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Email marketing is one of the subjects that is continually in the marketing spotlight. Done well it can reap huge rewards, done poorly and you can end up being labelled as a spammer. I’ve previously written about 8 top tips for improving your response rates, but when scanning the internet for more interesting hints and tips, I found a great post by an internet marketer called Gobala Krishnan.

Reading Gobala’s post he suggests the two main components of successful email marketing are:

1) the list,

2) the content.

The List

I like his thinking about the importance of your ‘relationship’ with the list. The better you know your list the greater the response you are likely to achieve.

But how do you improve your relationship?

The key is segmentation, as with any other marketing campaign. Try to identify groups of people with similar traits, whether that’s geography, age group, sex, needs and wants, or other. Use whatever you can interpret from your list data and start to group people, or segment them. Once you have your specific segments you’ll be able to better tailor your message to that specific group.

Gobala goes on to talk about frequency and recommends getting in touch every 4-8 weeks. This really depends on your product, list segments and your objectives. If you have customers that make frequent repeat purchases, then you could try to increase the frequency of purchase by emailing every 3 weeks rather than 4.

The Content

The content is king approach is also important. I’ve written before about the need to add value to increase your list, but also keep people interested. But some simple sales and advertising techniques would also be useful. Try reading Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy for some great ideas.

Also, consider Gobala’s suggestions:

1. Create short, appealing headlines and personalise your emails.

It’s a no brainer in direct marketing, if you address your letter to your recipient it’s more likely to get opened.

2. Add one link only.

I’ve worked with plenty of clients that send emails selling pretty much their whole catalogue. The result, very few click throughs. By using only one or two links to your products there are fewer options and therefore it’s an easier decision to make.You will also find there are less opportunities for leakage.

3. Create good copy.

Again, I suggest you read David Ogilvy’s writing on this subject, a well known and respected copy writer. Two tips I have taken from Mr Ogilvy are:

• to write an attention grabbing headline – “every headline should appeal to the reader’s self interest…It should promise her a benefit”.*

• body copy should be written as if you are talking to the woman next to you at a dinner party. You should write as if she has asked you a question and you are trying to answer it.

Think again about whether you are adding value. Ideally you want to get repeat customers.

So there you have it, some ideas to improve your email marketing response rates. I’ll say it again, read Gobala Krishnan’s blog entry and also David Ogilvy’s writing – one of the most successful advertisers and copy writers of all time. One final point is to think about testing.

Try split testing every campaign you run on a small sample of your list. Change the headline, or the copy, when you send your emails and work out which has better conversion rates. This way you can work out which will perform better on your full list.

I will write more about testing soon, but it’s such a good concept that it merits it’s own post.

* Confession of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy, 2004, Southbank Publishing