Smart Sending: 10 Tips to Increase Your E-mail Marketing Effectiveness

E-mail is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach customers with relevant messages. But the prospect of delving into your e-mail list can be daunting; which demographic will deliver, and what offers will entice?

In a studv conducted by e-mail marketing firm DoubleClick, more than a third of consumers said they’d clicked on a message link immediately and made a purchase in the same session, while 78 percent of participants reported making an eventual purchase after receiving an e-mail offer. With such a high response rate, e-mail trounces paid search campaigns and affiliate programs when it comes to return on investment, a recent Direct Marketing Association study found e-mail delivers $57.25 for every dollar spent, compared to $22.52 for all other forms of online marketing.

But that doesn’t mean you should buy all the e-mail lists you can afford and begin sending messages willy-nilly. Instead, the most effective way to deploy e-mail marketing is to target your own home-grown list. Click rates of c-mails sent to in-house lists in 2005 were 9.7 percent, more than triple the rate for lists purchased from third par ties, according to marketing research firm MarketingSherpa. The difference was similarly sizable for conversion rates, with 3.9 percent of e-mails to in-house lists resulting in a sale, compared to 0.6 percent ole-mails sent to third-party lists.

So how do you grow your in-house list and deliver messages that prompt sales? Implement these 10 best practices to drive results:

1. Give e-mail sign-ups pride of place. Send a strong message about the value of your e-mail offerings by placing them prominently on your homepage. Of sites that offer e-mail programs, 79 percent use this premier position to attract new sign- ups, according to MarketingSherpa. For maximum effect, place the link above the fold, where browsers can access it and take action without scrolling. But don’t stop there. Integrate your e-mail signup link into every page in either the global navigation or persistent header elements to ensure it’s available whenever browsers might be inspired to subscribe.

2. Integrate e-mail sign-ups into the purchase process, from the checkout page to the confirmation and order status e mails you send Add an e mail checkbox on your account registration form, according to MarketingSherpa its the top way to collect new sign ups Always prompt customers to opt in rather than opt out of an e-mail offer to ensure the sign-up is viable.

3. If you’re a multi-channel merchant, use offline opportunities to drive online sign ups. Promote e mail features in your catalogs, at point-of-sale locations in stores and in person when shoppers call customer service.

4. A Seal the deal with incentives and reassurance. Let users know what they’ll get for signing up, whether it’s exclusive discounts, new product alerts or useful content. Make the message prominent by succinctly stating the value proposition within the e-mail sign-up area itself. For example: “Sign up for e-mail and never miss our latest news, specials or sales. Enter your e-mail address here.”

5. Promote a bonus incentive,such as a discount on the next purchase, to enlist new subscribers. Gloss.com aggressively promotes its e-mail program with a pop-up window offering free shipping on the shopper’s next order. Multi-channel merchants also can tie in to existing loyalty pro grams. For instance, at Gap.com new subscribers earn 100 points on their Gap Card.

6.Offer prize contests and incentives refer-a-friend campaigns. Keep in mind, though, that subscribers lured onto your list to win rewards may be less likely to return once the incentive is removed. For this reason, keep such registrants separate from your main subscriber pooi until they become viable shoppers, either by clicking on e-mail campaigns or making a purchase.

7. Reassure shoppers that they won’t get more than they bargained for. First and foremost, post a privacy policy link along with the sign-up form. 50 percent of consumers say it makes them more comfortable about subscribing. Explicitly state what shoppers can expect to receive. Describe the frequency and content of e-mail offerings, and provide an example to increase confidence for would-be subscribers. For example, Wal-Mart’s e-mail sign- up page includes a highlighted box labeled “Information Security,” which includes a pledge to keep subscriber data private and a link to its privacy policy. Visitors also can click on a sample of each of its e-mail newsletters to assess content relevance.

Once shoppers sign up, send instant verification messages as further reassurance that their addresses have been logged securely. The message should welcome users to the service and remind them of what they’ve signed up to receive, as well as give them a link to manage their subscription.

8. Provoke continuing interest with tailored, timely offers. Now that users have signed up to receive updates, fulfill their expectations for relevant content with valuable, targeted messages. Slicing and dicing your list may seem like a resource-intensive effort, but don’t fear; using the most effective segmenting techniques won’t require a marketing army. In fact, according to a 2006 Internet Retailer survey, 54 per cent of retailers offering e-mail features segment their lists to deliver targeted offers, despite that 55.9 percent of those retailers don’t employ an outside firm and a full 46 percent rely solely on part-time staff resources to manage their e-mail programs.

Event-triggered marketing is a simple way to tailor product messages and offers. Start immediately by including a discount offer in the sign-up verification message. Next, identify first-time purchasers and track repeat buyers. These two segments of existing customers are the ones merchants most frequently target, according to an Internet Retailer e-mail marketing survey. Because they’ve already purchased through your site, they’re prime candidates for ship ping discounts, seasonal offers and new product alerts. Finally, lure subscribers who haven’t returned to your site recently with “try us again” offers.

9. Segment your list by asking customer to select their interests and frequency. On the sign up form, provide several options to help define subscribers’ product and topic interests, and give them control over the frequency of the messages they receive. You also can collect broad demographic information, such as geographic region, as a way of send ing more targeted offers that may include notice of in-store promotions in the subscriber’s area or seasonal apparel offers according to the region’s weather. But ask only for the information you can demonstrably use to make your offers more relevant. Otherwise, you risk losing potential sign-ups to wariness over surrendering too much private information.

10. Track e mail list subscribers who create wish lists, save items for later or abandon shopping carts, and contact them with offers.

Most shoppers abandon carts because they didn’t expect shipping charges and other ancillary costs to be so high, according to Forrester Research. Eliminate the “sticker shock” by offering free shipping or a percentage discount that drops the price back to the base product amount.

You don’t need to parse reams of demographic data or manage dozens of custom campaigns to use your e-mail list effectively. Using these simple but nuanced tactics, you’ll soon attract new subscribers—and more revenue.

About the Author
Ken Burke is founder and CEO of MarketLive, an e-commerce technology and services provider based in Petaluma, Calif. He can be reached by e-mail at ken@mmlive.com, or visit his Web site at www.marketlive.com.