According to a Direct Marketing Association economic-impact study e-mail’s return on investment far outshines the ROI of other marketing channels, but is slowly slipping. Commercial e-mail returned a whopping $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009, according to the DMA’s just-released Power of Direct economic-impact study—an effort the trade organization publishes every year at its...
read moreOne of the most common questions marketers ask us is, “When is the best time to send email?” The hard truth: It depends. Your optimal send time depends on a lot of factors, such as your industry, segmentation, subscribers’ preferences, and the nature of your message. Testing is a must, so here are four test ideas that have helped other marketers find better send times based on a variety of...
read moreSome statistics say that as many as half of your email recipients have image display turned off. Are you sure your email campaigns still present useful information even if your ezine subscribers don’t see the images? When designing HTML email campaigns with images it’s imperative to test your emails in different email clients, such as Apple Mail, Entourage, Eudora, Thunderbird, and online...
read moreFirst, let’s talk about your ezine, or e-newsletter. If you intend to publish an informative ezine, do not expect much direct sales from it. Why is this? Because the primary purpose of your newsletter is to establish your credibility, expertise and to create that relationship – we keep returning to this relationship thing all the time, don’t we? Do not think of your ezine primarily as...
read moreThinking about trying out spam — just this once? Read this first. Once upon a time, Internet users condemned unsolicited commercial email, or spam, because it violated a code of behavior known as “Netiquette.” That word is rarely used today, in part because of the rapid growth and commercialization of the Internet. But just because the Net has become commercial doesn’t...
read moreI often talk with marketers who complain that they tried email and “It didn’t work.” The email medium might not be the problem. Consider these three factors. A solid emailing rests on three “legs”: offer, list and creative. If you’ve been involved in traditional direct mail marketing (the postal variety), these three elements should ring a bell, as they apply...
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