What’s Working in Email Marketing Today
Email was supposed to be the holy grail of Internet marketing. Targeted, personal, interactive, and cheap, the medium had all the characteristics of a winner. But email’s downfall came quickly: its very appeal attracted unscrupulous spammers, who nearly ruined the medium for legitimate marketers
In the U.S., email is still growing. According to Jupiter Research, marketers are spending $485 million on email for customer retention, and somewhat less, $462 million, for acquisition, in 2006. In terms of response, according to ExactTarget, 2005 open rates continued to decline in the 4th quarter of 2005, to 35.5%, from 42.5% in 2004. Open rates, on the other hand, held steady, at 6.6% overall.
Fortunately, email is still viable as a marketing medium, if you use it carefully. With 10 years of experimentation under their belts, marketers have figured out some principles that drive results. Here are 8 “rules” of email marketing today. But watch out—these rules may change tomorrow!
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Email is best used for retention marketing. Acquisition email marketing is very difficult today, due to spam. While there are some pockets of opportunity for acquisition, the best use of email is for keeping in touch with current customers or inquirers, people with whom you already have some kind of relationship, and who have agreed to receive email from you.
- Keep it short. Direct marketers know that long copy works better than short copy, to persuade prospects to take an action. But in email, people want to grasp the message quickly, without scrolling down. So get to the point at the top of the page. And include at least 3 hotlinks inviting readers to click through.
- Tailor your landing page. When readers click through from your email, make sure you continue the selling job on a customized landing page. This is where you have the space to convert them to an action. Do not send them to your home page, or you will lose the ability to track.
- Make it personal. Keep in mind that email is a very individual medium. So take advantage by addressing the reader by name, and signing the correspondence by a real person. If you simply send a generic advertisement, you are missing the chance to make a personal connection with your reader.
- Pay attention to the “from-line.” In a spam-infested world, people only open email from senders that they recognize and trust. These days, the from-line is a more powerful driver of response than the subject line.
- Test. It’s so easy to set up tests in email, it’s a crime not to do it. Testing allows you to optimize your results, and continue to refine your message as the market changes. The elements to test are, in rough order of importance: the from-line, the subject-line, the offer, and the opening copy.
- Respond to inbound email inquiries. Most U.S. websites have a “contact us” section, inviting visitors to fill in a form or send an email. But many companies fail to set up the appropriate processes to be sure that the communications are answered. According to The Customer Respect Group, as much as 25% to 35% of email inquiries are ignored. Even when companies do respond, the replies can be late: The E-Tailing Group conducted a study saying that the average response time was 30 hours. Consumers expect faster turn-around.
- Refresh your design. Using a template to create emails is convenient and ensures brand consistency. But it can also get tired, resulting in declining response rates. It’s important to refresh your template every 10 to 12 months. Make sure the copy is easy to read, and that the graphic elements are optimized to load quickly.