Email Marketing

The roots of email marketing can be traced back to the early 1990s, when US software companies would offer prospects a free trial of their software, then send them an email as the trial period was coming to an end.

Before you can embark on an email campaign, you need to put some plans in place that will dictate how it's going to work, what it is and what it's going to do for you.

Four principle reasons why email has grown in popularity		Four primary ways in which email marketing is used
It's Low-cost	It's measurable	Customer acquisition
		Customer retention
It's Fast	It works	Brand building
		Cross selling

Double opt-in subscription process
Having subscribed, double opt in could start by sending out a simple email asking users if they are interested in receiving further emails. a well-executed double opt-in approach will likely convert double the conversations. So from an expected conversion rate of 10% you can expect 15% to 20% on double opt-in subscribers and this provides additional benefits. These include a cleaner list with fewer bounced addresses from input errors; an audit trail in case of subscriber spam complaints; and a higher quality list due to recipients confirming their interest in your messages.

Stumbling blocks to receiving emails
If the server from which you broadcast the Ezine is black listed you will not get into most networks. Assuming the broadcast is not blacklisted the other stumbling blocks are:

• Some corporate networks only allow listed email to come into their network. Subscribers usually can update the list.
• If you send the images as attachments some servers will strip the attachments out.
• If you link the images, then you have to accept the images manually through the load button on the top left hand side of the email browser. This happens in Internet Explorer in some instances. The default on Internet Explorer is to prevent graphics coming through.

A safe figure to work with is the possibility of only 50% of emailed will get an option to view your email in it's full glory. Best practice recommendation is go with images and give an option for subscribers to go to the web to view the whole page. 'ALT' tags should be used.

Things to test with emails	What kind of segmentation should You consider for a campaign
Different segment of your list	Demographic: age, gender, income, ...
Different subject message	By purchasing habits/intentions
Different sender	Geo demographic profile
Different design and layout	Cross selling
Different landing pages	A Thank you or celebration PR brand building email

Landing Pages
Landing pages should be kept simple. You already know what a visitor is looking for so it's not necessary to show them a bunch of other things. Here's where you can start:

• Remove navigation: unless it is necessary remove other options. Let people do what you want them to do, and don't give them many other options. These pages should have all the conversion tools on them.
• Make link text appealing: people tend to glance over copy instead of deeply reading every word. Since links are action points people tend to pay more attention to link text. Make sure link text is appealing since it is far more likely to get read than most of the page copy.
• Give them a clue they have found the correct page: Place the words they clicked through for in large text at the top of the page to show them they are in the right location. Typically it is best to point people at a landing page instead of the home page.
• Make it simple for the user: Use order/subscribe buttons and objects that users expect to see that let them know that's where they go to do what they came to do. Don't make a visitor have to think too much or have to make too many decisions.