Testing, Testing, Testing: Why You Should Laugh in the Face of Anyone Who Claims to Be an Email Marketing "Expert"

I received my professional certification seal for Email Marketing yesterday, and I’m thrilled to pieces… though I do realize there isn’t a whole lot to jump around about …it hardly qualifies me as an expert.  Here’s why…

There’s NO SUCH THING as an email marketing expert. Never let those glib, smarmy consultants tell you otherwise.

Email marketing is a constantly moving target, and everything any "email expert" knows today could be old news tomorrow.  The key to successful email marketing (or any other kind of direct marketing, come to think of it) is TESTING, TESTING, TESTING.  And then some MORE TESTING, for good measure.

Effective email marketing is a never-ending cycle: Test. Send. Analyze. Improve. And then start all over again.  You can take a million courses, attend every seminar in the world, and read every book available on Email Marketing… but at best you’ll only learn the basics, as well as current trends, practices and findings that can help you along the long, tortuous journey to the Inbox.  While still extremely valuable, these things can’t tell you what only your own testing can …what works with YOUR particular database of customers and subscribers

Fortunately, testing in email marketing is relatively inexpensive, and most (though not all) changes you need to make can usually be made in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately,  the list of things you can and should test is pretty formidable:

 1. Deliverability.  Is your email getting into inboxes or junk folders? Or is it just not getting delivered at all??  In a 2007 Email Deliverability study conducted by Lyris Technologies, they found that:

• Marketers sending permission-based emails to U.S.-based ISPs still land in the junk/bulk folder almost 16 percent of the time.

• Marketers sending to European ISPs face even more trouble. More than 20 percent of permission-based emails were sent to the junk/bulk folder.

As for Asia, WHO KNOWS?  But I’m willing to bet the numbers aren’t any prettier.

2. Envelope Fields.  In email lingo, envelope fields refer to your "From" and "Subject" lines - basically the only 2 things your recipient will see if he/she doesn’t have a preview panel.  If you learn nothing else from this article, learn this: NEVER underestimate the importance of  your From and Subject lines.  

Ten times out of ten, they will ultimately determine the fate of that carefully-designed email campaign your creative department took months to get "right."   Jupiter Research reported in December 2007 that consumers receive an average of 274 personal emails and 304 business emails a week.  Do the math.  How capable is your boring subject from XYZ company of standing out in that crowd?  And don’t make the mistake of thinking a clever subject designed to elicit an open (but not delivering on its promise) will endear you or your product to the readers you just tricked.

3. Copy.  How effective is your Introduction, or Lead?  Does short or long copy work better for your product offering? Which offer or incentive is more appealing to your consumers?  What particular "Call to Action" is actually "acted upon" the most?  These all have to be tested - and one at a time at that. it’s important to note that when testing, you can only change one variable at a time, with all other elements remaining exactly the same  in order to determine what exactly caused the rise or decline in your response rate.

 4. Layout.  Your layout, look, style, fonts and even colours not only affect email deliverability.  They also (GREATLY) affect your email’s effectivity in bringing your message across, and reinforcing your brand and corporate identity.

5. Landing page.  If you just read this and said "Huh? What landing page?" - and email is a significant (of at least potentially significant) source of sales for your business - then prepare to cringe.  Back in the day, using the email as a standalone sales vehicle may have been enough.  But not anymore.  Ideally, your email should focus on just one objective:  to make the reader click through to a landing page where you have all the freedom you need to knock yourself out and close the sale.

This may seem lke a short list ("Cool, just 5 items!") - but believe me… it’s NOT!  Even when you do get through testing all the different aspects mentioned above, the battle is far from over. 

 As I mentioned at the start, effective email marketing is a never ending cycle of TESTING TESTING, and more TESTING. When you get to the bottom of the list, and come up with an email creative that actually works… that only means it’s time to start all over again.   

 Welcome to my world.