Email Marketing Checklist

When I read this last week, I thought they would be talking about "Junk Mail". But it looks like the new Direct marketing is email. From the THINKing blog:

2009: The Year Of Direct Marketing?

Posted: 21 Jan 2009 06:17 AM PST

There has been a lot of talk about the death of direct marketing. I don’t buy it. Here’s why: Every time the economy softens, marketers are pressured by higher ups to utilize tactics that can be quantified. Direct marketing is on the list in all tough years. Is it on your list this year?

Now, response rates for direct mail and for email marketing have fallen in recent times. But that is not because direct marketing has outlived its usefulness. It’s because of lazy marketers; marketers who won’t develop a plan but instead just bombard consumers with ill conceived and misdirected messages. Let’s review how to improve your direct marketing efforts.

First, you need to develop a plan. It does not have to be as long as War And Peace, but it must include a few key elements so that you can develop a focused, targeted, measurable program that gets results. For our purposes, I’m going to focus on the use of email, but the elements are similar for direct mail:

* Objectives

* Audience Definition

* Key Messages

* Format

* Tactics

* Timeline

* Budget

* Measurement

Determine what is it that you want the email program to achieve from marketing and communications perspectives. Is this a newsletter designed for relationship management purposes, or is it a sales-oriented vehicle? Are you trying to build awareness, generate leads, increase web traffic, encourage loyalty, or close sales?

Next, you need to define audiences. Who are you trying to reach? What do you know about them from demographic and psychographic perspectives? Are you addressing multiple audiences? If so, do you need to segment your audiences and develop emails with different messages? How will each audience profit from our communications.

Now, what is it you want to say to each audience? What’s the nature of the content? Will this include just editorial information or will it also contain some sales-oriented material?

Closely tied to messages is your format. Are you producing a newsletter with a lot of editorial material, or does it contain just brief snippets of information? Is it an announcement list, a discussion list, or just commercial messages? Think about your audiences as you develop the most appropriate format.

Your tactics section lays out tasks and who is responsible for them. What technology do you need? Do you have in-house email capabilities or should you use an application such as Publicaster? How will you build and manage your list? How will you acquire new subscribers? Who will create content, design and distribute the email?

After you answer those questions, it’s time to turn to your timeline. Develop a schedule for having your technology in place, building your list, creating content, designing and distributing the email. Determine if this will be a one-time mailing, or if it will recur on a weekly or monthly basis.

Your budget may help you answer many of the questions above. Small budgets may mean you complete a lot of the work in-house.

Finally, it’s time to establish criteria for measuring the program. An awareness program may call for some baseline research so you’ll know how you are doing. A relationship management program may measure customer retention. Increased click-through from your email to your website is also a measurable element. Sales-oriented programs might measure total sales from email, or incremental sales increases with individual customers.

Are you planning your direct marketing efforts? Wade into the conversation.

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