1. Basics
Prior to constructing your email, make sure that your message is clear and concise. Develop and refine what you want to say so that readers don’t lose interest or get confused about what your call-to-action is. What is your offer? How will reading and clicking through this email help the reader? Make sure they know what’s in it for them. Before and during the building process, continually ask yourself, “What would I think if I got this in my inbox? Would I immediately delete it? Or worse, report it as spam?” Rule No. 1 — don’t be spam.

Even the most compelling message can be rendered ineffective if it’s presented in an undesirable way to your readers. During this process you may encounter many challenges and obstacles. Your design team may want to create something striking and beautiful, but your audience may not want it. At the same time, don’t throw readers for a loop with a design that is off-brand. Your email design should be able to flow well with the look of your website as well as any pieces collateral offered. Consistency is good. Also, design the email around your readers by responding to their personality. Are they tech savvy? Parents? Students?

Email Marketing 2010

While the main use of email marketing is to drive traffic to your web site, there are other important reasons that emails can be used in promoting your home business. You should use them, and use them often, as part of your overall marketing strategy (you do have one, right? A written plan on how you’re going to let other people know about your online business?)

Why market with email? Because it really does work. – Email Marketing generated ROI of $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009! And this is amazing!

Make no mistakes!

Email marketing is very profitable business, and like every business it has rules. Here are few topics to make your email marketing business more stable and profitable. Don’t make mistakes listed below, and you’ll see how your email marketing business grow!

1. You do not have a permission-based mailing list. Unless you have the recipient’s permission, you may be sending spam, which is against the law. Too many business owners take shortcuts and buy e-mail lists or compile them in unethical manners, such as harvesting them from the Web. Spam also hurts the reputation of your business. The CAN-SPAM Act provides strict requirements about what you can and cannot do; for more information, go to the Federal Trade Commission Web site.

Email Marketing 2010

Inactivation campaigns will become more important, thanks to ISPs giving weight to engagement metrics when determining whether to deliver to the inbox or junk folder or to block email. Marketers with 50% or more of their list inactive will have to start devising strategies to deal with reducing that level. It will start with each company defining what “inactive” is for them, then progress to segmentation tactics to message inactives differently, and possibly culminate with reactivation campaigns that give subscribers a chance to reaffirm their interest or be dropped from the list.

There was a panel of 20-somethings fresh out of college at the Email Insider Summit . The majority of them indicated that they subscribe to emails that they don’t read and just hold on to in case they are suddenly in the market. These kinds of subscribers are becoming increasingly problematic for marketers.

Email Marketing 2010

Hi marketers! Ready or not, 2010 is here. It’s time to boost your email marketing sales, right? And according to eMarketer, 2010 is going to be a good year for email marketing. A December survey revealed that 69% of respondents plan to increase spending on email marketing efforts – more than any other marketing strategy. And I mean that 2010 is the year of email marketing!

To ring in the New Year, we’ve compiled 5 email marketing tricks, tips and techniques that are likely to gain even more ground this year.

1. Integrating Email With Social Media.
This email marketing tactic – which picked up steam throughout 2009 as a way to boost customer reach – is likely to spread like wildfire throughout 2010. Consider the results of an early 2009 study by Exact Target, Ball State University and the Email Marketer’s club: 46% of marketers planned to incorporate the two marketing strategies in ‘09, compared to 13% in ‘08—a whopping 253% increase.

Reliable Software Statistics

Shocking email marketing statistics 2009. Avoid these numbers – try reliable software!

1. 21% of email recipients report email as Spam, even if they know it isn’t

2. 43% of email recipients click the Spam button based on the email “from” name or email address

3. 69% of email recipients report email as Spam based solely on the subject line

4. 35% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone

5. IP addresses appearing on just one of the 12 major blacklists had email deliverability 25 points below those not listed on any blacklists

Email Marketing Trends

If the recent StrongMail “2010 Marketing Trends” survey is correct, online marketing spending will be up in the coming year. According to the report, 89% of respondents said they will either maintain or increase the amount of their marketing spending in 2010, with 50% of businesses saying they would allocate additional dollars to their marketing efforts. The survey, conducted online Nov. 17–25, surveyed 1,057 business executives.

What will they be spending their dollars on? Social media and e-mail marketing are the top two areas, with 69% of respondents saying they will be increasing e-mail spending; 59% saying they would be increasing social media efforts; and 69% saying they would be integrating social media and e-mail marketing. They will do so using several strategies, said Kristin Hersant, StrongMail’s director of corporate marketing.