Steps To Success Full Email Marketing

eBooks for Entrepreneurs
.com
by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs
5 STEPS
to Successful
to Successful
E-mail
Marketing
Why E-mail marketing is

right for your business pg.
pg.44
Strategies for optimizing

open rates pg.
pg. 16
16

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Copyright © 2008 StartupNation, LLC

Contents
Intro: Why E-mail marketing Is Right for Your Business..................................4

E-mail is Alive and Growing................................................................................................. 5
Key Benefits for Your Business........................................................................................... 5
Step 1: Learn the Lingo.....................................................................................7

HTML and Plain Text Messages.......................................................................................... 7
Opt-in and Unsubscribe Links............................................................................................. 8
Spam Filters and E-mail Address Books............................................................................. 8
Purchased Lists and Segmentation..................................................................................... 8
Step 2: Create Successful E-mail Marketing Messages..................................9

Design It Well and They Will Click..................................................................................... 10
Writing E-mail Copy that Grabs Readers........................................................................... 11
Step 3: Choosing an E-mail Service Provider................................................13

What’s an ESP?................................................................................................................. 14
Selecting Your ESP............................................................................................................ 15
Step 4: Strategies for Optimizing Open Rates...............................................16

How to Improve Your Open Rates..................................................................................... 17
How to Create Effective Subject Lines.............................................................................. 18
Tips for Writing Strong Subject Lines................................................................................ 18
How to Create Better CTAs for Better CTRs..................................................................... 19
Tips for Writing Strong CTAs............................................................................................. 19
Step 5: Measuring Success............................................................................20

To Measure Results, Know Your Goal............................................................................... 21
Use Reporting Tools to Fine-tune Campaigns................................................................... 21
Interpreting Report Data.................................................................................................... 23
Best Practices for Successful E-mail Newsletters..........................................24
Conclusion......................................................................................................26
Resources.......................................................................................................27

5 Steps to Successful E-mail Marketing
Introduction: Why E-mail Marketing Is

Right for Your Business
If you’re reading this e-book, you’re probably looking for new ways to attract new customers–and
maybe build closer relationships with your existing customers too. E-mail marketing can bring you
one step closer to achieving those goals.
E-mail marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to you. In fact, in a recent
study, 54% of small businesses surveyed rated e-mail as the top online promotion mechanism to
drive customers to their Web sites and storefronts. (Source: DMA Interactive)
More and more small businesses are using e-mail marketing today because it’s an easy, fast,
and cost-effective tool for engaging customers and driving sales–and it just plain works.
5 Steps to Successful E-mail Marketing is designed to help small business owners better
understand e-mail-marketing basics. It walks you through a series of steps that build your
“knowledge base” so that, when you’re done, you’ll be equipped to take advantage of e-mail
marketing and its power to grow your business.

E-mail is Alive and Growing

To understand why e-mail is such a powerful marketing tool, consider some recent research findings:
• A Pew Internet & American Life Project survey found 91% of Internet users between the ages of
18 and 64 send or read e-mail, and an even higher number of users age 65 and older do the same.
• Marketers responding to a July 2007 global survey by McKinsey & Company put e-mail
second only to paid keyword search in terms of online marketing success.
• In the U.S., 88% of adult Internet users have personal e-mail accounts, and 46% have e-mail access
at work. Taken together, eMarketer estimates that 147 million people use e-mail almost every day.
• E-mail volume in the U.S. nearly doubled from 1.5 trillion in 2003 to 2.7 trillion in 2007,
and the compound annual growth rate for e-mail is 14.6%, according to eMarketer.
• More and more business owners are jumping on board. Jupiter Research forecasts that
spending on e-mail marketing will grow from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $2.1 billion in 2012.
You’re probably thinking, “So everyone e-mails, and a lot of companies spend money on e-mail
marketing–so what? How can it help my business?” Good question.
Key Benefits for Your Business

Whether it’s a campaign for a new product, or a monthly newsletter, a well-crafted e-mail
marketing program can help your business in the following ways:
• Attract new customers: A business grows by attracting new customers and increasing sales.
But getting new customers is hard work–and expensive. In fact, experts estimate it can be
eight to 10 times more expensive to acquire new customers than to sell to existing ones when
you factor in the cost of advertising, educating and selling. E-mail is one of the most cost-
effective ways to attract new customers, generate leads and drive new and repeat sales.
• Build customer relationships. Another key to growing your business is building strong
customer relationships by meeting their specific needs. With e-mail marketing you can
segment your customers according to various criteria and deliver customized content that
caters to those customers’ preferences.
• Up-sell and cross-sell products and services. E-mail marketing provides a great
opportunity for you to cross- and up-sell your products or services. Let’s say you sell tennis
gear on your Web site. A customer purchasing a racket may also be interested in tennis balls,
a bag, shoes or other accessories. Using simple e-mail marketing tools, you can easily
generate a series of e-mails that will automatically deliver offers for other tennis equipment
and clothing to customers who’ve bought a racket.

• Collect valuable customer feedback. You can use e-mail marketing to create a dialog with
customers and get valuable feedback about your business, products and/or services. Using
tools that track everything from which product pictures customers click to enlarge to where
they may have abandoned a shopping cart during the checkout process, it’s possible to use
e-mail marketing to fine-tune your efforts, make changes, and give your customers what they
really want.
• Generate high ROI. Probably the greatest benefit of using e-mail marketing is the favorable
return on investment (ROI). According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing
Association, e-mail marketing generated $51.58 for every $1 spent. As such, it outperforms
all other direct marketing methods. In fact, e-mail marketing is 20 times more cost-effective
than direct mail, and can cost less than a penny per e-mail. Better yet, your ROI can be
immediate when the call to action is time-sensitive. CTAs such as “Click here to take
advantage of this offer” typically yield responses within 48 hours of the campaign.
What Next?
Convinced yet that e-mail marketing might help your business?
We hope so. Let’s now move on and explore how to …
• Create successful e-mail marketing messages E-mail Marketing

• Increase open rates and avoid spam filters E-mail marketing is a great way to drive traffic
to your own Web site. If you don’t have a Web
• Choose the right technology tools site, Microsoft Office Live Small Business can
give you one that you can easily customize –
• Measure your success for free!
But first we’ll cover some basic e-mail marketing concepts Everything you need to grow your
and terms that are important to understand. business online
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Promote your business and generate sales with
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business applications

Step 1: Learn the Lingo
Here are some important terms and concepts to know before you dive into e-mail marketing.
HTML and Plain Text Messages

These are the two basic formats in which e-mail messages are created and delivered to a
recipient’s inbox. An HTML message is built like a Web page. The result is a rich, colorful
experience with cool fonts and, most importantly, images. You can create a plain text version
of the same message that contains the same text and links, but without the fancy fonts, colors
or graphics.
HTML messages get higher response rates, but some recipients may for security reasons have
their e-mail clients set to display messages in plain text only. That means information contained
in images may not be viewable.

Opt-in and Unsubscribe Links

Referring to an e-mail marketing message as “opt-in” means someone has signed up or indicated
they want to receive your messages. For example, if you’re a baseball fan you might sign up to get a
weekly newsletter with all the scores and highlights for your team.
It is considered a best practice to only send marketing e-mails to customers or contacts who have
given you permission to do so. If you elect to send messages to people who have not “opted
in,” be sure to include an “unsubscribe” link in the e-mail so they can stop you from sending
them more messages in the future. Always have an unsubscribe link in your e-mail marketing
messages.
Spam Filters and E-mail Address Books

If you have e-mail, you’re familiar with spam–also known as unsolicited commercial e-mail.
Most e-mail service providers use spam filters to help keep unwanted messages from customers.
In addition, e-mail programs can also be configured to relegate spam-like messages to a “junk
mail” folder where they are automatically deleted.
The bottom line: Spam filtering means your e-mail messages–even if the recipient signs up
to receive them–may never get read. To combat this, businesses engaged in e-mail marketing
often ask their customers to add them to their e-mail address book. This helps ensure the e-mail
message ends up in the recipient’s inbox, and has a greater chance of getting opened.
Purchased Lists and Segmentation

Companies that want to create targeted e-mail campaigns often purchase a list with names
of individuals or companies–including an e-mail address–that meet specific criteria.
List buying has been around for as long as people have been marketing and selling products.
Marketers can more closely dial in the type of customers they’re looking for by using
segmentation. That means filtering the list by industry, company size, income, zip code,
job title, purchase history and so on. In general, the more the information is segmented,
the more expensive the list.
Summary
In this step, you learned some basic terms and concepts associated with e-mail marketing.
Now let’s move onto best practices for creating e-mail messages.

Step 2: Create Successful E-mail

Marketing Messages
It all starts with your message. Since e-mail marketing has been around for awhile, many
companies today now use an accepted set of guidelines, or “best practices,” to create strong
e-mail marketing messages.
In this step, we’ll go headfirst into these best practices and talk about design principles,
providing a consistent and branded look and feel and writing copy that drives action.

Design It Well and They Will Click

We’ll start with how to design an effective e-mail marketing message. Design in this case refers
to how you present your content (text, images, and links) in the e-mail message.
Design is important because poor design and bad formatting can frustrate users. If they can’t
find the information they want–and find it quickly–they’ll either unsubscribe or just delete the
e-mail when it arrives. Don’t be sloppy in this arena; it will immediately undermine your e-mail
marketing campaign.
Here are the keys to designing effective messages:
• Develop a simple layout. Design and layout are crucial to moving your reader through the
e-mail. Use an HTML template that provides well-delineated sections. Don’t crowd the design
with too much content, imagery, or small text. And don’t use white font on a black background,
or other high-contrast combinations.
• Create a look that promotes your brand. An e-mail message is a cheap and effective way
to promote your brand. Incorporate your company’s color palette and look into your messages.
Ensure your logo is always prominently displayed in the header, or somewhere near the top of
the page.
• Use images. But do so wisely. If you’re using images of people, remember they can become
the “face” of your company. If possible, use photos of real people instead of stock images,
which can often seem flat and impersonal. If your message focuses on products, prominently
feature them and use high-resolution images. High-quality, well-placed images are proven to
increase clicks.
• Drive action. As a rule, all e-mail messages should be designed to drive action. Success in
e-mail marketing is about clicks–getting customers to open the e-mail, read it, and respond
by clicking through to your Web site, signing up for a free trial, contacting someone in your
business, or forwarding the e-mail to a friend. Include a call to action (CTA) in each section
of your e-mail marketing message–and repeat the main CTA throughout the message.
• Get to the point. Your content should all be relevant and useful–and again drive the reader to
take action. People want to quickly “get” what’s being offered. They don’t want to dig around
and wait for the punch line. Put all the important information–the offer and call to action–at the
top of the message so the recipient can’t miss it.
• Watch the file size. Make sure your e-mail message is not too big or it might get rejected by
some e-mail providers. Some experts suggest keeping the file size under 100 kilobytes (KB).
• Consider getting help. When it comes to designing HTML e-mail messages, it might be a
good idea to work with a designer or e-mail service provider that uses Web-based software
to help businesses create custom e-mail marketing messages. Microsoft Office Live Small
Business offers a complete Web-based e-mail marketing service as well.
Copyright © 2008 StartupNation, LLC 10

Writing E-mail Copy that Grabs Readers

Writing effective e-mail copy isn’t as easy as you think. Like poor message design, poor
copywriting that has grammatical errors, misspellings, or the wrong tone can kill your e-mail
marketing campaign before it has a chance to get off the ground.
Here are 10 key tips to writing effective e-mail copy.
• Hook ‘em. Your first couple sentences should contain

your main message and “hook” the recipient’s attention
so they want to keep on reading. If you sell women’s
accessories, for instance, you might lead with: “Is your
purse so cluttered that it takes 10 minutes to find the E-mail Marketing
pen at the bottom? Then you’ll want to check out our Microsoft Office Live Small Business enables
new lineup of spacious handbags.” you to create professional-looking e-mail
messages with its E-Mail Marketing service.
• Back it up. Once the hook is set, spend the rest of the No technical expertise is required and you can
e-mail backing up that message. Don’t wander off in manage subscriber lists and customize your
new directions and introduce new messages. The middle message so that your campaign can be specific
and end should reiterate and support the main message and interesting to recipients.
and tell people why they should act (click).
After you send the campaign, you can track
how effective it is at generating clicks and page
• Keep it short. People are easily overwhelmed by too
views. Over time, you can assess which types
many words–and they already sift through so many
of messages are most effective in influencing
e-mails. The key is to give the reader all the details
your customers, and you can edit your
using as few words as possible. Be succinct, choose
messages to get the best response.
your words carefully, and don’t just fill up empty space.
E-mail marketing can help you bring
your message to your customers quickly
• Use normal language. Sometimes when people write
and powerfully.
they come across as formal and impersonal. Before you
write the e-mail, imagine you’re having a conversation
with someone about the topic. Then try and write it like Visit http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/
you’d say it. Stay away from buzzwords or clichés. to get started today.
• Show who you are. In an e-mail message, it’s entirely

appropriate to let your personality come out. Customers are coming to you because you
have something to offer. By letting your personality come through, you are able to create
a more human, less corporate message– something readers don’t get from the “big guys.”
• Write for the Web. People scan Web pages–and e-mails that look like Web pages. So it’s
a good idea to use benefit-driven headlines and subheads that stand out. Because people
scan, repetition is acceptable–if they didn’t catch it the first time, hopefully they will on the
second or third try.

• Get active. (As in voice). Try to use an active voice instead of a passive voice. The active
voice puts the emphasis on the subject instead of how the subject is being acted upon.
It’s a more powerful way to convey information.
For example, here’s a passive statement:

The most powerful widgets in the country have been built by Contoso.
Here’s the same information using the active voice:
Contoso builds the most powerful widgets in the country.
• Get the right tone. The tone is the tenor or the spirit of the message, conveyed by the style
of language used. Earlier we talked about not being too formal; that said, the right tone really
depends on the customer and the topic. If your product or service goes out to a technical or
academic audience, then you might not lead with humor or irreverent language, but it might
come in later.
• Know the Rule of 3: Most marketing gurus agree, the three most important pieces of real
estate in an e-mail marketing message are the subject line, the first line of the e-mail, and the
postscript or final line at the end of the message. If people scan the message, these may be
the only three lines they read–and if done well, they should be able to glean what they need
and still act.
• Proof it: Make sure you run spell check, and have your message proof read by someone not
familiar with the contents. Poor grammar and misspellings can create a negative perception
of your business, and you don’t want a small oversight to stymie your success.
Summary
Tip: Using the Rule of 3
In this step, we looked at best practices for
designing and writing messages so that Subject line – It’s a small line that has to work very hard.
customers find them engaging and easy to read. It should: 1) tell the reader what the e-mail is about;
Next up we’ll look at choosing an e-mail 2) convey the benefit of opening the message; and
marketing vendor. 3) not rely on gimmicks or jargon. Avoid terms like “free,”
“winner,” “amazing,” and “cash bonus”
First line – This line should clearly express the main point
of the e-mail, and encourage the reader to delve in further.
PS – It’s not necessary to use a post script, per se, but

it’s critical that the offer, pitch, or CTA gets restated as
the final word.

Step 3: Choosing an E-mail

Service Provider
Now that you understand best practices for creating strong e-mail messages, let’s look at some
of the technology and services available that make e-mail marketing easier.

What’s an ESP?
E-mail service providers (ESPs) are companies that–for a fee–enable you to use Web-based
software to create e-mail marketing messages. Most also handle delivering messages, managing
your customer lists and reporting results. ESPs typically offer a variety of HTML e-mail templates
to support your content whether is an offer, newsletter or other type of marketing message.
Here’s how it works: Let’s say you want to start a monthly e-mail newsletter for your customers.
Working with the ESP’s Web site tools, you choose a template and customize it with your
company colors, logo, and other brand elements. You then enter (or paste) your content into the
template each month. The ESP creates a finished e-mail product and sends it to you for approval.
Once they have your OK, they will automatically send your message to your selected customer list
at a scheduled time.
There are clear advantages to going this route:
• It’s cost-effective. If you have a large customer list, it can be very time-intensive and costly
to design your own template (or hiring a designer to do so), write content, scrub and update
your customer list, and track the results. Good ESPs make the process cheap and painless.
• No tech expertise is required. ESPs have the knowledge and technology tools necessary
to manage and update lists, generate automatic e-mail responses, do testing, targeting and
segmentation, and capture and report all the pertinent data.
• It’s fast. Web-based tools make it fast and simple to put together an e-mail campaign on the fly.
An ESP enables you to get information out to your customer quickly.
• Other people handle problems. If there’s a technical problem with the delivery, or links don’t
work, a good ESP will provide support to keep your campaigns on track.
• You get advice. Some ESPs offer strategic advice and creative services to help businesses
get the results they want from e-mail campaigns. They can help with renting lists, segmenting
customers, targeting, and using report results to create ongoing campaigns.
One of the key benefits to using an ESP is that they will typically manage your customer and
distribution lists for you, so you don’t have to rely on methods such as Excel spreadsheets to
manage your contacts.
On the other hand, e-mails can cost as little as a few cents a pop to send, so if your list is small
you could save money if you handle e-mail marketing yourself. Also, e-mails sent using an ESP
template can lose some of their personalized touch, and a lot of the e-mail messages can end up
with a similar look and feel. That said, it’s important to calculate the time savings and convenience
of using an ESP versus cost-savings of sending messages yourself.

Selecting Your ESP

Before you go hunting for an ESP, first determine what kind
of service you need. Are you looking to do a newsletter?
Are you planning to do a series of marketing campaigns
to launch a new product or service? Is lead-generation E-Mail Marketing
your goal? Do you want to capture and link customer
One of the most popular and cost-effective
information and purchase history with a database?
ways to market your business
And most importantly, what’s your budget?
Activate now
Once you’ve answered those questions, contact a few • Create professional-looking e-mail
vendors to compare the services offered, prices, and promotions and newsletters
success rates.
• Develop your own mailing list and
Here’s a list of ESPs to check out: connect with customers to build
long-term loyalty
Easy to set up and manage

• iContact
Step-by-step guidance to help get your
• Cooler E-mail
e-mail campaigns out the door quickly
• Constant Contact
• YesMail Target the right customers
• eROI Build and manage your own e-mail list using
• Silverpop Contact Manager—add or delete new contacts,
import existing lists, and update with ease
Track Results
Summary
Simple, easy-to-use reports tell you how many
In this step we looked at the advantages of using e-mail messages were sent and delivered,
an ESP to create and send e-mail marketing which links generated the most interest,
messages. In the next step, we look at things and other helpful information
you can do to help ensure your messages get
opened by your customers.

Step 4: Strategies for Optimizing

Open Rates
There are many ways to measure the success of an e-mail marketing campaign. But getting
your customers to open your message is perhaps the most important. E-mail marketers can
track e-mails that get opened and the percentage that do is called the “open rate.”
There’s a lot of emphasis placed on the “open rate” in e-mail marketing. But equally important
is the “click-through rate,” which is when a reader clicks on a link in the message to take action.
In this step we’ll explore key strategies and tactics for increasing your open and click-through
rates, and how to test and tweak messages to improve your results.

How to Improve Your Open Rates

Many factors can influence whether a message gets opened
or not–and some of the reasons are well beyond your control.
Here are four things you can do:
Contact Manager
• Create your own marketing list. The best prospects
Organize your business contacts, customer
for new products or special offers are your satisfied customers
relationships, and sales opportunities in one
and people who already know you. With an in-house database,
online location
you can identify repeat or premium customers and target
them with customized offers. Contact Manager, which is Activate for FREE
included with Microsoft Office Live Small Business, provides • Create contact lists and provide your
an easy way to organize all of your business and personal company with a single view of your
contacts in one online location. customers and prospects
• Test, test, test. Before investing in an e-mail campaign • Manage sales opportunities to grow
that may end up alienating prospects, test your message. your business
First send it to yourself as a test to ensure everything works. • Integrate with Office Live Small
Then send it to a test sample of customers. For example, Business E-mail Marketing to create
if your list is 5,000 names, send to every 500th name; if 100, e-mail promotions and e-newsletters
send to every 10th name. Not only will this get you feedback

on content and offers, but you’ll also learn how well your
Need More Reasons?
messages fare on different operating systems, different
e-mail clients and different spam filters. Easy to set up and manage
Simple steps for importing and synching

• Customize your ‘From’ field. Take advantage of
existing contacts from Microsoft Office Excel
customizable ”From” fields in most e-mail delivery systems.
or Microsoft Office Outlook to your Office
For example, if your company is called Contoso, then use
Live Contact Manager
a branded e-mail alias like info@contoso.com as the ”From”
address. Recipients and their e-mail filters will begin to Develop customer relationships
recognize the name, increasing the odds it will be maintained Track every contact with customers to
in their inbox–instead of sent off to the junk folder–and get maintain a running dialogue throughout
opened. Be consistent and keep the ”From” field the same the customer lifecycle and send automatic
over time. notifications based on triggered events
• Segment your e-mail. If you have more than one e-mail Anywhere access
address for your business, (like an alias in the above example) Allows you and your employees to check
use them to identify which e-mail lists work better. For example, the status of your accounts and sales
you can use one alias for e-mail messages that go to your opportunities from any location with a
customer database and another for messages to third-party Web browser
rented lists. You can check whether your messages are
effective by monitoring whether they are driving visits to
your Web site.

How to Create Effective Subject Lines

As a critical factor for achieving good open rates, “subject lines” is a subject that deserves
a dedicated discussion. Writing effective subject lines is both a creative exercise and a study
in human behavior.
When writing subject lines, the greatest danger may be falling prey to your own ideas. If you
catch yourself saying things like, “I think that’s funny, I’d open it,” or “Let’s just go with Contoso
Newsletter, May 2008,” then you could be headed down the wrong path.
Tips for Writing Strong Subject Lines

To keep you on the right path, consider these tips when creating your subject lines:
• Shorter is sweeter. Especially in terms of open rates. Subject lines of 35 characters or

less had a 24% open rate, while longer ones averaged only a 17% open rate. When you’re
succinct, recipients respond better.
• Make it personal. Try to connect with the recipient personally. General statements have
less success. If you know the first name of your recipients, try to use it in the subject line.
For example, “Rich, here’s your monthly StartupNation eNewsletter.”
• Make it enticing. The subject line is really an invitation to open the message because
what’s inside can’t be missed! Lose that tone and you’ll get lower open rates.
• Add urgency. People don’t want to feel like they’re missing out on something. Therefore
subject lines that are time sensitive perform better. You can add urgency by using words
like, “last day,” “now,” and “ends Friday.” At the same time, don’t sound too “salesy.”
• Get creative. Find innovative ways to cut through the clutter and stand out–without ending
up in the spam filter. With so many companies turning to e-mail, this can be a challenge.
Sign up for a bunch of online newsletters and see what kind of subject lines others are using.
• Test for success. We mentioned testing message content above; here we’re specifically
referring to subject line testing. Send messages to an A group and B group using different
subject lines for each. Compare open rates.
• Never use the word “FREE.” This is a sure-fire way to get caught in the jaws of spam filters.
Note the word “free” is used with great success in other marketing materials, but not in subject lines.
• Be aware of CAN-SPAM compliance. Learn what the restrictions are and follow them,
otherwise you won’t make it into the inbox at all. Check the FCC Web site
(http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm) for requirements

for commercial e-mailers.

How to Create Better CTAs for Better CTRs

As we’ve discussed, an e-mail message should have a single purpose backed up by a strong
call-to-action)(CTA). Your CTA should, in turn, generate a strong click-through rate (CTR).
And your CTR is how you make new customers and increase sales.
So to review: A strong CTA generates high CTR which generates more customers which
generates more sales. So let’s look at how you get this process started–creating a strong
call to action.
Tips for Writing Strong CTAs

By definition, a CTA is an offer or invitation to do something–sign up for a free trial, download a how-to
guide, enter a contest, answer a survey, or buy. Here are some tips for a better CTA in your e-mails.
• Use benefit-driven CTAs. “Click here” to do what? When you remind them what they get
when they click, it’s much more powerful. For example: “Click here to start your free trial,”
“Click here to learn more,” or “Visit our Web site to sign up.”
• Think about placement. The CTA should always appear at the top of the message,
in the middle after natural breaks in the text, and at the end. You can add the CTA to
sidebar promotions and other teasers.
• Use buttons and text links. Recent surveys suggest that clickable buttons perform
better than links in an e-mail. Use a mix of both to increase your click-through rates
In a nutshell, an e-mail campaign with a strong CTA sprinkled throughout the message drives
action and increases your click-through rates. The result is higher traffic to your Web site, and
ultimately more leads, sales, and higher revenue.
Summary
In this step, we discussed improving your e-mail open rates, tips for writing effective subject
lines, and developing stronger CTAs to increase your click-through rates and overall success.
Next up: Measuring Success.

Step 5: Measuring Success
In this final step, we’ll discuss how to interpret and use data to fine-tune your e-mail marketing
campaigns. Which data points are the most useful? And how do you leverage that information
to make strategic decisions along the way to save time and money? Read on and find out.

To Measure Results, Know Your Goal

To be effective, your marketing efforts must be strategic. Merely sending an e-mail newsletter
full of random information is unlikely to produce results.
That is why you want to be sure that every e-mail marketing campaign you launch has a goal
so that you’re able to measure the results against the goal. For instance, your goal may be to
increase the number of visits to your Web site, or increase sales of a specific product, or convert
potential customers into buyers.
Although it may be tempting to combine multiple goals into a single campaign, a campaign
focused on one goal makes it easier to target the most appropriate customers and achieve
the results that you want.
Regardless of your specific campaign goal, it’s important to measure your results and use that
information to help you plan and execute an effective ongoing e-mail marketing strategy.
Use Reporting Tools to Fine-tune Campaigns

Reporting tools are software that automatically track the activity for your e-mail campaigns. Most
e-mail vendors provide basic data reports that you can use to see how well your e-mail performed,
and determine what’s working and what isn’t.
When looking at the reported data from a campaign, you have to assess whether it reflects
something positive or negative. . For example, when you view the number of site visits in
a given month, how do you know whether the number is good or bad? Typically, you know
because of the trend you see over several months.
Similarly, you can compare the report data from the various types of messages you send.
Or use report results from previous campaigns to help you improve upcoming marketing efforts.
In addition, reporting tools can help you make decisions about:
• When to send your e-mails. How do you know the best time of day to send an e-mail
marketing campaign or how frequently to send campaigns to the same set of subscribers?
Try sending campaigns at different hours and compare the results for each. A solid reporting
tool tracks the number of clicks from the campaign message to your site. It should provide
information that can help you manage your subscriber lists and measure the relative success
of campaigns, such as the number of e-mail replies, bounced messages and recipients who
unsubscribed from future messages.

• Use of design elements. Can the colors, fonts, or graphics you use in a message influence
the number of clicks the message generates? For example, if you are disappointed by the
results of a campaign to advertise an online sale, you may try sending a campaign that
includes images of your most popular sale items and then track the results to see whether
clicks improve. When you consider which design elements to include in your message,
remember that design for its own sake can detract from your message. Good campaign
design is about helping the message content shine through.
• Your best CTAs. What type of call to action do your customers respond more positively to?
Is it a time sensitive offer (such as a coupon or sale notice) or a soft sell (such as expert tips)?
It may depend on your field of business. If the answer isn’t clear, you may want to send
campaigns with different approaches and then use conversion data (reports that show when
a visitor took an action on your site, such as making a purchase) to compare results. You can
also test effective subject lines in this way.

Note: As effective as comparative data can be, it is important to make thoughtful choices about
what type of message content to test. For example, when you send an e-mail marketing campaign
about a local event, you may include directions to the event and parking information. Although
you could test to see whether attendance drops for events when you do not include directions,
why take the risk?

Using E-Mail Marketing Reports
As you see in Chart 1, you can track the number of clicks from the specific
e-mail campaign to your site. You can also better manage your subscriber
lists and measure the relative success of campaigns, such as the number
of e-mail replies, bounced messages, and recipients who unsubscribed Chart 1
from future messages.
You can also use site reports to examine the success of campaigns by
viewing several kinds of activity around an event or comparing that same
activity for multiple events. As you see in Chart 2, the Web site usage
overview tracks the number of visits, visitors, and conversions over time.
Each red marker on the chart represents an important event, such as the
date that you send an e-mail marketing campaign.
Strategic Decisions Save Time and Money

Chart 2
Strategic planning for your marketing efforts increases the benefits
of marketing while reducing the time and cost required. When you use Office Live Small Business E-Mail
Marketing and reports together, you have the tools to help you plan like a marketing expert and the time
to focus on your true expertise – running your business.

Interpreting Report Data

Some data that you collect from reports is straightforward. More clicks on a newsletter, more
salesor more conversions are clearly positive results. However, some data may not be that
simple to read.
For example, if your Web page views go up after you send an e-mail marketing campaign, does
that mean that your campaign increased customer interest in your site, or that customers cannot
find what they need on your pages and are searching? How you interpret the available data can
make a big difference in the success of your marketing efforts.
Review all the data in a campaign report, and data across multiple reports, to more accurately
interpret results. Plan how you can follow the data from one report to the next in order to collect
information over time that can help you focus and improve your marketing efforts.
Summary
In this last step, we covered how to use simple reporting tools to measure your success
and test and tweak future e-mail marketing campaigns to determine what works best.

Best Practices for Successful E-mail Newsletters

E-mail newsletters are one of the most popular forms of e-mail marketing. If your marketing
budget is tight, an e-mail newsletter is a cost-effective way to reach a lot of customers and
generate goodwill toward your business. Compared to using direct mail, sending electronic
newsletters will save you time and money and give you a strong return on your investment (ROI).
Here are some best practices that are specifically focused on creating successful e-mail newsletters.
Build Your Newsletter List
One of the crucial steps in creating a successful e-mail newsletter program is to develop ways to
collect e-mail addresses. Start by adding a newsletter sign-up function to your Web site. As people
sign up, the names should get added to your contact management system. This is a great way to
let your site help you acquire leads, as well as collect e-mail addresses.
Other ways to capture e-mail addresses include:
• Put a sign-up sheet at point-of-sale locations

• Add a note to the bottom of invoices soliciting signups
Once you have captured enough e-mail addresses and permissions to make the effort worthwhile,
it’s time to think about what you’ll put in your newsletter.
Try Soft Sell
While the end goal from a marketing perspective is to promote your products and services,
e-mail newsletters tend to be most effective with a soft-sell approach. If you offer relevant and
topical content that people interested in your products and services would care about, then your
newsletter will help establish a bond with your customers.
Let’s use a pet food business as an example. The marketing goal is to get folks into the store or
to place orders online to buy pet food. But an e-mail newsletter that includes pet care tips, or pet
humor interspersed with information on new pet food products ,or special offers is going to be
more engaging for the reader.
Set Goals
Have clear goals for your newsletter. Many businesses and organizations use newsletters
to achieve goals such as these:
• Increase site visits

• Increase purchases online
• Announce a new product
• Give details for an event, including directions and maps
• Distribute coupons, advertise a sale, or give certain customers a special offer
• Give tips and tricks–free information that helps build goodwill with customers

Create a Schedule
Decide how often to send your newsletter to subscribers. It depends on your business–monthly,
quarterly, or seasonal campaigns work best. You do not want to overwhelm people with
information, but sending a newsletter on a regular basis can show your customers that you are
committed to them. Also keep in mind that you should only send newsletters to customers who
have opted-in or requested them.
Quick Do’s and Don’ts
Keep this list handy when working on your e-mail newsletter.
Do:
• Personalize. If you have the recipient’s first name, you can use software to add it to the
top of the newsletter, i.e., “Hi Chris! Here’s your monthly newsletter.
• Create a clear CTA. As discussed above, make it benefit-driven, and easy to find.
• Experiment with link placement. Monthly e-mails are a great way to test the effectiveness
of links and content.
• Make it easy to make subscription changes. Provide links in your newsletter for recipients
to change their e-mail address and even unsubscribe.
• Use sweepstakes to increase subscribers. You can run an online sweepstakes and
require those entering provide an e-mail address and get automatically enrolled in your
newsletter program.
• Make HTML and text e-mail content the same. You don’t want to tell one group
of subscribers one thing, and another something else.
• Use blogs and social networks (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn) to attract subscribers.
Include your newsletter sign up on social networking pages you own.
• Provide a newsletter sign up box on your Web site. Place sign up links in several
prominent places on your site.
Don’t:
• Use $$ and !! signs in your subject line. These are red flags for spam filters.
• Use ‘FREE’ in subject lines or copy. Spam, gotcha.
• Send unsolicited messages. Always give people an opportunity to opt-in.
Don’t be a spammer.
Summary
This section looked at best practices for creating an e-mail newsletter program and a quick list
of do’s and don’ts to use as a guide.

Conclusion
After reading this e-book, you should have a pretty good idea of how e-mail marketing works
and, we hope, feel empowered to use your new knowledge to effectively promote your business
through e-mail.
But really, the best way to learn about e-mail marketing is to give it a try. If you’re a Microsoft
Office Live Small Business subscriber, you can activate the built-in E-Mail Marketing service with
just a couple clicks and get started right away. You get all the tools you need to create and send
HTML e-mails, as well as the reports you need to analyze the results of campaigns.
And if you think you would like to investigate e-mail marketing a bit more before starting,
check out this great resource:
• Office Live Small Business Resource Center
Read how-to articles and expert advice on e-mail marketing

Resources
E-mail Marketing Solution Providers

• iContact
• Cooler E-mail
• Constant Contact
• YesMail
• eROI
• Silverpop
CAN–SPAM Compliance
• FCC Website
• canspam.shtm

Reporting Tools

StartupNation.com Resources
• Free quotes from E-mail

marketing vendors
• Podcast with CEO of iContact regarding
best practices in email marketing
• Site analytics
• eGuide: 6 Ways to Maximize Responses
from E-mails and Increase Profits
• Seasonal opportunities in email marketing
• Marketing discussion forum

Steps To Success Full Email Marketing

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eBooks for Entrepreneurs

Why E-mail marketing is

Strategies for optimizing

Learn how you can get a free Web site at http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/

Copyright © 2008 StartupNation, LLC 

Intro: Why E-mail marketing Is Right for Your Business..................................4

Step 1: Learn the Lingo.....................................................................................7

Step 2: Create Successful E-mail Marketing Messages..................................9

Step 3: Choosing an E-mail Service Provider................................................13

Step 4: Strategies for Optimizing Open Rates...............................................16

Step 5: Measuring Success............................................................................20

Best Practices for Successful E-mail Newsletters..........................................24

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Introduction: Why E-mail Marketing Is

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E-mail is Alive and Growing

Key Benefits for Your Business

Copyright © 2008 StartupNation, LLC 

• Create successful e-mail marketing messages E-mail Marketing

Manage Your Business

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Step 1: Learn the Lingo

HTML and Plain Text Messages

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Opt-in and Unsubscribe Links

Spam Filters and E-mail Address Books

Purchased Lists and Segmentation

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Step 2: Create Successful E-mail

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Design It Well and They Will Click

Here are the keys to designing effective messages:

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Writing E-mail Copy that Grabs Readers

Here are 10 key tips to writing effective e-mail copy.

• Hook ‘em. Your first couple sentences should contain

• Show who you are. In an e-mail message, it’s entirely

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For example, here’s a passive statement:

PS – It’s not necessary to use a post script, per se, but

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Step 3: Choosing an E-mail

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There are clear advantages to going this route:

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Selecting Your ESP

Easy to set up and manage

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Step 4: Strategies for Optimizing

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How to Improve Your Open Rates

Simple steps for importing and synching

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How to Create Effective Subject Lines

Tips for Writing Strong Subject Lines

• Shorter is sweeter. Especially in terms of open rates. Subject lines of 35 characters or

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How to Create Better CTAs for Better CTRs

Tips for Writing Strong CTAs

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Step 5: Measuring Success

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Copyright © 2008 StartupNation, LLC

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