E-mail communication: best practices and insider tips for getting your message to your audience.

Part one of this two-part series [October/November 2002] examined legal, operational and technical issues that communication professionals must address when launching and campaigns. Part two takes a closer look at the creative 'and tactical side of e-mail communication campaign management, exploring best practices, techniques and industry trends.

In the old days, launching an effective e-mail campaign consisted of little more than pulling a list, creating a message, blasting it out and waiting for the response. But with the avalanche of spam, the influx of technology and consumers' dwindling attention spans, it's far more difficult to get results. As rates for bounce-backs (rejected e-mail returned to the sender as undeliverable) rise, and click-through and open rates decline, it's more challenging to get your e-mail delivered, read and responded to. To succeed in the current environment, you should capitalize on proven techniques and tactics that will give your e-mail a competitive edge.

TEN BEST PRACTICES AND INSIDER TIPS

1. Use tracking, reporting and e-mail response history to define lists and follow up campaigns. Most commercial e-mail campaigns use tracking codes to monitor and report on who's opening and reading e-mail, and who's clicking through links. The data are frequently collected to review performance, make assessments about what's working and what isn't, and refine future campaigns. But you can exploit the information further, using it to define second-stage follow-up communications, tie in other communication activities/collateral and build entirely new email campaigns. Some sales teams actually monitor click-through reports, contacting viewers when they are looking at their web pages, or shortly after. Using tracking/response reporting data and adding second-stage communications to your campaigns can often produce dramatic gains.

To make sure you're getting the most our of tracking and reporting, ask yourself the following questions:

* When you run an e-mail campaign, do you develop a follow-up e-mail message to be sent to those who have opened or not opened the original e-mail?

* Do you resend the initial campaign to the addresses that bounced back, indicating that the first message never got through?

* Do you implement a more personalized follow-up process (telephone or one-on-one custom e-mail) for those who opened the original e-mail and reviewed the links?

* Do you build new campaigns, creating unique messages and offers for those who have exhibited certain e-mail response patterns or histories over time?

TIP: Don't just e-mail your audience one time and call it a campaign. Use reporting data to target and implement follow-up communication. If your email list is large and you run campaigns frequently, make sure you capture, report and query response data for all campaigns. This procedure will give you the ability to create future lists based on contact response history.

2. Scrub your list to keep complaints and costs down. Before you send an email campaign, make sure that your list is free of duplicates, that e-mail addresses are a valid type, and that addresses that repeatedly bounce have been removed. Studies show as many as one-third of e-mail users change their addresses each year, and lists often have a 30 to 40 percent bounce-back rate. If you don't pull these addresses you'll continually send to them, and this will cost you--either in internal bandwidth if you are using your own servers, or in fees if you are using an e-mail service provider (they charge per e-mail sent, not per e-mail delivered).

TIP: Track and record bounce-backs. If an e-mail address bounces three consecutive times in a given period, pull that address from your list. Never pull a bounce after only one attempt, however, as the address may be only temporarily out of commission.

3. Avoid a common mistake: overexposure. According to most studies, overexposure is one of the top three reasons e-mail recipients will opt out of receiving future e-mail. Don't hit people too often. Even if they don't opt our, they will be more inclined to ignore future e-mails from you. Be smart about how often you send, and pay attention to what your reports are telling you.

TIP: Create and use a contact schedule for e-mailing. Don't e-mail to your list too frequently (frequency depends on your list and what you're mailing). To get a sense of what's appropriate, watch your reports. Are opt-outs rising? Are opens and click-through rates diminishing?

4. HTML or text: Choose the best match for your audience. There's been a lot of discussion of which e-mail format is better: HTML or text. Data seem to indicate that HTML provides stronger response rates over text, as response rates for HTML average 1.2 to 1.7 times that of text. HTML also allows senders to embed tracking code to monitor and report on campaign results. On the flip side, some professionals claim (though there are conflicting reports) that embedding tracking code into e-mails can actually reduce response rates, as some Internet service providers (ISPs) and anti-spain applications use this code to identify and block potential spain. But the biggest complaint with HTML pertains to file size and download speed, and the inability of various e-mail clients to read communications in this format.

TIP: Use an e-mail solution that makes it easy to create and deliver messages formatted for multiple e-mail clients. This way you can capitalize on the advantages of HTML and ensure that your e-mail is delivered in a form (text, HTML, America Online, etc.) that best matches your audience's email client capabilities. When creating an HTML e-mail, be aware of file size. The larger your e-mail file, the longer it will take to load, and the less likely your audience will be to look at it. Keep e-mail size below 40k maximum, place images that appear in the e-mail on your server instead of the actual e-mail, and thoroughly test what your e-mail will look like when received by various e-mail providers (many popular ISPs cannot handle certain HTML features).

5. Get creative with surveys, contests, coupons, promotions, newsletters and ads. Usually communicators match message type to what they want to accomplish, but you may find it more effective to take a detour from these standard rules of thumb:

* Drive traffic into your stores--coupons

* Update customers--newsletters or bulletins

* Collect user contact information - contests

* Collect useful data--surveys

* Generate leads--ads or promotions

TIP: Try using different formats for different situations. For example, try using surveys as your message type for a leadgeneration campaign. Some campaigns have shown surveys can produce twice the standard response rates (and they offer a soft-pitch approach to start a dialogue with someone) or collect useful information that better arms you to sell.

6. Use the right subject line. The subject line of your e-mail is one of the most important determinants of success. If your e-mail doesn't get opened, it doesn't get read or acted on. The motto: Test, test and test some more. The speed and reporting capability of e-mail will allow you to identify headlines that pay dividends.

TIP: Try a variety of creative subject lines, but stay away from anything that is untruthful or misleading, as laws are evolving concerning deceptive e-mail subject lines. Try personalized subject lines, which can increase open rates and sometimes reduce ISP filtering.

7. Consider the value of personalization and targeting. Studies show that response rates for opt-in e-mail are significantly improved with effective targeting and personalization. Some studies have shown that for e-mails with more than two personalized elements, response rates can almost double--and beyond six elements, almost triple. The more targeted and personalized you can make your e-mail, the better the odds of a strong response rate.

TIP: Use recipients' specific data in the subject line or main text, such as their name or birthday, a recent event or activity they attended, something they bought or a common interest. Make sure you are using an e-mail management application that makes it easy to merge data and personalize email content and subject lines.

8. Encourage viral communication. Perhaps the most powerful marketing and communication asset the Internet offers is viral capacity. Almost every email campaign taps into this asset, as much e-mail is forwarded from one party to another. Yet most campaigns rarely take full advantage of it. As of 2001 Jupiter Media Metrix noted that only 7 percent of companies tracked e-mail pass-along rates, even though 45 percent of consumers chose online retailers on the basis of word-of-mouth recommendations. By capitalizing on pass-along momentum, customer acquisition costs could be reduced by as much as 27 percent.

TIP: Maximize the viral element of the Internet in your campaigns by encouraging and rewarding e-mail recipients who spread the word. Use incentives, contests, comedy, forward buttons and intriguing content to make it easy and effective. Try to track and collect forwarding activity, to identify and reward those who are your strongest advocates.

9. Avoid spam filter triggers. Some ISPs and spam-filtering software block e-mail on the basis of words contained in the subject line and the main text of the e-mail. Using terminology like free, new or amazing in your pitch can prevent your e-mail from ever reaching your recipients' in-boxes.

TIP: Improve delivery rates by minimizing the use of words that frequently accompany spam. If your email sounds like an Internet ad, rethink your messaging.

10. Choose the right e-mail software solution or service provider. Finally, and most important, select a commercial e-mail software solution or service provider that fits your specific needs, one that makes it easy for you to effectively manage and optimize campaign performance. There are low-cost and high-cost solutions, and the one that's best for you is not necessarily the most expensive or complicated--it's the one that meets your needs most cost-effectively.

TIP: If you aren't sure what your options are, talk with a consultant or analyst who is knowledgeable about the various providers, solutions, nuances and issues of commercial email. A professional can help you find the right fit for your requirements and resources to make your e-mail campaigns more manageable and effective.

RELATED ARTICLE: USEFUL FACTS AND FIGURES

* Average opt-e-mail are around 35 to 40 percent.

* Average click-through rates for opt-in e-mail are about 6 to 8 percent.

* Average response rates are 1.2 to 1.7 times higher for HTML than for text.

* For recipients, the top three most annoying features of badly done permission e-mail are:

1. Suspect the company is sharing your address.

2. Unable to unsubscribed easily.

3. Receive messages too frequently.

* Only 7 percent of companies track e mail pass-along rates, even though 45 percent of consumers choose online retailers on the basis of word-of-mouth recommendation.

* Forrester Research estimated that the total spending for e-mail marketing services in the U.S. would reach $2 billion by the end of 2002.

Data sources Included LeadGen Group, DoubleClick, Direct Marketing Association, emarketer and Jupiter Media Matrix.

John Heineman is managing partner at The LeadGen Group, an organization dedicated to identifying and implementing cost-effective, best-of-breed marketing tools and campaigns. His career spans more than 15 years' experience with industry leaders, including Guerrilla Marketing International, Microsoft and Summation Legal Technologies. To learn more about The LeadGen Group, visit www.leadgengroup.com or e-mail [e-mail].