If you’ve logged into an email account in the past 15 years, you’ve almost definitely encountered some form of email marketing during your daily inbox routine. Regardless of if it’s used properly (opt-in) or not (oh no, spam!), one fact is clear: Email marketing is a very powerful tool for a wide variety of reasons that businesses can take advantage of with very low overhead costs. However, maximizing its potential requires you to use it as effectively as possible. Want to learn more? Here are a few pointers to get your feet wet. (Don't have the time? Hire an expert on Elance to get the job done.)

What Is Email Marketing?

According to Wikipedia, email marketing is “a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience.” So basically, if you’re a business and you’re contacting your current or potential future customers with sweet offers, then you’re using email marketing. Additionally, from the same source, researchers estimate that U.S. firms alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006.

Opt-In Vs. Opt-Out

If you're unfamiliar with Opt-In or Opt-Out email marketing, think of it like this: Opt-In are your customers who specifically asked to receive email updates and newsletters from you, while Opt-Out is that you assume your customers, or anyone for that matter, wants to hear from you unless they specifically state that they do not want to hear from you. Of course, it gets far more technical (read the full descriptions here at Spamhaus.org), but before you choose one, be sure to understand all of the potential ramifications prior to making a decision.

Personalization

“Dear Alex, check out our newest sales offer!” If you’re sitting there thinking that someone is on the other end typing each individual email in Outlook and clicking send, think again. There are quite a few email marketing solutions online that offer a wide variety of features, like email personalization. And don’t think that personalization is limited to just a name – you can personalize each email with custom links, login and user information, subject lines, headlines, and more. Does it make a difference? Well, a Jupiter Research study in 2006 states that inserting a person’s name into an email increases open rates by as much as 10%.

Managing Your Email Lists

So, how do they get your name and all of that personalization in there? In reality, the information needed to customize all of these emails is placed in simple spreadsheets. These datasheets are the who, what, and where of your entire email marketing campaign. It’s important for you to pay close attention to these lists because if these lists get filled with bad email addresses, it could negatively affect your email deliverability rate. Email hosts pay close attention to who’s sending what to who, so if you’re getting a high bounce rate (due to invalid or outdated email addresses), you could end up getting blacklisted and end up in the junk box rather quickly.

Avoiding Spam Filters

Not managing your email list is just one of many ways your email could end up in the junk box. Other things to remember: Avoid using risky words and the caps lock button in the subject field as this will quickly tag your email as bad. Also, try to use a real name in the “From” field, and avoid using excessive exclamation points, dollar signs, or question marks. For example: domain1-50-102@imnotspam.com – FREE TRIAL FOR INSTANT MONEY!!!!?!?!?!!!?$$$$

See you in the junk box. For more tips on avoiding the spam filter, check out iMedia Connection's Six Steps To Avoid Spam Filters.

HTML Compatibility / Image Alt Tags

If you’re using graphics and text in your email marketing (which is likely the case), be sure to test out the HTML compatibility in multiple browsers. Lots of times, emails will look fine in all browsers, but in some cases, emails will look radically different in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or if they’re opened directly from an Outlook email client. If you also want to get into the nitty gritty, be sure to also test out how the email appears in Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail. You’d be surprised at how different they can appear.

Also, remember that most email clients, whether they’re web-based or not, do not download images by default, so be sure to spend some time providing image ALT tags so that your potential reader can get some context before dismissing your email outright.

Timing Is Everything

Think about when you typically check your email, when you go to bed, and when you get up. Then, think about when your target recipients do the same. If you’re dealing with a global audience, be sure to keep in mind various time zones and try to catch your largest population when they’re awake. If you catch them while they’re sleeping, your email will probably be at the bottom of their inbox by the time they get to checking their email, thus lowering the likelihood of an email open. In short, try to be at the right place at the right time.

Analyzing Opens, Clicks, And Deliverability

Once you’ve shipped off your email, you’re not done yet. Many online email marketing solutions offer detailed tracking tools to gain insight on how your emails are performing. You’ll not only be able to see who received your email, but you’ll be able to also see who opened it, who clicked on it, where they clicked on it, and how many times they clicked on it. Analyzing the results is a great way to also prune your email lists – you can extract lists of people who haven’t opened your emails in months and effectively remove them if so desired.

These are just a few of the many points you should know before dabbling in email marketing. There’s a very fine line between standard email marketing techniques and what’s considered spam (you can get fined up to $11,000 per violation!), so be sure to do your homework before clicking send. My suggestion? Leave it up to the pros, and find an email marketing expert on Elance to help you get started. There are over 8,000 email marketing professionals available to you right now that will be able to get you the maximum ROI for your business.

Links:
Elance - Email Marketing Experts
Elance Blog - October Elance Work Index
Wikipedia.com - E-mail Marketing
Email Address Manager - Best Practices on Effective Email Marketing
iMediaConnection.com - Avoid The Spam Filter