what are 3 things I need to know before launching a large email campaign?

HI Tricia,

I'd love it if you could expand on your question just a bit because the subject is so vast. That being said, 3 always important considerations are:

Objective - Without a goal, you can't determine if you succeeded or if you have room for improvement.
Value proposition - What of value are you offering recipient's who open or click on your website? Great research, a spiff, free white paper...whatever the incentive, it should be worthwhile and relevant
Email Service Provider - Are you familiar with your ESP and does it have proven record of deliverability? After all, your email can't be effective if it isn't delivered!

Happy email marketing!

Great question. I'd say the following are the most important ones:
- Make sure that your list is cleansed and email verified
- Spam test your email template to make sure it won't get marked as spam
- UI test your template so it appears properly in all email clients
- Verify that your email provider has strong deliverability rates
- Ideally, I'd recommend using a marketing automation application so you can track and setup follow-up rules to improve the ROI of the campaign.
- Setup granular tracking

Other than these points, I am sure you have considered optimizing the copy and call to action.

Hope this helps.

Hi Tricia,
As I found out, 3 most important things are:
1. Identifying the painpoints your solution/product would address in your target market segment.
2. Email message should be optimum size. Not too elaborate so that readers get bored but yet not too condensed so that it doesn't relay what you want to say.
3. Message should be designed very carefully to give some idea of value proposition. It should say a bit to make readers interested to learn more. Too much info in mail and they would build up their own judgement (whether right or wrong).

The first is align and adjust your expectations. With direct mail and email campaigns having a response rate of 1-3% understand that you will not likely get a huge response, but you can maximize them.

To maximize your returns I would suggest the following;

1 - Know your audience and acquire lists that are targeted to that audience.

Mailing lists are a critical component for a sound direct mail campaign. If you don't have the "right" list, your mailing will not perform - no matter how great the creative. The nature and selectivity of your list choice has to dovetail with the product you are marketing. More refined selections can help in mailing effectiveness by drilling down deeper into your mail file and being very targeted. Any recency, frequency, monetary or gender selections would further improve your response to the campaign.

2 - Have a Call to Action

A good offer is one that will compel the consumer to take immediate action. It must be relevant to the consumer, the brand/product and the creative concept being utilized. Offers don't have to cost a lot, but they must have high enough perceived value that it pushes someone to act.

3 - Follow Up and Follow Through

A well developed follow-up mailing generally increases lift, or response, on average by an additional 25% to 50% over the initial responses from the first mailing. As with any marketing, results will be contingent upon the same critical success variables; namely, quality of the data and/or list, creative and offer.

In the end advertising and marketing is a process that requires consistency, tracking and evaluation as well as trial and error. See what works and resonates with your customer and perfect it.

Good luck

Kevin Watson
Managing Partner, Chief Operating Officer
Mathews Michaels

www.mathewsmichaels.com

1)Your Target Audience
2)If you have purchased a Third party List, make sure to send a optin mailer or a welcome mailer.
3)Confirm that your email campaign vendor rolls out for third party lists in-order to avoid account suspension or blocking your website.

@Kevin: How did you come to a benchmark of 1%-3% clicks?

In my experience, that is far too low. Over 8+ years of benchmarking click rates, the numbers range from 5%-7%. This is most recently based on more than 6 Billion emails in the last quarter that I worked at Epsilon (I worked there for 9+ years and left in April).

It's likely that the 1%-3% is for rented lists, which always perform poorly.
Email is for customer retention and management, not acquisition.

@Nora - if you are sending an opt-in mailer, you are a razor's edge from spamming people. I understand that vendors rent lists, and the first email asks for a subscription, but those efforts perform terribly.

Money would be better spent on other initiatives, like search.

Hi Tricia -

Know these things inside and out

1. The quantitative objectives of this effort and who benefits from it;

2. How you will test every aspect from subject line to landing pages to calls to action/conversion buttons and monitor, measure and optimize along the way;

3. How you will share the data and with whom will you share it?

Send only to those who have double-opted in.

Send only to those who have expressed direct and clear interest in the topic at hand.

Be absolutely certain that the opt-out functionality works the first time a subscriber uses it.

Subscribe to MarketingSherpa.com and read the articles and case studies about email campaigns. They publish the best information about web and email marketing.

The most important things are using a targeted, qualified list and having a great offer. Make sure your read your CANSPAM regs too. They are easy to comply with, but most email campaigns are not compliant.