E-mail Marketing

The first and perhaps the most powerful of IDM applications is e-mail. It is an incredibly robust tool when used ethically and responsibly. Do not be afraid to use e-mail as part of a marketing strategy, provided, of course, it is in tune with prospects and customers. E-mail marketing is a good way to enhance customer loyalty if initiated and handled properly.

The most effective e-mail marketing today includes hotlinks or hyperlinks within the e-mail message that drive customers and prospects directly to the marketer's site. These links should not necessarily take the reader/responder to the home page; but rather should drive them directly to the offers being made. Companies make major investments in their sites, and e-mail is an effective way of driving targeted, action-oriented traffic.

Increasing Responses

One major marketer of modems wanted to introduce an upgrade of one of their popular models. They sent e-mails to past customers and told them that by clicking on a link in the message, they would be taken to a free upgrade area. An unbelievable 66 percent of recipients took advantage of the upgrade! This same company sent e-mails to prospects promoting this same new modem but customized each message to direct the prospect to one of four resellers' sites as part of a cooperative marketing arrangement.

E-mail marketing can provide an alternative contact method to initiate live call backs. Customers often have additional questions about some aspect of the product, billing, or delivery. E-mail provides another method to contact customer service. Some marketers even offer a live human call back, or fax, instead of an e-mail response. It may be counter-intuitive to think anything other than an e-mail inquiry must beget an e-mail response. But consider that it is much easier to ask a complicated question with a few written words, than to provide a complicated answer in a few written words. An e-mail response system allows the provider to respond one-to-one, on a customer-service- and/or prospect-inquiry-based system. By training a team of customer-service or sales professionals to handle such responses, e-mail can be a safe and value-added way for an organization to use this powerful tool as part of its marketing mix, even if live phone call back can't be justified.

If economics don't support the human touch, consider using a carefully designed and professionally maintained electronic dialoguing system, an expert system that uses a "decision tree" approach. And don't fake it. Position it for what it is. It's not necessary to be apologetic about not providing human call-back. Position it as efficient and convenient, but provide a method to get a human in the loop, even if it is something as electronic as instructing the customer to mail a question to a specific address, or to call a specific telephone number during specific hours in a specific time zone.

To a customer or potential customer, there is nothing more frustrating than to have no means for resolving an inquiry or problem. Even if the method or solution is less than ideal, the fact that it is available is better than having no perceived avenue for resolution. To give an example from the interactive world, several of the online services were taken to task by the FTC because it was too difficult for customers to cancel. Most of the services alleviated the problem by posting clear instructions for specific contact information online.

If e-mail is being used simply as a method of providing dynamic product data such as changing airline ticket prices or weather-, time-, or inventory-dependent recreational services, then considers providing a Web site where prospects and customers can provide their e-mail address to receive updated product information on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And by all means, provide an easy way for customers to remove themselves from the service.

Avoiding Unsolicited e-mailings

Many marketers have avoided using unsolicited e-mail marketing (colloquially called "spam") for fear of customer backlash. If a firm is not equipped to do the careful planning required, then it should not use e-mail marketing. E-mail marketing is permission based marketing. If you do not have the permission of the consumer, you should not mail to them. Even with a "house file" (the marketer's own customers) it is important to give the consumer the choice to opt out of receiving future e-mail messages—and this choice should be given in each and every communication to customers. And, if a consumer indicates they no longer wish to receive e-mail from a marketer, it is of vital importance that they never receive future communications. This means the marketer (or their service bureau) must immediately build a file of all opt-outs that is used as a suppression file against any and all future mailings. That is the beginning of "Netiquette" (Net etiquette). When marketers mail their own customer file for the first time, they will typically see between 1 1/2 percent and 2 percent opting out. In subsequent emailing, these percentages fall dramatically.


The reality of e-mail marketing is that no matter how carefully and well intentioned your project is planned, it will inevitably upset someone. At a minimum, an easy and fast method for allowing any e-mail recipient to permanently remove their e-mail address from a mailing list must be provided. In removing them, it is wise to create and maintain a list of these e-mail addresses in a "suppression file," colloquially referred to as a "pixies" list. This suppression file should be faithfully run against all future e-mail marketing efforts to assure compliance with customer wishes.

Test a small audience before a roll out. Send the e-mail campaign to the smallest statistically significant sample size on an email list. Once a response has been received, carefully analyze it. With this in hand, a decision can be made to refine or cancel the roll out, based upon the test results. Include an opt-out provision for prospects in the mailing. This allows the recipient to indicate that they do not want to receive any additional solicitations from the marketer. Remember that the header of the message — "From" and "Subject"—is the most important piece of copy in the entire message. The reader is looking at the message in his or her e-mail box and immediately looks at whom the message is from and what the message is about. Even if a service bureau delivers your e-mail, make sure your domain/URL is listed as the sender. And, make sure there is value in the message header.

Include multiple calls to action in the e-mail. To maximize the effectiveness of a communication, include more than one marketing hotlink; but put the most important message first. Remember that all recipients may not want the primary product offering but might very well be interested in another product or aspect of service.

Personalize your message if possible. Omaha Steaks, a direct marketer of quality meats, tested two different salutations in a letter: "Dear Barbecue Enthusiast" and "Dear." The personalized message out pulled the generic header substantially. And don't just personalize the salutation; deliver selective content. For example, all new customers might get one offer in the first paragraph, all buyers another offer, and all former buyers a third offer.

Track who clicked on what link and re-append that information in a marketing database. There are service bureaus in the e-mail arena that can track e-mails down to the individual letter and the individual link within the message. The more a marketer can know about the interests and activities of customers and prospects the better equipped the marketer is to move from mass marketing to one-to-many marketing to one-to-one marketing.

Use e-mail to create an ongoing dialog with customers and to drive repeat business. Marketers need to test how often these communications should occur.

Author Bio
Pammi Thakran a professional Blogger & Senior Web Designer for Yoginet Web Solutions and support site for small business owners that want some straight talk about web design, web marketing and SEO.