Email Marketing (Pillar 3) is generally the most poorly utilized and misunderstood of the 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing. Why is that? It seems like such a straight-forward tactic, but in actuality, it is not. Email requires an entire plan in and of itself, and even in some small companies, it is sensible to have a person solely dedicated to managing communications with the customer database, primarily via email, and also via mail and phone.

Here is a brief list of some of the issues that need to be considered in Email Marketing strategy:

• Deliverability & Spam: First of all, there is the spam issue. How do you ensure that your emails are being read rather than moving into people’s spam folders? Some of the better email softwares, such as Return Path, assist with the deliverability issue.
• Personalization & Preferences: Is your system setup to give customers and prospects options on the frequency of contact (i.e. the weekly updates or the monthly newsletter or both)? Further, are you utilizing any type of segmentation techniques, that enable you to personalize messages to specific audiences (i.e. those that bought products about a certain price point would get promotions on similarly priced items).
• Multivariate Testing of Creative and Offers: Email presents one of the best opportunities to test creative, promotions and offers. This knowledge can be utilized across the board, in other areas of the website and overall marketing strategy. This type of testing, however, requires a lot of work, and constant attention.
• Opt-In Lists: How to go about obtaining opt-in lists is not so much the challenge, as list brokers are plentiful. Be careful though, and make sure to ask the right questions, such as how frequently do people on the lists in question get “hit” with messages, and what are the read and conversion rates on prior campaigns from similar companies on these lists? Measuring the value of opt-in lists is a critical issue.

So the question remains - do opt-in lists achieve a worthwhile ROI relative to other marketing tactics?  Generally, in our experience, when measured independently, the answer is “NO.”  However, when measured as part of an integrated campaign, in conjunction with other tactics, such as direct mail, online, TV and print advertising, opt-in email marketing has proven that it can give sufficient “lift” to justify its cost.  It comes down, once again, to great execution and precise campaign measurement.

I would say that whether you try utilizing opt-in email lists or not, really depends on your marketing budget.  As a rule of thumb at Blueliner, when a client’s monthly marketing budget is less than $100,000, opt-in lists don’t even enter the discussion.  Several times in the recent year, we have tested small opt-in campaigns at the demand of our clients, and each time, the ROI wasn’t there.  Instead, the focus of email marketing, at this level, should be on acquiring customers and nurturing the existing customer base through highly personalized emails.  In this way, email marketing can become the most powerful influence of referrals, which generally speaking, are responsible for the lowest customer acquisition costs.
So remember, when it comes to email marketing, good strategy first, then quality CRM and email software, constant attention from the design and strategy team testing offers, and referral from existing customers before ambition opt-in acquisition plans.  Good luck.