E-Mail Secrets Exposed

Take the subject line, for example. Let’s say it offers great deals on products. But when someone opens your e-mail, they find that the bulk of the text is about your company and the link you offer is to some white papers they can download. “People get bored and confused, and you’ve just lost that reader,” Baranowski continues. “You’ve only got a few seconds to get someone interested, and you should be creating a clear path for them to follow.” A message that works, he says, will lead people step by step to where you want them: clicking on a link to sign up for your newsletter or, maybe, buying those products you tempted them with in the subject line.

Jennifer Parks, a senior producer with the Minneapolis-based marketing firm Larsen, agrees that the subject line is an important tool for grabbing a reader’s attention—so important that when working with clients, Larsen routinely tests subject lines by sending half of a target group one line while the other half gets another. “It’s great when you find the one that gets opened more,” she says. “But don’t stick with it for too long, because six months from now it may stop working, since people expect change. They want to see something different.”

That said, Parks stresses that it’s important, when doing e-mail marketing, to know how much is enough. Sending either too much or too little e-mail can be a problem. “Again, you have to think about your audience,” Parks explains. “If you’re sending e-mails every week, people may think you’re a pest. But if you only send one once a year, you might be sending the message that you have very little to say.”

Pay attention to your “from” line, too, Eklund advises. “You see an increase in open rates when the e-mail comes from a real person rather than just a brand. I think the subject line and the from line offer the biggest chance for your e-mail being opened.”

The Right Tools

If you want to make the most of your e-mail marketing efforts, Eklund, Baranowski, and Parks agree that in addition to working with a knowledgeable marketing firm on design and strategy, companies need to sign on with an e-mail service provider. Ranging in size and capabilities, e-mail service providers offer e-mail marketing and bulk e-mail services that include Web-accessible software programs to track valuable information on everything from whether an address was valid to whether a reader clicked on a link or made a purchase.