Help your e-mail marketing campaign rise above the flood
By Kaukab Jhumra, BuyerZone.com Assistant Content Writer
January 24, 2001
Everyone tells you marketing by e-mail is cheap and effective. It lets you acquire and
retain customers, promote products, and drive brand loyalty to a target audience.
There's just one catch: Your own inbox demonstrates that tons of other businesses seem
to think so too.
By 2005, the number of commercial e-mails a user receives will increase 40 fold, according
to N.Y.-based research firm Jupiter Media Metrix. As the popularity of e-mail marketing
skyrockets, it stands to reason that users will read fewer and fewer of their messages.
Amid the daily e-mails from clients, family, and friends, you'll have to jostle through
the competition to get your customers' attention.
Why is e-mail marketing becoming so popular?
Cost-effectiveness. Allowing for production, management, and delivery expenses,
each marketing e-mail costs between just one and 25 cents, compared to $1 to $2 for each
piece of direct paper mail, according to Jupiter.
Rapid response rates. Most e-mail marketing results are available within two
days, whereas ground mail results can take up to three weeks.
High response rates. Users respond to e-mail marketing 5 percent to 15 percent
of the time, according to Jupiter, compared to about 0.5 percent for online banner advertising
and 5 percent for snail mail marketing.
If you feel you're ready to jump on the e-mail marketing bandwagon, think carefully
about how to keep recipients interested in your e-mails. Always ask yourself these questions:
• Who is getting the e-mail?
• What is the e-mail about?
• Is the e-mail phrased effectively?
The success of your campaign will depend upon the quality of your e-mail list. House
lists - mailing lists grown from your customer base - are always more effective than
rented lists. Your customers are more likely to appreciate newsletters, frequent-buyer
coupons, and announcements about upcoming events.
Building your list. Ask for e-mail addresses at every point of customer contact,
whether during customer service calls, on printed materials, on your Web site, or as
an extra column in your store's guest book. Offer compelling reasons or incentives for
the customer to provide the information, and keep the sign-up process brief.
In the interest of industry self-regulation, it's crucial that your customers agree
("opt-in") to receive your e-mails. By neglecting to ask for their permission, your e-mails
could be perceived as spam and trigger massive consumer complaints.
Develop a privacy policy. Let your customers know why you're asking for their
e-mail addresses and how their information will be used. You'll get a bigger response
in exchange for your honesty.
Earn trust. Research shows customers are more likely to continue relationships
with companies they've dealt with in the past. Show your respect for the customer by
sending only truly valuable offers and information.
Personalize offers."As you gather e-mail addresses and the permission to use
them, you can also gather customer preferences and interests to target your e-mail communications," says
Gail Goodman, CEO of the e-mail marketing firm Roving Software (www.roving.com) in Needham,
Mass. Remembering individual preferences will in turn produce better response rates.
Use HTML. You can fit a lot more information into your e-mails and provide direct
click-throughs to your site by sending e-mails in HTML format. But give users the option
of receiving only text-based e-mails in case their browser can't read HTML or simply
because of personal preference.
Try an e-mail marketing firm. These firms can manage your e-mail lists, format
e-mails in HTML, AOL, and text, protect consumer privacy with unsubscribe (opt-out) functionality,
and provide campaign results reporting.
See also:
How to avoid turning your e-mails into spam
Tips for creating effective e-mail newsletters
How to develop a privacy policy
