With e-mail marketing being such a hot topic today, I thought it might be useful to spend a little time outlining the basics, because anyone who's just come into this game-- or those who haven't kept current--are sure to be behind. The Internet has changed drastically over the past couple of years, and so have the rules for e-mail marketing. Just a year ago, I did an article on this subject and included hints like "Don't use all upper case letters." But things have developed since then-we've seen the backlash of spamming, and invented new words like flaming, permission marketing and opt-in mailings. Below, I've outlined the three stages of creating a successful campaign--follow it, and perhaps you'll be one of the lucky who see a 15% or more click-through rate!

Design it

There are two types of e-mail readers--those who just want quick information in order to make a decision, and those who want a deal. The most successful e-mail campaigns are the ones that address both of these potential customers. How to do that? First of all, you must use the pyramid method: stacking all of the useful, tempting information at the beginning of a short, succinct e-mail. This will satisfy the reader who wants quick information. But in order to gain the person's business who wants a deal, you must include your promotional offer early in the e-mail as well. Of course, you'll want to include links in your message, early in the e-mail's body, and throughout the entire message. Use anything to provide a link to your page, your URL, images, even sentences that give a call-to-action, such as "Click here to receive an additional 10% off your first order!" Finally, you'll want to make sure that your splash page is worth the click. When a browser lands on it, they should see not only what you've promised, but a page that is consistent with the email's design and language. Most likely, you'll need to customize a splash page to coordinate with your marketing message.

Find an Audience

Now, here's where a lot of people fall short. Recently, I was hired to market a site whose product was very specific, and would only interest a few select people. But they wanted me to design a marketing piece, then blindly send it out to 300,000 recipients. Not so fast, I say. You've gone to all the trouble to design a killer ad, revamp your site and add tempting splash pages--now it's vital to be certain that the recipients will be interested. Today's e-mail marketers don't just blindly send out their messages to a large group of people, instead, they utilize targeted, opt-in lists. But in order to find the right list, you must first get to know your customers. Hopefully, you've been keeping your own in-house database and breaking it down into categories that tell you who your core audience is. But if you want to expand outside of your own list, then you'll need to buy one from one of the hundreds of list brokers out there. Brokers such as TargitMail, YesMail, Netcreations and 24/7 will sell you a dedicated list that will target your audience by category of interest, or even demographic information.

Test it

After all of this hard work, it will be tempting to sit back and enjoy the payoff. But don't. Things change quickly, and in order to be successful, you'll need to constantly test and measure your efforts. Every time you launch a message, add something to it that tests the response and click-through rate--even if you're satisfied with your current results. For example, if you have success by offering a 10% discount, send out two more test runs--one with a lower discount, and one with a higher discount. You may increase your orders by offering a different rate, or better yet, you may discover that you only have to reduce your prices by 5% to get the same amount of buyers! Do the same types of tests with your content. Savvy marketers know that by re-wording even one important sentence in an ad can make the difference between success and failure. Remember, what may be an average successful campaign could turn into a wildly profitable one with a few more test runs!