Email Is King! By Abbie Drew Nov 16, 2006

If you doubt the power of email you need to review the latest statistics from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

* Email delivers the highest ROI, more than double any other online marketing! The ROI for email marketing is $57.25 for every dollar spent. The ROI of all non-email online marketing is $22.52 for every dollar spent.

* Email generated sales in the U.S.A. are expected to have a compound annual growth of 14.9% from 2006 to 2011.

* Commercial email created $16.5 billion in U.S.A. sales in 2005. The estimates are email sales will grow to $18.5 billion in 2006 and $37 billion by 2011.

Why does email work so well?

Email is the information sharing backbone of the Internet.

You may have heard about how video is a hot new marketing tactic. Or how social networking sites are terrific for sharing content. Or that audio can really increase conversion.

But when you have information to share, like a cool new video, how do you let people know? Sure you can post it to your web site, blog or “MySpace”. But only visitors who come to your site will see it.

If you employ email on the other hand you dramatically expand your reach. You send out an email to notify your list of customers and prospects about the video and suddenly you have many more individuals taking a look. And when you encourage visitors who see the video to notify their friends and family via email, your further increase the exposure of your new video.

It is crucial that your business build an email list and send out email.

Of course, just having an email list and emailing your list is not enough to generate the sales returns highlighted by the DMA.

The key to getting high returns from your email marketing campaigns is relevancy.

Yes, your “From” address and “Subject” line remain important components to increasing your open rates. But consumer surveys show that relevancy is the fastest growing factor driving response to email.

So what makes email relevant?

Here are 4 proven techniques you can use to make your email more relevant.

1) Immediate Response

When an individual makes a request for information, your immediate response is highly relevant. The individual just made the inquiry, they want the answer and they want it now. When you can respond right away your email is going to get opened.

On the other hand if you wait a week to respond, the individual will in all likely hood have moved on and forgotten. And in some instances even waiting a day or two can be too long.

Employing an email autoresponder to deliver information within minutes is an invaluable tool for businesses. Use autoresponders to not only deliver information immediately but also to confirm your new list subscribers, confirm customer purchases, confirm account changes, etc.. Autoresponder messages do get read.

2) First 30 Days

Studies show your email is most relevant to an individual in the first 30 days after he/she has joined your list. The individual requested the information and if you are sending interesting material he/she is likely to keep reading your emails regularly for at least the first 30 days.

Don’t waste this important month. Follow-up regularly by email to all new list sign-ups. Your best opportunity to build rapport and make sales is in these first 30 days.

An interesting tactic I am seeing from online marketers is to request re-subscription to a new sub-list. They email out offers of new specialty lists.

The advantages of the sub-list tactic are 2 fold. The first advantage, is when you get the new sign-up you have another new 30 day period where the subscriber is interested and curious about this new list. Thus you gain better readership.

The second advantage is the ability to focus on a specific subject matter which brings me to my third tip to improve relevancy.

3) Focus, focus, focus!

Email on a narrowly defined subject matter will have more relevance and better readership than a general email newsletters. Even though it may have fewer readers those who read it will do so regularly.

Broad general content is no longer relevant to most people. Individuals want information specific to the topics about which they are interested.

Just consider this statistic from Chris Anderson’s book "The Long Tail" which I learned of when reading this weeks ""Free Resource: The Death of Internet Marketing", today’s top rated TV show is only seen by 15% of Americans. Back in 1954 the TV show "I Love Lucy" was being watched by 74% of Americans.

Why the decline in the percentage of viewership for the top TV shows?

Because there are so many more options available. Why watch a show that does not interest you, when you can change the channel and find one that is on cooking – which fascinates you – or on fishing – which you love. Or if you find nothing on TV, you can go to the Internet and find information specifically on improving your golf swing, mountain biking, travel, etc..

Create email lists focused on a very specific niche subject matter and you create relevant emails that people will want to read.

Let me share an example of an email series I received which I read without fail every week. I looked for the email and opened it first thing when it arrived. (As you can imagine I get tons of email and I am subscribed to lots and lots of newsletters. Much of which I don’t read.) So why was this email different?

The email was from Yale New Haven hospital. I signed up for the email, when I registered with the Hospital in preparation for having my baby. When I registered, I input into the registration the due date for the baby.

For a year after that due date, every week I received an email about caring for the baby. Each week the email was related to the exact age of the baby. Thus the first email was how to care for your 1 week old who you just brought home from the hospital. Then the series continued week after week, explaining caring for your child, as well reviewing development milestones. The email series followed the baby through the entire year and I was disappointed when the series stopped, as they only provided it through the first year. The information was not only excellent it was relevant and highly targeted.

Wouldn’t you like to have your email subscribers so devoted to your emails!

Which brings me to the fourth strategy for making your emails relevant.

3) Timing

I’m sure you have heard the expression timing is everything. Well with email marketing, it could not be more true.

In the example above about the email baby series, one of the reasons it was so effective was its timing. Yale New Haven hospital knew how old my child was and thus their email series could be timed precisely to what I was experiencing. Their series would not have been nearly as interesting if it was simply on general baby and child care.

With the Holiday’s just around the corner, you can make your emails more relevant by discussing Holiday issues. If you sell gift baskets for example, do not simply send out an email advertising a sale on gift baskets. Instead provide information on what makes a perfect gift. An article on gift giving or holiday cooking or seasonal parties will all be relevant and well received during this time of year.

Once the holiday’s have passed how can you continue to use "timing" to make your emails relevant?

Perhaps ask customers when they register to input Birthday dates of friends and family. Then send out reminders before those days with gift ideas.

Or if you sell products which need to be renewed regularly, send renewal reminders. For example with our CustomLead services, when a customer has received all the email leads ordered we automatically send out renewal reminders.

If you sell an ebook or digital product, what is the typical time it takes for a purchaser to have finished reviewing the material? If you know that timing, then you can send out a notice about your other ebook or the affiliate product you promote which is related. If the times for completion vary too much to be sure, then provide an incentive to purchasers to notify you when they are done with the book. When they notify you they’re done, then trigger that email about the other product / service you offer which will help them.

Review your email marketing messages to see if you can improve their immediacy, follow-up, focus and timing. The more relevant you make your emails the higher your conversions!

### Abbie Drew