San Antonio's small business website design and development company - Focused Idea

As you learned in our last newsletter, e-mail is an inexpensive, fast, and effective way to target and address your various audiences, especially when compared to direct mail, outbound call centers, and other marketing channels.

Small businesses are looking to use the Internet more effectively to reach their prospects, customers, and clients. In fact, according to Jupiter Research, 93% of U.S. internet users consider email to be their top online activity. This statistic confirms what most businesses have already learned; people now live in their inbox.

This series of email marketing secrets is a compilation of the best practices of email marketing drawing on some of the most successful industry practitioners. Together, you will get a clear picture of trends and patterns to aid your business in mapping a successful email marketing strategy.

If you missed previous secrets or have any questions about a strategy that you are considering, please contact one of our online marketing specialists.

Relevancy -- Make certain your emails are extremely relevant and valuable to the recipients. In the recipients mind, you have to be known for sending high-quality messages; otherwise, you will be ignored or recipients could unsubscribe or complain.

As of August 2003, 50% of email is now spam. This is according to Brightmail, one of the largest spam filtering companies with clients such as Verizon and Earthlink. It's no wonder that the most common Inbox activity is delete, delete, delete.

Your name in the "From" field represents your brand and reputation for sending messages that directly appeal to the recipient. The "Subject" field represents the timely and relevant proposition.

• Get the first and last name of your subscribers, when possible, so you can later address them by name.
• Use your website's registration page to ask recipients what content they want to see.
• Encourage your existing subscribers to register all of your products in their possession. In turn, you can send them relevant product updates, tips and offers in the future.
• Personalize offers based on the customer's previous buying patterns and requests from your customer service agents.