Best practice, benefits and barriers

Email marketing has fast become an integral part of the marketing mix and a channel that simply cannot be ignored. Over the past three years the business to bsiness market has seen a rapid uptake of email as a key communications channel. Firstly, as a direct customer acquisition tool but perhaps more extensively in recent times as a customer retention and broader communication mechanism.

Interview with

James Farmer and his business partner Joel Harrison founded Silver Bullet Publishing in May 2004, with the launch of its flagship product B2B Marketing.

The magazine aims to raise the level of professionalism in the rapidly growing business-to-business marketing sector, as well as helping practitioners compete more successfully. Now with a subscriber base of over 6,000, they use email marketing as one channel to communicate regularly with their customers.

How are you using email to communicate with your customers?

A series of newsletters that deliver content rich and appropriate research to our customer base. We also send out a monthly e-Bulletin, a bi-monthly produce showcase e-Dispatch and product awareness emails as and when new events, subscription offers, directory listings, renewals...etc are launched.

Why did you choose email to communicate with your customers?

It enables you to engage with your customers regularly, when it is truly relevant and with content that is valuable to them. Done properly, email marketing can be used to propagate your brand as they are easily forwarded and thus can attract new subscribers virally. You can also monitor what customers are reading and therefore use this information to make further communications more tailored. Further to this, studying click-through rates on stories and features can help identify common issues for the industry.

What are the 5 key learnings on email marketing campaigns?

• Do not send out first thing in the morning or last thing at night. You want your email to arrive once the working day has commenced. Think about when you would like to receive this type of content. Be truthful and upfront about what you are delivering within the email. This way you buy the right to re-engage
• Do not provide too much information in one email and use hypertext links for further reading. For example on our e-despatch contains only headlines
• Provide content which people want to read and at the frequency they want to read it at
• Do not SPAM. Use and study your opt-ins and use it to communicate more efficiently
• Ensure that all emails can be read on hand held devices.

How do you manage an email marketing campaign?

Data – The best source of data is data collected yourself via campaign work and previous customers. Make sure it is DPA proof. However, when buying data go to a reputable source. Only use named contact addresses. General addresses, for example 'info' or 'enquires' will mean your list is not targeted and will make your mailings just look like SPAM.

Content – Try and keep the content to a minimum and use hypertext links to drive customers to more detailed content. A culture has grown that people do not spend much time reading marketing emails. Your potential customers or clients wants to gather information as quickly as possible. They will generally not scroll down to the bottom of the page to read on, hence, your copy should get to the point very quickly. Personalise all mailings.

Format and design – Continuity is king. Future emails will be more effective if they are well branded. Try not to over design as it can be a distraction from your core message.

Subject line – Competing with the wealth of emails landing on desktops while getting your target audience to open your email [and not delete unread!] is the biggest challenge. A strong subject line is key. Short, snappy and to the point is always best. Lead with your offer.

Calls to action – Key to make all call-to-actions standout, and then hyperlink keys words and buttons direct to response forms or other micro sites. Hyperlink as much of the copy as possible, as forcing a prospect to search for a link will just make them lose patients and delete your mail

Time of day/day of week – Time of the week and day does vary with the market, and it is subjective. However, statistically you are more likely to get a better response if you avoid sending emails out last thing at night or first thing in the morning. If you do you will be competing with the wealth of SPAM, sent over night. You will most likely find your email is deleted with the rest of them – even if it is relevant. Sending during the day will mean you will have much better chance of landing alone.

Interview by Sarah Harvison, Modem Media.