Top New Year’s Resolutions to Improve Email Marketing Performance in 2009

With the dawning of the new year, I thought it would be helpful to analyze one of the best tools that any small business has at its disposal: pre-existing customers.  During a down economy it is critical to take advantage of your email list since your clients typically gravitate to vendors that they have purchased previously from.  By staying at the forefront of their mind you will be able to ensure that when they are in need of services, you will be the first company they call.

“More and more small businesses rely on email marketing as one of the cornerstones of their growth strategy,” said Luc Vezina, Campaigner’s head of marketing. “We hope these New Year’s resolutions inspire more small businesses to get started with email marketing and help those already using it to get even better results in 2009.”

1. Clean your email list – Maintaining a clean list is a challenge for businesses of all sizes, especially small business owners who often don’t have dedicated staff to handle such tasks. Take the challenge and make 2009 the year to start clean by scrubbing your list before sending your first campaign of the New Year. You’ll improve your email marketing performance, your reputation and deliverability rates. The first step is make sure your unsubscribe requests are up-to-date.

2. Review what worked and didn’t last year – Take a close look at your 2008 email marketing successes and failures so you can repeat the winning campaigns and cut the under performers. Refresh your 2009 campaigns by combining elements of your most successful email marketing tactics to get even better results.

3. Make a 2009 email marketing plan – We’re all working so hard and running so fast, many of us are accustomed to leaving our email marketing campaigns to the last minute. A great way to improve email marketing effectiveness is to look at the calendar through your customer’s eyes. Ask yourself what business and seasonal cycles are most relevant to your target audiences, then create an email marketing campaign calendar mapped to those cycles. Putting in a few hours to plan out your top campaigns for the year will ensure that your email marketing campaigns are timely and relevant – something your customers always appreciate.

4. Use customer data in email campaigns – Many small businesses today use CRM and lead generation systems that are filled with rich customer data that can be integrated with your email marketing service to dramatically improve campaign results. You can also build more targeted, segmented lists based on customer data. Even if you don’t use a CRM system, you can still segment your lists based on purchasing data. You can also conduct a quick poll through your email marketing service to gather more information from your customers that will help you improve the targeting, relevance and timeliness of your campaigns.

5. Try something new – Challenge yourself in 2009 by trying something new in your email marketing campaigns. Embed a video file or podcast in your next campaign. Adding multimedia can make your campaigns more interactive and engaging. If you haven’t used A/B testing to gauge response to your campaigns, give it a whirl in 2009. You’ll be amazed at what you learn about your customers and how you can use that information to improve results and drive sales. Setting up automated trigger campaigns can also improve the timeliness and relevance of your email marketing campaigns. It might sound too complicated or time intensive, but a good email marketing service should have the tools and technologies to make it easy for you.

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