Despite the spam deluge, email is still the #1 activity people do online. We perpetually engage ourselves in the act of sending and receiving of emails. And despite our disdain for unwanted email, many of us actually still opt in to commercial email communication. According to a survey conducted in a January 2004 by Shop.org/Bizrate, when online retailers were asked what their most effective 2003 online holiday season promotional tool was, 86 percent reported that sending emails to one’s own list worked the best. In March 2004, Jupiter Research released a report predicting that spending on legitimate email marketing in the U.S. alone will jump from $2.1 billion in 2003 to $6.1 billion in 2008.

So how, even after receiving so much negative attention and the passage of federal legislation against spamming, could legitimate email marketing still be succeeding?

Let’s take a look:

1. Email directly improves sales. Customers receive a promotional email, go to your site, and can instantly make a purchase. Well managed email campaigns can only help build and reinforce the trust your customer has with you. Through a series of successful transactions such as these, you can build loyal, longstanding relationships.
2. Email results can be measured. Nearly every aspect of an email marketing campaign can be tracked: click- thrus and sales by subscriber by campaign, know who is looking at what, when they are doing so and how they are doing it. Target geographic regions and past customers and by using email to sales conversion targeting, optimize your internal emailings to target subscribers by preferences or buying habits.
3. Email allows for a flow of communication. Your customers can easily contact you as well as receive responses in a timely manner. This is also great for customer relations.
4. Email has competitive advantages over direct mail. Reduced lead time, cuts in production, printing, and postage costs and virtually immediate response rates are the capstones of successful email marketing campaigns. In-house lists compiled of past customers, buyer survey participants, and users requesting “more information” are the most cost effective and response-driven way of building successful email campaigns.

How to Make Email Marketing Work for You

Marketers shouldn’t expect to simply build a list, throw together a message, send it out via email, and expect to succeed. “Marketers must manage their campaigns with skill to obtain the full benefits of online direct marketing,” advises Jupiter Media. Easier said than done. Here’s a short list of ideas:

1. Always work to cultivate your email lists, the more advanced, the better. In addition to offering a means to sign up for email offers both online and off, consider the ability to segment or “slice and dice” your email lists in numerable ways. The most sophisticated of email marketers know the sex, age, tastes, and response behaviors to deliver to their subscribers.
2. Personalization is key. Instead of sending out mass boilerplate messages, personalize your emails with greetings (Dear Bob) and by merging other personalized fields that your list members entered while subscribing.
3. Create solid messages. Pay attention to the detail of the email content itself — be precise, offer dramatic savings, create urgency, list contact information, give concrete facts/figures/product detail.
4. Purge addresses that are blocked or do not exist. If your email list is full of blocked or non- existent addresses, there is no reason to spend money sending promotional emails to them. Keep your email list fresh and responsive by updating it regularly.
5. Always try to improve your conversion rate. Conversion rates are the ratio of emails or clicks to selected conversions, such as sales or lead generations. Jeanne Jennings of Clickz feels that a 5 percent rate is average and 15 percent is “pretty good.”

No matter what the conversion rate is, you should incessantly look to increase it.

Testing The Success of Your Email

Test, test, test. There are many aspects of an opt-in email that can be tested; here are a few:

* Subject Line - The subject line is the headline of the email, test different subjects and their email open rates. Catch the interest of the user in the inbox.

* Sender Field - Who is the email from? Test open and response rates from personalized sender fields (a name) or by using the company name.

* HTML vs. Text - Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but when sending out both HTML and text emails (to subscribers that choose their preference) be sure to keep both formats in mind.

* Type of Offer - What works better for your audience? Promoting products? Discount coupons and offers? Sound information with affiliate links? If you are sending your email for commercial purposes, this is of most importance.

* Call to Action - So your readers are interested in your product or service. Now it’s time to get them to act. Test different calls to action such as links, buttons, and clickable graphics.

Furthermore, where does the call to action lead? Directly to the sales order page, or to more onsite product information?

* Day of Delivery - Some days have been shown to get better email responses than others. Monday and Friday are believed to be off days for some, while messages sent on Wednesday and Thursday are shown to receive heightened interest.

Test your readership behavior and response rates for various days and times, then settle on one schedule.

* Splitting Your List - Not sure which email format or offer works best? Try splitting up your list into test groups, testing the different email styles.

Monitor opening rates and response rates for each group, then decide on the best email style to integrate into your entire list.

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