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09.24.07
Your Email Campaign Needs Work
 By
David A. Utter
A study of email campaigns presented at the Shop.org Summit contended that marketers aren't doing enough to maximize the return on their efforts.
The '2007 Retail Email Marketing Study' by Silverpop noted how email customers spend more online than their non-email counterparts. Those same email customers spend more on impulse, and are more likely to pass along the email promotions they receive.
"Clearly there's value in fine-tuning email marketing programs to generate higher response rates and greater financial returns," said Silverpop managing director Mike Weston.
One of the easiest things an online entrepreneur can do is capture the email address, and just that, for starters. List growth concerns everyone, but burying an opt-in box within a site, or asking for loads of personal details up front, don't help improve that growth.
Make it easy for people to get onto an email list. "A robust email program can gather additional data from subscribers after marketers convince them of the value they receive from the relationship," said Weston.
Retailers should make it just as easy to opt out of a list. This can be done effectively with modern marketing solutions, but the crafty marketer will send people to a 'change subscriptions' preference page, giving the person choices for alternative emails along with the choice to unsubscribe.
The persistent threat of malicious or intrusive code via images cause people to block them from displaying automatically in email clients. Web-based email systems like Google's Gmail and Yahoo Mail do this by default, unless the person changes a preference for a particular sender.
That blocking has caused the "postcard-style" layout to fall out of favor in email marketing. Newsletter formats with a mixture of text and art can communicate the marketer's message whether or not images have been blocked.
Email marketing may seem so quaint compared with newer formats that some may underestimate it.
Although figures from eMarketer based on Interactive Advertising Bureau data indicate email marketing spending will grow to $616 million by 2011, a lot more could be spent on the channel.
"One key factor is how e-mail is typically perceived and implemented," David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst, said in a statement. "Most companies typically see e-mail marketing as a low-cost medium."
That could mean businesses feel they won't get the big returns a flashier campaign could draw. Email has the ability to help develop long-term, returning customers. Everyone likes to pull in new customers, but the real profitability comes from loyal returnees who keep coming back to spend.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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