The T-Mail Process

Tips for Successful Campaigns

Targeting

There are many factors in addition to demographics to consider when selecting data; the data source can be a major factor as well. Data sourced from a website for people interested in home based business opportunities may work better for a business opportunity offer than data selected that matches the typical existing customer demographics.

Do not try and sell too many products with your email creative. Generally stick to one offering along with a newsletter signup.

When designing your creative, think how it will be viewed by your perspective customer. Remember many people view their emails in a “preview” pane so often only the top and/or top left of the creative is initially visible. Also consider that many email clients block images by default.

Try to avoid “trigger words” such as free, etc. If they are critical to your creative, consider making these words into an image, rather than text.

Design your creative to fit your product/service as well as the medium (email). What this means is if you are selling something that is generally an impulse purchase where people do not shop around, try and close the sale with the creative. If you are selling a product/service that is a considerable purchase, do not try and close the sale with the email creative, simply try and bring them to your website which will have more room and features to close the sale.

Many people do not realize how critical these items can be to an email campaign. The From and Subject lines are typically what a person uses when considering if they should open an email. A From line that they recognize, either because of past communications or brand recognition is very helpful. A short subject line, typically 35 characters or less, that clearly outlines the purpose/content of the email also will have a positive impact on the email campaign.

Email marketing is basically “prospecting” for new customers. You start with maximizing your efforts with good data selection, then you need to actually knock on some doors...aka send your email.

As with many sales channels, you have just a few seconds to get the prospects interest and then get something from them. The ideal scenario is a sale, but not all products/services lend themselves to that. There are also people who even a small purchase is one they must consider.

To maximize the return on your investment, try push the sale (or the click to your website for considered purchases) as your primary goal. If this is not possible, do not leave other opportunities untapped. One of the easiest and most effective things you can do is invite the person to signup for a periodic newsletter or similar informational mailing. Your pitch may not make the sale this time, but if they signup for your newsletter, the next time they get a pitch from you, you are already one step ahead since they know you and know of your product.

Another useful tool to help maximize your ROI is to test, test, test, test and analyze, analyze, analyze, analyze. Direct Marketing in any channel is more of an art then a science. This applies to email as well. There are so many factors that can lead to the success or failure of an email campaign that you need to look at it from all angles.