Techniques That Get Your E-mail Opened

E-mail marketing is new for many catalogers, and most are now concentrating on growing an in-house e-mail file. Some have started weekly or monthly newsletters that contain specials, and others are sending promotions. While many are becoming comfortable with the process of creating e-mail marketing messages, the competition for customers’ attention is growing.

In the near future, it will become important for catalogers to set themselves apart from other e-mail marketers. As with print catalogs, several response-boosting techniques are worth testing in e-mail.

Looking for Lists

Most catalogers are working with their own housefiles right now. They have e-mail registration on their order forms, customer service representatives ask for e-mail addresses when customers place orders and they offer an opt-in e-mail newsletter or regular promotion to sign up on their Web sites.

But now you can begin hunting for e-mail lists from other catalogers. David Schwartz, president of 21st Century Marketing, says the number of company e-mail lists on the market is growing.

“There is a growing group of individual list owner files now, and they are coming out with more of them,” says Schwartz. He says the more of these lists that become available, the better response people will see from e-mail marketing. Database-generated e-mail lists, such as those from NetCreations or Yes!Mail, have been the foundation many marketers have been working from when using outside lists.

Schwartz says these lists are less targeted because the consumer profiles are self-generated and not reflective of an actual interest, such as a magazine subscription or previous purchase. Today, most e-mail lists are not tested because there are so few, and because they encompass many different kinds of people, they are simply used.

“I think you will see a lot more of individual list owners set up conventional list testing patterns. This will raise the caliber of the list format medium,” says Schwartz.