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1. How To Guide
Building Effective Email Marketing Campaigns
Executive Summary:
This report has been designed to provide practical advice for building an
effective email marketing campaign.
Read this brief 9-page report to learn how to:
 Identify the benefits & risks of email marketing
 Build a business case for an email marketing initiative
 Improve your delivery rates
 Track key email metrics
 Follow email marketing best practices
Read this report and avoid the common mistakes and pitfalls of email
marketing.
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2. 2
Table of Contents Page
Email Marketing Defined 3
Benefits of Email Marketing 4
Email Marketing Risks 5
Email Delivery Best Practices 5
Benchmarking & Metrics 7
Email Marketing Best Practices 8
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3. 3
Email Marketing Defined
“E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail
as a means of communicating messages to an audience. This term
usually refers to emails that are being sent over the internet and can
include:
 Sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of
a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage
customer loyalty and repeat business.
 Sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or
convincing old customers to buy something immediately.
 Adding advertisements in e-mails sent by other companies to
their customers.”
Source – Wikipedia
Other Important Definitions:
 Unique Opens: A single open by a single user.
 Unique Clicks: A single click by a single user.
 Hard Bounces: A permanent failure due to a non-existent
address or a blocking condition by the receiver that returns the
email to the server that sent it.
 Soft Bounces: A temporary failure due to a full mailbox or an
unavailable server that returns the email to the server that sent
it.
 Open Rate: The total number of emails opened divided by the
total number of emails delivered as a percentage.
 Click Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of those clicking on
a link out of the total number who see the link.
 Click To Open Rate (CTOR): The ratio of unique clicks as a
percentage of unique opens.
 Conversion Rate: The number or percentage of visitors who
convert casual content views or website visits into desired
actions.
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4. 4
Benefits of Email Marketing
Many companies have been able to reduce their marketing costs by
running effective email marketing campaigns. According to the Direct
Marketing Association, email will deliver $45.56 in sales for every
dollar spent in 2008. Although this indicates a steady decline in the ROI
associated with email marketing in recent years, the tangible and
intangible benefits of email marketing can’t be ignored.
Most companies are using email marketing for the following reasons:
 Lower Cost: Email marketing provides a very inexpensive way
of communicating with your target audience.
 Increased Sales: Not only can a permission based email
campaign increase your sales conversion, but it can also help to
generate repeat business and cross/up sell existing customers.
 Faster Delivery: Email provides a faster medium than
traditional forms of marketing (i.e. direct mail) because it
reaches your audience almost immediately.
 Build Relationships: Email allows you to make your customers
happier by keeping them “in the loop.” It also provides the
opportunity to raise brand awareness by reaching out to
customers while positioning yourself as you would like to be seen
in the market.
 Go Green: Email is an environmentally friendly way of reaching
out to prospects and customers.
 Save Time: Emails are quick to create and allow for more
frequent contact.
 Measure Results: Email metrics are displayed almost
immediately. By tracking and monitor campaigns, email
marketers have the ability to improve and refine their strategy
over time.
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5. 5
Email Marketing Risks
When it comes to email marketing you need to be aware of all the
legislation restricting the use of email before beginning any campaign –
regardless of your intentions. In the United States, the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. This act
also gives the Department of Justice the authority to enforce criminal
sanctions for the improper use of email. Click here for more information
on the CAN-SPAM Act.
The bottom line is that this law has 4 main provisions:
 It bans false or misleading header information
 It prohibits deceptive subject lines
 It required that you give recipients an opt-out method
 It requires that commercial email be identified as an
advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal
address.
The penalties for not complying with this Act are severe and can include
hefty fines. Not only can an illegal email marketing campaign hurt your
company financially, SPAMMING can also damage your brand, hurt
relationships with customers/prospects, and make you appear
desperate.
Email Delivery Best Practices
As discussed above, email marketing can tarnish your brand if it’s not
done correctly. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure your next email
marketing campaign will provide you with a solid ROI.
 Send Email only when it’s Relevant: Send emails based on
what you know about the recipient (i.e. where they are in the
buying cycle, what content they have requested, etc.). It is also
important to make sure you show respect for recipient’s time by
sending emails at the frequency the recipient asks for.
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6. 6
 Establish Credibility: The consistency and timeliness of
communication has an impact on your brand. By maintaining
consistent communication and delivering content that is valuable
to the recipient you will improves your brand image and create
longer customer relationships.
 Include a Privacy Policy Link: Ensure that prospects and
customers know what you plan to do with their personal
information by creating a privacy policy that is easily accessible.
 Make Unsubscribe Easy: Make sure the unsubscribe link is
easily noticeable, clearly defined and easy to use.
 Have a Clear Call to Action: Don’t send an email unless the
required action is easy to understand and will provide value to
the recipient.
 Personalize the Email: Include the recipient’s name and ensure
the spelling is correct.
 Monitor and Measure Campaigns: It is critical that metrics are
identified well in advance and improvements are made over time.
 Include both Plan Text and HTML: It is important that the
formatting is done properly. Emails should be tested to ensure
they can be seen properly on different screen sizes, with different
browsers and on Blackberry’s.
 Subject Line should be Clear and Concise: As a general rule
of thumb, try not to include a dollar sign, the word free, or
multiple exclamation marks as they increase the likelihood of
being identified as spam. Use a subject line that actually speaks
to what is in the email.
 Keep the Sender Consistent: Make sure the sender is well
known and well respected. Use someone from the company
instead of a generic email account.
 Clean your List: Keep your list of subscribers clean by asking
receivers to update their information on an ongoing basis.
 Monitor and Classify your Bounces: This will help to ensure
your lists are clean and up-to-date. A review of your bounces will
also help you understand why emails are undeliverable (ISP,
Domain, etc.) and adjust your strategy accordingly.
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7. 7
 Use Email Marketing as part of an Integrated Marketing
Plan: Email alone will not allow you to achieve your desired end
result. Read Demand Metric’s report on “Integrating Lead
Generation Campaigns” for practical advice on how to use
email as part of an integrated marketing plan.
Benchmarking & Metrics
If you are interested in obtaining benchmarking data, Marketing Sherpa
released an “Email Marketing Benchmarking Guide” in 2008. Although
the metrics are a bit outdated (the study was conducted in October
2007 – November 2007) the report contains real life data as reported by
1210 marketers. It also contains data from private, third-party and
other research studies. Other sources of benchmarking information
include eMarketer and EmailLabs.
Depending on your objectives, there are many metrics you can monitor.
The most popular performance based metrics include:
 Open rate
 Click-through rate
 Click to open rate
 Bounce rate
 Delivery rate
 Unsubscribe rate
 Referral rate
 Subscriber retention
 Number of orders, transactions, downloads or actions
 Total revenue
 Conversion rate
If you would like more information on selecting the right metrics,
contact Demand Metric and schedule an appointment with one of our
research analysts.
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8. 8
Email Marketing Best Practices
Consider these Best Practices for creating an effective email marketing
campaign.
1. Build a Business Case: use Demand Metric’s Business Case
Template to provide an opportunity overview and document
objectives, requirements, scope, timelines, budget and
benchmarks.
2. Select the Right Vendor: It is critical that you evaluate vendors
based on your business requirements. Demand Metric’s Email
Marketing Vendor Evaluation Matrix provides a structured
approach to evaluating vendors and should be used as a
customizable framework.
3. Develop an Email Marketing Strategy: use our Lead
Generation Strategy Scorecard to set your strategic
objectives, initiatives, measures and targets.
4. Build your Lists: read Demand Metric’s “Creating a
Permission Based Marketing Campaign” and follow the step-
by-step action plan for creating an effective list.
5. Create the Content: Depending on the nature of your
objectives, select content that is relevant and valuable to the
recipient. It is also important to decide on the type and frequency
of communication as well as the sender.
6. Test the Solution: Test your email messages prior to sending
out a major campaign. Send your email to different browsers to
ensure it is being displayed correctly.
7. Launch the Campaign: Split testing is extremely important
during your first few email campaigns. By sending 2 different
emails to the same list at the same time, you can determine:
 Headline A vs. Headline B
 Long email vs. Short Email
 Single link vs. Two / three links
 The effectiveness of putting the name in the headline
 Hard sell vs. Presell
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9. 9
8. Monitor and Review: Evaluate your program following every
batch of email that is sent. Pay close attention to trends (i.e.
Best time to Sent email) Report on improvements to key metrics
and invest further in programs that are providing a quantifiable
return on investment.
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(866) 947-7744