/3 of the email. This is what is visible in the preview pane.
• Images: we recommend a maximum of 250 high and/ or wide. The larger the images the longer the email becomes and it takes longer to be delivered. Use low-resolution images (72dpi) and in jpg format.
• Change it up. Use different images, different text. What appeals to one bride will not appeal to another. Include both a "call to action" and a specific deadline. Otherwise why would he/she bother to contact you now? Use plain language to describe what you do. What's obvious to you may not be to your viewer.
• Limit or avoid the color red. It may trigger some email filters and is hard to read.

• Use light colored backgrounds with dark text. They are much easier to read and have a cleaner look to them.
• Muted tones work better than vibrant colors, contrasting colors or varying shades of the same color work best. Use your company colors if available in some way to be consistent with branding.
• Try to limit yourself to a maximum of two fonts. If you are going to use two fonts use one for the titles and another for the body of the email. Stick with the same font you use on all company materials if you have one. Make sure the font you select is easy to read.
• Use "bold" and "italics" when needed but don't over do it.

Spring Issue - Fashion Trends & Wedding Spotlights

   
One week left for your submission. Deadline is Friday, November 18th.   
 

We are pleased to announce the Spring issue of Perfect Wedding Guide will be featuring

The cost is $95 for a single page or $180 for a double. The issue will be on the streets for 4 months...that is only $23.75/month for the singe page! 11,000+ copies will be printed and distributed. All wedding fashion is welcome, such as male and female attire, jewelry, veils, shoes and alterations.     

Click here for your Fashion Trends contract     

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Showcase your best work featuring real brides and their favorite moments.  

Our Wedding Spotlight feature will remain FREE for the Spring issue and is open to any wedding professionals to submit as long as there are at least three current PWG advertisers participating in the wedding (if you are not sure there were 3 participating PWG advertisers as part of the wedding, send the list to us and we'll figure it out).

Click here for your Wedding Spotlight contract      

We look forward to placing your work in front of Triad & Triangle brides. Contact the office with any questions.  

2012 Professional Wedding Guild Luncheons  

Your chance to tell us about YOU!

This is a section of our newsletter that will give you, our readers, a chance to tell everyone in the wedding industry a fun fact about yourself that no one else knows... were you a cheerleader in high school? Have you traveled to a foreign land? Did you play an instrument as a child or have you won any special awards or accolades? Let us know something about you that is unique to you and we will feature a wedding professional bi-weekly. So go ahead and send us a tidbit about yourself!

Did you know...?  

...that Barbara Ovittore (Scully Travel of High Point) grew up in the NJ and started a family after moving to NC in 1991. She became a travel agent after her dad never wanted to make reservations... traveling since she was about 5 years old throughout the North East, from Canada to the Caribbean, Europe, and as far as Sweden. Barbara has won many awards with the Travel Agency with her dedication to help clients with a niche of Honeymoons, Destination Weddings and marrying some of her couples as an Ordained Minister. As a Preferred Sandals/Beaches Agency, she gets to inspect the properties first hand and come back to help clients decide which would be the best for them. Barbara's passion is travel and gourmet-healthy cooking, "I bring back great recipes from my travels and recreate them in a healthy way!"   

 
 Click here to email Jaime your tidbit!

Vailtree Event Center Open House

Karyn Hall, Event Coordinator and Facility Manager welcomes you to the open house of Vailtree Event Center, 1567 Bakatsias Lane, Graham, NC. The event will be held on Thursday, November 17th from 5:30-7:30pm.Vailtree is a lovely professionally decorated venue with a main ball room that will hold 400. To rsvp, please contact Karyn Hall, Event Coordinator and Facility Manager at 336-266-8696 or karynhall@earthlink.net.  

November 16, 2011

Triangle Professional Wedding Guild Luncheon

Zakya Indian Restaurant

Raleigh 

11am-1:15pm

PWG Guild Luncheons   

November 21, 2011

Deadline to submit changes or new ad material for the PWG Spring 2012 issue

Contact Jaime for submissions

Jaime@pwg.com