by Geraldine Tosh

The rise and rise of email marketing makes it easy to see why it's a hot topic and getting higher on any marketing manager's agenda.

In August 2007, according to research by the DMA, the volume of emails overtook the volume of direct mail being forwarded for the first time. They also identified that, year-on-year, email volumes are growing by 52%.

There's no doubt email marketing can be a powerful weapon in your marketing armoury, if it is used properly. Here are some key steps to consider when putting together your plan for email marketing.

Planning

When looking at implementing an email marketing campaign you need to consider the context in which you plan to use it. Are you just looking at running a solus email (an email sent to a list of people that have opted in to receive it) marketing campaign on its own or will it be playing the part of a wider integrated marketing campaign? Is it purely acquisition-based or part of a customer relationship strategy? Defining how it’s going to be used will help with the proposition and inform the creative process.

You also need to consider what testing you should incorporate and what timing you need to allow. Just as important is how you will handle responses; do you need to increase server load if driving to a website or specific web page?

Managing expectation and setting the objectives

Setting and managing expectations and objectives is necessary from the outset in terms of the role that email marketing has to play. Key questions you should be asking are:

• What's your click to conversion rate?
• What's the effective ROI?
• What's your expectation of it as part of the wider marketing mix?
• What will the uplift effect?
• Is email's role only volume-related?
• Or do you want cost-efficiencies to contribute by bringing the overall cost per acquisition down?

Target audience and data preparation

Equally as important is defining who you are going to send e-mails to. Once you have done this, databases and lists need to be cleaned, permissions gained, opt-in only data used for rented lists and any profiling or segmentation looked at. The combination of this will define your creative and testing process (more of that later!)

Currently one of the most talked about areas of email marketing is email deliverability. Good delivery rates can be achieved by using good email practice, including:

• Appropriate subject lines and copy
• Not creating an email as one image
• Using accredited suppliers like a bonded sender
• Careful management of volume and frequency

If you've got the technology (such as ironports for bulk email sends) you may choose to keep the campaigns in-house, or alternatively look at other suppliers who already have established relationships with ISPs. Some providers offer a simple broadcast service, while others can offer you systems where you can create your own templates and upload selected data to send at anytime.

Measurement and management of data

Once the send button is hit, you can see one of the other benefits of email marketing the response is immediate. Vital information can be gained in a short space of time, allowing you the flexibility to amend and adjust a campaign and dispatch it quickly.

Don't forget to manage the response effectively, deal with bouncebacks and unsubscribes, and more importantly address what the response is telling you. Click to conversion rate will tell you if you are acquiring or communicating profitably, but don't forget, it's not just about clicks. How your customers want to engage with your business and your brand, and how you follow up that process is also important.