Email Marketing Tips

Consider this page a starting point for creating email marketing campaigns that get better results.

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Key Components

In priority order, this is what you should focus on when planning an email marketing campaign:

1. List: see "About Lists" below.
2. Offer: what makes the material of interest to your reader; always keep your audience in mind. 
3. Timing: read our blog post on the topic.
4. Deliverability: if your email doesn't get through the SPAM filters, what's the point? Getting people to opt-in to your list is critical to delivery. Also, choosing the right email tools helps.
5. Creative: follow your own branding guidelines, support headlines with images and write in a clear, yet compelling manner.

Free Download: Email Tips

When you're ready to select a tool for email marketing, check these out:

Email Marketing Tools

Email Marketing Podcast

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One of the most effective ways to promote a small business is by sending periodic emails to customers. Dana Pethia of Constant Contact joined  Minding Your Business to talk about tools, dos and don'ts, and building lists.

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Email Data & Benchmarks

Email Stat Center
See how you stack up against email marketing benchmarks.

Email Infographics
A digestible way to look at email marketing data.

About Lists

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Of the five elements needed for a successful direct mail or email campaign, the list is the most important. Why? The more information contained in your list, the easier it is to target customers with the right information at the right time. This targeting is the foundation of any marketing effort, because it leads to better results and therefore a more efficient use of your marketing resources.

Your Own List is Best

It's always best to use a list you've developed yourself, especially if the email is being used for relationship-building, rather than awareness-building. These are people who already are aware of your business and have shown an interest in it. That means they're more likely to read what you have to say. The subject of purchasing lists is for another article.

Grow Your List

Collect contact information: At check-out, registrations, online purchases, networking, tradeshows, phone calls, add an email widget for collecting addresses to your website (usually provided by your email service) and Facebook page, etc.

Offer an incentive or something in exchange: Discount on a future purchase, entry in a sweepstakes entry or contest, promise of relevant advice or exclusive information.

Explain how you intend to use their information: We frequently send out notices of sales and other promotions by e-mail. >

Segment Your List

You won't usually need to mail to your entire list at any one time. That means you can better manage your spending and also do some testing to see what is working and what isn't in terms of timing, message, etc. Start by segmenting your market by demographics, geography, psychographics and especially behavior. learn more

For example, a telephone company might use the following data:

• Consumer versus business
• Average monthly spending
• Local calling versus long distance
• International calling
• Calling card usage
• Collect calls made
• Address
• Enhanced services used
• Number of line at same address

Once you figure out the correct profile information, you can pull only those records appropriate for your targeted marketing message. For example, you can select those most likely to want to buy your new product or service now.

If that same phone company were offering a discounted long distance calling plan, they simply target those customers whose long distance spending is above a certain amount. Similarly, calling cards or international calling plans can be targeted to those with histories of high spending, frequent international calling, or who live in locations closest to international borders.

Once you've developed your targeted list, it's time to develop the "offer" -- what you're going to say in the email that's of interest to the reader and compels them to take the next step. ##