I had another meeting today where I was trying to explain to a client how important it is to have all of his customers' email addresses. About half way through the conversation he asked, "why does everyone want my email address anyway?" That is a great question, and there are many great answers including the low cost of email versus traditional mail, the ability for the recipient to forward your message to a friend, and everybody's favorite - to drive traffic to their website, but I think the best answer is metrics. Email communications are completely trackable. It is as close to big brother as we can get. When someone sends you an email that you open, they know it. If you click on something, they see that too. They also see how many pages you visited, how long you were on their site, what pages you looked at, if you buy something, and my favorite, your exit page. An exit page is the last page of your website that the visitor was on before leaving your site. (P.S. - improving this page can improve conversions, results, sales, or whatever it is you are tracking.)

I now receive emails from Snickers and Pepsi (what does that say about me?). I also receive email from Industry Week, Thompson Cigar, BtoB magazine, Ad Age, Dell Horoscope, Tri-state Tech Wire, JustSell.com, TheStreet.com, SamAsh.com, ticketmaster.com, FYE.com and literally hundreds of others. Does it work? Is it worth it? I think so. If I am not interested today, I can easily delete it, but many days I take a look, and some days I actually take action. Not often, but once in a while I actually do. So do thousands of other people on their list, and that action can really add up for the company sending the email.

Back to metrics and big brother - we were sending all of the emails for a sporting goods company, and we really raised the bar on their metrics and understanding their customers' habits, likes and hobbies. We would send a monthly newsletter that featured a wide array of sporting good promotions. It was a potpourri of sports including golf, fishing, tennis, running and others. We would then send follow-up emails to everyone who clicked on a specific sport, but the follow up emails were customized to the client based on the click and purchase habits. (Oh yeah, we had it tied into their loyalty and rewards program too.) Like football? We know, that is why we send you football related emails. Like tennis? We know.

Now of course you don't have to be this tactful with your email list, but you should at least be testing a message or headline before spending big bucks to run an ad. Your customers' email addresses really come in handy here. What we do is craft two messages and send it to a good sample of your customers, and then simply track the response to help decide which creative is more effective. Sound simple? It actually is. Call me, I'll be happy to tell you more.

Joe Bottone
VP Business Development
The Worx Group
203-758-3311
jbottone@theworxgroup.com

Happy e-marketing!