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Sustainable email sending programs in an inherently hostile environment now require great care and planning. Before considering the technical complexities and the marketing tactics, email senders must adopt a basic paradigm shift.

The five guidelines included in this series should become watchwords for ezine emailers as they incur the risk and responsibility of sending newsletters or any other repetitive type of email.

Part 1 of 5: Treat Email as a True Risk and Cost Center
Part 2 of 5: Avoid Collateral Damage
Part 3 of 5: Plan to Use Every Legitimate Tool and Tactic Available (M2M)
Part 4 of 5: Build strong relationships (H2H)
Part 5 of 5: Continuously evaluate messages, lists, and recipient populations

Part 1 of 5

Treat Email as a True Risk and Cost Center
not as just an Internet infrastructure tagalong

Because it was “free”, easy, and universally accessable online, email became the breeding ground for a vast number of experiments in communication and commerce. Ezines, newsletters, CRM programs and many other online publications are the product of some of those experiments. More pathological forms of information transfer also evolved in the same space, such as Spam and viruses. Today the Internet is trying to develop an immune system to fight those pathogens. Unfortunately, non-pathogen marketers and online communicators of all types have become the victims of this primitive new immune system’s stumbling efforts.

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The goal of all marketing is to attract interest in, build desire for, and generate sales of your products or services. Email marketing is a perfect medium to pick up where other marketing leaves off. Email marketing is still one of the most cost effective ways to contact prospects and customers. It’s far cheaper than traditional bulk postage mail and in many cases can have a much larger impact on immediate sales and long-term relationship strength than traditional advertising.

When done correctly, email marketing can be an extremely powerful and effective marketing technique. It’s a medium that allows a buyer and seller to freely communicate with one another and build a relationship based on value and trust. When done incorrectly, however, email marketing can be destructive, erode brand equity, and turn your happy clients into litigious flamers. It is for this reason that one must make sure they send only permission-based email communications to their subscribers.

Now that we’ve explored the importance of sending permission-based email, let’s take a closer look at some of the techniques and practices that the most experienced email marketers use. These best practices can make the difference between rapidly growing your list through word of mouth, increasing your sales, and building strong relationships and losing subscribers to list attrition, aggravating customers, and getting your messages blocked before they even reach your recipients.

From Names & Subject Lines

For most people, a majority of emails received are junk email. As a result, each of us has developed a little ritual we follow when checking our email. Initially, most people looked first at the subject lines to determine whether to read a message. Today, however, studies have shown that recipients glance at the "From" field to see if they recognize the sender’s name or email address. Then, only if they recognize the From Name do they look at the "Subject" field to see if it’s of interest to them. This is why we recommend using a From Name that is either your organization’s name or a well-known person within your organization-and to keep that name consistent with every mailing.

How do you get the most out of your list?

We all know that a lot of marketing is done to a list but, say you have a sizable list. Now what?

Once you have a list of any size built-up, you must start broadcasting to it. This is important for a couple of reasons;

1. You have to realize that a good percentage of your list will have people that are new to marketing on it. You might think of these subscribers as being in a kind of stasis–they’re really just checking things out. So one purpose of broadcasting is to stir up some interest or excitement among these new-comers.

One good way to do this is with contests. For example a friend of mine had a referral contest and the prize was $200.00 cash. The great thing about this contest was that, even if you didn’t win, you still got a lot of really great free things for signing-up, and it was free also.

2. You will make many more sales and sign-ups with your broadcasts.

Email is a vital part of doing business online, but are you setting yourself up for SPAM complaints? If you are accused of spamming, whether it’s true or not, there are serious consequences that could potentially shut down your online business.

Are Your Emails CAN-SPAM Compliant?

The CAN-SPAM law has caused quite a bit of confusion about what is and is not acceptable when sending out business or commercial related emails.

Here is the link to the official Federal Trade Commission’s webpage “The CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers” that explains the CAN-SPAM law and how to comply.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm

Pay particular attention to the second paragraph:

“The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site.

A “transactional or relationship message” ? email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship ? may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.”

When I was first introduced to an autoresponder I thought “wow cool program, I don’t see how it can help me”. Then one day my girlfriend received an email from a clothing shop she recently purchased a pair of jeans from informing her of an upcoming sale in their store for “valued customers only”. At that moment I realized the awesome power of the autoresponder.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than just automatically answer your email. Regardless if you have an online business or a brick and mortar business using an Autoresponder can help you transform the casual customer into a profitable customer.

Here are a just a few ideas that will help you to creatively and productively use your autoresponder to increase your profits . Use your autoresponder to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed about your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.

Autoresponders are an important asset to an Internet Marketer. When I heard that statement, I said, "Okay ? great! What is it!" For all those new to the Internet arena, I’ll try to explain what autoresponders are, how they can be used, and how it can benefit your online business.

What Are Autoresponders?

Autoresponders automate the process of following up e-mail marketing leads. Email autoresponders are special email addresses that returns a message or set of messages in response to any email that is sent to the autoresponder’s address. When your business is slow or just beginning you may be hesitate to use this tool. But be assured as your business grows, you’ll find a use.

Who Supplies Autoresponders?

Where do you get autoresponders? Well, they are as close as your web host. Yes, most web hosts have autoresponders ? it is only limited by the number of email addresses your host provides you. For example, my webhost allows me 100 email addresses. Thus, I have the opportunity, if I so wish, to create 100 autoresponders.

However, there is one small drawback to webhost autoresponders ?you are limited only to one message per autoresponder, without the possibility of a follow-up email to your prospects.

Adestra provide email marketing services to a host of UK marketers operating within travel, event organising, publishing, charity, entertainment and other industries.

We’ve spent time analysing client campaigns, and have created a handy checklist for getting better quality email contact records by using optimised data capture vehicles

1. Explain why you want their contact details

Tell sign-up why you want other data fields. Telling them they will receive information by email will encourage them to ensure their email address is accurate

2. Stay compliant with latest email marketing legislation

Keep up to date with the latest legislation and standards to ensure your data capture vehicles continue to be compliant

3. Check quality of email addresses etc on the form

The more fields collected, the more validation required to avoid bad input. The more validation leads to less completed forms and more abandonment. Collect only what you need. Asking for information that you have no use for, will increase form abandonment. Test your data set to see where the optimum is.

4. Future proof

Ensure you state how you will use data into the future. Future-proofing email addresses will allow you to rent/ sell lists whilst staying compliant with email legislation

When using an email marketing tool such as Adestra’s Message Focus, you are able to specify exactly what sent address you want the email to be labelled as being broadcasted from. From prevalent industry contacts through to brand names, this gives the marketers the flexibility to use ’sent from’ addresses that resonate with their audience for improved recognition.

This flexibility can be a blessing but also a burden. If you’re choosing to broadcast as if from someone, over the past 4 years the Adestra team have learnt some valuable lessons.

If you broadcast from someone:

Monitor the inbound email channel

Many individuals believe it is from that person and expect to be able to reply to that person and get a response. In many cases, requests for more information or even orders are sent back into the inbound filters rather than through the channels suggested by your communication. Likewise, recipients often reply with personal messages for that person.

Keep named email contact in the loopIf you are choosing to send from someone, the chances are their name means something to your audience. To this extent, please ask their permission before sending. In many cases they will want to cast their eye over the email content to ensure no defamatory comments are made and that accuracy is ensured.

Targeted, cheap, fast, trackable and with more reporting than traditional offline direct mail techniques, email marketing is used extensively by international marketers.

But although why is an easy question to answer, how is one that causes more headaches.

By rushing into email and not using recognised email marketing service providers, many appear to be successfully conducting successful strategies. Dig deeper and it is a different story:

Building a database for the future

Marketers have adopted recent EU legislation that ensure individuals "opt-in" to your messages and respect data privacy. The flaw is in how much data people are collecting. By not integrating data capture techniques for mailing address, telephone and fax number, a company becomes hostage to always using email marketing.

Industry unsubscribe rates are reported as between 0.2% and 5% (MarketingSherpa). Over time, without investment in an acquisition programme, your database will dwindle. Integrating data capture (often after first contact) of additional contact details provides an alternative communication channel when the email route is ended.

The appropriate message