5 Surefire Tips for Effective Email Marketing

							Title:
5 Surefire Tips for Effective Email
Marketing

Word Count:
1031

Summary:
Learn how to avoid common traps and
 send effective email marketing cam
paigns that deliver powerful result
s.


Keywords:
Email, email marketing, business em
ails, email services for business,
small business marketing, small bus
iness email marketing, email market
ing tips


Article Body:
Over the past few years, research h
as continued to prove the benefits
of e-mail marketing for business: l
ow costs, high conversion rates and
 detailed tracking are all notable
features. But e-mail marketing is b
ecoming much more than just a tool
for spammers and e-businesses. Cons
umers are becoming increasingly sav
vy on the differences between spam
and permission-based emails, and mo
re and more of them are accepting p
ermission-based e-mail marketing as
 a positive replacement for direct
mail.

The best news is that the majority
of people who receive permission-ba
sed e-mails open, on average, 78% o
f them.

Jupiter Research reports effective
email marketing campaigns can produ
ce nine times the revenues and 18 t
imes the profits of broadcast maili
ngs. But crafting an effective busi
ness email is both an art and a sci
ence. Here is a list of factors, po
tential problems and effective solu
tions to keep in mind:

<b>1. Spam! Spam! Spam! I don't need
 any Viagra!</b>
The average consumer receives more
than 300 emails a week, 62% of whic
h are spam. No wonder there's such
hostility towards the industry. But
 spam filters, bulk folders and "re
port spam" features are helping con
sumers become more at ease about th
e perils of spam. While 89% of user
s cited spam as a major concern in
2003, that number dropped to 85% in
 2004, proportionally to an increas
e in the use of spam-fighting tools.

So as a permission-based business e
mail marketer, what can you do? One
 tip is to remind your subscribers
to add you to their "safe senders"
list. The second, and most importan
t, tactic is to make sure your emai
l marketing service provider has a
good relationship with ISPs. This w
ill ensure that your email marketin
g campaigns go into your subscriber
s' inboxes, not their junk mail fol
ders. When choosing an email market
ing software, make sure the company
 has strict anti-spam policies and
complies with the guidelines of Can
-Spam.

<b>2. Images and formatting: Why do
 my emails look broken?</b>
Broken email campaigns are an incre
asing concern among email marketers
, especially since several companie
s and web-based email providers now
 block graphics as a measure to com
bat spam. In fact, according to Cli
ckZ, 40% of email marketing message
s delivered to inboxes are "broken."

This was actually something that ca
me up during Eliteweb's beta-testin
g phases, as we had a client in the
 Canadian Government whose recipien
ts were mostly using highly secure
email programs. The solution we cam
e up has now become one of our key
competitive advantages.

What Eliteweb does is it publishes
every single email marketing campai
gn sent to a secure location on the
 web (a location only original reci
pients of the email can access, tha
nks to encrypted technology that au
tomatically authenticates the user)
. The technology also ensures you c
an track your users' behaviors, eve
n if they are reading your email ca
mpaign at the secure web location.

<b>3. Personalization and relevant
content: In a business e-mail, one
size does not fit all.</b>
In a recent study by DoubleClick, e
mail users were 72% more likely to
respond to a business e-mail if its
 content was based on the interests
 they had specified. That number po
ints out the absolute importance of
 allowing users to choose their own
 interest groups and have control o
ver which business e-mails they rec
eive. The most popular interest cat
egories, according to the study, ar
e coupons and household goods.

But your coupon is no good unless t
he user opens the email. Users in t
he study said the most compelling r
eason for them to open a business e
mail is the name in the "from" fiel
d. So it's a good idea to make sure
 your company name is clearly state
d there. Another major factor is th
e "subject" line. Users cite discou
nt offers and interesting news as t
he most compelling subject lines, f
ollowed by new product announcement
s and free shipping offers.

<b>4. Click-through and conversion:
 Show me the money!</b>
So the user has opened your email a
nd read the content. Great. But whe
re's the sale? There's good news he
re. For one, consumers are increasi
ngly likely to make purchases as a
direct result of a <b>business emai
l campaign</b>. One-third of users
in the DoubleClick study had purcha
sed something by clicking a link on
 an email. Another 42% clicked on a
n email link for more information,
then purchased the product at a lat
er time. Second, online couponing i
s booming: 73% of consumers have re
deemed an online coupon for an onli
ne purchase, and 59% have redeemed
an online coupon offline.

In terms of industries, the top per
formers are travel, hardware/softwa
re, electronics, apparel, food, hom
e furnishings, gifts/flowers and sp
orting goods. All companies sending
 business emails in those categorie
s said between 71% and 80% of recip
ients have purchased their products
 because of an email campaign.

There's no need to fret if your com
pany doesn't fit in to one of those
 industries. The overall landscape
for email marketing conversions is
looking brighter every day. The ave
rage click-to-purchase rate has inc
reased nearly 30% since 2004 and th
e average orders-per-email-delivere
d rate has increased more than 18%
since last year.

<b>5. Stats tracking: who are my rea
l consumers?</b>
E-mail marketing is an increasingly
 popular tool in effective CRM, and
 it's about time more businesses re
cognize that. First off, if your pr
ovider's email services for busines
s do not include detailed, real-tim
e tracking, you're getting a raw de
al. Real-time tracking is now an in
dustry standard, and it's highly va
luable, as it allows you to see the
 exact moment a user opens your cam
paign, clicks on your link and make
s that purchase. Studying your user
s can help you improve your communi
cations efforts, so each campaign p
erforms better than the last (sever
al email service providers also let
 you compare the performance of you
r campaigns).

But many marketers are still in the
 dark. According to a recent WebTre
nds research, only 5% of marketers
are very confident in the measureme
nt of their online marketing effort
s, while 26% admit they're "flying
blind." WebTrends says the low conf
idence comes from a lack of knowled
ge when it comes to measurement, wh
ich means there's still a lot of wo
rk to be done.

In <b>email marketing</b>, a blind
shot won't take you very far. But i
f you aim properly by following the
se essential rules of play, you sho
uld soon be reaping the same major
results as so many online and offli
ne businesses.