Legitimate Email Marketing

By Laura DL Bracken

DoubleClick Inc., a New York based company that develops tools for marketing programs, recently found consumers view email as a legitimate and relied-upon marketing channel. With approximately 147 million people across the country using email almost every day, email has, in many ways, become a replacement for telemarketing and direct mail.

That's why permission-based email has emerged as the latest way to acquire, retain, cross-sell, up-sell, promote and reinforce branding efforts. Permission-based email (or email that someone has signed up to receive) gives companies the power to create relevant, cost-efficient and effective dialogs with customers.

In its survey, DoubleClick reported that 57 percent of those polled currently receive permission-based email from online merchants, 55 percent from bricks-and-mortar retailers, and 45 percent from catalogers. Household goods and coupons display the greatest category interests, with 17 percent and 28 percent of consumers desiring to receive these types of email, respectively.

However, spam is still an issue. In a study conducted between November 22 and November 26, 2004, by e-tailing, a consulting firm in Chicago, Ill., merchants who were more assertive in their email marketing-sending messages three to five time times during this period-were perceived as sending spam. Among many consumers, spam remains a concern; but according to DoubleClick, worry about this has declined over the past year.

Although consumers find email aggressiveness a turn-off, they are still more likely to make purchases either online or offline in response to permission-based email. In fact, 32 percent of permission-based email consumers are likely to make an immediate purchase as a result of an email. Those consumers clicked through (or went to the website of the seller) and made a purchase. A slightly smaller percentage clicked through to learn more, only to return later to make a purchase. Another twelve percent went to the website to learn more, but then purchased the item offline.

Permission-based email has become an accepted marketing tactic consumers accept and desire. Nonetheless, subscribers who are sent irrelevant mail too frequently may believe that the sender is careless or sending spam.

Email marketing does, indeed, increase response rates, lowers costs, and builds longer and more profitable customer relationships. But beware. As the quantity of email increases over time, marketers need to create targeted, relevant email communications to customers.

If you are interested in creating an email marketing campaign, Lyris Technologies Inc., an email management company in Berkley, Calif., suggests the following guidelines:

  1. Get the consumer''s permission: The highest, most ethical subscription standard is called double opt-in. It requires prospective subscribers to actively confirm their wish to receive email from you. In this process, prospective subscribers submit their email addresses, and then receive confirmation requests to which they must reply in order to join your list.
  2. Set expectations: One of the easiest mistakes to make is to send content members don't expect to receive. By not setting unmistakable expectations, marketers inadvertently cause people to delete their messages, unsubscribe from their list, or tag their email as spam.
  3. Test your HTML formatting: When preparing to send an email message using text and HTML versions, test your messages on multiple email clients or software applications such as Eudora, Outlook, Hotmail, etc. Testing in different applications will help ensure consumers will share the same type of experience when receiving your message.
  4. Optimize for delivery: The headers (From, To, and Subject fields) of your email messages are critical components, which are scrutinized by automated anti-spam filters that protect ISPs and individual mailboxes. Use a clear and consistent From: header such as your organization's name and a valid email address. Create an accurate and compelling subject line. Write content that won't be filtered as spam. And avoid words such as "free", "mortgage", or "prescription" that are frequently used by spammers.
  5. Cultivate industry relations: If you have a very large list or plan on sending high volumes of permission-based email on a regular basis, it's worthwhile to establish a point of contact at each major Internet Service Provider or email provider. Since some of the ISPs maintain lists of known senders who have met certain permission-oriented criteria, email may not be filtered as aggressively as that sent by unknown senders.
  6. Comply with the law: The following recommendations are for email marketers in the United States, and are based on the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html). This Act requires email marketers to comply with certain mailing guidelines:

    • Don't "harvest" or take arbitrary email addresses from the Internet for commercial mailing purposes.
    • Don't send commercial email via a computer that you don't have proper authorization to use.
    • Don't falsify or obscure the header information in your commercial email messages; always use a valid From: address and an accurate, non-misleading Subject: line.
    • Include a valid postal mailing address and a functioning opt-out mechanism in every commercial email message you send.
    • Don't continue to send email to a recipient who has opted-out of your list.
    • If you send adult content (i.e., sexually explicit material), use a warning label of that fact in your subject line.
  7. Analyze results: Set goals for your email marketing by determining what you expect the email to do. Is it to drive Web site traffic? Build sales? Generate advertising revenue? Inform users of new products? Demonstrate your authority in your field? Then decide what will prove success. After you have identified the key components, feed those insights back into your next campaign.


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