Email Marketing, What You Need to Know

For many new email marketers, there's a bit of a learning curve on what is acceptable mail and unacceptable mail. Understanding the basics of the Can Spam Act is crucial to being successful in the email marketing realm. There are two basic "permissions" that email marketers need to know. Understanding the difference is a key element on how quickly and effectively you will be able to begin building a solid, and reliable contact list and customer base.

First, is explicit permission to mail. This is a direct agreement between customer and business to receive email correspondence. The word "explicit" means they signed up to receive emails from you. This can be done in a variety of ways.

1) Using a sign up box on your website.
2) Having a sign up sheet at your front desk area.
3) Collecting business cards at a trade show.

Second is implicit permission. This relates to previous customers who have purchased products or services from you in the past. There is an implied agreement they want to continue to do business with you. It is always a good idea to reconfirm your implicit customers through an opt in process. This can be redirecting them to your website, where they can sign up using your sign up form. Or, contacting them directly for a reconfirmation.

Segmenting your list is also another key factor when considering your implicit and explicit customers. Often times, if you are using an email marketing company, you will be asked to verify how you obtained your contacts. Keeping those lists separate allows you to respond accordingly with minimum impact to your overall database.

Purchased lists, though tempting, are not allowed with most email marketing companies. The reason being is that they are not explicit, nor implicit permission based contacts. These "prospects" do not know they are getting email from your company, often times do not even know who or what your company does, and will often times flag you for spam jeopardizing your relationship with your email marketing company and your business IP address.

It is always a best practice to get your list setup and organized prior to actually joining an email marketing company. Re-affirming your implied contacts, and building up an explicit list will give you more success, and less red tape with the marketing companies. Understanding how to use your contacts and what contacts will be allowed using an email company is just as important as sending email itself. You want your contacts to know who you are, your brand, and what to expect from you regarding email correspondence.

Now that you know what to categorize your contacts into, its important to also begin setting up your tracking system to identify when your contacts were added. This is also considered "aging". By aging your list, you will also be consistent with the "recommended frequency" ration of how often and how long its been since you've emailed your customers. It is suggested by experts that if your contact has not contacted you, purchased from you, or received email correspondence from you for over 6 months, reconfirm their interest and get an explicit permission renewal.

Email Marketing - Can You Do It Yourself?

Often times business will struggle with how to start and manage their email marketing program. Doing email marketing on your own can be hard. It is also more time consuming due to the content editing process. Unless you're an "advertiser" creating a professional looking email can take hours to complete. And as most of us know, time is money. In this article I will mostly be talking about Internet Service Provider(s), which for the duration of this article will be refer to it as ISP.

So what are the benefits of using and Email Marketing Company?
Well, there are several.

First, ISP relations.
Second, ISP bulk mailing.
Third, email creation software.

Let's start out with ISP relations. Most third party email companies have a dedicated team whose job it is to follow the new Can Spam Act Guidelines and be compliant to those rules. This is something you will not have to worry about in regards to your emails, because your third party marketing company will be doing that for you. They are also involved if for some reason an ISP blocks a domain. For example, Yahoo blocks a domain from your email marketing company, the ISP relations team will work directly with that ISP to get that domain removed from the black list, thus lifting your ban and getting your emails back into the inbox.

ISP Bulk Mailing is another great benefit you get by using an email marketing company. Most spammers will bulk send off of a single ISP, one time. This is a red flag for ISP monitoring companies in identifying what may or may not be spam. Using an email marketing company, you get the benefit of consistent bulk emails going to the various ISP companies. This builds up a reputation with the ISP companies and allows for less traffic jams if suspecting emails are flagged for review. In addition, a lot of companies will use shared ISP's to send mail. What t his does is put you in categorized, recognized ISP databases which will continue to build your reputation as well as the email marketing company you are using.

Finally, email software. As stated above, creating an email takes time. It takes a lot less time if you're using a company that provides a basic shell and template. Throw in the bells and whistles of social media, sharing, videos, image libraries, and you have a one stop shop for your email endeavors. As you get the hang of using the software, you will become more proficient, and effective at creating your emails. Planning is a great benefit when it comes to creating your email. This will allow you the time to explore the options, and finesse your email to best represent your business, but becoming familiar with your email creation software.

Email marketing can be done on your own. Plenty of business do it, but the most successful way to drive your efforts is to research and pick a great email marketing company that works for you. Understanding what they provide in way of templates, pricing, tracking and reporting is the difference between giving out your business information on a napkin, or handing over a highly polished business card. Take your time, research, and try out a few options. You'll find one that works for you.