Nine Ways to Keep Up With Increased Inbox Competition in 2009

photo by Gaetan Lee

I've talked about how companies are increasing spending on email marketing during the recession and how email marketing is more relevant than ever in 2009, so this will lead us to another point to discuss about email marketing this year.

With so many companies planning on INCREASING their email marketing expenditures because of it's affordable pricing and ROI, that means there is going to be increased COMPETITION as well.

Are your email marketing campaigns ready to face the increased competition? Will your email list messages stand out from all the others in your customers inbox? Let's review a few questions that will help judge the potential of your email campaigns:

1. What do your emails offer that the competition does not?
2. Are you offering short term value, long term value or both?
3. Is everyone in your company on the same page about you email marketing?
4. Are your emails reflective of your brand image?
5. Are your email campaigns well targeted?
6. Are you sending too many emails?
7. Are you offering clear benefits to signing up?
8. When you have and exceptionally good or exceptionally bad campaign, are you taking the time to find out WHY?
9. Do your email marketing campaigns have clear objectives?

Ask yourself these questions, discuss them with your sales team and find ways to improve your campaigns for 2009 so you can stand out from those full email inboxes and keep your customers opening your offers.

Companies Love Email Marketing During Recession

photo by Sharat Ganapati

Even as the economic climate has a lot of people watching their budgets carefully, email marketing remains at the top of many marketers lists as a favorite method of ad spend.

The reason is simple: Email Marketing continues to show a consistent return on investment.

When times are tough and budgets need to get cut, the last thing you want to do is cut spending on marketing campaigns that continue to show a positive return on investment for every dollar spent. It's low cost, targeted and measurable effective. That's not the type of thing anyone needs to be cutting their budget on.

Companies are still seeing results from their in house email lists. Your in-house email lists are interested customers who are interested in what you have to offer and have signed up to learn more and receive the benefits your products and services have to offer.

29% of marketers are planning on increasing their spend on email list rentals. These are email lists put together by outside companies and segmented by demographics so they can be rented to other companies. This reverses a trend of recent years where budgets for rented lists have shrunk. The recession though is causing people to reexamine list rentals and to realize that used correctly they still generate a good ROI and can boost your sales in tough times.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for a free consultation about our email list rentals, bulk email broadcasting and email marketing software.

How Many Emails is Too Many?

photo by Gaetan Lee

You've got your targeted email list. You've got permission. You've got content that you're sure you list is going to love, and lots of it. How many marketing emails should you send? How frequently should you send them?

There's no simple answer. A lot of you decision will be based upon your target audience and their buying cycle. This will differ for every business and you should know your customers best.

You certainly need to send more than one message. In direct mailing and advertising, three impressions is considered optimal for generating a response. The goal is to get them to think of you enough so that when it's time to make a purchase they'll think of your company.

The key to having your email marketing messages is that every one of them needs to offer value and usefulness to the recipient. The more sales-y and pressure filled language in the email and the more likely it will be perceived as unwanted. Your audience might be responsive to a strong sales message though. Most don't want the hard sell. Again, it's best to know your customer and what they want.

So what's the optimal number of emails to send a month? It's all up to you. Or better yet, you could leave it to your customers and offer them personalized frequency options, (daily, weekly, monthly, as needed basis). Tailor it right to your audience and you'll get the best results.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for full service email marketing, email marketing software and internet marketing consulting.

Too Many Emails Will Lose You Customers

Photo by Ricardo Liberato

You know I'm a big advocate of email marketing. I talk about it here every day. I make money with it and so do many of the clients I perform email marketing consulting with. So how do I feel about he email marketing messages that end up in my personal inbox?

The answer to that question will lead us to today's lesson: Don't send TOO MANY email messages.

Yes, there is definitely such a thing as too many email messages. Of course, this should be obvious, because you, much like myself, are deleting emails out of your inbox every day without ever reading them. Yet somehow, many of the email marketing campaigns run by some of the largest and most successful companies in the world fail to realize this.

Here's an example. I ordered a product online from a well known clothing retailer that you can find in major cities across the country. When I placed my order I was signed into their email list, which I had absolutely no problem with. I really like their products and check into their site when there are specials, because when not on sale their clothes are a little expensive for me. But when they send me an email, there's always a link to the "SALE" section of the site, which offers online only discounts. This sale link is another great thing to add to your email messages by the way. Promote your main offer, but include a couple other links of interest.

But the point is this: I am voluntarily opted into their email list. I really like this store. I really like their products. I WANT to receive messages from them. So what's the problem.

The problem is this: Over the course of the month of December, I began to receive DAILY emails from them. Every single day there would be a new email. Now, who really needs to receive a marketing email from store, even one that you like every single day? Maybe some people do, but I do not.

So I opted out. I withdrew myself from the email list of a company who's products I enjoy and who I had even wanted to receive emails from. But they abused my permission. They didn't have something valuable to offer in each message, they were just pestering me. This isn't what I wanted, and research shows it's not what most people want. The average customer is fine with one email a week. Five a week though is TOO MUCH.

Learn the lesson: If you abuse your opt in email lists, you're going to just anger the very people who you're trying to sell to. You're going to get people like me, who love your products and want to receive your emails, to say "Forget it!" and opt out. You're emails are going to get marked as spam, which will hurt the deliverability of all your marketing emails. You're going to lose customers and you're going to lose money.

SO DON'T ABUSE YOUR EMAIL LISTS!!!!

Contact Orange Spot Email Marketing for Email Marketing Software Pricing

Holiday Email Marketing Soars

photo by Martin Howard

Yesterday I wrote about how during a recession email marketing is more important than ever due to it's affordability and accountability. Today I can provide you data showing that the country's biggest retailers agree with me.

According to the Retail Email Index, email marketing volume for the nation's biggest retailers was up big time over the 2008 holiday season. Email messages sent out by the top 100 U.S. retailers was up 45% over 2007. Marketing messages in 2007 were up 42% over 2006. As you can see, email marketing usage continues to grow year by year.

Although volume was up, so were the number of emails that were blocked or had other deliverability issues. This just drives home the fact that you need to have a quality opt in email list that is receptive to your messages. You may want to segment your list even further to insure you don't lose subscribers. Just because someone opted in for one of your lists, doesn't mean they wanted to receive every email your company sends out. Create separate email lists so that your customers stay happy. A few unwanted emails and you could lose that contact for good.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for information on email list rental today.