As email has evolved as a channel, so has the role of the Email Marketer.  You now need to integrate your email campaign with your social strategy, check how your email is going to perform when viewed on a mobile device, remove recipients who haven’t opened in the last 6 months – the list goes on and on. 

With so much to think about it is often easy to forget the basic principles that lead to successful emails campaigns;

Rule 1:- Promote Sign Up
Adding new people to your mailing list is one of the email marketing “quick wins” so make sure you have time to check and review the sign up process and that you promote subscription wherever possible.

Rule 2:- Set and Meet Recipient Expectations
When recipient’s sign up for your email communications make sure you accurately set their expectations about what they can expect to receive.  Then all you need to do is ensure your emails meet their expectations.

Rule 3:- Maintain and Refresh Data
Ensuring that the data you hold on each recipient is up to date is vital to sending them relevant communications.  Utilise Preference Managers within your email campaigns so that recipients can update their personal information and tell you about changes in their preferences.

Rule 4:- Build a Relationship
Due to the cost effective nature of email, it is possible to talk very frequently to your prospects and customers.  Use these frequent communications as a tool to build a relationship and encourage the recipient to purchase rather than simply trying to sell to them at each stage.

Rule 5:- Deliver Valuable Emails
Developing messages that recipient’s value is an important element of building a successful email program.  Reminding recipients they have left a product in their shopping basket, highlighting complimentary products in an order confirmation email and welcoming a new subscriber are all important elements of a successful email program.  These valuable emails not only improve the customer experience (and drive additional revenue) but they enhance your email brand value.

Rule 6:- Utilise Results and Data
One of the really great things about email is that you learn something about your audience and campaigns every time you press send.  Make sure you utilise the valuable information you are gaining to improve future campaign performance.

Rule 7:- Add Email to the Customer Journey
Email can be used to save cost within your business, so make sure you take the time to add it to your customer journey.  Automated emails to remind the recipient about a booked appointment or confirm when a service is about to run out can save the cost of more traditional marketing messages.

So next time you are focusing on the finer details of a campaign, make sure you take the time to think about the basic principles of email marketing.  Often the biggest returns will come from getting the basics right.