Email marketing is to use email in marketing communications (Mark Brownlow, 2008). Email marketing is a very popular marketing communication technique today because it costs less than the other forms of communication do, and it will be very effective if it is conducted appropriately (2008). According to EmailLabs, email’s average cost per order is less than US$7, while affiliate programs, paid search, and banner advertisements are US$17.47, US$26.75, and US$71.89 respectively (2007). Also, EmailLabs states that email marketing is effective in return on investment (ROI); its ROI is $51.45 per US$ 1 spent, while print catalogs’ and non-email online marketing’s ROI are US$7.20, US$21.08 (2007). Thus, email marketing is cheap and effective.
Although email marketing can be very effective, if it is not conducted appropriately, it will not be successful. Simply sending out emails is not appropriate way to conduct email marketing. There are many tips that marketers should know in order to conduct their email marketing effectively, and some of those tips will be introduced here.
One of the tips is to identify target market, and to send customized emails to the people in the target market. According to EmailLabs, email-marketing campaigns that target their receivers based on click stream analysis have the open rate of 33%, the average click thorough rate of 14%, and the average conversion rate of 3.9% (2007). On the other hand, the untargeted broadcast emails have the open rate of 20%, the average click thorough rate of 9.5%, and the average conversion rate of 1.1% (EmailLabs, 2007). The data indicates that email campaigns with targeting works more effectively than those without targeting.
Another tip is the emails use in email marketing campaigns should have concise subject lines (2007). EmailLabs states that the emails whose subject lines consist of less than 50 characters have a higher open rate than those emails whose subject lines consist of 50 or more characteristics by 12.5 % (2007). Also, the click through rate of less than 50 characters subject lines emails is also higher than that of 50 plus characters subject lines emails by 75% (2007). Thus, the emails with concise subject lines are more effective.
In addition, “marketing emails must have a familiar preview” (DS Development, 2008). DS Development remarks that most people decide whether the emails are interesting or not by previewing those before they actually open (2008). DS Development also states that knowing and trusting senders are important to make people open emails (2008). Thus, in order to motivate those people to open and read the emails, those emails’ sender names should be visible, easily noticed, and trustworthy (2008). Also, the emails should have addresses that people can see who the senders are (2008).
Therefore, email marketing will be very effective if it is conducted appropriately. In order to conduct a successful marketing campaign, marketers need to know the tips.
