Email Marketing Campaigns
Targeted email campaigns are almost never done well. They often result in a low conversion rate and a high ‘unsubscribe’ reaction from customers. Sometimes they will cause your domain name to be recorded as a SPAM source. If you are thinking of doing these to promote your business, you must do it right. Terms such as “blacklisting” describe the fate of sites whose owners have offended people with ill-conceived tactics.
I can create graphically pleasing HTML messages which have built-in measurement to determine how well each message worked, how many times it was opened, and which links were most successful. They can be scheduled in advance for an entire year, or sent to react to some market reality. Also important is running through a simple email marketing checklist to see if you’ve covered the bases before your campaign is sent.
Speaking of Reality, here are some numbers released by our email partner, Vertical Response, about trends in email behaviors
|
Industry
|
List Size
|
Open Rate
|
Click Through
|
|
Retail
|
100-1,000
|
30-38%
|
8-14%
|
|
1,000-10,000
|
18-30%
|
7-8%
|
|
|
10,000+
|
14-18%
|
3-7%
|
|
|
Consulting
|
50-5,000
|
25%
|
6.5%
|
|
5,000-20,000
|
16.7%
|
2.8%
|
|
|
20,000-100,000
|
16.5%
|
3.6%
|
|
|
Finance
|
50-5,000
|
27.2%
|
4.7%
|
|
5,000-20,000
|
21.60%
|
3.1%
|
|
|
20,000-100,000
|
31%
|
3.8%
|
|
| Political Candidate |
50-5,000
|
25% | 0.72% (ouch!) |
|
5,000-20,000
|
16% | 0.74% |
Let me know if you’d like the whole report and I’ll see to it you get a copy… it has a lot more information.
Why do email marketing click-through go down as the list size increases?
I think the overhead in managing such a large list gets in the way of the list quality, and therefore the frequency of the mailings is reduced. Frequency is a key factor in effective email marketing. Smaller lists tend to be attached to smaller companies, which by their nature have more “face time” and familiarity with their customers.
Designs must be compelling, sent to the right people, and provide a relevant offer.
Research has shown these are the factors influencing whether customers will open emails or not, and in order of percentage saying they “would” open it.
- Know and trust the sender (59.2%)
- Subject Line(41.1%)
- Only open emails I normally get (33.6%)
- Previously opened and thought valuable (30.1%)
- Preview caught my attention(19.0%)
- Discount (17.5%)
- Free shipping offer (15%)
- Company doesn’t send much email (10.9%)
- Looked like the print catalog I received (10.9%)
Email campaigns are not as easy as just dressing up an email, adding a link, and sending out a message with a big “cc” list. You must be well versed in how SPAM filters work, how customers feel about email, and the best way to obtain good return on your investment. You must measure the performance of your email campaigns so you’ll know what works and what doesn’t, and build a strategy of frequency, target audience, and follow-up that really helps your firm’s cash flow.
Emails sent out must be elegant, attractive, and inviting. They must have a professional touch and a visual tie-in to your website.Cheap-looking or poorly-done email campaigns can undermine the entire web business effort. Worse, your site can be blacklisted from future campaigns.
Articles about Effective Email Marketing
I’ve written these articles about Email Marketing as well.
See Also:
Examples
(Note use of a consistent template for each message)
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