5 E-mail Marketing Resolutions for 2010

Last year was certainly one most are glad to see in their rearview mirrors. The economy sagged, consumers tightened their purse strings and marketers’ lives were far from easy. But now that 2010 is in full swing and an uptick lies somewhere on the horizon, it’s time for marketers to take action for a healthier, more profitable year.In its whitepaper, Five Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010, Indianapolis-based e-mail marketing company ExactTarget provides five mandates for marketers looking to further leverage their e-mail marketing programs this year.1. Be Helpful, Not Just SocialThe social media phenomenon collided with the global financial crisis in 2009, moving consumers to comparison-shopping, consumer-reviews and coupon sites, writes Morgan Stewart, director of research and strategy at ExactTarget. He recommends adopting a service-focused approach to communicating with subscribers over a sales pitch by doing the following: Ensuring that your products and support are trustworthy. Instead of focusing on how to speak to consumers, focusing on how to listen. And then collecting information that will allow messaging to be relevant. Delivering messages that help consumers in the manner through which they want to be served. Optimize the timing of messages, and honor each consumer’s preferences. 2. Engage Your SubscribersVice President of Industry and Relationship Marketing Chip House advises marketers to engage subscribers in the following ways: Pay attention to your spam complaint rate. Reactivate or weed out inactive subscribers. First, try to re-engage them by using attention-getting subject lines, creating shareable content and using dynamic content for personalization. If that doesn’t work, consider ceasing communications. Play by the rules. Follow deliverability best practices to increase engagement and maintain a good sender reputation. 3. Treat Subscribers Like FriendsSubscribers should be appreciated as people, says Vice President of Marketing Jeff Rohrs. Take these steps to get to know subscribers: Pick any number of subscribers at random and find out what they like and don’t like about your company. Ask them how they prefer to be communicated with. Invite them to critique your marketing efforts. Treat them to special promotions. Thank them. Then take what you’ve learned and adhere to their wishes. 4. Design for Your SubscribersIt’s imperative that marketers design e-mails for the individual subscriber, notes Manager of Design Solutions Justine Jordan. Do that by testing designs. Don’t stop at A/B or multivariate testing. Track subscriber behavior with your e-mails to learn how subscribers react to your design. Then make decisions based on this data and any other subscriber data you have. Finally, design better social experiences by making it clear that content can be shared.5. Get Back to BasicsSometimes marketers can get so carried away with trying to stand out that they forget the basics. Director of E-marketing Education Joel Book reminds marketers to: Attract subscribers through search marketing. Justify the reasons to subscribe. Thank subscribers with a “welcome" e-mail. Invite subscribers to identify their needs and interests. Deliver relevant information through dynamic content. Expand e-mail distribution through social forward. For more on this whitepaper, go to http://email.exacttarget.com/Resources/Whitepapers/2010Resolutions.html

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5 E-mail Marketing Resolutions for 2010

Joe Boland

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Joe Boland