MarketingSherpa Blog

As we build the content for MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2013 in Las Vegas, we are focusing on the five key goals of successful email marketing programs.

We are also including the two elements necessary to optimize these goals – measuring and testing.

So in today’s MarketingSherpa blog post, we’ll provide some suggested reading and resources to help you to prepare for next month’s Email Summit and improve your email marketing – no matter on which goal or element you are currently focusing.

Capture

Maximizing Email List Growth: How the New York Public Library drove a 52.8% lift in newsletter subscriptions

Email List Growth: 230% more readers from six-channel test

New Chart: Integrating Social Media with Other Marketing Tactics

Deliver

Email List Hygiene: Remove four kinds of bad addresses to improve deliverability

Open

Case Study: Creativity vs. clarity in email subject lines

Email Personalization: 137% increase in open rate from personal note approach

Click

Email Marketing: Video email doubles clickthrough rate for Ragan Communications

Close

Email Marketing: 208% higher conversion rate for targeted emails over batch-and-blast

Measure

Reader Mail: Understanding differences in clickthrough rates and open rates

Test

Email Testing: More specific subject line improves open rate by more than 35%

This week I’ve been reading the MarketingSherpa 2011 Email Marketing Advanced Practices Handbook featuring W. Jeffrey Rice, Senior Research Analyst, MECLABS (the parent company of MarketingSherpa), as the lead author.

This handbook is full of great and actionable email advice, but Jeff particularly pointed me to the section on providing new subscribers with explicit expectations on what, when and why they will receive email after opting in.

Since it applies equally to B2B and consumer marketers, I wanted to share those tips and tactics with you, along with a fourth email element — privacy.

Here is the set-up straight from the MarketingSherpa handbook:

The time spent researching and developing eye-catching and memorable promotions that attract new subscribers is an enjoyable process for most marketers. However, equivalent effort and energy needs to go into reassuring the potential subscriber that your company is reputable and trustworthy. This is because after you have caught the consumer’s interest, and they are listening attentively, the new subscriber needs to feel safe to exchange their email address for a “special” offer.

Setting expectations right from the start of the relationship will reduce anxiety in the registration process and enable you to collect more qualified leads. Taking the time to inform new subscribers of what you will deliver yields more long-term subscribers. Adding a “join my mailing list” box with just a space to type in their email addresses will not effectively communicate expectations.

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