Successful emarketing campaigns are like any other direct marketing initiative, in that firstly you need a decent offer and secondly a decent list. An important element of any email marketing strategy, therefore, includes plans for continuing to grow the list. Some ideas for growing an in-house list are:

• Include “forward to friend” in all outbound emails
• Add sign up form for newsletter on the website in prominent area
• Drive all prospects to website from all advertising
• Collect email addresses at trade shows and other events
• Mention the newsletter and website on the “hold music” for inbound calls
• Have customer service staff ask all callers if they’d like to receive email newsletters
• Include link to newsletter sign up form in email signature

Home-generated, opt-in lists are preferrable as they are likely to be accurate and relevant. However, lists are also available to buy – but they are expensive and they often aren’t up-to-date. Avoid them if possible! If you do buy a list, remember that permission is a legal requirement. If you buy a list of potential customers to contact, make sure you get permission to re-contact those individuals. Data houses won’t permit you to re-use their data without paying for it again, so it is vital to invite a response allowing you to harvest the customer information for your own database. Data protection laws can be implemented retrospectively, which can mean that you lose any information that you did not have permission to collect.

Metrics
It’s important to measure success. What does this campaign have to achieve to be considered a success? What is the minimum requirement? What is the breakeven point? Sharing these metrics will help communicate to all involved how emarketing can truly impact your brand. A few ideas of metrics are:

• Open rate – the number of messages opened is a general metric to gauge interest
• Click-through rate – the number of people that clicked a link within your message.
• Conversions – the number of people that took a specific action as a result of your message.
• Forward rate – how many times the message was forwarded to others.
• Leads by source – track leads from email forwarding or referral
• Sales metrics before email marketing and trends after
• Website traffic before email marketing and after
• Customer retention before email marketing and after

Testing
One of the advantages of email marketing is that you can test the campaign on a batch of customers first and adjust what you’re doing according to the responses you get.

If you have a low open rate:

• Change the frequency
• Change the subject heading
• Shorten length (reduce file size)
• Change the day/time of day sent (Tuesdays – Thursdays AM usually best)
• Is the ‘from’ field meaningful?

If you have a low click-through rate:

• More prominent call to action
• Incentivised call to action
• Change time of day sent
• Change product types offered
• Improve the offer — cross-sell promotions with partners, offer discounts on products previously abandoned in basket, hold a competition etc.

Data collection
Plan in advance what type of information to collect so you can segment your audience by appropriate fields. After you have determined what type of data you have and what you need, the next step is to determine at what point you collect that information. Do you ask for it all up front? Depending on your target audience, you may need to limit the amount of information asked initially so you don’t put customers off. As a general rule, seek to capture the minimum amount of information possible and collect additional details retrospectively. Ways to collect additional information include:

• Have the “Thank You” page ask for additional information post-subscription
• Include a survey in the confirmation or welcome email
• Include survey questions throughout the life of the newsletter
• Prompt subscribers to update their information periodically
• Offer incentives based on the subscriber supplying additional information
• When inviting customers to complete online questionnaires, you should ask no more than seven questions at one time, and these should all be visible on one screen.

And remember – it is important that your email campaign compliments traditional media campaigns. Consumers don’t distinguish between different marketing channels, so ensure that your email campaign integrates with your overall brand strategy.