Email strategies - how to get one part 1

Extract from Ten Steps for Developing an Effective E-mail Strategy, Part 1 E-Mail Marketing
BY Jeanne Jennings March 12, 2007

10 steps you need to take to develop an effective e-mail strategy:

1. Identify qualitative goals.
2. Analyze the current situation.
3. Complete a competitive analysis.
4. Define the target audience.
5. Determine which types of e-mail meet your needs.
6. Develop a content strategy.
7. Set the frequency and send schedule.
8. Create quantitative goals.
9. Compile budget and ROI projections.
10. Evaluate results and tweak the strategy accordingly.

Identify Qualitative Goals

What will the programme do for you?

• Sell my products.
• Deliver qualified leads for my services.
• Entice people to register for my events.
• Drive repeat traffic to my Web site.
• Generate revenue via advertising.
• Build my reputation as an expert in my field.
• Keep my company top of mind with prospects.

There are a million ways to express qualitative goals. Use language you're comfortable with. That said, all qualitative goals tend to revolve around one of two things:

• Acquiring new customers and/or revenue
• Retaining or renewing existing customers and/or revenue

Your industry may use "clients," "members," "donors," "subscribers," "advertisers," or another term in place of "customers." Whatever you call them, it's all about acquisition and retention.

Analyze the Current Situation

Start with brainstorming and writing down the basics:

House list
How many e-mail addresses do you have?
How did you acquire them?
What's your monthly growth rate?
What are your best sources of new names?
How much, on average, does it cost to acquire a new e-mail address?
What else do you know about your house list?

Current e-mail campaigns
How frequently do you mail?
What do you mail? Include campaigns and one-offs.
What's your current e-mail marketing budget?
How much does it cost you, on average, to send 1,000 e-mail messages?
How does your e-mail perform?
Deliverability, opens, and clicks
Conversions and bottom-line success measures, like leads, sales, renewals, and revenue
Any other performance metrics relevant to your qualitative goals
What else do you know about your current e-mail campaigns?

Other marketing
What other online marketing are you doing related to your qualitative goals?
How well do they perform?
Are they related to e-mail marketing efforts?
Offline marketing
How well do these perform?
Are they related to e-mail marketing efforts?
What else do you know about your other current marketing campaigns?

Other aspects of your current e-mail situation
What staff or outside expertise on e-mail and your industry do you have access to?
How well does your current e-mail technology solution meet your needs?
What's the process for developing an e-mail from scratch?
How do you determine what gets sent to whom, when, and how often?